The Iron Bronze Duo
There was only one ally left.
He had already collapsed, poisoned and broken.
And the enemy was overwhelmingly strong.
What that meant was brutally simple.
You die.
You can do nothing.
Just like some cheap, throwaway ending in the middle of some random story.
If that was how it had to end, then why bother struggling at all?
Anyway, if this was the way it had to be—
“Er…”
Those thoughts were shattered by Ahin’s voice, now growing weaker.
His condition was deteriorating far too fast.
His lips, already turning black, spoke those words.
“I’ll draw their attention, so you—”
He still had something left to do.
Unlike his body, which refused to listen because of the poison, he could still use a bit of holy power.
If he activated Heal or any other skill, he could divert the skeleton’s attention.
Then Er could slip away to safety.
Ahin pushed himself up on trembling arms and legs.
He forced a smile that looked completely fake, even though anyone who saw it would know it wasn’t real.
“You go first and call for help. Then—”
“…Then what about you?”
“Huff… huh… I’ll be fine. I can tough it out somehow…”
Don’t lie to me.
Er wasn’t stupid enough to believe those words.
“Why are you pretending to be the good guy when we both know you’re just the opposite?”
“But I’m—”
Shut your mouth!
Er barked, stepping in front of him and blocking his way.
Go rest your body! I’ll handle this somehow.
“But—”
But what?!!
She shouted.
Like shouting would somehow banish the fear.
Like it would magically give them a way out of this hopeless situation.
But she knew better.
No matter what she screamed at Ahin, nothing would change.
They’d just have one more person to die, and it wouldn’t even be clean.
They had to struggle.
If she dropped her sword right now, it was over.
Not just her, but the man breathing hard behind her too.
The thought was so terrifying that she muttered under her breath.
No one… no one will die. I won’t let them. It won’t be like that day, like that—”
At that exact moment.
What shattered Er’s thoughts this time wasn’t the same man’s voice.
A horrifying sound sliced through the air.
At the same time, a rusted iron sword heavy with poison swung straight toward her shield.
She barely managed to parry.
Clang!
A shower of sparks erupted.
Even the scream she couldn’t hold back was muffled.
“Ugh…!”
The power was insane.
It was on a completely different level from the zombies she’d fought before.
This was stronger than the lizardman she’d slain just days ago.
It wasn’t a normal skeleton.
The thing snarled, jawbone clicking, and swung its rusted sword again.
There was no fancy technique, no clever trick.
Technically Er was way better than this skeleton.
But when it came to raw power, there was no comparison.
This undead had been created from the black mage’s mana instead of blood or muscle.
It could fight without tiring, without muscles that would break down.
Even if they clashed right now, it would only get worse for Er as time passed.
“Hng…”
Ignoring the ache in her wrist, Er examined her sword and shield.
Ahin’s Bless was still active.
The faint light hadn’t faded much, so it was probably holding.
She had to take this thing down while his blessing lasted.
It was a monster revived by black magic, and her skill level wasn’t enough.
If she failed, it was game over.
The rusted sword in its grip would take her life.
Then the zombies wandering nearby would multiply, growing stronger from the fresh corpse.
Eventually they’d all rot into something horrific.
Eventually they’d be found by someone else and burned to ash.
Er, a person with that name, would have died in vain.
If she was going to die this pathetically anyway, why not end it cleanly?
“[Bless].”
At that instant, bright light descended onto Er’s body.
When she realized what skill Ahin was using, the rusted sword was already swinging toward the man on the ground.
Thankfully, Er reacted in time.
Before the skeleton’s blade could reach him, she swung her sword to deflect it.
She cried out almost like a scream.
“Ahin! Why—?!”
“What I can do— is only this much…!”
Ahin’s breathing was growing ragged.
It wasn’t ordinary poison.
Definitely the poison created when black magic touched the zombies in the underground mausoleum.
Even Er, who knew almost nothing about medicine, could see he was in critical condition.
Yet he still used his ability to help her.
He knew he couldn’t dodge properly.
He knew it would pull the skeleton’s attention onto himself.
He knew it was the worst thing he could do.
“Stay still, will you?!”
With a body that was already dying, what was he trying to do?
He should never have charged in with a stick in the first place.
Er had never asked him to do that.
Her job was to fight directly.
Ahin was supposed to stay behind her.
Did he really think she was that unreliable?
Was he so little faith in her that he wanted to run away with just a tail of his power?
“Am I really that unreliable? You can’t even take a few steps without moving at all?”
Because she’d blocked his attack, the skeleton was wary and backing away.
While watching that skeleton, Er spat out her words.
