CH 69

[Yuri-chan’s Special Rocket Punch!!!!]

““Dieeeeee!!!””

A one-on-one fight between Korin and me began on the scorched battlefield. At the exact same time, we both kicked off the ground.

“Come out, boys! Let’s goooo!”

I slashed out with eleven arrows—Pontaro and the gang—in both of my hands, wielding them like you would a dagger.

It might seem reckless of me to charge at Korin who had a close combat job, but I had a perfectly reasonable reason for doing this, namely, my familiars—who were holding back the thousands of players—only had 30 seconds before they would be unsummoned, which was the limit of ‘Frenzied Destructive Summon’.

When I glanced in their direction, I saw them rampaging with ranged attacks and huge fire breaths, but they weren’t going to annihilate all the players. The players were running around trying to wait out the monsters’ summon time limit, too.

I had sent Chuntaro to help them, but well, there were just too many enemies.

As for Korin,

“Hyaaaaah!”

The combo of the ‘Lightening’ skill and the ‘Wind Shot’ art. Using it, she shot forward like a bullet, arriving before me in an instant.

My jet-black light-clad arrows collided with her blue light-emitting spirit sword, causing a loud clanging sound.

Korin was sent flying by the knockback effect of my ‘Demon King’s Surge’, but she was undaunted.

After regaining her balance in mid-air, she used wind magic as jet propulsion to send herself shooting back toward me, attacking me like a bee would sting its target, and the same scene repeated itself again, again, again, and again.

I could tell by her reckless, fierce attacks that… she was also aiming to finish our fight as soon as possible.

“After all, if you take too much time, my ‘Arms Barrier’ will get unsealed. And above all, you don’t want other players to interfere with our one-on-one fight, do I get that right, Korin?”

“Yes, you are verily correct! You are now the face of this game. If I can be the first player to kill you, I will become a legend!

“I’ve had enough of being a background character, I want to become as famous as other beta testers like Baldhead-san and Zansword-san, and for that, you have to die, Yuri-san!!!”

Bang-bang-bang! Increasingly fierce thrusts came at me incessantly.

Korin would bounce back in less than a tenth of a second after she was sent flying and I found it gradually became more difficult to defend against her ceaseless attacks as time went on.

Hahaha, you sure are something Korin… Using her ‘Lightening’ skill and my ‘Demon King’s Surge’ knockback effect, she made this insanely effective hit-and-run tactic, leaving me no room to counterattack.

What’s more, maybe because she was wary of me summoning an explosive Chimera or something with ‘Forbidden Summon’? She maintained a reasonable distance even as she was seemingly recklessly attacking me.

I’ll admit it, Korin. You are a formidable foe.

So—

“—Off you go.”

“Eh?”

Just as Korin was about to shoot back toward me with her next thrust, I raised Pontaro and the gang in my right hand and then cut off my left arm with their arrowheads—!

My left arm—cut at the elbow—fluttered down while spraying red blood. Seeing that, Korin’s face turned blank for a moment.

Korin, it’s not the time to be dazing around!

As Message-san informed me I survived the self-harm thanks to ‘Tenacity’, I cock back my leg, and then…

“Eat thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!”

I kicked my cut-off arm that was still fluttering in the air with all my might and the tremendous shockwave generated by ‘Demon King’s Surge’ turned it into a rocket punch that shot toward Korin!

“Wha, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh?!”

Korin, who came flying, raised a startled voice and immediately stabbed out with her short sword.

But the moment the sound of her blade digging into my arm echoed, she instantly realized that she had blundered.

Her blade, which was quite short, had been completely buried in my cut-off arm…!

“O-Oh n—?!”

“You have to stab me with the blade for the effect of your short sword to activate, doesn’t it?! But you can do that no more!

“Time to settle this!!!”

I thrust out with the arrows in my right hand toward the flying in Korin!

The arrowheads pierced her small chest and Korin coughed out blood “Gaha?!” Furthermore…

“This is the end, Korin. Activate monster skill ‘Dark Clone’!”

And so, the ability of the Shadow Weapons was released. The jet-black arrows cloned themselves within Korin’s body, tearing her from the inside out—!

“Gahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—?!”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

・You have defeated Player: Korin!

+1 event point to Yuri!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A message window popped up in front of me along with fanfare.

And so, the duel between us ended with my victory.

But…

“Ha, hahaha… you truly are strong, Yuri-san… And your way of fighting is still as crazy as always… what’s up with that rocket punch…?”

Korin was disappearing into particles. Though she had muttered so in a frustrated voice, she still left parting words to me in the end.

“Unfortunately I lost, but—I did my part. Good luck, Yuri-san.”

The moment her words faded away and she completely disappeared, multiple footsteps sounded from behind me.

…When I turned around, there I found thousands of players with their backs to the carcass of the Firebird.

“Let’s go, Demon King! You’re facing us next!”

The players roared in unison while raising their weapons.

I, on the other hand, still had my ‘Arms Barrier’ sealed. There might still be about one minute until it was unsealed.

Korin did a good job weakening me, making me use the ‘Frenzied Destructive Summon’ special art, and tying me here.

She really was amazing… I practically won the battle but lost the war. It might be a good idea to recruit her to my guild after this war was over.

Done thinking, I shouted back to the players.

“Bring it on, then! But let me warn you, there’ll be no sparing from me!”

I couldn’t afford to die here, after all.

I had to kill the baldhead bastard to thank him for putting all these players together just to take me down.

As I imagined having a heated battle with my buddy/rival, I charged toward the players.