by Fuse
The shoe really is on the other foot this time around…
Hinata chuckled at herself. Things had changed so much that she began to miss those days of boredom.
There isn’t a single shred of kindness in this world, is there?
She could whine about it all she wanted, but her mind was already made up. There was no point worrying, or even thinking, about it. Victory was the only way she could break out of this. Were her beliefs right or wrong? That hardly mattered any longer, as her mind shifted solely to how she could win this.
Hinata sized up Rimuru. Arnaud and the others had moved away with their own opponents; it was just the two of them now.
Silently, she invoked her Measurer unique skill to look him over. He may as well have been a different person from before. Rimuru was a demon lord, and there was no telling how deep these waters went.
Oh boy. Look at all that growth. The idea of him warring with humankind makes me shudder.
If not even Measurer could fully gauge him, it meant Rimuru was either at her level or higher. She moved on, invoking Usurper, her other unique skill and the one absolute advantage she could always enjoy over those superior to her. It let her effortlessly see through and steal the target’s skills and arts—and while that didn’t mean she could use them all to their full potential, taking away the skills her opponent worked so hard to obtain was, in its own way, a cruel and merciless gesture.
If the target was below Hinata in skill, the evaluation results provided were always “not applicable.” It meant she couldn’t take that target’s skills, even though that had no effect on her eventual victory. If the target was better than her, Usurper could either “fail” or “succeed.” Ending with one of those results meant this was a pretty strong foe—but success meant she knew all the target’s skills and arts, and if it failed, she could just try again, as many times as she wanted. No matter how formidable the foe, she could always make the skill succeed given enough tries. It was just a matter of staying on guard, buying time, and waiting for the right moment. Pull it off right, and Hinata’s victory was assured.
When she fought Rimuru for the first time, Usurper came back with a “not applicable” for her. It convinced Hinata that she had nothing to worry about. She totally downplayed his chances, and while having Ifrit summoned on her was a bit of a surprise, it still wasn’t a serious problem. She had honed her skills to the point that she had Force Takeover, a rule-breaking skill that was fully effective against weaker foes.
Forcing her to turn to that, Hinata had thought, was impressive of Rimuru. But that was all.
Hinata thus invoked Usurper as a starter, just to see what kind of enemy she was dealing with. This time, though, it failed her. The skill went through the motions…and once it was done, the result it returned to her was “blocked.”
That was the second time she had seen that. The first was against Luminus Valentine.
So you’re in the same lofty heights as Luminus…?
Hinata was impressed. And in such a short time, too. Trickery wasn’t going to achieve much here.
She took the hefty Dragonbuster sword off her back and tossed it aside, realizing it would be no help at all to her. Instead, she drew the weapon Luminus gave her—Moonlight, a legend-class blade. Protecting her was her Holy Spirit Armor, the “original” that was granted to her other paladins in spiritual form. It was one of the Western Holy Church’s greatest countermeasures, an item wielded by the great Heroes of the past, built for tackling dragons and monsters. Only those truly beloved by the spirits could use it.
The light shrouded Hinata, settling itself into the shape of glowing armor over her form. Now she was free of all restrictions and stronger than an Enlightened—a Saint in terms of force. Now, it was a clash of power against power—and she was willing to put it all on the line.
The boring routine her life had become had just reached its end.
Waging war without any hope of winning was the work of a madman—but here, Hinata’s heart was singing. She smiled a little. Rimuru asked if she had received the message, which meant he was ready to settle this with a duel.
I suppose I can absolve myself with a victory here…
Her mind and heart made up, she let it beat out its frenetic rhythm as she pointed her blade at Rimuru.
Hinata pointed her sword at me.
She heard the message, and she still decided to tangle with me? I thought she wanted to talk when she threw that weapon away, but I guess not—she just whipped out an even meaner-looking one, eyes boring down upon me.
Ah well. Let’s win this and have her give me the story then.
