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CHAPTER 191: THE REMATCH AGAINST BRIDE ③

CHAPTER 191: THE REMATCH AGAINST BRIDE ③

Bride jumped back once, as if to check on his own condition. Until now, he has only launched simple attacks at me because he has been fighting on instinct, but from now on, he was apparently going to give this battle his everything.

However, it was true that there was no lie in the words I said in order to provoke him. I checked Bride’s status really quickly and I found out that his HP had decreased considerably, even though I had not done much damage to him other than his armor. This was probably due to the Abnormal Status Effect of “Bleeding”, but if it was also due to the cursed armor that he was wearing, he would eventually lose all of his HP and die even if I was to leave him alone to his own devices.

After checking his own status, Bride looked at the cursed armor with a look of disgust on his face but made no attempt to remove it. As for me, I did not know what other disadvantages there were to forcibly removing the cursed armor.

…… Oh well, that’s something that was none of my concern.

「Well then, it’s time for round two!」

「Don’t you dare to get cocky with me, not while I’m still standing before you!」

A huge fireball of magic energy was fired from Bride’s left hand again, but this time, unlike the first time, I saw him hide behind the magic spell and jump in for a moment. His movements were clearly different now from his previous thoughtless moves, and the corners of my mouth naturally turned up when I realized that.

「That’s the way it has to be!」

It would be easy to deal with him if I could predict to some extent what my opponent was going to do in the next few moments. But If Bride’s figure was not in my field of vision, that also meant that he could not see me, either. There was no reason not to use that fact to my advantage.

If I was to avoid it here, the house behind me would definitely be destroyed, but I knew thanks to my “Detection” Skill that there were currently no civilians inside of it.

And if that was the case here, I did not really have to care about how many buildings would get destroyed here. But Bride must have thought that I would move around in a way that would not destroy the royal capital too much, based on my actions and words up until now.

So I jumped up to avoid the fireball.

Bride had predicted that I would either deflect it or block it, but was surprised that the fireball did not change too much even as it passed where I was standing at, and he hesitated for a moment.

「“Thunder Spear”!」

The magic that I unleashed at Bride from above his head was supposed to catch my opponent completely off guard and hit him directly. However, even as he was about to be hit by it, Bride was able to grasp my position and return the Flame Lance right back at me. As expected, his durability had increased tremendously due to the cursed armor. It’s likely that the armor piece equipped on his torso, called Aspiration Soul Armor, had boosted his durability by a huge amount.

If that was the case here, my next goal would be to try and destroy the Aspiration Soul Armor. However, this was going to be a bit of a challenge. If Bride had regained his ability to think consciously, he should be able to guess what I would be aiming for from my movements alone. In that case, there was going to be a good chance that he would guard with his magic sword or launch an appropriate counterattack when needed. If I wanted to hit the armor for sure, I would need to make a move that would exceed Bride’s predictions, or catch him off guard like I did earlier.

I thought about the techniques I had learned in my previous battles and training, wondering if there was a good way for me to do this. ……And then, Zombie-senpai’s smile came to my mind.

Ah! Now that I think about it, the “Speed of Movement” Skill that Zombie-senpai taught me in the Silent Ruins might allow me to do precisely what I wanted and catch Bride off guard.

If I am not mistaken here…… it was a technique where you interweave slow movements into your normal movements and then suddenly shift up to top speed completely out of the blue. It was quite a difficult technique to properly pull off, but I should be able to do it now if I combine my Lightning Magic and Magic Barrier techniques together.

While I was thinking about it, the Zombie-senpai in my head gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up with a big smile.

I estimated the distance between me and Bride to be about fifteen meters or so, and at the current moment we were simply observing each other’s movements, waiting for the right opportunity. It was going to be a trial and error process, but it was definitely worth a try.

First, I put up a Magic Barrier while focusing most of its magical power on my feet. Okay, so far so good. But I can’t move just yet. The next step was going to be the most crucial one.

I remembered how Zombie-senpai acted back then…… Those initial slow movements, so slow you could not even tell if she was moving at all. And those seemingly pointless movements, where you could not even predict what her next move would be!!

I relaxed my whole body and let my arms hang loose. I was completely defenseless right now, but that was only for the sake of confusing my enemy even further. Just like Bride was right now.

There was already plenty of magical power stored in my legs. But it was so damn hard to control properly! 　It was so hard for me to move slowly when it felt like all of that magic power could explode at any moment now. But I could not let that show on my face, no matter what! Zombie-senpai kept a cool expression on her face, even in this state. Surely that was the secret to catching the enemy off guard.

— Less than a few seconds. This was my current limit. I stepped on the ground with my right foot, which had been slightly raised, and an entirely different sensation ran through my body at once.

And the next thing I knew, I was right behind Bride.

(What?! What is this!?)

Not only did Bride not notice my presence moving right behind him, he was now completely defenseless, as if the time itself had come to a halt.

I continued with my momentum and spun around, slamming the Red Demon’s Iron Club right into Bride’s back. Then, with a nasty “CRACK!” sound, Bride was blown away, destroying several houses on his way.

「W-What’s with that strange feeling just now…… It felt somewhat similar to that feeling when I activate a Skill and —」

And then, with that thought crossing my mind, I unconsciously opened my Status screen. And certainly enough, a new Skill had been added to it.

-Skill “Lightning Movement”: The user of the Skill can control their own movement speed using the Lightning Magic. (MP consumed is proportional to maximum speed and distance traveled)

「Z-Z-Zombie-senpai! T-This is just nuts……!!!!!!」