Chapter 48: Revenge (3)

“Urghhhh!!”

Thrown high into the air by an invisible strike, Peter soon fell limply to the ground.

With a thud, Peter hit the dirt, spitting blood-tinged vomit as he slowly tried to push himself up.

But I wasn’t about to stand idly by while my opponent regained his composure mid-duel.

Before Peter could recover, I rushed towards him, drawing my second sword from my waist.

Though Peter had foreseen this with the observational skills only a Swordmaster could possess, he was too busy trying to get up to properly respond.

My second strike flew straight at Peter, shattering his already cracked armor as it slammed into his stomach.

Spraying blood and armor fragments, Peter went flying again. He rolled across the ground, caking what remained of his armor in dirt, before finally coming to a stop.

“Ugh…!!”

Clutching his now exposed stomach, Peter once again tried to slowly pull himself together.

His tenacity was admirable – anyone else would’ve blacked out from hits like that. But that’s all it was.

Whether he managed to get up or not, the outcome of this duel was as good as decided.

In his current state, Peter could barely stand, let alone use ley lines or even aura. The only reason his head was still attached was because I hadn’t attacked it, not because of any resilience on his part.

Seeming to realize this, Peter remained seated on the ground as I approached, glaring at me with frustrated eyes.

“…What was it you said when you showed up here? I’m pretty sure you said something about smashing my head…”

“…”

“But seeing as my head’s still intact, I guess that didn’t work out for you, huh?”

“…You’re right. I lost…”

Peter said this, then hung his head. Seeing him like that, I drew my sword and aimed a strike at his shoulder.

The blade flew from its sheath and slammed into Peter’s defenseless shoulder, smashing his face into the dirt again.

“W-Why…?!”

“You seem to be under some misconception. It’s not up to you when this duel ends.”

Whether he surrendered or not, deciding when the fight was over was the winner’s right, not the loser’s.

But in a situation like this where the outcome was all but decided, telling him to fight to the death would hardly motivate him.

So to keep my promise to Hori, and more importantly for my own sake, I gave Peter one last chance.

“Catch.”

Standing over ten paces away from Peter, I rolled one of the potions Hori had given me towards him as he lay on the ground.

Looking at the lead-colored potion bottle that rolled up to him, Peter clutched his shoulder and asked me:

“What is this…?”

“It’s an enhancement potion an alchemist friend made. Supposedly it greatly boosts physical abilities when drunk, but honestly I’ve never tried it myself so I’m not sure.”

“It’s super effective! So drink it with confidence!”

Ignoring Hori’s shout from behind me, I continued speaking to Peter.

“So drink it. I’ll wait while you do.”

“What…?!”

“You don’t get it? Unless we reschedule this fight entirely, there’s no way you can fight me in your current state.”

Normally, Peter wouldn’t have been an opponent I could take down so easily. But now that he was on the ground and had taken several solid hits, it was a different story.

The damage and fatigue from my repeated strikes had accumulated to the point where aura and ley lines alone couldn’t make up for it anymore.

Without resting or using a special potion like this, fighting me again would be impossible.

Peter seemed to realize this too, but either out of pointless pride or suspicion that this was some kind of trap, he just glared at the potion without moving.

“Since you seem to be struggling with the decision, let me help you out a bit.”

Saying that, I pulled out the potion Hori had first given me.

Seeing the potion of the same color as the one on the ground, Peter’s eyes went wide.

As Hori and Peter watched, I uncorked the bottle and downed the potion in one gulp.

The moment it touched my lips, I felt a rush of power surging through my body along with a sweet strawberry flavor.

Even without using aura, I felt an incredible strength as if I had.

“Urgh…!!”

Watching this abnormal increase in power up close, Peter reached for the potion with a frustrated expression.

I don’t know what calculations went through Peter’s mind in the brief moment I took to drink the potion.

Maybe it was fear of actually dying, or maybe he thought it wouldn’t be cowardly to drink it since I had too.

Either way, the important thing was that Peter had abandoned his useless pride and drunk the potion.

-Gulp gulp.

Along with the sweet strawberry flavor, Peter regained his depleted strength and vitality. He jumped to his feet and glared at me.

Seeing this, I smirked and said:

“What’s with you? If you were going to drink it anyway, why’d you hesitate so long?”

“Shut up! This is all… it’s all because of you!! Everything’s gone to sh*t since you showed up!!”

As if all his pent-up anger had finally burst, Peter shouted at me in an enraged voice.

