Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 86: 21st Floor: Sword Saint Kyle Ruuuumble...!
My goal wasn't just to drop a few stalactites to block his path.
The cracks in the ceiling.
Even in a cave, there are bound to be water veins or hollow spaces in the ceiling.
The reason I kept striking the ceiling was to find those weak spots by listening to the sounds and feeling the vibrations.
Craaaash!!!
Kyle escaped through a gap as the ceiling collapsed, but this was exactly what I had intended.
The enemies were now separated.
Divide and conquer.
The battlefield I wanted had been created.
"Haha... Did you think you could win if I was alone?"
"I'd like to ask you the same thing. Do you really think you can beat me all by yourself?"
I set Irene down and properly gripped my spear.
He, too, held his sword straight, took a ready stance, and stared at me.
Through the menacing blue aura, we stared each other down. His blue eyes felt as if they were piercing through the darkness to see right through me.
Gulp...
A tense moment.
I was the one to attack first. I scraped together my remaining divine power, raised all my buffs to a 4-stack, and charged.
[Supersonic Spear]
Even using a skill, the spear flew toward him with incredible speed, but...
Clang!
As if he expected it, he smoothly deflected the spear.
Screeeech!!
The bastard charged, grinding his sword along my spear. He closed in fast, looking like he was about to tear me apart in one go.
It was too late to dodge. My center of gravity was already shifted forward.
Just before his sword slid up and cut my hand, I let go of the spear and pushed it aside.
Slice!
The sword grazed my shoulder as it passed, and I caught the spinning spear in mid-air to block his backswing.
Claaang!!
Because I blocked from an unstable stance, I was thrown back hard and slammed into the wall.
Thwack!!
Ignoring the pain in my head, I came to my senses to find a blade glowing with blue aura right before my eyes.
'Shit...'
I hastily rolled away to dodge, but as if he predicted it, he withdrew his sword and slashed my back.
Slice!
"Kgh..."
The wound was shallow.
I calmed down and aimed my spear again.
"What in the world do you do to make your body so tough? You're the first one to survive my aura grazing you. Normally, you should've been split in half..."
'Damn bastard...'
I let my guard down.
Because I had experience defeating Swordmasters even when they ganged up on me in my past life, I had underestimated the title.
'It'll be different now.'
This time, he charged.
He approached at high speed, weaving in a zigzag pattern and even firing off vertical aura blades.
I took two steps back, dodged the aura blades, and lightly thrust my spear into his path.
Just like before, he tried to charge while grinding his sword along my spear, but I had already withdrawn it and lightly stabbed the back of his hand before pulling away.
He protected the back of his hand with aura, but my spear pierced it and wounded him. Seeing the blood trickle from his hand, his face twisted slightly, and he looked at me with serious eyes.
Now we were back on equal footing. We were both wary of each other, not letting our guards down.
This time, I moved first.
I feinted a thrust at his right leg, aiming for his wrist, but he didn't fall for it. Instead, I barely managed to stop him from charging along my spear again.
'He's no pushover...'
An unparalleled genius swordsman.
Sword Saint Kyle.
His pure agility and strength seemed a little higher than mine. Even his swordsmanship and his ability to adapt in a chaotic fight were flawless.
I thrust my spear, giving him no time to think.
Ultimately, a fight between a spearman and a swordsman comes down to a battle of distance. No matter how fast they get or how high their level, their reaction speed and ability to predict movements also improve.
Of course, Kyle knew this too.
He kept trying to close the distance, even at the cost of taking minor wounds. If he could close the gap just once, just a single time, he could inflict a fatal wound on me.
I desperately maintained the distance. I focused all my concentration on maintaining a range where I could attack, but he couldn't.
I didn't put too much force into my thrusts.
Feinting thrusts, feinting approaches.
I pretended to give him an opening, then pulled back, slowly chipping away at him.
Just by maintaining distance and applying pressure, the opponent is bound to break first.
—That's for ordinary swordsmen. Sword Saint Kyle didn't break so easily.
'Damn him.'
I think I understood why he earned the title of Sword Saint.
His brilliantly shining blue aura.
