Chapter 71
71. Rival
We'd never properly traded blows, but this knight was freakishly strong.
I hadn't decided to run right away for nothing. The gap between us had been so huge that even escaping had been impossible from the start.
Of course, I hadn't gotten that much stronger since then, so by ordinary standards this was a fight I could never win.
-KWA-BOOM!
The instant I blocked the sword Mercedes had swung from the side, a ridiculously powerful shock ran through my entire body.
Again, I say I blocked it. It wasn't like I got hit defenselessly; I had raised my sword properly and blocked.
“Shit...”
And yet, even after blocking it, it didn't feel like I'd blocked anything at all. I activated [Sensory Enhancement] and steadied my stance.
Then I stamped forward to close the distance and immediately went on the counterattack.
I swung my sword in a compact motion.
It's a simple movement, but one that excels at shifting into attacks from many different angles.
This is a sword path that moves while anticipating the opponent's reactions and responses in advance, letting me chain into a precise follow-up whether it's blocked or dodged.
But Mercedes easily responded in ways that went beyond my assumptions.
-Whoosh.
The motion of extending her sword was utterly ordinary. At that angle, all she could do was a simple parry.
-KWA-BOOM!
But even though it was only a simple parry, the power and speed were abnormal. My body lurched.
Mercedes's sword swung again without pause. I quickly raised my sword to block it.
And yet, despite clearly blocking it properly, I was shoved straight back.
And that wasn't even the end of it.
-KWA-KANG!
Even though she seemed to have been knocked back far away, she instantly closed the distance and slammed my sword aside.
My palm was buzzing. If my grip had been any weaker, I would have dropped my sword.
-Clang, clang!
With our swords locked and our separate sword paths unfolding, we were in a standoff, each aiming for the other's throat.
In a situation like this, the moment the balance of power breaks, you open yourself to a strike. So why the hell is this bitch so strong?
From the way she stands, it looks like she's only using wrist strength, but the weight behind her sword is no joke.
“Pathetic.”
Then Mercedes instantly lowered her stance and shifted her center of gravity.
The sword that had been pressing down from above suddenly drove in low. I quickly adjusted my grip and dealt with it, but...
-KRAK!
The moment she swung her sword upward, I took a massive blow and my body was lifted into the air.
“Fuck.”
Cursing under my breath, I changed my posture as much as possible in midair to prepare for pursuit.
But the attack didn't continue. Mercedes instead stepped back and shook her sword out.
-Thud.
I landed on the floor and cursed inwardly once more.
This knife-ear bastard is treating me like a complete fucking joke.
Mercedes had been dealing with me using only one hand the entire time.
At first, when she put her hand behind her back, I thought she might be pulling out a secondary weapon, but no—she was just standing with her hands behind her back.
And then she came at me saying she'd show me the difference in our ranks, which was so fucking absurd I was dumbfounded.
“Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with this damn tower? Why is it so shameless?”
I thought my swordsmanship had improved a lot by now, but against that shameless bitch, I just couldn't compete.
[Intermediate Swordsmanship Lv.4]
Among the challengers on the lower floors, there shouldn't be anyone with a higher swordsmanship skill than me, so why the hell is she so strong?
“The short-lived races really do think short-term. Did you seriously think you could beat me?”
Mercedes let her sword hang slack as she approached, throwing out a blatant taunt.
“Of course. I'm not the type to give up easily like your prince there.”
Even while saying that, that bitch probably knew it already.
That this isn't my full strength—that I'm still holding back.
I still hadn't shown my irregular combat style of switching between various weapons as I fought.
This time, I wasn't planning to win with swordsmanship alone.
Because I already knew she wasn't the kind of opponent I could beat while holding back.
“You won't gain anything from saying things like that, human.”
Mercedes, frowning at my provocation, stamped her foot and swung her sword diagonally.
-FWOOSH!
The sword that swept past above my head made a sound like it was tearing the air apart. It was ridiculous.
But by now, I've gotten used to it. The sword paths she can use while keeping her hands behind her back are limited.
And now that I'm saying it, the truth is—irregular weapon techniques aren't all I have.
I've got a few more tricks too, like this one.
[All-Out]
-CLANG!
The sword I swung after activating [All-Out] knocked Mercedes's sword away.
**
The passive skill I'd learned during the second-floor boss battle, [All-Out].
