This Time It'll Be Different (3)

“How dare a worm like you! Die—!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!!

The twin axes carved through the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠air from every direction, spinning with dazzling speed that belied their weight.

But they were slow. Even without the trajectories visible in Chaos, they were slow enough to dodge by sight alone. The gap between our Agility stats—thanks to Yeriel’s buffs—was a full four stages.

“The unseen hand that seizes the night.”

“Get that pathetic magic out of my face!”

Uwaaah!!

Whether it was because of the Magic Resistance imprint on his traits or not, Lumia’s spell tried to seize him only to vanish without a trace the moment he roared.

Fwoooosh!

Unlike his previous attacks, this one came down with a thunderous crash, like splitting a massive log. A direct hit would mean at least serious injury.

‘I’m not stupid enough to just stand there and take it.’

I twisted aside, then stepped back again to avoid the horizontal sweep that followed his spin. The moment his momentum faltered, I seized the opening and went on the offensive.

Stepping in hard, I brought my mana-infused greatsword down in a powerful vertical slash.

BOOM!

“Kghaaak!”

Confident in his strength, Caric chose to meet the blow head-on instead of dodging. Even so, between my equal Strength, Storm Sword Art, and the enhancement from accumulated killing intent, he couldn’t withstand it. His knees buckled and one hit the ground.

Seeing that, I eased the pressure on my sword and stepped back. The instant his center of gravity lurched forward—

Crack!

I detonated the mana in my arm and forcibly twisted my body downward.

“Hup!”

A low sweeping kick finished the strike.

“You bastard!”

Slash!

“Urgh!”

‘Too shallow.’

Caric blasted mana from his feet, twisting his body violently as he rolled backward. The attack had landed on his back, but thanks to his high Endurance and the Thick Skin trait that hardened his flesh, the wound wasn’t deep.

Bang!

I dashed after him to finish it—only for a voice to ring out from the side.

“For Ron’s vengeance!”

Damn it. I’d gotten so used to one-on-one fights that my vision had narrowed again.

The bearded swordsman—Caric’s comrade—had been waiting for this exact moment. He poured all the mana he’d been condensing into his blade and fired a powerful, sword-aura-like blast.

‘At this rate it’ll hit me square on.’

I twisted as much as I could in the slowed world, bracing for impact… but I wasn’t ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠alone. We had a priestess as well as a mage.

“Sacred light, protect!”

KUWAANG! Clang!

‘Yeriel, nice!’

The massive mass of mana shattered the shield Yeriel had deployed at the perfect moment and dissipated harmlessly.

“Tch.”

While my attention was pulled by the newcomer, Caric bared his teeth and charged. He spun wildly, swinging his axes in wide, consecutive arcs.

Clang! Clang!

I focused, parrying every strike that came with the wind pressure.

“Shit!”

Frustrated that he couldn’t capitalize on his opening, he wrapped mana around his leg for a spinning back kick—

Thud!

—but I’d already read the trajectory and met it with the flat of my blade. The only result he achieved was forcing me back a few steps.

Lumia’s voice rang out from afar.

“The sharp malice that pierces the heart.”

“C-Captain! Hup!”

When Caric’s stance collapsed after his failed attack, Lumia targeted his vital point with offensive magic. The last surviving member, who had been unable to find an opening to intervene, threw himself forward with his shield raised to block it.

“You brain-dead idiots! Stop jumping in against an opponent you can’t even coordinate with and just go deal with those bitches sniping from the back!”

Caric, having lost his composure, screamed with a face flushed crimson.

“They’re just a dark mage and a priestess—what the hell are you staring at?! We can find more women later, so just hurry up and carve that bitch apart!”

“Y-Yes, Captain!”

“Damn it, got it!”

‘You think I’ll just stand by and watch that happen? Lightning!’

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

“Ugh!”

The swordsman flinched in surprise while the shield-bearer was knocked flat by the lightning.

ZZZING—

“Urgh.”

I’d stopped them from reaching the girls, but the strong headache that was the penalty for using Lightning struck me in an instant.

