Chapter 150: Blind Date (2)

“Hnngh…!!”

My ears popped and a chill swept over me so intense I thought for a moment I’d been flung into outer space.

I’d risen so high that everything below looked smaller than ants. The view made me feel almost godlike.

‘I need to get back quickly…’

Even now, my body was still soaring skyward, defying gravity.

At this rate, I might actually break through the stratosphere and reach space.

Hastily turning my body, I drew Jinta with all my might towards the starry night sky.

With a tremendous impact, my body began falling back to earth, and everything in my stomach started rushing up my esophagus.

“Urgh!!!”

Barely swallowing back the vomit that had reached my throat, I placed my hand on Jinta’s hilt, bracing for the imminent impact.

As the ground drew closer, the nausea intensified and the heat enveloping my body grew stronger, making me feel like I was on fire.

As the tiny dots below became more distinct and recognizable…

A sword shot up through the clouds once again, but its attack was so straightforward from being launched upwards that, unlike before, I easily dodged it with a slight twist of my body.

As I approached Elaine, who had been far away, I drew Jinta from my waist without hesitation, preparing for the impact.

The power of Jinta, having absorbed both the friction from being drawn and the air resistance from the fall, was truly meteor-like.

If it had collided with the meteor Bukkake dropped, it surely would have shattered that meteor and pulverized the one behind it too.

“Ugh…!!”

Elaine, concentrating all her energy manipulation into her sword, barely managed to block Jinta’s strike, but only for a moment.

Her usually expressionless face contorted as her sword, once as solid as a fortress, began to crack. Then, with a snap, it broke.

Unable to withstand the recoil from her broken sword, Elaine collapsed to the ground, which ironically helped her absorb some of the impact.

“Looks like this is my win, right?”

“…Not yet.”

Though her sword was broken and Jinta, despite being reverse-edged, was right next to her neck, Elaine hadn’t given up.

Moments later, as if to prove her words true, the swords that had soared high through the clouds plummeted straight towards my head.

“Oh…”

I narrowly dodged the swords and tried to target Elaine again, but she had already sprung to her feet. Escorted by three swords, she calmly dusted herself off.

‘I’ve broken one sword, so if I keep this momentum and break the other three…’

As if to deny that thought, Elaine held up the broken sword hilt. The scattered sword fragments on the ground began to gather, liquefying before solidifying into a blade.

‘So she has regeneration abilities too…’

If that’s the case, even if I broke those three swords, they might regenerate like the one Elaine was holding now.

Rather than trying to neutralize her by breaking the swords, I needed to consider disabling her by breaking an arm or leg.

“…This won’t do in this state.”

“Are you hiding something?”

“…Yeah.”

The swords circling Elaine suddenly stopped, then began to melt and change shape, including their hilts.

The fully melted swords transformed into a spear, a hammer, and a great sword easily twice Elaine’s size.

I’d thought they weren’t ordinary swords, but it seems they indeed had some magic imbued in them.

“…Here I come.”

As I was thinking this, Elaine’s eyes filled with aura, as if to say she was getting serious now, and she charged at me with all her might.

I quickly used ley line power to raise a wall to block her charge, but the high wall immediately sank back into the ground.

As expected, manipulating ley line power seemed like child’s play to the Sword Saint’s successor.

“Ugh…!!”

The first thing that flew at me was the spear, which had the longest reach among Elaine’s four weapons.

Like before when it was a sword, the spear Elaine controlled pierced into my space as if wielded by a skilled master.

After barely dodging the spear that looked like it could pierce anything, a huge hammer swung at me from the side.

I didn’t dodge the hammer but drew Jinta to shatter it. However, the destroyed hammer immediately liquefied and reformed, lunging at me again.

‘The regeneration speed is faster than I expected…’

I hadn’t planned to neutralize it by destroying it, but it seemed I couldn’t do much more than buy a little time.

While I was thinking this, the massive great sword closed in on me. Judging by its downward speed, it seemed more like a dagger than a great sword.

As I was considering whether to destroy this great sword like I did the hammer, the spear from earlier began stabbing at me again, and the now-regenerated hammer rose high to fall on me.

