Chapter 23 – Midterms (4)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Where there was light, there was shadow.

Of course, trying to divide every phenomenon in the world into nothing but light and dark was an extremely binary way of thinking.

But in this world at least, humanity was clearly defined as the light, and the demon race as the dark. The point that set them apart lay in the difference in the power they wielded.

Humans manifested blessings, while the demon race cast magic.

To explain the difference simply, blessings enhanced physical specifications, while magic recombined elements and shaped them into skills.

For reference, buff- and healing-type blessings worked on a slightly different logic than normal enhancements, but since I had stubbornly relied on brute-force damage only when I played Miracle’s Blessing, I didn’t actually know that much about them.

More than that, not just blessings but magic too was an academic field tangled up with countless abstract theories, which meant interpretations could vary depending on the perspective.

The truth was that, with a fire already at my feet, there was no point discussing those things right now. Instead, there was one thing I could declare with certainty.

This situation was so hopeless it made me want to curse.

Even though we were still only in the early part of the story, Leon, the protagonist himself, had just come within a hair of dying from a single normal attack from that pseudo-fish-human. He hadn’t even managed the faintest reaction.

And yet that only served as proof of the difference in strength between humans and the demon race. No matter how much you enhanced the human body, unless you formed a full human party, defeating a demonoid that used magic was ordinarily a realm beyond possibility.

If you put it in game terms, the merman swarm as demonic beasts were field mobs that spat out experience, while the demonoid mermaid was a boss that had to be cleared with a full party.

Ridiculously enough, I was now in a situation where I had to face one of those raid bosses alone, despite the system clearly having designed it to be fought by a party. No matter that it was the Blessing of the Sword God, it was hard to guarantee victory.

Up until now, I’d at least had some measure of information from my actual gameplay experience, which had let me improvise some kind of response.

But when it came to demonoids and magic, which only properly started appearing in the latter part of the story, I barely knew anything at all.

At best, judging from the slash in Leon’s side, it seemed to use long-range water-attribute magic.

I fixed my gaze on the mermaid. Its entire body was armored in rough scales, and where there ought to have been white teeth, rows of saw-like shark fangs gleamed viciously.

Thinking through everything, was someone like me, who could do nothing but swing a blade, really a match for it? I was confident I could dodge almost any attack, but what if something came that absolutely couldn’t be dodged?

Ha, fuck.

I’d already crossed a river I couldn’t go back over. Complaining uselessly about my position wouldn’t change a single thing. Even if Chloe was as fast as possible getting help, it would still take more than ten minutes.

There was only one goal right now. Cut that thing down. As soon as I settled my mind on that, the sense of crisis that had surged over me gradually leveled out.

The tension, settling just enough, felt like it was scratching the itchy knot in my insides, and before I knew it, a grin spread across my face. At that, the mermaid tilted its slick fishlike head in confusion.

I flicked the hilts of the blades in both hands and drew them from their sheaths.

“Let’s do some real sashimi work for the first time in a while.”

[Rank of the Mind increases through the exertion of spirit.]

[The intimidation in words and actions is intensified.]

[Using restraint to begin adjustment suited to the user.]

Ziiiiing.

[The Blessing of the Sword God manifests.]

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《Might the blessings of God be with you.》

++++++++++++++++++++++

* * *

The wound had been deep, but fortunately, once the highest-level healing-type blessing was manifested, Leon’s condition began to improve little by little.

After checking his state, Speed Weapon immediately shifted his gaze back toward the swamp. All that could be seen was the back of Kang Geom-ma holding two sashimi knives, and the demonoid mermaid whose mere glance made the body tremble.

He already knew more than enough from the subspace duel a few days ago that Kang Geom-ma was absurdly strong. He had seen with his own eyes the blade work based on overwhelming speed.

The problem was that, unlike then, the opponent wasn’t another human this time, but a demonoid.

The idea of taking on a demonoid alone wasn’t totally laughable, but that only applied to fighters at the level of the Seven Heroes.

