Published at 25th of January 2023 9:04 pm

Chapter 238: The Saintess and Red Crow 2

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

“You should be able to at least tell one person’s face from another’s!”

I can handle myself well fighting in close quarters, but this vanguard-like opponent and his tiny blade might be a little too close for comfort… I should keep some distance from him if I plan on not getting beat down.

Since I was holding my staff close to my body to help me shield against his attacks in case of emergency, the spell I used had to be unleashed from my naked left hand, so the weapon’s bonus wasn’t applied.

“[Explosion]!”

But at the same time I unleashed my explosion, the suspicious man standing in front of me used the initial force of impact to launch himself backwards and avoid it.

I think even letting myself get hit by such powerful attack would be stupid, so anyone who’s not a monster would be finished in an instant, but… I might have been a bit too naive to think that someone who had taken souls by the hundreds would be defeated so easily.

“[Dance of the Double-Headed Flame Snake]! [Star Cage]! [Burning]! [Embers]!”

My huge serpent made of super-hot flames lunged at the suspicious man in order to block his escape, and then I created a cage made of light to trap them both inside.

Then I made the air around the air heat up to extreme temperatures in an instant, causing it to be drawn inside the cage –which had been in a temporary vacuum state- through its slits as the embers I had scattered mixed with it.

“You’re finished! [Blue Flame]!”

The explosion that followed after trapping him in a cage was just for good measure… The sand beach that had turned into glass once again melted into a sticky goo, compressing the ultra-high temperature caused by the flames, detonating it.

Seeing the ripples from the explosion disappear as they approached me, I inwardly wondered if it hadn’t been too much.

I felt a bit stupid to have the heatwave and shockwaves from my own attack deal a slight amount of damage to my own HP.

“…Not knowing if I really defeated him now is making me get all tense… I might end up flagging him before I realize.”

I guess I could only understand this by feeling it for the first time… I would usually look at my work and angrily think to myself “Don’t flag it!”, but the tension I was feeling at this moment due to not knowing what actually happened got me so worried that I couldn’t even speak.

I think I thought to myself “Did I do it!?” or something like that.

“…He’s gone?”

I put the flames under control using the [Eight Hot Magic] spell, [Mother’s Scorched Earth], dispersing them to the surroundings and dispelled the cage, but… there was no one inside.

I wonder if the reason for his soul not to linger here was that he had immediately returned to the temple to respawn right after he died… If he had died at all, that is.

“…Looks like you’re the one I’ve been looking for.”

I heard a creepy voice behind me and then he immediately jumped to my side.

“Whoa!?”

Somehow, his fist… protected by his small sword’s knuckle guard, stretched from the point where he jumped, and hit me straight in the face, launching me towards the sea.

It wasn’t enough to kill me, but I was still shocked to have been taken by surprise by such a sneaky cheap shot.

“H-How can you punch a girl right in the face like that…!?”

“…? …I can’t tell the difference.”

“What’s with that face?”

Huh? He also wants to argue now?

You come from behind and cause my nose to swell and bleed and you give me that face? Huh?

And this? Does it look the same to you as when I have a normal nosebleed? Do you want to say that you think it’s cute or something like that? Eh?

“No matter how you look at it, it’s not the same! It’s not the same as when I have a nosebleed with my usual face!”

“It is the same, though.”

“What? You brat…”

Now my previous uncertainty has been pierced by my anger… I’m just trying hard to look cute and this dense brat can’t even see that?

Really, is this guy going to not know the reason why he’s getting PK’d?

“[Flame Bullet]… x50!”

No more Mrs. Nice Girl… I activated 50 [Flame Bullets], which would have normally taken some time to be created, and controlled them with my [Mother’s Scorched Earth].

With [Spell Standby], setting a queue for powerful spells to be cast in quick succession will cost a lot of MP, and it won’t be a long queue anyway. But low-level, less expensive spells like [Flame Bullet] could be placed in standby one right after another in large quantities.

And with my level of Fire Magic, I had enough firepower to reduce anyone to a crisp in PvP with one or two shots, maybe five for tanks.

“…[Parry]”

“No way!”

Despite my ability to freely control the Flame Bullets’ movements in the most complex ways I could think of, he simply used his [Parry] to dodge them all. That was such a complicated thing to do that it made me wonder what kind of monster I was actually fighting against.

I suddenly unleashed my [Flame Whip] to try to disrupt his movements with the tongue-like fiery whip that had emerged from my staff… But he dodged that as well.

“Dammit, I don’t get this… [Explosion]!”

After ending the onslaught of my 50 Flame Bullets and the Flame Whip, I launched another blast against my approaching enemy.

