All-out Confrontation

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“You knew it already, didn’t you?”

 

Kapricorn said as she held her swords. But I shook my head.

 

“I had a suspicion. But I didn’t want to believe it.”

“Hehe. You sound different already.”

“…”

 

I couldn’t help it when I was reminded of that person. She was my superior, after all.

But this was a battle. I had to fight. It didn’t matter who I was up against.

 

“Oh? Rather cold-hearted of you to point your blade at me now.”

“Well, this is a battle. We have to fight.”

 

I hit. To the left, right and different angles, but all of them were dodged. Not only that, she would constantly launch small attacks of her own, which made it difficult to stay on the offensive for long. Still, I hit hard and pushed forward while still being careful. Attacking was my best defense.

 

“Hehe. You’re quite strong.”
“I’m not going to hold back on this one!”

“Oh, how frightening. I think I want to run away.”

 

Kapricorn said as she retreated. I had no intention of allowing her to get away, and so I used Legs of the Godwolf to close the distance as much as I could before thrusting my sword into her. This would surely…!

 

“K…!”

 

However, she just disappeared again. She had gone into my shadow. My blade cut through empty air just as short swords shot out from the shadow by my feet. And so I ran up into the air with Legs of the God Wolf in order to escape them. At the same time, Kapricorn emerged from the shadows.

 

“Hmm… Things have gotten harder now that you know where I’m going to appear.”

“You’d never hit me if I stayed in the air.”

“That doesn’t seem very fair.”

“I agree.”

 

I believed you should fight on even footing in a match. I wanted to fight head-on. And so after creating some distance between us, I landed on the ground and raised my sword.

 

“Well, perhaps I’ve been running too much. This time, I’ll attack!”

“Wo-woah!”

 

In spite of the fact that I had landed some distance away, she crossed it in an instant. I blocked the three blades that swung towards me and tried to take a step back. But the followup attacks were relentless.

 

“Arghhh!!”

 

She almost seemed like a different person now. The pitch-black blades slashed through the air, hungrily searching for an opening. Defending myself was all I could do.

 

“How about…this…!”

 

Still, she was human. The smallest opening would be enough for me. And so I would launch a surprise attack. Something she hadn’t seen me use yet. Water magic. A furious fountain from under her feet. Her body twisted out of the way as the cold torrents shot out. I slashed from the bottom right in order to hit her.

 

“Too slow!”

 

I thought I had her. But it was then that she used new magic. She had dug her foot into the ground and kicked her shadow. The shadow stretched out into the air and created a barrier between us. My blade was swallowed up by it, but it never reached her.

 

“Ggg…!!”

 

Instead, the tip of my sword emerged from the shadow behind me and shot towards my leg. There was the sound of metal striking metal. Then the blade stopped. Thankfully, the wind dragon trousers had guarded me.

My foot would have been gone had I not been wearing dragon armor… I breathed a sigh of relief.

 

“Ah, that nearly got you.”

“…You really are full of tricks…”

“Hehe. Surely you are used to it by now? It is the lost art of shadow magic.”

“You’re kidding…”

 

After hearing that, one might assume that shadow magic was the only way to do what she was doing.

But I had started to think that she was using a form of advanced earth magic. I had even wondered if she could dive in the dirt anywhere and was just misleading me into thinking it was the shadows… 

 

However, a lost art…huh? How nice. It was almost unfair. This meant that my opponent was at a similar level to Matsumoto the Hero. It was enough to make you sweat.

 

“Asagi. Fighting with all your power and fighting seriously is not the same thing. Do you understand? Only idiots show all their hands and try to win no matter the cost. It will be a good fight as long as you don’t get lazy. The important thing is to take it seriously.”

 

She started to sermonize all of a sudden. Well, I understood what she meant. Let’s do this properly. But also, think of the future. Something like that. It would be foolish to show all of my abilities here, while this crowd was watching me. You were supposed to use your trump card during an actual emergency.

 

“I only used the last one because things had gotten dangerous for me. And I don’t want this fight to end just yet… But I won’t use such things now, Asagi. That would be careless. I promise to take the rest of the fight more seriously.”

 

Using a secret ability was merely careless to her. Clearly, she had plenty of other things up her sleeve. I would have to be on my guard.

 

“Then I won’t be using any tricks either. But I will still go all-out. Everything I know about swordsmanship and magic will be used.”

“Ah, I wish for nothing more. Now, let’s see how far you have come!”

 

I charged once again. My goal was the same. Offense was the best defense. Especially against an opponent with so many moves. I wouldn’t give her a chance to use magic or blade.

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Isekai ni Kita Boku wa Kiyoubinbode Subaya-sa Tayorina Tabi o Suru Jack of all Trades