Facing off against her like this, I couldn’t help but remember that this lady had no weaknesses at all. Out of any existing weapons in this world (the ones I had seen anyway), this had to be a far cry above anything else.
I took out my katana to address it. If I knew it was gonna shake out like this, I should’ve had Kurobe finish up that katana I had cooking for my own personal use. One had been sitting in my Stomach for a while, steeping in a steady stream of magicules and now a healthy-looking shade of black from tip to handle, but it was in Kurobe’s workshop right now. I had waited so long for it, I figured there was no major rush. Faced with Hinata’s blade, though, this substitute I had in my hand seemed a little lacking. Better keep it within my aura for protection and try to avoid a lot of swordplay.
So I had Uriel take control of my Magic Aura skill, covering the blade in dark, thundering flame. All set now. Let’s see what Hinata does.
We kicked off with a few ultra-high-speed exchanges. It had only just started, and she was going all out.
The speed of Hinata’s sword was staggering. Mind Accelerate raised my brain’s computational speed to a million times normal, and it still just barely let me react. It even reminded me of my fight against Milim. But I wasn’t losing. I’d deflect the blow, then return with a slash of my own.
We had exchanged a few blows at this point, but none of us had landed a strike. No grazing blows to my body, either, which I was glad for. We were testing each other out, but I still couldn’t fathom what she was capable of. Even with the support of Raphael and the power of a demon lord, nothing. She has to be some kinda monster. Frankly, I thought I was gonna overwhelm her a little more. I mean, yeah, she’s strong, but as a true demon lord, I figured that’d give me a decisive bodily advantage—but we were even.
Hinata, apparently reading the path of my sword with robotic precision, always lunged in at just the right moment. There were no extraneous movements in her flow, and even when I slashed back, she’d just shrug it off and give me a flurry of sharpened blows, poking at me in search of weaknesses. The old me wouldn’t have had a chance, I bet—meaning, in other words, that Hinata wasn’t really trying last time. Lucky me, I suppose.
I couldn’t hold anything back here, either, then.
Guess he’s not playing around, Hinata thought.
She had hoped to overwhelm him with her sword, making him accept defeat at an early stage. But Rimuru was easily her equal. It had taken her ten years to polish her sword skills, and he was countering all of them.
The human body has its limits. Only by using magic and skills and arts to their fullest could you finally duke it out against monsters. And Rimuru didn’t even need to breathe. His endurance would never wane, his muscles never ache, and no magic healing was required to ensure that.
Heh-heh… Standing in the same ring like this makes me realize all over again how unfair this is…
She understood the disadvantage she faced from the start, dealing with monsters. Survival of the fittest was the rule of law in this world, making it vital to set up all the conditions you needed for victory in advance. She revved up Measurer, speeding her mind a thousand times, even pushing it past the limit as she gauged her surroundings. It placed maximum pressure on her brain, even bursting capillaries—something she handled with self-regenerative magic before the enemy could enjoy a single glimpse
of weakness.
In this state, the world seemed to be frozen to her—but it still wasn’t enough. She used Measurer’s Compute Prediction skill to figure out the paths of Rimuru’s attacks. That was how cornered she felt. Every arrow in the quiver needed to be used—but Rimuru still looked like he was taking it easy by comparison.
She wiped away the drop of blood that just dripped from her nose, ensuring it wasn’t noticed by anyone, and gathered her breath. If this went on for too long, defeat was guaranteed. Even in her present Saint-level status, Hinata’s human body limited her. If she wanted to become a demi-human spiritual body, she still had one more wall to overcome.
Usurper, her main lifeline, was blocked and useless. The one advantage she could always count on against stronger foes was gone. Instead, she had to overwhelm Rimuru with all the technical skills she had cultivated over the years—and this was the result?
