Chapter 679
Chapter 679
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 679
Chapter Title: A Beastkin's Proposal
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“Hah!”
Swish-!
Kinea’s kick aimed for Karl.
“Hmph!”
Karl shattered a potion bottle on the ground.
Crash.
Whoosh-!
A thick cloud of purple smoke spread out.
Seeing this, Kinea quickly retreated.
Karl pulled a small doll from his pocket, pricked his fingertip, and let a drop of blood fall onto it.
Fwoosh-!
The doll swelled up, taking on the same form as Karl.
‘Send in the substitute!’
It was an alchemical doll in his own image.
Though meant for deception, it was quite elaborate.
‘Well, it won't work on our top students, though.’
The high-ranking students all possessed keen and sharp senses.
A trick like this would be seen through as a fake in an instant.
‘But you're different.’
She was strong.
But her mana-sensing abilities weren't particularly sharp.
Karl had figured that out during their brief exchange.
‘This is more than enough to fool her!’
Before the purple smoke cleared, he placed his palm on the ground.
‘Burrowing magic!’
Karl dug into the ground, put on his magical glasses, stuck a straw in his mouth, and went underground.
Then he broke another potion bottle.
The hole Karl had entered through was covered with soil, returning the ground to its original state.
‘She's strong.’
Karl narrowed his eyes, observing the outside through his glasses.
He had used poison, but it didn't work.
‘Well, I expected as much.’
Kinea was certainly weaker than his party members.
‘Except for me, of course.’
No matter what anyone said, he was the weakest third-year.
But that didn't mean Kinea was weak in the slightest.
‘Considering there are no hero academies or Hero Records in this era... she's a monster, all right.’
To become that strong at her age without the help of a hero-training institution.
It was astonishing.
‘Growth based purely on real combat.’
In terms of battle experience, she had the overwhelming advantage.
‘She's more accustomed to battle than anyone in our group.’
Except for Leo, of course.
He was in a league of his own.
Fwoosh-!
As the purple smoke cleared, Kinea’s claws aimed for the alchemical doll’s neck.
Barely managing to dodge the attack by leaning back, Karl swallowed dryly.
‘Whew! Thanks, Prince!’
If not for his training with Duran during the winter break, the alchemical doll would have been done for.
He had gauged the attack's trajectory and just barely managed to maneuver the doll to evade it.
‘Now, then.’
Karl gripped the trigger of the hand crossbow in his hand.
‘Full of openings, aren't you?’
Since the duel began, Karl had been completely on the defensive against Kinea.
As a result, the alchemical doll was now riddled with openings.
Karl had been fighting on the back foot ever since the duel started.
‘Well, it would've been hard to take the initiative with my magic skills anyway.’
Karl had deliberately let her wail on him, all as a stratagem for this one moment.
Just as Karl was about to aim at Kinea.
Whoosh-!
‘Huh?’
Kinea abruptly pulled back.
She glanced suspiciously at the decoy doll, then spun and swung her foot toward the spot where Karl was buried.
“There you are!”
“Whoa!”
Karl frantically burst out of the ground and threw himself aside.
Thud-!
“You fight earnestly, but you’re still like a little rat!”
Kinea sneered.
“When on earth did he dig into the ground?”
“He's like a mole.”
Dryana and Ar marveled.
“Karl always finds a way to catch you off guard and set traps.”
“He specializes in that, after all.”
“Hmph. That's his fighting style.”
Chelsea grinned at Iliana's comment, and Duran snorted.
As Eliza idly filed her nails with a bored expression, Leo spoke.
“What do you think?”
“Hmph. He does pull a lot of cute tricks.”
“Ooh! So Eliza thinks Karl is cute!”
As Iliana teased, Eliza brandished her whip.
‘Wow. She saw through it?’
Karl clicked his tongue.
‘Did she read my move?’
Karl shook his head at the thought.
‘No, she figured it out by instinct.’
A sense born from overwhelming experience.
