Chapter 22: First-Time Team Battle
Melissa made an appeal for me to allow her to partic.i.p.ate in the fight.
I’m sure in a pinch. I have never once thought of having Melissa a.s.sist me in combat.
After all, based on what abilities I’ve seen so far, I figured Melissa would be more of a production or a.s.sistant type rather than a combat type.
Especially since her abilities of appraisal were so high. If we successfully managed to become master and slave, then I was planning on tailoring her job to something more related to production; it would make a good balance between us.
However, since I so carelessly gifted her a weapon, it looks like Melissa is already thinking “I want to live up to your expectations!” or something like that. I feel like my plan sort of backfired there.
Although, I never did tell Melissa that I only wanted her to use it for self-defense.
「Melissa. I’ll be fine by myself either way. Since I don’t want you getting hurt, it’s fine if you just watch from the sidelines」(Hitto)
「No way, Goshujin-sama! If I did that then I could never stop apologizing to Goshujin-sama! Even after you gave me such a splendid weapon, if I can’t even support you in combat then I am a failure as a slave!」(Melissa)
Aaa~, so it really was the weapon, huh. So that’s why she’s so strangely fired up.
Also, those eyes… it’s like they’re saying “I absolutely won’t give in!”
I guess you could call this Melissa’s stubborn side. Looks like once she decides on something she will not budge a single inch on it.
She also had a stubborn att.i.tude when she asked if she could call me Goshujin-sama.
「Ey what’s wrong! Ya chickening out!?」
……Tsk. Looks like I’m being pressured on all sides. On top of that, the spectators were growing in number and they were growing restless as if saying “Hurry up and start already~!”
Fumu, in this situation it would be dangerous to tell Melissa to be quiet and just listen to me.
Of course I plan on prioritizing Melissa’s safety over everything else, but maybe it would be safer for her to move around rather than being a stationary target.
I looked over Melissa’s equipment one more time.
A wind estoc and the mirage dress huh…… with this she should be able to handle this bunch. There’s also the fact that did learn some swordsmanship, even if it’s just a little.
「Okay then, Melissa. But only under the condition that you act according to my instructions. Can you do that?」(Hitto)
「Yes! Of course! I will be sure to meet Goshujin-sama’s expectations!」(Melissa)
She sure is raring to go huh…… Alright! Let’s just believe in her and see what happens.
I gave Melissa a summary of our strategy. Afterwards she nodded and confirmed the plan with an ‘understood’.
Alright! Now then――
「Oh, ya finally ready huh. We were gettin’ tired of wait’n」
「So, what’s up with the slave Nee-chan?」
「Oi oi, you can’t be serious. That Nee-chan is going to fight too? This isn’t a ‘tussle in the bedroom’ you know」
I’m not sure what’s so funny about it, but they were laughing their a.s.ses off while making vulgar comments.
To be honest, it wasn’t the least bit amusing. But as expected, it seems like they judged Melissa to be a complete non-factor when it came to combat.
「Well then, come at me. I pity you so to start off I’ll take you on by myself」
The one called Second with his belly sticking out was the first one to speak, he started gesturing “come on” with his hand.
Well, I’m fine with whoever you know.
It’s just, what’s up with the archer standing behind you with his arrow tightly notched?
If I’m not careful then I might get shot at, even though it’s suppose to be one-on-one.
Fumu, anyways, let’s a.s.sess our opponent’s abilities. Based on his rank, he should be a basic fighter but… in any case, I drew closer to the opponent before me.
Now then, how will you react――
「Ha! What an idiot! Die, Helmet Crusher!」(Second)
…… Second came at me while swinging down his mace[1], but I took a step to the side and dodged it.
「Ohh. So you were able to dodge my Helmet Crusher, you ain’t half bad」(Second)
While saying something like that, a creepy grin surfaced on his face
By the way, Helmet Crusher is a mace technique―― Or more precisely, it was one of the fundamental techniques of blunt cla.s.s weapons like clubs and maces. It may seem like just a downward swing, but it involved placing all your weight into the attack at the time of impact which caused the destructive power of the attack to rise substantially.