The sword Luminus granted her housed a scary amount of power. Using her magic force to impart an aura into it let her pelt foes with the kind of lethal damage basic regeneration skills couldn’t cope with. Even foes with Ultraspeed Regeneration could be cut in half with this thing.
If she could just take an arm off with it, Hinata thought, this would be over. No killing. If she could have Rimuru accept her victory, then it’d be settled. But she just couldn’t land that strike. Rimuru’s masterful grasp of the air around them, plus his honed physical skills, let him accurately predict every motion of her sword.
I can’t get over his growth—but only in terms of physical ability. I’m not so sure his technical skill has kept up…
He had evolved, and greatly so, but his innate talents hadn’t changed that much from before. Even if he could steal arts the way Hinata could, all that involved was grasping the fundamentals and having your body remember the moves. Making full, actual use of them took years of repetitive practice. That had to apply to Rimuru just as much as it applied to her—and she was counting on that for her victory.
This might come down to fighting experience, and Rimuru was sorely lacking there. Hinata could see that, and so she switched tactics, alternating her tempo to throw him off guard. Feinting, in other words. Taking full advantage of her polished skills, she did her best to lead Rimuru to his doom…
Suddenly, Hinata’s sword began to speed up.
Her sword skills seemed to change gears every other moment. My brain was going a million times faster than normal, but it was like she’d have her blade here, then the next moment, bam, it’s there, like a jittery online video.
This isn’t funny, I thought as I did my darnedest to fend her off. It was Hinata Sakaguchi in full swing. I knew this already, but they didn’t call her “defender of humankind” just to be nice.
So I kept watch over her as we continued to exchange flurries of blows. She had a bit of a smile on her face, watching me as if her victory was assured. She didn’t need her eyes to pull off those moves. They were focused right on me, like sensors tuned to pick up on everything in the area, detecting attacks. The core of her body remained firm, keeping her in a natural position that could handle any advance or retreat. None of her moves were forced; she could pull off a variety of attacks from a relaxed neutral position without any windup required.
How she was reading all my attacks, I didn’t know, but I was clearly an open book to her. Meanwhile, I was watching her attack motions, then using my physical gifts to find a way to dodge. It wasn’t exactly smooth-looking, no. I was being toyed with, and if this kept up, I was guaranteed to lose.
I was pretty sure I was more physically gifted, but for some reason, she knew every attack before I unleashed it. As a technical fighter, she was clearly better. In this battle, she wasn’t letting her guard down at all. Everything—the atmosphere, her personality—was different from last time. And those strikes, laden with as much force as they were, were bound to sorely damage me if they hit.
Understood. The blow would not be lethal, but it would drain a large amount of magical energy.
Yeah, see? And not being lethal was great and all, but one poorly parried strike, and I was gonna pay dearly for it. A few in a row, and I’d be in danger.
According to Professor Raphael, that sword of hers had some kind of special force as well. Its wavelengths could change the local laws of nature, letting it break through my Multilayer Barrier. For real? It can’t be. But I doubted Professor Raphael was wrong.
…
Oh? Sorry? Something up?
Report. Next attack incoming.
Oops. No time to be lost in thought. Hinata had a sharp sword on her, and she worked it freely, moving from jabs to sweeps in a single, dance-like motion. She was nothing if not steady, shunning all magic or fancy moves and relying on textbook swordplay to engage me. To be honest, the only other person in this world who could take on Hinata in a swordfight was Hakuro—and unfortunately, Hakuro would probably lose. The difference in potential was just too great.
Looking at it like this, Hinata was truly a combat genius. No half-hearted attacks would ever work on her. For example, summoning a Replication of yourself to fight her was pointless, because ultimate skills could only be used by the original body, while Replications could only use up to unique skills. Hinata would just mow those clones down pronto. Even if you took Soei’s approach and assigned each copy only the skills they needed, that gave you no freedom to change your tactics midway, which meant you’d never keep up with her.
