Chapter 94.2

94 Part 2

He wanted to have an adventure.

He wanted to test his own abilities.

However, there was always the risk of dying when going on an adventure…

Images of a terrible future assaulted Haruki’s brain.

Should he try to escape with all his might, and ask Kagemitsu for help?

Haruki staggered.

At that time, behind the black Fishman…

Thin white legs jumped out of the cracks in Kamui Rock, entering Haruki’s field of vision.

At that moment, Haruki prepared himself for the worst.

There was nothing an adventurer had to protect there.

Even if Haruki were to escape, no one would be left to their fate.

If he were to quickly go and report to Kagemitsu, they should be able to surround and defeat the black Fishman before they could pose a threat to the neighboring towns.

That was the safest way for Asahikawa and the most viable route for Haruki.

However, Haruki didn’t choose that route.

He had kicked that option off the top of the cliff.

Haruki was an adventurer.

And there was a monster in front of him.

There was only one thing he could do in such a scenario.

To defeat the monster.

That’s it.

Haruki mustered his willpower and focused it on his core.

He had to keep an eye on his opponent’s movements and begin his analysis.

*Snikt!*

He parried the Fishman’s talons and went around it.

The Fishman swung its arm while turning around.

Haruki imprinted those movements on each of his muscle fibers.

Analyze the gathered data, guess, and assume.

Perform an attack.

Find the errors in it, correct them, and retry.

The accuracy of Haruki’s assumptions rose in a twinkle.

At the same time, the barrage of continuous attacks became faster and faster.

Being able to fight normally was the happiest thing that happened to Haruki that day.

Haruki could almost taste the happiness of being able to move normally as well.

“Ha… Haha!”

He could go anywhere.

He could run anywhere.

— More, more…!

The excitement that warmed his chest, and the agitation that made his body sweaty and numb, made Haruki move even faster.

As Haruki sped up, the Fishman’s reactions became gradually slower.

Haruki’s speed exceeded the Fishman’s.

— I can put pressure on it like this!

Just as he convinced himself of it, the Fishman stepped back.

As Haruki tried to chase after the Fisherman, the nape of his neck went numb as if shocked by electricity.

The foot that Haruki had put in front of him stopped suddenly.

He sidestepped immediately.

Before Haruki’s eyes…

“Gyaaaaa!!”

A transparent mass that had come from the Fishman’s mouth flew past where Haruki had been not a second ago.

Haruki was familiar with that kind of attack.

It was magic.

Haruki hadn’t expected the black Fishman to use magic.

If he hadn’t jumped away after feeling that warning from the nape of his neck, he would have certainly been hit by that attack.

A cold sweat ran down Haruki’s forehead.

The attack unleashed by the Fishman looked like the concentrated white magic Karen used.

Judging from how concentrated it was, it must have been as powerful as Karen’s magic.

If that had hit him…

“–!”

Having imagined its power, Haruki got slightly frightened.

Perhaps because it had noticed Haruki’s fear, the Fisherman grinned.

It was the smile of someone who looked down at his opponent, thinking they would never be able to defeat him.

It was really irritating.

But that’s exactly why Haruki was itching to put his skills to use.

He also laughed behind his mask.

His opponent was nothing but a strong monster that he had to defeat.

There was no need for respect towards a “strong person”.

He would fight dirty and cunningly in order to defeat it.

Haruki reached for his mask and took it off.

Immediately, the Fishman’s eyes start to look for him.

Completely invisible to his opponent, Haruki jumped with all his strength.

He held his breath as he got closer.

He got around the monster, and saw a flash of light.

Weakness Exploit.

Haruki’s attack headed for the light.

But before that…

*Clink!!*

The Fishman’s talons narrowly blocked Haruki’s attack.

However, intercepting Haruki’s fully-powered attack with such an imperfect stance took a great toll on it.

The Fishman’s posture had been considerably broken.

Using that chance, Haruki made a second attack with his other short sword.

*Swoosh!*

However, that attack was also avoided.

The Fishman took advantage of his broken stance to roll on the ground, avoiding Haruki’s deadly blow.

It dodged the attack like it wasn’t a big deal.

No ordinary monster would have been able to avoid such blows.

And this monster had avoided both of them. But Haruki, far from disappointed, kept on laughing.

— This is good.

— It’s wonderful!

Perhaps his opponent felt Haruki’s killing intent and was able to avoid his attack accurately with its own intuition.

Haruki was honestly impressed with the Fishman’s sharp senses.

If he had those reactions, it was very likely that he would be able to dodge avoid getting hit even by surprise attacks.

Also, that monster seemed to be fully aware of Haruki even though he had removed his mask!!

“Impressive…”

Haruki laughed.

And still laughing, he continued to launch a series of stealth attacks using his Weakness Exploit.

The black Fishman seemed a little confused.

He seemed to be wondering what on earth had just happened.

When he landed atop of Kamui Rock, the Fishman was full of omnipotence.

It felt like it could exert its dominance over everything he could lay its eyes upon…

It even felt he could easily crush that masked man standing before its eyes.

That’s what it thought.

In fact, the Fishman had been overwhelmingly superior until shortly after shooting its magical attack.

Its opponent had a high physical ability, but the Fishman had magic under its sleeve.

There was no way it could lose to its opponent.

But now, the Fishman was completely under pressure.

There was something in his opponent’s aura that made him feel pressured.

The air around him had suddenly taken a 180 degrees turn ever since he took off his mask.

It felt the faint sign of an overwhelming amount of “nothing”.

A spectacular emptiness that swallowed and erased all violence and atrocity.

To accept and rule over everything precisely because there was nothing… the sign of the gods.

He was an entirely different person.

The Fishman was now fighting out of fear in these vicious circumstances.

Why, why, why…?

While barely dodging its opponent’s attack, the Fishman was trapped in its own bafflement.

Why did a human bear such a sign?

Why couldn’t it notice its opponent’s true ability from the beginning?

Why did it end up having to fight such a monster!?

Anxiety and panic swirled around him, fueling its fear of death.

With bloodshot eyes, the Fishman confronted the pressure that would normally be enough to crush one’s heart.

The Fishman did not win the battle against that pressure.

Being swallowed by that pressure, the creature’s strongest impulse was revealed. To survive.

A sign that couldn’t be felt.

An attack that came from an invisible angle.

The God of Death Himself had come to reap its life away.

— Scary, scary, scary!!

Like a cornered mouse, the Fishman fearfully confronted an invisible Grim Reaper.

All so that it could live another day…