CHAPTER 615: RYO VS FAN

Editor: Tseirp

“Here I go!”

“Anytime.”

The next moment, a swordfight began.

Fan’s offense, Ryo’s defense.

Predictable, if one were to say so.

But something was not as predicted…

(Too fast! )

Ryo shouted inside his head.

(Too heavy! )

Again, Ryo shouted inside his head.

Fan’s sword was too fast, and moreover too heavy.

Ryo had expected Fan to be stronger than last time.

But this was clearly beyond expectation!

“This is far different from before.”

Ryo muttered a complaint without thinking.

“If it were the same as last time I wouldn’t win, would I?”

“No, at that level last time it was already pretty bad.”

Fan tilted his head as he spoke, and Ryo answered with a grimace.

“I worked hard so Ryo would become a skeleton!”

“You didn’t have to work so hard…”

“You like blue bones, right? Don’t worry, I’ll make the coloring look nice.”

“No, I said I don’t want to become a skeleton…”

The pressure on Ryo.

It looked like the swordfight was going to be extremely harsh…

“This is… truly a battle beyond the human realm.”

Admiral Myun murmured as he watched the two fight.

“If we don’t step in to help, won’t Duke Rondo be killed…?”

“No.”

Abel stopped Admiral Myun.

“This is a fight between those two. We cannot intervene.”

“But…”

“Besides, Lau over there would never allow it.”

Abel said.

“The moment you try to step in, I’ll chop you all to pieces.”

Lau said, looking far from amused.

No one could tell whether he truly meant that, but at the very least, he would be angry if the duel were interfered with.

In that case, even if he weren’t in perfect condition, everyone except Abel would be instantly killed.

The difference in ability was that great…

“It’s dangerous to face her without magic. Even I can tell that.”

Abel said to no one in particular.

“Ryo can’t use magic. If he does, everything will be taken over by Fan.”

“Right. But Fan can use magic freely. Both are users of the same water attribute… It’s the worst possible opponent for Ryo.”

“A magician who surpasses Duke Rondo?”

Lau answered Abel’s words, and Admiral Myun was astonished.

From what Admiral Myun had heard, Ryo was a water-attribute magician on par with Lord Rowon, one of the Six Saints.

And his opponent was a water-attribute magician who surpassed that?

“No, Admiral Myun, although they look like this, they are not human—they’re what you’d call monsters.”

Abel corrected Admiral Myun’s misperception.

“Well, depending on the definition of ‘monster’… from a human perspective, we are indeed a kind of monster.”

Lau answered with a laugh.

“Monsters…?”

Admiral Myun apparently didn’t quite understand.

He frowned.

“Ryo told me. About your true nature. So he thought it would be impossible to outdo you in magic control.”

“Oh… you know what we are?”

Lau narrowed his eyes and asked.

“Yes— dragons, I suppose, dragon kings even.”

Abel stated it plainly.

“Impressive. Correct.”

Lau nodded.

At that moment, Admiral Myun and his subordinates froze with their mouths agape.

Watching those frozen men, Abel continued speaking.

“By any chance, are dragons already legendary creatures in the Eastern countries as well?”

“Well, yes. In the form people imagine, that kind of dragon hasn’t appeared for hundreds of years.”

“Are they few in number?”

“We Blue Dragons are only me and Fan.”

“Huh?”

“Both of us are Dragon Kings.”

“Seriously…?”

Abel was taken aback by the sudden information.

“Ordinary humans go their whole lives without encountering a dragon. Yet Ryo has met two Dragon Kings, and Abel has met one… That’s abnormal.”

Lau laughed heartily at that.

Coughing between laughs.

“Ryo apparently has the mark of Ruwin. Hm? Wait, do I have one too…?”

“Ah, both of you met Nuurs as well, right? There’s a very, very faint mark of Nullus.”

“When did that happen…?”

“The mark of a Dragon King is like a scent. When you touch an animal, you pick up a scent, right? It’s the same. Only difference is the mark attaches not to your hand or clothes but to your soul.”

“That sounds quite different to me.”

Abel tilted his head at Lau’s explanation.

He couldn’t imagine that a scent on the hand was the same as one on the soul.

But then he suddenly thought.

Those two before them were said to be Dragon Kings.

Which meant…

“Did Lau and Fan’s scent attach to us too?”

“Ah… no, it didn’t.”

“Really? Why not?”

“Because this body is not our true body.”

“Come to think of it, you said before you wanted to fight in your true form.”

After the last time Ryo and Abel fought those two, Fan had said something like that.

“Clearly, in our true bodies, you couldn’t possibly contend. No offense.”

“No, I think that’s only natural.”

Abel remembered Nullus, whom they’d met in the Golden City.

Indeed, if you made an enemy of someone of that caliber… it wouldn’t be a matter of fighting.

Not just the tip of a pinky—you might die from nothing more than a breath blown on you.

He felt that much of a difference.

People and dragons are simply too different in every way.

But these blue dragons seem to like fighting other races.

Is that why they use a ‘vessel’…?

“Last time, I understood that this ‘vessel’ wouldn’t win. So this time we tried to put more ‘substance’ into it. Fan succeeded, but…”

“Did Lau fail and end up like that?”

“Yeah. