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*Disclaimer: Please don’t post this chapter in novelupdates since I don’t want to mislead other translators.
Chapter 73: 1st Nightmare Battle – 1
—–
“…”
10 seconds before the tournament began.
I finished my preparations and was teleported to the map where I will be fighting Egiaz 1.
My field of view expanded in an instant and dozens of trees entered my vision.
But there’s almost no fallen leaves, weed, or anything of the sort. It is pretty much bare ground spreading before me.
It seems like they clean this place well… No, it is more accurate to say that it is a forest map that has been cleaned.
“So you are Taru, huh.”
“And you must be Egiaz 1.”
There’s a man with metallic silver skin covering his whole body right in front of me, with sword and shield ready.
His 3rd arm is hidden below his leather armor, but now that I look closely, a part of his leather armor is made in a way so that it can be detached easily.
Also…the shadow by his feet feels kind of off.
Looks like I have to be careful about that.
“I have no intention of fighting fair and square.”
“Telling me that is just troubling for me.”
The charging of the Poison Demonic Eye: 1 Taruwiveno…really is not possible, huh.
Well, if I could, I would be able to smack it on him the very moment the battle began. It can’t be helped.
Countdown: 3…2…1…
0
<<First Round of the Main Tournament: Egiaz 1 vs Taru. Begin.>>
“Hmph!”
“Agh?!”
The countdown hit 0 and, right after the battle began, Egiaz 1 charged towards me at full speed.
As for me, I swiftly swung my flail.
But Egiaz 1 deflected the flail with his shield and closed in on me just like that.
“Hah!”
“Guh…!”
His sword was swung down and I deviated it with the handle of the flail.
My posture was about to break because I couldn’t hold my ground due to the levitation.
“Got yo—”
What came after was a sweep from the 3rd arm.
The 3rd arm of Egiaz 1 showed up after detaching the opening of the leather armor, and swung a dagger that didn’t have a handguard.
“Wa?!”
“Too soft!”
That’s why I moved the wings at my back with all I had and moved swiftly, skimming through the ground.
I avoid the blade of Egiaz 1.
And then, I open my mouth in that same state while glaring at Egiaz 1.
“Taruwi…”
“Hngh?!”
The reaction of Egiaz 1 was extreme.
Before I could even finish half of the incantation, he jumped away from me.
“Veno…”
“Kuh!”
By the time I finished that incantation, he had hidden himself behind a tree.
Figures.
“Aha, too bad~.”
“Wa?! A bluff?!”
The charging of my Poison Demonic Eye 1 hasn’t finished, so even if I were to chant the incantation, it wouldn’t activate.
I didn’t let that opening of my opponent retreating escape and kicked the ground, retreating myself too.
I also fix my posture.
“You can test it out, you know? Whether it is a bluff or not.”
This is when the Poison Demonic Eye 1’s charge was completed.
Now, if Egiaz 1 were to come out from the shadow of the tree, I would just need to mercilessly smash him with this, but…well, there’s no way he would come out.
I don’t know how much information Egiaz 1 has of my Sorcery, but I doubt he thinks I can’t use it after 10 seconds of the battle starting.
““…””
Me and Egiaz 1 were in battle stance, without lowering our guards, and observing each other as time passed.
My vision covers all directions, but because of the trees in the map, there’s areas I can’t see no matter what. I can tell that Egiaz 1 is doing something within that range.
But he really is careful.
I can’t even see a corner of his body and I don’t even have the time to use Poison Demonic Eye 1.
Looks like he is pretty wary of it.
“Bag…”
Egiaz 1 threw an opened bag while still hidden behind a tree.
But because he continued hiding his body, he threw it not at me but at the side.
It is also on top of the shadow of Egiaz 1.
The moment I noticed this…
“?!”
The shadow of Egiaz 1 moved.
The shadow sprung forth as if throwing the bag on top of it.
The bag was heading my way -while scattering the red fruits inside it.
“Woah! Tototo!”
I immediately jumped diagonally backwards, moved my wings, and retreated from there.
Right after, explosions like those of firecrackers began to scatter sparks enmasse in the trajectory of the bag.
It is without doubt the fruits that left me severely injured at the preliminaries.
“He brought this as a countermeasure for me, I guess…”
That’s a pro gamer for you. It is possible that those red fruits are an easy to obtain item, but he managed to obtain the required items in the time between the end of the preliminaries to the main matches?
That said, what’s truly scary is just beginning.
If not…
“In that case, it is only natural that he has also prepared this, huh…”
There would be no explanation for the white smoke spreading before my vision.
There’s little necessity to use smokescreens in CNP which has an inherently bad field of view.
Even more so when considering that you can lose sight of the enemy yourself after all.
In other words, this is an item he went out of his way to get as a countermeasure against me.
As proof of this, the white smoke was properly blocking my vision.
“…”
I don’t hear the sound of anything moving.
