Ado broke into an all-out sprint, planning to deliver the coup de grâce. He slipped past Uru with ease, then beelined for his pillar.
While he wasn’t allowed to use magic now, he still had his combat skills like Physical Enhancement, which was like the martial arts concept of circulating energy throughout your body. In this world, such things were called “arts.” They were effectively physical moves or abilities—unlike spells, which were cast by activating a formula stored in the caster’s mind.
The two disciplines could have similar effects, but each was based on different underlying principles.
“Argh... I can’t keep up!”
“Sorry ’bout that! But remember, you’re the one who picked this fight. And it’s time for me to wrap it up.”
“Not on my watch! Victory will be mine! Flames, ignite my enemy with a ball of blazing hellfire... Fireball!”
“Yeah, like that’ll hit me!”
“Flaming arrow, pierce my foe. Fire Arrow!”
“Hah. Getting desperate, are we?”
Uru targeted Ado’s feet with his back-to-back spells, but Ado avoided them effortlessly.
As the spectators watched the spells miss, they figured Uru’s defeat was imminent.
“Yeah... It’s over, isn’t it?”
“This is what he gets for trying to steal someone else’s lass! If the other lad’s Yui’s husband, then they must already be in love, no?”
“As a guy, the idea of dueling for the girl ya love gets ya pumped up, but...he never even had a chance, huh? Poor chap.”
“Still, even if he’s silly... I want someone to love me that much! ♡”
“C’mon—he’s bein’ nothin’ but a pest to that girl. You see that, don’tcha? He’s doin’ this all outta his own selfishness.”
As the villagers were saying, Uru’s duel with Ado had been destined to be pointless all along. Yui had never had feelings for Uru to begin with.
The duel only served to make Uru look like a clown for getting so fired up about it.
Sometimes, though, it was hard to go against your emotions. Sometimes you had to find some kind of outlet for those emotions, or you’d never be able to move on.
And now that Uru’s latent stalker tendencies had been triggered, he’d probably tail the couple forever unless something was done to stop him.
Proving he was no match for Ado was an effective way of making him give up.
And frankly, at this point, Uru had tried everything—except, of course, for his trump card: The trap he’d laid before the duel.
Having realized how much stronger his opponent was, Uru knew he had no choice but to wager everything on this trap. Speaking of which—
“Bwaaargh?!” Ado shouted, and then he abruptly disappeared.
“Wh-Where’d the girlie’s husband go?!” the villagers cried.
I got him!
He’d run right over a trap—Pitfall, an earth spell. Uru had created several traps, including several shoddy-looking decoys to conceal the real pitfall.
All that had remained was to lure Ado to the real trap.
Uru didn’t know how much time this would buy him, but it was his final weapon.
Ado, in his defense, had been looking out for traps as he moved through the battlefield. But Uru’s attacks at his feet and back had distracted him, and then he’d been unfortunate enough to run right over the trap.
Uru had capitalized on the fact that Ado had underestimated him.
“U-Ugh?! What is this stuff... Wait—slime liquid?!”
The sticky, liquid substance at the bottom of the trap, known as “slime liquid,” became even stickier when it reacted with water. It was commonly used for capturing monsters. It was made by grinding a large number of slime cores into a fine powder, which would then expand dramatically once it came into contact with even a palmful of water. The stuff was insanely sticky.
Since even ambient humidity could cause the slime to swell, it was difficult to handle. A hassle of a material, really.
“You were so overconfident that you let your guard down, I see! Well, then—victory is mine!”
Uru cast a spell to boost his agility, then made a dash for Ado’s pillar.
The sudden turnaround sent the spectators into a frenzy of cheers—
“Gaaaaaah!”
—and then Uru promptly fell into a pitfall trap too.
And this one also had slime liquid at the bottom.
It looked like the duelists had come up with the exact same idea.
“Y-You coward!” Uru shouted from the bottom of the hole.
