Chapter 112: Three-Way Battle - 11
Chapter 112: Three-Way Battle - 11
Jiha slammed Shadow Hand into Kamain's stomach and lunged forward at the same instant.
But Kamain slashed horizontally, scattering the shadowy hand, and drove an elbow into Jiha's midsection as he closed in.
Crunch!
Jiha smashed a fist down onto the elbow in response, and Kamain grimaced, retreating.
Jiha seized the opening, raining punches onto Kamain's torso.
They were too close for Kamain to swing a sword properly.
He took a few hits as he backed away.
'Body weight...'
Jiha stood taller and carried more muscle than Kamain.
In a straight-up brawl, they were in different weight classes. Purely in terms of hand-to-hand combat, Kamain was bound to be at a disadvantage.
But Warsland had Mana.
Jiha might use his own, but he was only a Common. He'd never match the Mana reserves of someone chosen for Super Rare Grade!
Kamain adjusted his grip on the sword in his right hand, drew more Mana, and lashed out with his left arm.
Kamain's knife-hand and Jiha's fist collided in the air.
Clang!
Flesh struck flesh, yet the sound was metallic.
High-density Mana had hardened their bodies to the durability of steel.
If two bodies turned as hard as iron kept clashing, who would win?
'The one with a blade wins!'
Kamain wore a savage grin.
There was a limit to reinforcing a body with Mana.
It varied by species, but no matter how high you pushed your physical defense, a higher grade or a stronger weapon could normally pierce it.
In Warsland, a Mana-reinforced body was a shield, and a Mana weapon was a spear.
A spear always punches through a shield in the end!
Deflecting or ignoring Jiha's physical blows with his left arm, Kamain gripped his sword short and swung horizontally.
Whoosh!
Jiha abandoned the close-quarters approach and sprang backward.
The flames coiled around Kamain's blade intensified.
Every time the fire-wreathed sword moved, heat radiated outward, and the air itself seemed to burn first.
Beyond the visual pressure of the blazing weapon, the heat was palpable even at a distance.
Every time Kamain swung, Jiha had to retreat.
"Why not try clashing swords?"
Kamain sneered.
The Grade 3 sword Uben had given him, the one Jiha had relied on until now, would shatter if it met Kamain's Grade 1 blade reinforced with Mana.
Even if Jiha endured somehow, the flame's heat would steadily wound him.
Suppressing it with Mana would drain the power available for his offense, putting him even further on the back foot.
Broken furniture and scattered clothes caught in the sword's arc began to smolder lazily.
In the center of it all, the single-horned demon laughed.
"You fight well for a Common. And you've got a working brain. Not bad, I'll give you that! You've earned your reputation!"
"..."
"But this is the end. You die here. No more hidden tricks, right?"
As far as Kamain could see, Jiha had nothing to counter the flaming sword.
Honestly, only a truly exceptional warrior could stand against this blade.
It made Kamain far harder to deal with than his actual skill level would suggest.
"For the record, summoning flames is my Special Ability. This sword just helps it along a bit."
"Yeah?"
"So don't go getting ideas about disarming me for an easy win. A few guys have already died in really stupid ways trying that."
"Appreciate the advice."
As Kamain advanced, Jiha kept retreating out of the blade's range.
But inside a cramped room, there were limits to how far he could evade.
Jiha leaned against the window frame.
He'd returned to the spot where he'd first sat. He glanced back over his shoulder.
The window was still open, and the sill was low. Just shifting your weight backward could send you tumbling out.
"Tsk, you'd die from a fall there. We're on a hill... it's over ten meters to the ground."
From this height, even Mana reinforcement would mean at least serious injury. A fatal landing was likely.
Jiha sighed, then sheathed his sword behind his lower back and raised both hands.
A gesture of surrender? Kamain's brow furrowed, and Jiha abruptly asked:
"Let me ask one last thing."
"What?"
Confident he'd already seized complete victory, Kamain replied with uncharacteristic ease.
"You were decent trash. I'll answer whatever."
Life had been a string of successes for Kamain.
Obstacles in his path, idiots — he maneuvered them out of the way with schemes, or killed them when necessary.
Whenever that happened, everyone suspected him.
Of course they did. He carried the blood of the Incubus, a species wiped out.
But Kamain had put in painstaking, thorough effort.
His childhood experience of being scorned, abused, and nearly killed had gifted him extraordinary caution.
Even his own deeds must not attract suspicion.
Whenever an accident or incident occurred, everyone's eyes turned to him, but Kamain worked hard to appear innocent.
'Yeah, worked damn hard...'
Ultimately, those who suspected him concluded that the filthy half-incubus was just lucky.
To Kamain, that was the highest praise.
Some even began to defend him, believing he was being wrongfully accused.
"No, let me correct myself. You were the best trash. Because you kept suspecting me right up to the end."
"If I'm the only one who didn't trust you, it's a bleak world."
"You're the first male to see through me. There were sharp-eyed women, though. Strangely, sleeping with them makes them sharper. They'd start meddling for no good reason."
Kamain let out an exaggerated sigh.
"So I've had to kill a fair number of women. Some of them were a real waste."
"I've cracked plenty of bastards' skulls myself... but you really are a special kind of son of a bitch."
Jiha sighed.
Kamain frowned.
"Is that your question?"
"Why go through all this crap?"
Kamain tsked.
"Why? What kind of stupid question is that, at this point..."
"You became Super Rare Grade, right? That would've been a good moment to quit this insane behavior."
