Act like a human? Was she telling me to act more on instinct, then? So—she was saying that I should be happy about being able to fight!
“Oh, no. You’ve got that look on your face. That one where you just completely misunderstood everything I just said.”
Wait, was I mistaken? Uh. Anyway, our first priority right now was to figure out how to defend the donut shop.
“Don’t worry,” I said reassuringly. “I am an intellectual muscle man, after all. I’ve already prepared countermeasures for spirits.”
“Oh, that’s amazing, Yuri!” said Ashley.
“Right?” I replied.
“Then there’s nothing to worry about,” she said. “But…just for the sake of reference, I want to ask: What is your plan?”
“Get them before they get me. I’ll swat ’em right outta the air before they possess me.”
Ashley blinked. “Um. You did get the part about how non-magical attacks are useless against ethereal forms, right…?”
“My last attack just didn’t have enough force behind it. I’ll try punching it harder next time. If it’s not effective, I’ll just keep punching until it is!” I replied, punching the open air. I didn’t know what “ethereal forms” and all that was about, but if I could punch it, then I could handle it.
“But we’re telling you, you can’t hit them…” muttered Filia, exasperated.
Admittedly, if I couldn’t hit them even if I was serious about it, this might be an opponent I was poorly suited to handle. If physical attacks were nullified, then my chances of success were—wait! At that moment, I had a revelation.
“I get it! Even if I don’t have magical energy, I can make up for that by using magic, right? So I’ll just use my muscle magic!”
Loli Loli gave me a worried look. “Filia, is Yuri broken?!”
“If he is, he has been since the day we met,” said Filia. She looked like she had at least one heavy sigh queued up.
Well, well. So in other words, I wasn’t broken at all.
“Well, once Yuri says something, he won’t listen to anyone. It’s pointless trying to persuade him. But Yuri, are you really sure you’re okay? This will be like going into battle unarmed,” said Filia.
“Not a problem. I’m almost always unarmed,” I declared with utmost confidence. I didn’t need weapons. After all, my body was the best weapon around. The thing you should believe in the most is yourself.
“Yeah, I guess?” said Ashley. “I mean, you have done some pretty absurd things.”
“This is impossible for normal people! Yuri has completely lost all self-control!” said Loli Loli.
“Aw, shucks, it’s no big deal.”
“Uh, you know we weren’t complimenting you, right?” said Ashley.
Wait, they weren’t?
We walked out of the shop. The full moon was even bigger and brighter than usual, illuminating the outdoors as if it were midday. The midnight chill made goosebumps rise on my skin. It wasn’t really clear how much information the necromancer had gotten from their spirit in the kitchen, but we had to assume the enemy knew we were waiting for them.
In that case, there was no guarantee that the culprit wouldn’t attack another location to create a diversion. We decided to wait for the enemy next to the burning Fire God idol so that we could act quickly if such a situation arose.
“Well, the festival is right around the corner,” said Filia, “so I’d really would prefer to wrap this up lickety-split. Let’s do our best.”
“Yeah. I’m gonna punch the ringleader’s lights out in seconds flat!” I smacked my fists together. I really hoped this was an enemy I could hit, though.
It was 11:55 p.m. If the attacker still wanted to fight, they’d show up any second now. Given the contents of that letter, I couldn’t imagine that they’d just give up. They were definitely going to show.
The full moon hid behind the clouds, cloaking the village square in nighttime darkness. As it did, there was a change in the air. We all simultaneously had a premonition, a certainty that something was coming. That swiftly became a reality.
“Ah! Is the enemy there?!” shouted Loli Loli, pointing.
“Yeah. Seems like they came.”
A man approached us from the darkness, his hands in his pockets. A semi-transparent black shadow was with him. He slowly neared, a ruthless, cold-blooded aura emanating from him. It would have broken the spirit of an ordinary person in an instant. With a cruel air like that, I knew that he was, without a doubt, the spirits’ ringleader. And I had an idea that I knew him already.
“Man, I really never thought that it’d be you, Javagiir.”
“We meet again. Been a few days since we last saw each other, greenhorns.”
The S-Rank adventurer, Javagiir Garyundur, walked toward us slowly, hands still in his pockets. His legs were thin, like branches. Behind Javagiir’s hunched form, a host of semi-transparent black shades followed. They clung to him as if they truly were his shadows.
Perhaps it was the darkness of night, but Javagiir looked even more skeletal than before. But the way he walked, with countless spirits in tow, made it clear that he was a force to be reckoned with. As soon as he had arrived in front of the shop, we faced one another.
Javagiir scanned the area. But there was nothing to see except the Fire God idol. We’d told the villagers to evacuate and find a safe place far away from Moichi’s shop. It was deathly quiet. Not even the sound of insects could be heard. There was no breathing thing anywhere near, except for us and him.