Chapter 466: Chapter 466 - S-Ranks(Part 4)
A sharp clang rang out as I shot forward and slamming my left hand, which I’d tranformed, against Jerik’s blades, before swiftly flying back and whipping my tail across at him as he began tk lunge at me.
He quickly ducked down, my tail severing a couple of strands of his hair, before he sprang back onto his feet and shot towards me, leaping forward and driving his left blade towards me.
I tranformed my right hand and parried his thrust, before slamming my knee onto the middle of his chest, sending him flying back a few meters through the air, his feet skidding back as they hit the ground, a pained grimace on his face.
Pretty sure I fractured a couple of ribs there. And those blades of his are really high quality...unlike my Soul Weapon in my previous life, my tail and blades can’t cut through anything, but they’re still pretty damn sharp.
He’s blocked several attacks from me with his blades, but there’s not so much as a nick on them.
"Damn it, what the hell are you made of?! Your blades are at least as tough as mine are, but that should be impossible!" He snapped in bewilderment.
Huh, looks like he was thinking the same thing. I guess his blades must be made of a pretty strong material, they don’t feel like steel or any other metal I’ve come across.
But even if they were strong enough to break my blades and cut through my tail, it wouldn’t make much of a difference since I can just grow new ones.
I then unleashed a fierce blast of blue flames towards him, before he quickly raced across and narrowly evaded them.
He halted and spun across towards me as I shot forward at full speed, splitting my tail in two and spreading them out, before sending them converging in towards him from other side as I closed in and drove my left blade towards his throat.
He managed to block my blade and deflected the left half of my tail away from his right side, before crying out in pain as the other half of my tail plunged into his left shoulder, his arm slumping to his side as he lost his grip over his left blade, which hit the ground with a thud.
Suddenly, he turned his head across and snapped his jaws around my tail before I could pull it out of his shoulder, before slashing at my chest with his right blade.
I grimaced as he inflicted a gash across my chest, before he let out a sharp wheeze as I slammed my foot onto his stomach, sending him hurtling back several meters through the air, before he came to an abrupt halt as his back slammed onto the side of a tree.
Hm...right, if I want to end this quickly, I can just do what he did. Guess I should’ve thought of it sooner...oh, well.
"D-Damn it...," He uttered shakily as he stumbled forward, trying to move his left arm but to no avail, before stiffening as I came charging in towards him.
As I closed in on him, I drove my right hand towards his head, before he swiftly tilted his head across, my blade grazing his left cheek before piercing into the tree and getting lodged in, right as he plunged his blade into the middle of my chest.
"Gotcha," I smirked, as I grabbed his forearm before he could pull the blade back out, his eyes widening in horror.
"N-No, you...you let me hit you on purpose," He uttered in realization, before gasping as I plunged my tail into the upper left side of his back, piercing his heart.
"Mhm, that’s right. I got the idea when you grabbed my tail with your teeth. You’re more skilled than I am at close-combat, I’ll give you that. But with my superior physical prowess, not to mention my regeneration, all I needed to do was keep wearing you down until the pain and fatigue slowed you down. Once I took out your left arm, this fight was all but over," I replied, as I pulled my tail out and stepped back.
He collapsed onto knees shakily, coughing out blood before slumping against the tree as blood poured out of his mouth, streaming down his neck and chest.
Still, that was a lot closer than I would’ve thought. I’m still not fully accustomed to this new body...it’s weaker and slower than my previous body was, and I haven’t yet adapted to that change.
If he wasn’t alone, if he’d had one or two more S-Ranks backing him up, there’s a good chance that I would’ve lost. It’s a good thing I took out that Wind Magic user first, this fight would’ve dragged on for a while if I hadn’t.
"Sh-Shit, I’ll...I’ll be dead...in a matter...of seconds. Still...not the...worst way...to go out. Even if it...was just for...a little while, I...I held my own against...a Unique Monster," He chuckled wryly, his voice growing quieter and quieter, before his head slumped forward, his body going limp as he fell over and hit the ground with a thud.