"..."
"You've climbed as high as a male can. Honestly, you've got zero reason to pull this shit."
Jiha asked the question that would slot in the final puzzle piece.
"Cleaning up the gnolls, including Coral? You could've just done that. There was no need to plant them in Waris, hand them weapons, and cause this entire mess."
"..."
"You wanted achievements? What for? You're already Super Rare. What more could you possibly be greedy for?"
Kamain let out a cold laugh.
"You think I'd be satisfied with just Super Rare? Obviously, I'm going to become a Unique."
"Could you actually become one just by wanting it?"
"I'll consider your dying wish spent. You've talked way too much."
At Kamain's declaration, Jiha laughed as well.
"Yeah, I'm sick of listening to your bullshit too."
Jiha, leaning against the windowsill, tipped backward.
The moment he vanished from sight, Kamain lowered his sword.
Boom!
The sound of a heavy mass hitting the ground. Still, better safe than sorry. Kamain walked over and peered down.
Jiha lay sprawled on the ground below.
"The blood..."
It was too dark, and the distance made it hard to see clearly.
Kamain tsked and shook his head.
"I'll check to make sure in a bit, just to be certain. Now then, where's the bathroom..."
Turning away from Jiha, Kamain surveyed the house.
He'd come to kill the hiding gnoll, and he needed to finish the job.
"Here?"
Finding the bathroom in the cluttered home, Kamain opened the door.
A curtain was drawn around the bathtub, and beyond it, a seated silhouette was visible.
"Tied up?"
If the figure had been free, the sounds of his fight with Jiha would have brought them running out.
Approaching, Kamain adjusted his grip on his sword and smirked.
Should he check if it was a gnoll? No, whoever it was, he had to kill them first.
They might have overheard his conversation with Jiha.
Eyeing the seated silhouette, Kamain gauged the position and thrust his sword toward the shoulder.
"We'll start with a greet—"
The grin froze on Kamain's cruel face, and he frowned.
That wasn't the sensation of piercing flesh.
"What..."
Kamain yanked his sword free and flung the curtain aside.
A mannequin sat in the bathtub.
"What the..."
Had Jiha lied?
Flustered, Kamain felt a presence behind him and spun around—then froze solid.
Pale-blue skin. Even in silhouette, a woman of breathtaking beauty stood in the darkness.
"For a sec..."
The woman stepped forward, and Kamain blinked rapidly, unable to process it.
"Lady Asira..."
"..."
Asira's face was rigid as she looked around the room.
After the fight with Jiha, furniture was destroyed, and small fires were burning here and there.
Kamain forced himself to think calmly.
How long had Asira been here? Had she been outside? He'd been so focused on Jiha that he'd sensed no presence at all.
Had she heard his entire conversation with Jiha?
"Lady Asira, what brings you to a place like this without any word? I asked you to stay at the barracks because anything could happen there."
Jiha's corpse was outside the window. As long as he kept Asira from going that way, he'd be fine.
For now, he just had to stall for time with excuses.
"Kamain."
As Kamain approached, Asira spoke heavily.
"This isn't the kind of place you should be, Lady Asira. These are filthy streets. Let's just leave."
"Explain what you just did."
"...Ah, what do you mean by that?"
Kamain smiled, but Asira's expression was deeply somber.
"The figure in the tub. You stabbed it without even checking who it was. It could've been a hostage. Even if it was a gnoll, there was no sign it intended to resist."
"Oh, that was just a joke—"
"You knew it was a doll, so you stabbed it for fun?"
When Asira cut him off, Kamain's smiling face went rigid.
Asira shook her head with grim resignation.
"He said you'd say exactly that. I told him there was no way."
"...Who told you such a thing? It's slander. Lady Asira, you must not be fooled by this."
As she stared at him in silence, Kamain's frantic bluster seized up.
This was not the Asira he'd always known.
Disappointment, frustration, deep regret, despair, and grief weighed on her face as she looked at him.
"...Lady Asira, no. I am truly being wronged here. I've fallen into a trap."
Pulling himself together, Kamain forced himself to walk toward Asira.
If he chose his words carefully, he could somehow regain her trust.
He was Asira's right hand. A man who, despite all odds, had been promoted to Super Rare Grade.
Just call it a mistake, present this as an exception to the norm, deceive her somehow to get past this moment.
"Six months ago, I heard Pairan — the Super Rare I appointed before you — defected to Purple because of your schemes. Is that true?"
"..."
"I was told the whole situation, her sudden marriage to a Purple orc, wasn't something she wanted at all. That she had no choice but to spend the night, got pregnant, and was forced to marry whether she wanted to or not."
Shivers ran down Kamain's spine.
This was something Asira could never be allowed to learn.
"What on earth are you talking about..."
"Something that should've been said a long time ago."
At a man's voice, Kamain whipped around.
Sitting on the windowsill, Jiha smiled and waved at him.
"You've got a face worth seeing. I'd almost want to capture it in a painting."
"How did you..."
"Came to finish what I started. Can't really wrap up the story until I finish crushing you, right?"
Sword in hand, Jiha wagged a finger.
"Why complicate things when there's an easy blade right here? Let's fight for real now."
"Ah, no. What is this..."
Kamain's gaze darted between Asira and Jiha, refusing to believe it.
"Seems like you're in psychological shock, but is that gonna change the situation?"
Jiha climbed down from the windowsill and walked toward Kamain.
"If you want an explanation, survive first."
It was time to fight properly and break him.