“……Oi, what’s with the shitty sword?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“You’re getting your excuses in for when you lose! Pathetic.”
“Stop barking. Get ready quickly. No matter how much time you buy, it’ll still end with your loss.”
“-su!! I’ll kill you!”
Derrick holds up his shield and sword while emitting tremendous rage.
He closes the distance as soon as the match begins.
Stirring him up like that, of course he’s going to rush in.
I’m really glad he’s so easy to handle.
Derrick swings his sword at me.
When I was in the Hero Party and had converted to an Enchanter, Derrick was already a member of the party.
I’ve been watching Derrick’s movements for several years.
And I’ve matched his moves with [Impact] many times.
All the things you do — I’ve seen through you completely.
I take a half step back to match Derrick’s sword, and the tip of his sword races in front of me.
After confirming that his attack swung for nothing, I move to Derrick’s right and aim at his neck with my short sword.
“–su!?”
Derrick reacts to my attack and tries to dodge.
I know that when Derrick takes evasive action immediately after an attack, he always moves his left leg first.
And immediately after he moves his left leg, I kick his right leg away.
“Hah!?”
Then, instantly after that, with the same emotions I had yesterday, I slam the back of my left fist into Derrick’s with the intention of breaking his nose.
After the fight is over, he can get medical attention so there’s no problem if his nose gets broken.
“Ugh.”
I release my short sword from my right hand, pull out my long sword from my waist, and strike Derrick in the chest.
“Aagh!”
And following that, I thrust the short sword in front of Derrick’s eyes as he’s lying flat on his back.
“N, not over yet……!”
Derrick’s eyes haven’t given up and he glares at me.
“There’s no chance you can turn things around from this sort of situation. You need to know when to quit.”
“S, shut it…..! –Gaaaa!”
Derrick had taken his left hand off his shield and was about to slam me in the shin.
But his goal was too obvious. Instead, I hit his left hand with my long sword as hard as I could.
“……Judge, the decision.”
“…………The winner, Orn Doula.”
The judge calls the result and I’m the winner.
It was what I expected, but it’s a bit anticlimactic.
Now, the next match is against that demonic Fuuka.
◇
“Orn, well done.”
As I return to the waiting room, I hear Will’s voice.
“Will? Are you already alright?”
Fuuka and Haruto aren’t in the waiting room, but Will and Lucre are.
“Thanks to Lucre’s recovery magic.”
“Fufufun, be greatly obliged!”
Her earlier serious air of concern for Will is gone, and she’s returned to being the usual Lucre.
“Yes yes. I’m thankful. –Once again, congrats. Hope you’ll keep doing well for my share too.”
“…………Yeah. I’ll do my best for your share too.”
Thus ended the second day of the martial arts tournament.
◇ ◇ ◇
The third day of the martial arts competition.
Fuuka and I leave “Lacquered Evening Mist’s” Clan base and go to the arena for the tournament.
There’s only four left.
And among them are two from “Lacquered Evening Mist,” ain’t that enough?
This tournament is more of a hassle than I’d thought, and my motivation’s pretty low.
“Aaahh~, tiring~!
“Weren’t you going to fight seriously?”
Fuuka, walking next to me, asks.
“Well, that’s what I thought. But haven’t I done enough? Still, you’re pretty excited.”
She’s got the same expression where you can’t tell what she’s thinking, but she’s got the air of a kid looking forward to something so much that they can’t wait.
“Cause I’m fighting with Orn today. Maybe I’ll get to see the serious Orn.”
Fuuka’s eyes are shining.
“Now that you mention it, he’s been holding back? Felt like in the first and second match, he was going at it with a pretty serious look.”
“I think he was fighting with everything yesterday and the day before yesterday. But serious Orn isn’t like that, okay?”
No, I don’t even know if you want me to agree with you.
◇
“Hello, Haruto.”
As I’m waiting in the waiting room, Orn comes in.
Today too, we’re in the same room.
“Yo, Orn. How you feeling?”
“Perfect. Today’s opponent is Fuuka after all.
Orn is also wary of Fuuka?
Since I heard about how Fuuka evaluted Orn, I’ve been paying attention to this guy’s fights.
But I still have the impression that he’s just average.
It’s true that he’s a good fighter. I can admit that.
But I don’t think he has the potential to be as good as me, let alone Fuka.
“….Hey, Orn. You going to fight seriously today?”
“I don’t know what you mean by asking, but I haven’t been going easy every time, alright? I don’t have the ego to think I can win by cutting corners.”
As I thought, I don’t think he’s lying.
Far as I know, in this world, there’s only five with the chance of beating Fuuka.
But Orn isn’t one of them, and I don’t think there’s any chance Fuuka can lose.
Fuuka is special.
Well, those five are special as well though.
The announcer’s annoying voice interrupts my thoughts.
Just as I go to the back of the waiting room to head out for the match, the announcer calls my name, so I walk straight to the centre of the match venue.
Checking on Oliver’s expression after we were both in position, he’s staring at me with a blank look.
He’s the one with the complete advantage, but can’t catch him letting his guard down at all.
(Didn’t think I’d be fighting Oliver in this way….. Now, show me what you’ve got.)
Without exchanging a single word, we’re both ready for battle.
Following the sound of the drums, we close the gap between us.
Obiovusly, the sword’s got a longer reach than someone barehanded.
In other words, first to attack is the side with the sword.
And like I’ve been doing, I’ll aim to counter the attack.
However, unlike what I’d imagined, Oliver doesn’t show any signs of swinging his sword even when he gets in sword range.
（What’s he thinking?)
While I’m unable to read Oliver’s intentions, something golden floats in front of my eyes.
