by Aneko Yusagi
“A puny fragment and the weakling Sword Hero . . . are not enough to end me!” she screamed. I was impressed. That much of a beating still wasn’t a fatal attack. Not a bad performance.
Thinking that, I turned my attention back to Takt as he plummeted from the sky and collapsed.
“Hey! You still alive?” I called over. The guy looked like a piece of burnt trash. I hadn’t used a defense rating attack, so he shouldn’t be dead yet. I’d held back. He should at least still be breathing.
Finally, he made a pathetic noise.
“Phew,” I said as Takt clambered back to his feet. I even gave him a round of applause, really rubbing the salt in. He really should be considering retreat, having taken such a beating. Not that I was going to allow it. I had Gaelion, Filo, and Raph-chan here with me. Land, sea, or air, there could be no escape for him from us. Not to mention, he’d cast a barrier on himself that meant he couldn’t run away. It was like he was closed up in a cage of his own making.
Of course, even if he took it down, I’d just put one on him myself. As for the curse skill . . . I’d let Raph-chan and the others handle that.
“You think you can get away? I’m not done with you yet,” I taunted. I was getting bored of hitting this punching bag.
Chapter Ten: Two Regular Guys and the Strongest Seven Star Hero
“You’re about to regret . . . getting so carried away!” Takt raged.
Interesting. The Blood Sacrifice curse didn’t seem to have affected Takt. Man, was this guy a cheater or what? I’d held back on the strength of the attack to take the curse into account, but it looked like I needn’t have worried.
“Let’s say that attack just killed you. That’s for the Staff Hero, who hates you just as much as I do, but couldn’t be here himself due to other responsibilities,” I explained. Trash would have surely wanted to take revenge for the queen himself. It probably wouldn’t have satisfied me if the roles were reversed, but as the temporary Staff Hero, I had now defeated Takt once.
Next it was time to avenge Atla, those from the coalition army who shouldn’t have died in that battle, and those from the village.
With an enraged cry, Takt gathered his remaining strength and lunged to attack me. Having changed to the weapon he favored the most, his claws, I chose to let him get in close. He was strong, I had to give him that. I couldn’t last long in close combat.
I knocked his attack aside and took some distance, and then Takt finally smiled.
“Got you! Your staff is mine!” he cackled, still grinning and nodding happily to himself. Realizing what had happened, his retinue also quickly relaxed again. “You toyed around with me too much. I win!” I mean, there was a long history of the strong mocking the weak, just to have the weak come back with an unexpected attack and strike the strong down. It was a common trope. I actually liked a lot of manga that used it.
But this time, that definitely was not going to happen.
“You seem pretty pleased with yourself, so let me explain,” I said. “It was so easy to fight you using the staff I was getting bored. So I let you take it.” Build him up again, then tear him down. Nothing hurt more than thinking you had a chance and then still getting your ass kicked.
Takt quickly activated his ability, and the staff sparked. Then it turned into pure light and flew over to Takt’s hands. As he took the staff in his hands, his smile was transformed into a grin of certain victory.
“All that smiling makes me want to punch you in the face. Are you really that happy to have obtained the staff?” I asked.
“Sour grapes, that’s all I hear from you. Now, prepare yourself for pain! By the time I’m finished you’ll be begging me to end your life!” Takt crowed.
“That’s my line,” I said. “Stop making me repeat myself.” I looked up at Ren. Sensing the situation below, Ren took a sword—not his own four holy sword, but another from his hip—and threw it down to me from the air.
I raised my right hand and caught the sword.
“I’m here to destroy everything you possess,” I menaced quietly. “Your pride, your dignity, everything you treasure. I’ve already half-destroyed your composure and your arrogance. Now it’s time for the other half. False hero, possessing six of the seven star weapons and the shield from the four holy weapons! Now face the reality of being defeated by a regular guy who holds none of the legendary weapons!” Then I drew the sword from the scabbard.
I had little experience in sword fighting myself, but I’d been hit by sword attacks plenty of times from Ren, Raphtalia, and Eclair. I could probably make a go of it. The sword itself had been created at top speed by the old guy, Imiya’s uncle, and Motoyasu II from Phoenix materials. Just like the Spirit Tortoise materials, they had been a bit tricky to work with, but the three of them had quickly adapted and created this weapon.
It was called the Phoenix Sword. It had all sorts of effects applied to it, but just like the Spirit Tortoise Katana, my half-assed appraisal abilities couldn’t handle it. The Phoenix Gale Blade that Ren had just unleashed had been a skill from his copy of this sword. Apparently, its basic stats were almost identical to the base values for the Spirit Tortoise Sword that Ren also had. It was a pretty impressive piece of gear, and due to it being a scissors sword, even S’yne had been able to copy it.
I pointed the sword at Takt and beckoned him to come get me.
“I’m going to show you that heroes’ weapons are too much for you to handle. Come and get me,” I taunted. I made this declaration in order to further tear down his pride. In that same moment, there was a crashing sound. I looked in the direction of the noise to see the exact moment in which the dragon—her head blown completely off—collapsed to the ground.
Of course, Fohl was the one who had landed the killing blow.
“Sorry to take so long, brother,” he said.
“You did take a while, Fohl,” I replied.
“All that flying around made it hard to finish her off,” he complained. It did make sense she was going to try and use that to her advantage. “The Sakura Stone of Destiny Gauntlets didn’t have much of an effect on her either. She wasn’t receiving any hero protection, not like you provide us. No growth or status adjustment.”
“Because the one protecting her isn’t a real hero, that’s why. The range it can nullify must be really narrow.” That was one thing that did make sakura stone of destiny gear hard to use.
Whatever. Now that Fohl was here, there was no need to hold back any longer.
“I’ve lost count of the times I’ve almost killed this guy,” I complained to Fohl, waiting for Takt to come to us. Takt gave a shout of disbelief at the scene before him.
“Nelshen!” The dragon was gone, however, and wouldn’t be responding to Takt’s shouts. “You have to die too!” As though weeping tears of blood, Takt unleashed magic toward Fohl while running toward us. Fohl skillfully dodged all of the attacks, all the incoming magic, and then immediately landed a kick right in Takt’s face. The noise he made was most delightful.
“That was a bit sudden,” Fohl commented.
“He’s angry at having lost someone important to him. You killed the aotatsu woman, right?” I said.
“If anyone should be angry here, it’s me. Atla’s life was worth more than all of his women put together. He’s the one who killed one of his own, thinking she was Raphtalia,” Fohl replied.
“You said it,” I agreed. Fohl proceeded to stamp down on Takt’s face, putting almost too much of his weight behind it, and then he came over to me.
“It looks like you’ve given him the staff too?” he asked.
“Yeah. He’s just so weak I decided to lend him that as well. We have to beat him down into utter despair, after all. Teach him, through physical pain, the things that a hero truly needs,” I explained.
“I see. Then I too would like to fight him, not as a hero, but just as a regular hakuko. As Atla’s brother,” Fohl said. He felt just like I did then. So I too would fight not as a hero, but
as a regular human . . . as Naofumi Iwatani.
“Unforgivable! I’m going to kill you both, you’ll see!” Takt raged. He hadn’t given up yet, coming again at Fohl, staff swinging. When Fohl took the blow on his gauntlets and knocked it away, Takt started to laugh again. He went from anger to laughter in the blink of an eye; he really did.
As expected, the gauntlets turned into light, left Fohl’s hands, and moved over to Takt’s. He hadn’t been paying any attention to what we’d just been talking about. Fohl had chosen to lose his status as a hero in order to avenge Atla’s death. He was so lost to his anger that he couldn’t understand even that.
Even if he was, the same could be said for us.
“Now I’ve obtained all of the seven star weapons! I’m the one and only seven star hero in the world! The ultimate hero! You can’t hope to defeat me now! Just give up and die!” he raged, triggering cries from his women.
“You’re so lovely! Master Takt!” one of them shouted.
“Now we can avenge all of our losses!” another one squealed. The entire retinue was buzzing with this new development, when just a moment ago they had been frozen in terror.
