Not Very Warrior-Like
A greatsword warrior, and his partner—a warrior wielding a claymore just a size smaller.
That was the Turtle Sword I'd taken off someone a while back, roughly the size of a longsword, so it had to be him.
"Come to think of it, I've got one too."
I slipped the spear into my inventory and drew out a greatsword instead.
It was the greatsword of Kroktoos, looted from the hobgoblin dungeon I'd cleared for the very first time.
Unlike back then, when the blade had been chipped and mangled in places, the repaired Kroktoos greatsword now cut a rather impressive figure. The gray steel was honed razor-sharp along the edge like teeth, and the leather-wrapped grip, while rough-hewn, left nothing to complain about.
Whoom-! I swung the greatsword down in a single wide arc.
A heavy weight settled snugly into my grip.
'This is why you use blunt weapons.'
"Oh, you're going with the greatsword?"
"Yep."
I liked it.
A colossal hammer would have been even better, but for now, this would have to do.
Whooong!
"Then let's go."
I hoisted the greatsword—more than half again my height—onto my shoulder.
Yena just stared at me blankly.
What was with her all of a sudden?
"You're not going?"
"...No! Yes! Let's go! Let's kill them!"
Leaving the suddenly flustered Yena behind, I charged forward with the greatsword in hand. Yena quickly snapped out of it and moved to keep pace.
"I'll take the woman in the back! Lily, you get the man up front!"
"Just what I wanted."
Bigger weapons were simply more fun to fight with than smaller ones.
Shifting the greatsword from one hand to a two-handed grip, I leapt. I hadn't used my flight skill, but I came down on my opponent as if soaring through the air.
KRAAANG! Crick-crack…!
"Ugh!"
The greatsword warrior hastily laid his blade flat to block the blow.
But as if mocking his attempt at a defense, the strength drained from his braced legs and his stance began collapsing fast. Before I knew it, the warrior was down on one knee, cold sweat streaming down his face.
A shout rang out from behind him.
"Honey!"
Perhaps unable to bear watching her beloved fall into peril, the silver claymore that had been idling in the back suddenly came for my neck.
"Attacking me without even looking at me?"
"Ugh!"
PA-BA-BA-BAK!!
But the blade never came within a hair's breadth of my neck. She was forced to scramble backward in a hurry.
Yena's dagger assault had struck the woman.
Daggers clashed against the claymore.
She was taking continuous damage from the twin daggers, yet holding her own all the same.
"Oh. I can tell you're deliberately holding back your class skills. You're not bad."
"Thank y—ghk!"
KA-KANG!
Even against a ranker, the fight had reached a rough stalemate.
To be precise, Yena was going easy on her—but even accounting for that, the woman was fairly skilled.
After all, Yena wasn't just any ordinary ranker; she was a named ranker in the top 100.
The woman finally buckled under the pressure and was shoved steadily backward.
Yena glanced at the daggers in her hands, then asked with an expression of genuine admiration:
"Whoa. What level is your Bond?"
"...Level 7."
"Whoa. What, did you two get married or something?"
"Not exactly, but..."
Wow, talk about an inseparable couple.
Had I been standing around watching for too long?
The man who'd been holding out beneath my blade suddenly let out a battle cry.
"RAAAAAAGH!"
His muscles swelled rapidly as he strained against my strength.
In that instant the greatsword lurched, and the moment his skill activated, the long stalemate tipped over.
"HAAAP!"
The mana binding them grew even more entwined.
Before long, the man had thrown off my greatsword entirely and squared his stance.
"Hoo… That's seriously impressive. That much strength, from a spearman?"
"...You're no pushover yourself."
I had been putting real force behind it, and he threw it off?
I suppose the power of love is a wondrous thing.
If I'd still been trapped in that possessed world, there might have been a lot more people like them.
'...Wait, no. Wouldn't that have been even more horrifying, what with the Celestials and Demons around?'
Either way, one thing was certain: they couldn't hold back me and Yena at that level.
Even with Yena still going easy on them, all they could do was endure. If we'd gotten serious, it would have been over in three exchanges.
The man, burning with fighting spirit, charged straight at me.
A faint brown mana seeped into his greatsword as he swung it down in a wide overhead arc.
He was using the Combat Assist System—the attack came in rather predictably.
I ducked my head lightly to evade, then twisted the greatsword diagonally and thrust it out.
Apart from the heavily protected neck and heart, his abdomen was wide open.
The man rushed to block, but he'd committed far too much to his swing; there simply wasn't enough time to react.
Just as the greatsword's edge was about to tear unimpeded through his abdomen—
KA-GANG-!
"Shield!"
A pale-pink, heart-shaped chain shield appeared out of nowhere and blocked my greatsword.
The moment the blade struck it, the shield vanished into transparency, its duty fulfilled.
The caster hadn't been the greatsword warrior in front of me.
The shield had flown from that woman—the one Yena was busy keeping occupied.
A one-time-use defensive skill, probably. Something like that.
I'd seen so many strange skills and gear by now that nothing surprised me anymore.
Somehow I doubted she'd cast it out of sheer focus in such a desperate moment—more likely, the skill's trigger condition simply applied to the man's side.
Either way, the attack had been blocked, and the man had bought himself an opening.
With a sudden retreat of blade and body, I felt an entirely different kind of mana rising from his hands.
Earthen dust swirled around him, and the ground beneath him sank slightly.
It looked like some manner of ultimate skill.
'Crush.'
The greatsword, charged with raw force, slammed down into the earth.
With a sizable explosion, the rocky hillside burst apart, shards of stone surging skyward before raining back down.
Smoke and dust flooded the surroundings, and for a brief moment the warrior hid himself within the haze like an assassin.
SHKK-KAK!
"...Unbelievable."
"Not very warrior-like, is it?"
A greatsword warrior resorting to a sneak attack.
If he'd been baiting out an unexpected move, I'd have called it decent; but if he'd just been trying to startle me, I'd have to call it foolish.
Honestly, what he'd just done was barely worth the name of ambush.
'When you kick up that much energy, I couldn't ignore it even if I wanted to.'
Grreeeechk… The screech of steel on steel grated against my ears.
This time I batted his greatsword away from my side, and we traded blows in quick succession.
One exchange. Then two.
Three… was pushing it, apparently.
His ultimate—a single devastating strike—had been fairly strong, but that was all it was.
Since the greatsword was a weapon capable of both attack and defense, I managed to weather two exchanges somehow, but from the third blow onward I could no longer block and fell back as if flung away.
"Hrrk… hah… Where do you even get that stamina…"
Claaang~ The man hurled his greatsword carelessly to the ground between ragged breaths.
The greatsword warrior had given up on sitting and simply flopped onto his back.
My greatsword, poised for the third exchange, stopped mid-swing.
I hadn't given it my all, but I hadn't gone easy on him the way Yena had, either.
On a battlefield, courtesy meant death—and it was never much of a kindness to your opponent, either.
If you kept surviving on someone else's mercy, one day that same mercy would become the poison that killed you.
Still, watching someone give up like this made my brow furrow in spite of myself.
The difference between having one life and having many was simply too vast—and to them, this was nothing more than a game.
Dying was fine; winning a fight to the death was fine, too.
Only a handful of people here fought with genuine seriousness.
'The pros will be a little different, I suppose.'
Thwok.
My greatsword skewered the man. It seemed Yena's side had already been settled—the duel was over just like that.
Come to think of it, I'd heard the pros would be competing in the Mock Siege Battle too…
I suppose that's fair game, then?