And as the name indicates, it greatly decreases the endurance values of helmets. And though it was called a fundamental technique, I didn’t think there would be an idiot dumb enough to use it――
But, this guy is an idiot. At this point, there is surely no doubting it.
First of all, Helmet Crusher is a technique which always involves you swinging your weapon in a downward motion.
Doing an overhead attack leaves you vulnerable in many places and the motion is large and easy to predict.
Nevertheless, this idiot. He just attacked while giving himself away by shouting out “Helmet Crusher!”
If it was all a feint then I would be a bit impressed by it, but this guy is just too simple minded, there wasn’t a single hint of deceit.
How should I put this, dealing with him just seems so trivial.
In my mind, I can’t see this guy as anything more than a lowly small fry.
Well, I highly doubt that he would do the same thing twice in a row――
「But I won’t miss this time! Helmet Crusher!」(Second)
「Cancel」(Hitto)
He really did it a second time. This guy’s an idiot, seriously.
Geez, this is already taking too much time so I swiftly used Cancel on him.
Since he was 100% confident when he was winding up his attack, once it didn’t go off he was sitting there with a fl.u.s.tered expression.
And, in that instant I took a step forward. I’ll make sure to teach you just how stupid you are. Now, first is the right arm!
「BUHYO! BUHAaAaAITEeYOoŌŌO!」
As the sword in my right hand sank into his shoulder, it suddenly came to a stop.
As I thought, his fat is really thick. But of course I just used Cancel on it and proceeded to swing with my left arm. The blade dug into his underarm and after Canceling that I used Fang Slicer; his right arm holding the mace was sliced clean off.
[Fang Slicer] is a skill where your twin swords intersect from above and below as they cut through your opponent.
Based on that appearance, it was given that name because it resembles fangs taking down the enemy.
It’s great that I was able to pull it off on the first try, but for a Canceller who’s overall physical strength is low, slicing off an opponent’s arm who has such thick fat is no easy task.
Because of that, I first shaved off the meat on both sides before using Fang Slicer to finish the job.
And so, Second who had his arm sliced off was obviously in agony. That is an extreme understatement though.
Letting out an unsightly scream, he used his remaining arm to try and apply pressure to his bleeding shoulder, but――
A right slash from above【Cancel】 A left slash from below【Cancel】Fang Slicer!
「GUGIGIGIIIIGIIIIoIIEEeEEeEEEEEEEEHIIIIGIIIeIIAIIIIIaIIIO”DENOvuDEGAGAGAGAGAAaAA!」
While screaming out his dying breaths, Second fell over and landed on his back with a thud.
Yea, looks like he’s dead. Well of course he is. Having both of his arms severed like that, I don’t think anyone would have survived it.
I guess the excessive blood loss caused him to die by shock. His arms were hacked clean off his shoulders after all.
The vast amount of blood is pooling on the ground and spreading out, you know.
It would be troublesome if it got on my boots. Let’s stay away from it.
「YOU! YOU b.a.s.t.a.r.d, LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO SECOND!」
And, next up was the p.i.s.sed off First who was brandishing his daggers while scowling.
Well, it’s not like it’s very scary.
「Hey Third! There’s no need to hold back anymoree! Kill Him!」(First)
Ahh~ I thought that might be the case. But you know――
「Melissa, Now!」(Hitto)
「Okay!」(Melissa)
The voice of a girl with a brave spirit managed to reach my ears.
Immediately following it was the sound of something cutting through the air. This was proof that Melissa had thrown the knife I gave her at her opponent.
「Na!? y-you, d.a.m.n b.i.t.c.h」
Third raised his voice. And First’s eyeb.a.l.l.s twitched in response to it.
That means that it must have entered his sights. That is to say, he must have seen my precious partner Melissa daringly challenge Third.
