Chapter 97 – The Lunatic Who Shares Laughter And The Old Man Who Loathes Emptiness 4
Translator: Ranzan Editor: JackOFallTrades
「Hyaaa! Ha! Ahah hah hah!!」
「Hmph! Rah! Take this!」
Swords were crossed there in singing, echoing clangs.
In that short time, how many instances of our swords clashing have occurred?
The sharp sounds of swords clinking were uncountable, and I could feel my sword skill becoming slower and rustier.
Unlike my perfect rank due to my perfect status, unless I trained in my sword technique, I’d get rusty.
I didn’t feel the danger in this world like I did in the previous one. Because of that my sword technique atrophied away without me knowing.
「「Ugh!!」」
Then, CLANG! The air shook with the echo of something broken, as we both slid back suddenly, gaining distance from one another.
「Ah…I had trust in my sword technique…but. But, seems you’re better than me..」
As Nonorik said, neither of us had a fatal wound, but the amount of cuts I had left on him was more than mine.
And most of those were in the latter part as defensive slashes.
「The amount and difference in our wounds are different, I see.」
The four years I spent fighting in the first world wasn’t for nothing. Those that I fought before fending off the magical monsters had a much different experience and ability.
I had improved my ability by fighting on the edge of death, and had a technique rank of SSS and reaction speed of SS.
With that supporting me, the technique that I used to let blood up until now lowered my status, but still was above Nonorik’s fighting ability.
「And, it seems you guard your face too much.」
「Yes, yes, you’re a savage too, Kai-chan. Trying to cut up a beautiful face like mine.」
「I told you, stop calling me that disgusting name.」
「No wayyyyy. Heh heh, Let me have some fun, you ready for the real fight?」
Nonorik fell into a low posture.
A wild heat mixed with the color of shadows.
「Seems I’ll lose with two, so how about four?!」
Nonorik stabbed the two white swords down into the ground.
He opened his tool bag, and took out another two swords with the same design.
(What?! More?!)
Nonorik had the swords in his hands, and the swords in the ground began floating in the air.
Nonorik’s four swords swayed in the air under his control.
「You want to give up now? You’re happy with less wounds, right? Here I go!」
「Tch!」
Breaking through the wind, the four swords whooshed through the air. The two in the air seemed to strike in different tempo with the two he held in his hands.
(Dammit, I should have just killed him before it got to this, this isn’t going to be easy!)
「Dammit!」
Since the white swords in the air weren’t as fast or strong as the ones in his hand, I could knock them away strongly.
「Hah hah hah hah, woooow! You could defend against them. So you’ve seen my way of fighting before? If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be able to react against my skill!」
「I don’t know anything about it, idiot!」
「Geez, those insults again. If it goes on like this, I’ll have you say the same thing when I’m whipping you on my bed!」
There was no way to escape this sword fight, so I changed position and struck out to get away from defending. I moved so he wouldn’t have my back to strike, and knocked away the swords one by one.
I still had a bit of space, but the situation was getting worse.
(Before this gets any worse, I have to strike! Wha?)
「Agh! Tch!」
As I was thinking pointlessly, I was late in reacting to a second sword that came at me as I dodged the first one.
I knocked it away, but since I wasn’t able to at first, there was a wound cut in to my shoulder near my neck that was more than just a scratch.
「Hmm…I guess you’re still not scared when I add two more swords huh? But, that face of yours looks pretty erotic to me right now.」
「Bastard…」
His four swords were now six, but there was no way his fighting was going to get better.
Just having more swords just meant I had to dodge more, I just had to control myself to avoid the extra swords.
However, now I had less space to move in.
If I didn’t focus on defense, I don’t know what will happen to me.
(Tch, dammit, why this all the sudden?)
There was one way that I could crush him now.
But there was no way to use it now. I’m saving it to crush Grond with.
If I use it, in exchange for the power I spend, my ability to fight Grond will become less.
I can’t let that happen.
(There is a way, just a bit more, a bit more…)
He used these six swords before he shows me his real skill.