“Why…!! Why are you doing this insane sh*t with that much talent?! If you’d just lived normally, I wouldn’t have done any of this and everything would have stayed normal!”

“What the f*ck was normal about any of this?! This world is completely f*cked up!!”

That’s right.

What kind of normal world praises rapier-wielding garbage as sages while insulting Baldo as trash assassination techniques?

This world is a false one, rife with the lie that Baldo is garbage.

If this isn’t corrected as soon as possible, this world will forever remain a twisted place ruled by lies.

“Everything I do is to return this world to normal!! That’s why I can’t give up Baldo, no matter what!!”

“What nonsense…!! Have you completely lost your mind?!”

“Shut up!! I’m not the crazy one, you people are!!”

Shouting that, I charged at Peter. Readjusting his stance, Peter swung his hammer at me.

My sword, drawn from my waist to intercept, clashed with the hammer swinging towards me.

What had happened during my duel with Jessica repeated itself, with the same result.

-Crack!

When the katana and hammer collided, cracks predictably began forming in the hammer before it shattered completely, its fragments scattering through the air.

A few days ago, my skills might not have been enough to produce this result, but now my Baldo grade was A++.

It was only natural for a fragile hammer to break so easily.

Despite losing his only weapon, Peter didn’t give up. He immediately discarded the handle and swung his fist at me.

“Ugh…!!”

Taking that punch with my forehead, I instantly resheathed the sword I had just swung.

“You’re still messing around at this point?!”

As Peter’s fist came flying at me again, I drew my resheathed sword to match it…

“Arghhhh!!”

Something that should have been impossible occurred.

A reverse-edged sword has no blade, so it’s impossible to cut someone with it.

But somehow, when I drew it towards Peter’s exposed torso where his armor had shattered, his body split open along the sword’s path and red blood sprayed out.

‘Ah, so that’s it…’

I had already reached that level. The level of cutting an enemy with a bladeless sword.

Slashed diagonally from stomach to chest by the reverse-edged sword, Peter collapsed to the ground, blood gushing from his body.

Having lost too much blood in such a short time, Peter passed out as if falling asleep, unable to get up again.

‘…It’s over.’

With this, the experiment I’d promised Hori was complete, and Peter could no longer fight.

When we fought before, I really thought I was going to die. But even accounting for catching him off guard, it ended far too easily, leaving me feeling oddly unsatisfied.

As the duel concluded, I went to resheath my sword, but first cleaned the blood from the blade by wiping it between my elbow and body, like I’d seen in a movie once.

This caused Peter’s blood to stain my white uniform jacket red.

“Ah f*ck…”

I only had the one jacket. Should’ve just wiped the blood off in the lake instead of trying to look cool.

As I was regretting my blood-stained jacket, Hori approached from where she’d been watching.

“Ian!”

“Oh, hey. Did you collect the data alright?”

“Yes! But Ian, you’re bleeding from your forehead…”

“My forehead? Ah…”

It was the wound from blocking Peter’s punch with my head. In the excitement of cutting someone with a reverse-edged sword, I’d momentarily forgotten the pain in my forehead.

“Did you bring any healing potions?”

“Yes! Here you go! I brought one for Professor Peter too, so I’ll go treat him now!”

As Hori went to treat the fallen Peter, I drank the potion she’d just handed me.

It tasted bitter. I wonder if they could improve these with fruit flavors like strawberry or banana.

“By the way Hori, when do those side effects kick in?”

“Well… it’s been about 5 minutes since you drank it, so in another fi-“

“5 minutes?”

“Fo-“

“Fo-? ARGHHHH!!”

My words were cut off by a sudden onslaught of pain beyond imagination.

Pain always brings screams, but extreme pain doesn’t even allow for that.

Collapsing to the ground from this indescribable agony I’d never experienced before, I could do nothing but let out silent screams.

Side effects? F*ck, if anyone knew this sh*t had side effects like this, what kind of lunatic would drink it?

Even Guan Yu, who supposedly played Go while undergoing surgery without anesthesia, couldn’t have played marbles if he’d drunk this potion, let alone Go.

“Urghhhh!!”

Peter seemed to be hit by the side effects too, as I saw his body on the ground start to convulse.

“Ian!”

Seeing me collapse, Hori, the very cause of this torment, rushed over and spoke in an excited voice.

“Can you describe exactly what kind of pain you’re feeling right now?! And which parts of your body? Also how it changes over time…”

“…Eeeeek!!”

F*ck… once these side effects wear off, I’m gonna bash this b*tch’s head in.

—