‘She's strangely similar to Leo.’
Such petty tricks wouldn't work on the top students of Lumerne.
But Leo and the other students were fundamentally different.
While the other students saw through Karl’s traps with their innate abilities...
Leo detected danger purely through experience.
‘The people of this era definitely have overwhelmingly more experience than us. I need to be more careful when setting my traps.’
As Karl narrowed his eyes.
Kinea, too, was clicking her tongue in disbelief.
‘Seriously, at this point, it's frightening.’
Although she had sneered at him for being a rat, Karl had continuously caught her off guard.
‘I need to corner him slowly.’
Just as Kinea thought that rushing in recklessly would get her caught in a trap and decided to back off.
“Huh?”
She felt a weight on her foot.
Looking down, she saw that the dirt on the ground was holding her foot in place.
‘This was a trap, too?’
Kinea was flustered by the combination of traps.
“Checkmate!”
Karl grinned and aimed his hand crossbow at Kinea.
Crack-!
“Huh?”
At that moment, Kinea lifted her foot.
The ground cracked, and the very spot she stood on was lifted up.
“What the...? Using aura would just make it heavier, wouldn't it?”
Of course, someone like Duran could have maximized their aura output to destroy the alchemical magic itself, but Kinea didn't possess that level of aura output.
“With pure physical strength?”
Beastkin were strong, but they were generally well-balanced, not known for this kind of power.
“I'm half-beastkin, half-dwarf!”
“No wonder! You're a bit short!”
“What did you just say?!”
Incensed, Kinea swung her foot directly at Karl.
“Gah!”
Karl scrambled back, terrified by the fearsome mass attack.
Crack-!
As if the alchemy's effect had worn off, the clump of earth restraining Kinea's foot crumbled into a pile of dirt.
Freed, Kinea extended her claws.
“An interesting piece of prey.”
Kinea licked her upper lip and narrowed her eyes.
She looked just like a wild animal.
‘She seems brutish, but she's cautious. This is tricky.’
Karl clicked his tongue.
He was setting traps, but she wasn't falling for them easily.
And even if she did, she would just power through them with her abilities.
Karl took out a potion bottle from his pocket.
“You think I'd get hit by something like that?”
Kinea smirked and closed the distance with Karl.
Like a cat cornering a mouse.
She cut off Karl's escape routes, backing him into a corner.
The aura emanating from Kinea’s fingertips inflicted numerous cuts on Karl's body.
“Kuhk!”
Coughing up blood, Karl fell to his knees.
He had lost so much blood that his vision was spinning.
Seeing this, Kinea closed in on him.
“It's over.”
As Kinea muttered softly, Karl tried to throw the potion bottle he had been clutching.
“Hmph! You won't throw it.”
Snap-!
Kinea grabbed Karl’s wrist.
‘It's finished.’
She was in close range.
One more hit, and it would be over.
Just as Kinea thought this, she noticed the corners of Karl's mouth.
‘What?’
Karl was smiling as he clenched the potion bottle in his hand.
Flash-!
“Gasp!”
A blinding flash of light overwhelmed her vision.
She hurriedly shut her eyes, but the bright light momentarily stole her sight.
With her eyes closed, she instinctively tried to pull on Karl's wrist.
But Karl was faster, tripping her and throwing her off balance.
As Kinea lost her balance, Karl pushed her.
She fell backward.
“Tch!”
Kinea frantically swung her free hand.
But Karl, as if he could see, dodged the blow.
‘He can see? How?’
If Karl had closed his eyes, Kinea would have closed hers as well.
Click-
“Phew, got you.”
Karl straddled Kinea's stomach, aiming his hand crossbow at her chest.
“If I'd fired, it would've been over. You admit it, right?”
***
“She's definitely different from us.”
Ar muttered, looking at Kinea.
Duran agreed with him.
Each of Kinea’s movements as she pressured Karl was enough to send a chill down the spines of the onlookers.
