““That’s not what I mean! That archer! And the guy with the shield…and the one with the katana…! Who is inside those suits of armor?! Whose skills did you steal?!”” Nick/Tiana yelled. Combat Masters was a five-person party consisting of Argus as the leader, a light warrior, a samurai, an archer, and a heavy warrior. Nick was the light warrior, and the samurai—Garos—was dead. The other two members’ whereabouts were unknown. One was the archer, Dean. His arrows were faster and more accurate than any spell, and they also had a longer range. He was skilled at piercing a target’s weak points and could kill monsters in intermediate labyrinths on his own as long as they were vulnerable to physical attacks. He could get through a beginner labyrinth like Goblin Forest without the monsters even spotting him. The other was the heavy warrior, Berik. He was a large man who wore full-body armor and wielded a hammer and shield, and served as a reliable tank for the party. He wasn’t a musclehead; rather, he had just as good an understanding as Nick of the subtleties of hand-to-hand combat and the keys to strength, and could kill a three-meter ogre with his bare hands. Both men liked dragon racing as much as Tiana, but unlike her, they were hopelessly bad at gambling. Nick was always at a loss for what to do when they bled money in the winter betting on the large number of big races, but they didn’t lose as much as Garos did on women, and they always bought him dinner on the rare occasions they won. To this day, Nick thought of them as kind, good-natured people. “Nick. That arrow should make it clear,” Argus said. ““Quit talking to me like you’re still my master! Did you let them die?! Or did you kill them yourself?! Did it mean nothing more to you than adding some skills to your dumb collection?!”” Before Argus could respond, a second, third, fourth, and fifth arrow shot at Nick/Tiana. They dodged one aimed for their neck, but two more flew at their head and another two at their heart. ““Ice Shield!”” They summoned a magic shield to protect themselves, but it nearly crumbled from the impact of the four arrows. A different White Mask then charged at them with the force of a war chariot, intending to finish them off. ““Ngh…! Are you guys—”” Nick/Tiana began, but they were interrupted when they felt a chill on their neck that had nothing to do with their ice magic. They could sense that their life was in danger. ““Graaaah!”” they yelled, creating a foothold made of ice to jump onto and regain their balance. They followed by using Stepping to dodge the katana that was tearing toward their throat. ““Icicle Dance!”” Nick/Tiana shouted, shooting icicles in all directions. The White Masks easily dodged them, forcing Nick/Tiana to come to a harrowing realization. There were slight differences in the White Masks’ mannerisms as they dodged, but they were all using Stepping. Their weapons, the rhythm of their attacks, and their skills were all familiar. “Don’t worry, they’re all simple dolls. Unlike the last White Mask, there’s no one inside them. I decreased their consciousness to make them less annoying, too. They just fight automatically. There’s no need to reminisce on old times—they’ve got no ears to hear you,” Callios said casually. ““I’m not talking to you! Argus!”” Nick/Tiana yelled. “You’ll get no answers from me,” Argus responded, suddenly right in front of them. He drove a punch deep into their stomach. Nick/Tiana belatedly realized the reason Argus’s punches were so strong and his movements so unnaturally quick. His attack was similar to the punch Olivia had used to take down White Mask and defeat Nick with one hit. His form was as fundamental as could be, but there was a force to his punch that couldn’t be explained by Stepping. Nick/Tiana understood at least part of what he was doing. Argus was likely making simultaneous use of Heavy Body and Light Body by rotating between them with great speed. Someone who had trained their body as Argus had could swell and contract their muscles almost as if they had total conscious control. Similarly, he was also modifying the part of his body that invoked mana and spells to keep them still as he generated high-speed movement. Unfortunately, the discovery did nothing to reduce the searing pain from his punch. Busying their mind with idle thoughts was the only thing that prevented Nick/Tiana from fainting. ““…! Urrrgh!”” “…It seems that Union does not change your human anatomy,” commented Argus. Nick/Tiana’s stomach was ruptured, and other nearby organs were greatly damaged as well. They couldn’t breathe, and the blood burbling up from their torso ravaged their lungs