Goblin vs Oni(5)

Obscuring vision with fire and wind, and blocking presence and sound with the thunder of lightning.

Wide-ranging and with imposing momentum, but these are ultimately just smoke screens to obscure vision.

Of course, approaching while wearing the dokkaebi hat would be more certain, but I didn’t do that because I wanted to confront Ryoka head-on and bring her to her knees if possible.

A thought that someone might call stupid if they saw it.

But it doesn’t matter. This could be called my stupid stubbornness, and that was fine.

“Alright, here I go.”

And following that stubbornness, after spreading the smoke screen, I immediately kicked off the wind I was standing on and rushed towards Ryoka.

Whoosh—!

My body shoots towards the building in an instant.

At the same time, Ryoka, seemingly realizing that my elemental attacks were simply distractions, began to spread black mist to eliminate the flames and lightning.

But before the scattered black mist could devour the flames and engulf me, I was one step faster in landing on the rooftop.

Tap–.

“Found you! I can clearly feel your presence!”

“It doesn’t matter…!”

Of course, since I wasn’t wearing the dokkaebi hat, Ryoka also sensed my presence as soon as I landed and turned towards me, but that’s not a problem.

‘Hwa-gon!’

『I’m ready! Just hit her!』

After all, I was already approaching Ryoka and swinging Hwa-gon.

With a whoosh, Hwa-gon, imbued with enraged emotions due to wearing the stone mask, falls towards Ryoka’s head.

A swing that would surely hit if she didn’t choose to dodge, thinking my attacks wouldn’t work.

“As if I’d just take a hit from that suspicious club…!”

However, unfortunately, it seemed Ryoka wasn’t that careless.

Ryoka disassembles her body into mist along the trajectory of my swing with Hwa-gon.

Then, reconstituting her body a little further back, Ryoka pointed at the Hwa-gon I was holding and said:

“That club has clearly changed into something suspicious, and despite knowing your attacks don’t work on me, you pulled this smoke screen trick to approach… You didn’t really think I’d just take the hit, did you?”

“…That’s unexpected. I thought your head was so full of muscle that you couldn’t think so delicately.”

“Haha!! I’ll have you know my mind works well during fights!!!”

Ryoka shouts as if proud of that statement, seemingly admitting she’s usually stupid.

However, it was true that her mind was working annoyingly well in this current fight, so I clicked my tongue inwardly.

‘If she turns into mist and avoids like just now, it’ll be difficult to hit her easily.’

『We need some new method, whether it’s catching her off guard or using a clever trick.』

I nodded slightly at Hwa-gon’s words.

Even if I swing honestly like just now, I might hit once out of ten times, but it would be just grazing a wisp of mist at best.

That wasn’t enough to use Hwa-gon’s ability.

To make Hwa-gon grab Ryoka’s soul, I needed to land a solid hit.

And for that, I needed to succeed with one of the two methods Hwa-gon mentioned.

‘In that case…’

So, the moment Ryoka fell into momentary complacency and opened her mouth.

“I don’t know what will happen if that club hits me, but if you think I’ll just let you hit me…”

‘Now!’

Bang—!!!

I charged at Ryoka with my eyes wide open.

Kicking off a foothold made of rock, accelerating that charge with wind, swinging Hwa-gon in the most efficient trajectory.

A series of actions carried out as smoothly as if planned.

This was an attack that caught her completely off guard, enough to be half certain it would hit, and its speed was incredibly fast.

However, unfortunately.

Even this attack seemed not to reach Ryoka.

Whoosh—!!!

“That’s why I said… there’s no way I’d just let you hit me!”

“Tch…”

Just before Hwa-gon made contact, Ryoka once again changed her body into mist along the trajectory, just like before.

With that alone, Hwa-gon meaninglessly cuts through the air again.

I gritted my teeth at the attack that didn’t connect despite catching her off guard, but having already made a move, I couldn’t stop like a fool.

So I swung Hwa-gon again to make Ryoka retreat, then quickly moved my feet.

“If it didn’t hit even with that… I’ll make you have no choice but to get hit even without letting your guard down.”

“That sounds exciting! Show me! I’ll start attacking too now!!”

If catching her off guard doesn’t work, all that’s left is a clever trick.

And if I was going to use a clever trick, I had to use a move that would definitely work, that had no choice but to work, so I let out a small breath while looking at Ryoka, who had started scattering black mist.

“Phew… Yeon-ah said she evacuated all the humans in this district.”

『If our ears weren’t mistaken, that is.』

“Alright, let’s give it a try then.”

I don’t know how much this area, the 15th district, will be destroyed by what I’m about to do, but praying it would be to an extent that Yeon-ah could handle, I put the clever trick that came to mind into action.

Now it was truly time to end this fight.

---

Tap-! Tap—! Tap–!

With the irregular sound of footsteps, Shin-yeon’s figure begins to circle the rooftop of the building, leaving afterimages.

A speed too fast to follow with the eyes and attack.

Therefore, Ryoka tried to capture Shin-yeon by scattering black mist in all directions like before, but as if waiting for that timing.

“No matter how fast, if I catch you…!”

