Chapter 107
Chapter 107
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: Crucible of Chaos
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-CRASH!
Ice and all sorts of magic scattered in every direction.
Daio, having transformed into a demonic human, was holding his own despite the disadvantageous three-on-one fight.
Well, it made sense. The protagonist's rival suddenly turning into a demonic human and getting a power-up? There was no way he'd be weak.
Anyway, I'll leave Daio's side to Arthur's group.
"Phew— I don't recall her being this powerful before. I wonder how her mana increased so much; it was quite a struggle to get out, you know."
Freed from his seal, Hex stretched as if refreshed.
Liche, who should have been about the same strength as when she first enrolled, had experienced a sudden growth spurt, increasing her mana. It seemed that from his perspective, escaping had been quite the ordeal.
"Is that... the Hex that Miss Liche was searching for?"
"That mask is incredibly creepy."
"Ah, is this the first time you two are seeing him?"
This was only the second time I'd seen him myself, but I suppose there's a difference between seeing him once and not at all.
Just then, having finished his stretch, he looked directly in our direction and spoke.
"More importantly, you over there. How long do you plan on hiding?"
We were watching from quite a distance, but it seems that power-up wasn't just for show; he somehow noticed us.
"He's talking to us, right?"
"Sir Luke. I think we've been discovered."
"So?"
Even if we were caught, we should just pretend we weren't here until the end.
"Hmm... I know you're there, but you're still not coming out, is that it?"
Hex raised his foot and stomped on Liche.
To be precise, he only pretended to stomp on her.
"To still not react even after I've gone this far... Are you truly human?"
"Naturally."
"Sir Luke..."
"Mister Luke..."
I couldn't see them, but I could feel the two of them glaring at me with daggers in their eyes.
"Well, a guy who isn't even human asked if I was human, so I just answered without thinking."
This guy! He was more cunning than I thought! To say a line that makes me want to instinctively retort!
Hex stared directly in the direction of my voice.
"This voice is..."
I couldn't see because of the mask, but just from his voice, I could tell he was scowling.
No need for formal introductions, I guess.
We weren't on those terms, and besides, Hex and I had met before.
"Hey, hey, if you're going to run, then just go. That was your plan anyway, right?"
"That was my original intention... but seeing you has changed my mind."
His hostility was no joke.
Even from this distance, I could feel his killing intent piercing my skin.
"Sir Luke. What should we do?"
"Can you kill that thing for me?"
"...He doesn't seem interested in fighting us."
That's the fucking point.
I just want to sit in a comfy chair and munch on some popcorn.
Why was he getting all fired up for no reason?
What kind of guts does a guy who's already lost once have to challenge me again?
"Sigh. You guys do what you want. Kill the demonic human and level up, or just watch."
"In that case, we will wait."
"Is your conversation over? Then, I shall repay you for last time's disgraceful display!"
With those words, Hex immediately lunged forward.
A much faster charge than before.
A normal person would have seen it as an illusion of just a smiling mask flying toward them.
-Whoosh!
The fist Hex threw flew toward my face.
-Smack!
It then struck my temple.
The weak point that yields the greatest effect when hitting the face with a striking attack.
It seemed he wasn't just fighting recklessly after all.
However.
"Iron Body."
The impact made a loud noise, but that was it.
To describe the pain, it was like an adult man getting punched with all the might of a five-year-old child.
In conclusion, it didn't hurt much.
Unfazed by my indifferent expression, Hex smoothly retreated like flowing water and spoke.
"Hoo... I felt this last time, but you're really strong. I thought I only had to worry about the Headmaster, but where on earth did a monster like you pop out from?"
"It's partly because I'm strong, but also because you're fucking weak."
"Ha... hahaha...! To say that I'm weak now, of all times, is truly a strange thing to hear!"
It wasn't that the fake Hex was weak and the real one was strong.
The red moon currently in the sky was a kind of buff that enhanced the power of all demonic humans and demons.
So, for me to call him fucking weak even after he'd received such an enhancement, Hex must have been at a loss for words.
"I see. I'll give up on trying to beat you through conventional means."
After that, Hex lifted the fallen Liche beside him with one hand.
Then he held a finger right up to Liche's neck.
"You know what this is, don't you? A hostage. If you surrender quietly, I'll let her live."
"L-Luke! What do we do?! Should we sneak up and attack him from behind?!"
It was Yui, who still hadn't removed her bracelets, who was panicking.
Luna, for once, was silent, as if she had already predicted my next move.
"Ooh-hoo~♡ I don't care."
