Cona vs Stingray

Old Astra Empire, Mura town

Riding a horse on the road leading to Mura town, an adventurer wearing jet black plate armor talked to himself.

“Killing trolls barehanded, using weird magic no one knows about, ogre-like physique, expert training in multiple weapons…”

Everything about this Cona fellow seems wildly exaggerated. If he turns out to be a weakling, I’ll get all the fame without any of the fun… That would only make it harder to challenge people.

“If he does live up to the rumors, though… Hehehe…”

The possibility alone already makes this trip worthwhile.

…

“Who’s there? I don’t recognize you.”

Tsk. Since when did they start placing guards in random towns like this?

“Stingray, Azure rank adventurer” I said as I lit up the magic circle in my armor.

The two guards looked at each other, before looking back at me.

“Stingray… You’re that guy who keeps chasing after duels, right?”

“Got a problem with that?”

“No, no. Not at all. I have an idea about who you’re looking for. You might be in luck… or not.”

“Like I care about what some hired guard thinks… Just let me through.”

He’ll probably just waste my time if I ask, and with the way I do things, the less people I directly involve the better. I’m already in trouble with the guild.

“Right away.” The armored guard said as he opened the gate. He had an infuriating smirk on his face.

That doesn’t mean I won’t get my information, though.

As soon as I got some distance, the guards started talking with each other, and my magic helmet made me hear it all.

“He’s gotta be looking for Cona, right? He’s biting more than he can chew.”

“I can’t think of anyone else in town right now… Maybe his brother, but Toba is not that famous. Speaking of him, isn’t there a scandal with some prostitute going on? There some sort of commotion at the brothel involving him.”

“Exactly. That’s why I said he got lucky, Cona is going there for sure. I don’t know the details, but it seems his brother killed a prostitute.”

“Toba? No way, he’s such a kind-”

A scandal, huh? Getting him to fight will be a piece of cake then.

I really am lucky today… kukuku.

…

“He killed her! You two can’t do whatever you want just because you’re famous!”

“Yeah! You act like you own this town!”

“We need a fair trial! We won’t release him until an investigator arrives!”

“Look! All the whores are crying! It’ll be depressing to get laid like this!”

“SHUT UP.” The green haired adventurer’s shout boomed throughout the whole town.

“B- brother… I don’t know what happened!” A few stones that were thrown before the shout finally arrived at the target, right as he began speaking, but they were like pebbles hitting a stone wall. The large beast-men didn’t even flinch as he received the fist-sized rocks.

That didn’t stop the green haired adventurer, who had a body as large and muscular as an ogre, but without any of the fat, at glaring straight into the rock thrower’s souls.

“Eeek! Y- you can’t kill us! You’ll lose your rank!”

“I said shut the fuck up. I don’t care what happened here, my brother gets out right now, with me. AFTER I hear his explanation, I’ll decide what to do.”

“…” the crowd went silent. They all knew the strength of the man speaking, but even if they didn’t, seeing him was enough. He wasn’t called Shadow-Ogre Cona over nothing.

His long emerald hair swayed in the wind before he said his final words.

“And if anyone has a problem with it, they can settle it with me.”

Everyone expected the same silence to ensue again, but someone was waiting for those exact words.

“As it turns out, Mr. Cona… I do have a problem with it.” Everyone’s attention turned at once to the man wearing jet black plate armor. His salade style helmet covered his whole face except for the mouth, and extended quite far in the back, looking like an ominous black stingray.

Cona had a surprised and confused look on his face that completely betrayed the killing intent displayed earlier, but as soon as he laid eyes on his bold challenger, that expression gave way to the purest representation of tiredness and disinterest.

“Fuck... I heard about you… You’re that asshole who keeps chasing after duels, right? If you don’t have any business with my brother, then give up. You stand no chance.”

“Hooo… So, you know about me and you’re still not afraid? Your overconfidence matches the rumors, Ogre.”

“Sigh… Listen, I heard about how persistent you are, and I’m really not in a good mood right now. You’re probably not going to listen to this, but I should warn you either way: If you duel me, I will kill you.”