and esophagus. The pain was hell. A normal human would have already died, but their Union body held on. They just had to endure the suffering as stomach acid ate through their body and blood drowned their lungs until their mana healed the injuries. Their enemies, however, were not kind enough to allow them that time. Ten more lightning-quick arrows shot at them. Three were meant to restrain them, six were meant as bluffs, and one was aimed for their heart. The arrows shattered the Ice Shield, and Nick/Tiana quickly lifted their hand to protect their chest. The arrow pierced the back of their hand, sending excruciating pain down their arm. Intending to share that pain, they spun around and stabbed the arrowhead—which was still stuck through their hand—into the samurai White Mask, who had snuck up behind them. Just when they thought they had a moment to catch their breath, however, the heavy warrior White Mask charged into them with its shield, resulting in a bloody collision. Nick/Tiana were suffering too many injuries for their body’s recovery to keep up, so they summoned ice to stop the bleeding and hold their broken bones in place. Inspiration then struck—they could use the bloody ice as an extension of their body. ““Silver Armor!”” they yelled, mixing bloody ice into their cognition armor. The cognition armor came undone, and the ice grew to replace it. Soon they were encased in armor of ice that had turned them into a five-meter-tall giant. The giant reached out its right hand and grabbed the heavy warrior White Mask. Nick/Tiana remained as quick as an experienced martial artist despite the bulk of their form. ““Sorry, Berik…”” Berik had always been the cornerstone of Combat Masters’ tactics. Whenever they fought monsters, Berik would start by drawing their attention and protecting the party. Nick would confuse the monsters, Dean would provide rear support, and Garos and Argus were the main attackers. Argus had been their teacher as well as their leader. He let the members determine for themselves how to handle each adventure and gave them advice afterward. Nick and Berik were the subleaders who helped Argus run the party. Nick was the party’s financial manager, while Berik paid attention to their stamina and the condition of their weapons and armor to determine what monsters they could and couldn’t handle. Berik was normally an untalkative man, but get some alcohol in his system and he would start telling you all about his favorite dragons. He had a thing for dragonian women, too, and especially liked women with shiny blue scales. Nick didn’t know much about dragon racing, but he was always aware of each month’s races because of Berik. And because of Tiana, he even had an idea of when dragons liked to rest. Berik had always been Nick’s favorite member of Combat Masters. A loud crunch sounded as they squeezed the heavy warrior White Mask in their ice-giant hand. The metal creaked and shattered, and the fragments of the helmet and mask fell to the ground. There was no one inside the armor. It contained nothing but thick mana, which vanished as it drifted into the air. Nick/Tiana felt both relief and despair—the fact that Berik wasn’t in the armor was proof he had already served his purpose to the Sword of Tasuki. It had taken just one look at the samurai White Mask for them to expect that to be the case—its fighting style with the katana was exactly the same as Garos’s, who they knew to be dead. Whether it would have been better if Berik and Dean were alive, they couldn’t say; that would have meant they were either puppets or, like Argus, intentionally trying to kill Nick. A fireball shot toward them, reminding them they didn’t have time to be sentimental. “Those two in the back are the mage George and the cleric Beran, both from White Heron. Well, technically they’re just holy armor that copied their abilities. They performed splendidly alongside Garos and Eishu during the war. We worked together as a special task force called Viper. Those were fun times… Anyway, I recommend you be careful. They know how to fight together,” Callios advised without a hint of hostility. “They were pretty messed-up guys, to be honest. They preferred preying on newbies over killing monsters… It was me and them who left Karan to die in that labyrinth, if you hadn’t figured that out. I’m sure she’ll be happy to learn that they’re dead.” ““Don’t you dare speak of Karan!”” Nick/Tiana swept away the flames, but they turned out to be a trap hiding a volley of arrows that thudded into their ice-giant arm, making it look like a hedgehog. The arrows were strange—the arrowheads were made of gold instead of rusted iron