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Volume 1 Chapter 17-3: Spoiler

「I’ll move on the left. Go on ahead to take them.」
「F-fine」

As if driven by my voice Frey-san moved to attack the center Tower Ant and I moved like her shadow.

Frey-san soon made contact with the middle ant and punches out with the right hook to stop its movements before twisting her hand around and using the blade of her sword to slash its compound eye.

Giiigiiii!

The ant let out shrill screeches. The small sword hasn’t destroyed its eye completely, but it was at least badly damaged.

Quite an interesting way to fight. A blend of fist fights and blade arts. They didn’t seem particularly effective against opponents like the ants, but it was enough to stop their movements.

Because of her successful attack, the other ants focused on her opening a path to the rear.

In that instant I juked from one side to the other passing by the ants. I managed to strike one of them on the weak part of its abdomen so some pressure was lifted off Frey-san.

I felt a gross squelching feeling from my strike, but I couldn’t care less about how badly it was wounded.

Even with its abdomen heavily wounded an insect like this wouldn’t die. This would only slow it down, but it was still helpful for Frey-san, she might even be able to wear it out and kill it.

All that’s left is to take care of this guy.

Gichichichchihi Gichiiii

Sorry, but I don’t have time to play around with vermin like you!

I ran in and swung my sword back as if I was going to do a large obvious swing.

Upon seeing me holding my sword ready to strike, the Ant Man raised up its four sickle arms to block from the attack it assumed would come from above. Normal ants can’t walk backwards.

I don’t know anything about normal ants in this world and didn’t know if this was the same as in my old world, but even if it could back down it wouldn’t matter.

I modified my movement freely and on the last step-in I shifted so that I slanted right. Now I was no longer swinging downward, but at a right diagonal with full force.

Gii giii!

The ant man was hit by my full powered strike and wasn’t able to maintain its stance. I didn’t miss this opportunity and struck with Sakura, attacking the gap between its exoskeleton in a flash.

The Ant Man’s head fell to the ground with a thump. ‘I did it!’ I thought for a moment before feeling pain run through my body.

「Uuugh!」

I messed up! Bugs can still move a bit even if their head gets crushed…

I staggered backwards unsteadily feeling a wound running down from my chest.

I finally managed to fight well…and it got ruined at the last moment by my carelessness.

I had aimed at the time when the ant couldn’t move because of its relatively thin back legs, taking advantage of unbalancing it.
Once it was unbalanced I stepped in once more and slashed with Sakura-chan to deal the finishing blow.

But I didn’t take into account how close I would have to get because of Sakura-chan being a short sword. Once I dealt the final blow I should have retreated immediately to make sure I didn’t suffer any reactive attacks. Because I was slow I ended up taking a slash from the Ant Man’s sickle arm. I can’t even excuse it since I wasn’t wearing chest armor and didn’t block.

Damn it! I was too late to realize! Luckily the wound felt long but shallow.

「Fujinomiya-dono!」

I turned after hearing Frey-san’s voice crying out at the end of her wits. I could see the Tower Ants had gone wild and were attacking recklessly.

「Damn! I’m coming!」

I squeezed out my energy as I ran over and executed a crushing blow on the tower ant’s head. The tower ant received a critical wound…the Ant Man must have been stronger because its head didn’t break when I struck it with the same force before.

「Two more」

One of them noticed me and attacked while the other continued fighting Frey-san. If it was one-on-one I didn’t think she’d lose. In that case I just had to focus on the one in front of me.

「Fuu…we managed somehow」
「Yeah, I almost regretted coming to help for a second.」

A few minutes later the two Tower Ants were defeated. The sound of combat was dying down from the front so it seems like things would settle down.

All that was left was escaping.

「Well before that we need to grab the magic stones.」

I saw three magic stones lying on the floor, they were from the Tower Ants.

「Frey-san why don’t you take these three?」
「Eh?…why? You were the one who mostly beat them so I can’t…」
「It’s fine! I know things would have been bad if you didn’t hold them back Frey-san. You really helped.」
「O-okay…got it. I’ll take them with gratitude.」

I pushed the stones on her as she froze up. I could see hesitation on her face.

She didn’t have to worry about it…such a conscientious lady.

Well, I would take the Ant Man stone since I was the one who defeated it by myself.

I moved over to where I had fought it and searched for the stone on the ground finding it fairly easily.

Okay! Let’s grab it and get back to Hotaru-san…

BAM!!

As I reached down to grab the magic stone I felt a strong shock to the back of my head…and passed out.

Volume 1 Chapter 17: Betrayal

End