Chapter 130. The Battle of the Strongest (3)
Divine Archer Melia.
A member of the long-lived species who had dwelled in the Great Forest for over a thousand years. A living legend who had once served in a hero party a century prior.
'Could it really be Melia?'
The moment he realized the arrow meant for him had embedded itself in the wall beside his head, Bardos held his breath and stared toward its point of origin.
A distance so impossibly vast that his own throwing power could never hope to reach it.
To his knowledge, only one person existed who could not only strike a target with precision from such a range, but also cleanly shoot a projectile out of the air.
'No. According to the intelligence I gathered, Melia vanished immediately after the recent battle in the Great Forest. She shouldn't be with the current hero party...!'
Even if she had returned since then, the kingdom would have paraded her existence on a public stage by now.
After all, like Berdia, Melia was one of the chosen few, a beacon of hope leading humanity.
The advantages of letting her face be seen in any official capacity were too great to ignore. The fact that they hadn't revealed her meant her whereabouts were likely still unknown.
'Then there's only one possibility I can think of....'
A new sniper was targeting this location.
A sniper whose skill alone rivaled that of Melia herself.
-Shyaak!
At that instant, a single arrow traced a graceful arc toward him.
Its accuracy was such that it would have struck true had he remained still. Bardos leaped aside, evading the attack, and fixed his gaze on the sniper aiming at him from the bell tower.
'As I thought, my own eyes can't spot them.'
And yet, in all likelihood, the same should have been true for his opponent.
But every single arrow that flew in was homing in on him with unerring precision.
-Sh-sh-shuk!
Not stopping at a single shaft, they came in volleys of three. As if realizing that simple shooting wouldn't hit the mark, the number of arrows increased as time wore on.
One flew toward his line of advance. Another toward the spot he'd retreat to in order to evade that first arrow.
And the last one targeted his body in that moment of hesitation and conflict.
'What a viciously persistent sniper.'
Was this how cornered prey felt, exposed to wolves tightening their encirclement?
The thought flickered through Bardos's mind for a split second, and he let out an involuntary scoff. He began ramping up his own speed.
'Prey? Me?'
Even if he had cast off all the responsibilities of the surface world, he was still ranked among the Ten Greats....
And this insolent sniper was daring to treat him as hunted game and try to corner him?
'Insolent brat!'
The moment he drew the smoke from the tobacco in his mouth deeper into his lungs.
His heightened mental state surged, and alongside it, the mana drawn through his body began to thrash violently.
-Crunch!
Bardos swung his short blade, batting away each incoming arrow one by one. Though the task was laborious because the opponent also imbued their attacks with mana, that energy was, by its nature, expended relative to the caster.
The further the distance, the more its power naturally waned.
Even if they infused a long-range attack with mana, overwhelming him through sheer force would be difficult unless they could also harness external energy the way a spell did.
'Their plan must be to increase the numbers and disrupt my focus. But that won't work. I have my own countermeasures ready.'
Yes, the cigarette he had lit this very moment was a substance called 'Blue Tobacco.'
It was a doping agent he'd personally developed from a recipe discovered during an adventure, engineered to minimize adverse effects.
Although it came with side effects like insomnia and appetite loss after use, while active, it granted remarkable mental enhancement.
'Just one throw.'
With his concentration fortified by relying on that substance, Bardos deflected a projectile with one dagger while channeling mana into the weapon clutched in his other hand.
'If I focus and throw it, I can manage at least one...!'
He had already pinpointed the location.
The sniper couldn't be moving from that spot while so intently focused on their shots. If he gathered his power and hurled a projectile, even a throw with limited range would generate enough firepower to pierce through the bastard's skull.
'Good, now!'
Sensing that the moment had come, Bardos deflected an arrow with his dagger, then immediately twisted his body, preparing to hurl the projectile in his hand.
He anticipated the weapon leaving his grasp, picking up acceleration, and then boring clean through the opponent's head.
-Clang!
But right afterward, the sound of a collision erupted right in front of his throwing hand.
