-35- Trouble 3
The six spectators made s.p.a.ce.
The man in front of me is holding a dented bat in his hands and takes a stance. Taking the bait right in front of his eyes, he looks behind me with a vulgar expression.
Imagining the fulfillment of his desires, he is already convinced of victory and looks down on me.
「Mukou, better give up before you get hurt. In that case, I can have fun without working hard.」
I become more irritated remembering Maizuru"s words than Miyazu"s chatter. With the lid inside him forcibly wrenched open, he is getting terribly wild.
I don"t need to say that I hate Miyazu. I think that he"s hateful and felt like an eyesore. I hate his frivolous att.i.tude. Flattering the strong and unfairly forcing the weak to submit is unacceptable. His half-baked high pride is disgusting. The way he looks down on people is sickening. However, those things are don"t matter.
The reason I hate you is related to Hiiragi-san. I was jealous because you confessed to her. Even though it bit you back since you were rejected, I felt the urge to kill. I can"t forgive how he thoughtlessly change targets quickly if there"s a girl who looks nice even just a little.
Hey, why do you think you can win against me?
His hair, that should have been styled with hairdressing products every day, is squashed flat. There are a lot of small cuts on his face, arms, and clothes like he was cut into pieces. He was slightly dirty like he was smeared with soil all over. If I look closely, I can tell that there"s a stubble growing, he"s been living without any free time to spare.
There"s no big difference in our physique. I am probably stronger in terms of strength.
「You have talked enough, so why don"t you quickly come at me?」
Even cheap provocations don"t work on this guy.
He was made fun of by his opponent that he is looking down on and he seems to be quite offended. With his cheap pride hurt, and while screaming with a hoa.r.s.e voice, Miyazu swings down the bat he held with both hands from above.
Slow.
Since I experienced the high speed that utilized mana, I feel like I got used to seeing it. I completely understand where he is aiming based on his movements.
I block the attack aimed at my shoulder with my cypress pole and counter the bat that comes striking at me by instinct.
Miyazu has a conscience after all. I think that Maizuru is really right on evaluating him as a coward. He didn"t start with an attack aimed at my head. It might be the result of learning from fighting monsters what will happen if a hard bat strikes the head.
Did he think it would end quickly? Looking at how all of the strikes are being repelled, he is slowly losing patience. His attacks are just monotonous and messy strikes so there"s no way they would hit.
「s.h.i.t, why are you not hit?」
Irritated, blood rising to his head, he throws out curses and swings the bat.
A metal bat draws near along the course that is a direct hit to the head, which he himself banned. I intentionally received the hit that is quite capable of breaking my skull if it directly hits.
I hear screams from around me.
Miyazu looks surprised and panics after his understanding caught up. His body was scared stiff and he leaked a questioning voice.
「W, why…?」
Painful. It"s certainly painful but it"s not a big deal. I didn"t receive any serious damage to my body.
If I strengthen my physical ability with mana and expected it, I was confident that I can withstand a hit like that. So I didn"t avoid it.
「Ah hah ha ha ha ha hah!」
I laugh.
As if he panicked seeing me raising a loud laughter, he strikes multiple times with his bat. However, the damage does not go through. His rush isn"t enough because of hesitation and indecisiveness, every blow is really light.
He is startled by the large distance that is closed with just one step and tries to step back. Miyazu"s legs tremble and the uneven ground of the dungeon throws off his balance. I watch him awkwardly retreating as he fell on his back and my mood becomes a bit brighter.
I hit the cypress pole against Miyazu, who is paralyzed in fear and can"t stand up, as he exposes a shameful sight.
He holds his shoulder and screams. I strike the arm that holds it next. I kick his jaw, step on his stomach, and strike both his arms again.
「I, I give, gugyah!」
He blurted out something but I didn"t hear it. Because it"s time for sandbagging.
I broke several of his teeth. He is bleeding from the mouth and sobbing with a swollen face. I messed up the bones of his hands and feet, so I was not sure if he was full of bruises beneath his clothes. I went easy on him so he will not die.
I grab his hair and raise his face. I asked the distorted face.
「It"s my win, okay?」
Miyazu, who can"t talk properly, weakly nodded a few times.
With the refreshing mood of ending the fight with Miyazu, I shift my attention around me. I was being looked at by stiff faces. The only exceptions are only Hiiragi-san and Maizuru. Heidi mumbled a criticism.