Cona’s green demon eyes glowed faintly as he stared into the dark slits in Stingray’s helmet. Stingray responded by twirling his large spear around, before lightly banging it on the ground.

The movement was oddly fast and precise, and yet the impact had no strength at all. It was a show of skill capable of sending shivers down the spine of any martial artist who witnessed it.

However, whether by bravery or just simple confidence, Cona simply widened his eyes a bit, and a faint smile manifested, slightly washing away the dryness of his previously tired face.

“Huh… This might be interesting after all…” He said before heading out straight in the direction of the town gate.

The crowd gave way for him as they frantically whispered, and Stingray immediately followed him. No further words were necessary.

…

Sunset fields, near Mura town.

Cona’s Mana level: 1 Greater (3M/6/12m)

We were standing roughly 10 meters apart from each other, in the middle of the vast expanse of yellowish grass called sunset fields. The actual sunset was still a couple hours away.

I can’t believe it was that easy… He’s certainly the most famous adventurer I managed to duel yet, so I thought it would be harder to convince him. I guess I just arrived at the right time… Kukuku…

“What are you laughing at? Are you retarded?”

SHIT. I let that one slip through.

“Oh, it’s nothing really. I was just wondering if you live up to every single rumor, you’ve made quite a name for yourself these past years.”

“Quite the talker you are… Well, I guess you need to be if your hobby is pissing people off until they agree to fight you. You better not disappoint me.” Cona said with a smirk as he rotated his right shoulder.

I’m the one entertaining him now? He must be overconfident because he’s crimson rank, but I would be too, if the guild didn’t hate me.

Either way, I’ll wipe that smile off his face!

“You say you don’t want to talk… but I don’t see any weapons on you. You didn’t forget to bring them, did you?”

“What do you mean? My sword is right here.” He said as he slapped the tiny short-sword at his waist.

It was a very elaborate piece. It had a concave guard and was decorated from the tip of the pommel to the end of the scabbard. I could also spot quite a few magic circles.

I believe I saw someone selling a short-sword like this once, they called it a gladius… But wait, that’s way too small! That’s practically a dagger for a monster like him!

“You’re fighting me with tha-?”

Before I could finish the sentence, he charged straight at me and drew his sword, revealing a crimson blade.

Adamantite? That certainly makes it a lot heavier, but it’s still way too short.

I easily dodged his first slash while leaping backwards. The slash carried almost no strength; he probably didn’t intend on hitting.

He wants information on me, but doesn’t want to give me any… I won’t fall for it so easily.

I traded back a series of fast jabs with my spear without any commitment, which he also dodged easily. Douchebag meatheads sometimes called this style of fighting, where both fighters try to gauge each other’s strengths, “Chicken fighting”, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Information was a weapon, and if you could force your opponent to fight seriously without displaying your own skills, you held great advantage. He probably knew that too, which showed his skill as a duelist.

“Hey what’s up with the Chicken fighting? You afraid?”

THAT ASSHOLE! HE’S THE ONE WHO STARTED IT!

Despite the obvious provocation, Cona immediately charged and started striking rapidly with increasing strength.

So he wasn’t taunting me into taking the offensive first?... Hmph, he’s just trying to confuse me.

The barrage continued as his massive upper body shifted each time to deliver wind cutting strikes with his short weapon.

Knowing he had an advantage in strength, I dodged and lightly parried the blows instead of outright blocking them. I also had to watch out for the occasional kick and punch.

His movements are good… But he leaves openings. It’s clear he’s used to fighting hoards of enemies, not 1v1 duels.

He is an adventurer after all… Kukuku.

I baited him into repeating a particularly open diagonal slash, and finally made my move.

My hand slid down the shaft of my spear to meet a small magic circle engraved there, and after activating it I immediately struck the end of my weapon straight into his chest.

Normally, a polearm strike like this would do nothing but slightly distract or throw the opponent off balance. But it wasn’t an ordinary strike.

As the spear impacted sideways into his bronze muscle armor, it immediately shattered.

I had used the law spell Point, the opposite of Push. It concentrated the full force of the impact into a tiny point in the center of the strike, turning blunt attacks into deadly piercing strikes.

