Translation: Eisen
Editor: Weasalopes
He"s probably going to attack with a flurry of thrusts.
『Leg Sweep!』
『Double Thrust!』
That"s the same combo as before.
But this time it"s different.
Instead of heading down, his attacks are more frontal.
I jump to avoid the sweep, blocking the thrusts with my staff while
This time, my blocking is a bit off, and my staff gets sent flying.
But the fight still goes on.
「Whirlwind!」
I fire off my spell at the fisherman at point-blank range.
And Goki approaches the fisherman from my side.
He has a sword in one hand and a hatchet in the other one, dual-wielding style.
I see Goki drive his hatchet into the fisherman"s torso, as if he was trying to carve a deep hole in it.
But he seems able to fight even after taking such a blow!
Hey!
What kind of monster are you?
Is the fisherman that is now in front of me like that too?
Scary!
I"d like to be done with these harpoon-wielding fishermen.
But I"m met with an unexpected counterattack.
A slap on the side of my face.
I somehow avoid it, but a tackle soon follows.
Wait, is it an upward strike?
Then a headb.u.t.t.
Just avoiding those takes a lot of effort.
This fisherman is not holding his harpoon.
What"s with these attacks?
Oh, I see!
It"s sumo wrestling.
The fisherman crouches and bends his back.
It"s nothing like the pose you see football players do.
He seems to have done some thorough leg-stretching training.
There"s no time to lose.
I have to stop his charge and swing him down.
I have no time to take out my tonfas.
But I guess it"s better this way.
I a.s.sume a defensive position and somehow endure his a.s.sault.
Though it seems he"s forced me to step back a little.
Press when the opponent pulls, and press when they press.
This is not just a random whim.
This is a representation of a higher art.
Backstep is effective in battles with weapons, but is disadvantageous if you don"t use them.
The basics behind unarmed fighting are insteps to get close to the opponent"s chest, or sidestepping to avoid blows.
But a combination of slaps and hits to the face won"t allow for such movement.
It"s dangerous to fall straight back.
So I advance directly to the front.
I"m aiming at his feet.
I slide so I"m right under him, and hold his right ankle aside, aiming for a spiral guard, just like you"d do in jiu jitsu.
I kick his left knee from below, and then kick him in the crotch.
Yeah,
In the crotch.
I can see his body has stiffened for a short moment.
I twist his right ankle, then I sweep his left foot, forcing him to roll on the ground.
But when I get up, a lance sweeps over my head.
Another fisherman has intervened.
Right.
This is a group battle.
It"s very risky to use pinning techniques to prevent your opponents from moving.
This other fisherman gets attacked from behind his back by Goki"s sword.
The attack brings him closer to me.
I hit his belly with my right elbow.
Then I hit his chin with the bottom of my left hand"s palm.
Then I punch him in the jaw with my right hand.
However, my right hand is holding a Gale Tiger Push Dagger.
I can feel it piercing into his flesh a little.
Then I scratch.
Goki attacks the back of the fisherman"s head with his hatchet.
Then follows with an attack with his sword, but the attack doesn"t reach its target.
The other fisherman had stood up before either of us noticed, hitting Goki hard with one of his sumo slaps.
I had thought that they will continue to attack, but they seem to be stepping back.
The sumo fisherman, who was once unarmed, is now holding a harpoon.
『Aqua Heal!』
「Fire Heal!」
The rear guard sorcerer heals the fisherman whose HP has been reduced to less than half.
I"m restoring Rig with my Fire Heal.
Then Rig crawls up to Senki"s back
To my left side I have Goki and Jericho.
And to my right side, I have Volff, Senki, and Rig.
The other team a.s.sumes a defensive position so as to protect their Sorcerer at the corner of the matchgrounds.
All of them have visible wounds, and their HP bars are far from full.
The same goes for us.
Jericho and Senki are the ones that have been hurt the most.
Their spells can be heard again.
I grab one of the tonfas set on my back with my left hand.
The Monster Summons are slowly closing into their corner, completely surrounding the other team.
「Vibration!」
「Gwaaahhh!」
All of their spells are canceled.
Then, taking Volff"s Threaten as a signal, Jericho rushes on the vanguard.
I"m going, too.
Senki and Rig, Volff, and Goki follow as well, performing parallel a.s.saults on their ends.
Jericho gets stabbed by a harpoon, but soon uses his Liquefaction and gets close to the Sorcerer.
Senki attacks the fishermen at the vanguard.
Jericho pushes the Sorcerer and the Hunter out of the matchgrounds, making it game over for both of them.
Volff sinks his teeth into the Treasure Hunter"s throat.
The three fishermen at the vanguard are very persistent, but that won"t last long.
They are completely outnumbered.
Still they try to focus their attacks on me.
「Volcanic Shot!」
I use my spell to counter the last fishermen"s a.s.sault, and then kick him in his abdomen.
Then I attack the side of his head with my tonfa, bringing all of their HPs down to zero.
It"s finally over.
Whew, they"ve been more persistent than any foe I"ve faced before!
《The match is over! Combatants, please step aside!》
《【s.p.a.cetime Magic】Level Up!》
《You have acquired the【s.p.a.cetime Magic】spell【Regeneration】!》
《You have acquired the【s.p.a.cetime Magic】spell【Gravity Mail】!》
《【Lava Magic】Level Up!》
I"m tired.
