Chapter 47
#47. Defeat Event
I’ve liked throwing rocks since I was a kid.
It’s not some tale about baseball prodigy talent or anything; I just liked tossing stones up at the sky.
Even now, I still don’t really know why I liked it so much. Maybe I wanted to knock on heaven’s door with a pebble.
Anyway, the act of throwing that I enjoyed from childhood had now become my greatest weapon.
-KWAANG!
The steel marble cut through the wind and then sharply changed course in front of the elf knight’s shield, striking his thigh.
That made three hits already; the elf knight kept shifting his body and trying to use his shield to block the steel marbles as best he could.
But before my varied throwing techniques, which could change trajectory at will, he couldn’t block a single one and could only get beaten one-sidedly.
“Ggh! You cowardly bastard!”
The elf knight shouted at me as I kept throwing steel marbles from outside his range. Looks like he has nothing else to say.
“RRAAAAH!!”
After getting hit by the fourth steel marble, the elf knight must have lost his temper, because he thrust out his shield and charged in at me by force.
His swordsmanship was overwhelmingly superior to mine, but when he charged like that, swordsmanship or anything else didn’t matter.
I dodged his reckless rush, pulled an axe out of my inventory, and swung hard for his side.
-CLANG!
The elf knight skillfully used his shield to block the attack again, but he had no answer for the follow-up.
I took a one-handed sword from my inventory, stepped one pace inside, and swung for his neck.
-CLANG!
The armor kept the force from fully coming through, but the blow definitely landed.
I kicked off the ground and opened the distance again, then pulled out a hand axe this time.
The elf knight had apparently adapted somewhat to my switching strategy by now, and he steadied himself to anticipate a follow-up attack with the axe.
But that was the wrong choice. I know how to use throwing techniques; I’m not exactly playing baseball here.
Why the hell do you think the only thing I can throw is steel marbles, you elf bastard?
-WHOOSH, THWACK!
The hand axe I hurled with all my strength struck the bridge of his already torn-up nose.
“Ghk!”
The critical didn’t trigger, but this was more than enough to expose a huge opening.
Dagger, short sword, longsword, greatsword, shield, short spear, long spear, blunt weapon, axe, throwing—those aren’t the only attack patterns I can use.
And since I’ve also honed the art of dual wielding, I can create new patterns by handling each weapon with both hands.
I can add a few more patterns by throwing melee weapons in different ways and trajectories.
On top of that, I can mix in close-range striking and grappling, and I still have a few little tricks I haven’t shown yet.
I’d been tense, thinking he was too strong for someone on the seventh floor—a shameless bastard.
But once I actually started fighting him properly, I could pin him down without letting him land a single effective hit.
As expected, all the effort I’d built up so far hadn’t betrayed me.
I won.
**
The situation had become completely different from the opening moments of the fight.
The elf knight, who had been pressuring me easily with sheer skill, was now a wreck, panting hard.
I, who had been straining just to keep my guard up, stood there cleanly without a single wound on me.
The damage I’d taken from the shield had already been fully restored by [Combat Healing], and my HP was completely full.
Anyone could see the victory and defeat had been decided completely, but the elf knight still burned with fighting spirit and kept his stance.
“I-I am... Perit Betraa, the Seventh Seat of the Pendula Knight Order! I will not be brought down by the likes of you evil humans!”
“What the hell? You came at me first, so who are you calling an evil human?”
“You attacked His Highness Elryon and still have the nerve to act innocent? For a human who wields the power of darkness, your face is awfully thick!”
Even as he kept spouting off like that, the elf knight’s legs were already shaking. Tsk, are high elves all like this?
I have no idea why he keeps babbling about evil humans and dark powers.
If I were really an evil bastard, I’d have already cut their necks off and started juggling them.
Maybe he’s so full of hatred for humans that he can’t make proper judgments.
Or maybe the elf named Elryon, whose shoulder I dislocated, is basically this guy’s trigger button.
Either way, it looks like joining the High Elf faction is going to be hard.
Not because I beat these guys up and made it hard to join them, but because I don’t have the confidence to be on the same side as them.
Just talking to them a little already makes me feel like I’m going to suffocate. How am I supposed to team up with trash like this?
“Yeah, yeah, fine. Now I don’t care either.”
