Volume 2 - CH 29

Chapter 29 : Battle to Death in Holy Dragon Mountain 1

Leaving behind Kyouka, who couldn’t fight, the rest of them were now heading towards the Holy Dragon King’s mountain. Since the Dark Knight was about to leave, he should’ve already met with the Holy Dragon King; they needed to catch him before he left.

「Hey, D*ckhead-kun! Don’t just suddenly use your Light Cannon spell!」

Chiyuki scolded Reiji. He had suddenly used his Light Cannon of Heavenly Might magic as soon as they had arrived at the entrance of the Holy Dragon king’s nest, subsequently alerting the enemy of their arrival.

「It’s okay Chiyuki, he’s not the kind of guy who would go down with just this… He most definitely defended himself from that attack. He’s not the kind of opponent I can afford to take it easy with.」

Reiji’s eyes were looking straight at the entrance of the cave. There, the Dark Knight’s figure stood behind the billowing smoke, which was swirling at the cave’s entrance, completely unscathed.

Yes, completely unscathed.

「N-No way… defending against Rei-kun’s magic shouldn’t be that easy.」

Sahoko covered her mouth in surprise upon seeing the seemingly impossible scene. The same went for Chiyuki and the other girls. They knew how powerful Reiji’s magic was, so the fact that the Dark Knight could defend against it was a reminder of how powerful the Dark Knight was.

（Since the Dark Knight has already come out of the Holy Dragon King’s nest, he must’ve already snatched the horn. Just what in the world is Rena doing right now.）

Rena, who was the initiator of this plan and was trying to trap the Dark Knight, ended up never contacting Chiyuki and the others about the details they needed to defeat him. Because she hadn’t contacted them until now, they all assumed the worst and thought that she had met with an accident; that would be the only reasonable explanation for her absent communication.

They finally realized that they were on their own.

「Don’t worry everyone! We can beat him as long as we work together! That monster tried to kill the citizens of Rox Kingdom! We will never win the battle against Nargol unless we beat him right here!」

Reiji roared a short inspiring speech, encouraging his comrades. They on the other hand vehemently nodded to his words.

（It’s just as Reiji-kun just said. At first, I was hesitant about fighting the Dark Knight, but everything is different now. His faction tried to kill everyone in Rox Kingdom. He’s an extremely dangerous person that we need to get rid of.）

Though she had made sure that they proceeded with caution up until now, this time wasn’t a time to hesitate. Chiyuki was determined to defeat the Dark Knight with everything she had.

「Dark Knight, I have to say that you’re definitely very strong, the strongest we’ve faced if I may add. None of us should be able to beat you in a one-on-one fight. But, I wonder what would happen if all of us attacked you together?」

Chiyuki threw the gauntlet of challenge towards the Dark Knight, her speech becoming the trigger for their inevitable upcoming battle.

「O Wind Spirit, Lighten Everyone.」

Chiyuki and co’s bodies became lighter the moment Rino finished her aria. They could move even faster than usual with this spell.

「O Holy Power, Bless Everyone.」

Sahoko followed right after with her aria, making Chiyuki and the other’s bodies get enveloped in white light. It was a light spell that would keep everyone in their top condition and keep healing them during a battle.

The two of them had buffed their comrades before the battle.

Chiyuki then added another buff to everyone. She enchanted everyone’s weapon with magic, raising their firepower.

The formation they had decided to use for this battle was their victory formation, Reiji being in the middle, Shirone and Kaya acting as vanguard, Nao acting as Reiji’s support from the sides, and Chiyuki and Rino in the back as spellcaster along with Sahoko as the healer.

Without the presence of the dark mist, they could all now release their true power.

Nao was the first to attack with her ranged weapon, an oversized boomerang. Once she threw it, the boomerang split itself, creating air blades that flew in a rush towards the Dark Knight.

However, the Dark Knight rendered these air blades useless with one swing of his sword, erasing them from existence, and struck down all of the boomerangs that came after.

（As expected, he’s strong! But, this isn’t the end!）

Though the Dark Knight had struck down all the boomerangs, he had still shown an opening, an opportunity Reiji immediately used as he attacked the Dark Knight with his sword.

Chiyuki knew that Nao and Reiji’s attacks were synchronized. The Dark Knight who just swung his sword shouldn’t be able to dodge that invincible combo.

「… EH!!」

In the next second, Chiyuki couldn’t fathom what had happened, all she saw was Reiji’s attack slipping through the Dark Knight’s body as if it was cutting his shadow instead of the person itself.

Even Reiji was dumbfounded upon seeing that.

「NO WAY!? HOW CAN HE DODGE THAT? ACCORDING TO SHIRONE-SAN AND KAYA-SAN, REIJI-KUN’S ATTACKS SHOULD BE REALLY HARD TO READ AND DODGE!」

Chiyuki couldn’t believe the scene unfolding before her.

The next one to attack was Shirone, who had already unfolded her wings, attacking from above. Her true strength couldn’t be exhibited in her previous fight against the Dark Knight because they had been in an enclosed room. But now, since they were out in the open, she could completely showcase her strength, which should be even greater than before after endless training.

Her sword that swept down from above approached the Dark Knight at an incredible pace.

But, the Dark Knight simply shifted his body to dodge her attack.

At that exact same moment, Kaya closed in from below with her gauntlets ready. As long as she manages to land a hit even if it didn’t scratch the Dark Knight’s armor, the impact of her attack would pass through the armor and damage the Dark Knight’s body.

But just as it happened with Reiji, the same ending repeated itself, Kaya’s attack only hit the Dark Knight’s shadow.

「EVERYONE―――! MOVE OUT――――!！」

At Rino’s call, the four close combat fighters moved away from the Dark Knight. Chiyuki turned towards Rino only to see a tall girl wearing a pale blue dress standing in front of her as another figure, a thunderbird cald in purple lightning, rose from next to her into the air—they were the superior spirits Snow Queen and Thunderbird.

（As expected of Rino-san. Even if none of our physical attacks can touch him, what about the attacks from two high ranking spirits?）

Chiyuki looked at the two figures of the superior spirits. The number of people who could summon superior spirits was little, so little that even amongst the elves, who had high affinity with spirits, couldn’t summon them as often. much less to say calling two of them at the same time. Not even the queen of the elves could achieve such a feat.

But, Rino had proven that she could do that.

「Please Superior Spirits! Please defeat that guy!!」

As if abiding by Rino’s request, the Snow Queen conjured an ice blizzard, while the Thunderbird released a thunderstorm. The next moment, Chiyuki and the others’ field of vision got covered by a cloud of snow as thunderous blares resounded in the vicinity.

A few seconds later, the cloud of snow cleared up, opening up the scene in front of them—the Dark Knight was still standing up.

「What the hell is he?! Does that mean we can’t hurt him even with such a powerful attack?!!」

Chiyuki couldn’t hide her surprise.

「He dodged all of our attacks, huh. There’s an anecdote I seem to recall of Miyamoto Musashi, he had received a request to slash a grain of rice placed on someone’s forehead, the rule being that he couldn’t slash anything but the grain of rice. The Dark Knight might be able to do that.」

Kaya and the others regrouped with Chiyuki as Kaya explained her analysis.

「What the heck is that?! Are you telling me that he can do that?! What can we do against him then?!」

「Don’t worry Chiyuki-sama. Please take a look, he doesn’t seem to be able to fend off Thunderbird’s attacks.」

「E–」

Chiyuki then took a closer look at the Dark Knight. She detected that his body was slightly trembling.

「 If I remember correctly, he’s been passive since the start.」

「Yes. We can defeat him as long as our attacks connect. If that’s the case, let’s take our time and give him enough small wounds to defeat him. Then at the very end, you can cast a high level spell to finish him off.」

Chiyuki laughed upon hearing Kaya’s remark.

（I was really scared back then in the underground passage. Even though it wasn’t the Dark Knight specifically who did that to us, it’s still the same since it was his comrade. I’ll definitely pay him back for the fear he caused me yesterday!）

Chiyuki made such a resolution as she prepared her high level magic.

◆

The superior spirits’ magic were attacking Kuroki. His defensive magic hadn’t made it in time to protect him from the cold wave and lightning damage.

「Oh crap… in many ways.」

Kuroki looked at his opponents.

Dodging Shirone’s attack was easy. He used to see her doing the same thing so many times in the past back in the dojo. It was still the same pattern even when she could fly. Or rather, attacking from the air made it even easier for Kuroki to dodge her attack.

The attack of the maid girl was sharp. But, for Kuroki who used to face his extremely terrifying master, the maid girl’s attack looked like child’s play.

The problem was Reiji’s attack.

