episode_0086

“Alright. Since I’m called the Hero, I’ll let you have the first move.”

The Hero, as if bestowing great mercy, spread both hands defenselessly to his sides and tilted his chin, indicating for me to attack first.

It was arrogance filled with the certainty that no matter what I did, it would never be a threat to him.

Incensed by the arrogant Hero’s attitude, I looked at the heavy logging axe I firmly gripped with both hands.

The axe, perhaps custom-made by the herbalist Hero, was strangely heavy at the head, making it difficult to swing, but if it hit, it could split even thick logs in one go.

If I could just embed the axe blade into his body with a single blow while the Hero was off guard, I felt certain I could inflict a fatal wound.

“There’s no need to refuse such an offer!”

Glaring at the Hero who provoked me with his arms casually spread, I suddenly threw my body towards him and forcefully brought the axe down from above.

But the moment I threw my body forward towards the Hero.

A cold smirk formed in the Hero’s eyes, as if he had already anticipated my surprise attack.

“Obvious~”

Thwack!

The moment I exerted strength to hoist the axe high into the sky and bring it down…

The Hero’s scabbard, swung like a flash of light, struck the handle of my axe before it could even gain downward acceleration.

“Ugh!”

The axe I was trying to bring down forcefully was struck by the Hero’s scabbard and bounced backward.

From the impact, the flesh of my palm, which had been gripping the handle tightly so as not to drop the axe, felt as if it had been torn, like holding a burning cinder in my hand.

“This is parrying. A very basic technique.”

He pointed a finger and burst into laughter, seemingly finding my pathetic backward stumble, as I tried not to drop the rebounded axe, unsightly.

“Do you know why axes are the weapons of pathetic bandits or minor characters?”

Then, as if giving a sermon, he raised his scabbard and pointed it at my axe, which I was struggling to grip with my trembling, pain-ridden hand.

“Because their attack patterns are simple. Chopping down, horizontal swings. That’s all, isn’t it? Perfectly suited for minor characters who lack ability and are just there to fill up numbers.”

Smiling annoyingly, the Hero approached me and lightly tapped the back of my hand, which was struggling to grip the axe handle, with his scabbard, as if I posed no threat whatsoever.

“If you want to be special, change your weapon first. Carrying something like this as a weapon is why you can’t get past being a supporting character or an extra.”

“Shut up!”

Swallowing the pain of my palm feeling torn as if clutching a burning cinder, I once again powerfully swung the axe I had gripped tightly towards the Hero.

“Par~ry.”

Thwack!

I thought the Hero, engrossed in his arrogance and lecturing me, had let his guard down…

But perhaps the axe I swung horizontally in a surprise attack was slow enough to make him yawn, for the Hero vertically swung the same scabbard he had been tapping my hand with, striking the axe handle I had swung.

“Ughh!”

I had held onto the axe handle so tightly, determined not to let it go, but with the immense force that struck it, the handle slipped out of my palm as if greased, feeling as though the very flesh of my palm had been ripped off.

“Alright… the sermon is over. It’s time for you to take a beating.”

The Hero, a cold sneer on his face, slowly approached me, finding my pathetic sight — retreating while whimpering in pain, having even lost my weapon, the axe — amusing.

I clenched my bare hand, which had lost the axe, into a fist and glared at him with wide eyes, determined not to miss the slowly approaching Hero’s movements.

Just as he had parried my axe, I felt that if I focused all my senses on his movements, I could demonstrably evade his attacks.

Thud!

“Cough?!”

I thought I hadn’t missed a single one of his movements, but that was my delusion.

The moment I thought his smiling, approaching face blurred…

His scabbard had already swung from below to above, powerfully striking my chin.

“Jazel!”

My head snapped back instantly, and I saw pristine white fragments, presumably my teeth, scattering red blood droplets as they shot high into the sky.

“Looks like you thought I was a damn joke…”

Thwack!

Before I could even process the situation…

My body tilted sideways from an impact to the side of my neck.

I instantly felt the strength drain from my body, and I collapsed helplessly to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

“It only takes a few seconds to crush someone like you, you know?”

I tried my best to lift my fallen body, but my arms and legs wouldn’t move as I willed, as if my tendons had been severed.

Thud!

Finding my helpless squirming on the ground amusing, the Hero kicked me in the stomach as if clearing away insignificant trash.

“Cough… Ugh…”

The impact, which momentarily stopped my breathing, jolted my hazy consciousness, and I could barely begin to exert strength into my flailing limbs.

As my hazy consciousness awakened, the belated, full-body pain squeezed me, and I could only clench the innocent ground as if wringing it out.

“Come to think of it, what were the conditions for defeat? Was it a declaration of surrender?”

Trampling me with his foot as I lay on the ground, desperately gasping for breath, the Hero triumphantly looked at Killua-nim and posed a question.

But Killua-nim simply glared at the Hero, arms crossed, without saying a word.

“This bastard doesn’t have the luxury of speaking right now… So why don’t you declare your surrender yourself and promise to become my slave? Otherwise, I might just cripple this guy.”

The Hero lightly tapped my head, which was pinned beneath his foot, with his scabbard, threatening Killua-nim.

At the Hero’s threat, Killua-nim’s eyes, which had been glaring at him, trembled greatly.

It seemed she hadn’t expected such an overwhelming skill difference.

The Hero possessed abilities that were hideously strong, as twisted as his personality.

“Uwaaaaaaaah!!”

As Killua-nim’s mouth trembled uneasily as if to utter surrender, I, unable to accept that she would become a slave to such an inhuman wretch, let out a scream and pushed away the Hero’s leg that was on me.