「… that"s too much.」
I was carried away. The pent-up anger exploded. I was arrogant. Looking back at the situation calmly, I don"t have a bit of idea why I even did that. Therefore, I convinced myself and swept away the sparks that were sprinkled over my heart with all my strength.
Hiiragi-san handed me PET bottle as a service. I thought that the water going down my throat was really delicious.
「Hibarin, you were so cool. I will collect the points from that, okay?」
After Maizuru spoke with a face that seemed to be happy, she approached Miyazu who collapsed. She leaned over and spoke while raising the corners of her mouth.
「Come on, hand over the points as promised.」
「O, ohay.」
Miyazu replied with a hoa.r.s.e voice, but veins show on Maizuru"s forehead.
「Hey, are you joking me? It isn"t only this little, right?」
「I ahready, used them all.」
After breathing a sigh, Maizuru stood up and kicked Miyazu. She kicks his stomach and face in succession, steps on the back of his hand, placing her weight on it, and crushes it.
Ignoring Miyazu who is moaning in pain, she took out a tantou, drew the blade from its sheath and placed it against his finger.
「Are there really no points anymore?」
She used the knife and asked. Blood flows out from his fingers and the cut slowly deepens.
Exposing his agony because of the pain and fear, Miyzu spoke his apologies.
「Even though it would have been okay if you didn"t lie and took it out from the start, right?」
Saying that, Maizuru pushed the blade and cut one oh his fingers while showing a cruel expression on her face.
She hit Miyazu, who was screaming in pain, with the pommel to make him faint, and wiped the blood sticking on the blade on his clothes.
With a calm expression, she heads toward her party members gathered together. All three of them huddled in fear.
「Don"t be tense like that, okay? Yuuko-chan"s feelings will be hurt.」
Despite her playful tone and joke, there is no change from their nervous and tense expressions. Seeing that, Maizuru breathes a sigh.
「Minami, take out my things and remaining rations of food and water.」
Following her instructions, Minami spread the wrapped cloth that he carried on his back on the ground and started separating.
「I"m indebted to the three of you. So I"ll give you an advice as a farewell gift. You better get the MS detection quickly. If you, Tenri and Sachi, don"t want to die, then decide what you are going to do from now on, okay? Minami, better have confidence, okay? Since you, who cleared the tutorial, is better than Miyazu crouching over there.」
Maizuru takes her luggage from Minami and returns to our side. She looked back like she remembered something.
「Oh right, the four of you, don"t speak about what happened here. If not, the gentle Yuuko-chan might get mad, okay?」
After saying words to hush them in the end, she showed a happy expression and turned up in front of me.
「Hibarin, Fushimin, Heidi. To the three of you, treat me well from now on, okay?」
Maizuru spoke with a really over-familiar att.i.tude and decided to accompany us in capturing the dungeon.
I fixed the bell-colored light in the middle and hold it around.
The party that only had me and Hiiragi-san doubled in members and the points that can be obtained from defeating a monster were halved.
The method of mana utilization that I learned from Heidi made the duration of fights shorter and leads to a great reduction in physical fatigue. When I look at it overall, our fighting strength significantly increased compared to the time when it"s just the two of us, it can be said that we were able to secure a deeper understanding to capture the dungeon.
Mana is a mysterious thing, there is definitely a talent to handle it.
What"s especially annoying is that it seemed like I lack the talent to handle mana needed for melee fights. I seem to be suited as a long distance fighting, but visible results haven"t appeared yet.
Maizuru, who joined as a party member, show that she"s suitable in both distances and learned both circulation and release just by listening to my advice.
Maizuru is very reliable in fights. Her skill is at least higher than me. Like how she didn"t hesitate to cut off Miyazy"s finger, she has no mercy for enemy monsters. She accurately identifies their weak points and kills them.
She didn"t tell that much information even though she joined our party. Her mouth is shut even if I ask what kind of objects are her equipped ring and knife that I sense mana from them.
I don"t know what she"s thinking about. She teases me jokingly. I probably need to ask why Hiiragi-san agreed to let her join as a party member.
My role in the party gravitated as a support more than before. Because of Maizuru, my turn in fights almost never came.
Starting tomorrow, we will enter the area where monsters start to use magic, but will I have my turn?
As I watch the three girls sleeping, I couldn"t help but let out a sigh.