Reiji’s attack was sharp enough to kill a person even back when they were still in Japan, and such an attack only got amplified upon coming to this world—every single one of his attacks were aiming for Kuroki’s life.

However, his attack pattern was predictable, one could even say that Kuroki manipulated Reiji to attack only the places he wanted him to attack.

The basic pattern of Reiji’s attacks was not attacking from the front, rather it was always an attack from his opponent’s blindspot. It was an attack that greatly resembled that of a wild animal’s. Such an attack shouldn’t be possible with an ordinary human’s prowess, but it was possible for Reiji, the blessed child.

Thus, all Kuroki needed to manipulate Reiji’s attacks was to move his line of sight, creating an obvious blindspot for Reiji to use.

「GUH!」

While Kuroki mused, another spirit spell swept down on him.

（Crap, I have no way to protect myself from spirits’ attacks. I might be able to prevent those spirits from reaching me by creating an enclosed wall, but doing that would expose me to Shirone and the others’ attacks. What should I do now?）

Kuroki realized that he was slowly being cornered by his opponents.

Creating an opening and then escaping from this place was the best choice for him right now. But, he couldn’t escape with transfer magic since doing so would mean that he had to leave Glorious behind.

It was then that Reiji and co commenced another set of attacks on Kuroki.

Reiji aside, the fact that the girls around him were aiming for his life too dealt an even greater mental blow to Kuroki. He had truly never wanted to fight those girls.

（Why have things turned out this way? No… I think the reason was clear from the very beginning…）

Kuroki wanted to laugh at himself.

Making an enemy of Reiji meant that you were making an enemy of the girls around him. This fact had never changed, whether he was back in Japan or in this world. This was the only natural result the moment Kuroki decided to fight Reiji. That was why no one had dared to make an enemy of Reiji back in Japan. In a certain way, Reiji was being protected by the girls.

And those girls were currently standing by Reiji’s side. It was an extremely disadvantageous situation for Kuroki. Moreover, he couldn’t reveal his identity either since revealing it would make Shirone hate him. This had forced him to be on the defensive since the very start.

（This mess happened thanks to my useless sense of rivalry. I’m such a fool.）

Kuroki regretted his impulse back then when he had just been summoned to this world.His situation worsened the longer the fight went on. Defense aside, he should’ve counterattacked like in any normal situation, but doing that meant that he had to hurt the girls, including Shirone, which made him keep hesitating during the fight.

He realized that, slowly but surely, he was being cornered.

Reiji and co’s rear guard kept bombarding him with magic from their formation. Those magic attacks kept on chipping down Kuroki’s stamina and strength while Reiji and his companions maintained their peak state thanks to their healer, Yoshino Sahoko.

It was only a matter of time before they defeated Kuroki. And yet, Kuroki still hesitated to attack the girls.

He felt like he was the biggest idiot in the world. The result of him worrying about hurting the girls was them killing him instead.

「GUH!!」

After getting hit by the superior spirits’ magic so many times, Kuroki finally fell on his knees.

「EVERYONE MOVE OUT!」

When Reiji shouted, all the girls who attacked Kuroki retreated.

「What the…」

Kuroki had no idea why Reiji and the others suddenly retreated. However, he didn’t have any time to think about it as a second later he was met with a giant, scorching red ball coming towards him, which Mizuoji Chiyuki had created. He wondered when she had the time to create such a thing as he felt a tremendous amount of mana oozing out of it.

「THIS IS MAGIC CREATED BY COMPRESSING DOZENS OF FLAME AND EXPLOSION SPELLS INTO ONE SINGLE FORM! THIS IS YOUR PUNISHMENT FOR YOUR EVIL DEEDS, DARK KNIGHT! THIS IS MY MAXIMUM, SUPER-POWERFUL, ROARING FLAME EXPLOSION MAGIC!!」

Chiyuki shouted to Kuroki as her magic flew towards him.

（OH SHI*T! THAT MAGIC IS DEFINITELY BAD NEWS! NORMAL DEFENSE MAGIC WON’T BE ABLE TO STOP IT!）

Kuroki felt the danger of Chiyuki’s magic by instinct. But, he couldn’t dodge that since Glorious was right behind him. Left with no other choice, Kuroki released as much mana as possible to form a defensive barrier.

（I have to protect Glorious first!）

The moment Kuroki made a snap decision and formed a defensive barrier to protect Glorious, Chiyuki’s magic had already crashed down on him.

And then, a giant energy storm formed right in front of the cave.