Kang Geom-ma was still only a mere academy cadet. Worse, he was only a first-year. It would be a miracle if he didn’t die in a single hit.

On top of that, the mermaid was the sort of demonoid that would take three instructor-level fighters just to stand a chance against. It wasn’t especially strong in pure martial ability, but its talent for wielding water-attribute magic made it infuriatingly difficult.

To begin with, no matter how incredible someone’s blade work was, it was common sense, no, a law of the world, that you couldn’t physically cut through water.

He had to be insane.

Should I stop him even now? But would stopping him change anything? Shaking off the pointless thoughts, Speed Weapon turned his head slightly.

Rachel, looking rather worn out, was cutting down the approaching mermen with swings of Fangtian Huaji.

He wanted to manifest support-type blessings on Kang Geom-ma or Rachel, but healing Leon alone was already pushing him to the limit.

…!

At that moment, a skin-crawling sensation surged from the swamp side and wrapped around his whole body. He had never felt anything like it before, but instinctively he knew what it was.

The resonance of magic. It felt like just getting closer would strip the flesh from his bones.

Even though the distance had to be at least fifty meters, his teeth were knocking together so hard that his jaw trembled just from looking. If he were being honest, he wanted to burst into tears and mucus and shake helplessly.

Even in the face of that suffocating, murderous force, Kang Geom-ma advanced toward the mermaid without showing the slightest intimidation. If anything, killing intent was flowing from the gleaming sashimi blades in his hands.

Then Kang Geom-ma took a light step forward.

Tatadak.

The moment he entered striking distance, the mermaid flicked one finger. Blue magic burst out between the webs of its hand.

At the same time, with an inaudible tearing sound, a crescent-shaped underwater cutter shot out from the swamp in a straight line.

Kwaaaang!

The densely packed trees all around were sliced diagonally apart at once. Even Rachel, who had been taking on the swarm of mermen one against many, reflexively turned her head. Shock and fear entered both of their eyes.

With a single cast of magic, the once-thick forest landscape was instantly transformed into a desolate plain.

A groan slipped out at that ridiculous destructive power. Whether from the magic’s aftermath or not, a white mist spread densely in every direction.

Kang Geom-ma was nowhere to be seen.

Speed Weapon’s confused eyes hurriedly searched for black hair. His heart pounded wildly.

“Kang Geom-ma!”

With a brief sharp sound, Kang Geom-ma burst through the thick water-mist and charged straight at the mermaid. As if it had expected that, the mermaid fired a sharply formed spike of water.

Shhht!

Using the momentum of his charge, Kang Geom-ma laid his body flat in midair and avoided the water spike, which had shot like a bullet, by no more than a hair’s breadth.

What the hell? He reacted to that?

His movements flowed like a current, as though time were slowing down only for that bastard alone. Speed Weapon found himself thinking it was almost admirable that he could even keep up with the fading afterimage using only his eyes.

The mermaid fired the water spikes like a submachine gun, but whenever Kang Geom-ma buried himself in the hazy mist, it was the innocent trees behind him that collapsed and spat fragments into the air.

Little by little, bewilderment and shock spread over the mermaid’s once-expressionless face.

Tadak.

The crisp footsteps that had been heard on the right suddenly appeared on the left instead.

In the next instant, faster than a blink, Kang Geom-ma twisted the sashimi knife that he had already shifted into a reverse grip and swung it.

The relaxed look vanished from the mermaid’s face as it jerked backward. Then it tried to open a defensive formula tinged with red as it increased the distance.

At that point, it was impossible to tell what was happening anymore.

In a span of not even dozens of seconds, just how many exchanges had taken place? Before the fragmented pieces of information could even be translated into a coherent whole, the next thing happened.

The performance Kang Geom-ma had shown during the earlier duel had crushed his opponent through transcendent speed, but now he was precisely deflecting attacks with quick, accurate technique while closing the distance.

