CHAPTER 6 – REPORT TO THE PERSON WE MISS
“Kenta, is it something I said?” Of course, Rine interprets my facepalming as my usual dismay at whatever she just said, but in this case it’s just the dismay of nothing working in our favor.
Both of us are currently hiding and waiting for pursuers, so it’s not about what she said, but what I see. “No,” I answer her while slowly pressing myself against the rocks. “I have found some of them. It’s Fake’s party.”
“Fake?”
“Inoue Masahiko. He’s a manipulative asshole who acts like a nice guy and lets his so-called friends beat everyone up who speaks up to or against him.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I was in school with him, I told him to piss off, then at lunch break a bunch of people started to surround me and threatened me to change my behavior.”
Rine cocks her head: “Isn’t it impolite to tell someone to piss off?”
“Shut up.”
“That’s also impolite.”
“I don’t care. Seriously, is it polite to approach someone in his free time, who is exhausted from the boring lessons, and running off their mouth without even considering the other person?”
“I don’t think so?”
“You see?” This is just the abridged version as Rine can’t follow any conversation that includes modern words or mindset.
Good thing that Kyou-san isn’t here, as my plan involves her being on stand-by in a safe spot. Meanwhile, I spy at pursuers from afar, using some rocks and [Camouflage] as cover. It was easy to find the choke-point they will pass through, given that they will either follow our tracks or use the relic to find us, and this is the most direct route.
“So is it Inoue Masahiko-dono’s party? All five of Kyou’s friends? Isn’t it good?”
“No, it’s bad, because I have no idea where Hoshibashi and Yoshimura are.” In the worst case, they could be approaching us at another angle or go around us and capture Kyou-san… Yet it’s also a chance to beat the shit out of Fake and his goons.
I know. I told Kyou-san that she may have a chance to talk to them, but I never specified how and under what circumstances. Mainly, because while I know our win-conditions, I don’t know how to achieve them at this point. I have to improvise most and told her that.
Now let’s say my improvising would cause me to beat all of them up, capturing them, and then talking to them. This would let Kyou-san talk to them as an added bonus. Also, it would relieve us from a pain in the neck.
Too bad that I can’t listen into their conversation, as they’re too far away.
“Why don’t you talk to them?”
I look at Rine blandly while trying to find an explanation that would satisfy her. “Because they’re bad people.” So I try to simplify it.
“Didn’t you tell me that it’s not as easy as that?”
…stop twisting my words! “I didn’t say that exactly… look, I won’t argue with you whether they deserve us talking to them or not, but I wouldn’t right now. They may just be a decoy and if we start a conversation, we might play into their hands.”
“Maybe one of us could talk and the other one returns to Kyou?”
“What if there is someone hiding who can follow that person? Let me consider our options…” We have opponents with questionable morale and the desire to beat me up, especially considering our last encounter. I don’t think that they’ll pass me shooting Fake as the accident it was. We also have at least two person that we don’t see…
Yet it’s also not the direction Ara-san is in, [Spouse-Location] tells me that. She hasn’t sent us a message, so she’s either still captured or had to flee without her backpack… If I interpret her movements via [Spouse-Location] correctly, she’s still captured. The feeling of direction to her changes too little to think otherwise.
Maybe that’s where Yoshimura and Hoshibashi are? It doesn’t seem that they’re approaching Kyou-san, so…
“I’ve decided.” I point at Fake’s party: “We’ll split them apart as planned. If we can capture one or two, it’d be ideal. We won’t kill them, but we don’t need to pamper them either. They’re heroes, so they’ll recover quickly.”
“…yes.”
“If you suddenly encounter Hoshibashi or Yoshimura while dealing with them, try to retreat. I sense Ara-san in that direction, it might be that they’re there as well, but I can’t guarantee it.”
“OK.”
“Then let’s lure them.”
“I still don’t like that part of the plan.”
“I made adjustments, right? So stop complaining, beggars can’t be choosers.” We wait until they’re within two hundred meter before I give the signal and pick up my bow from the ground. I pull down the hood, and then get out of my hiding place while finally deactivating [Camouflage]. They don’t need to know that I have that skill yet. “[Quadruple Shot]!”
The dark one lifts his bow as well: “[Quadruple Shot]!” He uses the same skill, each of his arrows are hitting mine… what accuracy! I need to keep that in mind.
“[Seeker]!” This time, I aim at the shrimp, but muscle-brain steps in and his armor deflects the arrow thanks to his precise positioning. Well, it would have been different if he was the target of the skill.
