The correction I received from the combat system was very subtle but essential, even in its covert support.
For example, it ensured I swung my sword cleanly without veering off course, helped distribute my strength when parrying, or corrected my aim so my strike wouldn’t miss its mark.
Well, that’s what it was.
When you added in [Survival Instinct], which displayed perfect evasion paths, and [Evasive Counterattack], a skill indicating the gaps and weaknesses in a target’s defense, combat became even more manageable.
Clang! Babang!
No. Let me correct myself. They were what allowed me to barely maintain some sort of balance between myself and Berserk in this fight.
I couldn’t tell whether Berserk was strong or the system was overpowered.
Claaang!
Anyway, a sharp metallic sound echoed through the nighttime forest as sparks were sent flying.
The oil lantern between us trembled each time we collided and made the ground shake, but it never tipped over.Boom!
Acting as if about to perform a downward slash, I instead twisted my wrist to do a low cut.
In response, Berserk opted to kick the shaft of her halberd with her foot instead of trying to forcibly pull it free from the earth.
Kang! The two weapons, relying more on their weight than their sharpness, clashed with a loud clang. I thought I’d finally exploited one of her weak spots, but she really wasn’t an easy opponent.
“Hmph!”
In the meantime, Berserk grabbed hold of her halberd, which was about to fall back to the ground from the impact, and launched another thrust.
This time, I was the one in danger. My Zweihänder had also been knocked upward by our earlier clash.
But maybe this was also an opportunity. I turned my body, looking at the white-glowing path marked by my skill.
Swish!
The hem of my coat, fluttering around my waist, was pierced by the halberd. But that was all. The weapon barely grazed my side, tearing my clothes but failing to cut my flesh.
Boom.
On the other hand, I sent my body into a full spin, twisting my ankles and waist simultaneously.
I shifted my grip on my Zweihänder, spinning it midair to build momentum.
“…!”
But the most important factor was distance.
Berserk had closed in to swing her halberd at me, and by letting her weapon brush past me, I narrowed the distance between us.
Now, she was within my range. I could strike her.
Swick!
Putting all my strength into the hand holding my sword, I swung it as wide as I could, like the blade of a windmill.
Berserk’s golden eyes wavered.
Clang!
The halberd, which she’d barely managed to recover and swing again, blocked my sword. It was a similar trick to when I’d intercepted her halberd earlier. Lodging my blade in the gap between the pike and the axe blade, she completely cut off the possibility of me executing any consecutive strikes.
“Hup!”
No, perhaps she was actually aiming for something more.
Berserk twisted the spearhead of her halberd with her palm. Rather than swinging her weapon in a full circle, she only rotated the spearhead.
As a result, the weapon lock grew even tighter, and the applied pressure increased. It was similar to the moment before you popped off a bottle cap with a bottle opener.
Screeeech. A dangerous sound came from both the halberd’s blade and my Zweihänder. If this continued, they would either break or bend.
Whoosh!
However, Berserk didn’t choose to break them. Instead, she just pulled.
“…!”
I instinctively tightened my grip on the sword hilt as she drew it in.
Was she trying to steal my sword? It was only in the next moment that I realized her intentions.
We hadn’t defined any clear conditions for defeat, but losing my weapon would certainly not put me on the path to victory.
I wasn’t about to just let her take my weapon like that. I instinctively twisted my sword, an action faster than any decision my head could make.
Screeeech!
With an eerie sound, I somehow slipped my sword free. Dozens of sparks flew vividly through the deep darkness.
“Hmph!”
However, Berserk wasn’t just going to stand by and watch either.
As I tried to step back, she quickly thrust her halberd at me. My Zweihänder still hadn’t fully separated from her weapon.
Screech.
Ah, that reminded me of an old movie I’d watched for some homework. That green chalkboard-scratching sound sounded exactly like that.
After letting such random thoughts momentarily flit through my mind, I twisted my Zweihänder in the opposite direction. If Berserk had tightened the lock on our weapons before, it was now my turn to do the same.
