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Chapter 257 – Fenix Party VS Ellie Party 4

257 – Fenix Party VS Ellie Party 4

The first second.

From Bella’s spot, I rush to Alba.

The scenery passes by me, but not like when you are riding on a horse carriage.

It was faster. They looked like a speeding silhouette.

In the way is the Paladin Lark.

Valiantly protecting his ally. How wonderful.

…But annoying.

With a Wind Blade, I cut him vertically along with his large shield.

His large shield splits like chopping firewood or bamboo, the pieces falling to the left and right respectively.

Behind the shield, Lark was…nowhere to be seen.

Predicting the timing of my attack, he jumped out to the sides at the last moment.

I understood immediately.

From my point of view, he jumped to my left probably trying to slash at me while I’m speeding.

A sword swing from his tall stature and long arms presents a considerable threat.

However, that attack never reaches me as it bounces off of the wall of wind I surrounded myself with.

In return, I slice his dominant arm off with a blade of wind.

Having lost both his shield and his dominant arm, there is no need to finish off the Paladin. Time is precious.

The second second.

Alba had his back turned to me.

The opposite of Lark here who was fully wary of me. He most likely wants to clean up the rest of my loyal dogs before I reach him.

Alba nimbly leaps over the Ice Wall. But because of my maneuverability in the air, I’m faster.

However, in the corner of my eye, I see Lily.

I cannot leave Alba be, but I can’t do the same to Lily either.

Her skill with the bow is beyond troublesome.

She doesn’t even look my way as I make my approach, and simply continues shooting at my manservants.

I fire off a Wind Blade.

It, without a doubt, rips one of the Fenix party members clean in half…

…but it wasn’t Lily.

「My thanks, Lark.」

Even without his large shield or his dominant arm, so long as he has his body, he will fulfill his professional duties as a Paladin.

Lark, who protected his ally, is defeated, and the form of Lily appeared behind his split body.

She is throwing away her bow. In the time that Lark earned for her, she had fired every last one of her remaining arrows.

What was at the other end of her Godspeed were my allies.

Instead of using Magical Energy to warn my allies, I instantaneously create a protective wall of wind.

In the blink of an eye, the cluster of arrows meant to pierce my allies all stuck to the wall of wind.

The third second.

Lily pulled out a sturdy broad-bladed knife, but she wasn’t able to defend against my Wind Blades coming from all four directions.

The beautiful Elf scatters into Magical Energy.

Without even making sure, I speed up.

Alba was bare-handed, but that wasn’t a problem for him.

Why? Because the ground was already littered with countless swords.

Swords made of ice.

He grabs hold of one and throws it.

Right at Ryan, who suffered an arrow to the leg.

「Hah!」

It was the White Sorcerer Kent.

The only one who is unharmed and he deflects the flying sword with his suit.

Without getting frustrated at that, Alba picks up another blade and turns towards me.

His eyes had『Come on!』written all over them.

The fifth second.

His smile triggers my intuition.

Black Magic didn’t work on him.

Come to think of it, his reaction at the start was odd. While not unnatural, it is suspicious now that I think about it.

No matter how good Lyner and Ryan may be, they don’t hold a candle to the Demon King Army’s Chief of Staff.

Having fought alongside him, we know that all too well.

Yet, he used his Magic Sword just like when he was under the effects of Len’s Black Magic.

He wasn’t slowed down to the point that he couldn’t move, but he purposefully chose not to move.

Ryan’s Black Magic was cut off, but Lyner’s Black Magic is still on him.

Yet still, Alba’s movements were nimble.

Built up a resistance, have you?

To be more precise, he got used to it, rather than built up a resistance. Having experienced the effects of Speed Down countless times, perhaps he trained himself while in that state to acquire a way to continue fighting while under the effects of Speed Down.

This current industry would laugh at those who put effort into unnecessary things, but the Fenix party experienced the tenth stratum of the Impregnable Demon King Castle.

He’s probably preparing what is necessary for the eventual rematch.

「I’ll cut you in two.」

The Warrior smiles tauntingly. I do not falter.

Alba’s swing passed me by at a distance just in front of my nose.

「Huh?!」

The man is surprised.

Because while he moved his body under the assumption that he has to compensate for the Black Magic, the White Magic, Speed Up, was cast on him. And that’s not all, Speed Down was canceled at the same time.

Due to that, he swung his sword too fast and too early.

「No, you.」

As I pass by while swinging my Holy Sword, his top half is separated from his bottom half.

And that is five seconds.

All that’s left is the one-on-one fight.

Because in an instant, cones of ice grew from the surroundings and pierced all of my allies.

『W-what a rapid series of developments!! A-after just a few short seconds, the battle is already speeding towards its conclusion!』

It was only five seconds. But it must have been five seconds too long after that fatal wound.

I turned my gaze to Bella and bore witness to her growth as an Adventurer.

She covered her torn belly by freezing it. Treatment to delay the leakage of Magical Energy even slightly.

In her first official debut fight, she received a fatal blow from the Demon of Love Sitri and was defeated.

her blunder at the time was forgetting that the strength of her spell drops as she widened its area of effect…but that’s not all.

