CH 374

Plan

The moment the insides of the turned to complete darkness, I activated all my traps I had laid beforehand.

First, I swallowed the [Venom] I had generated inside my mouth, next I used [Hardening] to solidify all the sticky strings that I had fired before.

With this, the inside of the room should become a lot harder to move around in while covered in all the hardened strings and also the darkness from [Black Mist].

And by swallowing the [Venom], Milworc’s body should begin to gradually weaken so the more time I buy, the more the situation will turn to my advantage.

“This darkness again!? Doesn’t seem like a normal skill though. What is it, some kind of smokescreen tool or some shit??”

He must not even be thinking about how his voice gave away his location, as Milworc boldly shouted out loud.

The reason why he thinks that it’s not a skill is …….well, probably because I can activate them without actually saying it out loud.

Once again I was glad that I learnt this technique from Alyazi-san. Whenever I fight a strong opponent, its usefulness becomes more and more apparent.

But there was one thing I was curious about too. Milworc hadn’t said out loud the name of any of his skills either.

If I were to apply the same reasoning, that would imply that Milworc has not been using any skills in our fight until now but……….somehow, I don’t feel like that’s actually true.

First, the way he reacted during the ambush in the darkness but then also during our counter stand-off, he clearly seemed like he had used some kind of acceleration skill to increase his movement speed.

Of course, perhaps he’s just that good at controlling the tempo of his body but, realistically speaking, it’s more likely that Milworc was also capable of using skills without saying their names out loud like me.

But in his case, it was probably not because he practiced really hard for it but instead, he seems like the guy that has the natural talent to learn that technique through pure instinct from the very start.

That’s why, I think he might believe that he’s the only one capable of doing something like that, which explains his previous statement.

“Oi, don’t just ignore me and say something will ya! You can hear me, can’t you!?”

Milworc continued to run his mouth but, has he really not realized what has changed inside the room yet?

As for the [Venom], that too should start to show at least some kind of effect on his body by now.

Or maybe he’s so used to taking drugs etc., that he’s not really that sensitive to changes in his physical condition maybe?

That would be pretty annoying if that was the case but, then again, I shouldn’t be wasting time worrying over things I can’t figure out right now anyway.

While smoothly moving through the hardened strings that I had laid around the room, I began to circle behind him.

There’s a chance that Milworc could outright see through this darkness as well but, to make sure if that really was the case as well……….I decided to strike one more time while using the darkness.

While using [Stealth] and [Silent Steps], I quickly positioned myself behind him.

Milworc was still looking towards where I originally was, and it didn’t seem like he had noticed that I had moved behind him.

Maintaining my stealthy movement, I re-entered within the range, and slashed at him but—–

“It’s useless no matter how many times you try! This trick ain’t gonna work on me!!”

As if he was waiting for it, he dodged my attack, and then countered instantly by launching a kick to my side.

His timing was perfect, and if his kick had reached and hit me directly, it really would done some damage to me but……

Milworc’s kick got stuck in the hardened strings inside the kick’s trajectory, and never reached my body.

Using that opening, I created some distance between us again, and went back to the position I was originally in, in front of Mielle, and then instructed her to help me.

“Mielle, use wind magic.”

This one to-and-fro made it very clear that [Black Mist] had no effect on Milworc at all so I decided to get rid of it myself.

I didn’t understand the principle behind how he was doing it but, he could clearly see through this pitch black darkness in some way or other.

And, if it’s useless and Milworc, then the [Black Mist] will really only become an unnecessary hindrance to Mielle alone.

Even my eyesight gets robbed by this so then realistically, it was only bringing disadvantages to our side.

“I’ll fire it upwards, [Wind Ball].”

Thanks to Mielle’s wind magic, the [Black Mist] got blown away all the way to the ceiling and quickly dissipated.

I had been thinking of this since the first ambush I made, but seriously, Milworc’s turning out to be a really bad match-up for me personally.

Not just his fighting style but, people who have the natural talent to move on pure instincts and power through everything tend to be really troublesome for my type of fighters.

“Oh, are you done using the darkness already!? Enough sneaking around, and face me head on already!”

Milworc smiled like a young boy that was having fun.

His right leg had a light cut from kicking the hardened string but, that wasn’t really enough to do any real damage to him.

And now that strings were revealed out in the open, he’ll be able to avoid them easily anyway so, my [Venom] trick was the only one remaining but, it really didn’t seem like it was having any effect on him either………

If nothing works, then I really might have no choice but to fight him head on fair and square.

Since I activated a bunch of skills at the same time, I’ve used up quite a lot of stamina as well, and if even the poison isn’t working then, I really have to finish the fight soon or it’ll be me who’ll start to be at a disadvantage instead.

I do have plans for that as well, so if I can create an opening I could go for the kill but, seriously, this guy is not showing any safe way to rush in at him.

Since we haven’t even properly exchanged blows with each other so I haven’t even had the chance to try and unleash a flurry of my strong attacks at him either.

I have lived through a bunch of near-death battles, and I even killed a Bahamut-like monster in Edestor as well.

My confidence was at an all time high so to a certain degree, I think I was looking down on Milworc a little bit………….but this guy’s strong. Really fucking strong.

I was fighting him like I would against Klaus but, his raw talent allows him to bulldoze through everything I throw at him so now, I think I have no choice but to use my own raw strength to do the same back to him instead.

Seeing him slowly but smoothly make his way past the hardened strings, and close up the distance between us, I hardened my resolve…….

And decided, that now was the time to throw all tricks and strategy out of the window and let myself go all in with just brute strength head on and crush him.