It was normally used with big warhammers and the like, due to the huge surface area of those weapons, but for me this spell shined when used quickly and unpredictably like this.

As satisfying as breaking his armor in one hit was, instead of blood all I saw was his grinning face and a red flash coming towards my neck.

I quickly shifted my body and dodged the blow so it would glance my shoulder plate instead, but the impact was so great it was completely destroyed.

I managed to back away and create some distance, only to find him completely unharmed. The only evidence of my full force Point spell on his body was a tiny mark on his now uncovered abdomen.

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Just how tough is he? Even with the armor, he shouldn’t have been left unscathed by that.

Before I could charge back at him, he used the distance created to quickly touch a magic circle on his sword and launch a Minor Firebolt at me.

“[IGNIS!]”

His movements were extremely dexterous, I had seen few people cast Minor Firebolt as smoothly and proficiently as him.

Nevertheless, this trade was not going to end up a profit for him.

I activated another magic circle on my spear and quickly jabbed the ground with the butt of my weapon, bracing myself for impact. As soon as the light jab connected, I was sent flying upwards with great momentum.

I had used the classic Push law spell, but making use of the blowback that resulted from attempting to use it on an immovable target instead of actually trying to blow something away.

What was sent flying was actually my spear, towards which all the energy of the spell returned to, and every time I used this, I had to hold it and brace myself just right, otherwise either my weapon would fly out of my hands, or the impact would damage me greatly and make me loose balance in the air.

Needless to say, I was a master of this unusual technique.

The ball of fire exploded on the ground while I soared above it unscathed, twirling my spear in the air to hide the fact that I had activated yet another magic circle.

I had hit the ground at an angle in such a way that I leapt above the firebolt and towards my enemy, and I was now preparing to collide with him.

He had a grin on his face as he prepared to parry my blow, but that changed quickly when my spear glowed at just the last moment.

Cona touched the other side of his gladius with expert agility, and cast Minor Repel at the perfect time.

“[REPEL!]”

But my blow shattered his spell and sent him flying with a brand-new wound on his chest.

Finally made you bleed!

That monster of a man tumbled a couple of times on the ground before regaining his balance and coming to a stop, this time he was undoubtedly taken by surprise.

“What’s wrong, big guy? Wasn’t expecting that?”

What made all of this possible was the law spell Subtle Gather. A weaker version of Gather that spends more mana than usual, but only makes the weapon glow at the last moment, and lets the user store strength in his attack at interrupted intervals before unleashing it.

I wouldn’t give him time to breathe though. As soon as he got up, I followed him with a series of thrusts, he dodged some and parried others, but my real goal was hitting him with another Point spell.

As soon as I got an opening, the end of my weapon hit his stomach sideways, causing blood to spurt out as all the force from the impact concentrated on a tiny point.

“Heh!” He scoffed.

He didn’t flinch. He was prepared for it!

Instead of surprise all I saw was one of his hands holding my spear and not letting go, when I heard his sword fall to the ground, his other hand was already closing in on me. He was going to grapple me.

Experienced fighters sometimes describe a weird extra sense that warns them of extreme danger during a battle.

Some people chalk it up to experience, and it’s a reasonable explanation. Or it should be, but never in my life I’ve gotten grappled in a duel, and yet I knew that if he managed to get a hold of me, the fight would end right there.

I immediately hit the ground with another Push spell, which was possible only because his hand was slick with blood and sweat, letting me slide the spear down.

Activating the spell was all I could do, however. The angle, my position, my hold on the spear, my stance. Everything was suboptimal.

The spell sent us both flying in opposite directions, but since I held on to the spear with both hands in order not to lose my weapon, I was the one who was damaged by it.

I was lucky… Considering how reckless he is, if he had both hands on my spear, he wouldn’t let go of it, and I would have to fight him with only my backup knife.

I got up and quickly relocated my disjointed shoulder, preparing for him to go on the offensive immediately.

But he didn’t do that. What I saw was Cona standing far away, spinning a tiny ball on his index finger. A moment later, a vast cloud of pure darkness started spreading around him.

