Chapter 43 . 1 : Battle For The Bond

◆Prince of Algore, Omiros

I defended myself from Goz’s slas.h.i.+ng attack with my s.h.i.+eld .

「TAKE THIS, FIREBALL! ! 」

When Goz stepped back to dodge my atack, he sent out fireball magic from his hand, which I also blocked with my s.h.i.+eld . The magic s.h.i.+eld would have burnt if it was made from timber or pelt, but it stopped the fireball .

「Acceleration! ! 」

Goz used another magic attack in no time . Using that diversion he tried to cut me from the sides with his increasingly faster movements .

GAKIN! !

Advertis.e.m.e.nt

The resulting clear ringing sound of metal clas.h.i.+ng against metal was caused by the s.h.i.+eld that  I could feel moving on its own . Despite all that I was still on the losing end since I stopped that blow with a forced posture .

Since Goz kept using his magic in quick succession, I kept being pushed back by him .

I raised my s.h.i.+eld in a hurry .

「WHAT THE h.e.l.l IS THAT s.h.i.+ELD? ! ! ! 」

Goz screamed in frustration .

Just as he said, the s.h.i.+eld was incredible . If I had to say, the incredible thing about the s.h.i.+eld was the fact that it was moving on its own when I didn’t have time to react .

Advertis.e.m.e.nt

I then recalled the words of the one who gave me this s.h.i.+eld .

「You absolutely must not give this s.h.i.+eld to Parsish . 」

It was as if he had already predicted this situation beforehand .

 Really, just who the h.e.l.l was that minstrel?

Advertis.e.m.e.nt

But I had no time to ponder about such things right now . Goz’s attack was coming at me again .

「Fu*k！ ! ! WITHOUT THAT FU$KING s.h.i.+ELD YOU’D BE A GONER―――! ! 」

Certainly, I would have long since been defeated by him without this s.h.i.+eld .

It was vexing, but I was weaker than Goz .

I was so frustrated by my inability to do anything against Goz just like when I met him all those years ago . I couldn’t do anything but look at the crying Regena at that time .

That was why I desperately trained myself ever since that day . To prepare for this day, to protect Regena .

Advertis.e.m.e.nt

But, Goz was obviously more powerful than the current me . He could have easily killed me if not for this s.h.i.+eld .

It was vexing . I felt so… I wouldn’t be able to protect Regena if things stayed as they were .

I was really frustrated .

Goz attacked from an odd angle again . I somehow blocked that with the s.h.i.+eld’s help, but I was about to reach my limit .

I somehow reached a stalemate due to the power of the s.h.i.+eld, but I wouldn’t hold out for much longer . It was only a matter of time before Goz defeated me, but I definitely wouldn’t let him lay his hands on Regena .

「My bad, Goz! ! I won’t let you have Regena! ! 」

I said, as I pushed Goz back with my s.h.i.+eld .

Ever since the day we met Goz, Regena became too scared to go out . Seeing Regena in that state was really unbearable for me .

Thus I wanted to become strong enough to protect her and make her feel at ease going out . But, it turned out that I wasn’t strong enough . My strength alone wasn’t enough to protect Regena .

I went to her side while fighting Goz .

「Listen to me, Regena . I will hold him back in this place, you go call for reinforcements during that time . 」

If I’m not strong enough to beat Goz, I just need to receive outside reinforcements .

「U-Understood, Omiros . Be careful, I’ll be back with reinforcements immediately . 」

「Yeah, leave this place to me for now . 」

Goz blocked the stairs in order to stop us from escaping .

「You want to stop ME? Do you think you can do that? 」

Goz grinned widely as he responded to our conversation that he overheard .

「GOZ! ! Yes,I’m no match for you indeed! ! But, I can at least hold you back in this place! !」

While I  pointed my sword to Goz, Regena moved quietly to the side .

「KUKUKU…… You better give up . 」

「What are you talking about, Goz! ? 」

「OPEN YOUR EARS, PRINCE! NO ONE CAN SAVE YOU! ! ! ! 」

As I tried to listen as he said I heard the screams of the people .

「This is bad, OMIROS! ! There’s a horde of goblins below! The goblins are invading Algore!!」

Regena screamed as she confirmed the situation below .

It was already night, but the moon was s.h.i.+ning brightly in the cloudless sky illuminating the scenes below .

「GOZ! ! YOU b.a.s.t.a.r.d! ! 」

I glared at Goz .

「Ha~h, those goblins are my subordinates, who I led to invade Algore! ! Right about now, they’re killing the Algorians who were too preoccupied by the Dark Knight to notice our approach! ! 」

Goz laughed at the top of his lungs .