Eyes snapping wide in shock, Bardos stared down at the projectile as it clattered to the ground in a shower of sparks.
'What the....'
The weapon that should have pierced the foe's head had fallen before him before it could even begin to accelerate.
'No way....'
Bardos swallowed hard as he faced the renewed barrage that flew at him immediately after. He backpedaled away from the spot, adjusting his grip on his weapon.
'Did they predict I'd throw my projectile at that exact timing?'
And did so without me even noticing?
-Crackle!
At that moment, a fresh salvo began anew. But the feel of it was different from before.
The numbers had increased.
No, the arrows' velocity was being regulated to create that illusion.
Some were fast, some were slow.
It was so elaborate that a later arrow could speed up behind an earlier one, tricking him into deflecting the first only to be struck by the second.
'They've moved beyond predicting my movements. They know exactly how to plunge an opponent into chaos.'
They might lack the destructive magnitude of Ymir, but these were attacks focused purely on penetrating power.
Each one packed the force to punch clean through his body and kill him instantly if he failed to guard against it. And now, with an added layer of terrifying accuracy, the noose was tightening around his throat.
'This bastard....'
Their current ability was already on par with Melia.
But what if this was merely a stage in their growth?
'This one's the real deal!'
Yes, this sniper was genuine.
If they kept up their adventurer activities, they would be more than worthy of inheriting the title 'Solver' after him.
-Crackle-boom!
But at this moment, there was more than one person inducing that sense of crisis.
Just as a familiar crackling noise reached his ears, a bolt of lightning struck down at the spot Bardos was fleeing from, beginning to turn the area into pandemonium.
"Now you've gone and thrown chili powder before running away, you dirty son of a bitch..."
Then, appearing from behind, a red-cloaked woman coughed and closed the distance.
Ymir, having barely recovered her breath from the tear-gas bomb he'd thrown, had tracked Bardos down by sensing the mana he used for concealment.
"I'll make sure to pay you back properly for that."
"......This is driving me insane."
-Rumble!
The instant the words left her mouth, the earth split from where the lightning had struck. And a storm surged upward.
The ruins, already filled with collapsed buildings from the earlier shockwaves, were swept up into the vortex and then began churning upward as if turned inside out.
The moment the sweeping winds transformed into a force that reversed gravity itself.
'Reverse Gravity...!'
Not just a few objects, but the entire area was being overturned. Was such a thing even possible?
But if he knew what magic she had used, countering it wasn't difficult. He simply had to block the mana trying to seize control of his body, resist, then use the debris as footholds to launch a counterattack.
Even if the sniper possessed tremendous accuracy, targeting him would be impossible once the field of view was so thoroughly thrown into chaos.
-Shyaak!
Yes, that was what he had thought—right up until he sensed the danger creeping up from behind him.
'Danger.'
No sooner had he turned his gaze backward than he saw a single arrow slicing through the gaps in the swirling debris.
'This is dangerous...!'
The moment he realized that arrow was aimed squarely at his eye, Bardos's mouth reflexively began to open.
And then—Crunch!
An impossible shot that had precisely cut through the pandemonium struck his head.
Ymir halted her breathing as she watched from behind, seeing its tip burrow into his head and force him backward. Reflexively, she murmured.
"Did we get him?"
No—he hadn't fallen.
Right afterward, Bardos landed on the ground in an unsteady stance. Then he turned his head—the head she'd thought was shot through—toward Ymir.
He was biting down on the arrow that had flown at his head, grinding it between his teeth as if to show off.
"You crazy bastard...! Urgh!"
She sucked in a startled breath, but that instant of pause was met by a ricocheting piece of debris.
A sudden blow slammed into her stomach, making Ymir stagger, and in that opening, Bardos closed the distance, kicking her in the side and sending her crashing to the ground.
"...That was impressive, young lady."
Immediately, he grabbed a fistful of her hair and positioned her body toward the direction the arrow had flown from.
"That archer back there was also top-notch.... If she'd had a bit more real combat experience, I might've been a goner."
