CH 54

“I have fought it before in a dungeon, but it was a joint quest that included five parties, with two of them being A ranked.”

A quest to defeat a group of orcs that spawned in a dungeon?

“But did you cross swords with it?”

“I did not. We mostly took down the orcs around it. I did see it fight from afar, and honestly, I didn’t want to fight it.”

“And that hasn’t changed now that you’re stronger?”

“Correct.”

Is it even stronger than I thought? I feel the hurdle getting higher.

“Are you done talking? Then I kill!”

It bares its fangs, and steps slowly towards us.

Is it just marching forward without a care? But even though it’s just walking, I feel like there are no gaps in its defense.

I have to focus. Don’t think of it as an orc, think of it as fighting a person.

I step forward and start slashing. Not directly like an idiot, but with a few feints, and varying degrees of strength.

Lloyd easily deals with all of it, like it’s swatting away something boring.

Just hitting it makes my hands shake. Every time our swords meet I feel my hands getting tired. It’s like it’s sapping away my stamina.

“Boring, boring, boring, boring!”

Each attack is more powerful than the last, and my hands are getting numb.

Am I even holding the sword well?

It holds up that deadly weapon and swings it down.

The motion being so exaggerated makes it easier for me to dodge. I think about blocking it with my sword, but instantly give up on it and jump back.

Its sword digs into the ground, and causes a loud tremor.

Seriously? How strong is this thing?

And even though it must have suffered the recoil of plunging the sword into the ground, it doesn’t look bothered at all.

“You can’t do it on your own. I’ll join you.”

Leila tries to say firmly, but her voice is still shaking.

She knows better than me how strong that thing is. Her experience is leading her to believe this is a hopeless battle, which it pretty much is.

I stand next to her, and kneed magic energy to prepare a spell.

But how long can the two of us resist against that monster?

“Let’s play.”

Lloyd stands before us completely unconcerned. Does it just love to fight? No, it’s not fighting that it finds fun, it has fun trampling over people.

I wish it showed some sort of opening, but it doesn’t, even when it’s swinging its sword. At the very least, it hasn’t happened yet.

Leila goes first. Is she faster with the sword than me? No, I’m faster in terms of raw speed, but she is more refined, and lacks useless movements.

Hm… Is this the difference experience and training makes? But it’s not like I’m a swordsman anyway.

I try to slash at Lloyd between Leila’s attacks, so as not to get in her way. Of course, that’s not all I do. I’m careful not to get too predictable, and run around Lloyd to stop it from attacking.

“Interesting. But not enough. Not close to enough.”

Was it important enough to say twice?

As this stupid thought crosses my head, Lloyd’s handling of the sword suddenly becomes faster.

If it catches up to us in terms of speed, the big difference in power is going to crush us.

We’ve been doing a good job stopping its attacks before they can begin, but that’s not working as well.

We’re gradually being pushed back. Eventually it repels one of Leila’s attacks, and she loses her balance.

I swing my sword to stop it from following that up with another attack, but I don’t make a dent, and it throws me back.

Lloyd holds up its sword in front of Leila, and she holds up her own from a bad position to try to block it.

I close the distance again after being thrown back, and as I step near Lloyd, I move to slash it. It’s not a feint either, it’s just a direct slash.

Lloyd reacts to it by turning my way and holding up its sword to swat down something boring.

If I keep going like this, it’s going to split me in two.

But that’s when I shoot the Fire Arrow spell I prepared before.

I aim right at its face from a close range, but Lloyd skillfully uses its sword to block.

But I quickly transition into a Sword Slash.

I hit its arm directly, but it feels like I hit hard metal.

As for the damage… There’s some blood, but that’s it.

But it looks like it didn’t like being hurt, as the previously completely unconcerned Lloyd suddenly comes at me with anger.

A sharp attack is coming down at me, and I meet it with an upper swing.

It’s the heaviest attack so far.

At this rate it’s going to crush me. I grit my teeth and do my best to hold on.

But suddenly, the pressure on my arms is gone.

I look up and see Lloyd looks surprised, and its eyes are pointing down.

I follow its gaze, and see a mithril sword growing out of its abdomen. No, it’s Leila’s sword.

She took advantage of Lloyd becoming emotional to stab it.

“Damn… You…”

Lloyd swings with no technique behind it, only raw power.

The flat of the sword doesn’t care about air resistance as it strikes Leila. If it was the blade, it would be a fatal attack for sure.

Leila let go of the sword and jumped back at the last second, which somewhat softened the blow, but Lloyd’s strength is far beyond normal. Leila hits the ground and rolls, and when she stops, it seems she is having trouble focusing her eyes.

I think Lloyd is angry about that attack not killing her, as it goes after her to deliver the killing blow. I throw knives and slash at it to try to stop it, but it deals with every attack like it’s swatting down a fly. It doesn’t stop, and blows me back with a light touch.

It’s not even thinking about me anymore. It’s only looking at Leila.

I think she knows it too, as she tries to get up, but her body is sluggish and doesn’t move the way she wants it to.

Lloyd then walks slowly towards Leila, to make her feel despair. He wants to instill fear into the one it feels humiliated her.

I run out of throwing knives, and run to slash at it. If there’s nothing I can do to stop it, I’ll just go around it. But will I make it in time?

Both Lloyd and I get closer and closer to Leila, but Lloyd gets to her first.

But it just stands there, looking at her with a twisted expression, as it raises its sword slowly to try to fan the fear inside her. I think it wants to hurt her, rather than finish it in one blow, because it swings down the flat of the sword directly in front of her.

I ignore it and jump forward, grabbing Leila and jumping before the sword hits.

But I don’t manage to evade it completely, and the tip hits my back. The pain it causes feels like my whole body is being torn apart, but I run. Still, I was lucky, because being hit with the flat of the sword means I didn’t get slashed.

In a way, all it did was scratch me, and it still hurt that much.

Leila is writhing in my arms, and boiling with anger towards Lloyd.

Unforgivable. Toying with her like that. That humiliating attitude.

At the same time, I feel anger towards myself. I was too naive. I didn’t bring out my full power towards something so strong.

I take my gun out of the Item Box.