Act 2-44 - Victory Condition

Chapter 44 : Victory Condition

Childick thrusting his sword toward me who showed an opening due to a moment of carelessness.

I stretched out my arm, and adjusted the angle of my fingers.

It was the application of 《Transcendent Toughness》, 《Blade Sink》.

I used the flick of my finger to change the trajectory of the blade, and let it pass the back of my hand.

Though the blade still left a red line on my skin, I avoided the worst possible outcome.

But it was too soon to feel relieved, since Childick sent a kick toward my face.

I tried to guard against that kick with my arm but his kick was much faster.

That sharp kick struck directly in the area around my chin.

I felt sharp pain in my molar, it seems that kick caused internal bleeding in my mouth.

Anyhow, I still stepped back to reduce the damage.

「… Tch, missed again.」

Childick muttered while placing his hand on his waist and then, he readied his enchanted sword and charged toward me again.

If not for the wound on his waist, the kick from before might have killed me for sure.

Well, whatever.

Properly speaking… I couldn’t see the prospect of me bringing back Childick in this kind of situation.

Should I keep him at bay as long as possible while waiting for the other adventurers to catch up with me?

No, I’m afraid that I’ll have already died by that time.

C’mon, think faster, there must be another way… the lives of the other adventurers and the hostages were depending on me.

What can I do in this situation to incapacitate Childick with my almost running out mana?

Childick attacked with his enchanted sword.

I somehow managed to parry his attack with 《Beelzera》 while maintaining a safe distance between us.

「Is defending the only thing you can do, 2nd rate adventurer!?」

I had no leeway to respond to Childick’s provocation.

I kept retreating while parrying the sword that came at high speed toward me.

A moment of carelessness was all he needed to kill me.

「Though this will be the second time I use this today… kuku, savor the agony under miasma poisoning. Your body will feel heavier as time passes. You’ll start vomiting nonstop, tormented by hallucinations and severe headaches. Eventually, you won’t be able to stand anymore, you’ll scream in agony, begging for someone to kill you. That’s the fate that is waiting for all of you.」

He tried to shake me off by saying those words.

Calm down, I would show an opening the moment I got provoked by him.

I’ve to focus solely on defense to buy as much time as possible.

I couldn’t afford to let my guard down against this guy, the lives of so many people were depending on me.

He steadily used any cunning method to make me let my guard down, and kill me.

Now that my odo is exhausted, I don’t think that I could stop Childick any longer.

『THIS FU*CKING TWERP! DEAN, USE 《PETIT DIMORDI》! LET THIS MISTRESS TEACH SOME PAINFUL LESSONS TO THIS BA*STARD!』

Beelzebub’s voice was resounding in my head but I would have already used it a long time ago if I could.

Unfortunately, the current amount of my mana was far from enough to summon Beelzebub’s avatar.

The summoning would fail, and I would exhaust the tiny amount of mana I have left.

In that moment, I suddenly realized something.

If I couldn’t bring Childick back by force… I still had another way to save everyone.

Another possibility was opened right at this moment.

「I-I see…!」

There was no need to bring back Childick as long as I could prepare a new environmentalist.

That’s right… all I need is simply to snatch Childick’s《Airla》, winning against him wasn’t important in the first place.

… Simultaneous strikes to each other should be possible for the current me.

The problem was the aftermath.

I had to escape from Childick right after I stole his 《Airla》.

No, I can do this, let’s make it possible.

I will use his logic against him to let me, the one who couldn’t beat him, escape.

I turned toward Childick’s left side as soon as I retreated.

I’m going to aim for his injured left waist.

It should be a little bit easier to aim for his left side.

「AAAAAAAAAAH!」

Raising a warcry, I launched a large swing with 《Beelzera》 while loading my mana into its blade.

「You finally snapped huh.」

Childick calmly turned around by using his feet as his pivot, and slashed at my chest with his enchanted sword.

Since Childick was a skilled adventurer… he must’ve realized that my large swing could be dealt with easily with a swift strike.

I let the enchanted sword’s blade slide by with 《Moon Reflection》.

Though this was kinda like a gamble… It seems I won this bet.

Childick’s face paled.

「This battle are…!」

I used the moment when Childick’s attack missed to launch a counter with 《Gluttony’s Edge》.

I stabbed my sword’s blade into Childick’s chest, and swung it slanting downward.

The moment my sword’s blade stabbed into Childick’s body… I felt the light of odo in his body.

I took part of Childick’s odo at the same time as I pulled out 《Beelzera》.

His clothes were torn along with a spurt of blood.

Though my remaining mana was barely enough to activate my sword’s skill… I accomplished it.

I managed to steal Childick’s 《Airla》 with 《Gluttony’s Edge》.

「Y…! Bas… TAAARD!」

Childick stabbed his sword quickly.

Crap… I won’t make it in time to dodge this one.

I twist my body, applying 《Transcendent Toughness》 to protect my back from a fatal wound.

Surprisingly, even with that protection… his sword still lodged in my back.

I felt searing pain running through my back.

But, I knew that injury wasn’t a fatal one.

That attack knocked my body to the ground, I rose up in hurry while leaning on the wall.

When I turned around, I saw Childick gasping for breath while pressing his hand to suppress the wound on his chest.

「Haa, Haa…. it turned out, you hid your trump card until the very last moment but… you think that’s enough to beat me? or else, have you become desperate and decide to bet everything on your last attack.」

「What’s matter, Childick… I can still play along with your game.」

I quickly adjusted my disordered breath and raised 《Beelzera》 again.

Naturally, I was bluffing.

I could barely raise my sword.

Even when I returned, I couldn’t use 《Airla》 right away.

I could barely speak, and my hand was trembling due to the weight of my sword.

All of that combined together as if I deliberately created an opening for Childick to finish me off.

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A cruel smile appeared on Childick’s anguished face.

「Are you taking me for a fool… why do you think I need to kill you? even if I escaped, you don’t have any strength left to run after me. I just need to escape from you and leave you to die due to miasma poisoning in this place. On the other hand I just need to leave this demon labyrinth in a hurry… and take a rest to recover my physical condition in safe place. Why should I have to take my time to kill a brat who already beaten half-dead like you.」

Childick turned around and left this place in a hurry.

I waited till I couldn’t see his figure anymore… and fell on my knees.

I… did it.

I stole Airla from Childick… and stayed alive.

Childick’s cautious personality was playing in my favor.

Even if he knew that I was already at my limit, Childick’s cautious personality prevented him from recklessly rushing toward me who still raised my sword till the end, fearing another counter.

After this, that guy will definitely try to leave this demon labyrinth as fast as possible while avoiding the demon beast on the 4th floor.

That guy was surely full of confidence being able to escape from the demon beast to fulfill his responsibility to the army.

But, that would only happen if his body wasn’t injured or he exhausted his odo.

In the end, the reason he didn’t use his attack magic on me was simply because he wanted to reserve his mana.

『It seems that clown has yet to realize what has happened to him… But, just in case, you should get away from this place as soon as possible. You’ve no strength left to resist incoming demon beast or that clown.』

「I know… Beelzebub.」

Finally, I accomplished my task.

All that was left was leaving this demon labyrinth.

Everything would go down the drain if I lost my focus and died in this place.

I forced my exhausted body to move and looked toward Childick’s vanishing back far ahead of the path.

「… Bye, Childick.」