「d.a.m.n! Fighting along with your slave too!」(First)
「Did anyone say that it would only be me doing the fighting?」(Hitto)
Although I did originally intend to take you guys on by myself you know. Well, I guess one of the reasons our surprise attack was successful was because these guys also thought the same thing.
「I won’t furgive ya, I’ll kill ya. W-what! This b.i.t.c.h became all blurry, f.u.c.k! What the h.e.l.l is going on!」(Third)
Looks like it worked. He must have focused a lot of his hostility on her. And that’s when the special effect of the Mirage Dress activates.
Right now Third should be seeing Melissa’s figure as a blurry haze.
From the start, I told Melissa to aim for Third who was using the bow.
I said to her that I would somehow deal with the other two, so on my signal she should throw the knife before attacking.
There was no need for the knife to hit. I told her it was fine as long as the knife caused him to focus his attention on you.
In addition to that, if Melissa draws her sword and charges towards him, then she should be focused on her even if he doesn’t want to.
If he did then then his bow’s aim would change to Melissa. And of course so would his hostility.
And when that happens the magic effect of the dress would manifest, and it would confuse the enemy without fail.
She really did follow my instructions to the “T” huh. Melissa should be charging her enemy while using her footwork and dodging left and right to avoid getting locked on by an arrow.
Instead of just confusing the enemy, moving around a lot would obviously make it hard to aim.
Since Melissa is keeping Third busy, there shouldn’t be any arrows coming my way.
Since the opponent is only at an Amateur rank, he shouldn’t be able to use the archery skill [Wide Shot] where you scatter arrows all over the place.
It’s possible that he can use the [Double Shot] skill to shoot two arrows in a row but even still, the probability of it hitting would be very low. No, there’s no way it would hit! Even if he somehow managed to set his marks on her, it would still be extremely difficult to hit Melissa with the bonus magic effect that conceals her figure.
If Melissa went up against Second who I finished off earlier, or even against First who is standing right in front of me, then I definitely couldn’t ensure that she would make it out unscathed.
It’s true that the benefit of having the Mirage Dress is that it obscures your opponent’s sight, but if she got into close combat with an opponent who could swing his weapon around randomly then there’s a possibility that an attack might hit and injure her.
If Melissa’s beautiful skin ended up with even the tiniest of scars then it would cause me unbearable anguish.
That’s why I told her to only go after the archer. In addition, the archer really was an annoyance so putting him in a position where it was impossible to interfere was of huge significance.
I told Melissa that she was actually playing a very important role.
‘I’m placing my trust in you!’ it’s important to make her think that. In situations like this, people can grow several times stronger if they know they are being relied on.
「Now then, what will you do? With this you guys’s chances of winning just got even lower you know?」(Hitto)
「Shatdaup! In that case I’ll just hurry up kill ya and then I’ll go finish off that woman too!」(First)
Once I threw in some words to provoke him, he raised his tone of voice and came lunging at me.
It appears that he’s completely lost his cool, but since First was his rank he should have some really fast movements stowed away in his pocket. He came at me by swinging the dagger in his left hand.
It’s trajectory came from the bottom left and would end up slicing through to the upper right. I guess he was aiming for around my neck.
It looks like he’s trying to end it in one blow, but in that case all I have to do is Canc…… No his aim is――
I raised the sword in my right hand to try and intercept the blade―― but, his dagger didn’t make contact with my sword, it slipped through and disappeared…… Just as I thought.
「You idiot! That was a feint!」(First)
「Of course I knew that, Cancel!」(Hitto)
First pulled a feint and pulled away from me, while my eyes were focused on his blade he circled around behind me while I was distracted.
From there he was probably planning on launching an offensive with an attack from behind, but I quickly turned my head around and threw a Cancel at him when he entered my sights.
My opponent’s eyes were filled with shock. Since it took him too long to react, there was no way for him start moving again.
