CH 30

[Checkmate]

How long have I been fighting? I’ve lost my sense of time.

There is naturally nothing that can measure time inside the ‘Tower’, and there is no such an advanced thing such as a wristwatch in this world.

I continued fighting without having the means nor leisure to check the time, and now my consciousness already become hazy.

“You! You, you!! What are you!? What the heck are you, you bastard!?”

“Ba—bu—”

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!”

Even the words I said in tiredness ended up turning into gibberish.

Even so, Babi’s boiling point is too low, so it still worked as a provocation.

I got to know this as the fight continued, but as expected, capturing this guy solo is impossible.

I lacked firepower, and even if do I injure him, Babi’s automatic recovery (Regen) ability would just cancel out the damage.

The only thing that can give him solid damage is the ‘Fake ・ Sword Saint’s Slash’, but it requires a small amount of ‘reservoir’ to use it, so I can’t use it continuously.

And if I don’t shower him with it, the damage will just be recovered by the time I use it next time.

Even after slash after slash, he didn’t die.

If I have to say what is the thing I enjoyed from the fight, it is that I could raise my skill level.

Thanks to it, I have acquired three types of abnormal status resistance, and each skill level is at max.

As for ‘Panic Resistance’, it has evolved into a skill beyond it – ‘Person Who Is Excited in Fear’, probably because I overcame it with fighting spirit.

I’d rather get a skill that increase attack power in panicked state rather than such a degenerate skill though!

“Dieee!!”

“Don’t wanna!!”

I avoid Babi’s battle ax and kick his face away.

I open up a distance while giving Babi – who swings his battle ax while having his face thrown back – a sidelong glance, and adjust my breathing.

I restore my physical strength, though small, with the power of ‘Qigong (small)’ that I acquired during the battle.

I have already run out of recovery items I carried in before the battle, so recovering in such brief moments is important.

“…Enough.”

“Un?”

“Enough! Enough! Enough! Ahhh, I’ve been playing along with this entire time, but I’m already getting sick with you as the opponent! How long are we going to fight!? How far are we going to fight!? I’m fed up with playing along with you!!”

Babi shouts, and Asura appears behind him.

However, that Asura has only one battle ax in his six arms; that appearance is something I don’t remember seeing in the game.

(Seriously…)

It seems to be a new motion that didn’t exist in the game.

I want to shout out loud, ‘You, why did you take out something like that now after such a long time!’, but I don’t even have the capacity to shout, so I can only ready up my shield reluctantly.

“Be honored, you human. This is my true power as a god! Bow down to my divine power!”

I focus on ahead and observe him carefully so as not to overlook any of his movement.

I exhale to improve my concentration and calm myself down even a little bit—— my left hand holding the shield is cut off.

“——ngh!?”

Soon after feeling the pain from being cut, an impact hit my body.

Even while rolling on the ground, I raise my gaze; there I see the figure of Asura planting four of its arms on the ground as though to support its body with its remaining arms holding the battle ax which size is almost as big as its body, appearing as though having just finished swinging it.

“Fumu, my power has not fully returned yet, huh. It seems that the aim was a little off because I wielded it without enough power.”

“Damn… it…!”

“I am getting stronger every time night passed. Seven nights has passed since my plan was fulfilled and I revived with the power of Iris’s magic eyes… My strength is still far from my heyday, but more than enough to kill you.”

I raise my body up with my remaining one hand and lean my back against the wall. I no longer have spare energy to stand up due to fatigue and injuries.

If I have to point out the silver lining here, it’s that my current body is not of blood and flesh, but of soul that has changed shape into my body, so even if my left arm is cut off, I won’t die from shock or bleeding.

In short, I can fight until the last moment as long as I hold on to my consciousness, but putting it in another way, my soul corresponding to my left arm was cut off; at the end of the day, I feel like it’s more problematic than the normal arm being cut off.

(Not good, my head becomes absentminded and can’t think straight…)

Since 7 nights have passed, that means this is the eight day, huh?

To continue to fight in that whole time, I think I’ve done my best shockingly, even if I say so myself.

“You were fairly useful as an opponent for me to familiarize myself with my freshly revived body. You deserve death for getting in my way, but I’ll admit that you have a merit in that respect.”

“Surprisingly, you are quite shameless, aren’t you?”

“Do you have anything left to say?”

“Anything left to say, is it…”

It sure is already time to end this.

Feeling that way, I think about what to do with the last words, and realize that it is useless to think deeply, so I decide to say what I thought.

In order not to leave any regrets, I let out a sneer, one of completely ridiculing the unsalvageable foolish scum bastard before my eyes, and say bluntly,

“Dumbaaaaaaaass!!!”

“Die in regrets.”

The world loses its color and my view became slow.

The battle ax Asure swung down cuts through the air and spreads shockwave, slowly approaching me while destroying the room.

In such a world, I remember the many skills that I have acquired until now; if it is the revolving lantern, I better fill my view with a revolving list of skills with all my might.

I have each skill arranged in space as shining stars, just like in planetarium.

The series of branched-out derivative skills groups that grew from one skill are connected from dot to dot as though drawing a constellation; watching them, I end up being fascinated for a long time to the point I couldn’t believe that I’m only a few moments away from death.

The life (level up) I have tread on is not wrong. These stars (skills) are the proof.

I’m convinced of that fact and slowly close my eyelids.