I felt like I’d become quite a battle-maniac lately.
I was excited about fighting strong enemies, and even felt moved when my radar, named fear, detected an enemy’s attack.
My thoughts had completely deviated from those of an ordinary person.
I, who had been thoroughly educated as a combat race.
Even for someone like me, there were, surprisingly, things I didn’t find enjoyable in battle.
I donned my armor, let my magic surge, and checked how my Ore Tree felt in my grip.
There were no flaws in my equipment.
My physical condition was fine, as I had just confirmed it earlier.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes.”
“If I cut, that girl will die.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
My partner, the Ore Tree, also had no issues with its sharpness.
The only thing that was out of sorts was my own heart.
But, at the same time, I also felt a sense of anticipation.
“Our positions have reversed since I joined.”
“Yes, back then Jiro-san challenged me. But now…”
Suella let her newly-made robe flutter and raised her staff.
“I am the challenger.”
Before I was trained by the instructor, she used to spar with me, and I was always the one who toyed with her.
And now, she was challenging me.
“Don’t hold back.”
“Is that so…”
“Yes, in fact, I would dislike you if you did.”
“…”
She was requesting my full power.
If so, I had no choice but to meet her expectations.
“Partner.”
“…Understood.”
I didn’t want to hurt Suella.
That kind of gentleness would have to be sealed away for now.
If it came down to it, I prayed that Himik and Evia would stop me.
Roots extended from the hilt of the Ore Tree, entwined around my arm, and my magic circulation began.
“Flow the dragon’s blood.”
“Understood.”
And then, the blood of an ancient dragon coursed through my body.
For me, who had already transcended humanity, there was no aversion to incorporating it.
My heart pounded.
My body gradually grew warm.
The quality of my magic power began to rise.
Suella silently watched as I steadily prepared myself to go all out.
Even though this was an act that would tilt the scales in my favor.
She didn’t use her specialty, spirit summoning, and instead focused on intercepting me.
She must have been preparing something.
She must have had some strategy.
I didn’t consider Suella to be so reckless as to challenge me without a plan.
I proceeded on the assumption that she had something up her sleeve.
“I’m going.”
“Anytime.”
With all my might…
“Too slow.”
I’ll crush you!
“!?”
With my body in perfect condition and my magic prepared, my charge was something that even the instructors couldn’t defend against without bracing themselves.
I bypassed mere high speed and stepped into the realm of divine speed, entering a range where I could instantly take down Suella without needing to blink.
I swung the Ore Tree, which had been hanging loosely, in an upward diagonal cut.
Her eyes widened, and they met mine as I stepped into range.
Normally, a backliner who is entered like this would be cut down with no recourse.
But.
“A spirit, huh.”
The Suella I had cut down vanished like a phantom, turning into mist.
So, she had been preparing. While preparing her attack.
No, maybe even before that. At worst, she might have been preparing from the moment I entered this room.
The training facility, whose condition I had just confirmed, was enveloped in a thick fog by the spirit I had cut down.
“The magic concentration is also quite high. So it’s to seal my vision and magic detection.”
The dense fog made it impossible to see more than a meter ahead. My trusty magic detection was rendered useless by the thick magic.
I could feel suspicious presences in several places, but I somehow knew they were spirits disguised as Suella.
Decoys.
“Well, with this…”
She probably wasn’t underestimating me, but still.
“I can manage.”
I could at least pinpoint any strangeness.
“First, I’ll reduce the enemy’s combat power.”
Even if she tried to seal my magic and vision.
“Conceal your hostility a little more.”
She couldn’t conceal the intent to attack. A sharp, piercing sensation ran along my neck, and the moment I felt it, my body moved into a beast-like, forward-leaning posture, and I started moving before I could even think.
“One.”
I cut down the hunter in front of me, who fired an arrow of wind at me within sword’s reach.
“Two.”
Using that attack as a feint, I then cut down a spider-like spirit that had set a trap there.
“Over there, huh.”
Before I could even think about where to go next, I detected a slight movement. A presence moving quickly through the fog.
I sent a magic slash towards it.
This cleared some of the fog.
That revealed the silhouette. A rabbit-like silhouette with long ears twitching.
It was aiming something like a megaphone at me, about to attack.
I considered intercepting, but even within this dense magic fog, I could feel an immense amount of magic from that direction.
That was a decoy, and the main target was likely waiting there.
“A great magic, is it?”
I sent a blade of magic towards it, but it was repelled. It possessed enough defensive power to block my attack.
A shadow reflecting a large silhouette. I felt water magic from the greatly prepared magic.
However, even if it was unleashed, I could still cut it down. So, that could wait.
What caught my attention was the rabbit-like spirit moving with a sideways hop. It held a large flute and blew it towards me.
“That’s annoying. Sound, you know.”
It became a powerful sonic wave, assaulting my eardrums. Was this an attempt to rob me of my hearing?
“This is how you do it!!”
Then, I returned the favor.
“Haa, KIEIYAAAAAAA!!!!”
A draconic roar, using plenty of magic and my throat.
It engulfed the enemy’s flute sound, and the sonic shockwave blew away the rabbit spirit and also halted the movements of the spirits hiding in the fog.
Then, I raised the Ore Tree above my head and charged into the fog.
“I see, a turtle spirit. I’ve never seen one before.”
I cut off the neck of a turtle that was trying to spew a not-yet-fully-charged water breath.
My sword speed was faster than its attempt to retract into its shell.
“Three.”
Ignoring the disappearing spirit and leaving the rabbit spirit attempting to seek refuge in the fog, I instead picked up a sound crawling along the ground. My ears were a bit dulled from the rabbit’s attack, but it wasn’t difficult to pick up this sound.
