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Over the Infinite – Chapter 7 (2)

 

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Translator: mii

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「Nn? …Okay.」

After saying that, Yuki rushed to the Minotaur, escaping to the opposite direction after making a hit at the same time.

Even if his attack didn’t make a change, he was still amazing. He clearly changed his posture in the air. That was a movement that I couldn’t do. I became motivated, even if it was only an image of Yuki moving his body.

Yuki took the Minotaur’s focus for a moment, but it immediately turned towards me again. It probably judged that dealing with me would be easier than Yuki who was still agile. I couldn’t move anymore, so I waited for the Minotaur on that spot.

Still, Yuki wanted to do critical, huh? That’s right, there was something like that. If he managed to penetrate the HP and did an injury to the Minotaur’s flesh, it’s movement would slow down. Then we should be able to take another measures. My head didn’t work at all, damn it. But I lost so much blood and got high instead now.

「Come here! This damned cow!!!」

The Minotaur moved closer to me in a go, probably lured to my roar.

Like usual, it’s speed was not matching with the weight of its huge body and weapon. The impression was like having a 2t truck rushing in towards you.

I didn’t have any more strength to move around that much. Nevertheless, as I lost my strength, I felt that my senses were sharpening.

I dodged the blow of that large ax that created a whirlwind with just a swing. I avoided the kick from this giant Minotaur. I evaded it’s tackle.

I avoided the stone pieces that scattered with the crash in large quantities so that I only took as little damage as possible, since avoiding all of them were impossible.

I made use of any opening I could make and repeated the attack that shouldn’t be able to do a significant damage.

Occasionally, its attack or the stone pieces would hit the burning torch, and the splinter of the ignited torch would fly to me from an unexpected location. They were super hot.

Spears flew towards us at a perfect timing for a few times. If he slipped even just for a moment, those spears would surely hit me.

Yuki threw the spears that dropped along the way in the fifth layer that we originally deemed useless. But even though the spears became feints, they didn’t cause much damage. After a while, Yuki stopped throwing them, probably because he was out of stock.

I avoided the Minotaur’s attacks in my sharpened senses so that I could achieve maximum result with minimum movement. I was now a machine that specialized in avoiding. I could avoid anything. But, it was not yet perfect. I still couldn’t grasp the sense of distance when avoiding its attacks. My posture was slightly collapsing after avoiding them. If I could move well in balance, there would be another chance for me to attack it.

Out of the five skills I acquired at the fourth layer, I had been able to understand the effect of《 Power Slash 》and《 See Through 》to some extent.

《 Sword Technique 》had evolved further every time I attacked, and the optimization was progressing within me.

And then, there were another remaining two skills. I probably couldn’t draw out the power of《 Attitude Control 》and《 Emergency Avoidance 》yet.

As my sensations get sharper, I could clearly see my movements which were a lot of times wasteful.

What passed my mind was Yuki’s movement, which started to look clear. I could see how he had been growing rapidly since fighting with that old man.

The difference between Yuki’s and my movement was probably his three-dimensional movement. I didn’t know if it was possible for me to adopt a part of it into my movement, but by looking at the opponent’s attacks in a more three-dimensional way, I should be able to see the gaps in its attacks that I couldn’t sense before.

I looked and felt the Minotaur’s offensive and defensive body movement, then I moved my body. I consciously moved each of my muscles in tandem, and maintained a more natural posture so that I could create more opportunities for counterattacks. I didn’t realize this when I was bound by fear and pressure, but this Minotaur’s movement was monotonous, if I was ignoring its speed. So I should be able to see even a way more ahead.

[ You acquired《 Avoid 》skill. ]

At this timing, an unexpected skill sprang up.

No, I was thankful. But was this different from《 Emergency Avoidance 》?

「Hahaha,」

As I was distracted even for a moment, I found myself ended up in a situation where I could immediately become a minced meat. I just barely dared myself to choose the means of escape through space.

Such a stupid situation had become a bit more interesting now. The substance in my brain was flowing wide, just like a raising water fountain.

I drew my trajectory to the incoming ax, as if I was sweeping out my legs. The me from a few minutes ago would avoid this attack by backstepping in a go, but now I avoided it by jumping into the air. I knew that avoiding attacks in the air was more difficult than ground. Even if I avoided its ax, the Minotaur might kick me immediately. It might head-butt me. Or worse, it might collapse and squash me with its huge body.

Then on the contrary, I would attack him and do a clinching counter attack.

[ You acquired《 Aerial Attitude Control 》skill. ]

[ You acquired《 Aerial Avoidance 》skill. ]

The Minotaur chose to attack me who was flying in the air using its horns that grew on its head. Properly speaking, I shouldn’t be able to avoid that attack, yet I turned my body in the air and barely avoided it―

―With that momentum, the force generated by my rotation knocked the Minotaur’s side.

[You acquired《 Whirlwind Slash 》skill. ]

――――Action Skill《 Whirlwind Slash 》――

「Uwooooarghhhhh!!!」

My sword glowed at the moment when I couldn’t even tell whether I acquired or activated the skill first, and I strike the Minotaur’s left shoulder with it.

－２－

At that moment, the strike of the me skill that I launched surely collapsed the Minotaur’s posture. I didn’t know the reason why it’s posture broke was because my attack penetrated it’s HP, or it was just because a strange force inflicted it from the side of its headbutt.

I couldn’t pursue the Minotaur because I fell into the ground after receiving the rigidity effect of《Whirlwind Slash 》skill, unable to rest in proper defense.

But for Yuki who had been waiting for this moment, this was a decisive opportunity.

Yuki rushed over with a blazing torch in both of his hands to the Minotaur who lost its steady posture.

Ahh, that certainly might work. Yuki’s target was the Minotaur’s head… no, its neck.

I was staring at the sight with a rigid body until I fell into the ground.

「Gwooooorghhhh!!!!」

The Minotaur, whose neck was burned in flames, screamed for the first time since its first roar. It seemed like the fire could pass through the defense of the Minotaur’s iron wall, which was extremely resistant to slashing and other melee attacks.

But that was not the sure winner. He told me that he was “aiming for the critical”.

The Minotaur shook one of its arm and upper body to shake off Yuki, together with the torches.

It managed to shake off the torches that were pressed against its neck, but Yuki was no longer at its neck. With the Minotaur’s body as his foothold, Yuki, who was jumping high above its head, already gripped a short sword and his favourite knife.

That’s right, he chose the same poison he used to the old man to cut down the Minotaur’s huge HP. However, since the major premise was to make a small cut on the opponent’s skin, making a critical was absolutely necessary to escape from the Minotaur’s iron wall HP.

Yuki aimed at its vital spot and chose to make a piercing attack. Although the success was still undecided, this was the way to maximize the probability to make critical attack according to the information we had now. We only had this one chance. Creating this situation again was almost like a miracle.

「Ahhhhhhh!!!」

Yuki’s knife protruded into the Minotaur’s neck.

It was really just a luck game from now on. No matter how much damage did the critical penetrated, it was just a trivial damage to that body.

We would win once our winning poison went through this monster’s skin. If it didn’t, it would be our loss. It was difficult to continue the fight even if the Minotaur received an abnormal state, but we couldn’t start if the poison didn’t work here.

We could only bet on the chances of the abnormal status which we didn’t even know how much was the percentage success rate. Yuki also recognized that his challenge was like walking on thin ice, and decided to take this bet…

Or that’s what I thought.

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