or shining steel, and little bottles of what looked like white sand hung from each one. Bond realized what they were. “…Look out! They’re going to start a fire using a chemical reaction! Cut off the giant’s arm, now!” he shouted, but it was too late. “Alchemy,” the mage White Mask chanted, causing the arrows in the ice giant’s arm to explode with tremendous force. The arm broke off and fell to the ground. ““Grk…!”” The attack bought the cleric White Mask enough time to collect the pieces of the heavy warrior and cast a healing spell to put it back together. It was as if time itself had been rewound. ““Dammit… What the hell’re we supposed to do?!”” Nick/Tiana cursed. The heavy warrior White Mask stood before them with its shield in hand, ready to rejoin the battle. None of the White Masks were a match for Nick/Tiana individually, but perfect coordination could be used to take down a significantly stronger opponent. They weren’t sure if they’d be able to win even if their opponents were ordinary humans, and they were up against several tough sets of holy armor. Nick/Tiana smiled self-pityingly at the thought. They felt frustration at their lack of experience, which caused Nick and Tiana’s negative emotions to combine into a feeling of defiance. They tightly gripped the Sword of Bonds. The White Masks began another violent assault. Nick/Tiana fought against their desire to faint from the intense pain as they battled the enemies in front of them and stayed wary of attacks from out of sight. Each second seemed to last an hour. They tried every trick up their sleeve and, when those ran out, every out-of-the-box idea they could think of, but the White Masks quickly foiled everything. It wouldn’t be long before they completely ran out of energy. “Slow down, boys. Don’t kill them. These two seem fun—I wouldn’t mind adding their skills to my collection,” came Callios’s voice. “They won’t die so easily. They have a holy sword. Besides, I told you not to interfere with my personal fights,” Argus retorted. “Don’t say that. I’d leave you to it if you were just fighting your apprentice, but they have a holy sword. You can’t tell me I don’t have a stake in this.” “…I won’t let you use them as fodder,” Argus said, turning to Callios with open hostility. “Whoa there, buddy. Don’t turn on me. We’re partners, remember? Well, we’ll discuss what to do with them later. Let’s finish the job first.” Callios snapped his fingers, and the White Masks assumed attack stances. Even the mage and cleric, who had spent most of the battle standing in the back, readied their staves and pointed them at Nick/Tiana. Death—or a fate much worse than death—was close at hand. “Run, Nick and Tiana!” Bond shouted. ““…Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not taking one step from here,”” Nick/Tiana responded. “Use me as a decoy so you can escape! Throw me down, now!” The White Mask with swordsmanship like Garos’s stepped calmly forward. The White Mask with archery skills like Dean’s nocked an arrow. The White Mask with heavy armor like Berik’s raised its hammer. The mage and cleric White Masks gathered mana in their staves. And Nick/Tiana just watched in a daze. “STOP RIGHT THERE!” a voice cried out. One of the White Masks in the rear was suddenly blasted away. Nick/Tiana were hardly able to believe what they were watching as it flew through the air like a toy thrown by a child. It was only when the White Mask was skewered by a frozen streetlamp and stopped moving that Nick/Tiana realized they weren’t experiencing pre-death hallucinations. ““Olivia?!”” they shouted. “Nick! Tiana! Get yourselves together, now!” A familiar woman in a black overcoat stood before them. The overcoat was battered from long use in combat, and when she threw it off, she was even more beaten up underneath, but it was undoubtedly Olivia. Her clothes were torn, her glasses had slid halfway down her nose, and she was covered in bruises. Yet her eyes shone bright, as if she was ready to expend every last ounce of strength she had. ““Wh-why do you look so beaten up?”” Nick/Tiana asked. “There were White Masks—or suits of holy armor, I guess I should say—scattered all throughout this area,” Olivia responded. ““What?!”” “Don’t worry. It wasn’t easy, but I destroyed them.” Worn down as she was, Olivia gave them a dazzling smile. She was telling them to leave this situation to her. “…You’re the Sword of Might, aren’t you. You may have used Parallel to assume a different form than before, but those moves and that spirit are unmistakable,” said Argus. “Hey, that’s where you’re supposed to say, ‘You’ve only grown more beautiful in the long years since I last