A face distorted savagely like a beast. A fierce killing intent blazing like flames.
“Of all places to aim, you aim there? You crazy brat…!”
Belita, who had risen while staggering slightly, kicked off the ground and leaped toward Friede.
“Die skewered like a kebab!”
A fierce shout. Clear hatred mixed with rage in her bulging eyes.
“Friede!”
I hurriedly launched my body and swung my longsword, deflecting Belita’s spear shaft that was flying toward Friede to the side.
Screeech!
A display of sparks flying and flashing.
Belita clicked her tongue and, going with the momentum of the deflected spear shaft, spun and aimed for my temple with the butt end of her long spear.
Thwack!
I blocked it by raising my left arm. The gauntlet, colliding with the iron spear, dented slightly and transmitted a sharp pain to my forearm.
This really hurts, damn it!
“The one getting pierced… will be you!”
I suppressed the throbbing pain in my arm with an angry shout and thrust my grasped longsword like an awl toward her solar plexus.
“Haaah!”
A thrust imbued with the power of <Iron Arm>.
A strike that would pierce through her upper body along with her breastplate if she tried to endure it relying on her armor―
“…Ha, this much.”
It futilely pierced only the empty air above Belita’s body as she half-laid back.
“As if there’d be anyone who’d let themselves get hit!”
Belita drove the tip of her spear into the ground to stop her falling body, then spun greatly as if pole dancing and kicked my thigh like a whip.
I couldn’t dodge. My body was momentarily stiffened due to the recoil of Iron Arm.
Whack!
Belita’s foot, carrying her full body weight, struck the side of my thigh like an iron mace.
“Aagh!”
An intense pain as if flesh and muscle were bursting. However, the cold flowing through my heart and the anger covering my mind suppressed that pain.
“You…!”
My body was about to fall forward as my leg gave way.
I kicked off the ground with my intact right foot and launched my body, ramming into Belita, who had stopped spinning and was pulling out her spear, like a bull with its tail on fire.
Boom!
“Kuh!”
A shoulder tackle with over ten kilograms of steel added. Belita, who had tried to block my shoulder by raising her left arm, bounced away like a child hit by a car and rolled on the ground.
In that gap, I supported my body that was about to fall forward by driving the longsword I held in reverse grip into the ground, and breathed heavily as if exhaling the fierce breath I had been holding back.
“Haa, haa…! Are you alright, Friede?!”
Although it felt like several minutes subjectively, in reality, it was a clash that lasted only about ten seconds.
At the end of it, I finally had the leisure to ask about Friede’s well-being. At the cost of the annoyingly throbbing pain in my left arm and thigh.
“Yes! I’m fine, very fine! Except for, um, the sword…”
Friede nodded, showing me her greatsword that had been reduced to about one-third of its original length.
“I see, that’s good.”
So she’s not injured anywhere. That’s a relief at least.
“As for a sword… go over there and ask for one. They should have at least one or two.”
I pointed with my eyes toward our companions who were engaged in fierce combat near the wagons.
There should be a couple of greatswords looted from the bandits’ corpses inside those wagons.
It probably won’t be as high quality as the greatsword she was using… but it’s still much better than fighting without a sword, isn’t it?
“And with that, go help those people.”
“Huh… you mean, help them? Not you, Ms. Hilde?”
“Yes, they look like they’re about to all die.”
The battle situation I glimpsed from the corner of my eye was difficult to describe as good even as a white lie.
Although they were holding on desperately, it looked like about six or seven had already died. It looked like a dam on the verge of collapse.
“But if I do that, Ms. Hilde will… no, u-um…! Of course, there’s no way Ms. Hilde would lose to a woman like that- I mean, you wouldn’t lose!”
Friede, who had tried to object, suddenly startled herself and hurriedly shook her head.
“B-But… is it really okay? Are you sure it’s alright…?”
Is it okay?
Well, I’m not sure about that… but this isn’t the time to be worrying about such things. Once they’re all wiped out over there, it’ll be our turn anyway.
“I’ll manage somehow. It’s okay. I’ve got a rough grasp of it now.”