「Today marks the end of Algore! ! NOW FALL INTO DESPAIR―――― OMIROS-KUN! ! ! 」

◆Dark Knight, Kuroki

「HYAKURETSUHYAKUHOKAMIKEN! ! 」

The woman called Kaya kept sending shockwave attacks from a distance with her fists .

As for me, I was sliding around while parrying those attacks .

I wanted to come to Kuna’s side as soon as possible, but this girl just wouldn’t let me go .

I have no choice then .

I made up my mind .

「So you finally made up your mind . But that’s strange……… . Regensan is in the other direction you know . 」

「My bad……… I’m just a diversion . I’ve sent another force to save Regena . 」

I told her such a smooth lie .

That “Another force” was just bulls.h.i.+t that I said in the spur of the moment . My ranking in Nargol is second only to Modes indeed, but I have no subordinates at all .

「I see……… .   But our reason to come all the way to Algore is you, Kuroki-san . Including arresting Regena, everything will be settled as long as I can hold you down in this place . 」

She really won’t let me go huh .

「Do you think you can do that? 」

Hearing my question Kaya nodded .

「I don’t feel any hostility coming from you . You’re definitely stronger than me, but you can’t win against me if you don’t attack . 」

Saying so, she drew her fist .

Though this woman’s attacks won’t take my life, it feels like she won’t take my life while leaving me with one or two broken ribs . Incidentally I wanted to cry at the moment since her words. .h.i.t the bull’s eye .

Despite my attempts to advance further by dodging her kicks and punches, I really didn’t make that much headway .

I can’t advance any further unless I do something about this woman .

I slowly became impatient . I wanted to come to Kuna’s side as soon as possible .

Should I deliberately create some sort of opening? It’s hard to advance further without doing anything to her . In that case, I can only do that .

「SURGING PALMS! ! 」

When I created a gap in my movements on purpose, the woman called Kaya sent in a shockwave through my armor with her left palm .

I rotated my body to the right to eliminate the force behind that blow as I seized her hand, and then turned around to toss her to the left .

「WHat! ! 」

She still sent a kick despite being tossed in that manner .

I dodged the kick the best I could by bending my body backwards . What a splendid counter . It was also splendid in another way: I could incidentally see that she was wearing black laced panties when her skirt turned up due to her kick from before . The woman called Kaya stood up while taking a defensive stance after doing the backflip .

As she stood, she held her left arm .

She shouldn’t be able to use it for a while at least .

I apologized to her in my heart for inflicting such a pain on her .

「Well done… . . But, don’t you think that you went too easy on me with that skill just now? Are you worried about my safety? You really are a kind person, no?」

Yup, I was going easy on her with my throwing technique just now . It was in fact a technique to make your opponent feel intoxicated by rotating him to the right and then to the left, but I failed to do so .

Yes, I failed to perfectly execute my technique thanks to that black laced panty . This is a secret of mine that I will bring along with me to the grave .

Thank you very much for the eye candy .

「It seems that I can’t stop you just with normal attacks……… Then how about this! ! 」

Saying so, she suddenly stopped sending punches towards me, and instead approached me as she spread her hands to the side .

「What the? ! ! 」

I unintentionally leaked out .

I mean she was basically defenseless now . Any attack that I would send at this moment could easily take her life .

But, maybe, she intentionally left such a big gap in her defense seeing that I wouldn’t do anything dangerous to her .

A nice fragrant smell entered my helmet . I wondered what in the world she was going to do?

「TAKE THIS! ! TOURMALINE GLOVE! ! 」

Powerful electric currents ran through my body along with her words .

Several seconds later, she finally released her forceful embrace of me .

「I released all the thunder spirit that was sealed in this glove in that attack just now . So no matter how powerful you are, this is the end . 」

Saying so, she then released her hands .

「Maybe you already feel that your body is paralyzed . Don’t worry, I’ll ask Sahoko-sama to heal you later . Well you might not be able to hear me now, but someone who can’t attack will never win against someone who can . 」

This woman was already sure of her victory . This was the moment I was waiting for .

Not missing that momentary gap, I grabbed her head .

「Eh？ ! 」

She seemed to be quite surprised when I grabbed on to her .

「Sleep! ! 」

I released my most useful magic directly into her brain .

「Ah……… . 」

Kaya’s body trembled as she began to fall to her knees .

But before she lost her consciousness, she glared at me .

It seems that her mind was resisting the sleep magic that I cast on her, but her body failed to do so .

I became convinced that this magic absolutely wouldn’t have any effect on someone of her level unless I utilized it the moment she had a gap in her awareness .

「How………?」

Holding on to her head, she then fell on her knees .

Maybe she expected that electric-type attack to work on me seeing that it worked on me before .