The knight in front. Thrust.
The knight behind that one. He lowered his center of gravity as he pointed his sword at Qualia, and stopped.
The ones on the right and left. They held their swords forward but continued to act as walls.
The last one cut at Qualia from behind.
Everything was mostly as predicted.
“!?”
First, was the knight attacking from behind. With a backstep, Qualia took him by surprise, despite the knight being the one mounting a sneak attack from behind, and he froze completely.
With that opening, Qualia closed the distance between them.
“Does this guy have eyes on the back of his head…!?”
The knight was about to use his right hand to swing a sword that was about as big as he was, but he was stopped at that exact moment, leaving him completely still.
“Buh.”
He was hit in the chin with Qualia’s left palm. One down.
Meanwhile, Qualia swung the photon weapon in his right hand. He crossed swords for just a second with the knight thrusting his sword, before the sword disappeared at the base.
The knight’s eyes opened wide before the sound of metal hitting the ground echoed.
“What? My sworbff!?”
Qualia unleashed a kick straight up with his right leg, hitting the knight’s jaw and making him bite his tongue.
He turned his attention to the two knights trying to sandwich him from right and left, without even looking at the defeated knight kneeling with his face pointed up.
There was no time to counterattack or even block, when the slash from the right came.
That meant Qualia had to focus on dodging, and he did so like he was pulling a ballet pose, as he followed the trajectory of the sword.
The sword lightly grazed his body, scraping some skin off his chest.
“Minor damage. Movements of the knight slightly different than predicted. Using as feedback for the future.”
He said, before turning his body widely to hit the knights with his right foot and right hand at the same time.
That left one knight, but contrary to Qualia’s predictions, he showed no sign of wanting to attack.
“E-eeeek…!”
The last knight took off running.
Four knights were neutralized in less than ten seconds. The fifth knight completely lost his will to fight, as he saw this one-sided battle that seemed like routine work for Qualia.
That said, when Qualia thought back to those ten seconds, he found hundreds of deviations from his prediction. Those deviations led to the damage on his chest.
“When fighting multiple opponents, the amplitude of the results of the predictions is too wide. Will need to be worked on.”
“Y-you’re strong…”
Said the beast person who was crawling before, and was now approaching Qualia.
As he saw the beast person covering his arm and stagger, Qualia declared the results of his diagnosis.
“Detecting moderate damage to your whole body. Recommend healing.”
“Are you worried about me? Well, thank you for that, and everything else…”
“Detecting smile.”
As the relief he felt loosened his expression, the beast person asked a question.
“What’s your name?”
“This individual is named Qualia, and is a member of the guardian knight order Hello World.”
“…There are guardian knights like you too? Maybe this world isn’t completely rotten.”
“Master Qualia! Are you hurt!?”
When Qualia turned around, he saw Ina running towards him with a sullen look on her face.
“Analyzing situation. Qualia’s damage is minimal. No obstruction in continuation of vital activity.”
“…I’m glad it was just a scratch, but… What if it was a fatal wound?”
“The choices made avoided with certainty major risks. Risk of vital activity ceasing was minimal.”
“Hahaha… I haven’t seen such an energetic beast person in a while.”
The beast person sounded a little hoarse when he laughed while watching Qualia and Ina’s back and forth.
“Other than a few that stand above the rest, we beast people are made to do dirty jobs and scrounge for scraps. It’s either that or become someone’s slave. Then again, depending on the master, some of them can lead a decent life.”
The beast person sounded resigned, as he looked at Ina in the eyes.
“You found a good master, young lady.”
“Yes, thankfully.”
The young man wiped the dirt from his clothes, seemingly used to doing it, and asked Ina a question.
“What’s your name?”
“I’m Ina. This is Master Qualia.”
“Ina.. From the point of view of a fellow beast person, you are blessed. Your master is a good person. Make sure to do your best to support him.”
Qualia then casually threw a question at the dog-eared beast person’s back, as he was about to leave.
“Request explanation about your name.”
“My name is Mind. I will never forget you. I’ll repay this kindness one day.”
Mind then disappeared into the crowd while waving his hand.
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Author is bad at naming.
Bruh, its kind of cool. Shutdown, hello world, zero-day kingdom, mind. It fits the theme of the novel very nicely