chapter 7

Seira Grundt gritted her teeth and stared at me hatefully.

She probably had not expected her men to lose to me, with me being classless and at a lower level. However, all of a sudden, she stopped glaring at me and started laughing.

“I see, so just because you’re a lower level doesn’t mean that you’ll necessarily lose. I’ve learned a good lesson today.”

The smile on her face slowly turned into a grim expression.

“Then I’ll teach you something too… The disparity in our levels!”

Holding a glaive, Seira quickly turned towards me and dived.

Seeing as going barehanded was impossible, I unsheathed my sword to prevent a sideways blow from the glaive.

But Seira’s hands didn’t rest, and she struck me multiple times with the glaive.

I parried the attacks with my sword. However, the impact of the attack was powerful enough to fling me backward.

But I dragged myself back up on my feet, stopped moving, and returned my gaze to her.

Seira’s level was somewhere around 30.

Compared to that, I was around level 11… there was truly a massive gap between us.

As I was trying to find an opening, I discovered that she had already trapped me. I brought out my gun and fired three shots.

But the bullets hit the glaive’s blade and bounced off.

No, now’s the time!

I went for Seira’s chest and used Slash.

“…!?”

“Oryaaaaaa!”

Stepping in with my right foot, I aimed for her side and swung with Power Slash.

The blade of my sword struck Seira’s side and blew her back. As she was blown away, she took a defensive position and readied her glaive.

Then she grinned while looking at me, rubbing her injured side and smirking.

“Too bad~!”

I understood what she meant by ‘too bad’.

“So your armor protected you…”

As expected of someone at level 30… Can my weapons be protected against by just armor?

“Well, it would’ve been dangerous without armor… Anyway, time to pay it back!”

Seira shouted, kicked the ground, and rushed towards me.

Then, she swung her glaive so fast it seemed to blur.

The sound of metal hitting metal rang out and resounded throughout the forest.

The collision of the sword and glaive sent sparks flying and dealt a considerable impact to my hand.

The sword couldn’t withstand the impact and was flung out of my hand. I was also cut and blown back by the glaive.

After I was blown back, I hit a tree.

Blood spilled out from my mouth, and wounds from being slashed by the glaive could faintly be seen on my body as blood flowed out from them.

As I heard Meryl and Garuna’s worried voices, I tried to stand up… but Seira was already in front of me, looking down at me.

“You really did your best. That’s admirable. But this is where it ends!”

Aiming at my stomach, Seira thrust the point of her glaive into it…

“Gah…!?”

I couldn’t handle the pain of having a blade thrust into me. My blood trickled down the impaling glaive and plopped to the ground.

Meryl and Garuna froze at this. Realizing that her victory was at sight, Seira smiled haughtily.

“Ahahahaha! That’s what happens when you meddle in something that’s none of your business!”

“A-Aruto-kun!”

With both her hands on the ground, Garuna’s eyes welled up in tears…

“B-because of me…”

“Yes, because of you, this guy will die… open your eyes wide and watch! Ahahaha!”

What a grating laugh…

She wasn’t even aware of my intentions.

“Kuku… Kukukuku!”

Suddenly, as I stifled a laugh, Meryl smiled, and Garuna slowly looked up, startled.

Seira did the same, looking at me as if I’d lost my marbles.

“Oh my. Does being at the brink of death drive you crazy?”

“Oh… Your triumphant face is pretty strange. Don’t get proud over winning… until you’ve guaranteed your enemy’s death that is.”

“W-what!?”

I explained to the confused Seira.

“With my current strength, I can’t beat you. But using your own weapons, I can.”

“…!?”

“You’re too slow!”

Realizing my intentions, she tried pulling the glaive out of my body, but I gripped it with force and used it as a pivot to kick her in the face.

The kick caused her to let go of the glaive.

And with that, I slowly stood up…

“Gu… Aaaaaa!”

I forcefully pulled out the glaive that was stabbed through me. Blood splattered around the area of removal as it was pulled out.

I grinned. Then, while breathing heavily, I moved my gaze to Garna.

Garuna tilted her head slightly as I looked at her, but she then nodded as though she understood my intentions.

“A-are you for real!?”

“I’m perfectly sane… This will deal some damage to you. Time for round two!”

I readied the glaive and lowered my stance. Seira pulled a knife out of her pocket and held it up.

“That’s enough. This time, I’ll kill you without mercy!”

Starting using her scream as a signal, we both kicked off the ground and started running.

And so, we passed each other, glaive and knife sticking out…

There was a brief moment of silence between us.

…but then there was a thud, and I was on my knees.

The knife created a slash on my leg. Seira grinned as soon as she saw me on my news.

“See? This is what happens when you fight with a weapon you’re not used to. Now, this time you’ll die!”

“…I’m warning you. I’m not alone.”

“W-what!?”

Seira was confused. Could these be the words of a sore loser?

“Another warning—watch your back.”

As she heard my other warning, she turned around quickly.

However, it was too late.

She turned to see Garuna charging forward with her big lance.

“W-when did you-!?”

Seira tried to get into a defensive stance wbut she was too slo…

“It’s over!”

At the same time I muttered this, Seira was blown far back by a thrust from Garuna’s lance and crashed into a tree.

Garuna ran up to me while Meryl supported me through the pain.

“Aruto-kun, are you okay?”

“Don’t fuss, I’m fine. …Ouch!”

That was a lie. I was really in pain.

“You were really reckless…”

Meryl sighed, her face dumbfounded. She began to try healing me.

Just as I thought she passed out after crashing into the tree, Seira ran towards Garuna while clutching a knife

Garuna wasn’t going to be able to defend herself in the heat of the moment. I couldn’t move either due to the extent of my injuries.

“Garuna!”

At this rate, Garuna would…!

Or so I thought, though just before the knife could pierce through Garuna’s body, a slash came from somewhere, and Seira got hit, knocked back to the ground, and lost consciousness.

I looked for the source of the slash and saw the green-haired man who had been staring through the Adventurers’ Guild window.

The man chuckled and sheathed his sword.

“I’m here to help you, as a knight. It seems it’s all over, though…”

Knight…

A knight, huh…

As I saw the green-haired knight, my consciousness faded. My vision distorted, and I slowly collapsed.

Before I passed out, I said something.

“Y-you’re late… knight…”

With that, I lost consciousness.

“Aruto-kun!?”

“Aruto-san? No… Aruto-saaaaaan!”

Meryl’s scream resounded throughout Fielin Forest…