The moment I take down Ricardo, I feel a sound like a fanfare playing in my head.
I wonder what that’s about, but I need to do what must be done now. I knead magic energy, and get ten Fire Arrows ready.
They look like ten red spears hovering in the air, and it feels weird that they don’t feel hot even though they’re so close to me.
I fire them with the help of Parallel Thinking, and they fly towards five bandits.
Three either dodge or smack them down, but the other two are hit.
But even though they’re covered in flames, they’re still moving in to attack, so I get close to finish them with slashes.
“S-Sora?”
“Support and heal!”
Richard is surprised, but I throw him an item bag with various potions inside.
“T-thanks.”
Richard runs to a knight near him that’s on the ground, and I run in the opposite direction.
Then I slash someone’s back diagonally, and end a life no questions asked.
I feel nauseous, but as the bandit falls, I see the face of a surprised knight, and hold it back.
I’m really not used to killing people, but strangely enough, I feel less repulsed by it than I would expect.
Then, I hear another scream rip through the battlefield.
I turn to look, and see a bandit was hit on the top of the head, and is spraying flesh and blood.
A knight that saw that up close screams, and a man runs past the bandit that was just killed and swings his sword horizontally at him.
The knight quickly blocks with both his sword and his shield, but the sword breaks, the shield is crushed, and the big man is blown back.
Everyone quiets down after seeing that. It’s like time is standing still. And it stays like this until that bandit laughs triumphantly, breaking the silence.
Name – (Gonza) / Job – (Criminal slave) / Level – (53) / Race – (Half demon) / Condition – (Crazed Lv2)
He looks half insane, but I see what looks like reasoning power behind his eyes.
He looks around the battlefield like he’s calmly surveying the situation. That man, Gonza, locks eyes with me, and I immediately hold up my sword and swing it despite no one being in front of me.
And even though there was no one there, the next moment, Gonza is here holding up his sword.
“Heh. Good instincts.”
We’re more or less evenly matched in terms of power, but his speed is no joke.
I doubt I’d be able to handle it without Parallel Thinking.
“But can you keep up with this!?”
First the triumphant yell, now this. Is he just crazy for battle?
And he seems to be missing the vital organs in a weird way.
It’s like he’s piling on the damage without going for fatal attacks. Basically, like he’s playing with me. Is his goal to slowly weaken his opponents to torture them?
He’s doing this even though there are enemies, the knights, around.
This is no joke. I try to attack when I see an opening, but he dodges perfectly.
In the end of this intense back and forth, I take some distance.
His stamina doesn’t last forever either, and I see him composing his breathing.
Meanwhile, I keep a close eye on him as I think back to what I saw earlier with Appraisal.
Two things stick out to me. First, is Crazed Lv2. Maybe I’m wrong, but I get the feeling that he leveled up because he killed one of the crazed bandits. I can’t think of any other reason.
The second, is that it says he’s a half demon. I’m pretty sure it said human the last time I checked. It changed suddenly. Is that an effect of the Crazed status?
I think about it that far, until I realize that this information isn’t going to help me defeat him. And that’s what I need to focus on.
I check my status, and wonder if I should change jobs to Warrior. But then Space-Time Magic would become unusable.
It’s already hard to use with the job I have now.
It’s because I’m infusing mithril with magic energy while I fight, but there’s something ominous about his sword too. It makes sense, after casting Appraisal.
Since we’re more or less even in terms of strength, I figure the best option could be to attack while using Gravity Magic, but I can’t see it going in any other way than him dodging it.
Every time I use Swordslash, he jumps back and dodges it. Are his instincts just that good? Is he used to fighting…
But then, I notice something on my stats. That wasn’t there before.
“This…”
But just as I start to think about it, I sense danger and swing my sword sideways.
A metallic sound echoes, and sparks fly as the swords clash.
“Hey hey, what are you looking at!? Taking it easy, aren’t we!?”
What’s he talking about? That attack was a little slow too. Did he do that on purpose so I would block it?
Next, he kicks me. I block it with the bottom of my foot, and use the momentum to run back. But Gonza sees that, and dashes to close the distance again.
What now? I’m being pushed into doing nothing but defend. I want to check what I saw before too.
And I’m also concerned about Hikari. I did what amounts to first aid, but her condition was really bad. I want to treat her properly, and just as I’m thinking that, an idea pops into my mind.
I don’t know if it’ll work, but it’s worth trying.
The moment I land, I lunge forward with my sword sticking out. Gonza sweeps it away with the flat of his, and flows into holding up his sword to slash at me.
I can’t let him do that, so I take a step forward to get close to him.
And then I touch Gonza with my free hand and chant.
“Recovery!”
That brings his Crazed status to level one.
I don’t let that chance get away, and push Gonza with my shoulder, before using the space that creates to swing my sword.
Gonza blocks it by using his sword as a shield, and this time it’s him who uses momentum to get away.
When he lands, he starts moving his body like he feels there’s something wrong with it.
But then he tilts his head, like he can’t figure out what it is.
That makes sense. The Crazed status condition is back to level two.
But I take advantage of this opening to check what I saw earlier, and a few new skills are displayed in front of me.
Before, he attacked me because he saw my eyes move, so this time I try to be more subtle.
NEW
(MP Consumption Reduction Lv1)
It has the effect to lower MP consumption every time I use magic.
That gives me more leeway when I use magic, but I need to recover MP first.
I take out a throwing knife, and prepare to put an end to this fight.
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The crazed status condition is back to level one.
Should be this instead of 2. Thx for chapter. I wonder if mp reduction is only 1 he got it mentions learn a few skills I guess we will find out after the fight m. I wonder what triggered it maybe killing a person or is it someone crazed that triggered it
Thanks for the treat.
Thanks for the chapter!
PS “I knead magic energy”