Is This an Item...?
Is This an Item...?
She had seen quite a few scenes of Yor fighting.
The Owlbear, and the time he guarded Yoo Chae-rin too. Clips of the NPC Yor in combat were all over YouTube.
But if someone asked her, "Have you ever seen him fight seriously?" she could only shake her head.
That was because every enemy he'd faced in those fights had gone down in a single blow.
There was no way to get a proper look at his combat strength or his fighting style.
If even an Owlbear was a one-hit kill, what kind of opponent were they supposed to bring?
She'd only had a vague idea that he must be reasonably strong... nothing more than a hazy assumption.
But after seeing it up close like this, she understood. His combat ability far surpassed that vague imagination.
"Good heavens..."
Ha-neul murmured, her face full of shock.
To think he would fight a Great Demon in single combat, and even seize the upper hand.
Having taken part in the previous Andromalius subjugation battle, she knew.
She knew just how powerful a demon who had received a rank truly was.
Great Demons were beings who could cut down hundreds of players swarming them with a single move.
The current Seere did look a little weak for some reason... but still, he was the kind of being players couldn't even imagine taking on.
And yet he was winning against one—there was no way she wouldn't be astonished.
Another thing that stunned her was how utterly ferocious his fighting style was.
"What kind of man..."
He didn't fear being wounded in the slightest, nor wounding others. He paid no mind even as blood sprayed everywhere.
Facing combat head-on, he almost resembled a berserker.
To plunge bare-handed, without a single weapon, into a storm of sword strikes she couldn't dare step into even with her Assimilation Rate lowered—such incredible nerve.
'Does he not feel pain, maybe...?'
The impression was so strong it made her wonder for a moment.
But no.
Seeing how his expression twisted every time a blade cut him, he definitely felt pain.
He simply endured it and took one step forward.
A faint hope coiled inside her.
If the battle continued like this... they might really subjugate Seere.
But that hope shattered before long.
"Halt!"
Because reinforcements had arrived in the slums.
*
Thud- thud- thud-
Knights in combat boots advanced through the back alley. Perhaps because word of a demon's descent had spread, the reinforcements flooding the slums were many—more than many.
I scowled.
'Damn.'
Why did it have to be now.
I'd expected reinforcements to arrive, more or less.
Given how much chaos had spread, someone was bound to have brought word to the guards.
But the timing was terrible. Just a little longer and I might have been able to finish the bastard.
"Seere is here?"
"Where? Where is he?!"
The reinforcements swarming in weren't only knights. Looking past them, I saw people carrying all kinds of weapons walking in. In other words, Otherworlders.
At the news that Seere had appeared, they too had rushed over. After looking around for a moment, they soon spotted this place.
"Found him! There he is!"
"Ohhh, it really is Seere!"
"Me too, me too, please use me as a foot-wiper! Uh...? But who is that next to him?"
"A man...? Ah, can't tell because of the hood."
I frowned. Bloody useless bastards, the lot of them.
As I hesitated for a moment, Seere before me opened his mouth.
"Keuheuheu, child, how about we stop here? As you too are a Manifestor, wouldn't being caught be equally troublesome for you?"
He was telling me to get lost and go our separate ways.
It stung a little, but he wasn't wrong. Honestly, imperial knights were just as unwelcome to me as this fellow was.
Saying the Illusion Sight and the hood made it fine for now... but there was no need to make them pay extra attention to me.
"You'll be able to slip away comfortably right now. After all, most of the attention will be focused on me. So do get away, quickly."
But should I really just let this bastard go like this?
No matter how I thought about it, that made me uneasy. If by some chance I ran into him later and he came at me holding a grudge, it would definitely be a pain.
'At the very least, I need to inflict a serious injury.'
Honestly, it didn't seem likely we'd meet again, but in case we did, I needed to make sure he wouldn't be much of a threat.
Of course the best thing would be to finish him here, but unfortunately, that ship seemed to have sailed.
Damn knights were uselessly quick on their feet.
Luckily, an opportunity to injure him came quickly.
"I told you to back off a little."
The bastard had used his ability again.
"Whoa? My sword!"
Shoo-shooook—
The moment an Otherworlder's sword vanished, a blade appeared in one of the demon's hands.
One sword wasn't enough, so he meant to use two to block me.
And that was a blunder born of his impatience.
Because of it, he had no choice but to discard the dagger he'd held in his other hand.
His ability might be limitless, but as long as he inhabited a human form, he could only hold two weapons at most.
I swiftly rolled my body toward the side where he'd dropped the dagger. Then I seized it in both hands. The familiar grip wrapped itself around my senses.
"Everyone, form ranks! Let us drive out this foul demon!"
Considering the time it would take for the knights to close in, this was probably going to be my last strike.
So I didn't bother to hold back my strength. I poured every drop of mana in my body into the blade.
Shwooooo—
Sword Aura coiled around the dagger.
It was a pathetically crude Sword Aura, but the energy packed inside it could never be ignored.
A killing blow with not a single thought spared for the next move.
With that preparation complete, I immediately swung the sword upward.
Fortunately, the attack landed. Devastatingly so.
Sssssseck—!
"Kuaaaaaaak!"
Along the dagger's Sword Path, Seere's forearm was severed.
Seere's left arm spun through the air before landing far off on the street.
