This must be the time to unleash my full-power strike.
Self-hypnosis through self-questioning to push myself to the limit.
Don’t think about what’s next; bet everything on this moment, this second, this fraction of a second.
“Go!!”
With Valse-san’s buff applied and Accel-synthesis accelerating my internal time, the world’s movements slowed.
To move normally within accelerated consciousness places an immense burden on the body.
The creaking of my body turned into screams, my body heated up as if my blood were boiling, and I suffered a headache so intense it felt like my brain was burning.
I endured it by gritting my teeth, feeling the premonition of my body breaking from its core as I took one step, then another.
Just focus on cutting down the god before me, discard all extraneous thoughts.
Cut, cut, cut down.
For that purpose, I specialized my body’s movements and calculated the fastest, shortest path.
I moved my body like lightning.
However, even entering that realm, Aiwa tracked my movements and, with equivalent speed, re-established her stance to meet me.
While taking one step, she straightened her posture, assumed an offensive stance with the second step, and with the third, she swung her divine sword faster than me.
If I continued like this, my torso would undoubtedly be sliced in half.
But from my current overhead swing, evasion was impossible, and I couldn’t stop this attack, swung with the force of my body breaking.
A counter entered what should have been a critical blow.
The foreseen scene cracked.
This was the first time, and I involuntarily looked in the direction of the crack to see a shadow slipping into the world of my foresight.
That shadow shattered my foresight and changed the future.
As if anticipating my movements, Feri, who had received Valse-san’s buff, with bloodshot eyes, overtook me and I saw her back as she lunged to bite Aiwa’s face.
Aiwa’s divine sword, swung down, changed its trajectory to intercept those fangs and then plunged into Feri’s body.
“Feri!”
“Gau!”
I instinctively called out her name at the sight, but she told me not to bother.
Aiwa, after kicking away Feri’s face, who was still trying to bite her even after being pierced by the divine sword that had penetrated her fur, tried to regain the lost time, but it was too late.
“Kiyyyaaaaaaaa!!!”
With a monkey’s roar, I drove my single strike into Aiwa’s body.
I felt a momentary resistance at the tip of the Ore Tree, but it was not a problem.
After all, I am a genius when it comes to cutting!!
Nothing I can’t cut.
Embodying that, I cleaved Aiwa’s body in two from her left shoulder to her right flank.
“Magnificent.”
Aiwa praised that single strike.
The sense of certainty that I had landed the blow was negated by a smile of resignation.
“However, it is regrettable. I must kill you here.”
My body is about to be torn apart, and I can’t even connect with it through my conceptual attack.
My wholehearted effort.
It was a single strike embodying the second move of Jigen-ryu, “no need for a second.” I, who had put my wholehearted strength into the swing and wasn’t thinking about connecting to the next move, would take at least a second to regain my posture from the overhead swing.
In a battle between masters, that time is a fatal wound.
Aiwa, who survived even after receiving a blade that should have cut everything, looked at me, who had exposed an opening, with pity and unleashed a blade that would slice me apart with a perfect lunge.
This time it’s really over.
That chill…
“Kakakaka, I wondered where you went after abandoning our rendezvous, but you’re cheating on me here.”
This time, a real black shadow blocked it.
“Instructor!”
A staff, born from the darkness that inserted itself between Aiwa’s blade, saved my life.
“I was a little late.”
Instructor Fushio, showing himself healthy despite injuries all over, emerged from the gate.
The Undead King Nōraifu joined the battle to defeat the god.
“You’re late!!”
Rejoicing at his appearance, my heart trembled.
Ah, they truly inspire my heart.
Creating a perfect timing out of despair, Instructor Fushio, with a sarcastic jab at his late arrival, took Aiwa’s attack, and Instructor Kio seized the opening to unleash his fist.
Aiwa, with the force of a blow that sliced and blew away half of his bisected body, received the instructor’s punch with a magic barrier for the first time.
“She received it.”
Instructor Fushio grinned, seeing that movement.
Aiwa, with a magic attack, forced Instructor Kio to distance himself, but the same smile appeared on his face as Instructor Fushio’s.
“I heard most of the situation from Keiri. You endured well, you held on well. But this is where Jirou needs to push. The distance to his life is not far. The Master’s strike has undoubtedly reached!!”
The mention of Keiri’s name made me quickly look back, and I saw Keiri giving a thumbs-up.
I smiled, grateful for being saved, and with the current situation, which Instructor Fushio, the best in the Demon Lord’s Army in observation, had vouched for, I straightened my knees.
As if to prove it, the Undead King’s trump card manifested within this dungeon.
“Now, my castle, lend me your power to bury this one again, though I was interrupted last time.”
A wave of chaos appeared within the dungeon.
“Oi oi oi oi!! What in the world are you bringing out?!”
The one who screamed the most was the god, Susanoo-god.
Seeing that reaction, it was undoubtedly effective for Aiwa at this moment.
Numerous gun muzzles protruded from the gunports built into the four spires of the Undead King’s castle.
As Aiwa, at the end of those gun muzzles, I re-readied myself and stepped forward.
“Don’t let them hit me!!”
“Of course not.”
Here, we are assembled.
The best fighting force I could imagine.
The most perfect stage.
“Alright!! It’s the God Killer!!”
“Roger!”
“Kakakaka, I’ll work hard to make up for the delay.”
Under Instructor Kio’s lead, we launched another assault.
My conceptual attack disrupts the effects of healing magic and medicine.
I couldn’t completely drain her life, but I should have still shortened the distance to her life.
Yet, Aiwa’s body, which should have been bisected, was starting to reconnect.
If left unattended, the distance to the god’s life would widen.
Therefore, it is only natural that we all bristled with killing intent.