saw you,’” Olivia teased. Argus ignored her, instead stabbing his sword into the ground and assuming a combat position. “All right! Enemy threat level: S-minus! Application to remove limiters: granted for sixty seconds! Now, practitioners of Combat Masters—witness true martial mastery!” Olivia declared. She assumed a combat stance, then rushed at the White Masks like the wind. Nick/Tiana were so captivated, they forgot where they were. ““…So beautiful,”” they muttered. It was like watching an elegant dance. Her charges, palm strikes, punches, dodges, and kicks were all so perfect, it was as if they had been choreographed beforehand. When Nick faced Olivia, he had felt frustrated by his inadequacy in comparison to her unlimited skill. But now, as she fought at her full strength, he had to admire the painstaking effort she had put into her training. The archer White Mask shot an arrow, the heavy warrior White Mask charged, and the samurai White Mask leaped all at the same time. The mage White Mask readied its staff to ensure she’d have nowhere to run. Even so, Olivia dodged each attack with ease, moving only as little as required. “Listen up, Nick. Your enemies have you at a permanent disadvantage here. In a situation like this, you need to avoid fighting on their terms. Do something to change the fight and throw your opponent off. Think about what kind of fight suits you. Just like this!” Olivia stomped on the ground, kicking up ice and stone pavement. The Stepping-enhanced impact from her foot traveled through the ground in the form of thousands of waves and crashed into the White Masks in less than a second. “I’m not telling you to copy me. Your physical strength should actually surpass mine. Realize your potential and you’ll never lose to useless puppets like these,” she said in a teacherly tone as she pressed the White Masks. She whipped a graceful arm right through the heavy warrior White Mask as if it were made of paper, and she drew her hand back holding its core. “You were right to start by trying to disrupt their coordination. But you guys aren’t quite skilled enough to win with nothing but precise attacks. There are times when you need brute force.” The heavy warrior White Mask collapsed, and Olivia set her sights on the cleric as it initiated a healing spell. The other White Masks tried to protect it, but that was exactly what she wanted them to do. When they tried to attack, she manipulated them into hitting each other. When they tried to run, she was always there to block their escape. She anticipated every scenario, toying with them as if they were birds in a cage. “Hmm-hmm, do you believe me now, my apprentices? I wasn’t holding back the last time you saw me fight. I just wasn’t capable of exercising my full strength!” Olivia said with a laugh. She was as resolute and cheerful as the sun, which made her feel out of place amid the artificial winter. ““…You didn’t have to fight all out like this, Olivia. You could’ve just stuck to writing your stupid articles, pissing off guild employees and pleasing occult enthusiasts,”” Nick/Tiana said, their voice full of regret. Olivia seemed to feed off the seriousness of the situation, growing even stronger and more cheerful. She roared with laughter hearing their words. “Ah-ha-ha! Wouldn’t that be nice! I always wished those days could last forever! I wasn’t able to finish teaching you all. I especially wanted to train you more, Nick,” she said. ““Stop acting like you’re my teacher,”” Nick/Tiana snapped back, but they didn’t mean it. Nick had formed the Survivors after being kicked out of his old party by Argus, but a part of him had wanted another mentor. He was able to face Garos without getting killed only because he had been inspired to work toward the martial might that Olivia embodied. A desire to beg her for more teaching and guidance welled up within Nick. But he didn’t want to admit his weakness. They weren’t supposed to be master and apprentice—they were supposed to be able to fight on equal footing. “Oh, Nick…you’re so competitive. That’s a strength of yours, though. Make sure you stay strong, no matter what happens,” Olivia said. She turned toward Argus and assumed a combat stance while keeping an eye on the White Masks, who were clearly unsure how to attack her. Rather than face her, however, Argus swung his greatsword and beheaded the mage White Mask. ““What…?”” Nick/Tiana said, surprised. “The presence of great mana makes her stronger. They’re only a hindrance,” Argus said, felling the rest of the White Masks with two more swings of his blade. Nick/Tiana hoped for a fleeting moment this meant he had switched sides, but the