“Fire sphere.”

The moment Ryoka moved the black mist, Shin-yeon created a hemisphere of flames around Ryoka while muttering.

The exact same attack as the first elemental fire attack that had formed a dome shape.

“What? This again?!”

She didn’t know what Shin-yeon was thinking, making the same attack, but for now it seemed she needed to escape this hemisphere.

As said, it was true that Shin-yeon’s attacks didn’t work on her, but that didn’t mean she was stupid.

Therefore, Ryoka tried to devour the hemisphere of flames surrounding her with black mist to escape from here, but.

“This much should disappear with just a wave of my hand… What?!”

Crackle—!!!

Ryoka couldn’t help but be bewildered by the flames that were still burning fiercely despite her black mist having swept over them.

“What… Why aren’t they disappearing?”

She clearly had the sensation of devouring them.

The sensation of the flames’ powerful mana being sucked into the black mist. Ryoka had definitely felt that.

But when she cleared away the mist, thinking they had disappeared, the flames were still burning robustly.

Faced with this contradictory situation of existing despite being devoured, Ryoka’s mind began to spin while still confused.

And only after a few seconds could Ryoka realize the reason.

“…You’re continuously pouring in mana to maintain it!”

If the initial hemisphere of flames had been given a fixed amount of mana and been devoured by the mist at once, the current one was in a state of continuously receiving mana from Shin-yeon.

That’s why it was burning like this, as if it hadn’t disappeared despite having been completely devoured by Ryoka’s mist.

“Then the reason for maintaining it like this seems to be to keep me in this spot…”

And the reason for trapping Ryoka while pouring in so much mana was probably to hit her with that strange club that she had been trying to land on her from earlier.

The moment that thought occurred to her, Ryoka decided to force her way through without further delay.

“If this won’t disappear, then it’s a problem that can be solved by me coming out directly, right?”

Crackle—!

She changes her body into black mist and penetrates through the hemisphere of flames.

Although she felt tremendous heat from the flames she couldn’t completely devour, a moment of heat was insufficient to kill an oni.

Having safely penetrated through the hemisphere of flames, Ryoka looked around while catching her breath that had been blocked by the heat.

“Hah! Now, where are you!!”

Where had she hidden during this time, obscuring her vision?

Had she put on that hat again? Or had she hidden her appearance to wait for some other opportunity?

Thinking of all possibilities, Ryoka looked around the rooftop but couldn’t find Shin-yeon’s figure.

Shin-yeon, who had hidden somewhere again, not even her nose was visible.

So Ryoka muttered that it was ridiculous and started to search for Shin-yeon’s scent and presence.

“No matter where you’ve hidden, you can’t hide if it’s not that hat from earlier!”

It would be nearly impossible to hide that scent and presence that she had already memorized in this short moment.

Therefore, Ryoka grinned and sniffed the air.

Sure enough, unlike earlier when she had worn the hat, Shin-yeon’s scent began to emanate strongly.

Following that scent, Ryoka took a step and.

“…Wait a moment.”

Only then could Ryoka feel something strange about the place she was standing.

It wasn’t particularly another elemental interference or mental attack.

If it had been something like that, she would have noticed much earlier.

The strangeness Ryoka felt now was simply a dulled sensation that had become accustomed to the eye-stinging flames.

It was a strangeness she hadn’t realized due to that dulled sensation.

“The sunlight…”

The scenery of the rooftop, dark with only shadows.

That scenery belatedly causes an extreme sense of strangeness in Ryoka.

“It’s not… clouds.”

It wasn’t just shadows created by clouds covering the sun. It couldn’t be, as not even a bit of the sun’s warmth could be felt from within the shadows.

Something a bit different from clouds simply covering the sun for a moment.

And when she raised her head towards the sky to find the reason, Ryoka could finally see it.

“Ha… This is amazing!”

Something golden falling towards the building Ryoka herself was standing on.

It was too huge to easily recognize, but the visible black horns falling showed what it was.

The club Shin-yeon had been holding.

That club had become so enormous and was falling towards this place.

At a speed and size that Ryoka herself couldn’t avoid even if she tried to escape now.

Rumble—–

Shin-yeon’s club falling towards Ryoka with a terribly ominous sound.

Only after realizing that the scent she had just smelled also led to that sky did Ryoka show a bitter smile.

“I don’t know if I’ll die, but if I do die… it’s a shame to die like this.”

She’ll resist as much as possible for now, but can she really survive?

However, even if she were to die, if it was a death met fighting such an opponent, it would be a satisfying death for Ryoka, so after a moment’s hesitation, Ryoka took her stance.

“Alright! Come on then!!!”

After all, isn’t a death met at the end of a fight where she gave her all what she had wanted!

Ryoka shouted the thoughts she had recalled several times once again and deployed black mist with all her might.

Immediately after, a massive roar echoes.

BOOM—–!!!!!

Along with that roar, the impact of the collision shook the surroundings, signaling the end of the battle that had been fought until now.

And even until that moment, Ryoka didn’t realize.

That what awaited her at the end of the fight was by no means a regrettable but satisfying death.

That there was no way she would be allowed to end with such peace.