Being careless can be fatal, of course, but her failure was not utilizing the time between receiving a fatal injury and actually being defeated to its full effect.

Bella is no longer a fresh-faced newbie.

She is now a firm combat asset to the Fenix party.

「Well done, Bella. Leave the rest to me.」

「Yes, leader.」

Perhaps reaching its limits, her Avatar breaks apart.

Having received a fatal wound, my attention was turned towards the Godspeed and Alba.

It’s too much coordination in an instant.

The mobility of my allies had been reduced, and Bella was able to skewer them so cleanly because I simply had to go and give them back up myself.

If I hadn’t done that…no, now is not the time to think about it.

The Fenix party has so naturally grown to this level of coordination.

Only Kent, who hadn’t been injured until then, was still alive for a slight moment until he is lost.

「Give Madam Ellie insight that transcends time, my magic…Intelligence.」

A short thinking power-up buff that goes away the moment he is defeated.

But that is enough. And a brilliant choice.

If he had chosen to heal my right leg instead, I would have reprimanded him.

All choices must lead to victory, until the very end.

Intelligence is a magic buff that allows you to think more at any given moment.

Also, magic is created via thinking power.

In other words, the more you can think at a given moment, the more detailed a magic that can be created.

「Let us prepare for the second round.」

Short words. Words that do not give doubt to my victory.

「Yes, let’s.」

Now, how to view this predicament.

For one, it could be viewed as such.

As praise towards our efforts.

Comparing only the result, both sides have lost four of each party member.

The brilliant feat of carrying four unfortunate Jobs to a one-on-one fight with the world’s 4th ranked.

That is a possibility.

But there is also another point of view.

The exhausted condition of a Hero.

I have already exhausted a considerable amount of Magical Energy. I worked my Magical Energy organ to the max, constantly used magic, flew around the field with my sharpened senses.

Fenix, by contrast, has hardly moved.

Why has he been doing nothing? Negligence? Nay.

Letting his allies handle the situation, he preserves his Spirit’s Magical Energy as well as regenerates his own.

Now, a fearsome amount of Magical Energy has flowed into Fenix’s Holy Sword, just waiting to be released.

The Ellie party, whose leader supports her allies and is supported by them, lost four members.

The Fenix party, whose leader believes in his allies and leaves it to them while he saves his strength, lost four members.

We…are not the same.

This is frustrating…absolutely frustrating, but…bringing us to this point is the plan for the All-Heaven Festival Contest.

It’s just that there is still a long way to go, and we both chose to fight with that in mind.

And Fenix has succeeded in his preservation, while I have failed.

At the time that I formed an alliance with the Monsters in the Raid Battle, that was the first and final stage. Which is why I was able to give my all during it.

In an event where you are given the chance to face off against legends after surpassing stage after stage, the way one fights will naturally change.

Everyone is under the same conditions.

And under those conditions, the Fenix party’s method of fighting was superior.

「O Spirit.」

This is proven by the fact that I am the only one borrowing Magical Energy from my Spirit.

『On one corner, the calm and composed Flame Hero! On the other, the Undefeated Hero who danced around the battlefield! A one-on-one opportunity that was the result of a blindingly fast series of battles! Who will win?!』

For some reason, people are fascinated by speed.

As children, the one who runs the fastest is praised extravagantly.

The fastest horse is envied, and fast attacks excite the audience.

Moves such as Godspeed, used by Lily, Suuri, and Caleena, and Scathach’s Thunder Domain are all famous.

So is mine.

Fenix holds his sword overhead.

I take a shallow breath.

And then the match is decided.

「Flash.」

I call out the name of my magic, not like how my loyal dogs or Bella did.

Performing an attack that is too fast for the average person to perceive may be a foolish choice for entertainment purposes.

But this is to win.

I challenge Fenix from the front.

Take the time needed to blink once and cut it up into even finer pieces. That is how extremely short this span of time was.

I am right in front of Fenix.

But there isn’t just one of me.

There is also a mirage of me projected behind him.

This leaves no room for thought.

your reflexes should react to both.

The moment born from that slight deviation will prove fatal.

A flash of Fenix’s blade cuts me.

「…」

There wasn’t the slightest hint of hesitation or delay in his blade.

The other side of his double-edged sword that was directed at me… flames erupted from that side, accelerating his slash rapidly.

Cutting through my wall of wind like a hot knife through butter, my Holy Sword could only deviate from its trajectory as he slashes and burns my right side.

The Avatar immediately reaches its limit, turning into Magical Energy particles.

He speaks, almost as if he could tell from the expression in my eyes that I was asking『How?』.

Maybe I was just hearing things…

Because I didn’t have the time to actually hear the words he formed.

But still, I heard them.

「Because you are a Hero.」

Ah, so that’s it.

because I am…a Hero.

At the end of the day, attacking the enemy from behind is not something that a hero would do.

So simple.

This is the reason that Fenix has only been guarding against what was in front of him since the start.

He was not misled by my flickering form that was directly behind him.

He believed in the way of the hero and believed that I did too.

My vision goes dark.

I was defeated.