Therefore, I nodded as if to reassure her and straightened my bent back proudly.
“…Okay, I’ll believe in you!”
Friede hesitated for a while, not knowing what to do and wavering back and forth, but eventually nodded with a sigh and sprang up, rushing toward the wagons.
Good, with this, that side is… if not reassuring, at least I don’t need to worry about it anymore. Whether they win or lose, it’s out of my hands now.
If they can’t hold out even with Friede joining them, well… that just means we never had any chance of winning from the start.
So now, the only problem I need to worry about is…
“…This is absurd.”
Just this one woman with a damn fast spear, walking toward me while brushing off the dirt on her head and shoulders.
* * *
“Even the two of you together weren’t enough, and you send the little girl over there? You must have about five lives, huh?”
Belita spat on the ground while twirling her spear shaft.
“You only have one, I guess? That must be hard to live with.”
No sooner had I answered, slightly bending my knees to lower my posture, than her spear tip shot toward me like a lightning bolt.
“Kyaaaa!”
The spear blade that had already reached right in front of me by the time I recognized it. My response was to roll sideways, distancing myself about three steps.
Whoosh!
A chilling sound of air being cut rang in my ears. Belita stopped after piercing through the air. As I had calculated, it was exactly about three steps away from me.
‘As expected.’
Normally, this wouldn’t be a way to dodge.
Rolling on the ground is an action that exposes a big opening to the enemy until you get up again.
If I had launched my body far away it might be different, but at a distance of just three steps, I would have been stabbed by the spear and critically wounded before I could get up.
A gap of three steps was, from Belita’s perspective, a distance where her spear blade would reach if she just took one step toward me.
“Tch…!”
However, Belita didn’t take that one step. Despite it being an excellent opportunity to inflict a critical wound on me.
As expected.
“Eat this!”
I grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground as I sprang up, and scattered it toward Belita’s face.
“Dirt?!”
A crude and cowardly method used by back-alley thugs. Such clumps of dirt, someone like her should be able to easily avoid just by slightly moving to the side.
“How vulgar…!”
However, Belita didn’t dodge the dirt clumps that she could have easily avoided with just one step, but instead took them full on while raising her left arm to cover her face.
No, she couldn’t dodge.
I smiled as my guess was confirmed and thrust my grasped longsword like lightning.
“Just as expected!”
Didn’t I tell Friede earlier? That I had roughly grasped it.
That wasn’t a lie.
Through the short fierce battle so far, I was able to understand the principle and limitations of Belita’s high-speed charge.
‘It’s only the movement speed that increases. The attack speed and reaction speed remain the same as their original state.’
Judging from the kick I took, which was bearable, her leg strength seems to be the same as well.
‘That means, it’s a characteristic that only amplifies movement speed during the charge… something like that.’
Like my ‘Iron Arm’ which explosively increases strength, Belita’s body must have an engraved characteristic that enhances movement speed.
An engraved characteristic like <Swift Feet>, <Rabbit’s Foot>, <Acceleration>, or <Leap>.
‘And the price for that is…’
“You can’t move now, can you? Right now!”
Temporary immobility.
Just as my engraved characteristic, Iron Arm, rapidly consumes stamina in proportion to the power output, Belita must be unable to move from that spot for a few seconds after her charge.
That’s why she had to block Friede’s greatsword head-on, and that’s why she couldn’t take one step closer to stab me or dodge the dirt clumps.
Her pretending to be relaxed and spouting nonsense every time after her charge missed must have all been to hide this weakness.
The weakness that she can’t lift her feet from the ground right after a charge, forcing her to receive anything head-on!
“You’ve been completely exposed!”
“Don’t get cocky!”
Since her left hand was covering her head to block the dirt clumps, Belita roughly swung her long spear with only her right hand, diagonally blocking my black iron longsword.
However, how could she possibly block a longsword I swung with both hands using just one arm?
Screech!
Bright scarlet sparks flew up vividly.
Along with metal fragments scattering with sparks, the blade that carved through Belita’s spear shaft pierced her right shoulder like an awl.
