Chapter 106: Chapter 106: Offensive

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

Author’s Note: This is a continuation of chapter 103. The whole story is in Haster’s perspective.

Making a battle feel fast is difficult…

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With a roar, the [Flame Bolt] came flying toward me.

If it hits me directly, instant death would be unavoidable even for me.

So I raised my left hand; to stop it at losing one arm in the worst case.

“—I’m counting on you, Yuuri!”

The fire power of the ridiculously huge [Flame Bolt] melted the fasteners of the “Beast King’s Claw,” and knocked the weapon away.

But my left hand was still fine.

—The Water Vine Gloves.

The “Water Vine Mantle” we obtained before, destroyed by the Demon Lord, and restored into these items by Yuuri.

With their [Strength] enchantment, the far too solid burden of the impact from the Beast King’s Claws was mitigated by them.

And the [Flame Resistance] the item originally retained was further enhanced, resulting in [Complete Flame Resistance].

Even the impact from the [Flame Bolt’s] explosion should have its heat completely blocked by it!

“Ku… Oooooooooh!!”

The hand I held up blocked the flames like it was a barrier.

What flames slipped through the gaps in my fingers had diffused almost like a shower.

Bwoom, an earthquake-likeimpact. But I’m still fine—so move… Go!

Pushing my way through the aftermath of the flame’s impact, I dashed in the direction the vampire was.

Beyond the curtain of flame was the vampire, whose own spell blocked her sight.

—Losing line of sight from your own technique; that’s a beginner move!

The vampire showed a look of shock when I suddenly jumped right in front of her.

Directing it at her face, I struck with the remaining Beast King’s Claw on my right.

“Gaaaaah!”

With the left half of her face shaved off, the vampire somersaulted along the ground.

In follow-up, I directed a kick at her.

This time, to keep her from getting away, I grabbed onto a part of her clothes and dragged her back down.

I went to go for a mount position right there, but it’s a vampire. I was tossed off by her superhuman strength.

“… Tsk, won’t quite let me land the decisive blow, huh.”

By the time I restored my posture and faced her again, the wound on her face had mostly disappeared.

I guess the vampire’s regenerative power really will have to be sealed away some how.

“How dare you do that to me…”

“Took the words right out of my mouth.”

“But that’s all you can do. Physical attacks aren’t going to do any real damage to me.”

“Seems so. This is my first time fighting a vampire, but it really isn’t effective.”

It’s not that no damage is getting through, but it’s being rejuvenated in moments, and treated like it never happened.

At this rate my endurance is going to be the first thing to give out.

“It’s too late for regrets at this point… I’m going to drain every last drop of blood from you!”

“Just try it.”

“Acting tough is pointless; your attacks don’t work.”

“You think so?”

Come to think of it, she’s never seen me use magic, has she?

I did only use it once five years ago. Well, not like I have any reason to tell her.

“If you want to try testing that, then—“

“Don’t think I’ll keep letting you do as you like!”

The vampire cut off my words, and closed in. Looks like she’s lost quite a bit of her cool.

Just as could be expected of her physical abilities, I didn’t have any time to deploy magic against that speed.

But I’ve taken on quick enemies any number of times. Methods for dealing with them are soaked into my whole body.

“Go ahead and die!”

“I told you I refuse!”

I dodged the claws swung at me, and drew in close. Aiming for the instability of her swinging posture, I throw her, and topple her over.

With her knocked to the ground and unable to run, I blast a [Wind Blade] at her.

Her skin was shaved off.

Her flesh was gouged out too.

But once it reached her muscle, the blade of wind was stopped.

This stiffness of muscle could be the source of the vampire’s toughness.

Her skin was split, and fat torn away; I sent any number of [Wind Blades] at her throat to cut her head off.

“Gofuh, you… Don’t… Get carried away!”

“—Guh?!”

What the vampire released wasn’t a magic spell or anything like it. It was just unrestrained magic power.

Normally, without any attribute or direction to it, it shouldn’t hold any power.

But with the overwhelming magic power released, a physical power accompanied it, and pushed me away.

“Shit!”

I was once again pushed out of grappling distance.

This time magic didn’t come flying. Probably because she knew I could use magic now.

“To think you could use magic too… You made light of me.”

“I didn’t plan to hide it. You just jumped to that conclusion too hastily.”

As expected, because it was a magic attack, the wound was slow to heal. When I attacked with the claws it would have already healed, and yet blood was still running from her throat.

Magic attacks appear effective, but regrettably, [Wind Blade] leaves too shallow a wound.

If I use the high rank [Wind Dusting] then I may be able to cause more severe wounds, but as to whether I could hit someone as fast as her or not…

Plus the attack range of it is pretty wide, so if I’m not careful then I could be caught up in it.

I’m “Immortal,” so I won’t die, but if I’m the only one to die, and my opponent ends up surviving, then she could try to attack everyone who went ahead from behind.

“… I really am going to have to take you down here.”

“Hmph, you make a little wound and you already think you’ve won? Unfortunately, I’m still perfectly fine.”

“In that case, let’s kill you in one go.”

I lowered my hips and took an intercepting stance.

Having her come forward to attack isn’t exactly the best situation, but luckily she’s clearly an amateur in close combat.

Since I took an interception pose, that actually ended up making her feel hesitant to charge forward.

“Hmph, in that case…!”

The vampire held both hands high aloft, and activated an [Ice Sword]. The sword of ice she made over head was practically big enough to be a spear.

She used all her strength to throw it. She didn’t modify the spell for pursuit or illusion.

Both her spells and battle tactics really are still immature… They’ve relied on their powers to brute force their way through continuous wins, resulting in a lack of experience.

“Eat this!”

“Don’t expect brute force techniques to keep working forever—!”

