A Predator Targeting a Predator
"Go for it, Lady Haruna!!!"
"Crush that outsider's pride!"
"Filthy human trash! How dare you crawl in here!"
Roars of raw hostility and thunderous cheers filled the square. The villagers of Tebra, standing behind Haruna, seemed completely swept up in the feverish excitement of the match.
"Those bastards...!"
"Eruka, calm down."
"Go, Casano, winnn!!!"
In stark contrast, the villagers of Hinera were quiet, busy whispering amongst themselves behind Eruka and Tsuruka. "Are we supposed to cheer for him?" "He's the Chief, but he's still an outsider..." "But isn't he the Captain's husband?" Drawing strength from Undine's energetic cheers ringing in my ears, I braced my legs and stared at Haruna.
"Whew... My apologies. It seems everyone is a bit overexcited."
"I understand. It's not every day you get to see a spectacle like this."
"Fufu, so you think a fight between the two of us is that much of a spectacle?"
"If it ends in Lady Haruna's defeat, it'll be a grander sight than any festival in the Imperial Capital."
"Fufut... Is that so...?"
I watched Haruna's movements while exchanging idle banter. Sensing Minerva's presence in the distance, I took a deep breath to clear my mind and focus entirely on the battle that was about to unfold.
"Whew..."
I tuned out the deafening shouts and the discordant murmurs of the crowd, trying to suppress the rising tension, but my body wouldn't stop trembling. I took another deep breath. In that instant, the shaking stopped completely—whether from the thrill of the impending clash or the sheer pressure radiating from a true powerhouse, I couldn't tell.
In a flash, Haruna lunged—no, she practically flew.
Boom!
A violent shockwave shook the square. Just as the ground trembled and my stance wavered, something launched from the dirt. Haruna's bare foot shot upward, slamming into my hastily raised arm and forcing it back as she pressed her advance.
Thud!
Tensing my elbow, I endured the impact and swung my arm to deflect her foot. Haruna spun gracefully in midair and landed. The moment her feet touched the ground with a light tap, she leaped forward once more.
"Kugh...!"
Controlling the pace of the fight had always been my biggest struggle during our sparring sessions. The key to my victory lay in wresting control of the flow from Haruna, an overwhelmingly superior warrior who dictated the battle at her whim. I calmed my racing heart and focused entirely on defense.
"Whoa..."
"Oh..."
"Keep goinggg!!!"
The roaring square gradually fell silent. The spectators seemed to watch with slack-jawed awe, completely captivated by Haruna's display of overwhelming martial prowess.
"Are you really looking away right now?"
A chilling voice whispered in my ear the moment I glanced away. Before I could react, Haruna's fist bypassed my guard and buried itself deep into my flank.
Crack!!!
Even striking a heavy punching bag wouldn't produce a sound that brutal. Fortunately, I had tensed my side just in time to absorb the brunt of the impact. Before she could retract her fist, I wrapped my right arm around her wrist, trapping it.
Grip...!
Pressing down hard on Haruna's trembling arm, which was pinned against my ribs, I pivoted my body. I grabbed her wrist with my left hand, twisted it, and threw myself backward onto the ground. As Haruna lost her balance and stumbled, I pulled her down with me, rolling over to pin her beneath me.
Thud!
The moment I mounted her and prepared to lock her arm, Haruna's free left hand clamped onto my shoulder with terrifying force. I grimaced as her grip dug deep into my flesh. Despite my best efforts to resist, my upper body was slowly but surely pushed back.
"Huuup...!"
Pinned beneath me, Haruna took a sharp breath and arched her back, using the momentum to violently heave me off. Sensing that losing my position now would mean instant defeat, I grit my teeth and threw all my weight forward, crushing her arm back down.
"Kgggh...!"
An ugly groan escaped my clenched teeth, but I ignored it and poured every ounce of my strength into pinning her. Gradually, the pressure pushing against my shoulder weakened, and Haruna's tightly bitten lips began to turn white. Good. Just keep pressing down and lock her arm—
Suddenly, the momentum of the woman beneath me shifted entirely.
"Huuuu...!"
In an instant, my body felt weightless. My vision spun, and when I finally came to, a cloudless blue sky filled my sight. Dazed, I looked around, only to realize that all I could see were the feet and legs of the surrounding crowd. Something was wrong—
"Impressive. I almost couldn't counter that."
Step, step.
Footsteps echoed in the silent square. Only then did I realize the truth. The world wasn't upside down; I was. Haruna's counterattack had sent me flying across the square, and I was now sprawled on my back, looking up at everyone.
"I had hoped to avoid using mana in our duel, but..."
The footsteps stopped, and Haruna stood over me. Looking down with a bitter smile, she slowly—so slowly that I could track every movement—raised her foot.
The sole of her shoe descended. At first, I could see her face, but as the shoe drew closer, it blocked out the sky and the crowd. The moment her sole filled my entire field of vision, I rolled away with everything I had.
BOOM!
A violent tremor rippled through the ground and vibrated through my bones. As a startled Haruna lifted her foot from the crater she had just made, I kicked off the ground and launched myself straight at her like a coiled spring.
Crack!
My fist, wrapped in a faint blue afterimage of mana, buried itself deep into Haruna's abdomen. I had managed to twist my body to avoid her counter-kick, but it had still grazed my thigh, leaving it throbbing with sharp pain.
"Kgh...!"
