Climb looked down at Tsuare’s feet to make sure she was wearing shoes. Running should be no problem, then.
“Let’s escape quickly before the enemy shows up.”
“Okay, got it. I’ll take point like before, so follow me. The only thing is that this time we don’t have invisibility magic. I’m going to proceed with caution, so watch for my signals.”
“Understoo— What is it, Brain?” Climb asked, because Brain was closely examining Tsuare.
“Hmm? Oh, uh, nothing, Climb.” Frowning, he said no more.
Climb glanced at her, but he couldn’t find anything about her that bothered him; she just seemed like an imprisoned maid.
“So you’re okay? Should we go?”
The thief set off running, followed by Climb, Brain, and Tsuare at the rear.
They raced past the cells, but the thief slowed as they approached the corner. He wanted to check it out first.
But with a gait as natural as if he was on a stroll, a man abruptly appeared from around the corner to impede him. They’d been prepared for someone to block off their escape route, but when it actually happened, it was hard to act quickly.
Climb was so startled that he froze, but the thief reacted in a way worthy of a former orichalcum-rank adventurer. He immediately drew a dagger and stepped forward with the intent to kill.
But—with a loud ker-blam, the thief went flying to the side like he’d been bodychecked by a bull. By coincidence, Climb caught him. If Climb hadn’t been able to fall correctly, he probably would have hit the floor at a bad angle and wound up critically injured from that alone, but luckily they both rolled into a tangle with no loss of momentum.
He was worried by the thief’s groan of suppressed pain, but he paid more attention to the newcomer. Climb knew for sure this man was an enemy.
The one in their way was essentially bald. His arms, bulging with muscles, and his craggy face were covered in tattoos depicting various beasts.
His name appeared with a flash in Climb’s mind, and he yelped, “Zero!”
He was one of the Six Arms and chief of the Eight Fingers’ security division.
“…That’s right, boy. You’re that whore’s slave, right? Hmph! Can’t believe we have ants all the way over here. When you leave sweets out, they really show up anywhere. How very unpleasant.”
After casting just a glance at Climb and the thief on the floor, he turned a serious eye on Brain, right across from him. He looked him up and down, appraising his worth as a warrior.
Climb was thankful he wasn’t worthy of the powerful enemy’s attention and checked the thief’s condition. “Are you okay? Do you have any medical supplies?” he asked in a low voice to avoid drawing Zero’s attention.
There was no reply, just a miserable groan. Shockingly, there was a fist-size dent in the thief’s armor. That spoke volumes about the strength of Zero’s punch.
After Climb shook him a few times, the thief became more lucid. Climb followed his instructions and searched the pouches at the injured man’s hips.
“I know that face. You’re Brain Unglaus, right? You fought as equals with Gazef Stronoff. I see, you don’t make any wasteful movements. So you must have kept training since that fight, then? I’m convinced. Succuronte didn’t lose because he was careless. It was simply the outcome of fighting you head-on. Well, it’s too bad he had to go up against you. I guess we’ll have to forgive him for his loss. Anyhow, since you’ve sullied my good name, I really should kill you. But I’m a generous guy. In light of your exceptional ability with the blade, I’ll give you a chance. Kneel before me. And then swear to work for me. If you’ll do that, I’ll spare you.”
“The pay must be good, huh?”
“Oh? You’re interested…?”
“You’re not going to punish me for hearing you out, are you? I did beat Succuronte, after all, so I should expect to be treated pretty well, right?”
“Ha-ha-ha! You greedy bastard, putting money before begging for your life. You can’t take your salary with you to the next world, you know!”
“Hey, whoa, what the heck? Are you saying the Eight Fingers can’t make a decent offer? Does that mean you guys are broke? Or are you the type who pockets everything yourself?”
“What?!” Zero’s fist creaked. “So you can talk, huh, Unglaus? There are a lot of guys who can talk better than they can handle a sword—are you one of those? Or did you get cocky ’cause you beat Succuronte? If that’s the case, I owe you an apology. Sorry you were satisfied after beating the weakest member of the Six Arms.”