The skill's effect was the rather vague one of increasing the power of attacks when you go all out.
It didn't even list any numbers—just saying that if you go all out, the power gets stronger?
I had never once felt its effect since obtaining it, and this skill's true value only appeared after I broke through a certain level.
-CLANG!
As if she'd never imagined her own sword would be knocked away, Mercedes's expression instantly hardened.
Of course. To her, it would look like my physical strength had suddenly increased.
And in fact, it was.
Once [All-Out] passed a certain level, it gained an active-use option. The effect was a momentary amplification of a specific stat.
It's a one-time buff skill that consumes MP, and honestly the efficiency isn't great.
But if you use it at a decisive moment to boost a stat, you can throw your opponent off.
[All-Out]
After knocking away Mercedes's sword, I used the [All-Out] skill once more.
This time, the stat I boosted was agility.
I swung a sword much faster than usual toward Mercedes's torso, where she'd exposed an opening.
-KANG!
Mercedes blocked that too, but it was by no means a perfect block.
The hands-behind-her-back stance she'd kept the whole time came undone, and for a moment her center of gravity tilted sharply, ruining her posture.
Of course, even if I kept the sword path going in this state, it'd still be hard to land a meaningful hit.
So this is when you pull out the trump card.
“Caught you.”
I pulled a hand axe from my inventory and swung it toward Mercedes's ear.
**
After learning mana attunement through training with Eleanor, I was able to use [All-Out] far more freely.
That was because I could sense mana moving through my body, so I'd roughly figured out the principle behind [All-Out].
It worked by channeling mana into specific muscles to produce explosive force.
Once I understood the principle, it was easy to build on it, and not hard to apply directly in real combat.
-Sshhk!
The hand axe I swung roughly grazed the elf's long, pointed ear. It wasn't that serious a wound.
Still, a wound was a wound—I landed a proper hit.
I landed a blow by taking advantage of the opening on an opponent who couldn't even properly flee.
“Hah.”
How long had it been since I'd felt a thrill like this? A laugh escaped me on its own. It felt incredible.
I couldn't stop here.
Once I'd forced my way into an opening, I couldn't just settle for paying for it with a hit like this; I kept pressing the assault.
I kept the attack going, pouring weapons out of my inventory—swords, spears, axes, hammers, and even metal balls.
-Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-kang-kang-kang-kang!!
I unleashed the weapon arts and physical techniques I'd trained all this time without pause.
“You bastard...!”
The use of [All-Out] has benefits beyond simply amplifying stats.
By suddenly funneling a specific stat into a single direction of enhancement, it makes the speed and power of my attacks impossible to predict.
Of course Mercedes would figure it out eventually, but at least not right now.
-CLANG!
I knocked Mercedes's sword upward, which had been frantically focused only on defense, and swung a dagger at her now-open torso.
-Sshk!
At last, an attack landed cleanly. Then I used a skill I hadn't used in a while.
[Lightning Charge]
-Crackle!
Electricity flowed through the dagger, and Mercedes's face twisted hard.
It had originally been nothing more than a slight tingle of a skill, but once I learned to control mana, its power had increased greatly too.
But the dagger I'd lodged in her wouldn't come out.
Since this wasn't the first time, I simply let go of the dagger and swung the hand axe.
-WHACK!
Mercedes's bare hand caught the hand axe. Her reaction was clearly faster than before.
Tch, is my turn over already?
Still, this was pretty good. I lightly hopped back to create distance.
“Ugh...”
Mercedes let out a small groan and pulled the dagger from her side. It seemed to have gone in deeper than expected.
If she'd been wearing armor and a shield like when we first met, that dagger wouldn't have sunk in properly either.
The result of underestimating me had turned into an injury she couldn't ignore.
“Hey, say that thing you said earlier again. What was pathetic?”
As I put the weapons I'd scattered haphazardly back into my inventory and tidied up, I tossed out a light taunt.
As expected of a High Elf with absurdly high pride, Mercedes's face twisted in an instant.
“You're going to regret saying that.”
-RUMBLE!
Along with the sound of thunder, a pure white light began to swirl around Mercedes's body. Mana enhancement.
She was in that battle getup, which had absolutely no defensive value, but once she used that, none of it mattered.
Both her attack power and defense would have been amplified to a completely different level from before.
“Right, so you're in phase two too, huh?”
In other words, the real fight starts now.