Chapter 117 – Adversary (8)
“Those…”
The first person to detect the existence of the twin sisters who broke through the ice barriers erected on all sides and invaded inside was Merlin, who noticed that the ice barriers he had created had holes due to the shock caused by high heat.
Although Merlin is a character who does not pay much attention to humans, she easily remembered the fact that she was an adventurer who accompanied her a little while ago thanks to the peculiarity of being a twin.
“Even for a short moment, I melted the ice barrier I created… What’s more, he didn’t miss the flow of the part with the least amount of mana, and he accurately selected and attacked efficiently. He’s a very promising mage.”
… For a human girl. I put up a wall with effort, but I managed to creep in here. The cause of your death was not my magic, but petty curiosity.
Merlin simply cast the killing magic as if muttering in advance to prevent an unfortunate incident in which an indecisive smallfish invades the master’s fight, and then fired it.
“… Ice Lance”
ㅡCheein… ．Chiing.
Two thick ice spears created in the air, with sharp and cool energy, shot out at high speed, and at the same time, Roden and Escaros, who were fighting in full swing, noticed Merlin’s sudden action belatedly.
“”Merlin?! What are you doing all of a sudden… !!!””
The two men looked at the same place at the same time and shouted the same lines.
Instead of sword facing each other, Roden, who kept his distance from Escaros, hurriedly ran to the location where Roxia was, and grabbed the black sword to slash the flying ice spear.
However, the two ice spears split left and right and passed right through the distance where his sword couldn’t reach. In the first place, the target was not Roxia, but moreover, the twin sisters behind her.
After Roden turned his head to follow the passing ice spear, he belatedly discovered the figures of Merim and Maril behind him, and also found out later that the tips of the two ice spears were pointing at them.
He hurriedly tried to chase after the ice spear, but it was already a considerable distance, and it was somewhat unreasonable to follow the javelin, which had even accelerated.
ㅡShhhhh!!!
The two ice spears that stretched out to pierce the twin sisters’ chest…
ㅡSugeouk! Paperweight!
Escaros, who appeared right in front of them, cut the ice spear aiming at Merim with a greatsword, and the ice spear aiming at Maril fired lightning magic and destroyed it in the middle.
The twin sisters, who were preparing their own defenses to counter the ice spears flying at them, stared at Escaros’ back with their eyes wide open.
“I told you not to leave the center of the city today, but… If you don’t want to get involved in a fight and die, stay away.”
Without looking back, Escaros spoke one-sidedly as if muttering, and walked towards Merlin and stared at him. The quick-witted old wizard opened his mouth before he could even ask a question.
“Those girls broke through the ice barrier and crawled inside, so I tried to kill Escaros-sama before he interfered in the fight.”
“… Yes. I definitely entrusted you with the role of passing down the intruders. You just performed it faithfully, so I won’t criticize you.
“If Escaros-nim wants it, I will follow it, but… May I ask why you care about the lives of human girls?”
“Those adventurers showed us pure kindness without expecting anything in return, and especially the twin sisters over there kept me from getting bored in the carriage. So, as the duty of a monarch, I want to show you some mercy. Do you understand?”
“Yes… ．I will follow your will.
While Escaros is giving new orders to Merlin, Roden and Roxia join the twin sisters.
“Merim-sister, Marill-sister!!”
“You both okay?!”
Roden did not immediately ask her twin why she had volunteered to enter such a dangerous place.
Considering her position the other way round, if Roden himself had been put in the same situation as them, she would have come without hesitation. Giving her advice later.
“We are fine for now.”
“Rather, we want to ask. What the hell is going on here? And now Loxia’s appearance is definitely a demon…”
“More on that later… By the way, it looked like Escaros helped you a little while ago, what kind of scheme is this?”
“Escaros? That mercenary man’s name is Escaros?”
“It’s like we’ve met separately.”
“Actually, on the road on the way back to the city a while ago…”
Through the story of the twin sisters, Roden and Loxia learned briefly about the story of how they ended up together after meeting Escaros and Merlin on the way.
“Hmm, when I met you guys, there was no reaction…”
Are you saying that you didn’t collect information about my relationship with them?
