Ch.283Chapter 283: Give It Back!! (3)

The roar of Adorator’s fighting spirit was a magnificent sight, rippling with intensity.

It was a vortex.

She couldn’t even block the trivial attacks I threw, which must have seemed insignificant to her.

Her rage at herself for not matching my fierce charge, instead tripping over my extended foot and rolling ungracefully across the obsidian floor.

And the overwhelming killing intent directed at me for provoking such anger.

All these elements mixed in their own chaotic way, creating a vortex that greedily devoured everything it touched.

If fighting spirit is a vessel that contains the emotions of whoever creates it, regardless of who they are…

Then there was no need to mention just how furious Adorator was toward me right now.

Thud-!!

Amidst the swirling vortex, Adorator’s footsteps reached my ears with strange clarity.

“You’ve waited long enough.”

Simultaneously, I heard Adorator’s voice addressing me in an extremely calm tone, despite being filled with the same raw anger present in her fighting spirit.

Since I knew better than anyone that this was the voice she used when in a state of extreme anger…

“Your body must be itching for action. Why not come at me without holding back?”

I focused on provoking her, wiggling my right index and middle fingers to draw her into my range.

Though incredibly crude, there was nothing more effective for stimulating Adorator when she was consumed by rage like this.

Crack-!!

As Adorator’s eyes caught my gesture, a vein visibly bulged on her forehead, clearly visible even from a distance.

Boom-!!

Without another word, round two began with Adorator’s opening attack—a powerful stomp followed by a charge straight at me.

It had less explosive power than her previous boar-like charge, but incorporated a delicacy that allowed her to easily counter whatever movements I might make.

Compared to her earlier charge, it wasn’t particularly difficult to avoid.

No matter how fast, sharp, or concentrated with killing intent her movements were as they flew toward me.

I wasn’t so careless that I couldn’t dodge movements I had thoroughly analyzed and understood before.

With my senses honed to razor sharpness, Adorator’s movements appeared to flow slowly before my eyes.

This time, she was coming at me with a knife hand aimed precisely at my chest.

It was far more precise and calculated than her initial movements that relied solely on speed and power to crush me.

Even while venting her intense anger, she maintained a cool expression as she charged—that alone was telling.

But this seemingly perfect strike…

Was all too visible to me.

“I see it!!”

“…!!”

With that brief shout, I lightly twisted my body to move slightly out of the trajectory of Adorator’s charge.

Then, instead of dodging, I grabbed her sharpened left hand—which would have pierced my chest—with both of my hands, blocking her movement.

Whoosh-!!

I immediately swung my left leg to target her lower body, which was left exposed by her charge.

It wasn’t a decisive blow meant to inflict physical damage.

Like when I first avoided Adorator’s charge, it was an attack intended to break her physical balance and make her roll across the cold obsidian floor.

Though the impact was less significant than when I had struck her jaw.

“…!!”

With her arm caught and having read my attack intention, Adorator’s expression grew urgent as she tried somehow to avoid my attack.

Unfortunately for her and fortunately for me, my movements were faster.

Once again, Adorator’s body was about to lose balance and roll across the obsidian floor…

“You think I’ll fall for that again!!”

…or so I thought, but as she lost her balance, she threw away the dragon sword she was holding in her right hand and pushed off the ground with her empty palm, successfully creating distance between us.

Tap- Tap-

As she widened the gap, Adorator lightly dusted herself off, and contrary to the panting expression I had expected…

“Since you know you can’t match me in a contest of strength, are you trying to break my balance with minimal movement?”

She showed the composure to evaluate my tactics in a fairly cool voice, having apparently cleared the blood that had rushed to her head while moving her heated body.

The first exchange of the second round ended not only as a probing battle with no damage to either side.

It was also a moment confirming the unwelcome news that Adorator, who should have been charging recklessly with lost reason, had quickly regained her composure.

But regained composure can easily be turned back into anger that surpasses passion.

“Haven’t you forgotten something?”

“What are you talk—ah!”

I wiggled the reclaimed dragon sword from side to side, addressing Adorator who had been struggling to avoid the humiliation of rolling on the floor again.

Adding to that:

“Is the blood rushing to your head preventing you from thinking? Or did you try to display some ill-fitting chivalry in hopes of fighting me as an equal?”

As I provoked her with a distinctly mocking tone…

“RAAAAAAAH!!!!”