Brain clownishly shrugged. He must have been dragging out the conversation for the sake of Climb and the injured thief.
But why was Zero going along with it? Probably to boast that he could take all three of them at once. Or did he have some other reason?
…Huh?
When Climb looked over, he saw Tsuare slowly moving behind Brain. If she wanted to find a safe spot, it would have been better to join Climb and the thief. There was no need for her to take the risk of standing behind the man who was having a stare down with Zero.
Brain glanced over his shoulder. It was too quick for Climb to be sure, but Brain had been looking at Tsuare, and the gleam in his eyes was definitely not friendly. In fact, it was hostile.
Huh? Why is she there? Did he look at me? No.
What’s going on? Worried, Climb stood up.
“Hmph. The ant stands! Guess you’ve bought enough time, huh? Pretty soon I’d like to hear your answer. No, words won’t be necessary. Kneel or don’t. Okay, Unglaus, let’s see what you do!”
Brain snorted—and that was all.
“Then you’ll die!”
Zero thrust out his left hand and drew back his right into a fist. He dropped his hips straight down, but his core didn’t break. His muscles swelled so large that they were almost audibly straining against his skin. To describe Zero as he was now in a few words, it was like he was a huge rock—no, more like an enraged bull.
Brain lowered his hips as well. His stance seemed to resemble Zero’s but was totally different.
If Zero was a muddy stream, Brain was a clear river. If Zero was offense, Brain was defense.
“I gave orders to not kill the old man, but the welcome crew is a hot-blooded bunch. They might overdo it and finish him off accidentally. But that would be a problem. I want to mercilessly slaughter him as an example, to teach how foolish it is to cross the Eight Fingers.”
His face twisted into a hideous grimace. It showed how ugly hate could make a person.
“Unglaus, I’m going to be hailed as the strongest, and it’ll be because of you. I’ll set up a gravestone for you to show what happens to fools who challenge the Six Arms! As for the whore’s underling, I’ll decorate his head real nice and ship it to her.”
A murderous aura that would make anyone shudder slammed into Climb’s chest. But it was nothing compared to what he had experienced during his time with Sebas. He shot Zero a sharp look in return, and it seemed to take a bit of the wind out of the man’s sails.
“I see, got it. Zero, I’ll be your opponent. Climb, take care of the one behind me!”
It took him a second to understand what he’d been told, but that was only Climb; the thief shot a dart at Tsuare without hesitation.
The missile from the former orichalcum-rank adventurer came in sharp and fast.
Tsuare—somehow—managed to dodge it. According to what Climb had heard from Sebas, she was only a maid. She’d handled herself too well for it to be a fluke.
“You figured it out, huh?” She still resembled Tsuare, but the voice belonged to the Illusion Maniac, Succuronte.
“The reason you didn’t ask your rescuers anything was because your voice would have given you away, right? But it was pretty suspicious to maneuver around behind me, don’t you think? Well, I was wondering even before that. You could have been the real one under mind control, or someone else could have been transformed.” Brain exposed the ruse with
out even turning, keeping his eyes locked with Zero’s. “Eventually, I guessed from the way you were running, but I couldn’t be sure… I’m glad it was you. I couldn’t exactly ask them to make sure you only sustain light injuries.”
The thief froze for a split second. Then a glimpse of gratitude to Succuronte appeared on his face, too.
“So they saw through your little scheme with no trouble? Then the time for relying on magic tricks is over. Now we decide everything by strength! Succuronte. Kill the two small fries in the rear. You can do that much, can’t you?”
“O-of course, boss.”
Tsuare melted away, and Succuronte appeared. He was, however, still wearing the maid uniform.
“Yeah. I went out of my way to arrange for you to be released, so if you can’t…” How was Zero’s sentence supposed to finish? The man who must have known quite well speedily nodded and stared Climb down.
“We meet again, brat.” Succuronte’s serious tone belied an unexpected nervousness for the one who had been victorious in their previous encounter.
