CH 132

“…!”

While dodging the giant shadow wolf’s attacks at close range, I also get a bit aggressive to keep it in place target and buy more time.

It’s a relatively simple thing to put into words, but from the point of view of the person doing it, it’s pretty tough. Since it’s hard to use the method of jumping back and gaining distance from it, I’m forced to always be at a range where it can kill me in one hit.

I thought I was prepared, but the wearing down of my physical and mental strength is at a critical level. In addition, the opponent’s attacks are all lethal and it spurs that feeling of danger. I think it’s probably fine so long as I’m grazed, but if it gets one shot at a good spot, it’s over.

“Hyuh…!” I gasp.

I dodge the shadow’s paw as it sweeps sideways, barely moving backward.

If I lose a bit of ground like this, it’s still good, but if I lose too much ground, it’s going to aim at Thyssel, so I can’t retreat too much. It’s an incredible tightrope act.

As for the part that’s in my favor, the enemy’s attacks are not that rich in variety, and if you just see what it’s preparing for, you can prepare to avoid it, too.

There are two types of attacks I can confirm right now: a melee attack using the shadow’s front legs, and an arrow-like attack that pops out of the main body. As for the front legs, there are no complicated movements, and since it has no concept of feints, I am still able to avoid them completely.

But how long will I last?

Humans are well-known for their long-lasting endurance before they have to stop. Physically speaking, I’m already going downhill. Although I am aware that I am somewhat more mature in my sword-wielding skills than when I was younger, it is difficult to do anything about my baseline physical abilities.

“… Fuh, haa-haa…!”

With reflexes acquired through repeated practice over so long, I dodge my opponent’s attacks.

The thought of thinking and then acting has long passed. If you move while thinking about each proceeding action, you will use unnecessary endurance. Let yourself go with the flow, move with instinct, and slash with instinct. While repeating that movement, a small smile naturally spilled out.

Practicing the basics is boring. It is difficult to get a real sense of growth, and it takes a considerable amount of time to realize even a small amount of progress.

However, when facing a strong enemy like this, you can certainly feel your growth.

At that time, I couldn’t dodge this thing.

Back then, I wouldn’t have been able to launch a counterattack like now.

Recklessly dodge attacks. Guess. Dodge. Hit again. Dodge again. Repeat in extreme conditions.

At this stage, what I unconsciously recalled was the angled cuts that I had continued to use since I was a child.

The accumulation of each slash is now alive as my fighting technique.

Since it’s an opponent who I can’t feel my blade sinking into, I’ve fallen into the feeling of extremely repetitive drills. I don’t even know if this state of mind is right or wrong. Without other sensations, I can only tell time passing in this struggle.

“… Fuhn!”

I slash between the shadow arrows that fly in. If this was just an animal, I think it would have been in its jaws in a good way. The actual result is that the main shadow’s body has been shaved off a little.

It’s fun.

Feelings that are too inappropriate to have in this situation bubble up in me.

Dueling with my disciples is quite fun. That’s because you can feel their growth.

But, for example, when I fought with Xeno Glaive, I didn’t feel any joy. The frustration of someone being in danger occupied most of my mind.

I wonder why I think I’m having a little fun now. Since there is no feeling of cutting into my opponent, my brain may have processed it as just repetitive slashing drills.

“Fuh…!”

I crouch to dodge the attack that was aimed at my face. If you can’t fall back, you have to deal with it from the front, top, and bottom.

Come to think of it, Kuruni used to do dynamic evasion using her whole body like this. Although her technique was underdeveloped, she was superior in terms of her physical strength, so I think she often liked to use big movements.

“… One more!”

I dodged the successive downward swipes by shifting my body halfway, and then threw in two consecutive attacks of my own.

Alexia is very good at not missing even the smallest gaps and returning sure counterattacks.

Overall, her swordsmanship has already reached a far higher level than mine. Although she is still my former disciple, I feel once again that I can learn a lot from her movements as I teach at the Knight Order.

While fighting, I remember that the five people who are currently learning at the Sword Magic Department should start not only slashing drills but also practicing their styles of battle from now on. What naturally came to my mind was a picture of what kind of sword they would wield in the future.