He wasn’t afraid to give himself a crazy new title either: the One and Only Seven Star Hero in the World, the Ultimate Hero! Hah! What if he got all four holy weapons as well then? The greatest hero in history, perhaps?
So pointless. Truly, so pointless. Even a pacifier weapon could probably take this punk out!
“You’re getting far too excited over picking up one more weapon. None of this matters if you don’t win. I fought someone before who was so fixated on being the strongest the weapons ended up hating him.” Takt really was incredibly similar to Kyo. I’d probably believe it if the big twist was the two of them being brothers separated at birth.
They were the enemy vanguard, right? So this enemy must just be mass-producing punks like these two and educating them to be dicks.
“And? Now that you’ve become the ultimate hero, what do you plan on doing?” That was something Eclair had once asked Ren—what his plans were going to be once he was the strongest. It was a desire I certainly couldn’t understand.
“First I’m going to kill you! Then the world will be mine!” he responded. I wondered if that was a better answer than the one Ren had given. I wanted to believe Ren was the better of the two. Even if he hadn’t truly meant it, he had answered that he wanted to save the world.
“Come then, Mr. Ultimate Seven Star Hero. Time for round two.” I pointed my sword forward and focused my awareness. Fohl did the same.
“Muso Activation!” we both said together. Unlike Fohl, I was just mimicking what I had seen other people do. Without a complete understanding of the principles though, I wouldn’t be able to do this. I wasn’t as adept as Rishia or Atla, of course, so I didn’t know how many minutes I would be able to last.
“Drifa Burst III! Hold on? Why can’t I do the same kind of magic as him?” Takt had a puzzled expression on his face. That was because the staff and Liberation were completely unrelated. Even more than that, the staff wasn’t lending him its true power, meaning he couldn’t achieve a maximum power-up. Even if he did, we still had a trump card to play.
Just like Kyo, Takt hadn’t paid enough attention to his power-up methods.
“Air Strike Slash!” Takt used his claws to unleash a horizontal slash toward us. We avoided it by the barest hair’s breadth and closed in on him. Just as before, it wasn’t that I couldn’t see his attacks coming; it was just that the Shield Hero shouldn’t be avoiding them, which was why I let it hit me before. Now that I was just a regular guy, I couldn’t let any of his attacks hit me.
“Wahnsinn Claw!” Takt shouted.
“Again?!” I exclaimed. This guy really did like his claws. They did look to be the fastest among the seven star weapons he possessed. Maybe he was a speed freak. It was still possible to avoid the attack, anyway.
“Give me a moment . . . This is how you use a magic sword, right?” I asked. I placed my hand on the tip of the blade, applied Zweite Decay, and then thrust the weapon forward. Decay was an attack spell that originated with healing magic. Just like Motoyasu and Ren could use fire- or water-based healing magic, healing-exclusive magic also had this kind of application. As the name suggested, it could cause decay of a target’s cells. If healing magic could vitalize and heal cells, this had the opposite effect. It wasn’t really all that effective on its own either. It was magic that could slow down the healing process by causing decay around a wound.
Of course, I was using it as a defense rating attack, and I had woven in Hengen Muso Style Point of Focus.
Takt gave another pleasing sound upon impact. I had to be careful not to break the sword. The three blacksmiths had worked together to make it, so I needed to treat it with respect.
“Now you’ll taste my true terror across your entire body!” Takt recovered enough to spit more bluster. “Drifa Elemental!” He cast some more magic while swinging the sword. He could manage this much then.
“That’s not going to work,” I retorted. Elemental was unified affinity magic with which Rishia was pretty skilled. Fohl and I focused, using the Gather technique, which Atla had been so talented with. We gathered up the magic unleashed by Takt, turned it into Bead, and shot it back at him.
“Wha—” A white flicker flew toward Takt and sent him flying. His retinue were so stunned they couldn’t even move to try and save him.
“Come on, don’t let us kick you around so easily!” My mockery was perfectly highlighted by Fohl literally kicking the airborne Takt back toward me.