Caric didn’t miss the opening. Spitting blood and howling, he squeezed out every last drop of mana and leapt.

KUWAANG!!!

────!!

“Kghak!!”

“Kgh.”

Even though I’d retreated in time, the shockwave from Caric’s stationary leap slammed into my entire body.

Thud.

Despite his mana being only E+, the reckless overuse of techniques finally caught up to him. Caric collapsed, coughing blood and staggering.

He tried to rise, but his limbs kept giving out. It was clear he wouldn’t be getting up again.

“D-Damn it. You dodged that…?”

‘I thought “leap attack” meant he’d jump somewhere. I never expected him to use it as a stationary jump.’

No, that was just an excuse. I should have thought it through more carefully.

My own body throbbed from the close-range shockwave, but I gritted my teeth and steadied myself. Step by step, I switched to my sword and approached.

‘Wait.’

…Crap! The other two!

I whipped my head around—

“Aren, don’t worry about this side!”

Yeriel had already taken a stance against the charging swordsman.

“I told you—I’m going to become someone worthy of standing beside you!”

“Caric lost? Fine, then at least die nicely, you damn heal-bot!”

Clang!

“Haaaa—!”

Clang! Clang! Clang! Screeech.

“What the—?! You’re not a normal priestess, you’re a monk?!”

“Shut up and die, you trash! Arrow of piercing light!”

Fwoosh—

From the tip of Yeriel’s staff, still locked in a thrusting stance with the swordsman, a bolt of light shot forth and pierced him through.

“V-Vice Captain! No!”

The bald shield-bearer, who seemed to have rather low intelligence, recovered and tried to rush out—

“The black hand that seizes the night.”

—but Lumia wasn’t about to let that happen.

“A-Aaaah. Please, spare me—”

“The sharp malice that pierces the heart.”

Thud!!

⋯

I felt relieved.

At the same time, I felt ashamed.

Calling ourselves a party, yet the moment combat began I’d only thought about carrying everything alone. Even after seeing their traits and praising their hard training, I’d unconsciously believed that only I was special and tried to shoulder the entire fight by myself.

‘You idiot. Even last time, excluding Gaspel, the rest were trash—yet those two still won a 2v3. They’ve been training so hard for weeks. Why couldn’t I trust them?’

If I hadn’t worried needlessly and held back my lightning, the fight would have ended much sooner.

I slapped both cheeks hard, then approached Caric, who was still twitching on the ground.

“Everyone’s dead? Am I… really going to die in a place like this…?”

He was muttering to himself.

From what he’d said during the fight, he seemed to be some kind of mercenary captain. Probably a group of outsiders who’d formed a party to operate outside the city.

“Then where else would trash who can’t even judge whether they should pick a fight die?”

“What kind of monster are you…?”

“Yeah, I’m a monster. A monster that devours scum like you and grows from the bottom up.”

Thud.

“Kghk.”

With his final death rattle, Caric’s breath ceased.

Huh?

A gray light appeared at the center of his body.

‘Absorb.’

Hum.

Ah, because of the Dragon Heart of Chaos fixing my mana at EX, it couldn’t drop a stage?

That was actually fortunate. If absorbing it had dropped my mana stat below EX, that would have been horrifying.

So… basically, getting hit by magic fills up my health?

But if one hit kills me or the damage is too great, it’s meaningless?

I don’t know.

Thanks to the earring, I already have strong resistance to fire specifically, so this would be pretty useful against fire magic.

What’s certain is that if I start tanking spells just because of this, I’ll end up dead.

⋯Anyway, trait confirmation was done.

‘Looking back at how this battle went, there’s a lot to reflect on no matter how I think about it.’

Stop being complacent. Reflect and grow further.

I need to gradually get used to multi-person combat too. In that case, is real battle the only answer?

Either way, I need to become strong enough to dominate even if these kinds of people swarm me in groups.

While I was making that resolution in my heart, Yeriel came running over.

“Aren—!”

Thud.

“Did you see? I did great, right!”