effect of his actions soon became clear. The mana rising from Olivia’s body was vanishing. ““Oh, I see… You’re reducing the threat,”” they observed. Olivia’s strength grew depending on the mana or threat level of her opponents. Argus, however, couldn’t cast spells. He could use tricks like Stepping that required a minuscule amount of mana, but he couldn’t handle enough mana to produce flames or ice. That meant that, from an objective standpoint, he was just an ordinary human. He just happened to be among the physically strongest and most skilled adventurers alive. ““Hold on… Where’d Callios go?!”” Nick/Tiana exclaimed. They forced themselves to their feet—still not fully recovered from their injuries—and looked around for Callios. ““Damn it… Magic Search!”” “That won’t work. He can use a space-time spell called Fold Space to instantaneously travel great distances. It’s impossible to know where he is,” Argus told them. “I would play with you all some more, but I have my own work to do… Don’t take too long, though, Argus, or you’ll get caught up in it, too,” Callios called telepathically from wherever he was. “I know,” Argus responded, facing Olivia. “…Hey, Sword of Might. I raised our threat level for you by bringing holy armor, but so much for that, I guess. If you haven’t found the mirror yet, you should just give up. You can’t win here,” Callios reasoned. “You’re the one who should give up. Your plan will never work,” Olivia retorted. “My plan was originally your mission. You were to train the sorry excuses for humans who have infested this land and give them a new human form. To create an existence that could conquer even the gods… It’s wonderful. I was truly moved by your project. I believe Argus was, too.” “What are you getting so hung up on that for? Let’s leave it behind and do something more enjoyable with our lives,” Olivia replied. “You’re the one who needs to loosen up. An advocate like you should not be so fixated on the life of an individual sword wielder… This is your last chance. Surrender and come over to our side.” “Never! The path of might is not built around such arrogant ideology! You’ll never win pursuing a mission you stole from someone else!” “I see… Then farewell, Sword of Might. Do it, Argus.” Argus obeyed Callios’s disembodied voice and walked leisurely toward Olivia. “Nick, Tiana, Bond. I have a request for you all,” said Olivia. ““…A request?”” Nick/Tiana repeated. “I can’t explain everything right now. The Sword of Tasuki’s Fold Space ability normally only allows teleportation over small distances; however, he can use a contractor or wielder as a focal point to create a much larger field, within which he can move around freely and intercept conversations… That was why I had to camouflage my efforts and work in secret. It’s also why I avoided interaction with the Sword of Distortion—Diamond—and why I couldn’t support you all directly,” Olivia explained. ““You know about Diamond?”” Nick/Tiana asked. “I…suspected her of being on the other side until recently. I regret that we never had a proper heart-to-heart,” Olivia said with a laugh and her usual shrug. “Now I have no choice but to entrust everything to her. Listen up, Nick. If you want to save Karan from her curse, you have to defeat the Sword of Tasuki. You can’t do that without surviving here first. Got it?” Olivia said. She forced a small cloth bundle into Nick/Tiana’s hands and pushed her glasses back into place. Both the frame and the glass were cracked, but that was nothing compared to her wounds. Yet her nonchalant smile remained. “Secret Technique—Spiral,” Argus chanted quietly. He was remarkably calm given the rapid flurry of attacks he had been hurling at them until now. Nick/Tiana found it almost anticlimactic at first, but then they noticed something and braced themselves. The snow on the ground and rooftops was rippling outward from his every step like water in a pond. That was not natural. ““Wh-what is that…?”” they asked hesitantly. “Don’t rely on your vision. Something mystical is swelling within Argus’s body. Sense what you can and memorize it so you can come up with a countermeasure,” Olivia instructed them. ““Stop talking like that… It’s like you’re—”” “Secret Technique—Spiral,” Olivia said, interrupting them by chanting the same words as Argus. Argus approached Olivia and struck out explosively with his palm. Olivia dodged and responded with an attack of her own, which Argus dodged in turn. Their fight continued in a series of perfect moves and counters, developing a perfect equilibrium and beauty that made it look like a dance. Just from watching them, Nick/Tiana was gripped with a concentration