After getting a general outline from Haring, the three of them headed to their stations. Yuri’s position...was where they first disembarked on that floor. A cliff half-destroyed by Wallis’s might.
“Hmm...that was pretty rough.”
It was quite a long climb to the summit, and Yuri had to wipe a substantial amount of sweat from his brow.
Wallis was nowhere to be seen, and yet...his peculiar air remained strong, as if his aura seized hold of everything within the dungeon’s walls.
According to Haring, Wallis hadn’t lost his intelligence or rationality. The fact that he recognized them as duelists and changed the mode of his Proof made that clear. For that reason, there was a high chance he was lurking around the gate, knowing there was a possibility they would use it to run.
“...Jumping in right now would be pretty easy...”
A little further down, a pale, incandescent swirl hovered, suspended in the air. For this moment alone, Yuri would be able to jump into the gate.
But then the other two wouldn’t be able to get away. More than anything—
“To run with my back turned is an embarrassment for a duelist!” He psyched himself up and took in a deep breath before he wrung out as much power as he could, and screamed Wallis’s name.
“Mister Wallis!! Come out and play!!”
Soon after came a sound like a whip through the air.
“...Voice, voice, name, calling my name.”
A presence so thick it made the air hard to breathe.
“Calling my name...a duelist.”
And...with a flap of his rotting wings, the God of Destruction, Wallis, descended before his eyes. Thanks to the iron mask, it was impossible to see his expression, but Yuri understood what he felt all too well.
“Yes! I’m a duelist, and my name is Yuri Eniastar!” He drew his black sword with a smile and faced the overwhelming strength before him. “I challenge you to a duel!”
The instant he raised his green Proof, a rush of static noise flashed across his field of vision. The surrounding scenery faded to shades of sepia as he was transported to a world set in a separate phase.
The change came to Wallis shortly after.
“Duel, duel, the conflict I seek...” As he gripped his twin spears, the bulging muscles of both his arms swelled as if to burst. “...To fight...the strong who dare challenge me!”
His fighting spirit soared, and he swung a spear backed by monstrous brute strength, but—
“Way too slow,” Yuri muttered to himself, dashing into Wallis’s midst. He was used to fighting opponents larger than himself.
Yuri was small, even by human standards, and it was absurd to claim he had a good physique. That was precisely what let him move with an advantage against larger builds. He was small enough to completely hide in an enemy’s blind spot, there were no movements restricted from him by excess muscle, and it took less time to return a swung weapon to stance. Those factors allowed him to somewhat overcome a weight disadvantage. They were skills he fostered before coming to the city, and now he had what he didn’t have before: the experience of fighting the truly strong. No matter how strong his opponent was, he could press forward without faltering.
“Mr. Elias was a lot faster than that!” Yuri used the force of his leap to thrust a knee into the giant’s wide-open solar plexus.
Unfortunately...
“Might of the Sacred Tree Meliades.”
He didn’t feel the right sort of impact from his knee.
One of the spears Wallis had been gripping only a moment ago had changed shape into a massive, round shield.
“Push.”
With that short utterance, the shield smashed Yuri’s diminutive frame into the hard ground.
“Ts—ah!!”
He felt his body crushed to pieces, felt the intense pain of his internal organs rupturing, stealing his consciousness away. But seeing Wallis raise the shield high for another blow, he grit his teeth.
“...Lunar Cycle!”
He wrung out a voice to snap himself back and quickly restored the wounds across his body. He rolled along the ground before he could feel any relief from the pain.
The shield came down where he had been a moment before, the impact forming a circular crater and kicking up the pulverized rock into a cloud of dust.
“Tss... Power-wise, you’re quite a bit over Mr. Elias...!!”
Taking more distance, Yuri whipped his quivering legs back into shape. But Wallis remained there, unmoving, still in the same pose from when he smashed down his shield.
“...Shield, shield. So long since I used the shield.”
He stared at the shield in his right hand, muttering to the world at large, like the ravings of a madman.
“Nay, you stand before me...not as the strong. You are a weakling who will never land a strike upon me.”
Wallis slowly stood—a terrible chill raced down Yuri’s spine.
“But...you are a weakling who does not fear...does not fall.”
His voice had changed; it was no longer an unorganized ramble. This was the voice of a man who had found exultation in the fight.
“You are...the strong that I seek!”
