บท 72: Chapter 72: Feat of Strength
While Suzuki Shirou was bombarding our position, and Shidou Makoto's wooden barrier was crumbling, a couple of people watched from afar. Positioned right behind a window in the castle, one of the girls was leaning against the ledge and spectating the battle with interest.
"Whoa, Suzuki-kun is going all out, isn't he?" she remarked.
"Yes…quite."
Nagano Nanaka emerged from the stairwell, shaking her head in disapproval.
"I returned from parking my airship and I see that we're already under attack? Damn it…I'm sorry. It's all my fault that the enemy tracked down our location."
"No, don't worry about it, Nanaka-chan," the other girl assured her. "Kobayashi-kun and the others would have found us eventually anyway. And you know how Suzuki-kun is…he's always getting into trouble. Hah…I can't believe he's making such a mess at our doorstep."
She leaned over the window, her eyes concealed behind ruby-colored sunglasses. Her shoulder-length brown hair fluttered casually in the wind as she whistled.
"Shouldn't we take care of Suzuki-kun and his lackeys?"
"Normally I would agree with you," Nagano nodded. "But a battle like this is hard to come by. Don't you want to see how Tanaka-kun performs?"
"Of course," the other girl agreed as she glanced back at Nagano. "I just love spectating things. But Tanaka-kun is a friend, and didn't you already see him battle back when you were rescuing Princess Merly from the dragon?"
"Yes, I have…but you're a little mistaken about one thing."
Nagano smiled, her expression bright but guarded.
"Tanaka-kun is not entirely our friend. I mean, I trust him, but I think he has motivations of his own…agendas that do not align with ours. It remains to be seen whether we can fully bring him over to our cause."
"Oh?"
"Tanaka-kun probably holds a grudge against Kobayashi-kun and all those people who bullied him. And who can blame him?" Nagano shrugged. "But our leader thinks that Tanaka-kun shouldn't give in to his petty grudges and instead think about the bigger picture. He would request that Tanaka-kun give up on revenge."
The girl, Yonebashi Kyouko, whistled.
"Oh…if I were him, I certainly wouldn't want to give up on revenge."
"Exactly." Nagano nodded. "But we of the Iron Knights have to think about the bigger picture, for the fate of the world is in our hands."
"Speaking of which," Kyouko remarked as she fished out her smartphone. "Gendou Issei-kun still hasn't come yet."
"Huh?" Nagano looked confused. "Where did he go?"
"He went out for reconnaissance, to check the demons' activities. Don't worry. I'll get a hold of him. He won't die that easily."
Yonebashi dialed Gendou's number and held her communication device to her ear. A few second later, a familiar click resounded.
"It got through."
Do you really have to tell me that? Nagano thought to herself, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Ignoring her, Yonebashi spoke into the phone.
"Hey…Gendou-kun? You ought to be returning sometime now."
"Is Tanaka Tomoyuki already there?"
The deep voice replied gruffly, as if annoyed at being interrupted.
"Yes, but he has run into some trouble."
At the other end of the phone, a muscular guy with a crew-cut bent his neck to loosen his stiff muscles after hiding in the foliage for so long. A distance away, a convoy of demonic soldiers marched past, escorting a tank. Gendou scowled as he fixed his eyes on the armored vehicle, realizing that this so-called fantasy world had been undergoing an industrial revolution and leaping ahead in terms of technology.
Or at least the demons were. At this rate, the humans would fall behind and get overwhelmed by superior technology and weapons. All that stood between them and the brink of defeat were the heroes.
"Isn't Tanaka the one who managed to defeat Asakura, Tsukishima and Minamoto? What could give him trouble?"
"Oh, don't worry about that," Yonebashi assured him. "He's coping quite well. And even if he wasn't, you know how Tanaka holds enormous power, which makes him special, even when compared to us."
Meanwhile, back at the wooden barrier, I was shrugging when everyone stared at me. What were they expecting? For me to be some billion player with a unique title that granted me awesome powers? They were in the wrong series, man. For one thing, that guy was silver. I was golden. That didn't necessarily mean I was better.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
While I held down their stares, the thundering blows of the spear barrage continued to rain down on Makoto's wooden barrier.
"How long do you plan to hide?!"
Suzuki's voice was filled with mocking glee as he continued to launch bombardment after bombardment. The maniac wasn't showing any sign of stopping.
"You are much weaker than I imagined you to be!"
"I never asked you to imagine me to be strong!" I yelled back, irritated. "You're the one who went and assume all that nonsense on your own! What are you guys expecting from me?! To be some sort of unique snowflake with Mary Sue powers?!"
"…I'm afraid I don't understand what you're saying?"
Sanada Hiroyuki was looking at me, perplexed. Hoshizaki Kozue, on the other hand, merely tilted her head.
