<Iron Arm>
Brunhilde’s engraved trait that grants tremendous strength in exchange for stamina accelerates the speed of the swinging sword infinitely.
“Haaaaaaah!”
A storm of sword light spreads out like a curtain covering my sight. The swung black iron longsword spews sparks as it cuts through the air.
Clang clang clang clang!
Shattered light and broken metal fragments scatter like water spray along with a thunderous sound.
A flurry of slashes faster and more intense than ever before.
The curtain of swords formed by endlessly combining lines into planes deflects and cuts through the spheres of holy light and scatter shots, grinding them into powder.
And then―
“Grooooar!”
Beyond the light beams scattering like fireworks.
A crudely shaped rock monkey, like a child’s doodle, lets out a mighty roar and thrusts its fist, as big as my head, like a battering ram.
“Get lost―!”
I don’t stop.
I charge straight at the rock fist shooting towards me like a cannonball.
Arms feeling like they’ll snap. Lungs feeling like they’ll burst.
The curtain of swords deployed at the cost of that intense pain grinds the rock spirit’s fist like a blender, burrows deep into its arm, and dismantles everything above its knee.
Whoosh. A dust cloud like fog becomes a wave enveloping the surroundings.
A curtain of slashes that pulverizes everything it touches into dust. The killing technique unleashed with all my might led me into the realm Brunhilde had stepped into.
At the cost of wounds and blood spray beginning to mark my body.
Squelch!
An arrow I failed to deflect. An arrow shot in an arc rather than as a scatter shot pierced my thigh.
“Ugh…!”
The torn and split flesh cried out in pain as if touched by fire.
Crack!
Part of a scatter shot fired simultaneously from three arrows penetrated my pauldron and lodged in my shoulder like dense needles.
“Kuh…!”
The sensation of dozens of large needles tearing through and piercing muscle. It felt like a small lightning bolt striking my shoulder.
Thud!
An Arrow of Punishment that changed trajectory and burrowed into my side struck the side of my breastplate like a mace.
“Kuhak!”
For a moment my breath was blocked and the air remaining in my lungs came out as a cough mixed with saliva. It was an impact that wouldn’t be strange if it had cracked my ribs.
Flowing blood. A body trying to stagger from the pain and lose balance.
‘No. Not yet. Not yet.’
I can’t fall yet.
I gritted my teeth, widened my eyes, and forcibly straightened my knees that were about to buckle.
I could endure this level of pain as much as needed.
No, I had to endure it.
Because that’s what it means to become stronger.
“Kuh, aaaaah!”
Letting the scream trying to burst out flow through my clenched teeth gritting against the intense pain, shaking off the tears slightly forming in my eyes with a roaring battle cry, I kick off the ground.
Beyond the rock spirit sprawled with only its knees remaining. Towards Imelia glaring at me with a slightly hardened face.
Is it my imagination? As I glare at the enemy and burn with fighting spirit, even the searing pain that felt like branding irons on my limbs seemed to gradually cool.
No, it’s not my imagination. The pain really is subsiding.
Like putting a burned finger in ice water, a frost-like chill flowing through my blood vessels forcibly erases the pain by dulling the sensations in the wounded areas.
Ah, is this that?
Another of Brunhilde’s traits, and the one that could be called the foundation of her power. One of the abilities of <Ice Heart>.
An indomitable ability that erases pain by numbing the sensation of pain itself, allowing one to keep fighting no matter what injuries are sustained.
That led my body one step forward.
“Haaaaaaap!”
The curtain of black iron that had spread before me disappeared like a mirage, and from within it, a streak of black lightning flashed and burst forth.
A thrust unleashing the last remaining strength just before the power of <Iron Arm> at its limit fades away.
The sword tip thrust forward contained penetrating power that could burrow through and pierce even the holy barrier it couldn’t break through earlier.
Did you enjoy getting penetrated front and back by Gunther, Imelia?
I’ll specially add one more hole for you.
“…Now you’re more like your old self.”