"What did you say...?"
I said, I don't care.
Why would he think a childish game like taking a hostage would work?
Was he hoping I'd say some cliché line like, 'Tch! You coward! Fight me fair and square!'?
Besides, to call it a hostage, you need to capture something that's actually worth being a hostage. He'd have more leverage if he took my popcorn hostage and said, 'If you don't surrender, I'll eat all this popcorn!'
In the first place, something as frustrating as a hostage situation would never work on me anyway.
"Luna. Footing."
"I would prefer it if Miss Liche could survive."
"That's not for you to say to me."
As if she expected it, Luna naturally created a foothold in front of me.
Luna had grown, and her foothold looked sturdier and stronger than before at a glance. With this, I could reach that guy in an instant.
Ignoring the fidgeting Yui beside me, I threw myself onto the foothold.
As if the air were a bed, I changed my posture to face upward mid-flight and spread my legs wide.
"Tooooh—!!"
"A-Are you truly human?!"
At that, Hex immediately tossed Liche aside and took a counter-attack stance.
It made sense. If he got hit by my attack while playing hostage, he would be the one to die.
Hex probably weighed his options in that brief moment I was flying.
Liche on the left, his own life on the right. He must have figured it would be a loss if he killed Liche and then died himself.
As I've said time and again, everyone prioritizes their own life.
When death is staring you in the face, who would be stupid enough to keep playing hostage?
You know, like in that Conan movie where they shoot the hostage to turn them into dead weight, flustering the culprit.
What I was doing was similar. Of course, my goal wasn't to rescue the hostage; if he had kept holding onto Liche and playing hostage, I was planning to kill them both.
Me, swimming through the sky.
From Hex's perspective, there were only two options.
Evade or counter-attack.
The method Hex chose here was to counter-attack.
"Flying at me in such a foolish posture! Are you advertising that you want to be hit?!"
Well, I'd counter-attack too if I were him.
When your opponent is flying at you in a 'please hit me' pose, who could resist taking a swing?
That's how pathetic I must have looked right then.
Hex pulled back his arm and thrust it forward.
The target: right between my wide-spread legs.
Honestly, even I wouldn't want to get hit in the balls while wide open.
"...!?"
Just before his fist reached my testicles, I summoned a shadow right in front of it to divert the attack's direction.
So, what happened then?
Hex's body got caught in my 'Daisuki Hold'.
"What kind of filthy trick is this?! Get off me!"
Since this wasn't sex, it was not a 'Daisuki Hold' but a simple squeeze.
I imitated that amazing technique I once saw on TV.
Hex, thinking this was his chance, clenched his fist and struck my face, but...
"A cotton-puff punch like that won't do a thing! Aaaargh!!"
Hit me for a hundred days. Could he kill me with that kind of power?
I tensed my lower body, squeezing and creating a vibration at the same time.
"Guk?! Gyaaargh!!"
In this world, there are things that look ridiculous and insignificant, but are surprisingly painful.
For example, the household anti-personnel mine known as Lego, or a paper cut that seems like nothing but deals continuous damage.
"Are you saying you don't care what happens to the hostage?!"
"Don't be bound by common sense."
Fixed ideas are dangerous things that eat away at thought and creativity.
Who the hell said that? That when a hostage is taken, their rescue must be the top priority?
The police? Or heroes? Do you think this is some academy for training heroes?
I'm not a cop, and I'm not a hero. If anything, I'm closer to a villain.
Have you ever seen a villain prioritize the hostage's safety in a fight?
"You know what? Humans are just as bad as demons, if not worse."
The way demons and demonic humans think is truly ridiculous.
They have this mindset that since they're the villains, it's okay for them to kill people, take hostages, and do trashy things, but humans have to abide by ethics and can't do the same.
The truth is, the creature known as a human is worse than any demonic human or demon.
Even on Earth, I saw enough of human depravity to get sick of it.
But in a novel, and a medieval one at that, with its ambiguous laws, could words even express the depravity of humans?
The whole reason demonic humans exist is because people get fed up with the vile creatures called humans and become one, so I don't know why they think humans are any cleaner than demons.
I once again sent a vibration through my lower body.
"Gaaah! Stop! It feels disgusting-gaaaah!!"
"Escaping my technique is impossible!"
Did he think a man rubbing his crotch against another man and shaking his body was meant to feel good?
Of course it was meant to feel fucking awful.
"How's my squeeze?"
The moment I asked, curious about just how fucking awful it was, Hex suddenly let out a scream.
