Afterward, when Tsutomu arrived at the public training grounds, he witnessed Garm getting a cut on Daryl’s face with his short sword. Both of them wielded real combat weapons, and they were not wearing any armor. Blood gushed from the cut on Daryl’s cheek as if his blood flow was comically high-pressure.
Due to Daryl’s high VIT and Garm’s low STR, the wound was not supposed to be anywhere near fatal, but vulnerable areas of the human body such as the face and neck were more susceptible to critical hits. As such, even with high VIT, the wound was deep.
“Come at me like you’re trying to kill me. If you don’t, you might actually die.”
“Ngh… OOOHHH!!”
Tsutomu had read a newspaper article about Daryl’s performance at his limits during the Mount Golem battle. It was said that reaching that state, achieved by surviving a life-or-death situation, granted extraordinary physical abilities beyond human capabilities.
Tsutomu wondered if that was similar to what he had heard somewhere — perhaps a TV program — about the human brain limiting a person’s physical abilities.
“There! There…!”
With his cheek sliced open, Daryl seemed to be operating at his physical limits, his movements visibly different from normal. Despite being inferior in skills, he fought with genuine determination. Garm found himself being pushed back, having difficulties facing an opponent who was coming at him for a fight to the death.
Occasionally, Garm would successfully attack Daryl’s arms and legs, but the latter did not even flinch — and since he made sure to guard the vulnerable parts of his body, it was difficult to hit him with a critical blow. Having been trained by Garm, though, it was only natural that Daryl was extremely good at defense.
“Ngh…”
A little more push, and Daryl’s physical limiter would come off — at which point, he would have a solid chance at winning this. Garm’s Job was among the fastest of the Tank-type Jobs, but he still was not as fast as Amy and Hannah. As such, he struggled to maintain distance, and was forced to suffer the disadvantages of extremely close-ranged combat.
“Damn, when’d the kid get that strong?”
“They’re really putting on a good show. Keep it up!”
The other Explorers, gathering around the training area to watch the fight, started cheering for Daaryl as he gained the upper hand. Daryl’s status as Garm’s apprentice had become widely known by now, so the spectators were quite excited with expectations of an underdog victory.
“TAH!”
Garm, losing his advantage to brute force, took a direct hit to the head from Daryl’s tower shield. With an unpleasant-sounding blunt impact, he was knocked back and fell to his knees.
“Whoa! Awesome!”
“Keep going, boy!”
Witnessing Garm kneeling down, everyone around them was filled with excitement. Tsutomu maintained a poker face, but his eyes trembled, disturbed by what he was seeing.
“Wait… did I just do that!?”
Daryl was surprised by the fact that he had landed that solid blow — so surprised that he stopped moving for a brief moment. Believing that with this strength of his, he could defeat Garm, he then proceeded to launch a follow-up attack.
But then Garm immediately stood up, his mood clearly different from before.
“You’ve really gotten much stronger…”
The spectating Explorers held their breaths. Even Tsutomu could feel how unusual this was. And Daryl, confronted with a look that had never been directed at him before, felt like he had no choice but to take a step back.
“…But I have as well.”
Garm had reached the limit of his physical abilities, just like Daryl. The fight that followed was truly one-sided — so much so that Tsutomu wanted to cover his eyes.
At the limit of their abilities, their physical performance did not differ much. Daryl was resilient, while Garm was more agile, however, which meant Daryl could no longer overpower Garm as he did before.
Moreover, Garm had always excelled at anti-personnel combat to the extent that he had caught the attention of the Security Team, which was in charge of policing all sorts of criminal activities — including those of Explorers. Garm’s prowess had led to several recruitment offers from them, a rare occurrence in itself. Aside from him, only Amy and Weiss had been recruited directly by them, Amy due to her idol-like influence, and Weiss due to his capabilities.
There was no way Daryl, whose physical abilities were merely comparable to Garm’s, could defeat him. Having shed too much blood, Daryl’s consciousness grew hazy, and he fell to his knees. Garm pointed his short sword at Daryl’s nose.
“Give it up. You’ll get to fight the Winter General either way, but I’ll take this win.”
“No… no! I can keep going!!”
“All right. Remember, you’re making me do this.”
Daryl’s endurance and stamina, cultivated through rigorous training, likely contributed to the prolonged battle. But in the end, despite his refusal to give up, Daryl was finally stopped by a kick to the face by Garm’s iron-clad boot.
Even as Daryl fell, he attempted to rise again, but Garm mercilessly kicked him down. The match came to an end when one of the nearby medical officers intervened.
“<<Heal>>.”
As the doctor began administering the appropriate treatment while observing Daryl’s condition, Tsutomu looked up at Garm, who had approached him after noticing his presence.
“That was a bit too much, don’t you think?”
