Chapter 108: Whip (6)

‘…Syringe.’

Unlike the crude syringes of my era, seeing this relatively modern design filled me with nostalgia for my old homeland after decades.

I sensed a faint trace of mana at the needle’s tip. It was clearly enchanted, though not with grandiose magic like physical enhancement.

At most, it was likely a simple spell to sterilize the needle after each injection.

“Equipment for quick doping during combat? Clever.”

“A hick school graduate evaluating intelligence?”

“What the fuck? Why bring up universities here?!”

“Isn’t it weird not to when discussing intelligence? Oh, did you only attend some backwater school?”

“You fucking bastard!!”

Enraged, I raised my hand to crack my whip, but he seized the opportunity and lunged at me with all his might.

‘He’s fast…’

Not just his strength, but his agility had transformed to a completely different level compared to earlier.

In my time, such doping drugs didn’t exist. Had alchemy advanced this much in a mere 300 years?

‘No, now’s not the time for such thoughts.’

I quickly redirected my whip towards Baldojae, but instead of barely dodging like before, he leapt far away into the dark forest.

Whips have long range and speed, but once the initial strike is avoided, they leave you defenseless until you can retract them.

To compensate for this weakness, I had developed the technique I showed Baldojae earlier – the two-tailed snake.

Using a whip made of sharp, flexible steel like a sword, this technique allows for a second attack by bending the trajectory using obstacles like walls or trees even if the enemy dodges the first strike.

That’s why narrowly avoiding it is actually more dangerous. The best method to evade is to dodge far away, just as he did.

‘Did he grasp the technique’s mechanism after seeing it just once?’

I’d inwardly scoffed at his academy uniform, but despite his youth, he wasn’t an opponent to be taken lightly.

As I retracted my whip and watched the forest he’d disappeared into, he charged straight at me from the front instead of attacking from the side.

He placed his hand on the sword hilt. Unlike before, was he ready to intercept at any moment?

‘No, wait…’

The darkness made it hard to see clearly, but upon closer inspection, his hand wasn’t on the hilt but on the scabbard, just below the tsuba.

I thought he was going to draw the sword with one hand on the scabbard and the other on the hilt, but what followed was entirely different.

“Baldo Art: Ejection!!”

“Ejection?”

With that nonsensical technique name, a katana flew straight at me, hilt-first.

He struck the tsuba area with his thumb like flipping a coin, literally ejecting the katana from its scabbard.

‘Why would this lunatic make such a pointless attack… No, would he really do something meaningless?’

Dodging the ejected katana should have been simple. I wouldn’t even need to move much, just tilt my head slightly.

But there’s no way that bastard would waste a katana on such an easily readable and meaningless attack.

When the katana he ejected reached right in front of my eyes, I threw myself aside to dodge it, just as he had done earlier.

Suddenly, spikes like those on a hedgehog’s back sprouted from the blood-red blade and hilt of the katana.

‘I sensed mana, so I suspected it, but it really is a demon sword…’

If I had narrowly dodged that katana or tried to grab the hilt, my body would now be riddled with holes.

“You use your sword quite recklessly!!”

“Are you also part of the demon sword liberation movement?”

“The demon sword what?”

Before I could ask what nonsense he was spouting, he placed his hand on the hilt of his second sword and charged at me, cloaked in energy manipulation.

I immediately cracked my whip. Just as the accelerated tip of the whip was about to tear through the air and reach him, he instantly drew his sword and parried the whip upwards.

Seeing my whip soar high into the sky, I momentarily felt a sense of danger, but as I watched him sheathe his sword again, that tension melted away like snow.

‘What an idiot. He should have just slashed…’

His fixation on Baldo, an assassination technique with no practical combat use, was his downfall.

I brought down the high-flying whip, its sharp tip plummeting vertically towards his crown.

Despite his usual claims, friction only hinders drawing a sword, so my whip would strike before his blade.

As I grinned, imagining his body being skewered from crown to toe, he raised his scabbard upwards.

“…?”

At first, I couldn’t fathom his intention and merely tilted my head, but the sight that unfolded before me soon filled my face with astonishment.

‘He blocked it with the scabbard?!’

It wasn’t just that he deflected the attack with the scabbard – he caught the falling whip and sheathed it inside.