Unlike before when the weapons were all swords and I could somewhat predict the attacks even without being a Swordmaster, now that the weapons had changed, their attack patterns had too. Even if I could read the flow of attacks, it was hard to respond immediately.

Dealing with three swords simultaneously was already challenging, but with sword-wielding Elaine joining in, I could only focus on defense.

‘As expected of the Sword Saint’s successor, her pure skill is about on par with mine.’

Though I’d been on the back foot until now, I felt like I could see a way out of this situation.

Unless I completely vaporized Elaine’s weapons with fire or annihilated them with Wolffang’s power, they would regenerate over and over.

However, the weapons themselves weren’t that durable, and with her energy manipulation spread across four weapons, she couldn’t harden them enough to prevent destruction.

If that’s the case, the solution is simple. Recalling the roar Lobo once unleashed, I drew Jinta with all my might.

The shockwave created by tearing through the air wall during the draw was enhanced by energy manipulation, increasing both its power and range, destroying everything in its path.

The sword in Elaine’s hand survived because she was holding it directly, but the other three didn’t.

Before the liquefied weapons could regenerate, I quickly resheathed Jinta using her ability and drew again.

The shockwave that erupted with a thunderous boom blew away the not-yet-regenerated weapons far into the distance.

It would take time for them to return even after regenerating from being blown so far away.

Now Elaine would have to fight with just one sword until the blown-away swords returned, but in this situation, the outcome was already as good as decided.

Our remaining stamina was about equal, but the difference in weapons we possessed had become too great.

Elaine’s weapons were perfect for her, able to automatically regenerate and transform into any shape, suiting her ability to wield any weapon freely. But conversely, that’s all they were.

They didn’t have abilities like Wolffang’s power to turn anything into foam, or Jinta’s ability suited for the world’s strongest technique, Baldo.

With just one sword, it was merely a slightly tougher sword that could regenerate if broken.

If skill and remaining stamina are similar, the match is naturally decided by the difference in weapons. So, from the moment the weapons were blown away, the match was essentially over.

Elaine must have known this better than anyone, yet she didn’t let go of her sword and just stared at me with her usual expressionless face.

‘Even in this situation, her expression doesn’t change…’

Though her emotions didn’t show on her face much, I had thought Elaine enjoyed fighting based on her aggressive behavior of immediately requesting a matchmaking duel when we first met.

However, now that we were actually fighting, while she showed aura, she didn’t seem to enjoy the combat itself or show any signs of anxiety about possibly losing.

Even if one enjoys the fight itself without being tied to winning or losing, it’s natural to feel happy when winning and anxious when losing.

So why could she remain so calm, as if she didn’t care, even when facing defeat?

It couldn’t just be because this fight was a matchmaking duel rather than a life-or-death battle.

So why was she so composed? As I pondered this, I reached one possibility and asked Elaine directly.

“…Hey, are you perhaps going easy on me?”

“……”

When I asked this, removing my hand from Jinta’s hilt, Elaine’s eyes, which had seemed like they wouldn’t react even if a bomb went off in front of her, widened in surprise.

Elaine, who had relaxed her combat stance just as I had taken my hand off the hilt, tilted her head and asked me:

“…Why do you think that?”

“You didn’t seem to be enjoying fighting me much. So I thought about why that might be.”

If someone who likes fighting itself rather than winning isn’t enjoying a fight, what could be the reason?

Thinking about this, the conclusion I reached was this:

“I thought maybe you weren’t having fun because you couldn’t use your full skills while going easy on me.”

“…I wasn’t really going easy. It’s just…”

“Just?”

“I’m not used to ending fights without killing, so my hand keeps stopping… There are techniques I want to use, but I can’t because you might die… It’s frustrating…”

I’m holding Jinta, a non-lethal reverse-edged sword, so unless I deliberately try to kill someone, I don’t have to worry about accidentally killing people.

But it was different for Elaine, who was wielding a real sword.

Everyone knows how difficult it is to subdue an equal opponent with a real sword without killing them.

Of course, I was being careful not to kill too, but unlike Elaine with her real sword, I had much more leeway with my reverse-edged sword.

“So that’s why your expression was so stiff.”

“…Yeah.”

“Then just fight as if you’re trying to kill me.”

“…Huh?”

“I said, you can fight as if you’re trying to kill me.”

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