‘It's not that she's full of bloodlust or anything.’
They were the movements of someone who had lived on the brink of death.
“She resembles Chen Xia.”
Leo nodded at Duran's murmur.
“She does.”
‘Until now, I thought Chen Xia's movements were just her own unique style.’
But that wasn't it.
It was a characteristic of those who had fought in despair.
He realized that while watching this battle.
‘Yes, that sense for detecting danger.’
Duran narrowed his eyes.
If he had been the one fighting, he would not have seen that sense Kinea possessed.
It wasn't an ability that shone in a battle with an overwhelming skill gap.
It was only because Karl was her equal that they, as third parties, could see it.
‘If my skills were on par with that woman's... could I beat Karl Thomas?’
Mulling this over, Duran clenched and unclenched his fists.
“Black Rabbit.”
“What?”
“If I fought that Kinea girl, and we were evenly matched, who would win?”
“You already know the answer, don't you?”
Ar looked vexed at Leo's answer.
And that answer was also the answer to Duran's silent question.
“It's not something you can achieve just by having a lot of combat experience. It's a sense only those who have fought battles close to death can possess.”
Does one who has experienced a near-death crisis grow accustomed to death?
No.
On the contrary, they come to fear it even more.
And yet, they still resolve to enter battle, prepared to die.
Their experiences were different.
So the weight of their resolve was bound to be different as well.
The phrase ‘born in a different era’ was truly hitting home.
As the hero candidates were lost in their own thoughts.
Kinea blankly asked Karl.
“How were you able to see?”
“Thanks to these glasses. They have a flash-suppression feature, you see.”
“...Don't tell me you planned your strategy this far ahead?”
“That's right.”
Karl shrugged.
“You have to think several moves ahead to catch a ferocious beast, don't you?”
Her vision returned.
She could see Karl's grinning face.
“...I lost.”
“Whoops. Sorry for pinning you down. I wasn't too heavy, was I?”
Karl got off Kinea.
He then pulled on her hand, which was still gripping his wrist, to help her up.
“You... you're an incredible hunter. It's a complete defeat.”
“Thanks for the compliment. But could you let go now?”
Karl wiggled his wrist, still held by Kinea.
But Kinea didn't let go.
‘Is she upset?’
Karl scratched his cheek and started walking back toward Leo, gently tugging his arm.
Kinea followed, still holding onto his wrist.
“Good work.”
Leo said with a smile, and Karl grinned back.
“How was it?”
“That's the least you should be able to do.”
“Wow. I went through all that trouble, and that's all you have to say?”
“You're not a hero candidate anymore. I have to be strict.”
Leo said with a laugh.
“That was impressive.”
Dweno laughed heartily.
“Your ability to read the flow of battle and form strategies is extraordinary.”
“Thank you.”
Karl wore a smug expression.
“By the way, how long are you going to stay like that?”
Just then, Eliza pointed at Kinea, who was still holding Karl's wrist.
Karl scratched his head and said to Kinea.
“Could you please let go now?”
At his words, Kinea tightened her grip on his hand.
“Hey. I think I've fallen for you.”
“Huh?”
For a moment, Karl let out a dumbfounded sound.
“Marry me.”
Thud-!
The moment she heard those words, Eliza lost her balance on her summon and tumbled off.
“What!”
As Eliza got up with a beet-red face, Iliana covered her mouth and laughed.
“A rival for our Lady Eliza has...”
“Pipi.”
Fwoosh-!
At Eliza’s call, a Wind Wyvern was summoned.
With her face still red, Eliza grabbed Iliana by the collar and said.
“Eat her!”
Chomp-!
The Wind Wyvern opened its massive jaws and swallowed Iliana's head.
“Aaaah!”
As Iliana's screams echoed, Leo muttered.
“This has become a problem.”
“Why?”
Chelsea, who had been watching with an intrigued expression, asked with a puzzled look. Leo clicked his tongue.
“Beastkin from this era don't let go once they bite.”