Both Sides Punished

"Aaargh!?"

"Guh!?"

Jigoro closed in at terrifying speed and punched the men standing on either side of the young man who had been lecturing us, sending them flying one after another with his massive fists. Players cannot damage one another during this event. However, it seems they can still send one another flying with the force of an impact. Like the young man, the other two went flying backward.

"What the hell are you doing!?"

"Huh? You were the ones who picked this fight. I'll beat you senseless, just like you asked!"

The remaining two men drew their weapons, but they were already on the defensive after the sudden violence. Jigoro, on the other hand, was raring to go.

"Magic Circle, remote activation, Magic Bomb."

"Aaaaaah!?"

I thought we could do this if knocking them away was allowed. They had been focusing so intently on Jigoro that their attention toward me had apparently become lax. The men caught directly in the blast from the exploding spell went flying.

The impact would have been powerful enough to blow their heads apart in reality, but all five of them were unharmed because they had taken no damage. If anything, they seemed to be burning with anger at having been humiliated. They were heading our way amid furious shouts. Good. I would finish applying the buffs quickly.

"The buffs are done. Bro, how many should I take?"

"No need... but I'll let you have one. Oh, now that you mention it, it's been a while since the two of us cut loose together!"

"True. We haven't really had a chance to be alone together since that incident."

By "that incident," he naturally meant what had happened in the northern mountains of Fars. There had already been three of us during that incident, and we had welcomed Genzuro and Ruby into our group immediately afterward, so the two of us had surprisingly few opportunities to act alone.

I put away my staff for the moment and took out my great scythe instead. Since we could not deal damage anyway, I thought it would be easier to fight with that. Normally, I might have prioritized magic even if it was harder to fight that way, but I seemed to be in an unusually excited mood today. Perhaps it was because I had remembered what happened back then.

Jigoro charged straight at the men running toward us. The young man who seemed to be their leader took a stance, but Jigoro passed by him and punched the men behind him instead. Apparently, he intended to leave the leader for me.

However, without even glancing my way, the young man slashed at Jigoro from behind. Hey, don't ignore me.

"Hmph!"

"Gah!? You bastard!"

When I struck his unguarded back, the young man glared at me in irritation. Yes, that's more like it. Aim at me.

"Despite being a mage, you want to take me on!?"

"What, are you afraid of losing to a mage? That's too bad."

"Don't get cocky!"

The young man fell for my cheap provocation exactly as I had hoped and swung his sword around in anger and frustration. Perhaps because he had lost his composure, his swordplay was extremely rough. He was merely relying on his stats, and I felt none of the menace or sharpness I had sensed from Jigoro or Genzuro.

So long as I stayed calm and watched carefully, deflecting his sword was easy. Besides, his attacks relied entirely on brute force, and he never used feints or other deceptive moves. As long as I focused, I could probably keep defending against him indefinitely.

"Why isn't it hitting me!?"

"Because I'm blocking it so that it won't."

"Don't mock me! Hundredfold Thrust!"

The young man used a combat art at this point. It was a powerful technique that unleashed thrust after thrust at tremendous speed, and if every hit landed, it would deal considerable damage.

Although combat arts allowed some degree of freedom, they basically forced the user to move according to a set form. For example, with 【Scythe Arts】' Triple Slash, you could adjust the direction of each slash, but you could not cancel the three-slash motion partway through. That was why Jigoro and Genzuro disliked using combat arts other than self-enhancement techniques.

Combat arts restricted freedom of movement in this way, but they allowed even amateurs to execute solid, well-balanced movements, so ordinary players used them as a matter of course. In fact, Jigoro and Genzuro were the minority among us; everyone else used combat arts regularly.

"Oops."

Even I knew that powerful combat arts generally left the user wide open while they were active. The Hundredfold Thrust was powerful, but the young man's movements would remain severely restricted until he finished all one hundred thrusts.

Once you knew that, it was simple. All I had to do was retreat a great distance to evade the attack, then exploit the enormous opening he had exposed.

"Ah!?"

"You really underestimate me, don't you?"

That was why the standard approach when using a powerful combat art was to exploit an opening in the enemy's attack or throw off their stance first. At his level, there was no way he did not know that. He was simply looking down on me as someone beneath him and had let his guard down.

The sight of him thrusting repeatedly into empty space at tremendous speed was rather surreal, but I had no obligation to wait until he finished. I hooked his leg with my scythe from the right and knocked him down. The combat art was canceled, and the young man, freed from the forced motion, quickly got back to his feet and raised his sword. This time, however, he did not charge in recklessly.

"What happened? Aren't you coming?"

"Damn it! A magic-using scythe wielder? You tricked me!"

"Hmm? I'm a bona fide mage. The scythe is merely a means of self-defense."

"Bullshit! How could an ordinary mage knock me down!?"

"That's simply because I raised my strength and dexterity with 【Enhancement Arts】. Satisfied?"

I had told him the truth, but the young man did not seem to believe me. He merely edged closer, little by little. Hmm. If he was not coming to me, perhaps I should make the first move.

I pulled talismans from inside my coat and scattered them. They were homemade talismans into which I had imbued magic through 【Talisman Arts】. Their power was several grades weaker than what I could use myself, but they would do for now.

"There."

"Huh!?"

Apparently, he had not expected different attack spells to be released simultaneously without me even holding a staff. The young man hurriedly raised his shield, but his surprise delayed his response slightly. Good. That blocked his view.

"Decapitation."

"Gueh!?"

The instant his raised shield hid me from view, I used a Short Teleport talisman and teleported behind the young man. Then I struck him with a combat art that would kill him instantly if it hit his neck.