If so, it would be safer to pretend that there is no deep connection like this. After briefly organizing her thoughts, Roden looked at her twin sister and said calmly.
“I’ll explain briefly for now, the targets of the two guys are me and Loxia. Especially that black armor… Escaros wanted a one-on-one fight with me, so I was responding.”
Whoa, Roden let out a deep breath.
“As you can see, the decision has not been made yet. Please do not get involved in the fight and stay with Loxia. It’s not a personal relationship, but act like you’re just an adventurer, a regular customer you’ve known at the store for a long time.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, even if I listen to my brother’s explanation…”
“I know enough that this isn’t a fight we can get into, so we’ll do that.”
The twin sisters, who had vividly watched the battle between Roden and Escalos and the battle between the superhumans a while ago, desperately understood that at their level, instead of helping, they would only end up grabbing her ankles, so they decided to stay by Roxia’s side. ．
After leaving her twin sister and Loxia together, Roden turned his back and met eyes with Escaroth, who was holding his greatsword in both hands, with his greatsword stuck in the ground, though his eyes were hidden by his helmet.
“Were you kindly waiting for me? Thank you for this.”
“What is the meaning of an innocent victory by attacking a person who shows his back? What I want is to confidently win a victory in a head-to-head fight. Hero, grab your sword again.”
ㅡSuwook.
Escaros pulled out the greatsword stuck in the ground with a cool motion like pulling a radish, and Roden also fixed his black sword while staring at him, preparing for battle.
Looking at Roden’s topless figure, Escaros threw a light joke before fighting again.
“After exchanging swords a few times, I couldn’t make sense of my appearance. Since you waited, there’s no reason I can’t give you time to change clothes again?”
“It’s okay, even if I change clothes anyway, it’ll be burned again. It’s the one whose armor is tattered rather than me who has changed unsightly.”
“Haha! It’s the first time I’ve exchanged so many battles with a single enemy, and it’s the first time I’ve fought so intensely that my armor was so seriously damaged.”
“Is that so? Looking at it after the armor is all broken, in fact, I hope this isn’t a banal setting like sealing a power that is too strong.”
“It’s armor worn in the sense of pure armor, so don’t worry about that.”
As they exchanged words, the two men, who drew out the vast aura they were capturing, slowly closed their distance from each other. Then, they each brandished their weapons.
ㅡKaaang! Quaang!
They now exchanged swords instead of words. Every time the greatsword and blacksword collided from completely different angles, the heavens and earth resounded loudly and spread out in all directions.
The two men, who entered into an extremely close fight, exchanged fists and fists from time to time while holding each other’s weapons against each other.
ㅡPeruk! Puck!
The fist he wielded without any consideration for defense had the power to make blood burst from the corners of his mouth.
You can feel the fishy taste of blood from their mouths, which have been slightly reshaped by each other’s fists, but Roden and Escaros continue to fight with childlike smiles of pure joy.
When Roden’s sword attack drives the opponent into a single shot to prevent him from blocking or escaping, when he tries to finish it off, Escaros quickly escapes with the Memorized Blink and at the same time appears from behind and wields a greatsword with the momentum to split Roden’s body in half. Then Roden evades and counterattacks.
As long as there are Blinks left in this guy, it will be difficult to see the end… ．
There must be a clear limit to the number of times that Blink that has been memorized can be used, and Roden repeated the battle with a trick to consume them all.
*
“Huh… Omg… !!”
Haha…”
… For a long time, there were clear results in continuing the fight while blocking swords, fists, and magic.
Escaros’s armor was half-destroyed, and he was bleeding from his whole body as he was rarely cut by a sword, and the most annoying means of escape, Blink, was also consumed.
If you look at the outside, you’d think Roden was the victor, but… ．
Just as the durability of the armor worn by enemies and the number of uses of magic are not infinite, Roden’s physical strength is also not infinite.
“Huh… ! Heh heh… Great! To be called a hero, you have no shortage of skills. I will recognize you as my adversary… But after all, the human body. I couldn’t completely prevent my body and sword from becoming dull in the passing of time.”
At the end of the fierce battle that led to a long battle, it was Roden who lost momentum first.