“Four.”
A giant centipede spirit, crawling low to the ground, ran towards me.
I cut it vertically and sent it back to where it came from.
A surprise attack strategy using fog.
Despite this barrage of attacks, I must have consumed a considerable amount of magic.
However, blindly attacking wouldn’t be like Suella.
There must be something else.
Or rather, considering Suella’s personality, was she forcing me to move cautiously?
If so.
“I should switch gears a little.”
A frontal assault might be the shortest path.
“Armor magic.”
First, I needed to deal with this troublesome fog. The fog created by spirits was tricky to dispel, but not impossible.
I quickly clad myself in lightning magic and electrified the Ore Tree.
“Takemikazuchi.”
A wide-area, broadcast-type lightning magic.
This would allow me to blow away the spirits that were coming towards me, along with the fog.
“Hah.”
And, as predicted, the fog cleared, and my vision was restored.
The scenery that appeared beyond the dense fog made me smile involuntarily.
“I’m surprised. Oh, I’m surprised.”
The training ground, which had been flat until just moments ago. A giant object had appeared in that flat space.
“I wonder what kind of trickery that is.”
The time it took me to cut down three spirits must have been less than a minute.
During that time, I had been repeatedly using magic detection and presence detection, paying attention not to miss any large movements.
Despite all that, Suella had managed to create it right under my nose.
“I suppose you could call it a fortress of trees.”
It was absurd to even think about its age; it was a giant tree.
If it were just a tree, a simple word of admiration would suffice, but the number of spirit presences within that tree was astonishing.
“Hahaha, even a domestic spat is life-threatening in this world.”
Not ten or twenty. Not even a hundred.
It felt like she had brought an army from the spirit world, such was the immense number of spirit presences I felt.
Moreover, the quality of those spirits was at least that of mid-tier beings.
Among them were a few spirits, like Valse-san’s trump card, that felt dangerously powerful.
But what was undeniably the most dangerous was the great tree itself.
The great tree itself gave off the same aura as Valse-san. It wasn’t an aura of magic power, but rather an ambiguous feeling of impending danger.
However, this sense of aura was quite important, and this intuition-like feeling told me that the great tree before me was a high-ranking Spirit.
Did Suella have enough magic power to summon a high-ranking Spirit? Considering her abilities.
For a moment, I considered observing, but…
“The frontal assault is my path to victory.”
A foul premonition whispered that it wouldn’t work, and I resolved myself to advance.
“Kagutsuchi.”
Fire for wood. It was a simple choice, but I expected at least a minimal effect. As flames enveloped the blade of my Ore Tree, I charged forward.
The distance to the great tree was an estimated two hundred meters.
At my current speed, it was a distance I could cover in just a few seconds.
If there was nothing in my way, I intended to slam my Ore Tree directly into the trunk.
“The footing!?”
The moment I took a step, I realized it had suddenly become muddy, and I channeled magic to the soles of my feet to jump forward instinctively.
“No, that’s not it. Is it Space Mastery!?”
The ground that had been hard just moments ago had instantly turned to soil. At first, I thought it was the spirits changing the ground, but as I looked at the surrounding atmosphere, I understood that wasn’t the case. A film of light spread to cover the entire space of the training facility, and within that film, a new world unfurled. A Great Forest, evoking a sense of the wilderness. Saplings sprouted and instantly transformed into massive trees. She was generating a space to her advantage.
Spirits.
That field alone was quite troublesome.
As they grew, I cut and burned the trees that tried to restrain me, but the trees grew as they extinguished my flames. The durability of the growing trees was the same as ordinary trees. I could cut them down with the same effort it took to rip a sheet of paper. However, their growth ability was outstanding. They grew at a speed tens, or even hundreds, of times faster.
And then.
“! Poison.”
As expected. My dragon blood had increased my durability, but it wasn’t absolute. The pollen released by the trees. It was being intentionally emitted. What this suggested was poison. Numbness, sleep, itching – I would know the effects if exposed, but the disadvantages of being exposed were too great.
“Then…”
If so, all I needed to do was burn it all.
“Release.”
With the full destructive power of Kagutsuchi, I incinerated the surrounding trees.
“Hi no Kagutsuchi, Scorched Earth.”
A wave of immense flames, literally turning everything into scorched earth, was unleashed in a full sweep as I rotated my body. Normal flames would be hindered by the growing trees. However, my magic-infused flames possessed heat and effects far beyond their appearance. The trees instantly turned to cinders, and the area around me was covered in black earth.
“…”
The main body, the great tree, remained completely unharmed. Was it the defensive magic of the spirits, or the effect of the great tree itself, that blocked the flames? With such a variety of spirits, it was likely easier to deal with the flames. My mind raced, sharpening my thoughts. With the distractions gone, I leaped towards the great tree, this time with one foot, ensuring I didn’t get caught in the mud. I could change direction even in mid-air. What tactic would she use now?
“Multiple barriers, huh.”
I thought she might come out to intercept, but what the great tree did was defend. It erected multiple thick barriers, clearly visible, to block my path.
“Did you think that would stop me!!”
I didn’t know the strength of those barriers, but I, who prided myself on having no equal in the Demon Lord’s Army when it came to cutting, sliced through those multiple barriers in an instant.
Today’s word: I believe there’s a need to clash with all our might.
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I am currently serializing another work: Pandora Pandemic Panic. The Pandora’s Box has been opened again, but I’m fighting back with secret bases and various other things!! Please check that out as well!!