Above the trajectory of the incoming [Ice Sword], and slightly to the left, I create a [Wind Bolt]. Directing it to the right, I make the [Wind Bolt] explode.

The aftermath of the explosion caused the [Ice Sword’s] launch to go astray, and slash at the space to my right.

Having her own magic warded off, the vampire was in shock.

“What?!”

“Should you really be surprised by something as simple as that? There’s more to come!”

This time I again stepped forward.

A bunch of the air in front of me was blown away by the [Wind Bolt], making for low air pressure. To ride on the wind coming in to refill the space, I quickly accelerate.

There’s low resistance air in front, and wind pushing at my back. Those two things caused my body to even further accelerate.

The vampire, being used to my speed up until then, was taken completely off guard.

I closed the distance all at once, and activated my prepared trump card magic—

“—Electroplate”

At the command word, the [Teleport] activated.

The next moment, gripped tightly in my hands was Agni Blaze, sent from home.

Pushed away by Agni Blaze, the Beast King’s Claw flew off.

“Ignite—!”

Reacting to the key word, flames gushed out of the whole axe.

Normally this axe would completely scorch my hands, but… The restored water vine equipment blocks the flames. I’ll have to show my appreciation to Yuuri for reprocessing it into gloves and coming up with this idea.

The flame-covered battleaxe. This thing should be able to cut through that neck—

“You…?!”

But of course my opponent is a vampire. She quickly shook off her surprise, and leaped to dodge the flaming blade sweeping toward her neck.

However, it was slightly too late, and the jump cause the blade to gouge out her chest. I felt her bones being crushed.

She avoided a fatal wound, but that feedback meant I caused heavy damage. This could work!

“Gahah, you bastard—That weapon?!”

From that reaction she must have decided the Demon Lord was the only one who could use Agni Blaze.

But unfortunately for you, Yuuri and I are magicians.

“I’m a magician… Using magic to compensate for what I lack is my main job!”

This time I invoked [Body Reinforcement] too.

Ever since obtaining the “Dragon’s Blood,” my chances to use it have drastically decreased, but this spell was originally my specialty.

Plus by adding [Maintained] to the [Body Reinforcement] spell formula, it has now been remodeled so I can use other spells while it’s still activated.

This way, just like Yuuri, I can use spells while maneuvering at high speeds.

In compensation, the magic consumption is also outrageous enough that no normal person can use it. But my magic power jumped up from the effects of the “Dragon’s Blood” and “Heart,” so I don’t have any problem with it now.

With the vampire off-balance from pain and her forced leap, I caught up and once again swung the flame axe.

With her posture still broken, the vampire extended her claws and moved to stop the blade.

Normally it probably would have ended with the blade being stopped, however—

“[Wind Bolt]!”

I aimed a [Wind Bolt] at the spine of the axe, released, and accelerated it.

Receiving a boost from the directed wind, the axe blade suddenly increased in velocity. I could feel the strain put on my right shoulder and wrist from the forced acceleration, but… Ignore it!

The superhuman strength of [Body Reinforcement], and acceleration from [Wind Bolt]. And in addition, the wind blowing in added to the flames, and the scorching hot blade cut straight through the claws.

Without being stopped, the flame axe continued on to the vampire Claudia’s neck—and sent her head flying.

~*~

Like a rubber ball, the vampire’s head bounced and rolled on the ground.

As expected, regeneration must not be possible for just the head. Deciding that, I let out a big breath.

“… Haa, they sure are a tenacious bunch.”

“I could say the same thing to you, boy.”

I heard a voice from the ground. It’s gotten pretty hoarse, but… The vampire, huh.

I’m surprised that she’s still breathing.

“You’re still alive?”

“Unfortunately. But with my head cut off, I don’t have long.”

“Be at ease. I’ll deliver the finishing blow right away.”

“Well, calm down would you. I’ll die anyway. More importantly… You seriously kept thinking up one complicated plan after another… This is why I hate humans.”

“Creativity and solving problems are what humans are all about, after all.”

On that point, I’m still a far cry from Yuuri though.

“That’s why I fell in love with his majesty. That man is simple… For better or worse.”

“Hmph, outwitting those types is my wife’s specialty.”

“Just how devious is your wife…?”

Coping power, and the power to see through things. Can’t call yourself a sage just by having ridiculous magic power.

Plus, when dealing with the kind of people who rely on power, it turns out just as we see here.

If not for the toughness that vampires have, this battle probably would have been over a lot faster.

“Well whatever… At the very end… I got to have… An interesting… Battle.”

“Gonna die?”

“Yeah.”

“… We’ll send your master along soon enough.”

“Hahah, that’s… Great. I look… Forward to it…”

With those as her last words, the vampire Claudia turned to dust.

“Now then, that took a bit of time, but… Guess I should follow everyone…”

Just as I turned toward the stairs, I started feeling dizzy.

This is the feeling of magic power depletion. The consumption on the new version of [Body Reinforcement] is harsh. Plus there’s the strain on my body from the forced high speed maneuvering…

I dropped to my knees to catch my breath. But no matter how much time passes, my breathing doesn’t slow down.

As if I had anemia, my vision was getting dark, and my mind hazy.

“This is bad… Is this what Yuuri calls… A “blackout”?”

That last acceleration must have made the blood in my head slosh from the front to the back. If the battle kept going like that, it would have been dangerous.

Guess I was lucky the blood vessels in my brain didn’t rupture, huh?

I sure did overdo it. Just as I was making myself aware of that, my entire body was met with pain.

In particular my ankle, right shoulder, plus the pain in my right wrist were awful. This is the price for that last forceful acceleration.

“Sorry, Yuuri… Looks like I’m gonna be… A little late.”

And just like that, I collapsed to the floor.