I Was the Strongest Sword God in My Past Life

part 10

“Rita, here!”

Thump.

“Nice catch!”

Lake, who had run over, caught her.

“Hey! No matter how uneducated you are, kicking a woman like a ball?”

Despite the unexpected situation, Lake sneered, to which Jian responded cheerfully.

“Ladies first. I sent her ahead, as a gentleman should.”

“What did you say? Ladies first? After being lenient… Really!”

Rita, fuming, ground her teeth and aimed her bow at Jian. Her magical instrument was a bow, named Zephyros. True to its grand name, Rita’s arrow was the embodiment of a flash of light.

Whizz.

A single point of wind blows.

Rita’s aura is emitting a pale green glow.

Tang.

The arrow filled with mana is shot towards Jien’s heart with the same speed as a bullet. Since this is a virtual gate, even if I die, I’ll just be eliminated from the portal.

‘It’s surprisingly effective, but that’s it, I guess.’

So Rita could put her all into the arrow. There was no other choice for Rita, after all. She was just thinking about how to cook this little brat, nothing else.

But.

Jien had skills he had practiced every day in the image room.

‘I didn’t know I could shoot this fast…….’

The skill stored in the aura.

[Sensory Maximization]

The pattern on Jien’s palm is emitting light. Thanks to the slowing down of his heartbeats and the acceleration of his thoughts, the arrow approaching at high speed appears to be moving in slow motion.

‘It’s clear.’

The arrow had already closed the distance to 1 meter between Jien and himself, but…

Zzzt!

Jien dodged it.

With a gruesome sound, the arrow left a lingering shadow.

“What’s going on? It’s impossible!”

Rita’s voice was like a scream. The One-shot Killing Magic that can only be used once a day.

[Zeferos’ Wind]

You’re dodging it with your physical senses? Rita’s expression darkened, but Lake laughed loudly, “Hahahah!”

“It’s great! It’s too easy, I thought. You need to have a decent opponent to fight.”

“What kind of opponent is that? The one on the other side is a muscle-bound monster!”

Rita’s narrowed eyes shot back, but Lake shrugged his shoulders.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. The witch is coming soon.”

‘A witch? What’s that?’

Only Chris, who had the Thousand-mile Vision, could see it clearly. When Chris pulled out more mana, the veins on the side of his eyes became prominent and expanded further.

‘Great.’

Chris was disappointed.

For some reason, a head half-bowed. A face devoid of will, with dragging steps. A woman in a flamboyant red dress, a pouch filled with scoring beads tied at her waist.

“Th… This is Isabelle Blitz.”

Gulp.

Chris swallowed hard. He hadn’t noticed when he saw her in front of the portal, but now, using his clairvoyance… he could tell.

Isabelle’s body was wrapped in explosive mana.

“Jien, we’re out of time. We have to run!”

Seeing Isabelle like this, Chris instantly understood why a beauty that anyone would look back at was called a witch.

Overwhelming mana.

Overwhelming fear.

Trudge, trudge.

Because of the mana enveloping her like a shield, deep impressions formed wherever Isabelle’s feet touched.

“Run? Who says!”

Lake swung his greatsword down on Jien.

“Jien!”

Without realizing, Chris ran towards Jien.

‘If Jien is eliminated like this…’

Then he could naturally get money from Dayven.

‘Then…’

Chris bit his lip and shook his head.

Bang!

“No matter how fast you are, you can’t beat me with strength!”

Lake’s stigma shone, and the greatsword’s weight increased rapidly. Jien was parrying the attacks with his sword, but the ground under his feet was gradually being dug out.

“Damn it!”

Cursing, Chris threw the chains he had prepared. The chains wrapped around Lake’s right hand, and soon Lake’s stance crumbled.

“Ugh! You little brat!”

“Well done, Chris.”

Jien kicked off the ground and scooped up Chris. Chris, taken aback by the unexpected situation.

“What! What the!?”

Jien put as much distance as possible between them and the enemy, then said to Chris,

“Listen, Chris. We need to buy more time for Eria’s work to finish.”

Though he was running at a fast pace, it wasn’t too much for Jian.

“So, Chris, you take this pouch.”

“What?”

“They’ll surely come after me. If you have the pouch, we can avoid the worst-case scenario.”

At Jian’s words, Chris laughed hollowly.

‘Ah. So that’s what he meant.’

“Even if you get eliminated… we still score points, right?”

“Right. Because we’re a team.”

Even if it was just an exam, Jian always took the gates seriously. Even if it was a team formed just for the test, at this moment, it meant something special.