The rumors were right, huh? He uses some strange, secret spells to fight. From what I’ve researched on him, he can see inside that cloud just fine, so there’s no chance I’m going to get close…

I must wait and see what he plans to do… Maybe he took more damage than I thought.

…

“Hehehehehe…”

The engraved pearl stopped spinning, and I returned it to a pouch fastened to my hip.

I can’t believe he’s making me use all this mana… But who cares! I really doubt another opponent on his level is going to show up on this shitty town before the end of the week, but if it comes down to it, I’ll get Toba to lend me a hand.

“Now, where was it again… Found it!”

I took a beaten-up spell scroll out of another, slightly bigger pouch, and quickly unfurled it.

I placed the scroll on the ground, placed my right hand in the middle of the large magic circle, and made a rising gesture with the left.

“[Store]”

Soon, 15 magic circles started appearing all around me. If it wasn’t for the darkness spell covering it up, anyone would be able to see them from quite a distance.

From each circle, different weapons started appearing.

“Alright… I just spent two spells for this, but it’s worth it.” I said as I put on and fastened a brand-new bronze colored armor on my chest, and grabbed twin spears made of fire aspect boar tusk from the ground.

These spears bring back memories…

…

Again, I managed to dodge only by an inch, and as another flying sword zipped past me and hit the ground, the elemental explosion, this time an ice one, hit my back.

WHERE THE HELL ARE THESE WEAPONS COMING FROM?

I had no time to think of countermeasures or strategies, as weapons were being thrown at me one after the other with incredible force from different points inside the darkness cloud.

From Spears, to heavy adamantite daggers, to elemental magic swords and a mithril mace, every weapon left small craters on the ground where they impacted.

Getting hit by one could mean the end for me, and so all my instincts were firing up constantly, as each and every blow I dodged was fatal.

The accuracy wasn’t perfect, but coupled with the fact that I couldn’t guess where they would come from next, it only served to further disorient me.

I need to think of something FAST. He certainly doesn’t have infinite weapons and the spell also has a duration, but if he keeps it up I…-!!!

Suddenly, a golden trident came flying at just the right angle to make it impossible for me to avoid it after having already dodged a dagger.

I had no choice but to use my spear to block it, every bone in my body creaked from the impact and I was thrown backwards, but it would have been fatal otherwise.

Just as I got up, however, a scarlet red dagger hit my kneecap, shattering it along with the armor and rendering my leg useless.

My knee was completely pulverized, and if it wasn’t for my plate armor, my left leg would be severed in two.

The force of the impact was absurd. In melee combat I was managing to duel and gain the upper hand using parries, positioning and counter attacks to take away the advantage of his superior strength, but right now the sheer volume and variation of weapons and angles made it impossible for me to react to them all.

The pain from my knee only heightened my senses and reactions, I couldn’t let him kill me like this.

Nevertheless, the weapons kept coming one after the other.

I used Push to dodge another dagger, this time aimed for my chest. With a useless leg I would have to use spells for every single blow, but luckily, he would run out of weapons before I ran out of mana.

That’s the only advantage I have. I need to abuse the fact that law spells have a tiny mana consumption compared to other spells. Focus, I killed many mages like this.

While I was still flying sideways from my push spell, he threw another magic sword at me, predicting my trajectory.

I had no choice but to use it again mid-flight. Thankfully I was close enough to the ground to just barely stomp my foot and keep my balance.

It was the only way I had to stay alive now. Normally I would use it to launch myself upwards at an angle, but doing that now would get me instantly killed, so I had to dangerously move sideways, close to the ground and always ready to stop and redirect myself with another Push.

I escaped four other weapons. At some point the impact from my spells finally detached my leg from the knee downwards.

It stopped… Did he finally run out of weapons?

I need to plan an attack fast. I can’t run from him in this state.

Just as I was beginning to come up with a strategy, an enormous steel mallet came out of the dark cloud like a missile from a ballista.

It wasn’t properly aimed at me, but the yellow glow around it indicated he had used Gather to further build up the strength of the throw.

It was like my body and my mana acted on their own, never before had I attained such pure and perfect movements as now while I soared perfectly backwards, with a near impossible reaction time.