“Go!” Fake gives the signal and charges forward, shrimp and muscle-brain close behind him. We still have around a hundred meter between us, enough time to put my bow into the quiver on my waist and pick up my spear.
“Rine.” With this, the princess and I start running away while yelling loudly.
“Wha-” This unexpected action causes Fake to cry out, yet there is one problem here…
The dark one aims with his bow at me: “[Powershot]!” The sound of the released arrow makes me worry, especially with a skill-name like that.
I nod at Rine, who turns around without breaking her run while drawing her sword, using it to pick up the arrow before it hits me, and then deflect it in the direction of muscle-brain. “Shit! [Shell]!” His armor begins to gleam unnaturally and the moment the arrow hits, muscle-brain is thrown back, but the armor is still whole. So an [Armor]-skill that strengthens armor? Maybe raising the [Defense]-value temporarily?
“You asshole, when I get you…” Well shrimp, you have called the problem: You won’t get me. “Masa!”
“Yes.” Suddenly, Fake begins to accelerate, is that [Swishstride]? Rine also has this skill.
Oh Fake, you couldn’t make me any happier. He’s catching up fast, but we’re almost there. I can hear them. Who? Well…
We have been hiding in the rocky area despite their advantage there on purpose. Not only for the cover, no, to be close to a certain spot that serves as the hiding place for a pride of green cougars. This is the perfect balance between high grass and rocks, their home-turf.
It was Ara-san’s random comment during one of the key-moments of our failed ambush that made me think of this idea. We used Rine’s [Whisperer]-skill, the fact that she can talk to animals, to convince them that we’re their friends. Actually, originally I wanted to kidnap a cub and tell them that Fake and his party has it, but Rine was opposed to that plan and even luring them here was some work of persuasion. Maybe she genuinely thinks of the cougars as friends and dislikes how I plan to exploit it.
Suddenly, green cougars pounce from the grass, right at Fake. “*GROWL*”
“WHA-!” Hah, Fake being attacked by wild animals, what a sight. Exactly what I hoped for. Rine might dislike the whole part, but for me, it’s like getting something I didn’t know I needed.
Of course, the cougars look at us, I guess they’re pissed that we—their new friends—are bringing other people with us without forewarning. Well… “Time to split!”
Fake kicks away the two cougars, while Rine goes left and I turn right, this will make use of the confusion we just caused while making the cougars as uninteresting as possible for Fake’s party, the compromise I reached with Rine.
“Sorry!” shouts the blonde girl while running.
For Fake and his party, this is the worst. If they stay, they’ll be attacked by cougars and we get away. If they chase after one, they won’t get the other. People like Fake are greedy, so I know what he’ll do. “Daichi, Eri! You follow Katsuragi! The rest chases after the princess,” he orders his posse around while trying to get more distance to the green felines.
Perfect.
As we’re all heroes, we can run a lot. Yet ponytail and the dark one both have ranged options, so they can slow us down when needed. They think they have the advantage in this chase. Yet it’s not a chase, it’s a pull.
Pulling is the gaming term for drawing enemies to a specific point, either because you have a space full of crowd control or because you want to draw specific enemies away from the group. Actually, I expected Fake to come after me, but this will do. In the end, he knows fully well how strong Rine is, so I expected to face only two at most.
Around half a kilometer away while evading some dirt missile-spells, I stop. It’s an open space with only grass here. I turn around and switch to [Pikeman]. “If you give up and throw yourself into the dirt, I’ll spare you.” I’m only giving them the offer because of Kyou-san. I hate them. I don’t care about most of my classmates, but those two, they’re the ones who ganged up on me with some people. Ponytail said that if I don’t reconsider my behavior, there will be consequences, while muscle-brain made clear that he’ll love to beat me up.
Muscle-brain lifts his axe and an unnatural laughter comes from him. “Hahaha! Hahaha! Hahahahaha!” It’s so fake that it makes me almost hurl: “You better give up, dirtbag.” His words, however, are dead-serious.
Not even giving me a reply, ponytail points her staff at me: “[Earth Grasp]!”
I jump forward, knowing that this spell will grab my ankle if I don’t move. “[Speedthrust]!” Negotiations have failed. I tried, I failed. It’s time to beat them up.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Hahahaha! [Wheelheave]!” Spinning around while swinging his axe, muscle-head laughingly comes closer and closer. Our weapons hit each other, and I feel how my spear is deflected by the great force, but I keep it in my hand, despite the balance issue.
I get an armored shoulder into my face, this asshole is just too big, and he hits me again with the haft of his axe, yet I take those blows while preparing for my next move: “[Whirlwind]!” While muscle-head can block the attack he’s pushed away nonetheless.