Creaaak!
This should be fine. It should be.
I trusted this sword, whose Durability had never dropped below 90, and even when it did drop to the low 90s, it would always recover to a perfect 100.
Clang!
“…!”
Between her halberd and my Zweihänder, mine was definitely the stronger weapon.
Craaaack.
As expected! Ignoring the thrill climbing within me, I finally broke the halberd’s axe blade and swiftly moved my freshly freed blade.
Since I never doubted that my weapon would break hers, I didn’t let my weapon slam aimlessly into the ground.
Rather, as I adjusted my trajectory, I poured the force released when it broke free directly into the sword’s acceleration. I spun it like a windmill blade again.
Thud!
Berserk urgently swung her halberd, but I’d already built enough force and momentum. My Zweihänder collided with the halberd’s spearhead, pushing it back.
And then? With my momentum still going and Berserk’s combo broken, an unbridgeable gap had formed between us.
There was no way she could block me.
Whoosh!
She also knew that, so she tried something else instead of guarding.
With the force of my attack sending the bladed side of her weapon flying backward and the shaft swinging forward, and with the axe blade now broken and useless, she simply thrust the shaft of her halberd forward.
Even with the axe blade broken, this attack still took advantage of her halberd’s 2.5-meter range.
However, I could still avoid it. With that, the answer to the riddle that had been going on between us was decided.
I dodged the shaft like I had before and swung my sword.
My blade slammed into her.
Bam!
Right at that moment, something heavy fell into the grass. Thump! My Zweihänder slammed into the ground right after.
“…”
“…”
I quickly reflected on the source of that first sound and why my Zweihänder hadn’t struck her directly.
The answer was right in front of me.
Berserk had dropped her weapon and stepped back, and what I had struck was the space she’d vacated. That was all.
* * *
“Do you want to keep going?”
Did I win? Did I really win?
I tried not to get excited by these thoughts bubbling up in my mind. Just because her weapon had been dealt with didn’t mean she couldn’t fight, so I thought this might not be considered a defeat.
Still, I was certain her next attack wouldn’t come right away. Even if this was the prelude to a fistfight, my instincts told me it wouldn’t happen immediately.
So I leisurely retrieved my sword, which had been stuck in the ground.
As I pulled it out, the sword rose with a cloud of dust, parting the grass and wet mud. It was embedded so deeply that I had to exert some actual force to get it out.
I felt a bit like King Arthur.
“…This is my defeat.”
Right as I finished drawing my sword, Berserk declared her defeat while clenching her fists. As the lantern light danced, her gold eyes seemed to melt away.
“I pay respects to your strength.”
However, that melted gold wasn’t as distorted as I’d thought. That was rather unexpected.
I thought she would naturally feel a little angry or regretful, as she’d lost not because of a difference in skill but because of a difference in weapons.
Ah, then again, it might not be that unexpected? She was usually a rather bold and generous person. Maybe she’d just accepted even these kinds of variables as an indication of her lack of skill.
Anyway, Berserk seemed rather good at letting go of grudges and the like. That was also why I couldn’t be too happy about this.
I let the thrill I felt from this victory gently dissipate.
“…You worked hard too.”
Meanwhile, Berserk picked up her broken weapon and praised it for its hard work. Rather than treating it like a real person, it seemed more like she was paying the weapon she’d been using for a long time the bare minimum respect.
But it wasn’t really my fault the weapon broke… Wait, no. Wasn’t it? I mean, I didn’t break it on accident. I did it intentionally, knowing this would happen, so maybe it was my fault, right?
We could have continued the fight even without me breaking it, and had it gone differently, I could have lost… Of course, my character wouldn’t have accepted defeat so readily.
Clink. Lost in thought, I kicked my blade lightly with the toe of my combat boots. The sword, which spun half a turn, neatly landed on my shoulder.
“Berserk will stay here for a bit. You go on ahead.”
Berserk was the one to break the silence.