And since I was a bit worried about Melissa, I decided to end it swiftly.
Readying the twin swords level around my waist, and twisting my body as hard as I could, I began rotating. As if being swallowed by a tornado, it was a sword technique that slashed the enemy countless number of times.
「GI-GIEEEEEEEE」
Letting out an indecent cry, First fell to floor while spurting out blood from his torso that was chopped to pieces.
Naturally, he was no longer breathing.
Nevertheless, this man was much better than Second was. Without yelling out the skill name, he pretended to lose his cool while skillfully using an effective skill.
[Feint Slash]―― That’s the technique this guy used. Although it was called a feint, it wasn’t just a practical technique. From my point of view it looked like a skill that left an afterimage of your previous attack.
And while your opponent was preoccupied with the afterimage, you could launch a surprise attack from behind just he did earlier. Distraction was the true purpose of the technique.
But in the end he couldn’t keep his poker face intact. Once he knew that I was focused on his attack, I saw the corners of his mouth slightly shift into a grin.
That’s when I realized that maybe he was going to pull a feint.
That’s why I pretended to to fall for it instead, and I bet it all on using Cancel when he started his real attack.
And from there I finished it with the twin sword skill [Hurricane Slicer].
Even amongst twin sword skills, this was a pretty high level skill. While rotating around like a tornado you could cut down enemies from all sides.
Well then, I finished of my opponents without any trouble but――
「Haa!」(Melissa)
「Giii! M-My shoulder! Son of a b.i.t.c.h!」(Third)
Just as I shifted my attention over to Melissa, she used the effect of the Wind Estoc to produce a blade of wind that gouged into Third’s shoulder.
That wound sure is deep. It’s probably impossible for him to shoot arrows anymore.
Now then, it looks like the victor has been decided, but I feel a bit awkward having Melissa murder somebody.
I place my beloved twin swords Seiko Kiten back into their scabbards, and took out a throwing knife that I used as a sub-weapon. Aiming at Third, I let it fly.
「Eh??」(Melissa)
The knife crisply landed right in his forehead, and he died while falling over backwards.
Naturally, I retrieved the knife by using Cancel.
Melissa froze in place as she was trying to reason out what exactly happened just now.
「Way to go, Melissa. You really helped me out. I already finished on my end. So it’s our victory」(Hitto)
As I approached her I raised my voice. Since it seems like Melissa realized that I was the one who delivered the final blow, she turn around wearing a bright smile on her face.
Somewhere along the line, the gallery of spectators grew by a substantial amount. They were cheering “Hip Hip Hoorray~” in a grandiose manner.
The way we coordinated our fight, it seems like the residents of the slums really took a liking to it.
Well, whatever the case may be, for me who was mainly a solo player even in the game, my first ever Team Play, it ended in a splendid victory――
Extra TL note: Okay, I had too much fun reading the death sounds, but it’s pretty much a copy paste of the raw.
Extra TL note: I still find all the violent scenes to be a bit strange but oh well. This issuppose to be an action novel anyways. What a strange Christmas present, though. Blood splattering everywhere and such.
1.
TL Note: This was the “Extra Note” I mentioned in the last chapter. Way down the line in chapter 147, the author decided to change the skill “Helmet Crusher”/[Kabuto Wari] into a blunt weapon Mace skill, rather than a slicing weapon skill. If you remember back to chapter 2, Hitto initially used this “Helmet Crusher” skill with his twin swords. But since the author decided to change it, “Helmet Crusher” was changed to “Double-Backspin Slicer” in chapter 2 and Second’s weapon was changed to a mace. (I already made the change to chapter 2 a couple of months ago)
The author seems to have forgotten to change Axe into Mace in the previous chapter so I just translated it as Axe since I didn’t have a replacement paragraph. So if you’re confused why he has a mace now, then now you know why.
Also, the author wrote “First swung down his mace” instead of “Second” in the raws. I corrected it to Second because I a.s.sume it to be an error.