“Ohh… you’ve got remarkable spirit, but…”

Thwack!

The Hero swung his scabbard, seemingly intending to make me, who had screamed and gotten up, crawl pathetically on the ground again.

But I, noticing that he was aiming for vital spots like my head or neck, raised my arm and blocked his scabbard.

Snap!

However, within my arm that blocked the scabbard, an eerie bone-cracking sound I’d never heard before echoed, and my arm twisted into a grotesque, unfamiliar shape.

“Ughh…”

Thump!

However, as if he had no intention of giving me a moment to scream from the pain of my broken arm, the Hero’s knee deeply plunged into my solar plexus.

“Tsk tsk tsk… The difference in our levels is like heaven and earth… Is it even sensible for a minor character who’ll be forgotten the moment he turns his back to defy the protagonist?”

From the powerful impact to my solar plexus, along with the pain as if several ribs had broken, my breath abruptly stopped as if my lungs had malfunctioned.

“Alright. I’ll especially break your spirit and will for that woman. No need for a surrender declaration. The moment you lose consciousness. Let’s say you lose the duel. How about it?”

The Hero, smiling broadly as if he found the situation amusing, began to stretch his body in front of me, who was clutching my stomach and frozen, preparing to truly beat me.

“Unconsciousness… Right… As long as I don’t lose consciousness, it’s fine, isn’t it?”

While the Hero, seemingly intoxicated by his overwhelming power, was casually stretching his body for all to see, I, who had barely found a gap, glared at him with bloodshot eyes.

“That’s right! As long as you don’t lose consciousness. But do you think someone like you can manage that? Everyone thinks they have enough resolve and will until they take one hit. But then they take one hit and think… ‘Huh? This isn’t right?’ And after taking a second hit, they realize, ‘Ah… I’m screwed. This is not it.’ Finally, with the third hit, they collapse, thinking, ‘I couldn’t endure this after all.’”

As if predicting my future, the Hero confidently chuckled while stroking his scabbard, which still had traces of my blood.

Glaring at the Hero, I reached into the leather pouch hanging at my waist.

Inside, a handful of pills that Killua-nim had made for me came out.

‘They will restore your sanity and put you in an awakened state where you absolutely won’t lose consciousness for several minutes.’

When I went on a date with Ariel. Killua-nim had made these pills for me in case of any emergency.

I never thought they’d be used like this… but at this moment, these pills were my last hope.

“N-no, Jazel!”

Killua-nim, discerning my intentions, screamed with a pale face.

An awakening effect that would prevent me from losing consciousness for several minutes.

Conversely, it meant I would have to feel every upcoming pain unfiltered and extremely vividly.

Escape through unconsciousness was impossible.

My senses wouldn’t dull from consciousness becoming hazy due to terrible pain.

It meant I would have to vividly feel all the pain—flesh tearing, muscles crushing, bones shattering into pieces—without any filtering, within my consciousness sharpened by the awakening effect.

As I imagined the agony I would endure from this choice, the hand gripping the pills trembled.

No need to look far; my arm, broken right now…

Amidst the numerous pains throbbing throughout my entire body and the oppressive feeling that made it hard to even breathe, the pain of my broken arm had faded.

But the moment I took these pills, it was clear that all these pains would become extremely vivid, as if they had just occurred.

In such a situation, could I truly maintain my sanity?

Wouldn’t I tragically roll on the ground, shouting surrender and begging him to stop, just to escape the horrific pain?

‘Are you as great as a hero from myth? Do you have stronger mental fortitude than the Hero’s party, who overcame countless adversities and hardships?’

Along with uneasy apprehension, Ermel’s cold taunt, whispered to me the moment Ariel was taken, began to seep into my mind.

‘But a guy like that dares to make a bet with me? Did you really think you could endure it?’

Ermel had scorned my desperate efforts as mere struggles of a lowly creature, and taken everything from me.

Before my eyes, the Hero, wiggling his finger as if to say ‘go on, try something,’ and mocking me, his face overlapped with the sneer Ermel had shown me.

Tears began to well up from the helpless anxiety that my resolve, my choice, might ultimately become a clown show, consumed merely as a source of ridicule before truly special beings.

‘Jazel needs faith and courage in himself. You can do it.’

As my vision blurred with unshed tears, I recalled Ariel’s encouragement whispered to me in the middle of the lake.

‘Because Jazel is definitely a special being too.’

And her farewell…

She had always cheered me on, who lacked confidence and was easily intimidated, and repeatedly reminded me that I was a special being.

“I… am a special being…”

Muttering the words she had said to me, I swallowed the tears welling up in my eyes.

If I were to give up or crumble in fear here and now, Killua-nim, a truly special being who trusted me and entrusted everything to me, would have everything taken away by this Hero, whose very description as ‘human’ was sickening.

“Just for now, I have to become a special being…”

To protect Killua-nim, no matter what…

And to prove Ariel’s belief that I was special…

I tossed the handful of pills into my mouth at once.

With my broken and missing teeth, I couldn’t properly chew the crammed pills and swallowed them whole.

Then, a refreshing sensation swirled, and my senses, hazy from the terrible pain, sharpened, as the fading pains began to throb violently as if reborn.

“G-ghaaaaaa!”

I wanted to utter some taunting line to him, but with the throbbing pain throughout my body, only a horrific scream, as if my lungs were being squeezed, escaped my lips.

“Seriously… you’re noisy!”

The Hero, with a mocking smile directed at me, mercilessly swung his scabbard.