Imelia muttered, glaring at me with a hardened face.
“Though you’ve become a bit more violent.”
Holy light bursts forth mixed with those cold words.
The next moment, instead of gathering into a sphere shape and shooting out, the pure white light became a long, flexible chain like a snake and wrapped around my entire body, binding me.
A holy miracle of the binding and suppression type, 「Chains of Heaven」.
Its binding power increases in proportion to the sins committed, and if an undead is wrapped in these chains, it doesn’t stop at just binding but burns the flesh touched by the chains, a powerful holy miracle, but―
“Save this crap for Gunther!”
The moment I take another step forward, roughly shaking off my shoulders, all those chains shatter explosively and scatter in all directions.
Crack.
…A sound that shouldn’t be heard came from inside my chest.
It doesn’t matter.
My body is still moving.
My creaking body responds to the flame-like fighting spirit. A single sword thrust like a puppet pulled by strings.
And.
Swish!
My left hand, reflexively stretching out at the sound of air being cut behind me, grabbed and crushed an arrow flying towards the back of my head.
The skill of grabbing and crushing flying arrows without even looking at them. Senses sharpened to the extreme made even this kind of feat possible.
Perhaps Brunhilde was always able to fight while maintaining this kind of sensation.
Although it seemed my palm had been torn along with the glove, unable to withstand the arrow’s power itself, this level of injury didn’t even count as a wound.
Crack!
Since there was no need to turn my head to look at the arrow, the black iron longsword extended without the slightest delay and burrowed into Imelia’s holy barrier like an awl.
“Kuh, with one hand it’s not even―”
Although I couldn’t pierce through the holy barrier in one blow due to the reduced penetrating power from taking my left hand off the sword hilt, well…
“This should do it!”
Just add one more hand and it’s done, isn’t it?
I pulled back my left hand that had been holding the broken arrow and struck the pommel of the longsword blocked by the holy barrier with a full-force punch.
Boom!
A fist strike still imbued with Iron Arm’s power. The steel fist covered by the gauntlet rammed into the end of the sword hilt like a battering ram, pushing it forward.
“This…!”
Perhaps certain the holy barrier wouldn’t be penetrated? Imelia’s complexion changed drastically as she hurriedly stamped her foot and tried to dodge.
But she was too slow.
No matter how much her skills had improved, she was still a priest in the end. If she had been agile enough to dodge my sword tip at such close range, she would have become a holy knight instead of a priest.
Squelch!
Along with a blood spray so vivid it was dazzling, the black blade burrowed deep into the priestess’s soft flesh.
The sword tip that sliced the forearm she had hurriedly raised to cover her face in half as it advanced, then pierced through her shoulder behind it.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Imelia let out a scream of intense pain.
It was a very, very pleasant scream to hear. So much so that I wondered if Gunther had made Imelia his own just to hear this sound.
However, the situation wasn’t good enough to feel satisfaction from that scream alone.
‘Did I miss…!’
The moment my sword tip burrowed into Imelia’s forearm, even as she opened her mouth wide in pain, she somehow managed to twist her body and slightly alter the trajectory of the sword.
Because of that, my sword stopped after tearing through her arm and piercing her shoulder instead of her face which I had aimed for.
Even that alone would normally be a fatal wound decisive enough to determine victory… but that’s only when the opponent doesn’t have a skilled priest.
“El… Elianelle…!”
As Imelia offered a prayer with her face contorted, once again a dazzling radiance burst forth from her necklace.
Whoosh!
Pure white holy light covering and seeping into the forearm split in half from wrist to elbow and the pierced shoulder.
Broken bones and severed blood vessels reconnect, muscles and flesh stick together and heal.
「Goddess’s Touch」
A high-level miracle combining the advantages of Minor Healing with its high recovery amount and Rapid Healing with its fast recovery speed was healing her wounds at an astonishingly rapid pace.
Damn it, I thought this might happen, but she could really use it after all…!
