Volume 7 Chapter 5 Part 6
「You seem to understand the meaning of my words well enough. Serves you right. Well then, now do us all a favor and just drop dead already, why won’t you?!」
The woman keeps taunting Roxanne while she just stood there silently, tightly gripping the handle of her rapier in her hand. The woman also strengthened the grip on her own sword, and when she saw that verbally assaulting Roxanne was going to take her nowhere, she made the first move of the duel and swung her weapon towards her, but Roxanne lowered her body slightly and dodged it. The woman then followed her attack with another downward swing, but Roxanne dodged that one as well.
Two attacks, and she dodged both of them. So far, so good.
Roxanne is as composed as ever. Even with shared Job effects of a Lv.99 Party Member, this woman is still unable to hit Roxanne even once.
Roxanne dodges yet another one of her attacks.
With the least possible movement, she is avoiding the oncoming slashes like it was the most obvious thing to be doing. She sways her head to dodge the point of the sword and then draws her shoulder back from the line of the subsequent strikes.
Because the woman was already committed to the attack, Roxanne thrusts her Rapier forward after dodging her attack herself.
The woman jumps back, and then falls over due to the momentum.
「I’m a lot stronger than I was six months ago! So how can she still be dodging all of my attacks?」
「Kukuku… you attack as recklessly as ever.」
When Roxanne taunted her, the woman stood up angrily and produced a hateful scream out of her throat. She swings her sword again, but Roxanne easily avoids it by lightly stepping to the side.
「Half a year ago…. You were much stronger than you are now.」
No, Roxanne, you’re wrong. It’s not that she was stronger six months ago. It’s you who has become a lot stronger than her thanks to all of the hard work and effort that you have been putting into bettering yourself every single day.
「Even though we should be close in terms of our abilities… why…? How…? What is going on here….?! Hod did you manage to become so strong?! What kind of sorcery did you use?!」
*Sigh* She still doesn’t realize that no matter what she might try ti throw at Roxanne right now, it’s not going to do her any good. At her level, Roxanne should be able to dodge all of her attacks with her eyes closed, and that is exactly what she is doing, avoiding the incoming strikes by a hair’s breadth.
At the distance they are right now, Roxanne’s opponent has decided to completely commit herself to attacking her while abandoning any form of defense or safety measures, most likely because she is convinced that when she’s so close to her, then it doesn’t matter if she’s going to miss her now or not if the next attack that she’s going to before is surely bound to reach its mark.
The funniest thing here is that if she was fighting against any other person, then she would have probably been right with that assumption of hers, because her strikes miss Roxanne by literally a centimeter… no, a milimeter. Under any normal circumstances and against any other opponents, achieving such a feat should have been impossible time after time and again and again. That is why most people tend to perceive is as just a series of flukes or lucky coincidences whenever something like that happens to them.
When this woman engaged Roxanne in a mock battle six months ago, her train of thought must have been either exactly the same or extremely similar, and that must have caused her to think that when she’s going to be facing Roxanne again in the future, she’s going to be the one to emerge victorious from their battle for sure.
However, the result is not even close to what she must have been suspecting.
It’s just like I was thinking: It’s Roxanne whose abilities far surpass and outclass the abilities of other people around her. When she was a Beast Warrior at around Lv.6, she was able to successfully pull out a draw against someone who’s currently a Beast Warrior Lv.29. But now that Roxanne herself managed to grow in strength so much that she has become a Beast Warrior Lv.32….. this duel cannot be called a contest of equals anymore.
「I already knew that I had become stronger ever since master took me in as his slave, so I wanted to use this duel as a method of measuring exactly how much stronger I have gotten, but I can see that this duel can no longer fulfill that purpose.」
「Kuh…! No! This can’t be happening! That is not possible! I…!」
「Are you done already? Because I know I am.」
After she expressed the loss of interest in the duel, Roxanne thrusted her sword forward.
Her Rapier hits the woman directly in the throat, and the force of the thrust pushes her pretty far away, additionally causing her to fall over after she failed to regain her balance. Right now, laying flat o her back, she is vulnerable to the attacks from practically any direction.
I thought that maybe she was planning on using a faint or something along those lines, but no, that was not it at all. Apparently, one direct attack from Roxanne was all that it was needed to sent her flying like that.
One thrust of Roxanne’s Rapier, which wasn’t even performed at her full power. I highly doubt that it’s going to happen, but if that one attack was all that it would take to kill that woman, then I think I would have broken out into laughter right here and now despite the seriousness of the situation.
「N-Not yet… I’m not… I’m not done yet!」
Even though she was shaking all over, the woman was still desperately trying to lift herself up from the ground. And while she was in the middle of trying to stand up, I noticed that a string has fallen down from her leg to the ground.
That is most definitely her Sacrificial Misanga. Since she has lost it, then does that mean that one more attack from Roxanne would be enough to kill her?
When I used 「Identify」 on her, I noticed that Sacrificial Misanga had disappeared from the list of her currently equipped items, which means that it really must have been destroyed just now.
This woman understands it as well. That there’s no use in standing up now. And that the next time they are going to fight each other, there won’t be any Sacrificial Misangas left to her that would save her from death at Roxanne’s hands.
「Even though you were the one plotting against my family in order to drive them to poverty and I despise you for it… I also must thank you for it. If it wasn’t for you doing that, then I would have never became a slave and met such a wonderful master. So if nothing else, you have my gratitude for steering my life towards the directing that it went.」
Once she finished speaking, Roxanne tightened the grip on the handle of her Rapier even more. Just one more stab and this should all be over. The villainous figure who wrecked Roxanne’s life upside down is going to be no more. However…
「Roxanne.」
I call out to her. That one word from me was a clear signal to her. A signal that this is enough. There’s no need to push things any further, and its better to leave them as they are now. Roxanne has already achieved victory in this duel, so there is no need for her to sully her hands any more than it was absolutely necessary.
「It’s all right to leave it as it is… right, master?」
Roxanne took a few steps back, and then turned around to look at the woman who was her opponent. Then she turned towards me, and when she saw the expression on my face, she must have realized what I wanted to convey to her.
「Yes, I don’t mind it ending right here.」
「Even if it means that from the rules standpoint this match is going to end in a draw?」
「Yeah, that should be fine… isn’t it?」
I glanced back at Sherry in order to check that in with her.
「There shouldn’t be any problems with such an outcome, so it should be all right.」
After hearing Sherry’s answer with a doubtful look, I beckoned Roxanne to my side.
It’s better to make Roxanne leave it as it is now then just perpetuate the cycle of anger and hate.
1.)
“[…] no matter what she might try ti throw at Roxanne […]”
Should be:
“[…] no matter what she might try to throw at Roxanne […]”
2.)
“Right now, laying flat o her back […]”
Should be:
“Right now, laying flat on her back […]”
3.)
“[…] for steering my life towards the directing that it went.”
Should be:
“[…] for steering my life towards the direction that it went.”