Chapter 31
The protagonist: Aria, descends.
***
Morgan.
Morgan is the third raid boss among the demon executives that Aria will fight.
Among the 97-level players, she was called the newbie cutter boss.
Why was Morgan called the newbie cutter boss? It was none other than her five magic swords.
Kaang───!!!
“Aha! If you don’t kill me in one hit, you’ll never win!”
“H, I already know that.”
Morgan’s five magic swords had effects: reinforcement, vampirism, curse, recovery, and instant death.
The reinforcement magic sword massively strengthened Morgan’s own physical abilities and made every strike heavy.
The vampirism magic sword promoted bleeding from wounds whenever it cut the enemy or clashed swords, healing Morgan’s stamina from the blood.
The curse magic sword absorbed magic power and stamina through the wound it inflicted, converting it into her own to recover.
The recovery magic sword, activated the moment it was drawn, restored all damage taken once every ten times.
The instant death magic sword, swung at a target that had taken 100 damage, instantly killed the opponent regardless of their defense.
In short, it was a boss with a childish pattern that continuously recovered, instantly recovered, and, if dragged out long enough, pulled out the instant death sword.
That was why she was called the newbie cutter boss.
And in reality, I had struggled with her immensely when I first raided her, trying thirty times.
From the start, breathing was off because I was facing other players I had never seen before.
Even when I dealt damage, the recovery magic sword would instantly heal her.
So, when I approached, the reinforcement and curse swords chopped her apart in an instant.
When I kept my distance, the damage was too low, so time was wasted until the instant death sword killed me.
‘That was the worst.’
It was a boss so evil that the phrase “trash game” came to mind.
Morgan was unquestionably a sadistic boss I had cursed hundreds of times.
But this was only a story from half a year ago, when I had just started raising Aria.
Aria, who had reached specs worthy of calling a final boss by the time I raised her sub-avatar Yujia, could defeat all demon executive raid bosses in five minutes.
As proof, I was now exchanging blows with Morgan for about a minute and even had some leeway to scout her openings.
“Hm.”
Kaang!!
Aiming for her neck, the sword that flew toward me curved and came at my head.
I lightly blocked it.
But even so, it was still a general, and the weight of a basketball pressed firmly on my wrist.
Of course, it wasn’t damage worthy of the name, so I brushed off Morgan’s sword, stepped back slightly, and widened the distance.
Morgan, having consumed a significant amount of stamina from the consecutive strikes just now, drew her curse sword and pulled out her recovery sword.
And seeing that scene, and remembering the sword I had just clashed with, I let out a sigh again.
“Hm, that’s strange.”
“Strange? What exactly is strange?”
“You’re much weaker than I expected.”
Grinding her teeth, Morgan was quite annoyed by my words.
But I wasn’t scared in the slightest, so I showed a serious and puzzled expression.
“I expected to hold out for three to four minutes at full power.”
The shortest time I defeated Morgan in the game was four minutes and thirty-four seconds.
It was a record in the upper ranks.
But for some reason, while exchanging swords like this now, my body, Aria’s body, was screaming.
It could end right now.
Aria’s body knew exactly how to act, targeting any opening Morgan threw at me.
And only after realizing this could I understand why.
How could the Aria who had killed demon executives with about five minutes of time kill Morgan in a single stroke?
Because the game and reality were different.
‘That’s why I had been using Aria and Morgan from the game.’
Now the mystery was solved.
And the answer to my doubt came from Aria’s mouth in its optimal form, reaching even her ear.
“I expected a demon executive… but you’re completely weak.”
The moment I spat out those words, it felt as if something snapped from the Morgan in front of me.
She really did have perfect filtering.
***
I thought it would be fun.
Since we were both swordsmen, we could clash swords.
Of course, hers was a blade, but it hardly mattered.
Anyway, until she clashed with her, Morgan had only thought it would be fun.
She didn’t think she would lose.
After all, she was strong.
If they fought, she could even beat Ar, who was evaluated as the strongest among the executives.
Though it would be difficult, in a one-on-one fight, she could win.
Morgan was confident in her own strength to that degree.
