My Stone Cannon stood in for a starting bell to kick off the fight. I backed away, shooting Stone Cannons, with Badigadi hot on my heels. I was following the same pattern as my fight with Orsted: retreat and fire off Stone Cannons indiscriminately. Honestly, I’d thought it’d be a struggle to pull off that much, but the lumbering bulk of the Version Zero moved like a dream when I fed mana into the King Dragon Blade. This was what gravity manipulation felt like, huh? I felt like I could do anything with the sword in my hand—only, seeing as I hadn’t trained with it, I’d settle right now for making myself lighter.
“Fwahahahaha! I’ve had worse mosquito bites!” The Fighting God came after me, splintering trees and gouging holes in the earth. It was plain to see that my attacks weren’t doing much. Even at this close range, the Fighting God didn’t bother to dodge or deflect the Stone Cannons. They plunged straight into him, then fell out of his back. He hadn’t taken any damage, or at least that was how it looked. Orsted had said Stone Cannon might work, but it was doing nothing.
“Turning tail and running away, are you?” Badigadi called after me.
I had some other things in mind. Once I’d led him where I wanted him, I aimed the shotgun at his feet, leaving a giant crater in the ground under his next step.
Badigadi stumbled. For a split second, he lost his balance. That’s when I closed.
“Guh?!”
I emptied the Gatling gun, then struck with the sword mounted on the back of my right hand. It sliced through the armor like a hot knife through butter, exposing black flesh.
“Shotgun Trigger!” I bellowed, then fired. The blast sent Badigadi’s arm flying clean off.
“Fwahahaha! Payback time!”
I’d taken four hits myself. The Magic Armor shook all over from each impact, and I slid around ten meters back.
But I was okay. I’d managed to withstand a direct hit.
“Oof!” Straight away, I wheeled around and went to retrieve Badigadi’s arm. It pulsated inside the golden gauntlet. I tossed it away.
“Fwahahaha! Futile, all futile!” Badigadi’s arm regrew, popping right out of his shoulder…like a certain race of green aliens. “Hmph.”
Oh, but it hadn’t been futile. His new arm was bare—it wasn’t covered by the armor.
“Oho! That’s how we’re doing this, are we? You’ve thought this through, boy!”
Now, on the ground where I’d thrown the arm, there was a magic circle ready to go. The arm and the armor lay there and didn’t start regenerating. Maybe it was my imagination, but Badigadi looked like he’d shrunk.
I hadn’t thought this through. I’d just guessed.
The power of the Fighting God Armor made Badigadi faster and stronger, but he wasn’t that much faster than the master sword fighters I’d met. Orsted could outpace him, and maybe Alec, too. He was way faster than me usually, but I was wearing the Magic Armor; he wasn’t so fast that I couldn’t handle him. I was making good use of the experience I’d built up training with Orsted and Eris.
It was his extremely strong defense and durability that were frustrating me. The Fighting God Armor was hard. It might have been tougher than the Magic Armor—it was at least tough enough that Eris and the others might scratch it if they attacked with all their strength, but they had no chance of cutting off his head or limbs. The armor restored itself instantly and went on fighting like nothing had happened. Under normal circumstances, the person inside the armor would go on taking damage…but Immortal Demon King Badigadi couldn’t die.
The damage from Eris’s sword and Ruijerd’s spear should have penetrated the armor, but they did nothing against Badigadi. Whether they slashed, stabbed, or struck him, Badigadi healed instantly. Before long, the attackers would grow tired, and then they’d be easy pickings for the destructive power of those six arms.
How were we going to beat him? Atofe had given me a hint. The figure of Immortal Demon King Atofe, rising again to stand against her foes no matter how many times she was struck down, stood for all the demon kings of the Demon Continent as a symbol of fear. There were two ways to beat her. The first was to cut all her limbs off and seal them so that they didn’t regenerate. This was the most conventional method. She’d been brought down twice this way in the past. It would take some heavy-duty barrier magic if you wanted to keep her sealed away for centuries, but simply fencing her in with advanced-level magic barriers would prevent her from coming back.