And those bright blue eyes, searching for a solution even in this frustrating situation.
He constantly approached me, yet took minimal damage from my checks. Little by little, he was adapting to my harassment and trying to find a way to break through.
We've exchanged dozens, hundreds of blows, but the biggest wound was still the one on the back of his hand from the beginning. The rest were just minor scratches.
I had almost no divine power left to use for buffs. Soon, all I'd be able to do was maintain one or two stacks.
But it was the same for him.
Aura is inherently a power for short, decisive battles. I could see he was maintaining his aura at a minimum, but even that was an immense amount by a normal swordsman's standards.
The fight dragged on.
It was no longer about who could kill the other, but who would tire out first.
And that was what both of us were aiming for.
The moment we grew accustomed to the simple, repetitive movements, Kyle was the first to make a move.
The aura on his sword swelled, and a massive, cross-shaped aura blade came flying at me.
KRRRRAAACK!!!
The aura blade flew recklessly, filling the cave and gouging the walls. There were two places to dodge: bottom right and bottom left.
No, I didn't need to dodge downward.
I jumped up, dodging into the space on the upper right.
The secret technique of the Mecarto family, Spatial Footwork.
With the principles of Spatial Footwork, sticking to any wall as if it were the floor was a simple matter.
"What?"
Looking down, I saw the horizontally flying aura blade split in two, sweeping through the space below.
An aura blade that splits with a time delay.
"..."
To deliberately create a place to dodge and then set a trap there... He may be my enemy, but that's a technique worth learning.
Even if I had blocked the aura, Kyle would have struck my neck in that instant.
It must have been his hidden ultimate move, but unfortunately, it missed.
He aimed for me in the air, but I parried naturally and moved smoothly along the wall.
"What is that?"
He seemed quite flustered by me moving along the wall, but he calmly blocked my spear.
But it wasn't over yet.
[Divine Power Release]
[Stealth]
I released all my remaining divine power and hid my body with Stealth.
Normally, even with Stealth, a Swordmaster like Kyle would easily detect me, but the divine power scattered in the air temporarily disrupted his senses.
Of course, if I moved, the disturbance would give me away instantly, but it was possible to stay hidden for at least a few seconds.
And from above him, I looked straight down at him.
[Full Charge Over Spear]
An equipment skill that, like Stealth, doesn't use divine power.
It had the ridiculous restriction of having to stay still for five seconds, but it was a skill that could unleash double the power in one go. If it succeeded, I could kill him instantly with overwhelming power!
'Please...!!'
One second.
Kyle looked around, flustered.
Two seconds.
He spread his mana to find me, but it clashed with the residual divine power in the air and failed.
Three seconds.
He swung his sword at the spot where I disappeared, but of course, I was long gone from there.
Four seconds.
Kyle closed his eyes and concentrated.
'This is the end!'
0.1 seconds before the fifth second...
Kyle came flying toward me, his sword aimed right at me.
"!"
I broke stealth and quickly dodged.
Slice...
I took another wound to my side, but it only scraped off a bit of skin.
'Fuck, what a shitty trash skill... Five seconds, are you kidding me!!'
It was a gamble, but unfortunately, it failed. If I'd had just 0.1 more seconds, he would have been pierced by my spear and died, but I was out of luck.
"Haha, is that all you've got!!"
Kyle swung his sword, delighted that he saw through my plan.
I narrowly escaped his range and kept him in check with my spear. After we both played our hidden cards, the situation returned to how it was before.
But time was not on my side.
I didn't know when Kyle's mana would run out, but my buff duration was coming to an end.
'No, I can't get impatient.'
A spearman must be calm. In fact, I should be the one making my opponent impatient.
'He must be getting impatient too.'
That bastard Kyle had no idea when my buffs would end, or if I even had any in the first place. He was probably calculating his own mana reserves, wondering when to take another gamble.
Time passed.
Our fight showed no sign of ending.
'Just how much mana does he have?'
Even for a Swordmaster, did it make sense to emit aura for nearly an hour?
'If this keeps up, I'll lose...'
With my divine power running low, it was hard to create any variables.
With skill alone, I could inflict minor wounds, but I couldn't overwhelm him.