The map is 100 meters in diameter, but the white smoke in front of me was already covering a fourth of the map.
He is most likely spreading several sources of white smoke.
“Waiting is…most likely a bad idea!”
A bag with red fruits was once again thrown from within the white smoke.
Moreover, it is not only one or two, but several.
I tried to avoid this by jumping haphazardly, but…I obviously couldn’t avoid it completely.
I got slightly injured from this.
If time runs out, I will lose from the scoring.
“Now then, what should I do?”
This is a pro gamer.
This is something that involves victory.
Aah, wonderful.
He is bringing out several unknown things.
My mouth drew an arc naturally.
“Fufu…fufufufufu…”
“Your switch has been flipped-de chu ne.”
“Yes, it has. And it was flipped pretty well.”
I fixed up Zarichu and take a stance with the poison flail.
“Now, let’s fight.”
I kicked the ground and jumped into the white smoke.
My range of vision is 1 meter at most.
My advantage that is my overwhelming vision range has been erased.
But there’s no issue at all.
“Zarichu!”
“He is there. Forward at the left.”
I have Zarichu.
I just have to make Zarichu chase the scent of Egiaz 1.
“Found you.”
“?!”
I found Egiaz 1 and tried to strike him with the pole of my flail.
But just as you would expect from Egiaz 1, he reacted swiftly, blocking it with his shield.
But that’s not enough.
“Guh?!”
The vine that was attached at the end of the pole bent, making the blunt end go around the shield, and hit Egiaz 1.
“Poison Demonic Eye 1 – Taruwiveno.”
“?!”
I followed with Poison Demonic Eye 1 and smashed it onto Egiaz 1.
What I hit him with was Poison (78).
It is ptomaine poisoning, so all that’s left is for me to run around and I will be able to win.
That said, I don’t have a hopeful mindset like my opponent not having antidotes in his tool bag.
“Ahahahahaha!”
I laughed as I jumped back and took around 10 meters of distance.
However, not directly to the back, but zigzagging by moving my wings all while not making a single footstep.
“As if I will let you esca—damn it!”
Egiaz 1 tried to chase me immediately.
But he can’t.
The white smoke is hiding me.
I don’t make sounds of footsteps because of levitation.
The white smoke has betrayed Egiaz 1 and is now his enemy.
“Around 4 meters in a straight line-de chu.”
On the other hand, I know the location of my enemy with the power of Zarichu.
That’s why I threw bolas of flesh flower fern without hesitation.
“Missed.”
“So it seems-de chu ne.”
Figures I would miss.
A number of bursting sounds were made, but there’s only the sound of falling onto the ground.
The sound of cutting through the wind was made when the bola was flying, and he is not a foolish opponent that would stop his feet within this white smoke.
“Now, show me more -more things that I don’t know.”
I jump towards Egiaz 1 with a smile.
“Can’t heal it completely, huh.”
My vision had left the white smoke and I saw Egiaz 1 for an instant.
The number shown for the poison was cut after 50, and it made me certain that Egiaz 1 has antidotes.
“I won’t let you escape!”
“But…”
I closed the distance in one go.
I threw away the by-the-book tactic of maintaining distance and challenged him to a close range battle.
The reason is simple. Having distance between us is more beneficial for Egiaz 1.
“Eat th—?!”
“Come on…”
Egiaz 1 threw red fruits again, but I avoided it by twisting my body in midair.
I confirm that the fruits exploded behind me and closed the distance.
“Hah!”
“Come on…!”
Egiaz 1 swung his sword, bashed me with his shield, swept with his 3rd arm, and tried to catch me off-guard at my back with his shadow arm.
I avoided all of them as if I were a small bug flying in the air after seeing them, right in front of Egiaz 1’s eyes. I swung my flail with pure momentum, and wound him slowly but surely.
“You…”
“Aah, too bad. It seems like you still haven’t gotten accustomed to your own body.”
I would be able to notice even if I didn’t want to with me dancing around in front of him.
The movements of Egiaz 1 are simply that of a human.
You could say he can freely move his human parts, but when his leeway of thinking is shaved away as he uses his 3rd arm and his shadow arm, he ends up only moving in set patterns.
You could say he is doing a wonderful job with just the fact that he can use them despite his thoughts being restricted, but…but his own body has not become that of a monstrosity.
He is being restricted by his preconceptions.
“I will pray for your growth.”
“Wa?!”
Doesn’t seem like he has any more paths.
After reaching that conclusion, I enter the motions to activate Poison Demonic Eye 1, and hit Egiaz 1 with a practically fatal poison.
And then, I took enough distance from Egiaz 1 who collapsed, and after around 20 seconds passed, I added a Poison Demonic Eye 1 and finished him.
<<Winner, Taru-sama! Congratulations on advancing to the 2nd round!>>
“That’s one victory.”
I disappeared from the map after Egiaz 1.
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