Rebecca
Wooong!
As if answering Jun's question, the empty air shimmered. Moments later, a figure cloaked head to toe in a coat of pure darkness stepped out from within.
There was no need to wonder who it was.
Dispelling the coat of darkness, Rebecca spoke.
"I thought maybe, but to think you could actually see through my Black Coat. Radar, was it? Truly an impressive ability. My Black Coat is something even Orange-rank experts struggle to pierce."
Surprise filled her fully revealed face. She was genuinely admiring the radar's performance—and for good reason. The example she gave was no exaggeration.
In truth, the Orange-rank expert who had come after her on the party's orders had failed to see through the Black Coat and let her slip away time and again. Before she crossed the border, they had even cast large-scale detection magic with help from others, yet still could not pierce the Black Coat—or more precisely, the properties of the darkness that formed it.
Yet the dragon wearing human skin before her had seen through it all too easily. How could she not be astonished?
"Just because your rank is high doesn't mean you're all-powerful. It's not that I'm special—it's simply a difference in specialties."
Jun shrugged as if it were nothing. It was neither arrogance nor false humility; he sincerely did not believe he was superior to that Orange-rank.
How am I supposed to brag about something I didn't earn through my own effort?
The radar that had let him find Rebecca stemmed from his spatial affinity, and that spatial affinity had been granted by divine mercy—not luck or hard work. Jun had no desire to compare power obtained through points against someone who had climbed to Orange-rank through their own fortune and effort, then crow about it.
"Your humility is excessive."
"No. It's the absolute truth."
"Party leader, a word of advice. Innate ability is still your own power. You are someone worthy of praise."
"Well, even in that case, I think the one who deserves the praise isn't me—it's you, Miss Rebecca. Just what kind of trait do you possess?"
When Rebecca had hidden her body with the coat of darkness, Jun had watched the entire process clearly through his radar. Yet the instant the coat completely covered her, he lost her position. Even allowing that his attention had been more focused on the black dogs she had summoned, it was hard to believe.
I'm not certain, but it might be a trait with an effect similar to phasing.
He had been able to locate Rebecca immediately after dealing with the dogs because her body still occupied a portion of space. Peculiarly, though, the space her body occupied was only about half her actual size. Through the remaining half, space passed as if nothing were there at all.
If that's the case...
It would be an extraordinarily useful trait. In some ways, even superior to Leon's nullification psychic ability. His power nullified every supernatural force expelled outside the body and therefore affected allies as well, whereas hers could pierce an enemy's abilities without harming her own side in the slightest.
Phasing combined with explosions... what a terrifying hybrid.
The sudden impression left Jun looking faintly disgusted as he raised his sword—an instinctive reaction to the spike in threat level.
Rebecca regarded him with a puzzled expression yet prepared for battle in kind. She set down the musket she had been holding—the darkness at her feet gulped it whole—and drew both revolvers holstered on either thigh. Each revolver bore a long bayonet, exactly like those of a certain game's female ranger.
As expected of a fantasy world—there really are people who use weapons like that.
While Jun was freshly marveling at this fantasy world, Rebecca crossed the two revolvers brimming with dreams and hope before her chest and spoke.
"Since this isn't a real fight, a few exchanges of conversation completely killed the mood."
"So?"
"From the battles so far you should have a sense of how I handle mid- and long-range combat, so I'll simply show you how I handle close combat and end the spar. Agreed?"
"I'm fine with that. Is there anything else you'd like me to show, Rebecca?"
The reason the two were sparring was not only for Jun to assess Rebecca's skill, but also for Rebecca to assess his. Therefore Jun, no less than Rebecca, needed to display everything he could.
"What I wanted to confirm from the party leader was your situational awareness and the radar's performance—those two alone. Although the spar was short, I was able to confirm both to a reasonable degree, so I am satisfied."
"Is that so. Then that's good—"
"But separately from that, I am quite curious. How well the party leader can stand against me in close combat."
Rebecca said this with a strange little smile—a highly provocative smile that stirred a man's competitive spirit and desire to conquer.
"...Looks like I still look like a baby to you."
"I acknowledge your will and your abilities. However, I still do not know about your skill."
"You should provoke me only moderately. Unless you want to be embarrassed later."
"Hehehe. Then, like a man, try to pin me down. If you can manage that..."
"If?"
"I will grant you the right to freely enjoy this flesh that you have not taken your eyes off of for even a moment since the spar began."
Rebecca proudly thrust out her chest as if to flaunt it. Did she have any idea what her actions would unleash—or how utterly serious Jun was about breasts?
"...Really? You're not lying?"
"What do you take me for? I am a proud Dark Elf. I do not lie."
"Then... I'll take your word for it."
Martial Art: Overclock
Skill: Realize
Considering it was only a spar, Jun unleashed every technique he had been holding in reserve and reinforced himself. Aura wrapped around his three cores, elevating their performance another notch, and the dragon that had long nested in a corner of his mind inhabited his body in answer to his wish.
Wiyooooong!!!
Crack! Crackle!!!