Astonished shouts burst from the onlookers.
"What?!"
"What in the...!"
Their eyes all snapped here.
Before the crowd could shake off their shock, I prepared to make my escape.
I gathered up all the blood I'd shed so far and slowly stepped backward.
"N-Now's the chance! Pursue the creature, everyone!"
A knight who'd come to his senses started charging at Seere.
I approached Ha-neul and whispered secretly.
"Hey, let's book it."
The duration of the Illusion Sight was slowly running out. I needed to have the spell renewed even while we ran, after all.
*
Maybe because Seere drew all the aggro. Fortunately, escaping was easy.
Yor's mark hadn't been exposed in the first place, and everyone was too busy chasing after Seere.
Thanks to that, Ha-neul was able to slip out of the city without drawing a single gaze.
Goodness, she'd had no idea such a secret passage even existed in the back alley.
"Haah... haah..."
Once they emerged onto the plains, she gasped for breath with ragged heaves.
Her heart felt fit to burst. As a wizard, telling her to keep up with Yor's speed was far too cruel a demand.
Eventually, halfway through, he grew frustrated and stepped in to support her himself.
...It was a little embarrassing to be supported by a 'man', but well, their level of ability was so vastly different that she just let it slide.
Honestly... having her body touch his while he supported her had even felt slightly nice.
"Let's rest here for a bit."
As she was panting like that, Yor spoke. Perhaps thanks to his regeneration, his wounds were already almost fully healed.
Yor looked around for a moment, then did something new.
He manipulated the blood covering his entire body, gathering it into one hand just like that. Seeing it, Ha-neul asked, startled.
"You had an ability like that too?"
"Ah, uh-huh."
"I feel like I didn't see it when you were fighting earlier..."
"There were too many people watching back then."
He said that at the time, even the beggars were around, so he'd held back from using it.
The regeneration could maybe be explained away, but if he started openly manipulating blood too, they'd definitely look at him like he was a freak.
Of course, they had definitely already been looking at him like a freak from the moment he engaged Seere in single combat.
Anyway, saying that, he buried the blood he'd shed deep underground. Watching it, Ha-neul was at a loss for words.
'He wasn't even at full power back then?'
Did that mean he still had hidden cards?
Ha-neul thought it was such a shame she couldn't see Seere's level.
Because she couldn't clearly judge whether Seere was weak, or whether he was just abnormally strong.
Though they had escaped safely, Yor's expression was still hardened.
The fact that he'd let Seere get away alive was apparently weighing on him quite heavily.
'If it was going to be like this, maybe I should have just used the blood after all...'
The regret was so sharp it even made him think that for a second.
The bastard knew I was a Manifestor now, so there was no telling how he might use that information.
Still, since the Illusion Sight had been active at the time, that was a relief at least...
'Ah, whatever.'
After worrying for a moment, Yor decided to shove it into a corner of his mind for now.
It was a problem with no answer no matter how much he thought about it. For now, getting home came first.
"Oh, now that I think of it, I brought something..."
As they were resting like that, Ha-neul spoke up again. Her breathing had steadied quite a bit during the rest.
She opened her Inventory and took out an object.
Seeing it, Yor's eyes flew wide and he smacked the back of Ha-neul's hand.
Smack!
"Ah!"
"No—girl, why on earth did you bring this?"
He couldn't help but be shocked.
Because what Ha-neul had taken out of her Inventory was Seere's severed left arm.
Did she have some kind of amputation fetish? Even for Yor, this gave him a bit of a creepy shudder.
"Just listen to me for a second!"
Naturally, Ha-neul felt wronged. She had a reason of her own for bringing it.
Time rewinds to several dozen minutes earlier.
The moment Yor had sliced off Seere's arm, instead of watching that scene, she had been staring at something else. Because Seere's arm had flown through the air and landed right in front of her.
At that exact same moment, a system window had floated up before her eyes.
[Would you like to acquire the item?]
A notification that this arm was an item.
Since it was an item dropped by a raid boss, no less, her grabbing it was only the natural course of action.
If she'd just left it there, some random stranger was guaranteed to pick it up anyway.
Ha-neul thrust the severed arm toward him and said.
"I'm giving this to you. It's a bit gruesome, but... you're the one who cut it off in the first place, anyway. And since it was an item, I brought it just in case."
"...This crap is an item?"
Yor tilted his head in disbelief but accepted it for now.
Judging only by appearance, it was nothing but disgusting.
Come to think of it, they said Andromalius had also left behind his own arm as an item when he died.
They say when a tiger dies, it leaves its skin... did demons just customarily leave their arms behind?
'So what's its ability?'
They called it an item, so surely it had some kind of effect.
Suddenly, an ability came to mind:
The one Seere had continuously used throughout the fight—the power
to teleport an object somewhere else directly into his own hand.
Since this was a body part that had come off the demon himself, perhaps the arm carried a similar effect.
'Fetch me anything.'
With that thought, Yor gave the arm a command.
Shoo-shooook—
Just as expected, an object appeared in Seere's left arm.
One that was oddly warm.
A single piece of black clothing that looked big enough to cover two of Yor's faces...
"Hmm?"
In other words, a brassiere.
"?!"
Ha-neul frantically checked her own upper body.
Strangely, her chest felt empty.