Chapter 146: Battle

“Well, Ryo, I made you wait. Let’s fight.”

The smile on Leonor’s face made the word “bloodthirsty violence” come to mind.

“So it came to this in the end …”

Ryo sighed loudly.

“Isn’t it natural? It’s a fun event that makes you happy to be alive, right?”

“No, I think that’s a misunderstanding …”

Leonor said happily and Ryo answered reluctantly.

“Ryo?”

Finally, Abel was able to speak.

“Abel, you should never raise your hand at that. The being that treated the Hero Roman like a child … that is Leonor in front of us.”

“…”

Abel was stunned.

He never expected to meet such an existence at this time.

Roman was stronger than him. He was convinced after actually clashing swords.

The fact that Roman was treated like child’s play meant that Abel would also be child’s play to her.

In the first place, she had been firing stone icicles without letting the other party do anything.

“That sounds like the Hero went to find Ryo? I’m glad. He was born a Hero after all. He needs to be stronger.”

Leonor nodded happily many times.

“And … is that Swordsman an acquaintance of Ryo? I kind of felt that was the case so I kept him alive.”

Leonor looked at Abel and asked.

“Yes. It’s a foul to touch Abel. If Abel gets hurt, I’ll die and you won’t be able to fight me ever in the future.”

Those words seemed to come as a shock to Leonor.

“W-what do you mean!?”

She was clearly perturbed.

(This can be used for negotiations. I thought ensuring Abel’s safety was the biggest challenge …)

Ryo first tried to secure Abel’s safety.

“I promised a woman that I would deliver Abel safely. If I can’t keep that promise, I would have to give my life. So, Leonor, you can’t hurt Abel.”

“Hmm … But I think there is another way. I hurt that person. Then Ryo will be in a rage. And I can fight a serious Ryo.”

Leonor presented her theory while thinking with her hand under her chin.

“Leonor, do you want to fight me at my full strength or just want to beat me?”

“Aren’t the two the same?”

“It’s totally different. If Abel gets hurt, I’ll die anyway. So it will be in vain no matter how hard I try. But if you swear you won’t touch Abel, I promise to fight you with all my might.”

“… That promise … are you certain?”

Leonor squinted and looked at Ryo.

“Yes, I promise. Leonor, can you swear?”

“Okay. That person … did you say Abel? I swear I won’t touch Abel.”

(Hmm. I managed to secure Abel’s safety. Even though it’s a verbal promise, Leonor doesn’t feel like she would break such a promise.)

“That’s how it is, Abel. Abel, please watch from a distance. Do not attack, even if I’m about to die. Do not pull out your sword. Okay? Please promise me.”

“… Okay, I promise.”

Under pressure from Ryo’s menacing look, Abel promised not to interfere.

“Leonor, I have something to ask you before we start.”

“Hmm? I’ll answer if I can answer it. What is it?”

“The Jewel that Leonor just recovered. Is that the cause of the Great Tidal Bore in the City of Rune?”

Ryo posed his question unreservedly.

“Ah, that’s a difficult question to answer. Certainly, as a function, that … we call it a 『Wish-Fulfilling Jewel』, it’s due to a function of that Jewel. But if you are asking if it is something that happens naturally, no. I mean, it is something like clearing away a little trash … or thinning it out … something like that.”

Leonor’s answer was very confusing.

However, it was very close to the hypothesis that Ryo had, and words similar to it came out.

The word ‘thinning out’.

“That is, to reduce the number of monsters that have increased too much in ‘a certain place’, the jewels connect that ‘certain place’ to the Rune dungeon. The monsters that have increased in that ‘certain place’ move to the Rune dungeon. And the humans hunting the monsters that overflow from the Rune dungeon call it a Great Tidal Bore. Is that correct?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Basically, no matter where it is, it should only expel as many monsters as the people who live there can handle. It’s somewhat of a regulator. It seems that there were a lot of them this year though …”

“The chaos in the Royal Capital a few weeks ago?”

“No, that’s different. A Jewel was indeed used … but it was a different thing. I can’t tell you in detail.”

For the first time, Leonor frowned and answered.

It seemed that there were various positions among the Akuma and they had their share of human relationships or more appropriately, Akuma relationships …

“By the way, there were Devils on the 40th floor after the Great Tidal Bore in Rune. That too …?”

“Huh … 40th floor? I heard that we installed it on the 11th floor … Hmm, I wonder if the Devils did something. They are different from the goblins that are sent, they have intelligence. They may have done something … I don’t know.”

“Is that so.”

For the time being, Ryo was satisfied because he somewhat found out what he wanted to know.

“Thank you for answering. Let’s fight as promised.”

“Yup! It’s finally time!”

With a terrible grin once again, Leonor drew out her sword from space.

(Oh, that’s a storage system that uses a subspace called ‘infinite storage’ or ‘item box’ in light novels … I envy her!)

With that thought in mind, Ryo also drew Murasame from his waist and readied.

“Then here I come.”

The battle began with Leonor’s declaration.

“”

A thick pillar of flame approached Ryo from Leonor.

“”

In front of Ryo, an ice wall was created, which grew thicker and headed toward the pillar of fire … and struck it.

The flame and ice collided and mist formed. Their vision was obstructed.

