Storm of Lightning (3)

The thunder roared even more violently the moment I burst out of the room. At least it showed some minimal mercy. It seemed he was deliberately holding back the output so as not to drag the Merchant Master—an ally—into the crossfire.

I had been looking for an opening to counterattack when I sensed a massive surge of mana swelling behind me. There was no need to be wary. The mana was intimately familiar.

The instant I pressed myself against the wall using my footwork, Enlir unleashed a bolt of lightning thick enough to fill both arms. Larilura, who had been gathering mana, shouted at the top of her lungs.

—Kwaaaaaaaaah!!

The reinforced Magic Arrow had evolved into a barrage of pure kinetic energy and collided head-on with the lightning. Unfortunately, the match ended in Larilura’s defeat. Still, the lightning couldn’t advance much farther either and scattered uselessly into the air.

Nice assist.

In that brief window, I fired a freezing beam and closed the distance toward the lightning.

【KHAHAHAHA!! You dare block my lightning with low-tier magic from a mere puppet? Don’t you dare underestimate the culture of a new era!!】

Enlir shouted with manic glee, his tone dripping with belligerence. He easily dodged the freezing beam.

—Crunch!

Perhaps because he had just fired a powerful lightning strike, a perfect dodge was impossible. A trace of cold brushed across his shoulder. I couldn’t celebrate, though. The chill that only grazed his shoulder had failed to penetrate the defense of the Belt of the Thunder God.

Enlir crossed his arms, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠squeezing every ounce of muscle and mana from the body hidden beneath his robe.

【Still, you lot are critically lacking in decisive power!!】

Black mana poured from his hands as he roared.

【──The kind of offensive power that can tear enemies apart!!!】

—Fwaaaaaah!!

The black mana that triggered a sense of déjà vu was refined with a purity and elegance that completely contradicted his crude speech and violent demeanor. The sharp edge of it reminded me of the real sword that used to hang in the taekwondo dojo master’s office during my childhood. Looking back now, that man might have even obtained a sword-carrying permit—he was a true seeker of the martial path.

And the proof of a master who had polished a single field to its absolute limit always inspired respect, regardless of the discipline. Even though it was a tool meant solely for killing, it somehow carried an air of dignity and beauty.

I immediately recognized what that mana was.

【──Aura!!】

A technique only those of at least Mithril Class could wield! It was one of the ultimate secret arts I had yet to learn, and it was also the martial mastery that Nefertiti—the Mithril-class adventurer who once fought alongside me—had displayed with overwhelming, tyrannical force.

【Correct, Kitai man!!】

—Vwoooong!!

Enlir extended his aura claws to roughly fifty centimeters and swung them like blades. The black mana screamed as it rushed toward me.

Should I dodge? No. After going through all the trouble to close the distance, that would be a stupid choice. Even if I used instant retreat with Cloud Step, performing moonwalk footwork against a charging opponent would only get me caught.

Humans are creatures who move faster when advancing than when retreating.

Don’t get scared, you idiot!!

A memory from the past flashed across my neurons. Back when I was still a total weakling, Nefertiti had burned into my eyes the power of an otherworld master with her otherworld green elementary-schooler massacre show! The aura-coated whip she used back then had clearly possessed enough power to shake heaven and earth.

If Enlir was on the same level as her, I had no confidence I could take a hit and walk away unscathed. Still, it was too early to give up. I had a basis for that belief.

When Nefertiti fought the unicorn black mage Abidus, even her aura-coated whip had only managed to wrestle a giant golem to a standstill before she was half-dead from exhaustion. And yet her raw offensive power had not lost to that golem.

What did that mean?

I had figured out the answer.

Aura doesn’t enhance physical ability! It only boosts attack power!

When I had smacked Enlir earlier, the power I felt at my fingertips had been roughly equal to my own. Even now, as he charged at me with a running start, he wasn’t all that fast. Our physical capabilities were evenly matched.

──No. I was actually superior!

【Stop talking shit and take this!!】

I trusted the body control techniques and experience I had learned from Larilura.

—Shweeeeeek!!

I thrust my spear straight into his abdomen. The bastard trusted his lightning armor so much that he didn’t even bother defending. A strategy of giving up skin to take bone, I suppose. Considering the power of aura, it wasn’t a bad plan.

But this time, his opponent was simply too bad for him.

—Kiiing!!

I activated a technique through the very spear that had pierced his gut. The fourth form of Gertur’s counter technique completely canceled out the kinetic energy that had propelled him forward. The charging bastard slammed on the brakes like a car coming to an emergency stop.

Enlir’s eyes widened in shock. Even for a master, weapon reach still mattered, and a spear was longer than a fist. His aura claws, stopped dead as if they had slammed into a wall, never even reached me.

Now was the time.

I poured strength into my muscles until the veins bulged.

【──Martial Without, Power Without.】

──A linking technique from the fourth counter form into the first offensive form.

【Great Majesty Strike!!】

I swung the spear blade with lightning speed. Enlir, whose kinetic energy had been reduced to zero, reacted quickly and tried to move his feet. But it was too late.

Even an SF racing car that could go from zero to a hundred in 0.1 seconds couldn’t outrun a vehicle already traveling at 300 km/h. A combo that applied a mez with the fourth counter form’s kinetic cancellation and then smashed with the first offensive form’s high power!

Because it was so simple, the secret art was all the more powerful. Enlir had no choice but to take the blow straight to his skull.

—BAAAAAM!!

The satisfying sensation of a clean critical hit! The lightning armor’s barrier tried to push the spear away, but the spear’s anti-magic properties resisted in turn. As the power of the lightning was reduced and the barrier shattered, my spear broke through the defense and smashed straight into the bastard’s head.

【Grrrrrrrrrrgh!!】

But then something shocking happened. Even after taking my secret art that could slice through steel, Enlir’s skull did not split in two. The defensive power of his lightning armor combined with the mana flowing through his body created a toughness that ordinary armor couldn’t even begin to match.

【You son of a bitch! What kind of double, triple buff stack is this!!】

As a user of Beast Regression myself, I was one to talk. Enlir dropped his cracked mask and grabbed the shaft of my spear. With his monstrous strength and the output of his aura added together, even the mana-repelling spear began to creak.

Fuck! At this rate my spear’s going to break again!

【Aura, stop—!!】

I let out a meaningless battle cry and overlapped the generation point of Summon Cloud onto the spear shaft that Enlir had seized.

—Boom!!

The explosive force, like a firecracker going off in his hand, made Enlir release his grip. I immediately took several steps back.

—Shwaaaaaaaaah!!

Aura claws brushed right past my face. They were so sharp I could actually hear the air being sliced apart.

【Shaaaaaaaah──!!】

Blood had gotten into his eyes. Enlir roared and stomped the ground. It looked like he was trying to retreat now that his vision was blurred, but my feet refused to leave the floor, as if they had been paralyzed.

The moment the ground shook, my feet had become stuck. That son of a bitch Enlir was also using some kind of special martial art, just like Gertur!

—Vwoong!! Vwoong!!

Keeping his distance, Enlir swung his claws. Black aura shot out horizontally and vertically like high-pressure water cutters. A dark-side version of the Flying Blade Blood Claw? It was a technique befitting the son of a bitch. It even resembled what I had used while going berserk during the fight with Yerna.

That was why I didn’t panic and responded accordingly.

【Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck──!! Cloud Stuuuuuuuuurm──!!】

Sorry, that was a lie. I was scared shitless, but I still managed to respond. Instead of using the Ruyi Jingu Bang, I slammed my spear into the ground like a pole and activated Summon Cloud beneath the soles of my shoes. The steam that erupted from my feet like a repulsor gun launched my body into the air.

There was nowhere to dodge, but that wasn’t a problem. To someone who had already taken one step into the realm of masters, the walls of this merchant building were as soft as taffy.

—Kwaaaaang!!

I smashed through the wall with a shoulder tackle and burst outside. The missed aura blades sliced the stone wall like it was made of paper.

That son of a bitch. If that had hit me, I really would’ve been cut into seventeen pieces.

I suddenly grew worried about my comrades who were probably still on the other side of those aura blades, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. I just had to believe they would dodge on their own.

With my nerves stretched to their limit, I scanned the space I had just escaped into.

‘A garden?’

It was a grassy area enclosed in a square at the center of the building. An expensive-looking garden that screamed wasteful spending.

Shrrrrk—!!

At that moment, Enlir sliced through the wall with his aura-coated claws and stepped out in front of me. Cutting through walls was something I could do too. But imagining just how sharp those claws had to be to slice through stone like it was soft tofu was difficult.

‘……Aura really is terrifying.’

It wasn’t something to look down on just because it only increased attack power. A damage-dealing buff in a warrior’s offense and defense could not be ignored. In fact, that had been the case earlier too.

I ran my hand along the spear shaft that Enlir had grabbed. In that short time, it had been crushed by the aura and was now covered in scratches. If my spear hadn’t possessed some kind of anti-magic function that repelled mana, it probably would have snapped like a snack stick the moment he grabbed it.

Goddamn. A technique that could destroy weapons and armor in just one or two seconds during close combat? Fighting this guy without dodging every single attack was out of the question.

And it was common knowledge that dodging was far more difficult than blocking!

‘Fucking aura bastards.’

This was exactly why you had to fight aura with aura. Earlier I had thought of Enlir’s lightning armor as a perfect fusion of offense and defense, but that had clearly been a hasty conclusion.

The Belt of the Thunder God was a defensive technique. It was a shield that stunned anyone who attacked him and slowed their movements! Enlir’s true spear had been those aura-covered hands all along.

It operated on the same principle as the linking technique I had just used. Stop the enemy, then finish them with a guaranteed strike. The only difference was that even when I succeeded, I had failed to finish Enlir off, whereas if that bastard landed even a single hit, killing me would be as easy as lying down and getting laid.

‘……Fuck. He really is insanely strong.’

It was basically at the level where if you didn’t know what you were doing, you’d get hit and die instantly. Was this game balance even real? The fact that aura was the qualification for Mithril Class was no exaggeration.

If I kept my distance, he would use lightning and claw winds to perform a keep-away strategy. If I closed in to attack, I’d get electrocuted and have my insides ripped out by the aura claws. If I tried to check him from outside the range of his claws, he’d paralyze my feet and then use Chidori. It was a combat style that covered both close and long range perfectly.

‘……With ordinary methods, I don’t see any chance of winning.’

I inwardly reevaluated Zoid. Everything he had said was correct. Enlir was an incredibly dangerous opponent, and he definitely resembled me in some way. Not just in handling the mana of the Nine Gods or wearing similar clothes. Our combat methods were similar—stopping the enemy’s feet with armor or martial arts, then crushing them with high-powered finishing moves.

And in fighting games, when the same character fought itself, the winner was usually decided by who had put in more practice or who was simply better, right?

The moment I felt like I was truly fucked, cold sweat ran down my back.

【KHAHAT! KHAHAHAHAHAT!! This is fun! The dwarf country bastards weren’t even worth chewing on, so my body was feeling stiff anyway!!】

—Pazzzzt!!

As Enlir stepped out into the garden, he cauterized the bleeding wound on his forehead with lightning. It was a violent way to stop the bleeding, but he didn’t seem to get shocked. He bared his white teeth and laughed.

【It’s been a long time since my blood boiled like this, Kitai Druid!! Entertain me some more!!】

【……Take a few more hits and spit out some blood, you bastard. Then you’ll calm down.】

I just spat out whatever came to mind. Why the hell did he call me a druid? Anyway, now that his mask was gone, Enlir’s face looked young. He appeared to be around the same age as Larilura. At most, early to mid-twenties. Despite the bloodthirsty, electric killing intent, he had an extremely youthful appearance.

The words Yerna had spoken right before she died. The personality and combat style that resembled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Tabula, who had been chasing her. The fact that he was cooperating with the Merchant Master. The word “we” that had slipped out a few times during the fight.

When I rolled all that information around in my head, several inferences came up.

‘Damn it.’

Still, voicing those inferences like I usually did was no easy task. If my guess was correct, that bastard might have been taught some kind of “code of conduct” for what to do if their identity was discovered.

‘……If I let that bastard escape, we’re truly fucked.’

No matter what, I had to kill him here. In a sense, he was even more important than the Merchant Master, who needed to be made to pay for his sins.

The impression-altering magic activated by the Kenaz rune was by no means ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠perfect. Even if he wore a mask, he could see our techniques, personnel arrangement, combat methods, and weapons as much as he wanted. Since our party was made up of such distinct individuals, finding us wouldn’t be difficult at all.

But if I spoke his identity out loud here and it turned out to be correct? If I were him, I wouldn’t care about winning or losing. I would immediately run away and report to my superiors. And from that day on, our party would have to say goodbye forever to peaceful, honey-like sleep. Our nights would be filled with endless rendezvous with assassins.

【……Hey, why do you work under a crazy bastard like that?】

With that thought in mind, I threw out a baited question. It was as if I was saying I didn’t know anything but had sensed something off about his skill level.

【With that much talent at your age, there shouldn’t be anything you couldn’t do in the light. No, even if you founded a criminal organization in the shadows, you could probably run this entire merchant guild with your chin.】

【Huh? Aha. I’m not interested in power. As long as I can live without thinking and fight comfortably, I’m satisfied.】

—Crackle.

Sparks flew across Enlir’s face as he wiped away the blood.

【There’s nothing more boring than a dull job. And among those dull jobs, nothing makes my heart race more than a fight that sets my blood on fire!】

Kurrrrrrrrrrr…!!

It seemed he had no intention of continuing the conversation. Enlir unleashed an enormous amount of mana and began chanting.

The rune at his waist spun, and lightning shot into the sky. I put everything else aside and focused cold energy into my fingers.

【──ᚨ(Ansuz)!!】

I deployed the rune mandala on my finger, but damn it all, even in this situation I failed to combine the spells. A normal freezing beam shot out, but it couldn’t pierce the strengthened current’s barrier.

Enlir watched me unfold the rune mandala, a glint of interest in his eyes. But even that sight was soon swallowed by the current and disappeared. The pillar of lightning stretched upward, scorching the air. The mana of the Nine Gods roared wildly.

Fuck. Go ahead and advertise it so the entire city can hear.

I licked my lips. Truthfully, until a moment ago I had been thinking I needed to finish this quickly before the guards arrived.

──But now it seemed I had reached the stage where I had to fight with everything I had just to survive.

Having completed his chant in Romanian, Enlir clenched the hand he had stretched toward the sky. The pillar of lightning completely covered him, making him look like nothing more than a human silhouette. The moment I sensed his arm transforming into something like a lightning gauntlet—

〈──Pseudo-Mythological Type: ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Thor (Eptirleiða: ᚦᚢᚱ)!!〉

A hammer fell from the sky and landed in his grasp.