Chapter 196
She must have decided my words were nothing more than nonsense; the sword she brought down began moving faster.
"You're fast! I thought you were just someone who'd gained a Talent and was swinging a sword around at random, but you actually know how to use one!"
As I shouted, I leaped over, ducked under, and sidestepped the flying slashes,
"Tch! Shut up!"
Sumelia's swings grew faster, apparently out of irritation.
But that was all.
If I watched them from the outset with the intention of dodging, they were nothing special.
"—Whoa!"
"—Sumelia! What the hell!? Don't point that this way!"
Apparently, because I was running around, the collateral damage was headed toward the Lef people.
"Shut up, be quiet, hah, shut up, hah, huff, be quiet, hah, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet!"
When I landed from a light leap over the horizontal slash,
"!"
Sumelia charged straight at me at a dead run.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
The downward blow from over her head was quite fast.
But still, that was all.
The strokes of her compact curved sword were quite good, but I'd personally studied the training of the Holy King Knights, the top-tier order of the Holy Kingdom of Kurvaarn.
I'd been through my share of deadly situations, too.
"—Whoa, that guy's amazing!"
"—When you say Sumelia, you mean that Sumelia, the 'Sword Prodigy,' right?"
"—They say she's strong even without a Talent, but who the hell is that guy, dodging all of that...?"
The attacks came one after another, and thanks to the inherent advantage of dual-wielding, she had an incredible number of strikes at her disposal.
But reading them wasn't a problem. Her reach, the speed of her footwork, her rhythm... I dodged them as though dancing through a series of steps.
"Hah, hah, huff, hah!"
"Is that all you've got? You can do better than this! Give it everything you've got!"
"!!"
Sumelia, looking pained, increased her speed even further. I had learned the Talent 【Dancing Swordsmanship★★★】. As its name suggested, it was a sword technique that let me fight as though dancing; the faster she got, the sharper my footwork became.
"—W-what the hell is this...?"
"—What the hell are we witnessing...?"
I could hear the bewildered voices of the Lef people, who couldn't get any closer, and exchanges such as "What's going on?" and "Marshal!" began to mingle in.
Marshal—that meant some important person had shown up, then.
(Then I should probably bring this to an end soon—)
Just as I was thinking I should take a step toward Sumelia,
"!!"
The instant I turned sideways to dodge the blow from her descending right hand, her sword stopped dead.
"Heh."
Sumelia, drenched in sweat, smiled—or rather, all she did was twist the corner of her mouth ever so slightly, but she smiled.
"Die!"
I wanted to ask whether that was really something to say with a smile, but she thrust the curved sword in her left hand at me—with a slash layered onto it.
At this range, a slash could cover a wide area, so I had to take it head-on.
She had noticed that, apart from the first time, I hadn't blocked any of her attacks with my sword.
That I could no longer block them with my sword.
And that I couldn't stop them with magic, either.
(She even thought that far ahead. This woman is amazing—)
But I'd said it before.
I could "clear both of them."
I understood your ability, and I possessed one greater than yours.
"I can use it, too."
Countless fine slashes clung to the dagger I swung, and I launched them as a single mass.
It was exactly the same slash as hers.
"!?"
Sumelia's face was dyed with astonishment—and in that instant, the slashes collided, and a shock wave swelled as though countless explosives had set one another off in succession.
The air around us shook with a thunderous blast, like a balloon bursting beside my ear.
But by then, we were more than ten meters apart.
"Phew..."
"!?"
The wind that erupted blew my hood off, leaving my face exposed.
I used my 【Flower Magic】 to extend vines and move to the nearby ruins—the warehouse Sumelia had destroyed—just before the explosion.
At that moment, Sumelia had been caught completely off guard and was wide open, so it was easy to grab her by the collar and take her with me.
I grabbed her head firmly with both hands while she was still utterly bewildered.
"Prepare yourself."
Sumelia froze with a gasp as I focused every nerve on her.
I imagined pulling it from her body.
The Talent Jewel. I was going to pull it out.
I thought I'd gotten a grip on it. All that remained was to yank it out.
But—
"A-ah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!?"
Her eyes rolled back, and drool dripped from her mouth as she screamed.
It was hard—hard as pulling up a deeply rooted tree.
"Gaaaaah!"
She dropped her weapon, grabbed both my wrists, and dug her nails into them—it hurt like hell.
The Talent Jewel slowly worked its way out of her forehead, bit by bit.
It was an iridescent Talent Jewel, like an oil film over a stagnant puddle.
(I'm sorry. Just hang in there.)
I apologized silently and pulled even harder.
When I'd imitated her Talent and fired that slash earlier, I'd sensed the backlash from this absurd power.
A sharp pain and intense discomfort, as though someone had shoved a pair of chopsticks into my brain.
According to 【Omniscience】, it led to "loss of memory."
But I had 【Omniscience】, and because I had a constitution that made me "unable to forget," I resisted that backlash, triggering a rejection reaction.
Apparently, without 【Omniscience】, it would have given me nothing more than a faint sense of pleasure—
(A Talent that strips away your humanity is poison.)
Even if it made you stronger, what would be left?
"Uoooooooooh!"
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!?"
I pulled out the Talent Jewel—and found 【Insane Blade★★★★★★】 written on it.
With only the whites of her eyes showing, Sumelia collapsed forward, and I caught her and laid her on the ground.