“H-ha ha.”
As she showed off her abnormal regenerative ability, Aiwa, who received the wave of killing intent, was not distorted.
With a pure smile.
“Come, challenger!!”
She drew a sword from its sheath, separate from her divine sword.
It was a slightly ancient sword.
A sword that looked ordinary at first glance, aged and well-used.
It seemed insufficient for this dire situation, but when wielded by Aiwa, it could become a weapon capable of killing us even if it were a fruit knife.
Her threat increased with her two-sword style, but it was not something to be underestimated.
If I can do it, it’s natural that Aiwa can do it, so I accepted it, further enhancing my vigilance, but without fear, I took the first step, and then my body naturally moved forward.
There is no need to fear moving forward.
Gunshots echoed from behind.
Instructor Fushio’s magic bullets traced trajectories unimaginable for conventional bullets, passing me and approaching Aiwa.
“This much!”
All of them were cut down by a wall of slashes unleashed by her high-speed two-sword style.
A sword barrier created by her two-sword style, its movements, its flow, its form, offered no openings, a defensive wall that cut down and killed all enemies.
I stepped into it, entering her range.
It tests a suicidal, idiotic amount of courage.
Determine the flow of the swords; do not miss even the slightest hesitation.
The wounds were healing, but the damage was undoubtedly remaining.
Her movements were slower than before.
“Shi!”
Exhaling sharply, the first attack I unleashed was a three-stage thrust.
The thrusts from the blade of our long-partner possessed a reach comparable to a spear.
As soon as I noticed a gap in the two-sword style barrier, I inserted the Ore Tree as if threading a needle into the created hole.
The thrust aimed at her face was dodged by her tilting her head, the thrust aimed at her neck was dodged by her twisting her body, and with the third thrust…
“Just a graze!!”
“You’re still landing hits!”
It ended with merely slicing open Aiwa’s shoulder.
Even attacks that threaded through the gaps in the two-sword style barrier ended up as just minor damage.
However, it was not in vain.
Perhaps due to Waishu’s self-sacrificing cleaning effect weakening her, or perhaps because my blows were effective, sweat began to appear on Aiwa’s face.
“Don’t forget about me!!”
Even so, Aiwa, who did not lose her smile, was approached by an Ōni from her side. Her body was heavily buffed by the Lunaria, and her faintly glowing fist surpassed the speed of sound, entering the realm of subluminal speed.
“I haven’t forgotten!”
She deflected the Ōni’s fist with her divine sword and was about to cut it off with the newly drawn sword.
“Do you think attacks like that can harm my arm?!”
Although it was indeed cut, the Ōni displayed a masterful technique of forcing it to stop with bulging muscles.
“Magnificent, truly magnificent! But!!”
Rejoicing at not being cut, the sword glowed as if indicating she still had means, and she accelerated again to cut off the Ōni’s arm, but…
“I won’t let you.”
A black swamp of chaos, encroaching on the ground, extended like needles, attempting to impale Aiwa.
She blocked it with a barrier, but it was quickly eroded and melted, and Aiwa’s body was pierced by the chaos needles.
As soon as she realized she was pierced, Aiwa stopped her attack and chose to withdraw.
She kicked Instructor Kio in the stomach and secured her distance.
But if I could see this in my future sight, I could have circumvented it.
“It’s quite fun being able to see!”
“Then enjoy it more!!”
I threw a lighthearted remark mixed with killing intent, and with careful attention to avoid touching the chaos, I unleashed a horizontal slash.
She evaded like a butterfly dancing in the air, but I could see that too.
A swallow catches a butterfly.
From the horizontal slash, using the Swallow Return technique, like an ascending dragon at a right angle.
It caught Aiwa’s left foot just before she finished her dance, cutting off everything from her ankle.
“Yes! I will enjoy it.”
That returning thrust pierced my shoulder.
Pain shot through me, but my muscles were not damaged.
If so, I can still fight!
Intersecting, we measured each other’s distance, and warm magic hit my shoulder.
This magic is Suella’s.
Thank goodness.
The wound healed, leaving only a slight discomfort, but it was not enough to hinder my fighting, and I gave a thumbs-up to my back before returning to the battlefield.
“Nuu!”
“I’ve never encountered an Oni with such satisfying resistance!”
There, Aiwa, who was creating countless slashes on Instructor Kio’s body, who had stepped forward to fill the gap I left.
“You fight well even with one leg lost. It must be difficult to even lunge!”
“What is this! For this moment, I shall lunge even with one leg!”
Aiwa unleashed a barrage of attacks that made even Instructor Kio, known for his regenerative abilities, groan.
Had Instructor Fushio not intervened, I think he would have been completely worn down, but Instructor Fushio stepped forward to compensate.
“Then can you defend against this strike with that one leg?!”
Aiwa, who has a vigilance net in all directions, is not susceptible to surprise attacks.
Therefore, I will challenge her head-on.
“Yes! I shall receive it and return it!! I shall respond to all your fighting spirit!”
Trying to feint with her is meaningless.
Her swordsmanship is too seasoned.
Therefore, the only way to win is with the pure pinnacle of swordsmanship.
“Yūzan” (Only Cut).
The extreme of slashing.
A slash, among the techniques I possess, specialized solely in cutting all things.
Aiwa did not dodge it but met it with her divine sword and the newly drawn sword, attempting to deflect it, but…
“Are you going to cut through the divine sword?!”
She cut the divine sword, which she used to deflect.
“I don’t call myself the strongest in slashing for nothing!”
Today’s word:
Plans are just plans.
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Pandora Pandemic Panic: Pandora’s Box Has Been Opened Again, But We’re Fighting Back with Various Things in a Secret Base!
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