“Oh, shut up!” Ado snapped back. “Of course I’d put something there just in case! Nothing’s deadlier than overconfidence!”
“How much longer do you intend to stand in my way?! Just give up and get lost already!”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me! I guess falling for someone else’s wife wasn’t enough for you. Now you won’t be happy until you steal her for yourself—it fucking pisses me off! She’s not even interested in you! She never has been!”
“I could make her so much happier than you can! And I’ll raise the child that’s in her belly! Her eyes may be on you now, but with enough time, she’ll come to love me as I love her! I just know it!”
“And what are you basing that on?! Nothing, right?! Plus, you basically admitted that you don’t even care about how she feels, haven’t you? I’m amazed you’ve got the guts to say you love her when you’re treating her like that! Stop getting caught up in your fantasies, you selfish asshole!”
Given that the duel was happening in an open field, they’d only been able to set certain types of traps. Even so, it was hilarious that they’d fallen for the exact trap type they’d set themselves.
By this point, the duel had devolved into spitting insults back and forth from the bottom of a couple of holes. It was a bit anticlimactic.
“What kind of girl would want a dude covered in slime? Nobody wins here...” Zelos said.
“That’s your takeaway from this?” Lisa retorted.
“I’m cringing just watching this,” Shakti sighed. “They’re both nothing but idiots.”
“Does this mean the duel’s a draw?” Yui asked.
“Hmm... Good question,” Zelos said. “Well, I’d probably say sheer tenacity’ll let Ado take the win.”
What had started as a duel between mages had become two guys hurling verbal abuse at one another from the bottom of a couple of gooey holes.
Tch, Ado thought. I can’t attack unless I get out of this h— Hang on a minute. I can still see the pillar from down here, so why don’t I just throw my sword? I’m pretty sure there was some kinda sword skill that’d be perfect for this...
If I just stand here, he’ll beat me to the punch, Uru thought. But I can see the pillar, so if I put everything I have into blasting it with magic...
Both men started acting at the same time, but the viscous liquid coiled around their bodies restricted their movements.
“Oh? What’s this?! It looks like our contenders are planning to finish the fight from inside the traps!” Zelos announced. “They can probably only see the tip of their target pillar from down there, so hitting it with magic is going to take some impressive control! And remember, they have to destroy the pillar to win, not just damage it. We might’ve had a bit of a lull, but forget about that—this is a race against time now, folks!”
“You can do it, Toshi!”
“Ooh—and we have Yui favoring her husband!” Zelos continued. “Uru won’t be happy about that one! In fact... Neither am I, Ado! I’m jealous! I hope your dick rots off!”
“You’re not even trying to hide your inner thoughts now, are you, Zelos?” Shakti said. “I feel like that says something about you as a person...”
“Come on, Zelos! Just whose side are you on here?” Yui pouted.
“Hmph... That should be obvious. I’m on the side of every unpopular bachelor out there!”
“M-My hero! He sees me!” cried a bunch of guys on the sidelines.
Zelos had earned the support of the rural men starved for prospective brides.
At the end of the day, human nature was the same regardless of what era or world you were in.
And the farming village of Hasam had an especially high ratio of bachelors. Most were firstborn sons or second sons who’d been forced to find new land to cultivate.
Their circumstances made it difficult for them to find partners.
Dammit, Zelos... Knock it off already! And fuck, it’s hard to move...
Ado was desperately trying to ready his sword at the bottom of the pit. Determination and—quite literally, mana—emanated from his entire body. In staggering volume.
Forget destroying the pillar—this was enough mana to utterly blow it away.
Uru despaired as he felt Ado’s mana wash over him like a tidal wave of pressure.
What’s even so good about that guy, Yui?! A-And... What’s with all this mana?! I underestimated him. I didn’t even know a mage could have this much mana. But still, I can’t lose!
By saying that Yui was “favoring her husband,” Zelos had stoked the fire of Uru’s jealousy.