The mana vortex generated by the three cores set the surrounding air spinning. Electricity erupting from his entire body became a powerful magnetic field that pressed down on everything nearby.
"Huh? Uh-uh!"
Faced with a presence of an entirely different dimension from before, Rebecca's face flooded with shock and absurdity. She had never imagined he would draw out his full power over a mere pair of breasts. Belatedly she regretted the words she had tossed out simply to glimpse the party leader's true strength—yet now was no time to wallow in regret.
Woom!
Forcibly steadying her spirit, Rebecca operated her cores at full power just as he had. She was a pure and noble Dark Elf; she could not offer her breasts to any man who was not her husband.
To think he was holding back that much reserve...
No matter how outstanding one's will and ability, it was difficult to surpass skill forged from years and experience—and that difference showed most starkly in close combat, a relentless chain of urgent moments. That was why Rebecca had believed she would easily seize the upper hand once they closed to melee.
She now had to admit she had been wrong. The young dragon who had revealed his full power possessed will and ability capable of crushing even years and experience.
To defeat such an opponent—
Finish it quickly.
Sweeping him up so fast he could not regain his bearings was the only way.
Skill: Black Needle
Rebecca poured her will into the shadow cast at Jun's feet. The shadow became needles of darkness and stabbed toward him.
Tak!
Jun charged forward, dodging the needles while simultaneously closing the distance to Rebecca. Watching him close the gap in an instant like a loosed arrow, Rebecca immediately activated another skill.
Skill: Black Door
Rebecca's body was sucked straight into the shadow at her feet. While Jun reflexively halted his charge and hesitated, she burst out from the needle that still lingered behind him and lunged for his back with the lithe grace of a feline predator.
Jun spun as if he had known all along and swung his sword.
Clang!
One blade met two bayonets. Though the bayonets outnumbered the sword, it was the bayonets that were driven back.
"Huh?"
They were driven back far too easily. The moment Jun found it strange—
Bang bang!
Two muzzles poked out of the shadow at his feet and roared with twin gunshots.
"What the... a clone?"
Hastily stepping back to dodge the bullets, Jun wore an expression of pure absurdity as he watched Rebecca rise from the spot where his own shadow had been only a moment earlier. Then, with accelerated thought and cold clarity, he grasped the situation and understood: she had used a technique similar to that damn clone jutsu.
"Just how many skills do you even have?"
Skills were techniques registered in a Psychic Core. Once registered, the power and mental energy required to use them dropped dramatically, so most psychics strove to convert their techniques into skills. It was never easy. Only through painstaking effort could one finally succeed.
Even Jun, who possessed the broken skill Realize that turned imagination into reality, had barely three skills to his name. Yet Rebecca possessed at least six.
Because she was a long-lived Dark Elf?
Absolutely not. Long-lived races paid for their longevity with ability growth that was abysmally slow compared to humans. The reason she could hold so many skills was almost certainly—
Innate talent and endless effort.
The mad, bottomless effort that had raised alchemy to expert level through bomb-making alone, combined with brilliant talent that even ignored the racial penalty.
I want her.
Possessiveness flared hot. He could not endure wanting the Dark Elf before him. Not merely that lewd body, but the mad effort and shining talent dwelling within it as well. In the end he wanted to turn her into a foolish female drowning in love, so that body, effort, and talent would all be spent solely in service to him.
Thump-thump.
Psychic power stirred the energy of a certain existence that had been sleeping inside his Aura Core, seeking to realize that desire.
A shiver ran through the air.
Jun's eyes gleamed like a dragon eyeing treasure. Rebecca, mid-leap toward him, felt an inexplicable chill from those eyes and hurriedly tried to pull back.
No—she tried to pull back, but—
Clang!
"Where do you think you're going?"
Jun closed the distance in a flash and swung, leaving her no room to retreat.
"Kuk! How—!"
"How did I spot the real one right away? For some reason, starting just now, I began sensing other people's electrical signals that I normally never feel. But that Rebecca over there—"
Thud!
"Ack!"
Whoosh!
"—was made with an ability, so I feel nothing from her."
Jun kicked Rebecca in the abdomen and sent her flying, then cut down in a single stroke the clone that had lunged into the opening. Under ordinary conditions it would have been impossible.
Why is my condition this good?
Squeeze. Squeeze.
"Hoo∼"
His body felt lighter than it ever had. The fist he clenched and opened experimentally brimmed with tremendous power, and the breath he exhaled to calm his rising heart carried faint threads of electricity.
Later. Think about it later.
He did not know the reason, but one thing was certain: with this power, it would be easy.
Easy to take the Dark Elf before him—who was acting so cocky just because she was a little older—into his grasp.
"Miss Rebecca, you must keep your promise. Hehehe."
Jun walked toward her with a sly grin. Looking at him, Rebecca intuited the truth.
No matter what she did, in the end her breasts would become his.
That night.
Crack! Crackle!
"Euaang♡ S-stop♡ The electricity is against the ruuules♡"
"What was that? Don't howl like a beast—speak properly."
The cocky Dark Elf was held in the dragon's arms and became a female.