Judging by the power of the holy miracles she had shown until now, the high-level miracle that the current Imelia could use would be at most only one.
The fact that this one happened to be a recovery-type miracle was truly lamentable for me.
Of course, if I could blow off her head faster than she could recover the wound, even that vaunted Goddess’s Touch would be meaningless…
But that was already impossible.
“Ugh, kuh, huu, haak…!”
From the moment I pierced Imelia’s shoulder until now, I was in a state where I couldn’t even steady my breathing, let alone swing my sword.
The backlash of Iron Arm reaching its limit.
The superhuman strength that had filled my entire forearm scattered like a heat haze, and a feeling of powerlessness that made my vision go black for a moment swept through my whole body.
“Haak, haaak…!”
I barely managed to grip the sword hilt I was about to drop from my powerless hand, and planted the sword in the ground like a cane to prop up my body that was about to collapse, while taking ragged breaths.
Limbs heavy as a frozen corpse. Lungs feeling crushed flat. Head dizzy as if I hadn’t slept for ten nights straight.
I couldn’t move.
Beyond issues of mental strength like fighting spirit or willpower, my body itself simply wouldn’t listen.
…Damn it, this is why I should have made sure to kill at least Imelia.
I gritted my teeth.
If I could just catch my breath a little, just a little, I felt like I could somehow fight again…
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you in that state.”
But the enemies before me weren’t opponents who would allow me that little time.
“Back then Imelia would heal you, but what are you going to do now?”
The moment I barely managed to turn my eyes towards the direction the voice came from, the forearm of a newly summoned ice spirit struck my body like a mace.
“Kahak…!”
I spat out a groan mixed with blood as I flew like a ball hit by a bat, crashed into the ground and rolled over and over. Even losing grip of the longsword I had been holding.
“Ugh, aak, kuuk…”
An impact no different from being hit by a truck. The fact that I didn’t die was entirely thanks to my armor.
Of course, that just meant I didn’t die.
Thanks to the effect of <Ice Heart>, I could barely feel the pain, but my body that had been gradually regaining strength was completely wrecked by that single blow.
Even when I tried to get up, gritting my teeth and groaning, I would only rise halfway before collapsing back down.
Defeat.
An undeniable, crushing defeat.
Is this proof that willpower alone cannot overcome differences in skill?
After consuming so much stamina that I fell into a groggy state for a moment, all I had to show for it was one of Imelia’s arms.
Even that was being perfectly healed with a single high-level miracle, so in reality, all I had accomplished was making her use up one high-level miracle.
“Damn… it…!”
Still, as the backlash of Iron Arm itself was gradually fading away, the moment I managed to raise my upper body halfway while forcing myself…
“Oh my, stay down.”
Irina, who had somehow approached right in front of me, stomped on the back of my head with her dirt-covered boot, pressing my face into the ground.
“Gah…!”
“Ahahahaha! How pathetic!”
Then she laughed with a face full of delight.
“Really, I’ve always wanted to see you like this just once, and I finally have! Hey, how does it feel right now? Hm? How does it feel, I’m asking. Tell me.”
…You fucking bitch.
I gritted my teeth while feeling the sensation of mud on my cheek.
The despair that had been trying to creep out evaporated, pushed away by intense humiliation and anger that felt almost foreign to me.
How does it feel, you ask?
I feel like I’m going crazy with gratitude that my mouth and throat can still move. You fucking elf bitch.
“Come on, come on. I said tell me? You should be able to move your mouth at least, right?”
Yeah, I can move my mouth.
More than you think.
“Or do I need to make a hole for you to―”
Just as Irina was about to continue with some unknown mockery.
“Kyaaaaah!”
I suddenly turned my head to face her boot and, with a beast-like scream, bit down on its tip with my wide-open mouth.
With all my might.
With enough bite force to chew through leather, flesh, and even bone.
Crunch!
A bitter, foul, and disgusting taste spread throughout my mouth.
Along with the useless knowledge that even fairies smell of foot odor when they wear boots.