Chapter 54

The five-minute bonus time ended, and in the end, I ran out of SP without breaking through Kohaku's defenses.

"Regeneration is so unfair... unfair..."

"Ahahaha! Sorry, sorry, I had forgotten about that too."

While I glared at Kohaku with a resentful look and collapsed from SP depletion, Kohaku laughed heartily and said that.

No, Kohaku is unfair. She had been hiding the fact that she had a passive skill with a regeneration effect. If my HP kept regenerating every time I tried to chip away at it, my already insufficient damage output would be even more hopeless.

While I grumbled about this, Kohaku was in a very good mood. She seemed more cheerful than I had ever seen her before. Well, I've only known Kohaku for two days, so it's a short time.

"Ugh... finally recovered. The feeling of SP depletion is still unfamiliar..."

"Well, it's definitely not a pleasant feeling. I used to experience it a lot when I was young."

"It's an eternal challenge..."

The more you level up, the more SP you have, but the stronger you get, the more arts you can use, and ultimately, the SP consumption balances out. Therefore, I need to master the basic arts. Skills like "Smash" from the "Blunt Weapon" skill set, for example, have a simple yet powerful effect with very little SP consumption.

Still, I feel like I move too much. Even though I have twice the SP, it's not infinite, so I need to think of a more cost-effective way to attack.

☆

"Alright, then it's my turn. Stay here, Sukuna."

"Okay, got it."

Kohaku said this and took a distance of about several dozen meters.

"I'll charge straight in and punch, so try to dodge!"

"Okay!"

I responded loudly to match Kohaku's loud voice from a distance. It's not just a telephone punch; maybe this is what a telephone punch should be called?

Kohaku clearly explained what she was going to do and then took a relaxed stance.

"Whoa!"

Kohaku wasn't being serious and had no intention of knocking me down. Still, the moment she took her stance, a chill ran down my spine. I needed to focus, focus, focus. The opponent I was about to face wasn't the friendly Oni族 (Oni race) Kohaku, but a monster with city-class firepower and the world's strongest power.

"!"

I wasn't being careless, and I had maximized my concentration to the best of my ability. Still, I barely reacted to Kohaku's presence, which suddenly appeared in front of me.

The distance between Kohaku and me was several dozen meters. Even in my battle with Aria, I could predict movements at this distance.

In an instant, I barely managed to dodge Kohaku's attack, which had penetrated my guard at the speed of a blink, by jumping sideways with all my might. The sound and impact came a moment later. Due to the forced jump, my stance was off, and I was blown away to the edge of the arena by the violent pressure radiating from Kohaku.

I managed to stabilize my posture in mid-air and dodged Kohaku's follow-up attack by kicking off the arena wall. Kohaku's punch, which hit the wall because I dodged, created radial cracks in the barrier that seemed to cover the entire arena. The follow-up attack wasn't as fast as the first one, so it was likely that the punch alone nearly broke the defensive barrier.

"You dodged well."

Kohaku lowered her fist, which could have destroyed the barrier, and said admiringly. It was almost by chance, but I managed to avoid the merciless death. If I had taken that hit, I might have been obliterated.

After just two attacks, I felt like the game was too difficult and my spirit was about to break. Still, I scanned for any possible breakthrough and noticed something odd. Kohaku's HP, which was slowly recovering, had somehow dropped by more than half. I hadn't done that much damage, and I didn't have the means to reduce her HP that much, so the only explanation was self-inflicted damage. The question was what caused it.

Since we are both Oni族 and Kohaku's stats are maxed out in strength, I can roughly predict her stats. Even if I assume her predicted level of 200 is raised to 300, her agility without buffs shouldn't be much different from mine with all my buffs.

However, the speed of Kohaku's first attack was clearly abnormal. It was so fast that it might as well have been a warp. I couldn't possibly achieve that speed. So, it must have been a skill or some technique I don't know about.

Considering the shockwave and the sound of the attack, it's likely that Kohaku didn't warp but moved at an ultra-high speed and punched. In reality, when you move faster than sound, a shockwave is generated, right?

Given this, the most plausible explanation is a skill or art that allows her to close the distance incredibly quickly by consuming more than half of her HP. It's a useful skill for Kohaku, who has one-hit kill power, but it seems excessive to use so much HP just to close a distance of several dozen meters.

Another possibility is that Kohaku has a skill to enhance agility that I don't know about. Given that Kohaku likely has many more skills than I do, this is entirely possible. There are skills that enhance stats continuously, like Regeneration. Since NPCs can't remove skills, it's natural to assume that this is Kohaku's base stat. I can't be sure, though.

However, even if that's the case, there's another point that concerns me. The ground where Kohaku initially stood had a large hole, as if a bomb had exploded. Upon closer inspection, there was a small hole where I was standing too.

Hmm, could it be that Kohaku's step caused the ground to collapse? This wild imagination didn't seem entirely wrong.

After much consideration, I concluded that the damage was likely due to the recoil from the high-speed movement.

The answer to the high-speed movement is "moving by the recoil from attacking the ground."

When I investigated "Ten Layers of Cherry Blossoms" earlier, I learned that recoil damage varies based on defense, not just toughness. The logic is that if the force of the attack, considering strength, weapon power, and the attack multiplier of the art, exceeds the defense, the recoil will return.

Kohaku's stats, maxed out in strength, are naturally heavily focused on attack power. Even though Oni族 have high physical stats, the gap between Kohaku's strength and toughness, or attack and defense, is too large. Normally, the recoil wouldn't return with a regular attack, but using this movement method inevitably caused recoil damage.

This is just a prediction. However, if this hypothesis is correct, there's an important point. While Kohaku was incredibly fast, she couldn't use that movement with reduced HP. If her second attack was at her base stats, I think I could handle it. This could be a big opportunity.

"Alright!"

"Hehehe, your expression changed."

Seeing me determined to get back at her, Kohaku said happily.

"Then let's do this."

She then smiled mischievously, stomped the ground, and charged.

She was fast, incredibly fast, but I could handle it with my current state. Remembering my battle with Aria, I aimed for a counter. As we closed the distance where our fists could reach each other, I realized something.

Kohaku's fist wasn't aiming at me.

The moment Kohaku's smile turned into a smirk, I realized my mistake. At that instant, with a "Thud!!" sound, Kohaku stomped the ground.

The arena floor shook with an incredible impact. The barrier that had been covering the area completely collapsed, and the ground shook so violently that I could barely stand. Amid the shaking ground, only Kohaku moved freely. Without being affected by the shaking, she slowly pulled back her fist, which glowed blue, indicating the use of an art.

Ah, I'm done for.

"Don't worry. It's a Peak Strike."

"It's a lie... gah!?"

Kohaku, smiling, didn't wait for my response and delivered a palm strike with her full weight into my stomach. When Kohaku's fist hit my stomach, it felt like a battering ram had been slammed into me. With the Peak Strike skill... she can do it... over and over again!