"Kuuuaaaaargh!!!!!!!!"
And then.
"Oh?"
My legs, which had been binding Hex's upper body, began to slowly spread apart.
Even though I wasn't letting up, Hex began to break free from my hold on his own.
"Kukuk... How do you like that! This is my ability! I don't particularly like it, so I don't usually use it, but when I put my mind to it, I can produce even more brute strength than you!"
"Is that so? Then your skill must be delicious!"
"...What did you say?"
"Hand over your skill and die."
I summoned a shadow behind Hex and ordered it to cut off his head.
-Thunk.
But the sword swung by the shadow only sank halfway into Hex's neck and couldn't go any further.
"Kukuk... You can't kill me with just that!"
If I had done it myself, it would have been a clean cut. As expected of the shadow, which only has half my strength, it couldn't kill him in one go.
But in my world, there's a saying.
"There's no tree that won't fall after ten strikes."
"What?!"
If he didn't die in one hit, I just had to keep cutting until he did, right?
-Squelch.
The shadow's sword pulled out of the flesh with a sticky sound.
And then.
-Thrust! Thrust! Thrust!
"Kuk... Kuuugh...!!"
He seemed to be tensing his neck like an oni trying to prevent its head from being cut off, but thanks to that, the strength in his arms lessened, and my hold returned to its original tightness.
"You damn bastard!! I said get off me!! You leech-like son of a bitch!!"
"Hey, hey, stay in character. What kind of clown talks like you? Here, do it like me. Smile~"
You're a pro, aren't you? What are you doing with a straight face? You have to laugh!
I used both hands to pull up the corners of my mouth.
I pulled the corners of my mouth up so far it felt like my mouth would rip if I used any more force, and laughed, "Heehee."
"Stop!! You win, so just stop!! I'll do as you say and run away quietly, so please let me go!!"
"You pick a fight with someone minding their own business, and now that you think you're going to die, you want to run? Bullshit. You're not getting an easy death."
I was just going to kill him, but the way he was talking changed my mind.
Not a chance. When someone picks a fight with me, I'll chase them to the ends of hell to pay them back.
If Hex somehow managed to escape here, my life's top priority would become hunting him down.
***
Not a single finger would move.
In her head, she questioned what was happening and commanded her body to move, please move, but...
No matter how hard her brain worked, it was meaningless if her body wouldn't move.
'So this is what it meant...'
She understood the answer to mana exhaustion.
And why she had said she could never defeat Hex.
Even now, with no strength in her body, a sense of lethargy so powerful it threatened to overwhelm even her one functioning part, her brain, washed over Liche.
Is this how I die? As she lay unable to resist the coming attack, she felt a sense of bewilderment.
Given Hex's personality, she could understand him not killing her immediately, but she should at least be hearing some taunts.
It was strangely quiet.
The only saving grace was that she could at least grasp what was happening.
Hearing.
Her ears, which should have shut down as she fainted, selfishly took in information.
"First, take off that mask, you bastard. How dare you be the only one rudely wearing a mask?"
"W-Wait! Not the mask!!"
"What? Did you glue it on? It's not coming off your face."
The voices came from not too far away.
Both were familiar voices to Liche.
One was Hex. The other, Luke.
Sight.
Through her barely lifted eyelids, she could see the cold floor.
Rolling her eyes to the corner, she could just barely make out the figures of Luke and Hex.
"I'll seal you away one more time, you motherfucker!"
"Gyaaaaaaaargh?!"
"Oh, you're still regenerating? The more you do, the worse it'll be, you know? If you have dozens of arm cards, it'll be hard to draw Exodia later."
She couldn't see the whole scene, but she saw Hex's arm fall to the floor with a thud.
And a wet, gurgling sound.
Of course, if that was all she saw, she would have just thought they were fighting, but...
-Splat. Splat. Splat.
Identical arms kept falling to the floor.
One, two, three, four, five.
Only a few minutes had passed, yet you could probably build a wall with the fallen arms alone.
"Not regenerating anymore!? Then I'll seal the other arm too!"
"Guuuuuuuuuaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Laugh! I'm letting you escape! I'm sealing you with five cards! I don't know when you'll be revived, but let's look forward to that in about 1000 years!"
It was a relentless assault.
An arm fell, regenerated, and the cycle repeated.
'Lu... ke...'
That was as far as she got.
She had been somehow holding on, on the verge of losing consciousness.
But even that had reached its limit.
Fainting in the middle of a battlefield like this was akin to accepting death.
But with an unknown sense of relief.
She closed her eyes.