Published at 5th of March 2022 04:29:44 PM

532 Movements of the Sword God

Howgrey is charging towards me. My instincts tell me that I shouldnt be regarding him as a threat. However, because of that, Im unable to comprehend that he fought Volk, that he has such an impressive title, and that hes charging at me directly all by himself.

Howgrey is someone I definitely cannot allow to close in. Thinking about it conventionally, with this much of a difference in speed, it should be impossible for any of his attacks to reach me, and impossible for him to keep avoiding my attacks However, Ill take the cautious option here, and carefully dispose of him.

I swing my foreleg to ward off Beelzebub. Hes acting aggressively, yet hes an important part of Lilixiras fighting force. The fact that she hasnt let him dispel [Humanisation Technique] makes that obvious. If I send the occasional perfunctory attack to him, she surely wont take the risk of sending him all-in against me.

As I guessed, Beelzebub avoids it with room to spare. In this gap, Ill switch my aim to Howgrey To be absolutely certain, Ill take care of him at this distance.

I release a [Dimension Claw]. This skill is different from [Wind Slash], in that it distorts space and ignores distance to deal a direct slash. Its accuracy falls with distance as expected, but even so, Howgrey should not be able to avoid it.

My claw attack passes through space to viciously tear through the ground. It does not hit Howgrey. I dont believe my eyes.

My speed is over five times his. I cant believe that hes able to avoid my attack. No, Howgrey hasnt made any strange movements yet. I might have just missed my target.

Taking aim at Howgrey, I fling a second and third [Dimension Claw]. Both attacks fail to even graze him. He leaps a rift in the ground with [High Jump], and soars towards me in a straight line.

Naturally, I cant consider it a coincidence any longer. Besides, Ive noticed something. Just a moment before I release a [Dimension Claw], he shifts to a position where he wont be hit. With monstrously natural and indifferent movements, he makes such superhuman feats come alive.

Yet Precisely because Ive always borne stats in mind in all my battles up till now, I understand the recklessness of attempting such a battle with this much of a difference in stats. Up to now, I havent seen anyone pull off this sort of thing. Or rather, its impossible no matter how I look at it. Even as I see it happen right in front of my eyes, I cant quite understand why [Dimension Claw] is failing to even graze Howgrey at all.

This is too strange. Im finally able to understand why I dont sense any danger from Howgrey. In terms of status and skills and even at his core, Howgrey is a completely different kind of opponent, unlike anything Ive fought before.

The bonus effect of his weapon is Odd.

[Shortsword of Empty Dreams]: Value B

[Attack: +19]

A shortsword that a certain noble had an alchemist make, in order to defeat a giant dragon.

Its true that it can cause injury through even the toughest of scales, but with such a tiny sword, thousands of slashes would be needed to take down a giant dragon.

Its able to inflict minimal damage even on opponents with a huge difference in stats.

I understand that his weapon can inflict damage even on enemies of higher rank. However, how exactly he intends to challenge me using that effect, is completely beyond my understanding. I dont believe hes able to close the distance, and even in a close-range fight, there shouldnt be any reason for me to fall behind. Thats what I think. After all, with Howgreys stats, theres no way he can match me in hand-to-hand combat while also continuously attacking me.

No, hes capable of doing that. At least, Howgrey himself thinks so, and Lilixira brought him here with the expectations of him carrying it out. Hes seriously planning on challenging me head-on and cutting me with that sword.

Even if someone were to have stats around Lilixiras, they wouldnt dare approach me without a plan. The fact that Howgrey seemingly easily capable of doing that makes him by far the strongest human in the world that I know. Lilixiras trump card wasnt Beelzebub or Aruane at all.

G-GuOOOOOOOOOOh!

I raise my voice in a roar, and hold my foreleg up high. If I keep attacking, surely an opportunity will be exposed sooner or later. I need to strike in that opening for certain. An unavoidable checkmate will definitely come for him.

I focus on Howgrey and drive successive [Dimension Claws] at him. The ground around him splits open. But, he continues to avoid them while moving in an almost straight line. The more I watch him, the more incomprehensible his movements seem.

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I dont understand how hes able to keep avoiding my attacks. I can only imagine that its a coincidence, or that hes relying on intuition to predict me. Could it be that hes actually capable of seeing the future?

However, the critical moment is here. I pour mana into [Dimension Claw] to expand its areof-effect, and release a claw attack in a horizontal line. It skims across along the ground, carving a wide trench. This will force him to jump upwards.

Without pausing, I swing my body to the other side, and send out a claw attack above Howgreys head. Countless trees are bisected in a flash.

And finally, I shoot a final flash down the middle of that. Its a high-speed triple attack of [Dimension Claw] expanded to its broadest width. Contrary to Howgreys intention to cross swords with me via ability alone, its an unavoidable super wide range attack perfectly leveraging the disparity in stats, skills, and scale.

I ended up using more mana than expected, but Howgrey is an opponent I must put this much into fighting. Thats because I can only consider myself fortunate that Im able to take him down at this range.

After I swing through with my arm, I look for Howgrey but dont see him. He might have been blown away by the force. Though it feels like the experience acquisition notification is awfully slow.

You sure act like you have a lot of leeway dont you, Irushichan! Chew on one more of this! [Darkness Rain]!

Another magic circle has deployed behind Beezelbub, who has flown overhead. Purple rays of light lash down towards me.

I raise my wings up to block. A sharp heat runs along their surface. I can ignore physical attacks from Beelzebubs human form, but I still need to pay attention to the damage from his magic attacks.

As I thought, the experience notification is way too late. I look between my wings and see Howgrey.

Hes running towards me from my blind spot. Finally, hes managed to close the distance. To make matters worse, he looks completely unharmed.

Thats impossible no matter how you look at it. From how he was positioned, he should have undoubtedly been hit by a [Dimension Claw] and been blown away. For him to be completely uninjured is absolutely impossible. Am I dreaming or something?

Even though I forced him into a corner so that he would be directly hit for certain, it still didnt do any damage to him. What must I do against such an opponent? No if he had a skill that was able to completely nullify an attacks damage, he wouldnt have been evading attacks from the beginning. Most likely, the damage nullification is accompanied by risk in some shape or form.

Besides, it doesnt seem that he endured the damage through sheer ability alone. Similar to how the slime bastard showed the apparent ability to recover MP endlessly at no cost by using multiple skills in tandem, theres surely some sort of trick to this.

When Howgrey threw himself from the dragon mount and landed on solid ground, he killed the momentum of his fall with the Holy Knight using some means. Im almost certain that its the same technique as that.