Like Kuruni, Cindy has excellent physical strength, so I guess it’s a way of fighting that makes full use of that stamina. She’s as strong as Nazia, so she might prefer a brute-force way of fighting like Selena.

I get the feeling that Lumitte and Feledora prefer a graceful, honorable style like Alexia and Thyssel. Feledora said that she especially admired Thyssel and enrolled in the Sword Magic Department because of Thyssel, so her style will be similar.

What will happen to Miu?

If anything, she excels in agility, so in terms of her fighting style, I think she’s closer to Alexia or Selena. It might be interesting to see Miu wield twin swords.

They still have to train the basics, so to speak, the crown jewel of a swordsman.

Polishing those stones from their current roughness is my job, as well as Thyssel’s. You might call it a mission.

I think I’m crazy to think of the future at a time like this.

However, in the midst of a battle where I could certainly feel the results of his training, what I envisioned was the breakthrough of the younger generation.

“… Tsu!”

I fought constantly with such paradoxical feelings. The shadow arrow finally grazed my cheek.

For the first time in a long time, a sharp sensation of injury shot through my body.

Concentration beyond the limit sometimes surpasses the limit of the body.

It surpasses, but it doesn’t last long. The fact that the attack that I had been dodging until just now hit me was proof that the gap between my mental movements and my actual movements have begun to lag.

From the time when I felt happy, a feeling of panic gradually rises.

I’m starting to run out of strength. Concentration is also questionable. My body in constant motion and my brain, which was giving orders, were beginning to send out danger signals.

Is it not ready yet?

How many seconds have passed since Thyssel started gathering her magic? 20 seconds, 30 seconds? A minute? Or maybe 5 minutes.

Concentration tends to obscure your sense of time. It sounds good when you say that you are demonstrating that high level of concentration, but that state doesn’t last very long.

Fresh blood trickles down from my cheek and enters my mouth. It’s bitter. It tastes like iron. 1

Although it was a very minor wound, the fact that I was hit by an attack that I thought I could dodge means my concentration is rapidly wearing away.

I feel the sweat that has been pouring all over my body. While suppressing even the feeling of it flowing down my forehead, I simply moved around and waited for the time to strike.

This is dangerous. I’m running out of breath.

Even if it’s just a little bit more, if I don’t take a breather somewhere, I’ll drop.

“… Fuuh…!”

“… Can’t, any…!”

My concentration and stamina are finally starting to break and I’m out of breath.

It was almost at the same time that I heard Thyssel’s powerful cry:

“Master, get out of the way!”

“… Aaah!”

Luckily for me, I jumped back in time with the giant wolf’s attack. From the recoil of the landing and the slight relief that finally came to me, I unconsciously fell to my knees.

“… Buhaah!”

A big gasp. I take a deep breath.

Hyuh, it was barely in time. If it was even ten seconds later, I might have received something worse than just the attack that grazed my cheek. It was on the verge of that. I can feel the sweat pouring out of my back.

When I looked to the side, the magical power that must have been stored up to the limit in Thyssel’s hand was gushing out not only from the tip of her sword but from the entire weapon. It was as if I saw an illusion of a waterfall springing up before my eyes.

Judging from its appearance, there is no doubt that it has tremendous power. The sword exerted an overwhelming amount of pressure to the point that I was worried that the cave would collapse if you fired something like this inside it.

“Take this…”

Thyssel takes a breath and swings her sword down.

To my eyes, it wasn’t a sword attack, but a beam of light crashing down.

“Secret Sword Technique, Catena!”

“Whoa, whoa…!?”

There was no flashy sound, just a heat wave-like shock that swallowed up the surroundings. The power was so great that I thought of stabbing my sword into the ground to brace for the impact.

Then the shock I felt in my body ebbed, and the intense light that blinded me faded.

The mighty shadow was almost blown away in front of my eyes, and only the distorted remnants of what was supposed to be a gigantic wolf drifted, making the blurred outlines even more chaotic.

“A-Amazing…”

Is this Thyssel’s full power? No, it’s certainly difficult to handle in actual combat, considering that you need to charge it for a long time in the heat of it. But even then, it’s incredibly destructive. That giant shadow wolf, which was unmoved by a few attacks, is now in tragic shape and greatly weakened.

Or should I say it’s still alive? As the light evaporated, most of the shadows were reduced to nothing, but they didn’t disperse or gather anymore.

“Haa… I’m exhausted… I was wondering what we should do if this didn’t work,” Thyssel said.

“No, this was all we needed, Thyssel. Well done.”

For a while, just in case, I kept my distance and devoted myself to observation, but it didn’t seem like there would be any further movement. I don’t know if she was able to kill it, but at least it seems that she was able to neutralize it. That constant sound that had been in my ears since a while ago had stopped ringing now.

This is an opponent that I would never have been able to defeat on my own. Even though I was a decoy, I think this destructive power is worthy of awe.

What’s more, the terrifying thing is that Thyssel is still young. From now on, she will continue to study, and her ability will grow more and more.

How strong can she be? How high is the peak she’s sworn to reach? My curiosity is endless.

“… Hm? This is…”

Judging that the danger has passed, I walk to the remnants of shadows. It would have been necessary to take further measures if it were to attack again if it approached us, but apparently, there is no need to worry about that.

And when I walked to where the giant shadow wolf’s center was supposed to be, I saw something like a black crystal floating unstably in the air with a faint shadow.

“A crystal…? I wonder what this is,” I said.

“… I don’t know. But I have a bad feeling about it,” Thyssel said,

“Hm……”

In terms of size, it was about the size of the palm of my hand. It reflects almost no light and emits a mysterious black mist.

Hmm, it doesn’t seem to be a normal substance at the point that it floats here without falling to the ground. I don’t even know if I can touch it with my bare hands. However, I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave this here and return above ground.

“… It didn’t take a single scratch from the spell just now. It’s probably terribly hard,” Thyssel said.

“I don’t think it’s just a stone,” I said.

This stone, if I were to use an incredibly abstract expression, I somehow felt like it was alive. The proof is that even now that the giant shadow wolf has disappeared, it still floats with a faint aura of shadows.

The fact that it wasn’t damaged at all by that spell of Thyssel’s may be that it’s strong against magical impacts, contrary to the shadow.

It might be a bit of an outlandish idea, but considering that this stone is like the main body of the gigantic wolf, and that powerful shadow was wrapped around it to protect it, well, it makes sense. I just have a feeling that. I’m not sure of anything.

“… Fuh.”

“Uoh!?”

When I was thinking about what this black crystal was, Thyssel cut into it with her sword. At the sudden action, I cried out in surprise. I was shocked. If you’re going to do something like this, I want you to at least warn me first.

“…It’s hard after all. I don’t think I can cut it,” Thyssel said.

“Is that so…?” I said.

However, the feeling was extremely bad. With her grim expression, she had her hand on the blade of her own sword.

Thyssel’s skill is quite high. There is no such thing as misaligning the edge of her blade.

In the end, this crystal boasts a considerable strength that is ineffective against Thyssel’s magic and sword techniques.

“Okay… I’ll try cutting it this time,” I said.

“Understood,” Thyssel said.

Now that I’ve come this far, I want to try things, too. Thanks to being able to take a breather, my stamina has recovered a bit, and I don’t mind if I try the final slash.

Besides, I’m actually quite curious about the substance that can’t be scratched even by magic or Thyssel’s swordsmanship.

If the sword on my waist were just a shop’s normal stock, I might not have thought of doing this, but fortunately, what I have now is Valder’s finest materials.

As a mere swordsman, I couldn’t escape the feeling of wanting to test how far my blade’s sharpness could go.

Above all, it’s a substance that the magician, Thyssel, said she had a bad feeling about. As a swordsman, I don’t understand the danger of this at all, but I can’t ignore the opinion expressed by someone with magical knowledge.

“… Fuuh…”

I adjust my breathing and hold my sword in the center.

It’s a little small as a target, but it doesn’t move much.

The point is the same as with slashing wooden dummies and slashing posts. If you calmly swing your sword, as usual, there’s no way you’ll miss it.

