CH 238

A Coward’s Style of Thinking

After learning this from Bors and using it in a real fight, I finally realized that this fighting style was something that could be utilized consistently in all battles.

It simply depended on how well I apply it to my existing fighting style.

Just like when I was with Alyazi-san, I need to fully make this skill my own.

First of all, I need to keep both of them in my sights. Rather than look entirely in one of their direction, I need to position myself where I can keep one eye on each respectively.

Having realized my plan, those two also tried to move in a way where it’d be impossible for me to do so, but I also continued moving to make sure that I keep them in my sights.

It was a pretty wide hall but, it was still pretty narrow for a real fight.

Finally realizing that it’d be nigh impossible inside this room to break my line of sight, instead of standing diagonally from me in each direction, they moved to stand in a line instead, and faced me straight from the front.

Bors was ahead, and Rufus was behind him.

The thing I needed to be most wary of when they were in this formation was that long range attack from Ralf, whether it was magic or skill, I still didn’t know.

I didn’t move from my spot and waited for them to act.

My thoughts were always focused on, ‘how to escape’. Rather than focus on either of them specifically, I allotted about 40% of my consciousness towards both each, and the remaining 20% towards my surroundings.

To make sure I always know where I should escape to, and to be on alert against attacks from the side, I was quite literally focused on ‘everything’ around me.

The important part was to not change this method of focus even when one of the specifically attacks me.

I used all my skills to have the entire training hall inside my perception range, and I waited for them to attack.

Inside this tense atmosphere, Bors made the first move.

While showing clear openings to me, he ran at me from the front.

He gripped his sword tightly, to show that he was about to launch an attack as well but——–now that I had fully focused on observing my opponents, I wasn’t going to be tricked anymore.

From the little movements of his legs and the amount of strength in his arms, I knew that this was a feint, and I could tell from the way his eyeballs moved that he was being mindful of Rufus behind him.

Bors was the bait, it was Rufus behind him that was going to be the threat.

Having inferred that from the little info I had, I focused more of my awareness towards Rufus, although without completely ignoring Bors still.

Since I knew that Bors didn’t intend to attack, I let him run all the way towards me until he was in my range, and I did the motion of swinging my sword, but without it being an attempt at actually pursuing Bors and more to simply lure them.

Bors smiled thinking I had fallen for his feint and instantly stopped in his tracks.

And from there, he side stepped finally revealing the hidden Rufus who had his sword held high, ready to launch some kind of attack.

Their timing was perfect.

If I had let myself be focused entirely on Bors, I would have definitely failed to dodge their coordinated attack but——-from the start, my consciousness was focused on Rufus more heavily.

They were trying to bait me but, instead I was the one that was baiting Rufus’ attack.

Now, I need to simply see through Rufus’ attack from the front.

He was at least 10m away from me but still, Rufus swung his word down while aimed towards me.

Last time, his attack came from my blindspot so I wasn’t able to judge it but, seeing him swing the sword down like that with all his might made me think it was possibly a skill.

A flying slash projectile…………..A skill similar to Klaus’ [Sacred Slash]?

In that case, I can use the methods I had devised to fight against Klaus.

First, I waited till the very limit to see what kind of skill Rufus had.

Nothing appeared from the sword that had been swung but, with a sound of wind being torn, something was definitely flying towards me.

I can’t see it but it was definitely not that amazing of an attack.

Since the sound gave it away, I simply side stepped to avoid his attack, and as the slash flew past me, I had more or less figured out how his skill worked as well.

Unlike [Sacred Slash], it wasn’t a flying slash but more like the shockwave generated from the swing of his sword that flew towards me.

If I had to pick, it was closer to wind magic that Esta used.

It wasn’t very strong, and lacked the ability to heavily wound the target but unlike [Sacred Slash] it was completely invisible.

I’m sure if it was done with a real sword and not a wooden sword, it probably produces a more powerful attack. Furthermore, that attack was probably Rufus’ special attack.

Regardless, I calmly analyzed the enemy’s move and once again began inputting his attack patterns into my brain.

How much can you learn about the enemy from just one attack?

This was one of the most important fundamentals of Bors’ fighting style according to him.

I thought I had figured out his fighting style entirely but, now I realized that when I use all of my skills to analyze the opponent, the amount of info I gain is on a whole different level.

I did also learn that it was exhausting on my mind to do so, but it was still a very different way of fighting than the usual, ‘how much of your raw power can you dish out’ that most fighting styles are about. And I could already see so many new tactics and ways of implementing these things into my own fighting style as well.

‘Bors fighting style will definitely make me stronger’——back then it was nothing more than an instinctual feeling I got when I first saw him but, now that had turned into conviction that I was indeed correct.

And I couldn’t help but smile when that realization came to me.

(T/N: PSA we’re fully caught up with JP Raws with the advance chapters if you’re interested!)