My opponent, while not on my level, was the greatest genius on the continent. He wasn't someone I could easily defeat with cheap tricks.
To beat me, he also shot aura-formed energy like bullets, adjusted the shape of his aura to make it look bigger, or even faked running out completely to try and break my stance.
But neither of us made any significant progress, and the sluggish battle repeated itself.
Just then, a variable appeared.
"Damn Imperial bastard!! Die!!!"
The two soldiers I had let live.
Irene had brought them.
They tried to stab Kyle, whose back was conveniently exposed...
"You worms, how dare you!"
Slice!
'Damn it...'
With a sword swing that naturally dodged my spear, the two soldiers died in vain, unable to create even a small opening.
But the soldiers weren't the problem.
"Irene!! Run!"
Fearlessly, Irene was charging at him with a sword.
'Dammit...'
I rushed forward, but Kyle's sword was faster.
Clang!!
"Hm?"
Even though he swung it lightly, Irene deflected the Sword Saint's blade.
'This is my chance!'
The small opening Irene created.
I gathered all my strength and delivered a swift thrust at the stunned Kyle.
"Kugh!"
He sensed his own death.
His back was turned, his stance broken.
The spear was already close enough to inflict a fatal wound even if he dodged.
And his decision was swift.
"Let's die together!!!"
To kill the princess before him!
And his sword...
Shunk!
...stopped just one centimeter from Irene's neck.
His heart was pierced by my spear, holding him in place like a chicken skewer.
"Ah... I... must kill all those Kingdom bastards..."
Clatter!
The strength left his hand, and he dropped his sword to the ground.
"Hoo..."
Shhlick!!
As I pulled the spear back out, his limp body was dragged along with it before collapsing to the ground.
"Wow! We won!!!"
Irene cheered, overjoyed.
I was happy too, but right now, I was more curious than joyful.
'What, how did she do that?'
"Ah, Lady Irene? How did you do that?"
"Huh? Oh, that! Well, I was hiding in a corner to avoid getting caught up in your fight, and it just so happened that the two soldiers you let go were right there. So I convinced them, 'If you help us, I'll go to your kingdom! Then you'll be the heroes of this whole affair!'"
"Huh...?"
"How about that? You didn't know I was this smart, did you?"
Seeing the triumphant Irene was kind of annoying, but that wasn't what was important.
"No, that's not it... Didn't you deflect the Sword Saint's blade earlier?"
How on earth?
"That? You're the one who taught me, right?"
'What is she talking about... I never taught an ordinary girl how to deflect a Swordmaster's blade...'
Of course, the Sword Saint was serious about conserving his strength and mana, so he hadn't coated his blade in an aura and had probably controlled his strength to be weaker.
But still, he was a Sword Saint...
"You know that cool technique you taught me! The, uh... whoosh!! The one where you use the opponent's strength against them!"
I did remember roughly teaching her a method for dealing with enemies stronger than herself.
But to use it in a real fight right away...
I didn't get it either.
"Sigh, anyway, you did well. You saved my life."
"Hehe, you're grateful, right?"
"Ah... Yes, th-thank you..."
I scratched my head and gave Irene the Sword Saint's sword, which glowed blue even without an aura.
"It'll be perfect as a torch."
"Yeah, yeah! This is so cool!"
The sword of Kyle, the Empire's youngest Swordmaster.
It became Irene's torch.
*
I ran quickly through the cave, carrying Irene on my back.
"Does this thing have an end?"
"Yes. As soon as we arrived, I felt a faint breeze flowing in one direction. There must be an exit on the other side."
There was nothing particularly special about the cave.
It would have been nice if there was some kind of fortuitous encounter, but things like that don't just happen.
After running for about 30 minutes, a light gradually began to appear.
"Where should we go now?"
"Well... maybe we should go hide and live somewhere in the mountains..."
She was no fool.
She knew full well that the Empire, that her father the Emperor, had tried to use her as a disposable pawn.
"..."
Sensing Irene's spirits fall a little, I quietly headed outside.
And the moment I stepped outside,
a large, aura-wreathed sword appeared out of thin air.
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