The Eight Fingers was not an easygoing organization, so there was no way they would forgive two mistakes. Forced into a do-or-die situation, any semblance of calm had vanished from Succuronte’s face.
“The Eight Fingers can bail out someone who was imprisoned in the princess’s name?” Despite this vivid example of his enemy’s influence, Climb raised his sword nonetheless. “…I can’t lose this time.”
In the previous fight, Brain had taken out Succuronte with a single blow, but against both Zero and Succuronte, victory was much less certain. Climb couldn’t count on Brain winning against Zero and defending him. This opponent was stronger than them. But with that unstable frame of mind, he would get clobbered.
I’ll win. With indomitable resolution, Climb edged toward Succuronte.
“Don’t worry, you’re fine. I’ll help,” Climb heard the thief call from behind him. The casual tone was probably meant to ease Climb’s nerves. He was glad to have the support of someone stronger than him, but the thief had taken a hit from Zero, and although he’d used a potion, he undeniably had yet to fully recover. Besides that, Climb wasn’t sure if he would be able to coordinate with someone he was fighting with for the first time.
The thief’s grin was evidence that he’d picked up on Climb’s emotional distress. “I’m tellin’ ya, don’t worry! I’m here for backup. A thief’s fighting style is different from a warrior’s. I’ll show you that combat’s not all about banging swords together.”
“Thank you.”
He has more experience than me. It wouldn’t be Climb following him but him following Climb. All Climb had to do was throw everything he had at Succuronte.
Having steeled himself, he glared at Succuronte, who was busy creating doubles like he had in their previous fight. Among the multiple Succurontes, it was impossible to tell which one was real. A bitter taste seeped into Climb’s mouth.
As the distance between them closed, a bag suddenly came flying from behind Climb.
“This is how a thief fights!”
The bag burst readily when it landed at Succuronte’s feet, creating a cloud of powder. Fearing poison, Succuronte covered his mouth. But that wasn’t it. The cloud wasn’t poison but a magic item.
“Will-o’-the-Wisp Powder!”
The effect was immediate. A pale light glowed around just one of the five Succurontes.
When he realized this, Succuronte’s eyes popped wide open.
Will-o’-the-Wisp Powder was for detecting invisible opponents or thieves and the like who excelled at stealth maneuvers. It didn’t work on anything that wasn’t alive.
Multiple Vision would reflect the current state of the original body, so, for example, even if the illusionist got dye thrown on them, the copies would instantly reflect the stains on the original. Unless he was completely inept, it would be difficult to tell the real one from the fakes. In the case of a magic item, however, changes to the original body weren’t applied to the illusions.
With higher-tier techniques, it was possible to circumvent magic items, but Succuronte had trained as both an illusionist and a fencer, so he couldn’t use such advanced techniques.
Climb’s sword descended over the real one.
“Shit!” Succuronte jumped out of the way.
It was an admirable evasion, but he looked a little silly in the maid uniform.
They exchanged dozens of blows in a similar fashion.
Climb was ahead. This wasn’t part of Succuronte’s plan but purely Climb’s superior ability.
A human shouldn’t have been able to get dramatically stronger in a single day, so the gap shouldn’t have been any different from their previous fight, but every rule has its exceptions.
First, unlike the other day, Climb was now equipped with a sword and shield, plus armor and other small items fortified with magic. They raised his physical strength, increased his defense, and most importantly, allowed him to fight in his true style. Succuronte, on the other hand, had been imprisoned, so he’d been stripped of all his original magic items, and the maid uniform he wore for his illusion disguise had poor freedom of movement.
So from the gear perspective, the gulf between them had shrunk, but that wasn’t all.
Climb’s familiarity with Succuronte’s fighting style was another disadvantage to the illusionist. Plus, the thief supporting Climb from the rear was assisting in pertinent ways.