I raised my sword, planning to kill the elf knight and finish things off.
That was when it happened.
!
The familiar tingling sensation unique to [Instinct] sent a warning near my temple.
-SWISH, TAP!
Moving almost on instinct, I caught an arrow in my hand. It had come flying straight for my temple.
What the hell is this? Where the hell was that shot fired from?
I can’t see the enemy. It was clearly fired from pretty far away, but is that even possible in a forest this dense with trees?
-KREEEE!
A strange cry rang out from the direction the arrow had come from. It was a sound I’d heard a few times back when I was in the military.
“An eagle?”
Soon, the brush rustled all around me, and the archer and the source of the eagle cry emerged at the same time.
“That’s far enough, human invader! So you boldly set foot in our Great Forest all by yourself!”
A male elf archer with a bow and a giant hawk, plus a male and female elf knight in armor similar to the one I’d knocked down.
And one more High Elf woman, holding a wooden staff and leading a glittering cluster of light.
All of them had a hostility indicator floating above their heads, and all but one of them were orange.
“You’ve done well, Perit. You’ve protected His Highness admirably.”
Of the two elf knights, the female knight who had drawn a silver one-handed sword had an indicator above her head whose color was... black.
“Holy shit.”
For the color to be darker than dark, all the way to pitch-black, meant she had a level far higher than mine.
This damned tower really does seem to want to kill me somehow.
**
If it had been an appropriately strong enemy, I might have even gotten excited, thinking it was a good chance to grow.
But this wasn’t that. The pitch-black indicator above the elf female knight’s head looked like a symbol of death given form.
Just how big a level gap would it take for a console to be pitch-black? Around level 100?
If I ran without looking back, could I maybe escape somehow?
No, both the knight and the prince I’d beaten down earlier were extremely fast. That was probably a racial trait of the High Elves.
If I thought about that, it was obvious I wouldn’t stand a chance in a footrace. Besides, I didn’t even know the layout of this forest.
Shit, what do I do?
Carefully, I tightened my grip on the sword. If I went for a surprise attack, maybe I could land at least one blow.
“Looks like you have no intention of coming quietly, do you? Then I’ll hear the details after I’ve subdued you.”
-RUMBLE!
Suddenly, the sound of thunder rang out, and pure white light began to swirl around the elf female knight’s body. I knew that skill.
The active buff skill known as one of the warrior-type classes’ three sacred techniques: Mana Enhancement.
A skill that explosively boosts all stats and attack power in proportion to Intelligence. Every challenger knew that skill.
Did I just get transported to the 70th floor instead of the 7th? Why the hell is there an NPC using something like that?
I controlled my inventory with my gaze and carefully switched to a full-gear setup.
And without taking my eyes off the silver sword, I slowly shifted my feet.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Shit, I’m screwed.
The elf female knight’s fingertips seemed to move, and in an instant a blade closed in on my face.
-SHRRK!
Some pitch-black thing that had sprung out from nowhere wrapped itself around the blade and seized it.
What the hell is this now?
“All right, that’s enough.”
When I turned my head toward the unfamiliar voice behind me, there was an elf there—I had no idea how long she’d been standing there.
Not just any elf, but one of the three major factions on this seventh floor: a Dark Elf woman with dark skin.
“Man, forest bitches are always the same. They never think about their own mistakes, and if they feel bad, they just draw their swords first.”
The Dark Elf woman, who had just said something I found very, very relatable, smiled slightly and placed a hand on the ground.
Then the shadow beneath her feet bubbled and seethed, spewing out several silhouettes.
What burst out of the shadow was a group of Dark Elves with the same dark skin as the woman.
“Nice to meet you, nameless human swordsman. I was watching you fight—you were pretty skilled, you know?”
“What?”
“I was going to step in and help if it looked like you’d lose to that obnoxious bastard, but I never expected you to win.”
As she said that, the Dark Elf woman pointed a finger at the High Elf knight whose face was a complete mess.
“Still, thanks to that bitch, I got another chance to make a dramatic entrance, so I’m really glad.”
My head spun. In an instant, I understood the situation from the Dark Elf woman’s words.
Shit, was this a forced defeat event from the start?
I won a battle I was supposed to lose, and that’s what messed everything up!