After putting some distance between them, Jian set Chris down on the ground and offered him the pouch filled with scoring beads.

“Here, take it, Chris.”

But Chris didn’t take it.

“Stop the video transmission.”

As Chris requested, for the next three minutes, the spectators outside couldn’t see Jian and Chris.

Chris hesitated for a long time before speaking.

“…I can’t.”

“What?”

Seeing Jian’s bewildered face, Chris spoke as if resolved.

“Hey, I’m a spy.”

“A spy? What are you talking about?”

“Daven made me an offer. Betray you, and I get paid. Handing over the beads to me now would be foolish.”

Watching Chris’s pained expression, Jian asked in a gentle voice.

“Is that so? Then why are you telling me this now? This is the perfect opportunity for you, Chris.”

“That’s…”

At Jian’s question, Chris tried to say something but swallowed his words instead.

Any excuse he could make in this situation would be just that—an excuse. But if he had to give a reason… it was that Jian had always put the team first, even in the worst situations.

‘If I deceive someone like him.’

Chris’s eyes shook violently.

‘I wouldn’t be able to face Lua.’

With that, Jian placed the pouch in Chris’s hand.

“Come on, Chris.”

The marbles in the pocket were mostly obtained by Zien. The key to this test. Zien nonchalantly handed over that precious item to Chris.

Zien, pointing to the left with his index finger.

“Run to the left from now. I’ll slowly lead the enemy team to where Aria is.”

“Hey! Didn’t you hear? I’m a spy, a spy! I was going to betray you all for money.”

Chris shouted with fierce eyes, but Zien’s voice remained dry.

“That’s why you’re more trustworthy.”

“Uh, ugh. What, what are you saying? Don’t you regret this!”

With the pocket in hand, Chris ran without looking back. His physical strength was at rock bottom, and the remaining mana inside him was scarce, but Chris ran desperately.

“Heave! Huff! Damn it! What the hell is this?”

* * *

A total of 10 gates.

60 participants were taking the test, but the majority of the audience was watching Gate 1, where Zien was.

The underdog effect.

People tend to cheer for the underdog without even realizing it.

But the Crow team, overwhelmingly disadvantaged in the matchup, was putting up a good fight against the Seagull team, so this attention was perhaps natural.

“The score marbles are double, and you’re going to steal the opponent’s marbles?”

At someone’s question, Selfis kindly answered while twirling his mustache.

“Ho-ho, that’s because the test at Gate 1 is a relative evaluation event.”

A professor standing next to him also chimed in on Selfis’s words.

“If the bottom-ranked team and the top-ranked team only have a twofold difference in scores, even if the Seagull team wins, their ranking will drop.”

Of course, this was when Chris was guarding the pocket with the score marbles. Selfis could clearly see what the outcome would be once Isabel, who had finished hunting, joined.

‘Even so, the last-place guy has improved quite a bit. I don’t like the interview matter, but I’ll spare him from expulsion. Of course, before that, I’ll make sure he can never talk back again.’

* * *

Chris kept running.

Dirt, grass, puddles, various things whizzed by underfoot, and he was so out of breath that he wanted to vomit everything inside him right then and there.

Chris was using both mana and physical strength to their limits.

‘How can a lake be this big?’

He aspired to be a Saber, but upon reflection, his position was ambiguously undefined. His only asset was his good eyesight, and he wasn’t a brilliant strategist like Zien.

‘Well, that guy is good at fighting, though…’

Lungs about to burst.

Blood dripped from Chris’s lips, tightly bitten to endure the pain.

‘Finally, it’s in sight!’

Chris’s eyes finally caught a glimpse of the place they first entered. Eriado, limp like a waterlogged sponge.

“Heave, huff… I’m dying. Hey… how did you finish without getting caught?”

“…Obviously, who do you think I am. Ah… running out of mana… If only I had taken an elixir… I’d have no more wishes… Whoa! Hey, look there!”

Eriado pointed to the sky.

Chris, looking up belatedly, wore a puzzled expression.

“What? That’s just…”

Chris slowly observed the bird circling in the sky. The origin of the bird came to him later.

‘Ah! The one I created at the beginning.’

The scouting bird made by Eriado with magic. It was clear someone had come looking.

“Hey Eriado, take care of this.”

Chris tossed a pouch filled with scoring beads to Eriado.

“Are we fighting? You’re weak. I’m almost out of mana too.”

Eriado looked worried, but Chris’s eyes, shaking his head, were sharper than before.

“Isabel and Lake are with Gian. That’s definitely the archer Rita.”

“Uh, that’s troublesome…”