“Oh, it’s the first time it’s taken me this long, Yuu.”

“I’m telling you I’m not Yuu!”

He was once again behind me… Was he using some kind of short-distance teleport or something like that? Though I’d never heard of anything like [Space Magic]…

…Though I had no knowledge of what kinds of skills and spells he could use, so if he could get behind me whenever he wanted, there wasn’t much I could do about it.

“[Prominence Vernier]!”

“…Whoa, it’s hot!”

Flames continuously erupted from my back… It had a hefty MP cost, but it was useful to protect my blindspot from this sneaky opponent.

I could manipulate these flames enough to create a simple shield that covered my back.

“But I’m getting closer.”

“Tsk… Why you…!”

I turned my face away to avoid the thrust from his short sword, and raised my staff while enduring the pain of his sword tearing through the thin skin of my cheek, before bringing it down to block his next thrust on my shoulder.

I wondered if he would eventually stop trying to stab me and begin to simply slash at me, since he was missing so much… and my question was quickly answered.

“Gah, you…!”

“You’re a bad loser.”

My shoulder started to feel hot as his blade cleaved itself halfway through… And though my staff and my bones had managed to momentarily stop the blow from getting any further, his physical strength vastly surpassed mine, and I found myself going down on my knees as the blade little by little continued to cut through my shoulder.

Even if I tried to use a new spell, he would still dodge it using his magic-oriented variant of [Parry] called [War Demon] at the right time.

“Why are are you trying to kill Yuu?”

“For fame.”

“Well, thank you very much for being so upfront about it!! And I’m not Yuu!!”

“You are the strongest you have ever fought. So you’re very likely to be Yuu.”

“Take a good look at me, won’t you!? You’ve got the gender wrong to begin with!”

“I can’t tell the difference.”

“You gotta be kidding me.”

How can he be this dense…? He’s all Yuu this and Yuu that… And I’m the one who wanted to play with Yuu in the first place!

“Well then, take this!”

“Hmm?”

I had been keeping this on standby just in case… To be exact, I have been keeping this on standby because it was going to expend quite a bit of my MP… I closed the wound on my shoulder with a simple recovery spell without pulling out his sword, and then used my staff in the position it was so I wouldn’t give him time to use his [War Demon].

With your weapon still stuck inside my flesh, you won’t be able to move so easily so take this and go pray at the temple!

“…[Blazing Plumage]!”

A light crimson flame spread explosively in a circle around my staff… Burning everything around me, while gently covering and healing me.

Even if this wasn’t enough to finish him off, it would allow me to get some distance from him so that I could prepare for a follow-up attack.

And even if he were to teleport behind me, my [Prominence Vernier] was still active, so… I would be fine.

“So, where are you going to come out from next– Kyaa!?”

“…Below you.”

He again came out of nowhere, suddenly grabbing both of my ankles before slamming me into the stony reef that stretched from the surface of the sea to the beach.

“Gah!?”

Oh dear. That had to break at least a few of my ribs… I have to recover quickly.

“[War Demon]”

“…You fiend.”

Coughing blood, I glared at the enemy that was quickly approaching me.

I had used up the spell I had been keeping under my sleeve, and the [Prominence Vernier] that had been protecting me had burned out.

“Ugh…”

“Should I cut off your limbs before I kill you?”

He grabbed me by my bangs and pulled my face up. I did everything I could to turn away from looking at that disgusting plague mask he was wearing.

He was saying some nasty things… I had to get out of this sticky situation before he could do any of it… But I started to regretfully realize that there was nothing I could do to stop him.

Though it wouldn’t affect my in-game body, it would still hurt, and as a gamer, I didn’t want to lose to someone as dense as him.

“Well, I think I’ve played with you enough, so I guess I’ll just kill you now– Gah!?”

“…Are you so sure you’ve won already that you’re letting your guard down like this?”

I took a stab at his plague mask with a dagger I had been hiding under my rash guard… I didn’t know if I had actually hurt him, but at least I would have gotten back at him.

Through his mask, I could see the pupils of his dark red eyes slanting themselves slightly upwards.

“Ugh…”

“I’m gonna kill you right now.”

Still grabbing me by my bangs, he slammed my face onto the reef and kept me pressed against it.

It hurt a lot, and it was too much for me to bear… Somehow, I had gotten myself dragged into this hot mess because of Yuu, who hadn’t been playing as of late.

Trying to avert the pain, I thought “Well, once I get back to the temple, I’ll get myself ready and have my revenge”, and then closed my eyes…

“…Wait, I’m the one you’re looking for.”

…My heart nearly skipped a beat after hearing a familiar voice I hadn’t heard in a long time.

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