CH 9

[The Biggest Enemy is Oneself]

He has gotten stronger.

Higaki Ao swung her sword with fury, but with the reason left in her head, she observed the man in front of her… Sakurai Tōru.

He was arguably better than herself in terms of basic strength.

That was probably the result of the efforts that he had accumulated longer than herself; every time she saw the battle marks left in the dungeon, she could imagine the battle that took place.

That was exactly why she suspected that perhaps he had little ‘personal’ experience.

And she was convinced when they faced each other in reality.

So, she decided to snatch the sword on the spot.

In this way, Higaki Ao robbed the sword of the Sword Master, got angry at his acts of retaliation, and it ended up in a life and death battle.

“Tsk!”

“Oraa!!”

He dealt with her slash without falling for her feint. Their blades collided and rubbed against each other, scattering sparks.

Thrusts, slashes, strikes. Every single move of hers, all of her attacks that was packed with murderous intentions were repelled by the man before her.

“What’s wrong, what’s wrong! Your skills level is lacking!!”

“What the heck are you talking about!”

Even if she tried to dig into the exposed gap, he could respond to it as if it was prearranged. She felt as if her sword was being sucked into his defense, if she couldn’t pierce through it, she wouldn’t be able to fatally wound or even hurt him.

“You bastard!!”

On the other hand, it could be said that his attack was a little sloppy. The fact that he got caught in the gap she deliberately exposed meant that part of him didn’t change much since the entrance ceremony.

Perhaps what he developed in this short period of time was the technique of ‘to not lose’.

(Is his aim a protracted battle? Impudent, impudent, impudent, impudent!!)

While guessing Sakurai’s aim, how he learned the technique – the landscape paintings of him and Sword Saint – came to her mind, and her displeasure index soared to the infuriated degree.

The weight of each of her blow increased, and the sparks that scattered and the echoes of the swords’ clash became more intense.

If the battle became protracted, her stamina, who was inferior in terms of basic strength, would be exhausted first, and she would probably be killed using that gap; above all, she wanted to kill the vermin before her one minute or one second sooner to begin with, so she only had one option.

Therefore, Higaki didn’t spare anything and decided to use all her strength at this moment.

What she had to do, and what she wanted to do.

Those two things matched, and Higaki’s sword cladded in flames that cut through the atmosphere.

‘Flame Sword’ a sword technique taught by the Sword Saint, had appeared.

———

(It appeared, huh, Flame Sword…!)

A fire attribute sword skill that Higaki from the original game learned, ‘Flame Sword’.

It is a skill that endows fire attribute to one’s attack, increasing its damage, and makes it possible to give the abnormal state ‘burning’ to the opponent.

Based on whether the enemy was in the guard state, when the accumulated burning gauge exceeds a certain level, the abnormal state ‘burning’ is activated. It will continue to inflict continuous damage on the target person.

In addition, the ‘burning’ state has the effect of lowering defense against fire-type attacks, so I better avoid those slashes that come one after another.

(That said, it’s impossible to avoid them all!!)

I predict the next ‘skill’ that is going to be released from the preliminary movement of Higaki, that is her posture and the movement of her arms and legs. And prepare a ‘skill’ to overcome it.

I, who was engrossed in raising my level and hadn’t gained anti-personnel experience, am inferior than everyone in that point, that was proved by how I got my sword robbed.

Nevertheless, that experience cannot be acquired overnight, and if the opponent isn’t her, I will probably be helpless.

However, if it’s Higaki Ao, I can oppose her.

Exactly because it is her, who was taught by the same teacher, that I can oppose her in this short period of time.

In terms of learned techniques and movements, she and I were taught by Uncle Bonus, and we didn’t receive training from any other people. That is why I can understand and perceive her habit and stance of when she’s going to release a technique.

In order to improve the accuracy, I challenged Sword Master, who is the ‘origin’ of both of our style, and saw and remembered many of his techniques. There is no reason why I can’t apply what I’ve learned from the top – that is him against her.

(AAAAAHHHHH! The flame effect is a nuisaaaaaaance!!)

“You!”

“Dangerous!? Do you want to kill me!”

“That’s right!!”

The point is that I’m just continuing to wait and see her moves before doing anything.

If I make even one mistake, it could lead me to death, so I have to wait for the right chance to deliver the decisive blow.

However, I won’t be able to survive her attacks unless I use a skill to counter her attack, which means I can’t take the best move, evasion.

(I have burning-resistant equipment, but that’s not absolute. I haven’t experienced receiving any abnormal conditions in this world, so I don’t know how it feels! If ‘burning’ is activated, I might crumble from there!)

One blow. I only need one blow, so if I can land one hit, I can end this.

However, I can’t land that blow. There is one tempo delay even though I have grasped the timing hit her in the gap after she released her technique. The cause is clear, but it is extremely difficult to resolve it, or rather, it may lead to denial of the existence of myself.

(Shit… shit…!)

The flame is approaching.

Every time our blades clashed, the heat of the flame brushing against my skin, made me feel like closing my eyelids.

However, that is inexcusable.

Missing the movement of the opponent is fatal, and above all——

――Because I will miss the log of ‘Fire resistance +1’…!!

Even though it didn’t come out when I was burned(TN: not the abnormal status one) before!? Why do you come out only nooooooooooooowwww!!!

Shit, don’t laugh, me! You’re in the middle of a fight now! But I can deal with it anyway, it’s fire resistance y’know, it’s a chance to acquire a new skill y’know, and can’t I use her to increase its level, no, but you seee!!

Ohhhhhhhhhhh goshhhhhhhh!!!

Do your best, don’t lose, my reason!

Now that it come to this, I have to forcibly use my last resort with the preparation to get wounded myself!!

The biggest enemy is oneself or something like that? Please put off an event like that for lateeeeeeeer!!!