The second way was to make her admit defeat. Immortal Demon King Atofe had her own rules that she usually fought by, and when she saw she’d lost by those rules, she’d surrender. Unfortunately, I didn’t see Badigadi giving up so easily. I decided we’d go with the first method.
I had Cliff set up barrier magic circles throughout the forest in advance. They’d activate when I threw one of Badigadi’s limbs into them. I’d been worried that they wouldn’t work on the Fighting God Armor, but it hadn’t been a problem. My plan was to use this defense-negating sword to cut through the armor, tear his arms off, then seal them away. When I’d taken care of all six arms, I’d make Badigadi admit defeat. What I really wanted was to seal his whole body…but without Cliff, I couldn’t use that Magic Circle.
“Gaaaah!” I bellowed, charging. I no longer cared about dealing damage. I didn’t know how much longer the Version Zero would keep running at full power. Maybe the King Dragon Blade had extended its uptime a little, but it still could power down at any moment. I had to keep this battle short and decisive.
“Come, then, champion!” The Fighting God spread his arms wide as I closed in on him, sending his fist swinging around to meet me. I thrust my sword out in response to the incoming fist, meaning to counter. The agility of those six arms was mind-boggling, but after the last battle, I sort of knew what to expect. Today, I was on form.
I could dodge them.
I cut into his lower left arm, jamming the barrel of the shotgun into the incision as I did so. I fired, and the arm was blasted off. Unfortunately, I couldn’t help leaving myself open for a split second. As the arm tore away, another fist plowed into me, and I went shooting back.
“Ngh!”
A crack split the front of the Magic Armor. In the end, it couldn’t withstand the fists of the Fighting God. Still, I could ignore the unarmored arms.
Four more to go. My armor only had to last until I’d taken them all off.
I started. Something else had caught my eye.
The barrier. In our last exchange of blows, the aftermath of the battle had scraped the magic circle off the ground. It had happened so easily I couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to me. Some magic circles remained, but I didn’t know how many or where they were.
“Damnit!” I choked out, then quickly hurled the arm as far as I could throw it. It sailed off down into the Earthwyrm Ravine. It had taken Atofe a while to recover after she’d been cut into pieces. By putting distance between Badigadi and his severed limbs, he wouldn’t be able to restore them right away. They’d come back eventually…but it had to be worth something to make that feat take longer.
Hm? For some reason, the armor wasn’t regenerating. Did it become nonoperative when separated from the wearer, even if it wasn’t sealed? Had long years of disuse even caused the Fighting Armor to lose some of its performance? Lousy excuse for regeneration, if so.
Or was this all Badigadi’s ruse?
Never mind. Now wasn’t the time for pointless worrying. His failure to regenerate was an opportunity. The only thing to think about was cutting off the rest of those arms.
“Grr…” Badigadi grumbled, but no new arm sprouted from the stump. Instead, the arm he’d regenerated earlier retracted into the armor like a turtle going into its shell.
“Eh?!”
What’s going on?
In a second, two of the remaining four arms disappeared into the body of the armor, gauntlets and all. Then, the last two arms grew thicker. There was a straining metal noise as they swelled.
Okay, the last two arms were bigger now. Too difficult to cut? No, I could manage it. This sword hit more effectively against tougher targets. The Fighting God could strengthen his arms and reinforce his defenses all he liked and it wouldn’t matter.
Making a split-second decision, I kicked off and charged at the Fighting God. An alarm bell was ringing somewhere in my mind, but I ignored it. Whatever Badigadi did now, I’d already laid my trump card on the table. My mana was getting closer to zero with every passing moment. Unless I attacked, I couldn’t win.
“Gaaaah!”
I yelled. Shouting helped generate power. I quashed my fear and uncertainty and let a little courage show on my face. It was the little bit of courage I needed to plunge in further. It enabled me to charge in, like Eris did, toward victory.
I rammed into the Fighting God. He absorbed the impact, but he stumbled. I swung my right fist. It bit into his left arm and out the other side. Then, I stabbed with my left, pushing the shotgun into the gash.