The remaining two were just ordinary men. Their offense couldn’t compare to the density of Joanne’s blows, which fell like rain and hail.
I bent sharply at the waist, letting the swords coming down from front and back whistle over me. As both strikes cut nothing but air, I drove a spinning back kick into one man’s ribs, then rode the recoil into a high kick that snapped the other’s jaw.
I’d taken a point off Joanne by sniping the opening after her attack with a counter. Compared to her, the gaps these guys left were dozens of times larger.
Three left.
The two who’d just watched their comrades get neutralized froze, their momentum shattered by shock.
I barreled straight into one of them and, riding the collision, slammed him down into the snow-covered ground.
“Don’t take it personally,” I said.
I cracked him across the temple with the sword’s hilt and knocked him out cold.
Then, I grabbed his limp body and hurled him toward the remaining two. On the snow-covered ground, they couldn’t get proper footing; when they tried to catch him, all three of them went down in a tangle of limbs.
I leveled my blade at the two sprawled on the ground and declared my victory.
“That should do it.” I glanced over at Joanne, who was grinning from ear to ear, looking thoroughly satisfied.
But this was going to make me stand out way too much inside the base. It wasn’t just the five guys I’d wiped the floor with. I could feel the hatred simmering from the others who’d been watching the fight.
Leaving the five men with shattered pride where they lay, I walked back over to Joanne.
Compared to a week ago, I was on a completely different level. I felt confident—confident enough to believe I could even beat an executive candidate like Whip Funny Task.
If I can beat Whip as I am now, there won’t be anyone left in this Northeastern Branch who can stop us. The plan to destroy the Northeastern Branch just became a lot more realistic.
In truth, I’d already prepared countermeasures for the Hidden Insect Corps.
Between training sessions with Joanne, I’d been taking short trips a bit farther out, gathering several kinds of plants with fresh, sharp scents—mugwort, mint, and the like. Then, I’d mixed them with spices I’d stolen from storage and brewed up a homemade insecticide.
I still needed to test how effective it was, and I didn’t have much hard data on those bug-people yet. If the insecticide failed to kill them, I’d need to be ready with something else, and that meant studying their fighting style in advance.
Fortunately, we’ve got the perfect excuse: joint training exercises. Next, I should learn how Whip fights.
Information was the greatest weapon of all.
My knowledge of chemicals and explosives came from memories of my previous life. If I wanted to survive in this world, I had no choice but to compensate for my fundamental weakness with knowledge and experience.
And for that, I needed a deeper understanding of this entire insect-human category.
On the seventh day of special training, my sparring partner switched from Joanne to Whip Funny Task.
“Ever since the joint training started, you and Joanne have been all alone together, you know? I’ve been wondering about that! I finally get to fight you, Oakley.”
According to Joanne, “If you can take a point off me when I’m holding back, you’ll manage just fine.”
This was my first time fighting an insect-person, but once the match began, I found that I could keep up with Whip. If anything, it felt like we were more than evenly matched.
With Whip’s subordinates watching from the sidelines, I held my longsword straight up in front of me.
Whip Funny Task was one of the strongest rank-and-file believers in the Aros Temple Cult; the sharpness of her attacks was on a completely different scale.
Even so, I could deal with them. Maybe she just wasn’t going all out yet, but compared to Joanne, whose onslaught exceeded what I could possibly handle on the defensive, her offense felt undeniably a tier below.
Whip brought her weapons down, and the impact spiderwebbed cracks through the ground.
It didn’t look like he was putting in any particular effort, nor did it seem like some refined technique. The raw output was just that overwhelming.
“Look at that, Whip-sama’s dual blades can’t touch him.”
“Yeah, but Oakley’s not landing anything either. What’s she playin’ at?”
“Still, y’know, Oakley’s that guy everyone’s talking about…”
The believers watching our fight muttered just loud enough for me to barely make out their voices.
Contrary to how smoothly training itself was going, Karatena’s rumors were spreading quietly but efficiently beneath the surface. It felt like the time limit was going to arrive sooner than I’d planned—proof enough of how fanatically dedicated Karatena was.
While dodging Whip’s attacks, I tracked the source of a sticky, lingering gaze from farther off.
A woman with long ash-gray hair covering one eye. Karatena Wallmix. When she noticed me looking back at her, the single eye barely visible between her bangs narrowed in manic delight.
Karatena… Looks like your little scheme’s coming along nicely. But just you wait… I’ll send you down to Fuankilo’s side too.
“Oakley, are you spacing out and thinking about something?” Whip called out over the drifting powder snow.
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Our mock battle dragged on through the falling snow, stretching into a long bout. Her stamina was basically endless. As expected of an executive candidate, there was nothing soft about her.
These guys literally went out of their way to let parasites into their own bodies. There’s no way this is the full extent of their power…
For the first time, I took the initiative against Whip. From a diagonal line below, I slashed upward, aiming for her throat.
“Oh! First time you’ve attacked on your own,” she said, sounding delighted.
The blonde sister caught my strike on the right-hand sword.
She only swept her blade aside in a rough, careless motion, yet my longsword was knocked violently away.
Our weapons had barely scraped together, but the force still dragged my whole body off-balance. The sheer physical strength left me speechless, and in that massive opening I’d given her, Whip brought both swords down.
I drove my back muscles to their limit and snapped my arched torso upright again, shoving the flat of my blade upward to catch the blow in a last-second guard. At that moment, my hips gave out, and my knees slammed into the snow.
Taking that attack head-on was a fatal mistake. A blast-like crack split the air, and a heartbeat later, I was smashed into the ground, my body folding, then whipping backward as I was hurled away.
“Gah!?”
So this is how heavy her swords really are… Feels like getting clubbed with a stone pillar the size of a tree…
I rolled across the snow as mocking cheers rose from the men of the Northeastern Branch.
“That’s all you can do after getting your hand held by an executive for training?” Karatena’s taunting voice rang out across the field.
Joanne had clenched her own fist tight enough to draw blood, but Alex’s frantic, soothing pats seemed to be just barely keeping her from snapping.
I underestimated her. So this is the caliber of an executive candidate.
What overwhelming power. What explosive speed. For an instant, I felt pressure so intense I nearly mistook her for Joanne. I’d have to take back what I was thinking earlier.
“That was thirty percent! You blocked it pretty well, huh?” Whip called.