As I’m thinking “what’s this”, it pops in front of my eyes.
“–su!?”
I jump backwards as quickly as I can.
(Dangerous! What the hell was that?)
While I’m shocked, I realise something.
–I jumped backwards, and now I’m at the best distance for his sword again.
“Damn!”
This time, he of course swings his sword at me.
I repel the blade of his sword with my gauntlet and take some more distance to get out of his sword’s range.
(What a surprise…… Almost ended in an instant, and he’s this skilled with it, I should say it’s expected……. Wait, this ain’t the time to be impressed. First I’ve got to do what I’ve always been doing and destroy his sword, then I’m going to pull him onto my stage.)
Concentrating Ki into my fist, I close in on Oliver.
◆
Ki’s the energy that flows through the body.
Everyone has it, but it’s not something you can just control.
My ancestors mastered the art of Ki and passed their know-how to their descendants.
I was taught Ki control from young and now I can handle Ki as easily as I can breathe.
By circulating it in my body, my physical abilities improve massively.
–Just like support magic buffs.
Also, by releasing this Ki outside the body, you can do many things.
For example, by channelling Ki into a strike and making it burst, the target can be destroyed from the inside out.
That’s the trick to destroying weapons.
◆
Matching my movements, Oliver also attacks me.
But too bad. I’m aiming for your sword!
I meet his sword with my fist, and at the moment of impact, I channel my Ki into the sword, causing it to explode.
–But the sword doesn’t break, and caught off guard, I get hit.
“Guh!”
My body moves before I can think, and I move out of the way before receiving a follow-up attack.
（What happened? I did touch his sword and channelled my Ki.)
“You look as if you’ve seen something unbelievable. Is it really so strange that my sword isn’t broken?”
Oliver’s voice is cold.
So he’s already taken measures against weapon destruction?
“Oh no, I’m screwed……”
My fighting style specialises in breaking things.
The rules of this tournament are even more bad for me than other explorers.
In the first place, I don’t want to show my hand, so that’s why I’ve only been destroying weapons.
Looking at Oliver’s sword, I get why I couldn’t destroy it.
It’s the guy’s Talent, [Mana Convergence].
By covering the blade with a layer of mana, the Ki can’t reach the blade.
Ah, seriously, how versatile is that?
……Time I give up?
No, thinking a bit about what’s going to happen, I should get a good look at Oliver’s fighting from up close.
Haah,……. I’ll fight a bit more and lose at the right time.
There’s no way to win, and I’m sorry Alf, but there’s nothing I can do about it.
After setting my plan, I let Ki flow through my entire body and raise my physical abilities.
“–su!?”
He seems surprised that my speed has increased from before, but he quickly deals with it calmly.
I repeat my attacks to try and create an opening, but without being able to break his weapon and only able to punch, there’s no hope of me winning, and Oliver, getting used to my moves, starts counterattacking more and more.
Slowly, I end up spending more effort on defending, and finally, more and more resources were allocated to defence, and finally beaten to a pulp and defeated by Oliver.
It’s so painful…….
◇
After the fight was over and I got treated for the bruises Oliver gave me, I head over to Huey and Katie, in the stands.
“Oh, it’s the captain who got beaten black and blue by the Hero.”
Kathi, who finds out that I’m here, gives me some harsh words.
“Isn’t that too mean to say to your friend who fought so hard?”
“Well, you got beaten so badly because you didn’t give your all, so what else can I say.”
“No, no, that was everything I had. In the first place, that’s all I could do with these rules!”
“But if the captain really intended to win, couldn’t you have attacked him one-sidedly from outside his sword range?”
“I – can’t – do – that – okay?”
“What’s with the stuttering….. We wanted to see the captain win against a Hero……..”
Huey mutters with a really sad look.
“…..My bad for showing something so unsightly. But, listen. I couldn’t have cornered that guy. Even if I did beat Oliver, it would have taken too long. Well, I’ll leave the victory to Fuuka.”
As we’re talking, the second match is about to begin.
Fuuka and Orn each take their positions and get ready for battle.
“Hmm? Unlike before, Orn’s only using one long sword.”
Katie points out and I notice too.
Before this, Orn has been fighting with two different swords, a long and short sword, but this time, he only has a long sword and no scabbard as well.
Is he trying to make himself as light as possible to cope with Fuuka’s speed?
Don’t think there’s going to be much difference with such a small thing though.
A few moments after the fight began, the crowd begins to let out a few groans.
The reason for this is quite simple.
The fight’s started, but Fuuka and Orn haven’t made a single move towards each other.
–Oi, it’s already started!
–Fight quickly!
Spectators, tired of the two staying still, start shouting wildly.
“Captain, why aren’t those two moving?”
“Those two have started engaging in a brilliant battle of life and death, got it? They’re moving too fast that it looks like they’ve stopped.”
“Eh!? You’re lying!?”
“Yeah, it’s a lie. –Ouch!”
I was just trying to make a joke to lighten the mood, but it doesn’t seem to have gone well with Katie, who keeps poking me.
“Don’t tell pointless lies here!”
“I said I was sorry. So stop hitting me! –Okay, it’s true that the second half was a lie, but the first part is the truth.”
Freed from Kati’s violence, I begin my commentary.
Well, you’d have to be pretty well versed in martial arts to understand what they’re doing.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s true that they don’t look like they’re moving, but they are making slight movements like shifting their weight. They’re reading these small movements of their opponents and both engaging in a mental battle. Basically, tactics.”
“……Can people do that?”
“The battle between masters is sometimes said to be won or lost before a single move is made. Obviously Fuuka is at that stage, but I didn’t think Orn would also be on her level.”
–