Succuronte created illusions, but the thief used alchemical and magical items to neutralize any edge it might have given him. The former adventurer seemed totally prepared to deal with him. And in actuality, the thief had indeed guessed what the Six Arms’ powers were based on the intelligence he’d received and prepared counterstrategies for all of them. The scary thing was that he’d even readied a strategy for the supposedly imprisoned Succuronte—that’s how tenaciously cautious he was.
“Damn you!” Even more cornered than he’d been at the beginning of their fight, Succuronte screamed in a cracking voice.
His piercing eyes then focused on the thief. Climb moved to obstruct his line of sight. The young soldier couldn’t let his enemy attack his ally.
Under Climb’s protection, the former adventurer taunted Succuronte. “Hey, hey, don’t look so scared! You’re one of the Six Arms! You’re supposed to be on par with an adamantite-rank adventurer, right? So you should be fine with this little handicap.”
Succuronte’s face twisted in loathing. The blood running from the wounds he’d sustained during the brief back-and-forth made him look even more feral.
“You piece of shit!” As he flung the insult, he assumed a casting stance. Really, as a warrior, Climb should have charged at him to interfere, but he didn’t. The way he’d learned to work with the thief during the previous exchanges had created a bond of trust.
A bottle flew in a parabola over Climb to break at Succuronte’s feet, and a tinted cloud wafted out.
Succuronte was racked by painful-sounding coughs.
It was a cheap disturbance made by an alchemically created item, but it was enormously effective. Succuronte’s casting had been halted.
If he had specialized as a caster, this wouldn’t have been an issue, but since he’d been training in parallel as a warrior, even the slightest disruption would cause him to lose his concentration, and he’d end up expending his magical energy for nothing.
While Succuronte was distracted, Climb charged at him with all his might. This wasn’t like the pounces he’d been doing so far but an indomitable advance. To some, it may have looked like he was jumping the gun, too eager to win, but Climb’s warrior instinct was screaming.
This was the tipping point of this fight.
True, Climb and the thief were keeping the pressure on Succuronte, but it wasn’t clear how long their advantage would last. The thief didn’t have infinite projectiles. They had to launch an offensive that would finish things off while they were ahead.
Climb used the origin
al martial art he’d acquired the previous day.
It didn’t have a name yet, but to give it a temporary one: Release Brain Power. Its effect was simply to remove the limiters of the human mind. It caused the functions of everything from his flesh to his senses to drastically improve.
Sustained use would wear him out physically and damage his muscles, so it was a double-edge sword, but if he didn’t use it and try to make this a short fight, he wouldn’t be able to beat Succuronte.
When he activated the art, it was like something snapped into place in his head.
The maelstrom of emotions in his heart poured out as a roar.
A look of surprise came over Succuronte’s face, as if he’d suddenly remembered something. And along with it—was that fear? It was an inappropriate emotion for a man worthy of an adamantite rank to have toward a lower-ranking opponent.
Climb brought his sword down from overhead—and was blocked. Stopping a magic longsword with an unenchanted dagger was impressive and deserved nothing but praise. But admitting that meant one also had to admit that Climb had forced Succuronte, a fencer skilled in evasion, to choose an option he was less comfortable with—blocking—and that was no mean feat.
But his attack didn’t stop there. Climb immediately kicked forward.
Succuronte moved instinctively to shield his abdomen—and his face twisted up. “Rrrrahhhhh!” He went pale, cold sweat oozed out of his pores, and he staggered, having lost the will to advance.
Behind Climb, the thief’s face twitched.
Succuronte had received a kick where it counted with a steel boot. He was wearing pads, but still, he felt something under them distend.
Then came the final blow.
With a spurt of blood, Succuronte fell to the floor with a thud.
Climb glanced around the area without lowering his guard. He especially wanted to avoid anyone circling around behind the thief, so he concentrated for a while until he felt confident. This was not an illusion.
A gold star. Even if it was two against one, this was a pretty big victory.
Climb looked at Brain. He’d thought maybe he could help him out—but his enthusiasm quickly vanished.
The Men of the Kingdom Part II Page 11