That was why she had approached the fight with the thought of thoroughly enjoying herself while adjusting to the skill of this swordswoman she hadn’t met in a long time, to the point of leaving only bones.
‘……Eh?’
But the moment she clashed with the first strike against Aria, Morgan felt something was off.
‘It’s heavy…?’
It should be a blade, not a sword.
She was shorter than me.
Yet it was abnormally heavy.
It was only the first clash of clashing blades and swords, but even that was enough to painfully grasp the difference in their strength.
That was why Morgan, without realizing it, immediately pulled out the reinforcement sword and then the curse sword, swinging at her.
She had realized it wasn’t something she could ignore.
So, to enjoy the fight, she had used the hidden double swords.
And not only that, but she had actively used the recovery and vampirism swords.
It was power enough to reach about 80% of her full strength, enough to easily slaughter decent demon soldiers.
Yet it still didn’t connect.
Hundreds of slashes aimed at vital points, launched without error, were blocked by Aria without the slightest difficulty, as if it were obvious.
Then she came in, prying open the gap in the space between her own attacks with her blade.
Her attacks, fewer than ten in number compared to her own hundreds of slashes.
But one of Aria’s attacks was powerful enough to match Morgan’s hundreds of slashes.
“Aha! If you don’t kill me in one hit, you’ll never win!”
That was why she had pretended with arrogance.
Showing her tenacious vitality through the vampirism and recovery swords.
And while boasting like that, the thought that came to Morgan’s mind was to leave a huge scar on her own pride.
……Should I go all out?
Against some human? Someone I can call the strongest demon executive?
No, that was never going to happen.
She had only been holding back because she wasn’t yet used to it.
Morgan barely pushed that impossible thought of going all out out of her mind, using it as an excuse, and pulled out the recovery sword.
The stomach had slightly ruptured from the strike that hit her earlier.
Even though it had been blocked, the shockwave had caused significant internal injury, so she had to recover with the recovery sword.
“Huu……”
The moment she drew the recovery sword, a massive surge of magic power flowed in, and her body was completely restored.
Exhausted stamina and injuries were instantly healed.
With this, the remaining uses of the recovery sword were nine.
If she could analyze Aria’s combat style before those uses ran out, she could toy with her like a toy and kill her.
Morgan thought that way and tried to calmly observe her, then pulled out the curse sword again after putting away the recovery sword.
Except.
Unless what Aria said next.
“I expected a demon executive… but you’re completely weak.”
Grinding her teeth, the moment she heard those words, she unconsciously gritted her teeth even more.
She was strong, but against some human, did they dare to look down on her, this Morgan?
Some lowly human?
After all, she was an inferior race that would be extinct at the hands of demons.
She was strong enough, but in the end, even 80% of her power would win.
However.
“……I’ll kill you.”
There was no choice left for Morgan to hold back against her.
She wanted to go all out and tear apart that mocking face, that dismissive attitude, chew and bite that head filled only with spirit.
Morgan decided that she would show how much of a snowball the act of looking down on her would become.
“See clearly what the price of climbing was!”
So Morgan gripped the reinforcement and curse swords tightly and rushed at Aria.
“……Cough?!”
Feeling something wrong with her own body that had stopped in front of Aria, she coughed.
No, the cough had mixed with blood.
Purple blood, not red.
Morgan’s own blood.
Why?
Morgan muttered a reasonless question of vomiting.
Then she realized her hand was light and looked at it.
It was empty.
The hand that had clearly been gripping two magic swords was curled into a circle and completely empty.
Why it was empty was obvious.
And at the same time, why she had vomited blood just now was the same reason.
“In the end, without magic power, it’s nothing, right? I couldn’t do that back then, but here it’s possible.”
The two magic swords stuck in her stomach.
The ones Morgan had been holding until just now.
When she rushed at her, she had snatched the ones she had been gripping tightly and stabbed them back into her own belly.
I don’t know what that ‘back then’ Aria mentioned was, but at least one thing I could tell.
Even if she had gone all out from the beginning, she wouldn’t have touched her.
“I’m really… stupid……”
To fall like this without even enjoying myself properly.
How stupid.