She mixed in blocks too, waiting for an opening. Ayaka tried to use her silver knights to draw Wormgandr’s attention, but they didn’t have much effect, just as her floating weapons were ineffective. More importantly, using those abilities slightly dulled the strength of her unique skill sword. She focused all her power—everything the silver sphere had to offer—into the sword she held in her hands.
That’s what’s allowing me take blows from that hard fist of his and still hold my own. But my reflexes! Is this all I’ve got, even with Asagi-san’s enhancing buffs to help me?! Gah… It’s slow, but…I’m getting pushed back. If this fight goes on any longer, and Asagi-san’s buffs wear off…
—Two threads.
I don’t know if this is going to work, but… I don’t have any other choice. I have to do this.
—Kyokugen, two threads—
As Ayaka and Wormgandr exchanged repeated attacks, she began to spin a second thread. It worked. Ayaka finished spinning the second thread of kyokugen within herself. She swung her unique skill sword.
—Whoosh—
“Oh?”
A thin line of fresh blood appeared on Wormgandr’s arm, then spurted into the air.
…I made it through.
“Hyeh hyeh! You serious?! You made me bleed?! A human?”
Ayaka was certain now.
I knew it…
The first thing she had noticed was the sound. When her sword first struck Wormgandr and when her floating weapons were deflected as they attacked his back, there had been something different about the sounds.
When my unique skill sword hit him, the sound was hard, heavy, and sharp. When the floating weapons hit him though, the blows sounded lighter. Are his arms harder than his back?
Ayaka had thought this at first—but during the battle, something else caused her concern. A part of Wormgandr’s body looked slightly darker than the rest, a patch of his white skin turning gray at times. The patch of color seemed to move across his body.
It seems as if Wormgandr is only super-hardening parts of his body… Only the places where he’s about to be struck, Ayaka speculated. Like he’s concentrating this hardness in a specific place, capable of moving it around to specific places on his body. It’s strangely close to the way that my unique skill works… Concentrating my strength in certain places when I attack or enhancing and hardening my weapons to defend.
But how do I fight this?
I need to distract him to create an opening, then attack before he can harden his skin. I also need to confirm if my theory is correct by landing an attack, even just a small one, to be sure I can make it through. But…
Ayaka hadn’t been able to create any such openings. She’d never had the opportunity. Her enemy had been blocking her floating weapons from the rear without even turning to look back at them. Ayaka had tried to find an opportunity to strike while he talked, but it was no use. She had thought to distract him by talking to him, but that had proved hopeless too.
Even if I can grasp how his skill works, it’ll all be for nothing unless I can test out my theories. Well…If I can’t distract him, I’ll have to…
She decided to attack so fast that Wormgandr wouldn’t have time to harden his skin in response—and for that, she needed to add a second thread to her kyokugen technique. She hadn’t stopped at a single attack, launching immediately into another instead.
Her speculation had proved right. Her theory was correct, and it gave her a strategy for the fight.
Now I just need to make it through his defenses.
Ayaka rained down strikes upon Wormgandr, putting one foot in front of the other as she advanced. He knocked back her sword with his arm, parrying them—but something was different.
My slashes are starting to reach him now… I’m wounding him.
“Hyeh hyeh… How long’s it been since a human made me bleed! This is it! The hidden potential of the humans, Vicius! You’re gonna snuff ’em all though, aintcha?! Cut all their potential short? Right, then… It pains me, but I’ll show you what a real snuffin’ looks like! Sorry, just followin’ orders! Hyuh hyuh hyuh hyuh!”
I can do this… No, I can’t! My strikes are too shallow!
Wormgandr was choosing which injuries to let through. He can tell which ones won’t be too deep, and he’s letting them land. He’s stopped trying to block them all. But I’m still the one pushing him back!
Pop!
“Ah!”
The deep black cracks that ran through Wormgandr’s body began to pop like veins. A tingle ran down the back of Ayaka’s neck. She felt certain of what was coming.
“You ain’t the only one that’s been holdin’ back.”
Ayaka couldn’t believe her eyes.
Wormgandr shrank himself down in an instant, to roughly the size of the leopardman Geo. The disciple’s unusually enlarged arms also shrank relative to his new size.
—Swing!
He’s too fast! I’m not going to m— I have to guard… My head!
Ayaka’s decision to defend her head was almost instantaneous, but…
No, he’s not going for my head! N—
“You’re an excellent warrior, sensitive to cues—but that’s the kind of stuff that gets you killed.”
The attack on her head had been a feint. Wormgandr had deliberately let her see him moving to strike her there. Ayaka was so sensitive to her opponent’s movements, so observant, that her reflexive reaction had been used against her.
“Gahfhh—nh?!”
Wormgandr drove his fist into Ayaka’s stomach. She went flying like a cannonball, her back colliding with one of the white walls of the labyrinth. She didn’t even have time to roll with the blow. Worse still, she crashed straight into one of the labyrinth’s unbreakable white walls, which had none of the minor cushioning that even a crumbling building might have offered. It was as if she had been thrown by a judo master onto a hard asphalt road instead of a soft tatami mat. And at the speed with which she was thrown, Ayaka had no time even to try to create a cushion for her landing using her unique skill.
“Gah! …Gh!” She leaned forward, trying to stay on her feet, but… “Gh, haah—oh… Huurgh…”
She vomited blood onto the ground.
I never expected he’d be able to… Change size like that…
“Haah, haah… Ghah… Ngh… Huurgh! Huurgghh!”
After she’d been knocked away, Ayaka had created a wall of silver knights to protect herself. Wormgandr followed, sweeping the knights away as he came. He was back to the size he had been earlier.
It doesn’t seem like that’s difficult for him to do then… What’s happening…?
Everything feels like it’s happening in slow motion…
“Haahh… Haahh…”
Breathe… I need air… It’s just… He barely missed my heart.
The thought of what would have happened if Wormgandr had landed a direct hit on her chest sent chills through Ayaka. Even so, she was badly hurt.
He’s so strong. I can say it for certain now… He’s the strongest enemy I have ever faced.
Ayaka understood why Vicius hadn’t stayed to fight alongside her disciple now.
He can handle me alone. Wormgandr is enough.
Ayaka reached out into the air in front of her and formed a unique skill sword in her hand.
But…this fight… It’s better this way. At least this time around—I’m not fighting one of my classmates. It felt so much harder to fight when Kirihara Takuto sided with the Demon King… When I had to do battle against someone I only wanted to protect. I can’t help but think this is better.
It’s just…Wormgandr has powered himself up. I used my second thread of kyokugen, my secret weapon, and he still reduced me to this. With his incredible power, how do I suppress him?
No. I have to do this. I don’t know if I can win this fight, but if I can slow Wormgandr down here, even just a little…that’ll help the others. It’ll give them more time to group up. I…I might not be able to beat him, but I can at least keep him here. I can’t set him free to roam this labyrinth. I can’t let that happen.
“I h…have to p-protect…everyone…”
I…
“…”
Ayaka’s vision began to blur as her consciousness faded.
H-huh?
…A chime…
…Are those… Wind chimes?