one felt only when fighting a master of martial arts. They seemed to perform hundreds of blows in a single second, then dodge just as many in another, all delivered from impossible angles. It took only five seconds for them to strike a flawless balance between motion and stillness, like a dance from a theoretical world. Just when it felt like that dance would last forever, Olivia struck Argus’s solar plexus with the outer edge of her foot. Argus went on the defensive after that. He dodged, parried, suffered the blows he couldn’t avoid, and tried to dish out the same amount of damage he took. Before long, however, the difference in the amount of damage he had taken became clear. Nick/Tiana shivered at the sight of the great Argus being overwhelmed in such a manner. But that didn’t last. “…How inconvenient it must be, for someone with your level of skill to be unable to fight at full strength,” Argus said. Olivia had come to a sudden stop, her body bleeding all over. “Ha-ha… You should be proud. I reserve my full strength for people with a vast pool of mana or powerful monsters. You’re just an ordinary human with very little mana, yet your strength is unsurpassed,” she said. “…My skill is nothing to be proud of,” Argus said. “Come on, don’t say that… You’re gonna make me sad.” Olivia’s broken glasses slid from her face and clattered to the ground. “You’re the one who twisted the Combat Masters discipline,” Argus accused her. “You founded it as a pure form of martial arts designed to help one achieve the greatest heights as a fighter, but then transformed it into a skill set only meant for killing the Sword of Tasuki.” “I can’t deny that,” Olivia admitted. ““What…?”” Nick/Tiana said. “Nick. This woman who now calls herself Olivia is the founder of the Combat Masters school of martial arts,” Argus said, panting from exhaustion. That aligned with much of what Nick/Tiana had heard. Olivia had once talked about training people to fight the demon god, and the Sword of Tasuki had also spoken of her creating an existence that could conquer the gods. There was also the fact that Argus, the wielder of the Sword of Tasuki and a practitioner of Combat Masters, had achieved true mastery of martial arts. Nick/Tiana was confused, but they could see the logic in what Argus said. “…The purpose of a martial arts discipline is nothing but a blank slate. Pupils are free to use it as they will. You’re trying too hard to grasp its meaning. Nick, you should also use it however you want,” Olivia said calmly. ““Olivia…stop talking! Just run, now!”” Nick/Tiana pleaded. “You learned how to fight from Argus, didn’t you…? No matter how you feel about him now, stop resenting the skills you’ve learned. They aren’t inherently good or bad. Please use them to the fullest,” she told him. There was a woman whose whereabouts had been unknown until a short time ago. Her name was Olivia Taylor. She was an editor for an occult magazine called Lemuria Monthly as well as an adventurer. She frequented the Adventurers Guild branch called Manhunt, where adventurers made a living off bounty hunting, but she worked in many places around Labyrinth City. Most knew her as an eccentric person who was constantly asking around about suspicious rumors. In reality, she was a true Steppingman who maintained peace in Labyrinth City by spending her nights searching for kidnappers posing as Steppingmen or fighting demon-god worshippers in secret. She was a living legend who raced across the rooftops under the moonlit sky. And Nick had just learned she was the founder of the Combat Masters style he’d studied. ““That doesn’t matter right now!”” they yelled. She had saved the Survivors’ lives and offered Nick guidance when he was lost. Nick wanted to yell at her to run, to leave him behind… But it was too late. “…Using your final words…to entrust everything to an apprentice…is a pretty dramatic way to die, huh?” Olivia said. Her form seemed to fade into the snow as her body turned to ash. “Her human body is crumbling…,” Bond said. ““Hey… This can’t be real… Olivia!”” Nick/Tiana called out, but no one answered. The bright, eccentric, tough woman they knew had disappeared without a trace. “…You don’t have time to fixate on the dead, Nick. Run or fight. Those are your only options… Though you are unlikely to survive either way,” came Argus’s voice. ““Damn you…!”” Nick/Tiana cursed. Argus’s fight against Olivia had lasted less than a minute, but Argus had suffered countless injuries in that time. He might have been exhausted enough for Nick/Tiana to defeat him with a single desperate attack. Nick’s mind screamed for them to fight.
Chapter 81
24 min read