The man swung the dagger in his left hand now that Zig was on the back foot. He was out of his reach, but Zig could feel the sharp sound of wind—two of them—coming at him. Reading the dagger’s trajectory, he held up the twinblade to block it.
The loud gusts dissipated with a dry sound. The magical wind blades immediately lost their form after colliding with the bloodcrystal-clad dragon blade. Not a scratch was left on the high mana purity blade, showcasing its durability.
“Two magic items? What a luxury.”
“I feel safer the more options I have. Hmm… I thought you were bad at projectiles, but that doesn’t seem to be it. Even if you don’t have the spare mana for it… I don’t get it.”
The man pondered on what he had seen as he analyzed Zig’s combat capabilities.
He should have plenty of mana if he could enhance his body to this extent. Utilizing magic items might reduce his overall damage output, but they would increase his overall combat strength due to the options they provided.
The man knew that people who were incredibly particular or stubborn about their fighting styles existed, but the big man didn’t seem to be one of them.
“Q-quit talking and just kill him already!” the mage screamed.
He was at the end of his wits. The bloodlust coming from the big man was overwhelming, and he was fighting the expensive assassin hired by his superiors to a standstill.
Although trained in magic, the mage wasn’t used to witnessing this level of violence, and his mental stability was taking a hit as he watched Zig and the estoc man fight.
Zig and the man had trained to the point that they could keep a calm mind throughout a fight. The mage might as well have admitted defeat with his comment.
Still facing Zig, the man frowned slightly.
“Idiot.”
The mage should have kept quiet and cast his next spell. He had basically revealed that he didn’t have any spells ready to threaten Zig with while also loudly informing their opponent that he was inexperienced in combat.
Now Zig knew full well that the mage’s support could not be relied on. That was enough for him to create an opening.
Zig rushed toward the estoc man. Meanwhile, the man stomped his foot into the floor, as if intending to break it. He flung wind blades at Zig to keep him in check, but he swatted the one going for his body away with his twinblade. The other wind blade grazed his shoulder, causing him to bleed, but it wasn’t enough to stop him.
Zig crossed what would normally be seven steps in the course of two and used the force of his rush to swing at his opponent. He performed a diagonal slash coming from his right shoulder, but the man took a step back to avoid it. He tried to counter with a quick thrust, but Zig’s attack didn’t stop there. He lowered his stance and used his momentum to charge at the man with his right shoulder. The man’s counterattack only grazed Zig’s head.
The man hurriedly pulled back his estoc to defend himself, but an explosive pain shot up his arm.
“Guah!”
The man’s body was flung back like he was just tackled by a monstrosity. A wall of dim light formed in front of his body, a defensive spell engraved into his armor. However, the impact went right through the barrier and was powerful enough to knock the wind out of the man’s lungs.
“You’re wide open.”
With the man fully exposed, he brought his blade up from the other direction to attack him. The man’s barrier glowed brightly as the dark red blade struck it, but it wouldn’t hold for long.
“Urgh… Gaaah!”
The man kicked himself away from Zig just before the barrier broke, barely avoiding getting killed.
Even if the twinblade had to get through the barrier first, it still had enough force to be deadly.
The man was left with a three-centimeter-deep cut. The centrifugal force it produced tore up his flesh and left him in pain with several broken ribs.
“Die.”
Help wasn’t coming. The man would surely die. Things probably wouldn’t have come to this point had they fought on more favorable grounds. But this was the end for him.
Zig charged into his opponent to finish him from outside of his range.
“Gaaaaaaaah!”
Suddenly, the man threw away his estoc and charged at Zig.
“Hunh?!”
There was no smell of magic, and Zig couldn’t tell what his opponent was up to. However, it didn’t change the fact that all he needed to do was kill him.
Zig pulled back his twinblade and thrust it into the man’s stomach.
“Urgh… Gah!”
The man used the dagger in his left hand to parry the twinblade. Imbued with wind magic, the dagger did its job, but the twinblade was such a heavy weapon that it couldn’t completely throw it off course.
Blood splattered all over Zig’s clothes. The dark red blade had cut into the man’s side and sank into him due to his momentum. He wasn’t dead, but he might as well be.
The dagger was knocked out of the man’s hand when it tried to deflect the twinblade. Now the man was unarmed.
What was his plan now? There was no way he could kill Zig from this position.
As Zig pondered this, he let his concentration break slightly.
The man grinned as blood flowed from his lips.
“Finally… Off guard…”
A scent of magic Zig had never smelled before filled the room.
“A suicide bomb?!” That was the only thing that Zig could gather from the man’s demeanor.
He immediately let go of his weapon and kicked the man far away from him. He wondered about the magic he just smelled.
Wouldn’t an explosive spell be more pungent?