As he set her up like a human shield, the salvos that had been hounding him like a tracker ceased as if by magic.
She had clearly understood the situation.
If she attempted an additional shot here, he would simply put her comrade into its trajectory.
"But since you've already lost, a price must be paid for defeat, right?"
However, if she didn't shoot, he would simply end it himself. The instant he pressed his dagger to her throat, Ymir broke out in a cold sweat and spoke, as if in defiance.
"...Hah, normally at a time like this, don't villains start stripping clothes, claiming they're going to violate you?"
"Seems you're trying to use a honey trap to counterattack, but as it happens, I've long since grown bored of women."
After casting off his burdens and descending to the underworld in search of freedom, he had indulged in every pleasure available.
Alcohol, drugs, and sex....
But any type of pleasure was, in the end, only fleeting. To a man who had lived a life where every obsession curdled into disgust, a honey trap was nothing more than a contemptible prank.
If anything, what excited him was not this lascivious body but the earlier fight.
The thrill he'd felt as his life was threatened again and again. That tightrope walk teetering on the edge of life and death—something he'd barely been able to taste even when he was an active adventurer.
"Well, thanks to you, it was fun. Felt like I'd gone back to the hot-blooded old days... but it seems this is as far as it goes."
Dragging this out any longer risked drawing more pursuit; it would be best to finish here and leave.
Just as he was about to pour force into the weapon in his hand, a flickering light in the space before him caught his eye.
A light brighter than the moonlight, brighter even than the fiery blaze consuming the surroundings in the magic's aftermath, yet somehow imbued with a sense of sanctity.
-Clatter!
When chains imbued with that very light burst from thin air and tried to bind his arm, Bardos released Ymir and stepped backward, glaring at the woman who had appeared on the opposite side.
"Hah, this... did I waste too much time after my position was already exposed?"
The ruins had become a chaotic battleground.
A knight—a woman one could only call a holy figure—made her presence known as she strode through the wreckage, her armor clanking at its joints.
-Clatter!
As if following her movements, chains of radiant light generated from the air began to encircle the area meticulously.
It was as if she was declaring every spot she passed through to be her own domain.
"You two bought time well while the surrounding area was evacuated. Ymir. And Heira."
The figure who appeared with that light blanketing the area at her back was a woman with noble, golden eyes.
Ymir committed that sight to memory and smirked, beginning to push her fallen body up.
"You sure took your sweet time. Fighting on the front lines wasn't exactly my specialty in the first place."
With that, Ymir walked past her and left the scene.
He'd half-expected her to stay and join the fight, but she departed without so much as a backward glance, showing not a single shred of hesitation.
Even though the hostage had been released, the arrows from the bell tower had also eerily ceased.
Bardos, realizing that the ferocious battle so far had been nothing more than a stalling tactic, let out a derisive scoff and stared at the armored warrior who'd approached him.
"I see. Since you've got your own long history, you plan to fight me alone, is that it?"
The moment his original cigarette was spat out and a new one was placed between his lips.
Bardos snapped his fingers to light the tip, then quietly spoke through a haze of blue smoke.
"You're brimming with confidence. For a whelp who was still a greenhorn back when I was still in active service."
"...The times have changed since then, Bardos."
"True. That they have."
She had piled up an illustrious career, while he had only grown older and more sickly since those days.
Even so, unable to let the drug-laced cigarette leave his mouth, he smiled self-deprecatingly and faced the woman before him calmly.
"Well, seeing as we've met again after so long, shall we exchange greetings once more? It's been a while, Shrine Maiden of the God of War. Have you been well?"
"Indeed, I am pleased to see you again as well. Bardos the Solver. And...."
A courteous greeting.
And then, the look that followed it—eyes filled with unveiled contempt directed straight at him.
"This is the first time I've seen you since you fell into criminality. Turncoat Bardos."
The moment two of the Ten Strongest of the Continent gathered in one place.
Belieing the chaos from moments before, a heavy silence began to creep into the space between them.