Tricks like that could leave you open, which was taboo. Perhaps it wasn’t the most exciting strategy, but it’d be wisest to wait Hinata out until she got fatigued. Fatigue never happened to me, after all. But now look at her—she’s speeding up her slashes!
…Wait, no. Hang on. I can’t read her anymore. I was watching her motion, taking evasive action, but now she was pursuing me with follow-up strikes, anticipating where I’d land each time. Wait, this can’t be right…
Understood. You are being lured into the area she plans to attack.
Ah, that makes sense. Wherever I try to escape to, Hinata’s always there with the perfect attack. In other words, she can make me go wherever she wants?
My clothing got ripped. The grazing blows were starting to pile up faster. Oh, crap. This is really, really bad. Professor! Professor Raphael!!
My only chance was to have Raphael bail me out. Isn’t there anything we can do? Think, dude!
Report. Predict Future Attack learned. Use this skill?
Yes
No
…Whoa. Glad I asked. This guy’s unstoppable. I always knew the prof would come through in a pinch. I had trouble figuring out what it said out of nowhere, but that sounded like one hell of a skill I just acquired, so…
Report. It was not acquired. It was learned.
Um, okay? I don’t care, I grumbled to myself.
As the professor put it, observing Hinata’s movements, it reasoned that she must be predicting my attacks in order to dodge them all so well. Meaning it had learned from watching her during our battle together.
…Wait, it can do that?!
Understood. Yes, it is possible.
Huh. Guess so. And I really did have the skill now, so it wasn’t lying.
I immediately used that skill, and when I did, I could see streaks of light in my vision—printed into my brain, if you will—like any of my other senses.
One of them was glowing. I brought my sword up to block its trajectory, then marveled at how effortlessly it let me block Hinata’s blade. Those light streaks must represent the slashes and thrusts currently possible from my adversary’s position, with their projected paths. A few more repetitions, and I noticed that some of these streaks were black in color—this meant unpredictability and a more threatening strike down the road. In other words, I suppose, all her feints and low-level attacks could now be pre-calculated, but a master like Hinata couldn’t be predicted all the time.
This pre-calculation wasn’t even the scary part about this move. That lay in
its accuracy. The streaks of light didn’t represent possibilities; if the prediction was successful, there was a 100 percent chance of an attack coming down that way.
And if that was the case, Hinata was no longer a threat to me. Her feints were no longer feints; they were just another step down the road to perdition.
I won!
And with that newfound confidence, I let my body flow and followed Predict Future Attack’s guidance, attempting to wrest Hinata’s sword from her hand…
It was instinct, a baseless hunch in her mind, and it told her that letting her sword continue along this way would be a fatal mistake.
Hinata preferred a logical approach to battle. She never engaged in behavior that ran counter to the evidence at hand. But this time, she believed in her sixth sense. That saved her. It was only a feint, luckily enough, and she could force her blade away from its path—or really, she shoved her own body in the way, making contact with Rimuru and exiting to a safe distance.
Rimuru looked a little surprised at this but readied his blade once more, waiting for her. Hinata did the same—but something was different. Now, Rimuru seemed like a different fighter from before. She attempted a feint. He ignored it, letting the sword whiz by like it didn’t even register, and slashed at Hinata instead. There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation, as if he knew exactly what Hinata would do next.
…Was that a coincidence? No… It’s even more accurate than my Compute Prediction…
It was disturbingly close to predicting the future. She felt like he was almost perfectly reading her thoughts.
The speed he’s growing at is incredible. I may outclass him in sword skill, but his latent ability more than makes up for that. Nothing half-hearted will work against him. And if it doesn’t…
Coldly, impartially, Hinata compared herself to Rimuru. At that point, she realized, her chances of victory plummeted a shocking amount. She had hoped for a quick resolution, as more time would just shore up her opponent’s position, and here was the result. If she wanted to beat this guy, she now realized, she had to throw away all niceties, any effort to “go easy” or not actively kill him.