"Aren't you a special snowflake? I mean, you're the protagonist, after all."
"I'm supposed to be a super ordinary protagonist! That's why I got bullied!"
"Now isn't the time to talk about this nonsense!" Makoto snapped irritably as he continued to focus on maintaining his slowly crumbling wall of wood.
I realized that he was right. A strange silence filled the air, and I was filled with a sense of unease until I suddenly realized why.
"Our enemy has just stopped his attack."
Indeed, the silence was a deafening contrast to the thunderous din that was created by the bombardment of spears from earlier. For some reason, Suzuki was just standing still, his hands smoking but the air was now bereft of spears.
"Who's going to take a look at what's happening?"
"Is there a need to?" I shrugged at Makoto's question. "I mean, I'll do it, but I think that's because Suzuki obviously doesn't have the mana to keep up his barrage forever. He's not a god, and a spell of that magnitude consumes a lot of energy."
"Can you hear me, you worthless trash?!"
As if on cue, Suzuki's bellow cut through the wall of wood and into our ears, causing us to wince. That guy could really shout.
"Looks like there's no need to go scout…" I muttered, smiling in amusement. In contrast, Suzuki was perspiring and his eye was twitching in barely controllable rage as he sent a murderous glare at the infuriating wooden barrier before him.
"I've been firing a barrage of attacks…and you're still not interested in fighting me…Tanaka."
"Obviously." I rolled my eyes. "What kind of idiot would just walk out of cover and let you shoot him with that many spears?"
"Here, I'll give you 3 minutes to get ready." Suzuki waved his hand casually. "Once 3 minutes are up…" he smirked. "I'll attack you with an even stronger attack."
While Suzuki issued his threat, Nishida Kensuke cowered behind a rock as he watched the spectacle unfold behind him.
Thousand Divine Lightning Spears technique needs 3 minutes to recharge before he can fire off another bombardment again…
Nishida swallowed.
Then its attack strength will increase by up to five times. Boss says he's giving time for Tanaka to get ready…but he's actually buying time for himself. Nice one, boss!
"Hey, Nishida, do you know that I can actually read your mind?"
"Whoa!"
Nishida jumped when I shouted at him. He turned a fearful gaze toward me, trembling behind cover.
As expected of Tanaka…to go against a wild card like him who has defeated at least five other heroes, I don't know what his chances of victory are…
"I think you need to use your special abilities to finish Suzuki-kun off," Sanada told me calmly as he raised his hand politely.
"I'm sorry, but you guys really overestimate me."
I shook my head and relaxed my shoulders.
"I don't have those special abilities you seem to think I have. You're expecting too much of me, and I think you'll be disappointed."
However, I turned around and walked out from behind the wooden barrier,
"That said, I'm not going to turn down Suzuki's invitation. I owe him a debt, after all."
Well, don't worry. I wasn't going to log in and out multiple times to change the attribute of my raider tool like a certain gravekeeper. This wasn't that kind of story, though I was cutting close to outright copying it.
It didn't matter. If someone complained about plagiarism, I would just add the fanfiction tag. But that was neither here nor there. Right now I had to focus on defeating Suzuki.
"Doombolt."
Taking my staff from my storage space, I unleashed a black stream of mana at Suzuki, but he spun his spear around and deflected it, causing the black destructive energy to dissipate harmlessly. As I expected, such tricks wouldn't work on him, huh?
"Finally! I've been waiting for you!"
Gloating, Suzuki launched himself at me, swinging his spear down and forcing me to parry his deadly weapon with my staff.
Apparently, many, many chapters ago I had described myself as a mage who fought from range, but certain circumstances and my experience thus far had transformed me into a melee fighter. I wasn't skilled in close-range combat like Suzuki or Minamoto Kureha or even Miyazawa Miyako, but I was far more comfortable with close-range combat than I was with ranged. For one thing, my repertoire of ranged spells was very, very limited.
To be more precise, I only had two long-ranged spell. Doombolt, with was only 18"…wait, sorry, that was tabletop range so if I were to scale it, then maybe 20 meters? And that was only because I was blessed by Tzeentch…ahem, I mean Lyia. No, actually, it was a spell I devoured from the previous Demon Lord.
The other was Shadow Lunar Fang, which had the same range as a certain orange-haired Shinigami with a huge zanpakuto that could transform into an awesome black sword when released in its final form.
Speaking of which, just when Suzuki was pressuring me with his spear and forcing me back, I surprised him by suddenly unleashing a Shadow Lunar Fang at pointblank range.
"Gah!"
A black explosion enveloped the clearing, sending dust and rock flying. Suzuki stumbled back, blood trickling from his face.
"You…!"
"What?" I shrugged. "You want me to fight you, so I did. Don't tell me you're going to bitch and whine when I actually land a hit on you?"