As if she had never regained her composure, Adorator roared again, casting aside her reason, and I slightly raised the corner of my mouth.

I gained a strange realization that even bad blood could be useful when utilized this way.

#

I had taunted her to my heart’s content.

And I had reclaimed the dragon sword that Desiregae had taken, through a moment of quick thinking against Adorator.

Now I needed to either knock her unconscious during the battle or find some other way to escape this place.

Kuuuung-!!

“Where do you think you’re running…”

Escaping from Adorator’s grasp as she pressured me with martial arts powered by her brute physical abilities was an incredibly difficult task.

The current thunderous sound came from barely blocking her heel with my dragon sword as she leaped into the air and swung it down with enough force to shatter my crown.

Even for a transcendent being who had awakened divinity, the fact that bare flesh made of blood and flesh could meet the blade of an unparalleled famous sword without injury—and even make my hand go numb—was remarkable.

This would not be an easy fight.

My swordsmanship wasn’t working well against a semi-deity with an invincible body that remained uninjured even by a holy sword.

And as if seeing through my thoughts:

“Hahaha!! Where’s that confidence you had when provoking me? Now all you can do is run away!!”

As she let out a maniacal laugh, Adorator’s heel…

Screeeech-!!

Pressed against the dragon sword, creating a metallic sound that mercilessly assaulted my ears.

When faced with a situation you need to escape from but can’t, you have no choice but to take the opponent’s fierce attack head-on.

And as if not straying far from that teaching:

Adorator used my dragon sword touching her heel as a foothold to leap into the air once more.

“Take this!!”

With a piercing cry, she began a fierce rotation, using her airborne body as an axis.

“Tch!”

Realizing what she was trying to do, I hurriedly released the fighting spirit imbued in the dragon sword.

Clang-!!

Even swinging the spirit blade created by wrapping fighting spirit around the dragon sword with all my might, it was impossible to stop Adorator’s rotating body with just released fighting spirit, when even direct hits couldn’t wound her invincible flesh.

[Dodge it!!]

I moved to avoid the expected impact point even before Paphnir’s voice urgently advised me to dodge.

Unfortunately, my evasion came too late, and I had no choice but to raise the dragon sword to barely block Adorator’s spiraling foot.

Kwaaaang-!!

“…Kuhup!”

Until the impact force generated by the spiral broke through my defense and damaged my body, I truly thought I had blocked it.

Splat

A moderate amount of blood burst from my mouth, adding an appropriate color to the pitch-black obsidian floor.

One might question what “moderate amount” means for blood flowing from my mouth rather than a wound.

But with my ultra-regenerative ability that could heal even fatal wounds in the blink of an eye…

Getting away with just this much after blocking a strike from the violent evil deity who claimed to be the second-in-command and mistress of the demon realm was getting off lightly.

“How does it feel! How does it feel to physically pay the price for daring to provoke me with your low-class words?”

Of course, unaware of my thoughts, Adorator was busy gloating, satisfied with having landed a hit on me.

So, hoping that Adorator would come to her senses soon:

“Well, I was just thinking that your strike was so bland it couldn’t kill me, and wondered if you were actually going easy on me.”

As I provoked Adorator again in a clear tone, as if the previous injury meant nothing…

“Y-you!!!”

A groan filled with anger burst from her mouth, just as she had started to feel better after finally landing a proper hit.

“Fine! I’ll make sure that mouth of yours never opens again!!”

I could see Adorator’s right fist flying toward my face—specifically my mouth—accompanied by the most vicious declaration I’d heard during this fight.

Hmm, I can’t dodge this.

I was turning my head to somehow endure the impact, thinking I’d have to bear the pain even if the wound would regenerate, when…

Thud-

I could see Adorator’s fist, which seemed like it would break through anything, stopping as if blocked by something right in front of me.

“…Ngh!!”

Judging by Adorator’s strained groan, she hadn’t stopped her fist just before my face to instill fear in me.

“…I can’t stand this anymore.”

From a distance, I heard Imperfectio’s bored voice as he uttered a single line, having been watching our fierce battle with folded arms, now with his right hand raised forward.

I sensed it immediately. Imperfectio, who now had his right hand wide open and extended before us, had blocked Adorator’s right fist with telekinesis.

Throughout our fight, I had been careful not to expose my back, fearing a sneak attack, and now I was receiving unexpected help from Imperfectio.