“Sorry Sora, but can I ask you to take on one of them?”
Richard’s question catches me off guard for a moment, but I soon realize what he means, and nod.
There are six experienced knights. Add me, and that makes seven. If I handle one of the crazed bandits, that leaves one knight free, and the other knights will rally around this free knight to take the bandits down.
“Got it.”
“Thanks. But you don’t need to go too far, just buy time.”
Richard leads the way, and the other five experienced knights attack the crazed bandits.
I’m also going to fight one of them… Ricardo.
We cross swords, and I feel how heavy his attack is on my hands. If I let my guard down for a second, I’ll be pushed back.
But I’m pretty sure I can outlast him when it comes to stamina, so I just need to stay calm and deal with his attacks while looking for an opening. But focusing on only guarding might lead him to get too carried away, so I also attack.
I’m trying to break his weapon, but I guess his instincts are too good or something, because he swiftly dodges everything.
There’s definitely technique hidden inside that roughness.
His moves make me a little impatient, but I quickly shake it off.
I look at him and focus. If I use Parallel Thinking too, that should be enough to deal with him.
But as the battle goes on, I start to feel like something isn’t right. It feels like every attack gets heavier and heavier. Conversely, his technique was clean, but it’s getting rougher and rougher. I feel like his movements are becoming simpler and turning into those of a low intelligence monster.
Why? I get curious, so I cast People Appraisal, and then Appraisal.
Crazed Lv1 boosts physical abilities a lot, but ones that can’t adapt are slowly swallowed by it.
Is that what’s causing it? And probably because of that, as time goes by, opportunity presents itself.
Ricardo holds up his sword high and swings it down, and after making it look like I would block it, I quickly pull my sword and dodge just before his sword hits mine.
His sword hits the ground hard.
I’m about to swing my sword too, but he’s dealing with it too quickly! He’s already pulling the sword from the ground.
I activate Sword Rush to increase my speed, and just barely manage to break his sword. I was going for the base, but the sword is broken around the middle.
He tries to use what’s left of the sword to hit me with the handle, but I get close and aim for the pit of his stomach to knock him out.
“Uwaaaah.”
I hear a pained scream, and it grabs my attention for a moment. It’s that and the fact that Parallel Thinking is busy with Appraisal.
I see a knight on the ground, who was fighting… Against one of the crazed bandits.
I sense bloodlust and face forward again, and Ricardo kicks me.
I cross my arms and block it, but it lifts me a little, so my feet aren’t on the ground.
I see a twisted smile on Ricardo’s face through my crossed arms, and I also see him swinging his broken sword.
I can’t block with my sword, but his sword is now shorter, so if I can avoid being hit in a vital spot, I can fight through the pain and counterattack.
But then, my body is pushed to the side, and away from the trajectory of Ricardo’s attack.
And where I was, is now… Hikari.
“Hikari!”
Her small body is blown away, and when I land, I rush to her and hold her.
There’s blood on my hand, and she feels limp.
I quickly take out a potion and try to get her to drink it, but she coughs and spits it out.
Are her internal organs damaged? The wound looks deep, and I’m horrified when I think about how it would be if the sword wasn’t broken.
“Heal!!”
I cast Holy Magic instead of using a potion, but I don’t know if it’s my imagination or what, but it doesn’t seem to work very well.
I can see out of the corner of my eye that Ricardo is drawing near.
His face is painted with sadism… No, that’s the expression of someone whose power of reasoning is gone.
I can feel myself flare up when I see that. But as I’m about to get up, I feel a hand touching me, like it’s to stop me.
When I turn to look, I see Hikari with her eyes barely open. My hot head cools down very quickly when I see her.
I can’t let anger take over and run to kill. If I’m going to do it, I need to think, prepare myself, and do it willingly.
I rub the hand touching me to reassure her, and Hikari slowly closes her eyes.
After carefully putting her down on the ground, I get up and ready my weapon again.
I look around, and see things aren’t going well.
The magic I cast on Hikari is nothing more than first aid either, and she needs actual treatment.
I was panicking and didn’t think about that, but I could’ve poured the potion on the wound. But it’s too late now, and taking Ricardo down takes precedence.
I take a step forward, then another, and after the third, I run and quickly close the distance between us.
As I use that momentum to swing my sword down, he tries to block it with his broken sword. His mind has eroded to the point where he’s not even thinking about it anymore.
My sword passes right by where the tip of the broken sword should be, and easily cuts Ricardo’s body.
Is it because it’s infused with magic? Or because it’s a mithril sword? Whatever the reason, it doesn’t feel like I’m cutting flesh and bone.
Blood sprays from the slash across his shoulder, but Ricardo is still coming at me. Does he not feel pain? He’s like a zombie.
If that’s the case, I need to cut his neck and make sure he goes down for good. I do just that, and after a couple more steps, Ricardo slowly falls to the ground, and doesn’t move again.
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Thanks for the treat.
Brutal ending but had to be done
That’s what she said
At last author show, why MC should kill people when it is needed.
Only problem is, that author is as god, and can make that MC not killing is good thing, when in reality there are situation you kill, or you get killed, or someone else will die (what most MC ignore, that he didn’t kill directly, but indirectly he kill so many people)
His friend shouldn’t have had to go through that for him to man up and do what’s needed.