However…
「Well, then how about six swords more? —I’ll slice you to pieces!」
Nonorik let the six swords drop onto the ground. Then, he pulled out six smaller daggers of the same type, and turned the bag inside out and dumped more from the bag onto the ground.
There were over 100 daggers on the ground, and they surrounded me in the air as they were well ordered by Nonorik.
「…『Rumble White』.」
Those swords in the air attacked me, cutting through the air.
Several of the daggers surrounding me flew at me.
「『Over Limit!』」
I pulled out the 【Verdant Crystal-Green Sword 】from behind my back without hesitation.
As the magic flowed into my shoulder and healed my cut, I used my trump card I that had used in the Yumis fight.
At that moment, 12 knives and swords came at me at once.
A louder metal clang than the one before, without any interruption, no, echoing in a way to cut off previous echoes, it created a large angry sound like a beast.
(Damn, this guy is a nuisance!)
『Rumble White』
I don’t know the details, but it was a unique skill or a telekinetic skill outside magic.
The special skill was the use of 12 swords or dagger, and that Nonorik could make them fly at you when he was fighting with all his might.
(I took care of two of them coming at my neck to the right with a punch, used my sword on the right to knock away three daggers and two swords, and on the left took three steps back to… )
Even so, my reaction time allowed my body to respond.
I moved in the way my body needed to.
「Damn! You’re hanging in there, but how long can you move like that?!」
「Shut up.」
The Over Limit was getting me to move well.
And while using the sword, I could also use my magic.
「What, are you tired already? Are you going to get cut because you can’t get away?」
「Agh! Ugh!」
Fwip, fwip, my skin was cut a little, but it burned.
The adrenalin in my mind sharpened my senses and killed the pain.
Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate.
In order to move as I thought, I had to focus on all of my nerves.
(Here it comes!)
Then, the response I was waiting for finally reverberated in my hands.
Nonorik had let his look of control slide, and now realized he wasn’t so superior anymore.
Because of that, he wasn’t attacking with all his strength to kill me like he did before – it was proof.
「Hah hah, there’s one more thing I wanted to tell you, Nonorik.」
「What? Is there something you noticed about me?」
….but, because of this I didn’t need to use my trump card after all.
The necessary groundwork had already been done.
That’s why the preparations I had made were the reward of running away with a sword that could cut with a touch.
Instead of safety, revenge, is the best result for me.
「Because of the technique I stole from you, and my slight loss to you, I was able to escape from the first world alive. We might be different, but I have to say thanks, and…」
「Wha?」
「I’ll kill you instantly.」
Clank! The sound of breaking metal.
That was the result of preparations I made during the fight.
The sword I swung out broke the white sword in half.
「…wha?!」
After, clank, clink, clakn, and three more were broken.
In the fight, those white sword always swung at the same point, and as opposed to the unbroken sword I held, their bodies had lost strength after they had taken damage hit after hit.
「It can’t be!」
「But it is!」
Leaving the surprised Nonorik alone, the stopped white blades were now used by me.
I broke two more by my spirit blade, and another I kicked down and broke on the ground.
From all the accumulated damage, his character changed from confusion to an inability to control where the white swords were going.
「Aggh!」
「Too late!」
Many short swords came to attack, however, there was no attack that came, nor was there any threat.
Instead, the short swords simply floated, as I went to attack the floating swords in the air.
I threw the sword to my other hand, and brought across my shoulder.
I swung my sword in a large scissor-like double swing, and three swords were transformed into flying shards.
「Now die!」
「Who’s going to die?!」
Thwomp, I landed on the ground, and knocked away the swords that were now attacking me, why running closer towards Nonorik.
「You have four left! I’m going to cut your head off!」
After being attacked by a storm of swords, I ran as quick as I could towards Nonorik.
However, he let fly two swords from the four he had left.
「Don’t get excited yet!!」
Two white swords swung at me.
I was focused on cutting down Nonorik so much I couldn’t defend, as the two swords struck my left forearm and my ear.
「Damn! But you’re out of moves now!」
I threw up both hands from the spirit sword after letting the 【Verdant Crystal-Green Sword 】heal the cut on my arm, and like that, grabbed the hilts of the white swords and smashed them on the ground.