I could catch a falling sword with a scabbard, but I wouldn’t dare try to catch a whip I had swung, especially improvising during combat.

“You crazy bastard!!”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

With those words, he drew a katana from his waist and aimed it at my stomach. Unlike a normal katana, I noticed its blade had the edge and back reversed.

This lunatic was using such a useless failure of a weapon just to maintain his concept, even in the midst of battle.

He surely didn’t intend to mock me, but just seeing that sword irritated me to no end.

“Ugh…!!”

Since it lacked an edge, I blocked it with my hand cloaked in energy manipulation, but an immense impact still traveled up my arm.

Whether due to the energy manipulation or pure skill, despite blocking with my energy-infused hand, I felt a sharp pain as if struck by a keen blade.

It was the same for me, but why did the god who sent us to this shitty world give such talents to bastards like him?

‘…This world really is fucked up.’

Using the power of the ley lines to deflect the impact coursing through my body, I watched as he drew out the whip that had been sheathed in his scabbard.

With a familiar scraping sound, the ominous purple whip fluttered in the moonlight. He immediately withdrew his sword and jumped far back.

Intending to launch a follow-up attack before he could regain his stance, I turned my head in the direction he had leapt, only to lock eyes with him as he gripped the hilt of a katana embedded in the ground.

As the fierce mana emanating from the grounded katana reached my skin on the wind, I finally realized this had all been planned from the start.

‘…Even the ley lines can’t deflect that much power.’

Blocking it head-on wasn’t even worth considering; inevitably, the only answer was to dodge.

But where could I dodge to? With a torrent of power that strong, it would be difficult to completely escape its effects no matter where I dodged on the ground.

‘…No, it’s only difficult because I’m trying to dodge on the ground, right?’

Ley lines draw power flowing through the earth, so naturally, the attack would travel along the ground.

Just as I finally found a breakthrough upon realizing this obvious fact, his voice rang out.

“Ley Line Baldo, Marang’s Fang!!”

As he shouted this technique name that would make even a cartoon protagonist blush, I smirked and leapt high into the sky.

ley lines are a power that flows through the earth. Just as an earthquake can’t harm a bird soaring through the sky, leaping high would nullify any threat.

High in the air, I looked down, expecting to see his frustrated expression. Instead, he was grinning up at me as if he had anticipated this.

‘Don’t tell me he predicted even this…!!’

No, an attack using ley line power should be significantly weakened if it doesn’t travel through the ground.

“Ley Line Baldo, Table Flip.”

Along with this ridiculous name, he drew his katana, and massive boulders and earth erupted from the ground like a volcanic eruption.

“Playing in the dirt at your age?!”

While this might have been a dire situation for an ordinary swordsman, for one who had reached the level of Swordmaster, it was mere child’s play.

As I deflected the oncoming boulders by slashing with my whip and sometimes shattering them with shockwaves imbued with energy manipulation, I glanced at the ground and noticed Baldojae, who had been there moments ago, had vanished.

‘What the… Where did he…?!’

As I searched for where he might have gone, I caught sight of Baldojae leaping high, using the erupting rocks as footholds.

I tried to crack my whip as he ascended at an explosive speed, stepping on the rising rocks to accelerate, but each time, more rocks and earth rushed to obstruct me.

Accelerating ever faster, he shot upwards like a bullet or a whip’s tip, tearing through the air with a deafening roar that threatened to burst my eardrums. Just before drawing his sword, Baldojae muttered in a low voice:

“Baldo Art: Eight Shaku Leap.”

With a ghastly light emanating from the crimson blade, he began to cleave my torso in two.

“Ugh, urgh…!!”

Though I belatedly tried to block the attack using energy manipulation, the blade had already carved through more than half of my abdomen, rendering my efforts mere stalling.

“Die!! Bow before the noble power of Baldo!!!”

“Fuck, what’s so great about that shitty technique that you’re making such a fuss?!”

“Baldo is a matter of utmost importance!!”

The blade, burrowing ever deeper, finally severed my spine, and my body split in two, falling limply to the ground.

As I was pelted by the still-rising shower of stones, I thought:

I hope that crazy greatsword maniac finds this bastard too.

And may he experience the same frustration and humiliation I felt that day…