Ahin drew in a sharp breath.
The emotion behind the words she said while her back was turned was so vivid he couldn’t speak.
He could only stare at her retreating figure.
When Er saw his silence as agreement, she spoke with a voice heavy with sorrow.
“Yeah… I guess there’s no helping it. You’re too anxious, too gullible, too mediocre with your skills. I get it. You can’t trust me, so of course. That’s why you’re this impatient?”
“No, that’s not—”
“Still, there’s no time. So just hold on a little longer. After all… today is the last day one way or the other.”
Whether she died here or they escaped after killing the skeleton.
This party was going to end right here.
If they lived, Ahin would quit the party.
They’d teamed up twice.
And neither time had gone smoothly.
The first time they thought it was goblins and kobolds, but they ran into a lizardman instead.
The second time they thought it was just zombies, but they faced a black-magic-enhanced skeleton.
Even without her skill level, traveling with her would be dangerous.
So Ahin would look for someone else.
Someone who hadn’t been discovered yet, but possessed incredible power.
Someone who could heal wounds instantly and boost everyone’s stats in the party.
That kind of person would be welcome in any party.
Meeting him in Er’s party was pure coincidence.
He would have been picked up by someone else if they’d waited just a little longer.
Clink, clink.
The skeleton adjusted its posture with a sound of rattling bones.
It glared at Er with eyes full of vicious red light.
It wasn’t an ordinary skeleton.
Even if it had been touched by black magic, this one was smart enough to tell the difference between threats and normal zombies.
The zombies they’d fought before had targeted Ahin only while he was using skills.
After he stopped, they turned straight to Er.
The more she learned about it, the more her heart sank.
There was no way to win.
There was no light left.
●
Clang!
Ahin watched the sword and shield collide and thought.
Er was retreating.
At first she had held her ground and looked for counterattacks, but the longer it went on, the more she just blocked.
There was no choice.
The enemy didn’t tire.
Er was a living human.
Soon she’d lose.
She’d be pierced by the rusted iron and join the zombies wandering around.
That wasn’t a sight Ahin wanted to see.
Er was his savior.
The woman who pulled him, a man who couldn’t find work and was rolling around on the plaza floor, out of that situation.
The woman who caught the guy who had left the temple without thinking, who was about to give up after a few days of hunger and wandering.
Even though he’d suffered because of a crazy person, it was worth it.
Since he was an adventurer, it was an experience he’d expected to have sooner or later.
He hadn’t known it was his first request, but it was still fine.
Er was a person who knew how to give help.
She was the only one who hired him as a party member, even worried about his life.
She had been consistent even before she knew his abilities.
Her kind heart naturally extended kindness to strangers.
She knew she couldn’t let someone like that die in a place like this.
Even though he was a failed priest who often skipped theology classes and had erased God’s teachings long ago.
He knew he couldn’t let someone like that die in a dark, stinking underground.
He had to move.
Er couldn’t handle that skeleton alone.
But he couldn’t move.
Even with all his strength, his muscles that had started melting from the poison refused to obey.
His arms trembled when he tried to push himself up.
His legs felt like they were made of lead, dragging uselessly, with no sign of standing.
She asked him.
“You really don’t trust me?”
And that question appeared in another form right in front of his eyes.
[Can you trust her?]
This was the first time a message like this had appeared.
The status window that only showed skill explanations that sounded like gibberish had never shown a question before.
Can you trust her?
It was a meaningless question.
Ahin held his breath as if pricked by a needle.
Then he answered.
He probably couldn’t move without answering this pathetic question in the message.
“Of course.”
So he had to move.
If he just gave her a little push, she’d win.
Even if he couldn’t win alone, he could win with her.
That was the proof of trust he could offer her.
That was why he couldn’t stay still now.
Cough, cough.
One cough and blood poured out.
She was fighting.
Then he had done his part.
He pulled up the remaining holy power in his heart.
The holy power visible on the ground from using skills in succession.
He thought he could somehow manage it.
So—
[Then, will you form a Bond with the adventurer ‘Er’?]
Without hesitation, he could answer that window.
“Yeah, you damn bastard.”
●
Kwaaang!
The barely deflected iron sword smashed into the ground with a deafening boom.
Shards of stone flew wildly and slammed into Er’s armor, creating small metallic sounds.
Some even sprayed toward her eyes.
“Ugh…?”
At that moment, startled and blinking, she backed away.
The skeleton didn’t miss the opening.
It lunged and drove its heavy iron sword straight down.
Clang, clang!
With the sound of metal twisting, her knee buckled.