(That Hellfire was the same first move as before. She should know that it won’t work … then it’s a diversion! The real attack will be from a blind spot … behind or above.)

At that moment, Ryo jumped to the left, made one revolution on the ground, and took to a one-knee standing posture.

Sure enough, Leonor landed with her sword in the location where Ryo was.

“”

“”

Ryo intercepted the stone icicles from a close distance with ice spears.

Of course, Leonor didn’t think such an attack would work either.

That was also a diversion.

By diving at the speed of sound, she shorted the distance to Ryo at once and swung her sword down.

Their swords clashed again and again, and it became a sword fight.

That was also Leonor’s aim.

“”

Sudden pressure was applied to the swords that were locked and Ryo was blown backward with his body.

Leonor, who knew that Ryo would offset magic from a distance, shot the attack magic from her sword.

As expected, it was impossible to intercept magic from zero distance even for Ryo who trained his magic generation speed.

Ryo was blown away and slammed against the back wall.

“Geho.”

Blood was mixed in what he exhaled from his mouth.

However, he counterattacked before hitting the wall.

Four icicle lances approached Leonor from the ceiling.

Even if they were attacks at her blind spots, Leonor would deal with them without danger.

Of course, he expected that she would deal with them. The priority was to keep her away.

()

Around Leonor, 256 lines of water were created.

“Here it comes!”

Leonor saw it and deepened her grin.

“”

A myriad of Air Slashes began to circulate around Leonor.

They collided with Ryo’s Abrasive Jet and neutralized all 256 jets.

All the Abrasive Jets disappeared.

In the past, the leader of the Order of Assassins, Hassan, circulated stone pebbles around his body to counteract the Abrasive Jet, but this could be said to be a Wind-Attribute version of it.

It was a similar idea.

Either way, she had perfectly dealt with Ryo’s trump card.

However, Ryo was not particularly shocked.

This time, even the Abrasive Jets were a diversion.

The true goal was to treat his wounds.

It was certain that his internal organs were damaged by the magical attack from zero distance plus the impact against the wall and it was impossible to continue the battle in that condition … he didn’t think he could fight a foe at Leonor’s class with injuries.

He was not that overconfident.

So while he bought time with the Abrasive Jets, he drank the special potion and tried to repair his wounds.

And the restoration was successful.

“Last time, that magic chopped me up. It won’t work twice.”

“As expected … it won’t work once you see it once … this hurdle is too high. I’ll need a new special move each time.”

Leonor puffed her chest and said with a smug look and Ryo answered with a deep sigh.

“Then, how about this? ”

When Ryo chanted, ice walls formed around Leonor with a radius of about 3 meters …

The thickness of the ice wall increased rapidly toward the center, that was, toward Leonor.

“Wha …”

Even Leonor was surprised and tried to make a hole in the ice wall by releasing Hellfire, but the power of the flames and the laminated ice wall were almost the same.

The ice piled up at the same speed as the fire shaved it away so it was disadvantageous to Leonor because Ryo had cast first.

Moreover, the ice walls were approaching from all directions.

She was in a situation where she maintained equilibrium by releasing fire in all directions.

But, of course, Leonor would not let it end that way.

“Don’t underestimate me, ”

When Leonor chanted, the fire that had been emitted in all directions began to rotate around Leonor.

It was a tornado made of flame.

While preventing the invasion of the ice walls from all directions, the tornado increased the amount of shaving and began to push outward.

Finally, it reached the outermost edge of the ice walls and destroyed them.

Ryo remembered Hassan, the leader of the Order of Assassins, when Leonor bested the .

And he remembered how Hassan died.

Even such a master could succumb in the end to numbers.

And what Ryo built was exactly that ‘trap’.

“”

Leonor had just destroyed the approaching laminated ice walls.

While Leonor was destroying the ice walls, the attacks constructed by Ryo were launched all at once.

Thirty-two icicle lances free-falling from the ceiling.

On the ground, Ice Bahn hindered movement.

In addition, icicle lances created diagonally from the Ice Bahn were fired toward Leonor.

To top it off, another attempt of .

All of Ryo’s magical attacks were activated all at once.

“”

Seeing that it was impossible to dodge everything, Leonor surrounded herself with a stone wall.

“ Concentrated activation.”

Permafrost, which froze the entire village of the Order of Assassins, was generated inside the stone wall the moment it was created.

He won … he didn’t think so.

That was a flag.

Besides, Ryo felt that she wasn’t completely defeated.

Leonor was an Akuma.

Somehow, he even considered that it would be impossible to defeat her with just magic.

In fact, the last time he shredded her with Abrasive Jet but she regenerated instantly.

Probably this time too …

The wall exploded.

The interior exploded too.

And Ryo headed towards it the moment it burst …

He saw Leonor.

Leonor saw him.

“Leonor … no!”

It was an afterimage of Leonor, or a split body, he didn’t know for sure, but it wasn’t real.

He instantly turned back.

The real Leonor was there.

And he understood that it was too late.

Still, holding Murasame with his right hand, he held his left arm up to protect his neck.

While catching his left arm being sliced off at the tip of his elbow from the edge of his field of vision … he didn’t think about anything and instinctively slashed with his sword.

There was no resistance and he saw Murasame slice through Leonor’s neck.

The battle ended in an instant.

TLN: Finally another epic fight between Ryo and Leonor