“[Dirt Sling]!” Another dirt missile, I step to the side. “[Gust]!”
I jump aside to avoid one of the most annoying spells which creates a gust strong enough to push you away. This is my second most-hated spell, so I’ll be sure to not get caught that easily.
Muscle-head charges in again. He still pisses me out with this fake jolliness, but I have to admit, their teamwork is great, whenever I break free from muscle-head, she’ll keep the pressure while he charges in before I can attack her. If this would continue, I’d definitely go down because at some point I’m bound to have an opening.
Instead of commending their teamwork, I’ll destroy it. “[Armor Piercer]!”
Muscle-head answers with his own skill: “Hahaha! [Tree-splitter]!” His axe is about to hit my spear, he was sure that he’ll come out as the victor of the clash as well, which would usually be true.
One.
His axe hits my spear and bounces back, exposing a whole chest to hit. My spear-blade cuts through his armor like a hot knife butter and I feel flesh tearing open beneath it. The annoying laughter finally stopped. “Ugh…” This outcry coming from under his helmet is a mixture of surprise and pain.
He has most likely [Class-upped] his warrior-class, overall he’s a better fighter than me with [Pikeman] and thought so as well. I guess my level is still higher, though not by much. I think that his stats may be greater than mine.
Too bad if he can’t use them properly. After my fight with Luuto, Ara-san and I realized two things: First, the [Attributes] in the status are potentials, like how, when you grip something, you can do it either lightly or with all your might. The [Attribute] is the full-power number, but just wanting to use your ‘full-power’ isn’t enough to get there.
That brings us to the second realization: A hero needs to be on the edge to show their full potential. All hero-stories made Ara-san believe so, as well as the fight between me and Luuto. As I was in that state before, I learned how to control it! Well, to the smallest degree.
Actually, I can only do it as a [Pikeman] with anything related to the [Spear]-skill. I guess, because it’s the class whose bread and butter is wielding spears. So while muscle-brain’s and my weapon clashed, I was at full [Strength] of 220, while he was putting effort into it, but still not using his full power.
This seems like a great power-up, right? It is, but it’s mentally draining! Using it three times within a time-frame I haven’t exactly figured out yet will cause severe headaches. So I use it only when I get a huge benefit or when my life is in danger.
Back to him and me. My weapon is in muscle-brain’s chest. I twist it before kicking him away, freeing it again. He’s a hero, so he’ll be up fast after regaining composure, so I’ll better use the time to take care of ponytail before that happens.
“DAICHI-KUN!” Of course she’s panicking, I just got rid of her wall. I switch to [Ranger] for the best mobility: “[Earth Grasp]! [Dirt Sling]! [Stone Bullet]! [Gust]!” She tries one quick spell after another while I evade them effortlessly due to my [Focus]-skill, which keeps track of every of her minute movements. I can see her panic grow with every wasted MP.
Satisfying.
Heroes develop skills depending on their needs. As someone who has a party, she never had the need to learn spells for close-quarter combat, I guess.
I’m right before her. I believe in gender-equality, so I smack her in the face, causing her to fall backwards. The sound tells me that I may have broken her nose. I kick the arm that holds her staff. It’s not enough to break it too, but she cries out in pain.
I lift my spear. She looks at my face while hers is full of tears, snot, and blood, most likely knowing my intention to use it. Yet before I could deal a disabling blow, I hear muscle-brain raising up: “You won’t!” He speaks with a mouth full of fluid, either spit or blood, I don’t care.
I switch back to [Pikeman], trample a bit more on ponytail before I step on solid ground as muscle-brain charges me with a battlecry. While he can still move well despite his wound, it’s not like it doesn’t affect his movements, each step he shudders from the pain. Wait, why is blood running up his axe? A [Skill]!
I make the only sensible choice. Running backwards while looking at that brainless idiot. Yes, each step hurts, huh? Widening the distance between us is like me, torturing you, right? Well, it’s a fight. Muscle-brain stops next to ponytail while groaning in pain.
“[Heal]!” Ponytail casts it on herself first, then she turns to muscle-brain. “[He-]” I throw a firebomb before she can heal him as well. I see a cloud of flames for a moment, but then I see how muscle-brain has thrown himself onto ponytail, protecting her from the blast as much as possible.
“[Speedthrust]!” I won’t give them time to heal themselves up.
“[Shell]!” He lifts himself up with his gleaming armor and moves so that I can’t stab into its holes. Then I see a movement of his armor plates, muscle-change because of [Class-change]! “[Bear Hug]!”
