Chapter 902: December 20th:
Author's Preface
Make it in time………! X-Day……!!
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One thing. There was exactly one thing Garunose had forgotten.
Even if Garunose himself had no way to know the particulars, if he understood the single fact that "Sunraku had greatly strengthened himself through some means," then he should have realized it.
One thing. The one and only chance Sunraku had been aiming for.
He had realized too late that the spearpoint was already aimed at his "vital point." That was the one and only thing Garunose had overlooked───
Smack.
It sounded like someone catching a thrown ball—as though something moving at full speed had been caught completely and all its kinetic energy canceled out.
"Wha…………"
"No skill effect's showing………?"
By its very construction, a mace is made with a long handle. More hammer than bat, more axe than sword. Which means the part you're "allowed to hold" is long.
"The highest form of defense isn't taking a hit or dodging one…… it's stopping it, before it ever happens!!"
The mace, swung with every ounce of strength Garunose possessed yet driven by nothing more than his raw STR parameter, had quite literally been caught and stopped by brute force.
It was a brute-force maneuver aimed solely at the instant Garunose exhausted the skills he could apply to his attacks—a bold move possible only against another Human with the same racial specs.
That was the second thought to occur to Garunose. Then what was the first? The first thought to tear through his mind was……
"【Scale of the Little People】!"
To forcibly burn through what little MP remained and gigantify the mace.
The haft, now as thick as a log, knocked both their hands away, and both of them moved at the exact same instant in response to the phenomenon that had occurred exactly as expected.
"I knew your only two choices were that or throwing it away!!"
By the time the mace enlarged…… no, from the moment of voice authentication, Sunraku had already abandoned his attempt to seize the mace.
Naturally, because catching and gripping it required his hands, the weapons he had been holding were lying on the ground. Taking the time to pick them up would create a fatal opening, while "Retriever" was too much trouble in an exchange at this point-blank range.
And so, as though declaring that left only one answer, Sunraku…… kicked Antiares up from where it lay on the ground.
Kick Arts "Stand-Up Lifting." A skill that pops a weapon lying on the ground back up to the user's hands or feet. It possesses no offensive power whatsoever, but serves as the startup for transitioning directly into an offensive sequence.
The struggle over the mace was not where Garunose seized the initiative…… Sunraku had already taken the first move one stage earlier, from the very moment he deliberately discarded his weapons at his feet.
Antiares sprang upward and was caught in his empty hand in a reverse grip. To Garunose's eyes, it seemed almost to move in slow motion—then it took on pure killing intent and accelerated all at once.
(I'm dea─── no, I won't die!)
This distance, this posture, this trajectory. The information from that single instant and his experience told him that losing all his HP was impossible.
"Ngh……!"
"We're not done yeeeeeeeeet!!"
Antiares ground against his breastplate with a grating, unpleasant shriek…… and then came a flash.
Before Garunose could even form the thought that scorching light was erupting from Sunraku's wide-open mouth at point-blank range, he abandoned the mace and drove his right fist into Sunraku's lower jaw, forcibly hammering his mouth shut.
"Guh!"
Sunraku's face was knocked toward the day after tomorrow by the impact, and the flames that burst forth burned through empty air.
Yet within the smoke, the eyes of flame alone never once looked away from Garunose. The edge of Dragon Shield of Strange Tales knocked aside the descending Areadbhair, knocked it aside, knocked it aside, and then finally caught it, the two forces grinding into a deadlock.
───Truth be told, Sunraku currently possessed a complete grasp of every action Garunose was taking.
Because skill-based thought acceleration was classified as an ability derived from the "eyes," the thought acceleration enhanced in both effect and duration by "Great Eye-Opening"—an ability of Reverberating Nether True Canon: Migratory Bird—was tracking Garunose's movements perfectly.
Then why had Sunraku failed to dodge Garunose's attack? Because he was currently between skills.
Even with skill recast times halved through the authority of "The Fool," the recast times themselves had not ceased to exist.
That unavoidable window when his skills were unavailable—the moment when the skill-specialized Sunraku was at his "weakest"—had now arrived.
Sunraku had advanced despite knowing that. Because he understood that allowing Garunose to catch on was the most dangerous possibility of all.
And now Garunose had caught on: the fact that he had managed to respond from the back foot, together with his experience, had led him to the correct answer.
(Got him to ditch his weapon! Do I accept the risk and dump both at full power into that damn tower shield with Radiant Sword of Devoured Blades and Incineration Flash!? No, this feels like one of those hunches that comes true! There's no way I'll break it clean through! I can feel it surviving with a sliver of durability left!)
(Not enough MP, my weapon's at my feet…… finish him with the scraps of my remaining shield-attack skills? Impossible, he's clearly not charging in like someone I can one-shot. I should assume his HP has recovered! Build something with the skills I have left, this shield is my final line of defense……!!)
Neither of them possessed any breathing room. The fierce battle had pared it all away, leaving only a scant few "options," like the core of an eaten apple—and now the question was how best to use them.
That hesitation, intertwined with their fighting spirit, produced a coincidence lasting only a few seconds…… both of them stopped moving.
(Well, now that it's come to this, I've got no choice but to burn through everything I've got……!)
(This is the final turning point…… while I can still use that!)
((We'll settle this on the next exchange……!!))
Author's Afterword
Volume 16 went on sale December 15th!
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