The moment my foot touched the ground, a sharp, stinging pain shot up my leg. Suppressing the agony, I looked up. Haruna was doubled over, clutching her struck abdomen. Seizing the opening, I lunged at her once more.
Smack!
I drove an uppercut straight into Haruna's exposed chin. Even as her head snapped back, I marveled at the sheer resilience of her jaw, which resisted the force of my blow. Targeting her exposed midsection once more, I drove my knee forward.
"Kh-ugh...!"
Haruna bared her sharp fangs, a precarious smile playing on her lips. Seeing her eyes grow slightly unfocused, I sensed a path to victory. Grinning, I threw another punch. Haruna took a step back, corrected her stance, and charged right back at me with a wild smile of her own.
"This is impossible...!"
"Has this ever happened before...?"
"I told you to win, Casanooo!!!"
Ignoring the background noise, Haruna and I traded blows, both of us grinning like maniacs. At first, we parried each other's strikes. Then, we began battering each other's exposed torsos. Finally, too exhausted to throw proper punches, we dodged clumsily and lunged into a grapple.
Thud.
"Hup, huuup...!"
Suppressing the pain and holding back my groans, I clung to Haruna. Ignoring her sweat-soaked martial arts uniform and her hands desperately trying to push me away, I grit my teeth, wrapped my arm tightly around her neck, and let my legs go limp.
"Kgh...?!"
Haruna was just as drained as I was. She collapsed limply to the ground. Keeping my arm locked around her throat, I twisted my body as we fell, positioning myself underneath her to secure a chokehold from the bottom.
"Kgggh... You...!"
Thud!
"Kaaah...!"
I squeezed my locked arm with everything I had, reinforcing it with my right hand to tighten the chokehold. Haruna thrashed, kicking her legs and clawing desperately at the arm constricting her throat in a final, frantic bid for freedom.
Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch.
The sensation of her nails tearing into my flesh brought tears to my eyes, but I endured the pain and squeezed harder. Haruna's body convulsed and thrashed in my embrace, but I held on with grim determination.
Scratch... scratch... scraaaatch... tap.
The frantic scratching against my skin gradually slowed. Sweat stung my eyes, blurring my vision, but I refused to loosen my grip. The pain in my arm began to fade, and the sound of her struggle died down. The hand that had been clawing at me traced a weak arc through the air before falling limp.
"Grrrk... I... lose..."
Haruna's raspy voice whispered in my ear. Did she think I would let my guard down? I grit my teeth and squeezed even harder, completely neutralizing her. I ground my back into the dirt, pouring every last drop of my energy into the hold. Soon, the surrounding crowd began to swarm us.
"He...!"
"Oh...! He's unconscious...!"
"Get his arm off...!"
"...sano...! You did it...!"
As my vision faded, the shouting voices piercing my ears began to sound like a sweet lullaby. My eyelids grew heavy, and my consciousness slipped away into complete darkness.
Minerva, looking down from the sky at the chaotic crowd swarming the square, let out a soft chuckle and a languid sigh.
"My, my... I certainly didn't expect that~ Honestly, it doesn't quite feel like she lost due to a difference in skill~"
Pulling a sheet of parchment from her robes, Minerva deftly unrolled it. She conjured a quill from thin air and began to scribble, a bitter smile playing on her lips.
"I suppose I'll have to observe them a bit longer~ I need to figure out what Haruna is really thinking... Hmmm... Casanova's struggle was impressive, but why did she give up at the very end~?"
Coocoo, coocoo.
Reclining in midair, Minerva spun around in surprise at the sudden sound of a pigeon. Spotting the bird staring at her with blank, round eyes, she noticed a small cylinder tied to its leg. She reached out with her slender fingers and retrieved the message.
"Erilda... Hmmm... Ah, I wondered why she hadn't written in a while, but a husband? Mmm... Ahaha!"
Minerva, happily reading the letter by herself, pulled out a matching piece of parchment from her robes and began to write back with great care. Ignoring the pigeon tilting its head, she filled two entire pages before rolling them up, slipping them into the cylinder, and tying it back to the bird's leg.
Coocoo.
The pigeon tilted its head left and right, then took off with a flutter of wings. Confident that the message would reach her dear friend, Minerva pondered the unexpected news, her mind spinning with various possibilities. As the Witch of Observation, Minerva loved observing above all else, and her second favorite pastime was deducing the truth based on those observations.
"Come to think of it, wasn't the mercenary group Erilda escaped from located near the Kingdom's Capital~?"
Recalling what she knew about her close friend, Minerva closed her eyes and tried to piece the clues together, sensing a connection. Yet, try as she might, she couldn't find the missing piece that would make everything click.
"Sigh... I suppose I'll have to think about it later~"
Giving up on her deductions for now, Minerva looked down at Casanova's limp, unconscious face as Eruka carried him on her back toward Tsuruka's quarters. She had initially viewed him as a mere specimen, but it seemed there was far more to extract from this man than she had first thought.
"Fufufut~"
Thrilled at the prospect of uncovering the mysteries hidden within Casanova, Minerva caressed her own aroused body as she slowly floated back toward her cabin. Drifting through the air, she gazed up at the blue sky before closing her eyes.
"Casanova is the Chief... In the end, the Prophecy has been fulfilled~ Fufufut~"
Minerva, the witch who guarded the Forest of Illusion, felt her heart flutter with excitement at the storm that was sure to come. With a mischievous chuckle echoing against the blue sky, the witch's floating figure gradually faded into the distance.