The mallet hit the earth like a bomb. The ground shook hard, and a massive dust cloud spread, if I had reacted half a second later, or if the throw had been better aimed, just the shockwave would be enough to make me pass out.

…

Tsk. That guy just refuses to die.

I really fucked him up tho… I wonder if I should just get out and finish the job.

No, fuck that. If he made me go this far, and still managed to stay alive, I’m going all-out.

I was pretty rusty, but so far, I’ve managed to take the dust off my close combat and my spellcasting. Not to mention throwing skills. Now all that’s left is to hit him with the ‘Luna special’.

I quickly took off a tightly packed scroll from my pouch, it looked exactly like one would imagine a ninja scroll.

After unfurling it with some flare for my own amusement, I touched one of the four dark magic circles engraved.

Extending my index and middle fingers and touching them to my chest where my heart was, I cast the spell.

“Hide.”

Not wasting any time, I touched another circle, this time snapping my finger afterwards, except the snap had no sound.

“Pluma.”

With another two minor spells cast, Hide presence and Feather Foot, I was ready to end this battle.

I have to act quickly; the dust cloud is almost down, and the darkness spell will run out in just a second too.

…

Focus.

I have just one leg, and my whole body is beat up by the backlash from Push.

I’m still better than him in pure technique, and my reaction time is greater.

A well-timed Point spell to the throat or heart- No, his chest would probably protect him, I need to aim for the throat.

I can also get to his brain through his eyes, that would do the trick.

If I miss and hit his skull, he may power through it though… With only one leg I can’t generate enough power.

I’ll get one chance and one chance only. With his strength advantage, and the way I am now, I must kill him or incapacitate him instantly.

Now I just need to wait for him to get out of there. I don’t know if he has any other tricks up his sleeve, and I don’t know what the hell he did to get all those weapons, but I’m certain it cost him a lot of mana.

Between that and the darkness spell, along with the other minor spells he used, he must have run out, or at least gotten close.

If I can get in that state again… When I dodged his last attack, it was like I was a different person, If I can achieve that level again…

No. I AM at that level now. I was honed to it during this battle.

Ok, the spell is over, what is he waiting fo-

As the dark cloud started to vanish, there was no traces left of the green haired, ogre-like man that was supposed to be inside it.

He’s not there?? Did he run away?

Now that I think about it, I haven’t felt his presence for a while now… What reason he could possibly have for running away though? Did he just run out of tricks? Is he that afraid of a close quarters battle with me?

No, that doesn’t make sense. The honor of his brother depends on this. He must have done something, some other trick… Focus.

!!!!!!

Almost immediately after I abandoned my desperate stream of thoughts, I twisted my body and my spear, redirecting a gladius thrust aimed for my heart.

My body moved on its own again, this time it was like I had moved even before I knew he was behind me.

The thrust had strength enough in it to kill me even if I blocked with everything I had, but with minimum power and movement, I made it hit air, only grazing my face.

Is this the level I had always been trying to achieve? Is this the realm of the true masters?

He thrust two other times, but now I only moved my head, using my spear as support in compensation for my missing leg.

He made a sweeping strike, but his weapons range was short, so I managed to leap back just enough. No need for a Push spell.

If it’s like this… I can win.

He launched another series of slices, always careful not to be left too vulnerable for a counterattack. He seemed irritated that his surprise attack didn’t work, and his caution showed that he had a guess about what my strategy was for killing him.

But wait… Why aren’t his steps making any sound? And why is he wearing a brand-new breastplate? No, this is irrelevant right now.

I had retreated quite a distance dodging his blows, but he had stopped chasing me.

Is he thinking about what to do next? I can’t go on the offensive, so he controls the flow of battle for now.

After a momentary pause, he leapt back, and took a trident from the ground. The weapons he had thrown at me earlier were still scattered all over the place.

Throwing again? If I can see him, he won’t be able to hit me like when he was in the darkness.

Or maybe he just wants a weapon with more reach? A polearm isn’t a good idea against me though.

Not wasting any time, he threw de trident at me, aiming at my remaining leg.