“AAAH!” His arms are around me, he wants to crush me, that ass! My arms feel like they’re about to break!
“Good, Daichi-kun! I’ll end him!” Ponytail will end me!? No, for powerful spells she must chant, so unless she has an ace in her sleeves, she’ll need some more of them before I’m dead, and I have three ways to get out of this! To my surprise, she takes off her backpack… what is she doing? Then she goes behind me, opening mine… don’t tell me… “Daichi-kun, get away!” Then she puts her backpack in mine. In that exact moment muscle-head releases me and jumps back, same as her.
…
… …
… … …
I have come to a conclusion. Ara-san tricks her allies like her enemies. Just that other than me, those morons really believed her. I grab into my backpack and pull ponytail’s out. “Phew…” Looking at the three of us, we’re all in an awkward situation that we didn’t expect.
However, ponytail’s reaction makes me angry: “I thought he’d explode!”
So she really wants to kill me, huh!? Well, I won’t argue here. I will just drop her backpack to the ground and stab it with my spear… no special reaction, just a backpack with a big hole. I almost assumed that its content would spill, but oh well, good that I had the opportunity to try it with something that I won’t miss.
“Aaah!” Of course that pisses her off, maybe I even disabled it, but that bitch just tried to explode me! “Daichi, cover me. Time for the big canons!”
“Eri-san…”
“Oh right, sorry. [Heal]!” What a bad party-management. The healer is supposed to track the party’s HP, seriously. I mean, she may not be able to see his status, as she doesn’t have that pain-in-the-ass curse, but she should realize that being stabbed really hurts!
Still, [Heal] is surely not enough for this wound. It will make him feel better, but I imagine him bleeding badly under his armor. Unless he has other skills to circumvent it.
I hear ponytail chanting, therefore I change to [Ranger] and start slowly approaching her. Muscle-brain runs at me: “[Wheelheave]!” As expected, a rushing-attack. I use [Distract] to make him and ponytail lose me for a second, I jump sideways and use [Camouflage] and [Mask of Wildlife]. Muscle-brain only cuts some of the high grass and he opens the visor of his helmet: “Where is he!?”
Ponytail stops chanting her spell, she has no target. “I don’t see him either!?”
Usually, they could see me, [Camouflage] just gives me a color-pattern, but [Mask of Wildlife] messes with their spirit-sense, something that they’re not even aware of. They look at me, but they think of me as the grass surrounding me.
“Shit! Where are you, fatso!?”
Now trying to provoke me? That happens if your brain is also full of muscles. I only need to wait for a good opportunity and- ponytail is chanting again. It seems to be another spell, the melody and rhythm is different. I better take her out now.
Attacking from hiding means [Assassinate], more than enough to turn ponytail into a sorry mess. I take my bow and aim at her: “[See-” Suddenly, muscle-brain jumps between me and her, is that another skill that warns him!? “-ker]!” Yet canceling the skill won’t help either at this point.
The arrow is hit away by the axe, muscle-brain hasn’t even looked at it! This has to be a skill! I also lost my hiding advantage. “I have you!”
“[Quadruple Shot]!” I shoot another four arrows, but he easily hits them away. The movement… he hits the arrow that would have hit ponytail in the stomach first, then the one for her waist, and then the two for her shoulder. It’s not like I specifically aimed there, I’m not that accurate with this skill. But somehow he prioritizes the vital ones…
A skill that protects others… this is why he’s with ponytail. That’s also why he doesn’t attack anymore, so that he won’t mess up again and get wound even further.
“[Slow]!” Shit, my movements are slowing down. I try to retreat, but my legs are so slow! Even putting more power into them doesn’t work, it’s like my body has a speed-limit.
“[Powertackle]!” Seizing this chance, muscle-brain changes class and tackles me with all his might. The last time I tasted that skill was with the monkey-spider-boss. I didn’t miss it at all.
How can my whole body be slowed down, while the pain comes as fast as usual? Stupid magic. Oh, she chants another one, the same before the [Slow]-spell, most likely her finisher.
I slowly stand up and drop the bow to wield my spear with both hands. I hear a little voice inside me, urging me to kill them finally. I had some chances before and didn’t use it.
Using my slowness as his chance, muscle-brain swings his axe at me, yet he seems very cautious, maybe because he remembers how he got the wound. I guess he’s just buying time for ponytail, while I need time to shake off the [Slow]-spell.