Squelch!
The black iron blade mercilessly pierced through clothing and flesh, roughly scraping the shoulder blade as it slid sideways, tearing through muscle as it emerged.
The burst of blood spray dyed Belita’s cloak a deep red.
“Ugh…!”
Belita’s mouth twisted in pain.
The first sword wound she had allowed. With that single strike, her shoulder was deeply cut to the point where bone was exposed, fully revealing the cross-section of muscle.
It was quite a serious injury for just one hit.
“Does it hurt a lot? Your expression is terrible!”
“How dare you!”
Belita, her face distorted with rage, extended her left arm toward my head.
Whoosh!
A killing intent rushing in like a wave. An eerily thick blood scent was permeating from inside the gauntlet with sharp claws attached.
Instinct rang an alarm bell.
Being caught by that arm was dangerous. Probably, the moment I was caught, my head would be ripped off like Amina’s. I had such a premonition.
…In that case.
“I just won’t get caught!”
My left hand thrust out while activating <Iron Arm>. My open palm and her fist collided, ringing out a metallic explosion.
Screech…!
A creaking groan characteristic of metal. The gauntlet, distorted from the impact, pressed hard against my fingers.
‘What strength…!’
It was an astonishing strength. Although it wasn’t at maximum output, I had still thrown a punch with Iron Arm activated, yet it was stopped by a single palm.
…If this had hit my head, I would have died. Good thing I trusted my instinct and countered.
“Ha… you blocked this?”
I wasn’t the only one surprised. No, rather than me, Belita’s face looked several times more surprised.
“And with just one arm? No, really?”
An expression as if it was the first time in her life encountering a human with strength equal to her own. A face with doubt, bewilderment, fighting spirit, and anger mixed like mud.
“What are you? Some kind of troll hybrid?”
Troll hybrid, where did she come up with such a lame joke?
“Your father must have been a troll. Judging by how you suddenly came up with that idea.”
Lame jokes should be paid back with lame jokes.
“…What?”
“You said only troll hybrids have strength like yours? At this rate, aren’t you confessing the secret of your own birth?”
I kicked Belita’s abdomen with my right foot to widen the distance while throwing a sarcastic remark asking if her birthplace was perhaps a troll cave.
“…Ah, maybe it was your mother who was the troll, not your father? Hmm… that’s… how should I put it, quite a taste.”
I sighed exaggeratedly as if mocking her, while hiding the weakness after using Iron Arm.
“You, insisting on grating on my nerves till the end…!”
“What are you going to do about it? Can you even properly swing that spear with that arm?”
I extended my middle finger forward, mocking Belita who couldn’t contain her anger.
With her shoulder muscle completely cut, she probably can’t use her right arm properly now.
It would hurt enough to make her grit her teeth even with the slightest twitch, so how could she possibly swing that iron spear with full force using such an arm? It’s nonsense.
…You say it’s not like it was completely cut off, just a bit sliced, so can’t she just endure the pain and move it?
You’re talking like blocking a sword with bare hands and counterattacking.
A sword wound wasn’t such an easy injury.
Even in cases where only the skin is slightly cut, pain and bleeding usually cause a rapid deterioration in condition, but in this case, the muscle has been completely sliced through.
Forcibly moving a body with torn muscles, or continuing to fight while enduring massive bleeding through sheer willpower, seems like something only possible for superhumans who transcend human limits.
Silver token adventurers or knights usually boast physical abilities far beyond ordinary people, but even they would inevitably become temporarily disabled the moment their muscles are deeply cut by a sword.
So now, the only thing to be wary of is her left arm alone.
‘Alright, I can win this…!’
Her acceleration ability whose weakness has been exposed.
Her right arm, half-severed and difficult to move properly.
Belita’s combat power had been greatly reduced just by allowing a single strike, now weakened to the point where I could estimate my chances of victory even on my own.
She should have worn her armor properly.
Wearing pauldrons only on the left side, the moment her right shoulder was hit, her arm just completely gave out, didn’t it?
She brought this upon herself. It’s her own doing.