「Ahhg! Just die! Stupid!」
「You’re the idiot, you pervert!」
I grabbed the spirit blade before it hit the ground, and ran at him again low to the ground, almost like a crawl.
As I got closer, I didn’t wait for Nonorik to flee, as the two remaining swords came at me in attack.
These two swords clashed against me again, and their loud clanging pierced my ears.
「Dammit! I can’t break these two!」
「Of course now, these ones have much more force in them.」
Those were the first swords he used when he began this fight.
These swords, which were probably specially made to be used in his hands, even though they looked the same were made much better than the other swords he used.
These were the swords I expected to fight against him with in the beginning, but they weren’t so fragile that one could break them in a fight.
However, if you were to fight back the enemy even if he held these two swords, there was only one thing you could do at the end.
There was no doubt it was only about the timing.
「hmph!」
「haaaaahhhh!!」
So the dual-wielding sword fight had begun.
Nonorik’s face lost its previous happy composure.
In matching with my fierce, beast like technique, here and there a dagger would fly at me. However, because I was using the Over Limit, there was nothing Nonorik could hope for from doing so.
Those two swords and the flying daggers wasn’t enough, and Nonorik was being pushed back.
「Hah!」
「Aghhh!」
Within a bit, the weakened Nonorik was close enough that I could swing at his neck.
Nonorik stopped just enough for me to take a strike, but before I was blown back.
「Ugh!」
It felt like a direct hit, as I got up and went at Nonorik again.
Again, Nonorik had a smile form on his face.
「—Fly away」
This was Nororik’s hidden, true technique.
The first time he used it I was fooled by it. But this time my reaction had just enough,
「Wait!? Why?!」
「Did you think that you were the only one using a transparency ruse, Nonorik? 」
This time Nonorik’s face showed a look of true surprise, as I jumped back and tossed something.
To an outsider, nothing could be seen, but there was proof that both a solid thing was struck, as a small firework went off.
That was Nonorik’s invisible sword and the small firework I had made behind my back to reveal it.
The invisible sword lost its strength, and was now visible.
This was Nonorik’s final finishing move.
Even with the sword covered with white, it couldn’t be hidden as your trump card if you could see it.
「Sorry, as you said, I know a few tricks. A transparent finishing move, isn’t a finishing move, Nonorik.」
「Aggh!」
I jumped on the foothold of that stopped sword and there was no way he could move fast enough to stop me.
Then, I stabbed the 【Beginning Spirit Blade】through his throat as he looked at me in surprise.
He had the look that he could feel his cells being split one by one.
With that moment feeling almost like time had stopped, all of the swords he controlled suddenly fell to the floor.
Clunk, the sounds of the swords in his hands, hitting the floor.
「Phew, man, it almost feels like a trainee finally beating his master. No, this wasn’t a fair fight, so there’s really nothing refreshing about it.」
「…」
Nonorik looked at me vaguely.
However, since he could do no more, they light in his eyes faded, and turned to a hollow stare.
「…yeah, I guess there’s nothing to be happy about in killing you.」
I turned to leave the place and go back to where I was before.
「I guess Fegner’s dead too by now. Poisoned to death by mercury, never did that in the old world, but there’s no resistance to that. Just bad luck, well, I guess my life’s not very lucky either. I kind of wanted to take a shot an Fegner too.」
I remembered what Fegner looked like before I fought Nonorik, and I knew that with the time spent fighting here, there was no way he could have survived the poison.
There are many different types of poisons, and there are some that are like the dimethyl mercury that was used.
There aren’t a lot that come from there.
It makes you weak. There are a lot that make you sluggish and tired.
「Ah, I’m getting drunk on magic from all this. I’m tired now, I just want to go home and sleep.」
My wounds that weren’t healed still ached, and I was too tired to heal them.
They weren’t fatal, so who cares.
I sighed and walked with a body full of wounds.
The MP potion that I forced down was more bitter than usual, and my numb mouth now felt the strong taste.
In this world of shadows, the sun had yet to rise.