A quick leap backwards was enough to avoid it entirely.

Although it was scary seeing that bulky trident burrow deep into the ground, my reflexes were now perfected, there was no chance of such an attack hitting me.

I was now standing quite a distance away from him, who was just standing still. He seemed to be thinking about what to do next.

It appears we are at a stalemate here… He probably noticed I reached a new level, and he’s cautious. If he were the type to recklessly charge in on a wounded opponent, I would have a way greater chance of surviving.

He’s cleverer than I thought.

Suddenly, he had an annoying look on his face, and as he put his hand inside a pouch on his belt, the red glow of a magic circle indicated he had activated a spell.

He still has mana?

He nimbly took out his hand and closed it into a fist in front of his chest. No matter how apt and quick his movements were, that was clearly a Firebolt or a Minor Firebolt.

As soon as he started extending his arm, I was in the motion to do my Push spell. The glow of the mana around him was letting me know it wasn’t a feint, I stabbed the ground with a glow as he finally fully extended his arm.

Didn’t we start our battle like this? I’m getting a weird little déjà vu.

This whole interaction didn’t take more than a second and a half at most, but now it seemed slow for me.

As I was lifting off into the air, he opened his hand.

Wait, hand? Minor firebolt is a finger and Firebolt is two, did he feint after all?

As I was trying to figure out what was happening, he dropped his weapon and held his extended arm with his other hand.

I briefly remembered those movements. With Minor Firebolt, you extended the index finger, and Firebolt was the index and middle finger, but the whole hand was…

FIREBALL???

“Flamma.”

The last thing I saw was his weird smug grin, followed by a blinding flash of light and explosion. Normally, wizards would lower the speed of their fireballs, sacrificing range and impact so the initial explosion wouldn’t tear their arms off. It seemed that Ogre didn’t need to.

As he leapt backwards, aided by the recoil of his fireball, the raging ball of fire hit the ground beneath me.

…

Everything in a 20m radius was completely engulfed in flames and burnt to a crisp. The only things left in the sea of ashes were a couple of adamantite daggers I had thrown earlier, a black spear, and a corpse.

The corpse was charred black, with the slowly melting metal of his armor gradually pouring into it and seeping into every crevice.

A gruesome scene worthy of the Major spell Fireball.

In total, I had spent the mana equivalent of a Great spell throughout the battle. Although I never did manage to learn any Great spells, my mana capacity was enough for casting one.

In short, I spent every bit of mana I had in my body.

“Yeah… I really have to keep this a secret. If the townsfolk figure out that I spent all my mana in this battle I’m screwed.”

I was working as a guard of sorts in that little town, in a contract issued by the guild. My job was to keep it safe from any and all threats. It was completely overkill for someone like me to do it, but I wanted a little peace. It was like a vacation for me, and I chose the town Toba was staying in so I could hang out with him.

In fact, that was the only reason they were brave enough to oppose me. Harming them would get me in deep trouble with the guild. Everything has limits, however.

I sure as hell didn’t expect Toba to end up killing someone, whatever it is that happened. But I expected even less to have a battle like this during my stay.

I should get a favor or two from the guild when I confirm that I killed him though. Guy was a major pain in the ass for them, and I can see why.

I don’t know if he wasn’t taking it seriously before, or if my Darkness + Store combo was that overwhelming for him, but after he lost his leg, he turned into a completely different person. If he fought like that from the start, I might have been in trouble.

Even if using Fireball was overkill, I would rather recover my mana than risk having to recover from further injuries. Either way I doubt I’ll need spells to take care of this town.

“Ill… Me…”

Shit… He’s still alive.

I hate doing this…

I stabbed his crumbling body in the heart and in the brain, ending his life.

And just like that, the famous duelist Stingray was no more, and Cona enjoyed the rest of his vacation with Toba (after they cleared up the misunderstanding).

The duelist had achieved great heights of skill and reflexes during the battle and would no doubt have become a major player in the world as one of the best.

But a certain adventurer had more mana than he should, and really wanted to end the battle and enjoy his vacation.

End of Special Chapter Cona vs Stingray. Thank you for reading.