My heart sank because she said that while looking at her weapon. It was almost as if she were mourning it, lamenting that it had broken.
However, when I thought back on her expression and tone of voice, she didn’t seem particularly concerned about her broken weapon.
Her attitude was too calm and plain to suggest she had any regrets.
Then, why did she say she would stay here a little longer?
Was it that she didn’t care about her broken weapon but wanted to reflect on her defeat? Maybe she’d forget details of the fight if she returned to the city before reviewing it?
But if she lingered here for too long, day would break. It would be quite a pain for her to climb over the city gates then.
“Demon Knight.”
…Well, that wasn’t really my problem though. We weren’t close enough to worry about or take care of each other like that.
“Thank you for humoring my stubbornness today.”
Leaving Berserk’s words of gratitude behind, I walked away.
Maybe it was because of the chilly morning dew, but the thrill I’d felt over my victory had completely vanished.
That was how it ended.
* * *
> [There are still followers of Envy out there? How surprising.]
A being with violet hair that turned black toward the ends, narrow eyes so thin that their pupils were practically invisible, and a dress cut down to their navel murmured lowly as if amused.
Flap. A few crows were flying around them. Around Pandemonium.
> [Even though I should have finished digested his name by this evening.]
“It seems his power was maintained until his name was fully absorbed.”
> [That’s obvious.]
Pandemonium answered irritably, playing with one of the crows on their forearm.
Of course, they, being a Demon, knew better than any mortal that contracts were bound by names.
Unlike mortals, whose essence didn’t change even if their name did, a Demon’s essence was intrinsically tied to their name.
> [Whether the name was absorbed entirely or dispersed and dissolved into the void, the contract would have remained in effect until it completely disappeared in some way. That’s what a “contract” is.]
You might be able to cheat it, but you couldn’t break it. That’s what a contract was.
Absolute, the most unfair, yet the most fair, and the most supreme of laws.
Even the gods of this world and invaders from other worlds couldn’t escape it.
> [Still, how funny. The more I absorb that name, the weaker the contract’s power should have become. Their strength should be fading away more and more, yet they still want to follow a corpse?]
“Of course, if you were to fall, we might also…”
> [No need to say things you don’t actually mean. Or do you want me to be disappointed?]
“My apologies.”
The word loyalty was incompatible with the emotion of greed. Cooperation to achieve a goal, cooperation to earn just a bit more, and so on were far more fitting concepts.
For that same reason, Pandemonium didn’t want to hear such empty words.
After all, their criteria for selecting contractors wasn’t whether someone would move for them the moment they were attacked, but whether someone would swoop in to seize everything they owned at the first opportunity.
Knowing that, such empty words were utterly meaningless. Worthless, even.
They didn’t earn any money.
So there was no need for them.
> [Make up for the points you just lost with actions. Wipe them all out.]
“Yes, I shall take care of that immediately.”
> [What happened to that snake that hid itself in the sea?]
“We’re still in contact. The first and second envoys were killed by the Merfolk, and the third was devoured by the snake. We’ve just dispatched the fourth.”
> [Hah, tigers, snakes, always those beasts.]
If they could wield their full power, they would never have let such insolence go on like this. Pandemonium felt deeply annoyed by that.
Even though they’d devoured all the power they stole, their thirst for more had only grown stronger.
“Do not worry. This time, I will bring you good news without fail.”
> [Hah, of course, as you should.]
But soon… that would no longer matter.
Pandemonium felt the pieces of power gathering within them and clasped their long, thin, spider-like fingers together.
Their fingers, which were so much longer than their palms, resembled the talons of a bird or the quills of a hedgehog.
> [If you waste this opportunity, you’ll not only disappoint me, but you’ll also have to face the King’s disappointment.]
And hidden within them was the King’s seal.
> [Remember. There is no next time for us.]
The image of a being adorned with the wings of birds and bats, the head of a goat, the horns of a ram, the tail of a snake, the tusks of a boar, and the legs of a donkey glowed with a malevolence greater than anything else imaginable.
____
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter