Chapter 44
――I felt inwardly that I could do this.
The man before me was Baldo, apparently famed for being just as cringey as Enrique.
The expressionless man looked slender at a glance, but seemed quite well-built.
Judging by the results of our sparring matches, my strength was about equal to Enrique's, or maybe a little greater.
And this man was supposedly on Enrique's level, too.
In other words,
'Me = Enrique = Baldo'
That simple equation held true.
An opponent on my level, for the first time.
――But,
Having taken on a chuunibyo, I was able to fight fairly calmly.
"Take that, take that, take that!!!!!!!!!"
My opponent struck at me.
I immediately knocked the blow aside.
The next moment, he swept at me.
I drew him in until the last moment, shifted aside, and dodged.
And then,
"Hah...!!!"
I drew out an opening and seemed to land a beautiful rising counterattack—but,
"Damn, O Shadow!!!"
A shadow sprang from beneath his feet, like lively wakame... no, kelp, and blocked my sword.
We reset.
We both took a step back.
"Your guard's solid..." I couldn't help saying.
But even as I said that, I was impressed by how strong he was.
No matter how I cornered him, the shadows blocked my attacks.
Moving freely in every direction.
The shadow moved to protect its caster.
And I had an idea what it was.
"――Auto-Defense."
"Oh?" The man, Baldo, furrowed his brow.
"Kid. You know more than I expected. What's your name?"
"Genesis."
'Last Arcanum.'
Lasaka, for short.
Despite being an 18+ game, Lasaka was famous for offering a pretty hardcore gameplay experience.
For example, you could train the main heroines with various Skills or freely customize magic.
Auto-Defense was one of the combat Skills, a technique that used a set amount of magic power to block attacks.
I see, I thought, impressed.
No wonder the hero Rain was able to defeat him, even though he was cut from the original.
He's got some nice tricks.
As I admired my opponent, it seemed he had his own thoughts about me.
"Now then, Genesis. I have a question for you as well."
The man who'd introduced himself as Baldo spoke bitterly.
"――That fighting style of yours... where did you learn it?"
"Fighting style?"
Ah, I thought.
Had he finally noticed?
"What do you mean? Your strength is equal to mine. No—in this state, you could even say I'm the one being pushed back. And yet I can barely sense any magic power from you... It's almost serene... transparent magic. Frankly, it's creepy. You're insane—what the hell did you do?"
"Oh?"
As Baldo glared at me warily, I slowly smiled beneath my mask.
He noticed?
That's right.
My terrifying method.
My secret.
The one I'd honed to survive in this crazy world—
M O B - S T Y L E C O M B A T M E T H O D
◆
It was, what, about two weeks after Enrique had kicked me in the stomach?
During training, Enrique happened to notice my body reinforcement and started saying something strange.
"Hey, young master," Enrique said.
"You use body reinforcement, right? I mean, you can trade blows with me."
"Yeah, I do," I replied.
In fact, ever since I first challenged Enrique to a sparring match and got kicked in the stomach despite being my employer's son, I'd been channeling magic through my body to reinforce it.
But when he heard my answer, Enrique made a strange face.
"That's weird. Your body reinforcement is... how do I put it? Different from the kind I know. It's far too quiet."
"Huh???"
Naturally suspicious, I had Enrique show me his own body reinforcement.
"Kakaka! What do you think, young master? Behold my overflowing magic pow—"
"Yikes..."
I recoiled.
It wasn't just Enrique's chuunibyo-esque line. More than that...
I called out to Enrique.
"Isn't there way too much wasted magic in that body reinforcement...?"
That's right.
When I saw Enrique's body reinforcement, this was what I found myself thinking:
――Why the hell is this guy wasting so much magic power on body reinforcement?
"W-Wait a second. Then how do you do it, young master?!"
When he asked, I showed Enrique my own method.
The way I always did it.
"Hey, young master... are you serious???"
――Enrique's face twisted.
――――――――――――――――――――
Protagonist
→ Creepy.
Enrique
→ He reinforces his body by circulating magic throughout it, but wastes a lot.
Baldo
→ "(Mob-style...?)"
※ To readers waiting for the harem tag.
Sorry. I want to write a lovey-dovey harem story too, but for some reason, in Chapter 2, it's a bunch of sweaty men running rampant. Please be patient.