If the sword made by Xeno Glaive is going to fail because of this, then I should honestly apologize to Valder and tell him what happened and have him fix it again. It may cost a lot of money, but it’s a necessary expense.

“…Shyuh!”

With the flash of my sword, I drop to my haunches.

Perhaps the accumulated fatigue from the previous battle worked in a positive direction, but on the contrary, I think I was able to swing through the sword with a good sense of my weakness. I felt that my swordsmanship was still working relatively well to the extent that I thought I could give a good grade to my swing just now.

And more than anything: there was a definite sense that I had cut something, that I couldn’t get when I was dealing with the shadows.

Hmmm, it might not be an exaggeration to say that the strength of a swordsman lies in this reaction. A good sword slash will naturally lift your spirits.

“As expected of you, Master. That was very beautiful,” Thyssel said.

“Hahaha, thank you,” I said. “I think that swing was a good one.”

Then, clink.

A few seconds after the reaction from the sword swing, the sound of something cracking echoes.

“Oh, it’s broken,” Thyssel said.

“Oh, it got cut,” I said.

When I looked at the source of the sound, I could confirm that the jet-black crystal that had been floating in the air just now had been cut in two and crashed to the ground in halves.

It seems that even the faint remnants of the shadow that had been floating around had completely vanished due to the shock just now.

Does this mean that I have completely killed it? I still had a good feeling in my hand, but I still didn’t really feel like I had killed it.

And what’s surprising is the sharpness of this sword, which cleanly bisects crystals that were completely undamaged by Thyssel’s magic.

Although I briefly check the blade, I can’t find anything particularly broken or chipped. It’s got intense durability.

The materials are first-class, and the blacksmith’s skills are also first-class. I feel astonishment and respect once again for a gem that has both of them. After all, it’s a piece that’s strange to be in my hands.

“Is it okay if I touch it now?” I asked.

“I think it’s okay. The bad feeling I had just now is gone,” Thyssel said.

Just to make sure, I check the reaction after a little thrust with the tip of the sword, and after realizing that nothing happened, I pick up the split crystal.

It weighs about the same as a normal stone. When I looked at the cross-section, it was just as black as the surface, and I had no idea what it was.

When I lightly touched the two together, I vaguely understood that this was something terrifyingly hard, just as Thyssel had figured out. I remember even a little excitement when I cut clean something like this.

“Should I give this to Lucy later?” I asked.

“Yeah. I think that’s good,” Thyssel said.

For the time being, the fact that this guy was sealed here doesn’t change. It’s doubtful that it could be called looting, but it’s a common practice to return things obtained in a battle to the owner’s hands.

She might get angry at me for defeating this thing without permission, but this was also an emergency, and I want her to somehow forgive me for that.

“Okay, let’s go back,” I said.

“Yeah. I don’t have any magical power anymore. I’m exhausted,” Thyssel said.

“Haha, I’m exhausted too,” I said.

Defeating the gigantic shadow wolf in the underground cave probably meant that the wolf-shaped shadows aboveground had also disappeared.

We were heading towards the main body, so the number of shadows infiltrating the school building shouldn’t have increased significantly since then. Ms. Quinella and the other teachers were there, so I want to pray that the above-ground is safe as well.

“… By the way, what was that secret sword technique?” I asked.

“The Headmistress invented it,” Thyssel said. “It’s not on me.”

“But did you like saying it out loud?” I said.

“…… Yeah,” Thyssel said.

“Hahaha, isn’t it good? I think a secret sword technique is cool,” I said.

“…Uu,” Thyssel whimpered.

“If you’re embarrassed, why didn’t you just say so…?” I said.

“… Uuu,” Thyssel whined.

“There, there, Thyssel,” I said, patting her.

Well, I understand how she feels.

Special moves are cool. If you cry out its name, it’s even cooler.

In that respect, her secret sword technique was a destructive power that could be called a special technique.

“I should think about something, a special move,” I said.

“I think it’s good,” Thyssel said. “It should be something cool and decisive.”

“Hahaha, this Old Man has a heavy load on his shoulders,” I said.

I was exhausted physically and mentally. We left the basement of the Magician Academy while leaving such mutters behind.