"…"
Suzuki stared at me for a moment before he laughed.
"Good…very good! Ha ha ha ha ha! This is more like it, Tanaka! More! Show me what you've got! Entertain me as much as you can!"
I wasn't actually intending to entertain Suzuki, but I guessed I could accompany him a little. Dropping to a defensive stance, I unleashed a second Doombolt, but Suzuki merely struck it away before he bore down on me.
I blocked it, but just barely, and Suzuki made use of his superior strength to push me back. While I stumbled, struggling to maintain my balance, Suzuki smirked.
"My turn."
"?!"
A blast of lightning descended from the sky and struck me, scorching the earth around my feet.
"Gaaaaah!"
I screamed as I was electrocuted, but Suzuki mercilessly struck me with his spear, driving his blade right into my chest. Fortunately, my Redwood jacket protected me from what could have been a fatal blow, the protective layers deflecting the sharp tip from my heart. It also negated the bulk of the lightning blast, allowing me to deliver a vicious counterattack.
"Oto!"
Suzuki jumped back as I swung at him clumsily, and then he spun around gracefully before striking the side of my head with his spear and almost knocking my glasses askew. Despite the protection my Redwood jacket granted me, the lethal blow left a small trickle of blood down my temple.
"Hah! I've returned the favor!"
Gritting my teeth, I swung my staff and hurled a Shadow Lunar Fang at him, but he merely slashed it apart with his spear, slicing the powerful attack into two. The twin pieces of the Shadow Lunar Fang hurtled past him and slammed into the mountain behind, causing a slight avalanche that forced Nishida to spring away in panic.
"Whoa! Careful!"
Nobody paid the poor fella any attention.
"Damn…"
I wiped the blood from my temple and adjusted my glasses. As expected, Suzuki was a tough opponent. This was not going to be an easy battle.
"What, is that all you've got?"
Suzuki sounded almost disappointed as he swung his spear at me. I parried it again, only for him to send a lightning bolt down. I countered his second lightning strike with a third Shadow Lunar Fang, and the black and golden energies collided in a devasting explosion that forcefully hurled us apart. I slammed into the rocky mountain behind me, my breath knocked out of my lungs. Suzuki, on the other hand, flipped his body up elegantly and landed on both feet.
"How pathetic."
He pointed his spear toward me and a golden beam of light lanced out and slammed into my chest before I could even stand up properly. I was knocked back and pinned against the mountain wall, the intense beam of energy slowly penetrating my Redwood jacket's defenses and drilling its way toward my heart.
I gritted my teeth and directed my staff at Suzuki, unleashing a hasty Doombolt to spoil his aim. It worked, temporarily, but Suzuki was not interested in maintaining that lance of light forever. Before I knew it, he was gone.
"…eh?"
I blinked, only to suddenly be aware that Suzuki was crouching on the mountain wall behind me. He smirked in a gloating manner.
"Checkmate."
A single electrifying slash almost ripped my defenses apart and cleaved me into two, and it was only thanks to my Redwood jacket that I remained in one piece. However, the impact was more than enough to send me hurtling across the clearing and slamming into the ground in an undignified manner. I groaned, blood seeping from the grievous wound Suzuki had placed on me.
How the hell did he penetrate my Redwood jacket's defenses?!
Then I realized how. Suzuki was doing it through brute strength alone.
You've got to be fucking kidding me. Just what the hell is he?! A fucking monster?!
I climbed to my feet unsteadily, but Suzuki was already looking bored. With a flick of his spear, he casually sent a web of lightning that struck me and knocked me back down, incapacitating me. Or would have, if it weren't for my regenerating Redwood jacket barriers.
"Ah~ I expected more from you, Tanaka."
"I did tell you not to expect anything from me, didn't I?" I spat as I tried to sit up, my limbs still numb from the devastating electricity. Good. I wasn't burned or elecrocuted. My Redwood jacket's defenses were still working fine, and were rapidly regenerating even now as we spoke. But if the opponent could render my defenses useless, then what was I supposed to do?
"?!"
Before Suzuki could retort, he was suddenly forced to jump away as a blinding comet streaked from the heavens and slammed into the place he was standing on.
"What the hell?!" he snapped, turning toward his new opponent.
"Stop picking on Tanaka-kun."
It was Hoshizaki Kozue. She had strode out of the wooden barrier and was conjuring a shower of stars. I gaped at her when I saw the vast number of brilliant stars shining overhead, sparkling and dancing at her beck and call.
"I'm sick and tired of not being able to do anything whenever Tanaka-kun is bullied by you or Kobayashi-kun. I'm going to put a stop to this once and for all."
Hoshizaki narrowed her eyes.
"I'll be your opponent, Suzuki-kun."
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง