"Tch, fucking evil bastard! Just die!" Yelling in frustration, Chase blindly charged at me for the umpteenth time while rapidly swinging his sword at me; however, despite his strength and speed still being higher than mine, it was still manageable to redirect his sword, though just barely.
Raising Trina, blocking Chase's sword, I pushed him off me before using [Void Slash] as I swung my sword at him, though whether he sensed it or not, he happened to use the ability of one of his many accessories and appeared right above me as he swung down at full force. 'Tsk, when did this Earth wall get here?' Unable to dodge thanks to the earth that suddenly appeared behind me, I used [Wind Armor] on my sword and held it above me.
Blocking Chase's sword, and because my sword was enveloped with a powerful current of circulating wind, he slid off the side of my sword while I counterattacked with a kick to his face, but before my foot could connect with his face, my body suddenly came to a halt and no matter what I did, I was unable to move even an inch. "Die!" With a bloodthirsty expression, Chase quickly slashed my chest, cutting through my armor, though the moment he did so, the force that bound my movements disappeared.
Quickly leaping backwards in tandem with the force of impact from Chase's attack, I slammed into a tree while my armor and clothes underneath dropped to the ground, revealing a shallow gash that healed within a few seconds. "A-Alex, are you okay!?" Hearing Jasmine's concerned voice, I looked at her and nodded while shifting my focus back to Chase, who seemed to be gloating at landing the first successful blow.
"Alex, Sash interfered; she used a tendril of darkness to control your shadow, stopping you! She's cheating!" 'So that's why I was unable to move, makes sense.' Although I found a pissed Jasmine rather amusing, just as she was about to cast several buffs onto me, I stopped her. "Don't waste your mana, this isn't the real battle anyway, Jasmine; besides, it's better this way. The more she's focused on me, the less likely she'll notice what the others are doing."
With a sigh of frustration and reluctant acceptance, Jasmine backed down and lowered her hands while I approached Chase, who was, surprisingly, kind enough to wait for me. "Finished saying your goodbyes? Now that I'm serious, your death is soon to come; however, an evil bastard like you should feel proud you managed to last this long against this world's Hero." Arrogantly smiling, Chase pointed at me with his sword while I just blankly looked at him like the idiot he was.
"You're such a dumbass." "What did you say?" "Let's just continue to fight." Although it was faint, I was pretty sure I could feel myself getting stupider the more we conversed, so to end that, I brandished my sword and lunged at him again while he did the same; however, unlike before, round two proved to be significantly harder to handle.
Fighting the overpowered but inexperienced Chase was challenging but manageable, but adding Sash's discreet involvement amped the difficulty by at least two levels; now, rather than being on equal ground, I was struggling to continue defending. "Haha, the Pope thought someone like you was needed!? All you can do is defend, defend, and defend! I'm going to bring you his head and show him that only the Hero is needed!"
Despite blocking his attacks, I was still flung back thanks to Sash slamming a shadowy tendril into my stomach, which perfectly avoided Chase's vision, leaving me kneeling on the ground in momentary pain. Swallowing an uncountable number of curses I wanted to throw at that dumbass, sucked it up and quickly lunged back to him while glancing at Sash, who was gazing at me in annoyance, though I could also sense impatience in her eyes as well.
'Impatience? Trina, how are Yuki and the others doing?' Using [Expand], I doubled the length of my sword and slashed at Chase from a distance, yet thanks to Sash's interface, I was forced to change my angle if I didn't want my arms to get slicked off, which gave an opening for Chase to block my attack before counter attacking by kicking my side, causing me to hiss as I briefly gained distance, only to attack once more.
'Zartha said everything is proceeding fine; their numbers are large, but with Lazuli taking charge and perfectly commanding everyone, they've already killed half of their enemies.' Rubbing my jaw, which Chase had just punched, I clicked my tongue as I blocked his sword. 'Only half? How much time has passed, and what was the enemy's number?' '10 minutes have passed, and the enemy amounts to a little over 100.'
"Bastard, what the hell!? The crotch is off limits! As a man, you should know this!" Barely managing to evade a kick to the crotch, I stabbed Trina into the ground and furiously eyed Chase, who briefly froze before nodding. "Y-Yeah, sorry about that." Scoffing, I removed Trina from the ground and attacked Chase with a bit more anger than before as I accurately aimed for his vitals, though with Sash secretly helping him, it mattered not; my sword never reached its mark.
'Sorry about that, Trina.' 'Eh, no, you're fine, Master. Considering how much you use your crotch, it's understandable you'd get furious.' 'Are you mocking me?' Thanks to me being briefly distracted by Trina, I was punched in the face, though if that wasn't enough, my crotch was targted again, but this time, it wasn't Chase, and if it weren't for my heart warning me, giving me enough time to blink out of there, my manhood would've been separated from my crotch.
Appearing in front of Sash, I narrowed my eyes and furiously gnashed my teeth, only to grin as I mouthed a few words before turning around and facing Chase, who was dashing towards me.
'So, I need to last for ten more minutes if I want them to kill everyone in that city? That's doable.' Doable might've been a bit of an overstatement, if Sash is interfering because she knows what's occurring at their temporary base, then lasting another ten minutes will be impossible, she'll surely intervene before that happens; even right now, I've only lasted this long because of Sash's feelings for Chase.
'I'll be satisfied if I can last five minutes, though even two more minutes will be lucky.'
For the next few minutes, I continued to fight with Chase, stalling for more time, though while doing so, Sash's involvement only grew, and if it weren't for my healing factor, I would've already lost; however, while Chase still seemed eager to continue the battle, Sash had reached her limit.
"Heh, this is quite fun! Who knew fighting was so enjoyable! Haha, this is even comparable to sex! When I return home, I'll start fighting more!" Raising his sword coated in my blood, he smiled joyfully while gazing at me, though before either of us could attack, I was suddenly hit in the stomach by several large, shadowy tendrils, sending me crashing through several trees. "Alex!?"
"Sash! What are you doing!? I want to kill him myself!" "I'm sorry, dear, but I can't wait any longer; a group is attacking our base, and almost everyone is dead."
Coughing blood, I wiped my mouth and slowly sat upright while knocking away Jasmine's hands, preventing her from wasting her precious mana on healing me. "Heh, so despite knowing of my plan, you only now decided to end this farce?" Rubbing my stomach, I looked at Sash with a mixture of anger and amusement, though she didn't seem to be in the mood to play with me like the other times.
"You can take the credit for killing him, Chase; if you two continued to fight, you would've beaten him anyway, and you know it. I'll kill him, and you can capture the Saintess if you want." In a matter-of-fact tone, Sash looked at Chase and placated his annoyance, only to point at Jasmine before raising her hand at me, causing tens of massive shadowy tendrils to surround me.
"Tch, fine. But I also want that Elf wife of his." "Whatever you desire, dear… Now di-" Just as Sash was about to control the shadowy tendrils to attack me, the ground suddenly glowed as numerous etheral chains jutted out and wrapped her body. "W-What hell!?"
"It cost a lot of money, nearly our entire savings, to purchase this magic circle, you know. The worst part is, it's only temporary! Of course, I could've gotten a permanent one, but its overall strength would've been lower, and since I intend to kill you, I saw no use in permanently sealing you." Standing up, I approached Sash, who was constantly being wrapped with chains, failing to fend them off.
"Tch, despicable bastards!" Before Chase could help Sash, I appeared in front of him and slammed his head into the ground before forcefully snatching his sword and stabbing it into his hand, causing him to yell in pain. "When I'm not stalling for time and without Sash's help, did you really think you and I were equal? I could've killed you several times over already."
Kicking Chase's chin, leaving him dazed, I raised my hand, summoning Trina as I shifted my gaze to Sash, who was too busy trying to deal with the magic circle, but to no avail. "Alright, let's end this, Jasmine."