Naturally, it did not deal damage, and status effects did not work either, so he did not die. But what if this had been an ordinary field? This young man would have died and respawned right there.

"Do you admit defeat?"

"Like hell I do!"

"That is enough."

The young man tried to turn around while my blade was pressed against his throat, but before he could, a voice ordered both of us to stop. The speaker was a glossy sphere that had appeared between us.

A clock face and a pentagram floated inside the sphere, which had appeared without warning. The hands on the clock continued moving, while the pentagram rotated and constantly changed size. I remembered that there was a goddess who used these two symbols as her holy emblems.

"Are you associated with Calfi-sama, the 'Goddess of Time and Space'?"

"Yes, as you say. I am an angel in service to Calfi-sama."

So an angel had come in person to stop us. Its appearance was quite different from that of the White Dunamis, but that was only natural, since it served a different goddess.

More noteworthy was the fact that it could converse fluently. The White Dunamis I had fought before had been nothing more than a killing machine, but the smooth-voiced angel who delivered Eefa-sama's message had spoken just like the sphere before me. I presumed the difference was due to a disparity in rank among angels.

In other words, the sphere before me was probably a high-ranking angel. It was tiny, only about the size of my palm, and did not look particularly strong, but I should not judge it by its appearance. This game even had beings like Nenashi who disguised themselves.

"Could you lower your blade?"

"Yes, of course."

"And could you stop the other one as well? No matter how much I tell him to stop, my words do not seem to reach him."

When I looked toward Jigoro, he was running wild while overwhelming the other four men. He had pinned one beneath his foot, gripped two by the ankles, one in each hand, and was swinging them around like weapons while beating the last one.

I had no idea how things had ended up like this, but true to his Race, Jigoro had become a demon of battle. Since we were not far from the arrival point, the players who had been watching were horrified and completely put off.

I was accustomed to it because I watched him fight almost every day as his brother-in-arms, but I knew perfectly well that it was abnormal by any reasonable standard. Besides, he seemed to be extremely angry, so perhaps it was only natural that the voice of an outsider could not reach him.

"Uh... yeah. That's enough, Jigoro!"

"...Tch! I'll let 'em off with this much."

Reluctantly, Jigoro tossed aside the players he held in both hands as if throwing out trash, then kicked away the one he had been pinning down. The careless way he handled them revealed the embers of his smoldering anger.

"Thank you."

"No, no, not at all—whoa!?"

"Die—gah!?"

Taking advantage of the opening while I was speaking with the angel, the young man charged at me! I had no time to block him with my scythe, but Jigoro rushed in at bullet-like speed and sent him flying with a spear-like front kick. Th-thank goodness!

"You let your guard down, bro."

"I have no argument there, but thank you. Now then, Angel-sama, have you come to punish us?"

"To put it succinctly, yes. You understand why, I presume."

"Yes. I didn't expect to get away with all this violence without punishment."

Naturally, there would be a penalty. This had not been a mutually agreed sparring match; it was a full-blown brawl. Moreover, if not for the event's rules, all of the young men would probably have respawned.

In other words, it was essentially as though we had been publicly killing one another. We had not involved anyone else, but causing a disturbance at an event that specifically prohibited fighting between players was clearly a problem. Letting this slide would be tantamount to management abandoning its responsibilities. I should accept the punishment without complaint.

"I am grateful for your understanding. As for the penalty imposed upon you, your participation in the event will be restricted for the remainder of today. Specifically, you will be unable to enter the event area for twenty-four hours from now, in real time."

"...That's all? Honestly, I expected something more severe."

I had thought we might lose access to the game itself for several days, so this was a remarkably lenient measure.

"We were also at fault for complacently assuming that no trouble would occur simply because player killing was impossible and we had notified everyone to use a GM call if any disputes arose. We took that into consideration."

"I see. In that case, we should leave with good grace. Come on, Jigoro."

"Sure thing."

"Wait!"

We were about to quietly leave after receiving such lenient treatment, but the young man who had picked a fight with us called out to us to stop us. He probably would not say anything worthwhile, so we should just ignore him and go.

"I said wait, you cheating bastards!"

"Huh?"

"What?"

Could he possibly have been talking to us? We were not using cheats. I could understand why he might suspect Jigoro, but if we had been cheating, there was no way we could have received a goddess's blessing.

Besides, I had heard that multiple layers of anti-cheating measures had been implemented in recent years. It was nearly impossible to cheat in a game managed around the clock by goddesses and angels, all highly advanced AIs. He would have realized that if he had thought about it for even a moment. Give me a break with the baseless accusations.

"They have not engaged in cheating or any similar acts. If they had, their penalty would have been far more severe."

"That's a lie!"

"It is not a lie. Their victory was the result of their own ability."

"Wha...!?"

The angel had vouched for us. That should ensure that our companions, including Kanna and Raga, would not be subjected to slander.

"And do not forget that you are subject to the penalty as well. The penalty is the same as theirs..."

"Don't screw with me! We're the victims here!"

"You were merely beaten in retaliation, were you not? The logs record who drew their weapon first."

The young man might continue protesting at length, but we should leave quickly. My mood had been spoiled, and more than anything, I had no interest in taking pleasure in watching him make pathetic, incoherent excuses.

Just before we left, I noticed that I had received a message from a friend. I wondered who it was, only to find that it was from Usuba. The title read, 'Glad to see you're having fun.' That guy! Had he been watching us from somewhere!?

"...Well, I suppose this proves I can keep my promise."

"What's up?"

"Nothing. Forget it."

Jigoro gave me a puzzled look at my mutter, but I brushed him off and decided to leave.