But I want to see the Info screen.
Can I check it once I"m back in the waiting room?
We all go back to our corners and bow to each other.
Though we"ve definitely won, we have taken some serious damage.
What if I hadn"t used Fire Heal to recover myself?
《Advanced to the third round! The match for the third round will be today at 11:30 AM, at the Battleground B.》
《You have gained 2 bonus points for breaking through the first two rounds. You currently have a total of 30 Bonus Points.》
After recovering my HP and MP completely, and fully repairing my equipment, a staff member escorts me back to the waiting room.
Looking at the matchgrounds next to this one, I can see Yosaku"s team still fighting.
Looks like Yosaku"s team is struggling.
「I can"t watch that match from here, can I?」
「I"m afraid that"s not possible. Please return to the waiting room.」
Well, it can"t be helped.
I suppose I"ll have to look at their battle log at the waiting room then.
The team that remained in the waiting room is escorted out by the staff member.
That"s too bad.
A lot of things I had on my head start vanishing.
Oh, right!
How is Yosaku"s battle going?
I pull up the battle log window.
It looks like the Lumberjack, Stonemason, and Potter are still fighting.
In other words, half of Yosaku"s team is out.
What?
I can"t believe it at first.
I don"t see any Farmer, so that means that Hannes is out of battle too.
And the three that remain don"t even have half of their HP left.
The Potter looks like he"s going to be out of HP soon.
The opposing team is not completely safe, naturally.
Five are still going strong.
No, they"re down to four now.
Yosaku just finished off one of their Fighters.
The remaining players are two more Fighters, a Hunter, and a Treasure Hunter.
This looks bad for Yosaku"s team.
Their Potter just took a lot of damage from an opposing Wind Cutter.
He"s out for the count.
That makes them two versus four.
They"re now at an overwhelming disadvantage.
Somehow they manage to defeat another one of their Fighters, but the Stonemason Shinonome falls too.
So it"s only one against three.
The Lumberjack Yosaku seems to be fighting really hard.
But it doesn"t look like he can get over this huge disadvantage.
What"s this?
Yosaku"s missing the mark on his attacks.
It looks like the Fighter is not attacking, but the Hunter and Treasure Hunter are still relentlessly on the offensive.
Yosaku is almost out of HP.
A Wind Cutter brings the fight to an end.
Wait, what?
I think I"ll contact Adele or Irina via Telepathy, they"ve surely watched this battle.
But this is the waiting room.
It doesn"t seem to work in places like this.
Well, let"s try sending a message to Irina instead.
I receive a reply soon after that.
『Yosaku"s team has been defeated, but the other team specializes in high mobility.』
Ohh.
But I still don"t get it.
『Yosaku and Shinonome were not able to fight in close quarters all the way to the end. There"s already a link to a video of the battle.』
Oh, no.
This is too much for me!
The team that fought against Yosaku and the others returns to the waiting room.
It seems that they are cheering each other on in the other side of the room.
Hmm.
There"s still some time before the next match, isn"t there?
Should I go watch it?
Protagonist Keith
Race Human Male Racial Lv 14
Job Grand Summoner Lv 3
Bonus Points Remaining 30
Skill Sets
Staff Lv 13 Punch Lv 11 Kick Lv 11 Joint Lock Lv 11 Throw Lv 11
Evade Lv 11 Block Lv 11 Summon Magic Lv 17 s.p.a.cetime Magic Lv 10（↑1）
Light Magic Lv 9 Wind Magic Lv 10 Earth Magic Lv 9 Water Magic Lv 10
Fire Magic Lv 10 Dark Magic Lv 9 Ice Magic Lv 7 Lightning Magic Lv 7
Tree Magic Lv 8 Dust Magic Lv 7 Lava Magic Lv8（↑1）Steam Magic Lv 7
Alchemy Lv 8 Pharmacy Lv 7 Gla.s.smaking Lv 6 Woodworking Lv 6
Synergy Lv 12 Appraise Lv 12 Identify Lv 12 Discern Lv 4 Cold Resistance Lv 6
Grab Lv 10 Horsemanship Lv 10 Precise Manipulation Lv 12 Ropework Lv 2
Jump Lv 6 Acrobatics Lv 3 Heat Resistant Lv 7 Climb Lv 6 Balance Lv 2
Dual Wield Lv 10 Disa.s.sembly Lv 7
Physical Reinforcement Lv 8 Mental Reinforcement Lv 9 Speedcasting Lv 11
Spell Effect Amplification Lv 8 Spell Range Expansion Lv 8
Equipment Staff of Torture × 1 Tonfas of Torture × 2
Capture Rod of Torture × 1 Enraged Pickaxe + × 2 Silver Necklace +
Snow Leopard Push Dagger × 1 Gale Tiger Push Dagger × 2 Snow Leopard Bagh Nakh × 1
Plains Lion Bagh Nakh × 1 Fighting Bull Leather Armor + Set
Anklet of Torture+ × 2 Bracelet of Torture × 2 Prison Guard"s Black Rope ×1
Rampage Belt + Rucksack Item Box × 2
Items:
Survival Knife, Woodworking Tools
Old Summoner"s Best Pupil
Protector of the Forest
Knower of the Middle Path
Spell Glossary
Martial Arts Fighter