CH 73

[Life-or-Death Battle, Conclusion. And…]

“—Gaha, koff?!”

I bounced off the ground over and over again after being sent flying by the baldhead with a punch.

Having activated the super strengthening skill, ‘Fierce God Transformation’, the bastard’s Strength was off the charts. I got my pain limiter on, so the pain I was feeling was kept to a minimum, but the impact and shaking kept making my consciousness flicker. It felt like I was being spun and tossed around in a washing machine at the speed of sound.

Ahh, the blow would have made me lose consciousness already if I wasn’t accustomed to fierce battles, but—that would only make the bastard disappointed.

Just as I bounced off the ground for the umpteenth time, the baldhead stomped with enough force to blow up the ground and in an instant, he went behind me!

“Quite tenacious, ain’t cha, Yuri! Okay, how ‘bout I send you to heaven!”

And then a powerful impact struck me from below. The baldhead sent me flying up into the sky with a powerful punch from his thick-as-log arm.

I was completely at his mercy. The next thing I knew, I was already dozens of meters above the sky.

First horizontally and now vertically, having been blown away again and again at super high speed, I could barely hang on to my consciousness.

“Oh, I see…!”

In my field of vision that was turning white, a system message popped up: [Warning: Your consciousness level is rapidly declining. If there is no sign of immediate recovery, it will be determined that something is wrong with your body, and you will be forcibly logged out. Logging out in 10… 9… 8…]

Seeing that, it dawned on me. This bastard is trying to beat me by logging me out by force!

“Gahahahahahaha! How the tables have turned, eh, Yuriiii!”

“Ever since the day I lost to you, I’ve become obsessed with you! I’ve since been bottling up my passion, waiting for this day! Now, I’m gonna unload all of it on youuuuuuuuuuuu!”

The baldhead laughed maniacally. After causing the ground to explode with a heavy stomp, he approached me using the broken pieces of the ground floating in the air as footholds—!

I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. Anything might be possible in VR space, but you controlled your avatar by yourself. Your kinesthetic sense was the same as in real life, so how the hell could he pull off such manga-like moves so easily?

The only thing I could think of that made it possible was his stubborn will to defeat me.

“Yuriii, you are my soulmate (soulrival)!

“We hit it off well and I feel at ease when I’m with you! I’ve never felt this way with anyone else! You’re the first!

“So, die for meeee!!! I’mma completely break your body and mind and make you become obsessed with me this time, haaaaaa!!!” The baldhead roared as he ran through the sky. Plus, his whole muscular body had turned red hot due to the effect of the ‘Fierce God Transformation’, making him look like an incarnation of madness.

Yeah, his desire to beat me had reached an abnormal level.

The fact that he had convinced various guilds to hunt me, one guy, down was already insane enough, but the fact he had come up with the idea of making me lose consciousness to defeat me because I was extremely hard to kill thanks to my ‘Tenacity’ skill and extremely high Luck—now that was on another level of insanity.

I bet that as soon as he reached me, he would slam me down to the ground, then blow me up into the sky again, and repeat that over and over again until I lost consciousness.

Ahh, facing this man who burned with such a terrifying passion—I felt my heart race in excitement!

“Ha, do it if you can, baldheaaaaaaaaaaaad!!!”

I don’t care even if something happens to my body in reality, I want to kill the shit out of him so bad! I’ve fought so many monsters and players, but he’s the first one to come at me to win with such passion!

My consciousness was roused by the baldhead’s fighting spirit. With 1 second left until the forced logout, I completely awoke and glared straight at him.

“Tch, you snapped out of it? And here I thought I’d be able to mess you up as I like!”

“Like I’ll let you do me in while I’m unconscious! Now ready yourself, I will mess you up real good!”

We roared and slammed our fists against each other in the air!

At the same time as they repelled each other, we each began to make our respective preparations to finish the other off.

“Activate skill, ‘Arms Barrier’!”

Countless weapon-summoning formations spread out around me. At the same time as the swords and spears peeked out from them and took aim at the baldhead, I readied my bow and arrows. It was time to settle this once and for all, there was no need to hold anything back.

The baldhead, meanwhile, grinned and held out his fist, covered in the jet-black gauntlet, toward me.

“Activate art, ‘Power Burst’, ‘Power Burst’, ‘Power Burst’, ‘Power Burst’…! I’m countin’ on you, Ponzabeth, show him what you got!”

“Kishasha~!”

Receiving the buff art accessible to ‘Summoner’, the second job the baldhead had chosen, the Shadow Weapon possessing his gauntlet (probably a female) had her power increased to an unbelievable degree. The baldhead was probably going to launch her as a rocket punch like earlier.

Sheesh, what an unpredictable bastard… As Fierce God Transformation’s time limit—and by extension, his death—was upon him, the baldhead surprisingly intended to challenge me to a Summoner duel.

Ahh… you truly are a man amongst men.

“I frickin’ love you, baldhead. I’m really glad I got to meet you.”

“Yeah, same here, Yuri. So…!”

“Let’s…!”

““Finish this with a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!!!””

Along with the roars, we traded our moves!

With the jet-black arrows at the lead, over 100 explosive weapons as well as treasured swords and magical spears shot off toward the baldhead.

The baldhead, meanwhile, fired his glistening jet-black gauntlet with such force that the air exploded—!

The army of weapons collided with the ultimate punch, causing a huge explosion between us!

The two of us were sent flying by the blast, but this wasn’t even enough to make us bat an eye!!!

““Just drop dead, my rival! I’m winning this!!!””

We took exactly the same course of action at the very end.

Using the weapons scattering in the air as a foothold, we raised our fists and lunged toward the other like a bullet!

There were no more tactics, strategies, or hidden aces. All we got on the inside of us was the wills of hot-blooded men!!!

““Uoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!””

Ahh, I wanna beat this guy! I don’t wanna lose to him! He’s the manliest man I’ve met in my life, I’m proud to call him my best bud, and I want to stick with him until my last moments!

With such thoughts burning in my heart, the time of reckoning finally arrived!

“—It’s… my win!!!”

Slipping through his strong arm, my fist splendidly struck true on his face…!

“Ahh… I lost, best bud, you won.”

As his punched nose reddened, the baldhead fell toward the ground.

Regardless of who got that last hit might not matter, as he had run out of time. His body disappeared before he hit the ground, his life taken away by the ‘Fierce God Transformation’—and at that moment, the spectators burst into cheers.

[That was hot, Yuri-chan!]

[You were incredible too, baldhead!!!]

[Let us challenge you next time!!!]

Praises for me and my best bud poured down like flower petals.

And so, my second life-or-death battle with my buddy ended with my victory!