After so many exchanges, her body had reached its limit.
The mana inside her sword was fading fast.
The blessing Ahin had given her was almost gone.
Clink, clink.
The skeleton that drove its sword into Er smiled with a rattling jawbone.
It was enjoying itself.
It kept adding weight to the sword as if it was going to hammer her down.
It had no strength left to swing the shield and sword to block it.
Was this the end?
Was it really going to end like this?
The thought sapped the strength from her body.
Her exhausted body sank into despair and headed toward giving up on life.
Well, what could I do about it?
Those words echoed in Er’s mind.
Her eyes filled with tears.
She was completely drained.
Even the skeleton that was about to strike her couldn’t be ignored, and strange characters were starting to appear in her vision.
['Ahin' has requested a Bond. Do you accept?]
It was an incomprehensible sentence.
What was a Bond? And what was “accept”?
But one thing was clear.
Ahin’s name was the clearest of all.
What else had he done?
Since she couldn’t watch any longer, she had to step up.
Even though he was groaning from poison, he still thought he was better than her.
If he could still think that while dying, what kind of person was she to him—
“ER!!!!”
At that voice, she turned her head on instinct.
What was there was a man who hadn’t stood up properly.
He was kneeling on one knee, head bowed, and vomiting blood as he shouted.
“If you can’t believe in Heal, then how the hell are you supposed to kill the king?!?!”
Still the same nonsense.
Sometimes he said things no one could understand.
A man who spoke strangely, like he’d lived in another world alone.
But this time it was different.
He was shouting that he believed in her.
While vomiting blood, with a body that was already dying.
The message that appeared in front of her eyes was the proof of that belief.
['Ahin' trusts you. Do you trust 'Ahin'?]
She didn’t know what this window was.
She didn’t know where it had come from or what it really was.
But there was one thing she could believe.
Ahin.
His name.
The name that had already achieved a miracle for her.
Even though he shouted about money, spoke vulgarly, and had a terrible temper, he—
He was someone she could trust.
“…Okay. Bond or whatever…”
If his trust was false, they would die.
If her trust was false, they would die.
So she had to believe with all her heart.
That he would believe in her.
“Do whatever you want!”
She had already trusted him.
Light exploded from the window with his name on it.
The light that burst from the unknown window struck the skeleton crushing her and scattered shards of light.
The skeleton facing Er was engulfed in flames.
Its sword, which had never been affected by Er’s strikes before, burned her entire body with agony.
Er, who had escaped from the sword that was about to hammer her, looked dazed.
Power surged through her.
The tired body from before was gone.
Her body was filled with energy.
The fading mana bloomed brightly.
Light particles that had been flying everywhere turned rainbow-colored and poured into her body.
It was a joy that felt different from the blessing Ahin had used on her many times.
She glanced back at him.
Even in this situation, he was still a lighthearted man.
His golden eyes curved in a playful way.
He was laughing.
“You idiot…”
She didn’t know who that was directed at.
At the skeleton that was still standing in this situation?
Or at herself, who had been worrying for nothing?
Whatever it was, if she could reach the warm light he had created, it would be okay no matter what.
Even if he didn’t believe in her, it would be okay.
Then she would make him believe.
She raised her sword and shield wrapped in rainbow light.
It was the moment to show off.
So that only he could see in his two eyes.
Thud, thud!
The skeleton that had been slamming the ground with anger lifted its sword toward her.
Dark energy poured from its entire body.
It was full of momentum, as if it was saying that what it had done to Er before was nothing.
Er from a moment ago would have surrendered to the overwhelming difference.
But the current Er was different.
The light she had received was too strong to fall to these bones.
In front of her, the mysterious text appeared again.
[Skill, Strike of Belief and Bond! Divine Cross Judgment—]
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
At the exact moment she thought she heard a man’s shout from behind, the window in front of her twitched.
[Skill acquired. Judgment. Usable in Bond state. Effect increased against undead and demon types]
A concise explanation.
No details on what happened or how to use it.
Like a message testing her trust, Er growled.
“Now you’re showing it?”
If she was going to be doubted, she’d show her.
The skeleton swung its sword as if it was about to cut off her breath.
Er shouted straight at its vicious eyes.
“[Judgment]!”
Her sword glowed white-hot.
She burned the darkness and fraud that had spread through the underground.
Shards of light gathered in one place and struck the skeleton’s sword.
The rusted blade shattered and scattered fragments into the air.
The vicious red light dimmed.
In its place, brilliant light took over.
Like seeing a prism, a rainbow of colors.
Er’s sword split the skeleton’s entire body in two right after.
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