Yeriel leapt into my arms, wrapping her arms and legs around me.

“I’m better at this sort of thing… No, get off now. Aren’s going to get tired.”

“Eung.”

I looked at the two of them and moved my lips.

“You both worked hard. And… I’m sorry. Even considering that I’m the vanguard and party leader, I guess I didn’t trust you and tried to overprotect you too much.”

“Eh? No, no! In a normal party, it’s natural for the vanguard to try to protect the rear if it looks like they’re about to get hit, right?”

Yeriel waved her hands frantically.

“And honestly, seeing you desperately trying to block them when they charged made me kind of happy too.”

Yeriel stuck out her tongue and smiled with her eyes.

“Hehe. That aside, how about it? My changed self? Did you fall for how cool I am? Like this, like this!”

Whoosh. Whoosh.

“Haha…”

Watching her cutely swing her staff around, I smiled awkwardly when Lumia spoke in a gloomy voice.

“If anything, I’m the one who should apologize. Because of me we couldn’t get more party members, so maybe this kind of thing happened…”

“No. These kinds of guys would have attacked anyway if they thought they could win even with equal numbers.”

Someone like Caric wouldn’t have just passed by leaving these beauties alone on the first floor.

This battle was probably inevitable the moment we entered the shelter.

“Let’s solve the party member issue gradually. Alright, enough self-reflection. Let’s farm. Since we can’t rest here anymore, we have no choice but to head to the second floor.”

“Yeah!”

“Got it.”

Ah, right. There was still one problem left to resolve.

“You two farm. I’ll be right back.”

I approached the woman huddled in the corner of the shelter.

Crouching down to her eye level, I slowly met her gaze.

‘Her eyes look like she could die at any moment. What should I do?’

Yeah. This method would work.

“Can you… speak?”

Shake shake.

She shook her head. Was her voice gone from the successive shocks?

Or maybe she’d been unable to speak ever since she tried to tell me to run earlier.

“Then just listen and answer with nods. The five people who were dragging you around are all dead now.”

Nod.

I took the Bloodied Edge out of my backpack.

“If I told you to use this to deal with their corpses however you want and then return to the city to live on, would you do that?”

Handing her the Bloodied Edge while looking into her trembling eyes, I continued.

“You can use it to end your own scarred life, or you can carve up all their corpses. I’ll respect whichever choice you make, so decide right here and now.”

One minute. Five minutes. Ten minutes.

The woman, who had been trembling with her head bowed, nodded once and stood up.

Step. Step.

She walked slowly and stood before the corpses.

Yeriel and Lumia had already finished roughly farming the profitable equipment and belongings, so the men were all in their plain clothes.

Thud.

Blood spurted out.

Thud. Thud. Slash. Slash.

“Huuu…”

Thud! Squelch! Slash! Slash!

“Aaaah—!”

With a face filled with rage, sobbing, the woman hacked, stabbed, and tore at the five corpses until none of them remained intact.

I watched her in silence. After some time, when she stood there covered in blood and handed me the edge, I took it.

“Do you want to live?”

Nod.

“⋯Yes.”

Huh, so she could speak after all.

“Good. Then our party will go up to the second floor once we reach the portal, and you’ll return to the city. I’ll allow you to accompany us until then.”

Nod.

‘Run away.’

That single phrase. That was why I was letting this woman whose name I didn’t even know live and sending her back to the city.

There was that saying about repaying kindness twice over and grudges tenfold.

I believed that if you received goodwill or kindness, you had to repay it.

Especially if it was given when the person was in a difficult and miserable situation.

‘It’s not particularly difficult for me right now, after all. Right?’

I’ll have to repay everyone, including Derick, once I get stronger later. In whatever way I can.

Since I thought this was where our connection ended, I didn’t bother checking her status window.

“Alright, there’s no reason to stay here any longer. Let’s move again.”

We’d won the battle, reflected on our inexperience, saved a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠life, and even severed the remaining chain of grudges.

Just a little further and the portal would be right in front of us.

Let’s go. To the second floor.