CH 173

“Um …”

I looked around to make sure, but I knew that Mimi-san was the only one besides me.

Mimi-san seems young—no, let’s stop. That smells dangerous.

Anyway, no matter how I look at it, Gordo-san’s eyes are looking at me. I think I’m the target.

When I looked at Mimi-san, she smiled and nodded.

No, I don’t want to be nodded at…

Even if I think so, no one is on my side.

Tired-looking clan members were lying around Gordo-san. In other words, the training exercise is already over.

This means that an excuse like “because I will get in the way of the others” would work. I have no choice but to do it.

“Umm, so what do you want me to do?”

“Oh? You’re finally ready to do it? Nothing difficult, just give it everything you’ve got!” (Gordo)

No, I’m not that motivated…

But I do know that I need to show my strength here. There’s Subs the son of the Clan Master. No one has ever said it directly to me as he did, but I understood from the other day that there are a certain number of clan members who don’t have a good impression of me as an F-ranked member. If I don’t manage to show my ability to the extent that I am recognized by those around me, it may have a bad influence on my future activities.

In other words, I think it is a great opportunity to be given a chance to show my ability at this gathering of clan members.

I made up my mind and walked slowly toward Gordo-san, spinning my staff with my right hand as a preparatory motion.

As I walked, I wondered what I should do, but no good ideas came to mind. It was too much of an impossible battle, to begin with, so there was no way I could come up with a good plan. However, since I could not say so, I thought of a way to get back from among those I could do and connected them to form a plan.

Gordo-san uncrossed his arms and put his hands down.

His appearance was casual, without any stance, but he had no gap.

But the lack of a spear is a problem, but even before that, I can’t imagine what I would do even if I had a spear. No wonder the adventurers just surrounded Gordo-san and didn’t attack him. They knew it was a bad idea, so they couldn’t just go charging in.

However, there was nothing I could do about it, and if I couldn’t get in there, I would have to start with a long-range attack. So, I prepared my magic.

It might not be the lowest level of magic, but I had to do with what I could.

“Light, shoot down my enemies!”

The magic power that flowed out from the pit of my stomach gathered in my right hand and into my wand. The magic power is concentrated from the right hand to the staff to the point where “Nothing can enter”.

My breathing becomes shallow with tension.

I can hear the voices of adventurers talking around me.

I feel a burning sensation in the pit of my stomach, probably because I pushed myself to the limit.

At the moment when it gets hot and I began to sweat, the moment my right hand trembled, I unbearably activated the magic at once.

“[Light Ball]!”

With that activation phrase, a large ball of light shot out from the tip of the wand and flew straight at Gordo-san.

It was the biggest light ball I had ever used.

Gordo-san lightly thrust his right hand forward and caught the light ball in the palm of his hand, saying, “Oh, you started with magic.”

With a booming explosion, the light ball lightly bounced off in his hand. But, of course, he was unharmed. But this is to be expected.

During the explosion, I jumped out at once to close the distance and aim at his throat with my staff.

“Ha!”

“That’s not a bad thrust.” (Gordo)

Gordo-san dodges the thrust as if it were nothing by simply pulling back half his body.

With my momentum, I throw a lower kick with my right leg, but that too is dodged with a swift pull of his leg.

I continued to rotate in a fluid motion as I gathered my momentum and threw a middle back kick, which was also dodged.

It had been a long time since I had fought a serious opponent. I was reminded of my parents’ dojo, where I used martial arts seriously for the first time in a long time, partly because I didn’t have a spear. But there was no time to dwell on memories. The real battle was about to begin.

I took another step forward so as not to kill my momentum, and lightly tossed the staff in my right hand in front of Gordo-san’s eyes.

“Hmm?” (Gordo)

Gordo-san reacted for a moment to my incomprehensible behavior and stopped suddenly.

There!

Grabbing the scabbard on my waist with my left hand, and with my right hand, I pull out the Dark Crystal Short Sword and pour in magical power immediately to make a horizontal slash. I swung with all my strength.

“Oh!?” (Gordo)

He gave a solid response.

Gordo-san was falling back and holding out his right hand to catch it.

A thin streak of blood ran across his elbow.

Alright! I hit him! That is all I have.

I restrain myself from losing my composure, and I turn the Dark Crystal Short Sword that I had drawn out and try to follow up with another blow…

“Guh!”

A sudden impact from the left caused air to leave my mouth.

The next moment, the ground was right in front of me.

The habit that has become ingrained in my body is to roll my body before my brain can assess the situation, and I unconsciously take a defensive stance.

I landed on the ground on my back as if I were rolling, trying to kill the momentum, but perhaps I was knocked away more than I expected, or perhaps the momentum did not drop off, so I continued to roll on the ground, taking two or three more defensive actions.

When the momentum finally dropped, I stretched out my legs and tried to use the momentum to get back up.

“Ugh…”

But a dull pain in my left side makes me fall to my knees.

Oh no. This might have taken a rib or two. One blow and this is it…

As I looked up in pain, I saw Gordo-san more than 20 meters away.

Seems that I had been blown away quite a bit.

I could not help but let out a laugh at the difference in strength.

This is a little tough. No, I knew from the beginning that there was a desperate gap in ability, but experiencing it for myself made me realize it even more.

“Healing Light, [Heal].”

In the midst of the pain, I managed to knead my magical power and tried to activate the recovery magic, but the pain made it difficult to concentrate and I couldn’t send a lot of magical power. In other words, I cannot strengthen my recovery magic and I cannot heal my side.

This may be an issue in the future. I need to be able to concentrate even when I am in pain.

While I was struggling to heal my side, I heard various voices of clan members around me. But I couldn’t understand them.

“Did I overdo it? Well, you can cure yourself.” (Gordo)

Gordo-san approached.

He bent down in front of me on his knees and continued talking.

“I guess I’d give you a grade of C. Considering your age, you have a promising future. Or are you a half-elf or something?” (Gordo)

“I’m not… Half-elf. I’m 15 years old, just like I look.”

“Your composure is a bit suspicious, though.” (Gordo)

When I was told that, I only replied with a chuckle.

Half-elf. In other words, it seems that I was suspected to be a long-lived race.

The number of half-elves is said to be quite small, but half-elves may have ears the same length as those of the common humans, but their life span and youthful period are longer than those of the common humans.

In this case, I look like a child but have the brains of an adult, and my name is Rook, the great healer! In this case, I may look like a child but have more experience than my appearance.

Well, in fact, I became a little younger than my actual age, and I am not a half-elf but a quarter-angel, and he has not even guessed close to that. I can’t help but chuckle in that sense.