Smoke-bomb. Luckily, it’s not affected by the spell and the smoke billows as fast as usual. I’m still [Ranger], so I use [Wild Eyes] to sense his spirit through the screen and start attacking. For some reason, the force I feel through my weapon hitting his armor feels as powerful as usual despite the decrease in speed. So KE = 1/2 mv² (forumula for kinetic energy, v stands for velocity) means nothing before magic, I guess, which actually worries me! I mean, that’s basic physics! On the other hand: Magic. …maybe there are forces at play that I don’t even get. Something with mana or so.
Heck, this concerns me more than the actual fight! Stop! Don’t think about it, me, you have a giant oaf right in front of you!
Despite the smoke, muscle-brain begins swinging his weapon wildly. The foliage will soon dissipate, but it serves its purpose of buying me more time. “Damn you, Katsuragi!”
“What? Too used to bully those weaker than you?”
“Grrrr…”
To be honest, muscle-brain isn’t that impressive with his axe. I’d be more concerned if he ditched it and used his judo instead. As long as both of us are using [Classes] and [Abilities] as our prime means of fighting, I’ll win. Especially considering his wounds.
There is the problem of the chanting ponytail though in conjunction with the [Slow]-spell. The question is: Will the debuff time out before she casts her spell?
Well, time for another bomb. This time it’s not smoke though, it’s a stink bomb. Using muscle-brain’s spirit for aiming, I throw it right into him. “Ua-ah-ah! *cough, cough*” Too bad I can’t see his face, full of tears, snot, and pain. Well, I got my fill with ponytail, I guess.
I step out of the smoke-bomb, directly at- “[Lightning Bolt]!” Ponytail outstretched fore and middle finger point at me, and a flash of white light comes forth of them, so dazzling bright that it blinds people. Yet in less than a second, I see a lightning arc right next to me! It’s not like game lightning, where enemies sometimes even evade it, it’s as fast as real lightning!
Ponytail blinks, her own spell caused her to lose sight for a moment while I’m totally fine from this nasty byproduct due to [Penetrate Light]. My eyesight just pierces through the brightness and while everything is a bit brighter than usual with a tint of violet, I can see fine. So I use this to activate stealth-mode once more.
But dammit! If the spell was a straight line, I would be dead! Yet, like real lightning, it branched and changed direction.
“Eri-san, did you get him?” So muscle-brain would have been fine if I got roasted.
“I see no corpse!”
“Shit!”
…so she used the spell fully aware that it would turn me into a corpse? … … Time to take off my gloves as well.
I feel how my body moves at normal speed again and I approach ponytail who is looking around: “Maybe I reduced him to dust?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe he- ERI-SAN!” It’s not like he saw me before I stabbed ponytail with my knife. It’s just that ponytail hasn’t realized it before him.
She looks at me, whose stealth-mode is canceled and the knife in her side, her eyes wide in shock. I grab her face and throw it with the rest of her body to the ground and kick it two times. She lost consciousness.
Seriously, I should have done so from the start.
I turn to muscle-brain and he shirks away a bit. “One down,” I smirk at him. It’s one of my nastiest ones, but seriously, I’m done here. She’s still alive and I won’t set my standards any higher for today.
“You bastard!”
“You’ve got everything wrong.” They have neither considered their own mortality nor their priorities. Aren’t they supposed to save Kyou-san and Rine? “This isn’t a game.” If I were in their shoes, I’d run away the moment muscle-brain stood up and tackled me. Yet it was more important to them to kill me than to survive.
“SHIT!” He still doesn’t give up. Rather, he lifts his weapon and charges at me despite knowing the result.
This is stupid. While I got almost no damage, I have spent much SP and some MP, as well as one of my power surges. In one second, I decide whether I beat the shit out of muscle-brain and drag him and ponytail to Kyou-san, or if it’d be better to just leave and let them suffer and handle their injuries.
Yet I opt for another option. I point my spear-blade at ponytail’s throat, causing muscle-brain to stop moving. “Say, where is Ara-san?”
“…” Oh, he’s pissed. He’s also thinking that I’m more than willing to finish the unconscious girl. Hey, give me a bit of credit here. “She’s at our base-camp.” In the end, his loyalty to his friend—or rather his own survival instinct—proves to be stronger than his hate for me. “It’s there. About twenty minutes.”
“You’re lying.” I can feel the direction she’s in, [Spouse-Location] tells me that she’s somewhere else. I point in that direction, and… shit! I use [Farsight] to be sure, I can see someone getting closer. It’s Hoshibashi! “Later.” I retrieve my bow and start running.
Time to regroup with the girls.