I then reached down and wrested his blade out of his grasp, before heading towards the other one, picking it up and heading back.
They drove me a fair distance away from Celestia, I wonder how her fight went? I don’t hear anything, so it must be over.
As I emerged from the forest and back into the clearing where the battle had begun, I looked down in bemusement as the ground below squelched as I stepped onto it.
The entire area’s all muddy. Oh, there’s Celestia, looks like she survived. Huh, she’s taking off the Water Magic user’s clothes.
"Uh...whatcha doing there?" I inquired as I approached her.
"Hm? Oh, hey, you’re back! Guess that means you won too. And to answer your question, I’m getting myself a new outfit. I’ll take the others’ clothes too, I don’t exactly have many options, you know. And unlike you, I can’t just give myself a new outfit by thinking about it," She pointed out.
Right, the only clothes she has is the outfit that she was wearing when I first met her, which was already pretty damaged, plus the outfits of those Adventurers who had chased her into this forest, most of which I’d damaged when I killed them.
"Well, the Wind Magic user’s gear is mostly intact, though I did scuff up that dual wielding swordsman’s outfit a fair bit. Oh, and on that note, here you go," I remarked as I handed her the blades, her eyes lighting up.
"Yes! This is awesome! These blades are way beyond what I could’ve ever hoped to afford, same goes for all this battle gear too. Heh, this ended up working out really well for me," She grinned cheerfully.
"The Detector and Enchanter’s clothes should be undamaged too. I killed the Detector by piercing his neck with my tail, so other than being a bit blood-stained, his outfit should’ve have taken any additional damage. And I took out the Enchanter by splitting her head open, so her outfit’s fine too. Besides the clothes you were wearing and the clothes of the woman in the last group that attacked you, the rest of the clothes you have are men’s, so between the Wind Magic user and the Enchanter, at least you have two more now."
"Eh, I don’t really care about that. So long as it fits and is functional, it doesn’t particularly matter to me," She shrugged indifferently.
"Fair enough, sounds practical."
"Mhm. I do wish I could get some new underwear though, I’m certainly not going to steal those off corpses," She sighed in response.
"Yeah, that’d be pretty gross, so-...wait, does that mean you’ve been wearing the same pair this whole time?"
"What? No! Of course not! I’ve just been making do without," She shot back indignantly.
"Huh...I see."
"Hm? H-Hey, get that pervy look of your face," She frowned with a self-conscious look on her face, as she caught me stealing a glance at her chest.
"Sorry, my bad," I grinned sheepishly, averting my gaze.
I mean, it’s not like it’s noticeable or anything. Clothing fabric is made pretty thick in this world, likely to keep it from getting worn down too fast, and then add leather armor on top of that and it’s pretty much impossible to tell whether someone’s wearing underwear or not.
"Uh, on another note...you seem to be pretty much unscathed, impressive."
"Yeah, the technique I came up with that I was keeping up my sleeve turned out to be a lot more effective than I thought it would be, it was kinda crazy how easily I won after using it. And now that I have these blades, I feel unstoppable," She smiled, looking pretty encouraged.
"What’s so special about them, by the way? The guy I took them off seemed surprised that my blades held up against them," I replied curiously.
"These are made of Arcanite, a special alloy that consists of the strongest metals, like orichalcum, mythril and a bunch of other stuff. It’s the strongest material in existence, even tougher than diamonds, and yet lightweight. It’s extremely hard to make, so it’s super expensive and relatively rare too, even Nobles struggle to afford them. Most weapons require regular maintenance and eventually have to be replaced entirely. But weapons made of Arcanite basically last forever, they’re almost impossible to break," She explained, as she inspected the blades in fascination.
"Cool. Want to take them for a test drive a bit later? I’d like to get more used to my body, and a spot of sparring should help with that, if you’re up for that."
"Sure, sounds good."
