NOVEL NEXT 3-18: How He Fights (2/3)
Tl Note: When reading terms with an open close parentheses after it like this: Cute (Jigglypuff). Cute is the character that makes up Jigglypuff, so you don’t read cute out loud in your head and instead read Jigglypuff. It’ll make more sense once you read this chapter.
The black-clad figure spoke in a provoking manner as he invited the raybeasts to come.
It was curious what the raybeasts thought of him, but regardless, they jumped one after another at the foolish black figure that had thrown himself at them.
They bared their small fangs and stretched out their claws as they charged toward the figure.
They looked no different from monkeys, but they moved nimbly and did as they pleased. They didn’t care about working together, but that didn’t matter. After all, it was hard to block or dodge an attack coming from every direction.
At least, that’s how it should’ve been.
“Slow.”
The black clad figure shifted his head to the side, and the raybeast passed him by.
He didn’t even bother to watch the raybeast fall before he dealt with the next raybeast, which he deflected with a reverse right fist.
Another raybeast came, and this time he cut it down with a left karate chop, then as he stepped on it, he grabbed the fourth raybeast and threw it at the raybeast coming from behind.
Another raybeast jumped for where the black figure’s head was just a moment ago, but before it could crash onto him, he placed his hand on the rooftop, and using that as an axis, he spun as if he were break dancing and kicked away the rest of the incoming raybeasts.
“…Too soft.”
All he did was hit them either with his legs or his fists.
There was no way he could’ve cut them with just that, but they still dispersed.
The power his attacks contained was simply too great for them to withstand.
“Hmm? Is something wrong? …My movements feel a bit weird.”
When he stood back up, he tilted his head in puzzlement as he stepped over two raybeasts.
He struck down another raybeast with a reverse fist, but that odd feeling continued to tug at the back of his head.
““I don’t like this feeling— Where do you think you’re going!?”
When the black clad figure saw several raybeasts try to leave and resume their original objective, he ignored the rest of the raybeasts and leaped to the next building.
“Deflect them back, Gravity (Ga Gorga)!”
Realizing that he couldn’t stop them all even if he were to give chase, he quickly made his decision.
By declaring the command and the attribute, his mana became a spell and invoked a phenomenon, erecting an invisible wall atop the rooftop.
The raybeasts were en route to crash into that invisible wall, but when they made contact, they didn’t ‘crash’, instead they seemed to ‘fall’ into it, and in the next moment, they were spat back out toward the black clad figure.
As the raybeasts flew in a straight line, what awaited them was his right karate chop.
“Let’s try this out. Take this!”
Mana coursed through the black figure’s claws, causing an aurora to appear, and in a flash, the deflected monsters were cut.
It was such a perfect cut that it seemed as if the raybeasts were like that from the start.
When the aurora ceased, the monkey-class raybeasts also vanished into the dark of the night.
It was because of the radiance that came from the coursing of mana and the hard crystal that created a special force field, that his right karate chop could become a real sword.
“Just as you’d expect from Orol’s Crystal Claw. Its sharpness is extraordinary even in this world!
…But no, something is really off.
For some reason, there was an odd sensation that accompanied him when he fought.
What worried him was that it was not his first time feeling it.
Of course, the raybeasts didn’t care what he was feeling, and they continued to attack him regardless.
But no matter how much they attacked, they never so much as grazed the black figure.
They were one-sidedly beaten and forced to vanish.
For all that, however, the black figure wasn’t even looking at them.
Instead, he was looking oddly at his own hands.
“Yep, this one’s weird too. It feels a lot more accurate than normal.”
The raybeasts jumped from every direction, and in response, he struck, deflected, kicked, dodged, and crushed them.
If anyone were to watch this battle, they would surely think that the black figure was acting in a play with these raybeasts.
After all, he moved fluently without missing a bit or missing his target.
But in truth, his opponents only happened to be amateurs, and if anyone were to think they were improvising, they couldn’t be more wrong.
In the first place, the black figure wasn’t looking at the raybeasts with his eyes.
When something moves, the surrounding air will also move, and a minute change will occur to the flow of the atmosphere.
To protect himself, who was weak and fragile, from surprise or sudden attacks, the black figure unconsciously treats the surrounding space like his domain, and he can sense every minute change to it.
Which is why he supports himself with a wind spell beforehand when he thinks a battle is going to break out.
Even with his eyes closed, he could tell from where, how, how fast, and from how far the enemy will attack, precisely just like a radar.
But his senses were even sharper now than before.
No, in fact, everything was stronger, not just his senses.
“Shall we try it? —Sew them, Gravity (Ga Gorga).”
The command was different, but it was the same spell.
In the next instant, the remaining raybeasts on the rooftop were all prostrated.
No, it would be more apt to say that they were being crushed.
It was as if they couldn’t stand their own weight that they ended up looking like they were sewn onto the rooftop.
That was the true form of Ga Gorga, a spell that controlled gravity.
“…I didn’t mess up, right?
I definitely used the right amount of mana and there shouldn’t be anything wrong with my technique either.”
Even though he accomplished his objective and none of the raybeasts were moving anymore, the black figure did not seem happy.
Falandia’s spells are invoked through an attribute and a command.
At the same time, one must also use the required mana within according to the technique.
It was similar to how special programs use photons to execute skills.
“I just wanted to catch them. Why did it end up like this?”
Although the result wasn’t exactly wrong, the problem was that it was ‘too strong’.
Some of the raybeasts couldn’t even stand the pressure and ended up dispersing.
The black figure thought something was amiss, so he took out his white card and held it over the immobile raybeasts.
In the next moment, strange characters appeared on the card.
Those were characters unlike either Earth’s or Garesto’s.
“Strength: C, Stamina: C, Resistance: C+, Agility: B-, Skill: E-, no mana huh.”
When the black figure read that row of strange characters, he became greatly perplexed.
There was nothing odd about the enemy’s status; hence, naturally, that must mean that the problem was with the other party: the black figure himself.
The card was a tool from Falandia meant to check the other’s status.
He brought it here into this world since it had a special function that made it so that only its registered owner could use it.
“I guess the problem really is with me.
Uwaah, it’s been a few months since I last saw it, but I really don’t wanna!
But while he may have said that out loud, he needed to check something, so he had no choice but to sigh and hold the card over himself.
When he finished reading through those Falandian characters, he fell limply to the ground.
“……Why?… It’s hard enough to hide under normal circumstances!
I went through such troubles to hide it, so why…Why did it suddenly level up again!?”
The black figure squatted down with his hands on his head, greatly perplexed.
For someone like him who wanted to hide it so badly, that rank up was nothing more than a great nuisance.
And since no one could recognize him the way he was now, he went ahead and screamed from the top of his lungs.
If the lines written in the card were to be translated to Japanese, it would read as follows:
Strength: D (300)
Stamina: D (300)
Mana: D (300)
Resistance: D (300)
Agility: D (300)
Skill: S+