“He’ll never learn from his mistakes unless I crush him thoroughly. When one gains that power, they start believing they can win against anyone — I had no other choice.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
“…My past was filled with painful experiences — But, well, I’ve gotten much better since then. If anything, I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned.”
Garm groaned and turned away, as if trying to forget his unpleasant memories. Daryl stood up, seeming to have recovered already, his face having returned to its original state without any visible injuries or scars. On the verge of tears, he looked at Tsutomu; the latter, seeing that Daryl felt too awkward to talk to Garm, tried giving him a helping hand.
“Daryl, you’re not supposed to ask ‘did I do that’ after, you know, smashing someone with a shield.”
“I-I’m sorry…”
“Hmph, you’re finally awake? Follow me — we’ll go over your performance,” Garm said before walking away.
“Y-yes, sir!”
Daryl hurried after him. Tsutomu watched the two of them go, both of their tails wagging happily, and held back a smile by pressing his hand against his mouth.
―▽▽―
The sparring matches ended, and the final lineup of Team 1 consisted of Xeno and Garm as Tanks, Tsutomu as the Healer, and Amy and Diniel as the Attackers. The rest made up Team 2 — Daryl and Hannah as Tank, Korinna as the Healer, and Amira and Leleia as Attackers.
The plan was to stick with these general lineups until everyone successfully progressed past layer eighty. Tsutomu promptly wrote down this week’s schedules, goals, and allocated training sessions.
“Daryl, he’s your training plan. It’s just a reference, so change it however you like to match up with your team,” Tsutomu said and handed a set of documents to Daryl, the appointed leader of Team 2, who accepted it with an ear-to-ear smile.
“Yes! I understand!”
Thanks to the sparring match with Garm, Daryl had gained some recognition, and he was currently brimming with happiness.
Afterward, Tsutomu went through Team 1’s lineup and had a brief discussion with Ollie, who had come up with various proposals for clan management. Once that was done, Tsutomu visited Leleia’s room. The purpose, of course, was to talk about Amira.
Since Tsutomu had already told her what he wanted to talk about, Leleia let Tsutomu inside. The room was neat and tidy, a complete contrast to the messiness of Amira and Hannah’s rooms.
Without much exchange of greetings, Tsutomu quickly cut to the chase.
“So… you’ll be in a somewhat long-term team with Amira — are you sure you’re alright with that?”
“I’m sure.”
Having been in a team with Leleia on several occasions to test out her <<Spirit Contracts>>, Tsutomu had developed a decent level of camaraderie with her. Because of that, he sensed some resemblances in their personalities, so he decided to speak up,
“You might as well tell her directly. Amira can be… oblivious about many things, so she probably doesn’t understand your issue despite being the one causing it.”
“…I have no issue with anyone or anything.”
“That’s hard to believe. We’ve been in the same team for a month now, you know — I can tell.”
While Hannah and Amira were completely oblivious during their time in the four-person team, Tsutomu had noticed what could be perceived as Leleia’s pettiness. After all, she had gone as far as switching Clans to get back at Amira — it was not exactly hard to miss.
“It may appear that the relationship between you is on a somewhat positive side now, but it’s still true that she’s done terrible things to you in the past. Really, aren’t you annoyed? Amira’s always done things her way without a care for others, but now that she’s reformed, she’s acting like nothing had ever gone wrong.”
“……”
Leleia’s eyes widened as if she had been struck deep in her heart, Tsutomu’s words seeming to have expressed what had always been on her mind. On the surface, she had done all this for the sake of her old friends who had been constantly looked down upon, but under that shell, there were murky negative emotions. Feeling that Tsutomu could relate to her, Leleia muttered,
“…I’ll admit that there are still some unpleasant sentiments… Maybe.”
“I bet there is. I believe Amira, as she is right now, is a good girl — but I don’t know all that much about how she was before. So I don’t think I have the right to ask you to forgive her, Leleia.”
“Yes, I understand,” Leleia said firmly and waited for a response.
Tsutomu, although unsure if his suggestion would go through, proceeded to say,
“But you know, I’d like you to give her a chance — a chance of resolving this issue by talking it out. If you don’t want to do that, you can settle it once and for all with a duel, of course. I think it’d work out for you either way.”
“…How did you figure all this out?”
“Huh? Uh, well, you might not like the sound of it,” Tsutomu said in a self-deprecating manner, “But I just thought you were kinda like me in some ways, that’s all.”
Leleia looked surprised for a moment, then she smiled. With her green eyes locked onto Tsutomu, she spoke sincerely,
“…For now, I’d like to prove myself with my capabilities. I’ll come out on top and show her that I’m superior.”
“All right. Let’s begin with progressing through layer eighty, then. We’ll be in different teams, but let’s both do our best.”
“Yes, of course.”
Leleia, who had been accumulating toxic feelings within her all this time, nodded to Tsutomu with a somewhat brightened expression.
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