I thought he was only fast, but the way he rationed his speed and switched his stance depending on the type of attack was engraving Kang Geom-ma’s battle sense into Speed Weapon’s mind.

He thought to himself. The moment Kang Geom-ma was facing a demonoid one-on-one, his level had already long surpassed that of a mere academy cadet. He would deserve to be praised as an unprecedented genius.

Instructor level? No. Kang Geom-ma’s blade work partially obscured it, but just looking at the killing power of the magic that mermaid was unleashing was enough to make the body tremble.

If so, what level was that bastard really at? Finishing that brief train of thought, Speed Weapon hastily burned the battle into his eyes. For all he knew, he might be watching a legendary moment in the making.

Kang Geom-ma took one large step and twisted the sashimi knife. The blade flew like a bee and struck the fish’s right leg.

Shhk.

The severed leg dropped with a wet slap.

“Kiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!”

The long fishlike eyes slowly split sideways, and a scream burst through the saw-like teeth.

Thin liquid sprayed from the cut surface, and the body’s balance slowly began to tilt to the right.

Speed Weapon lost the ability to speak. Could a human really be this strong? The irrationality of it, a strength that denied reality itself, hit the back of his head with a numbing force.

He couldn’t even count how many slashes had already been made within those split-second moments. There were probably twenty, no, thirty motions he’d already missed.

Like a seasoned fishmonger handling a live fish flopping on the cutting board, Kang Geom-ma was not merely matching the demonoid, but dominating it from beginning to end.

“Aaorororororororo!”

Clutching its severed leg, the mermaid let out a furious cry. At the same time, the fallen left scattered across the mud fluttered upward.

The mermaid shook its body, then brought both hands together in a circle before its chest.

Sssssh.

Drawing in the thick mist and the water of the swamp, it condensed them inside the ring formed by its hands, and a deep blue magic sphere floated up.

Overflowing magical power.

Both Speed Weapon and Rachel knew that an attack on a completely different level was coming. At this point, it no longer felt like the scenery would change, but that the very map of the island would.

That couldn’t be guarded against. They had to run immediately. At that exact moment, Leon, who had been collapsed on the ground, let out a groan and caught his breath. The fact that he’d regained consciousness so quickly even though the blessing hadn’t been active for long showed he wasn’t ordinary either.

But right now, Leon’s safety wasn’t the important thing.

“Kang Geom-ma, you bastard!!!! Dodge, fuck!!!!”

Veins standing out in his neck, Speed Weapon screamed at the top of his lungs. If it hadn’t been for Kang Geom-ma, he wouldn’t have still had his head on his shoulders. He was a bastard who was impossible to understand, but he somehow made people root for him anyway.

Kang Geom-ma didn’t turn around even now. Even in a situation where his life hung by a thread, he refused to show his back to the enemy.

Inside his mind, Speed Weapon recited the word the world used for men like that.

Hero.

“Geom-ma! Kill that fish bastard!”

At some point Rachel too, having nearly finished off the battle on her side, turned her head and shouted at Kang Geom-ma’s back. It wasn’t a cry of desperation, but of trust.

At those words, Kang Geom-ma took a posture similar to the one he’d used before, bending his upper body down as if crushing his own weight.

The killing intent pouring from the icy sashimi blades surged like a wave and began swallowing up the mermaid’s magical power.

“Aaorororororororo!”

Scales standing on end, the mermaid launched the cannonball.

Kagagagagagagagakang!

A deafening roar struck the eardrums. Sweeping through the wreckage around them, the magic sphere drew a straight spiral as it flashed toward Kang Geom-ma.

Both Speed Weapon and Rachel let out wordless screams.

Grrrk.

Bundles of veins began swelling across the forearm gripping the sashimi knife.

With the booming roar crashing in and the torpedo-like sphere bearing down, Kang Geom-ma threw his body forward.

Every hair on their bodies stood on end all at once.

Shhhk!

The blue sphere split cleanly in two.