“How are you weaklings doing this to me?!” Takt gasped.
“Are you forgetting who almost had you dead just a few moments ago?” I sliced with all my strength at the incoming Takt. Of course, I was still only mimicking what I had seen others do.
“Multistrike Demolition . . . er, kind of . . . !” I shouted as I tried the attack. Takt moaned and groaned again. I wondered what would Eclair have to say about this.
Takt was tough, I’d give him that. I’d been using the Seven Star Staff until just a moment ago, which made the difference even more evident. This was what Filo, Sadeena, and the others had been working with during battle. I could see where things like Hengen Muso Style came from.
“Tiger Rampage!” Fohl dashed over and started punching the same place I had just chopped. I immediately started chopping some more with the Phoenix Sword.
“More, more!” I shouted, weaving in additional Points of Focus while unleashing multiple slashes at Takt. To be completely honest, my attacks completely lacked firepower. My only choice was to make use of life force and magic to increase my number of attacks. Luckily, Fohl was more than pulling his weight in that regard. It almost felt like we were playing one of those combo-focused versus fighters.
“S-stop it!” Unable to sit back and watch any longer, the women from Takt’s retinue rushed in, weapons raised.
“No you don’t.” S’yne blithely cut down the approaching women. Some particularly quick ones managed to escape S’yne’s control, but a punch from Fohl scattered them like skittles. I wasn’t sure two regular guys, as we were right then, could bring enough force to kill a level-350 target, but perhaps he happened to hit him just right, because Takt was writhing in pain.
“I can’t hold anything back any longer! If you don’t want to die, shut up and stay out of this!” I was possessed by complete rage, as though my blood was boiling. Maybe due to having little experience with combat other than defending, or maybe because I hated these enemies so much, I couldn’t be sure. In either case, I was so charged with emotion that even I was starting to feel like I’d become a different person.
I’d once read a manga that had someone who entered a heightened emotional state during combat or other intense situations. Maybe this was similar to that.
I started attacking Takt again, stabbing him repeatedly.
“You’ve obtained all the seven star weapons, an
d this is all you can do? Is this a joke?” I mocked.
“Brother, have you had enough yet?” Fohl asked. “I’d quite like to finish him off.”
“Sorry, Fohl,” I replied. “He still needs to suffer. The world can’t forgive him. No, even if the world did forgive him, I never could. He needs to suffer more, more horribly, before he dies. You understand what I mean?”
“Yeah!” Fohl said. Takt was down on the ground now, and I stabbed him repeatedly with my sword, while Fohl continued to kick the crap out of him.
“Come on, come on! Suffer more. The ones you killed felt far more pain than this!” The pain of their bodies literally turning to ash! This guy had no idea of their suffering!
“Agh! It hurts! It hurts so badly! S-stop! Spare me! I’m going to die!” Takt moaned. I pressed on, determined to beat into him the despair of dying in the arms of a beloved partner—or the feelings of one choosing to sacrifice themselves to save others.
“Brother, if you want to keep him alive, we’d better stop!” Fohl cautioned.
“. . . Yeah, okay.” I was breathing hard. I’d stabbed the guy until I was out of breath. When using the staff, I’d been doing everything at long distance and had more raw firepower too. In this instance, I might have got a bit too carried away.
I’d made a good account of myself too, even without a legendary weapon. I’d been able to see every move he was going to make. I was starting to have my suspicions about him really being level 350 and having eight of the legendary weapons. Compared to Kyo, Takt was just a punk who had tried to let his level and gear do the talking.
“Such insolence!” As we stopped attacking, Takt got to his feet again and shouted at us.
“What happened to pleading for your life?” I asked him. “Most pathetically, I might add.”
“S-shut your mouth!” he roared back. “Lightning Whip!” I guess maybe we had played around a little too much, giving Takt the opening to change to the whip and unleash a skill across a wide area. We dodged and weaved our way through his attacks, Fohl proceeding to land another kick while I placed a hand on the pommel of the sword and thrust it deep into Takt’s shoulder.