Wallis was definitely smiling behind his mask.
“I thirst... I hunger... Show me... Show me, a glimpse of true strength...!!”
The spear in his left hand glowed with a furious light. The same red flash that had, in one swing, collapsed a magnificent cliff.
“Spear of the Morning Star!!”
The next instant, Yuri’s sight was covered in red. The immense torrent of energy flooding out of Wallis’s weapon... Death would be unavoidable if he took any attacks head-on.
That was why he needed to create a possibility. Should he do nothing, nothing would change. In order to avoid the absolute death coming for him—
“Hardened Hoof!”
Yuri unleashed his right arm at the light. He scraped together a stream of power within and released all he could muster.
His body burned up. He could feel the haunting sensation as the life within him seeped away—and in the midst of it, the red light filling up his eyes was finally fended off.
“...Looks like everything’s worth a go.”
White smoke rising from all over his body, Yuri’s mouth curled into a smile. His right hand still maintained its original shape. The skin was torn away here and there where he had taken the light, but his bones weren’t broken.
Technique alone wasn’t enough to stifle the recoil of Hardened Hoof. Learning from the stones he hit away at, Yuri had used his own mana to disperse the impact and let it escape outside his body.
“Look...I didn’t fall, Mr. Wallis.”
He continued to point his thrust-out fist at the man before his eyes.
“If you want to take me down...you’ll have to get serious!” Yuri proudly declared.
Wallis responded by plunging the point of his spear into the ground.
“Good, good. Goodgoodgoodgoodgood. How long since any besides my friend haven’t fallen!”
When he threw aside his round shield, another large spear generated in his hand.
“All that lies at the end of strife...take it upon yourself and perish...”
Wallis’s fighting spirit spread out to the high heavens, distorting the air around him.
But Yuri had nothing left. He had largely depleted the mana in his body to erase the recoil of Tribal Armament. Blocking that blow had left him running on fumes, and by this point, he couldn’t even heal himself anymore.
Given time, he could recover mana, but Wallis wouldn’t give that to him. Yuri couldn’t avoid defeat. But he could fulfill his objective.
“Truth be told, I wanted to give it my all against you.” Yuri offered his opponent an apologetic laugh. “But this isn’t my fight alone. To let the other two get away—”
Yuri lowered his head.
“—I, Yuri Eniastar, forfeit this battle.”
His declaration brought color back to the scenery. The rocks and earth crumbled in battle regained their shape upon his return to reality.
The unforeseen conclusion caused Wallis to freeze. He had stopped.
“—Fufu. Mission complete!”
Eleanor’s cheerful voice resounded from nowhere in particular, after which a stampede of monsters knocked the large Wallis off his feet.
Large wolves, easily over ten meters from head to tail. And not just one of them; an entire pack of the gargantuan beasts closed in like a wave, chasing the blown-off body of Wallis on his tumble down the cliff.
“On your feet, brat! No dazing out!”
Haring cried out from his spot near the gate, and Yuri turned and ran.
“Everythin’ checks out! The warp’s workin’ fine! Hurry and switch your Proof to dungeon mode!”
“On it! You’re here too, right, Ms. Eleanor!?”
“Yep, yep. I back!”
Having climbed back from the edge of the cliff, Eleanor popped her head over the ledge.
Haring had proposed a way to remove Wallis from the picture. Even if the man was a high-ranking duelist, he would still have difficulties going up against multiple monsters. It was impossible to influence the real world from the Field. And that was precisely why Yuri had to duel him.
Making sure he didn’t notice Eleanor running around with an attractant, riling up monsters, making sure he couldn’t lay a hand on Haring as he inspected the gate, Yuri became bait and lured him into the Field.
“...Umm, he’s not dead, is he?”
“Like I care! Considering the stuff he’s got up to, even if he does die, he’s just reaping what he—!”
Before he could finish, he was cut off by a scream from below. It wasn’t the scream of any human. The bitter death throes and howls of beasts overlapped.
“...He really is a monster!!”
“Ohno, ohno... Poor monsters, I so sorry...!!”
As the two hurriedly made off for the gate, Yuri found himself stopping.
“Mr. Wallis! I’ll be back to fight you again!”
He threw out his voice to the bottom of the cliff.
“And next time...I’ll win for sure!” Yuri happily informed him, eagerly awaiting his fated battle.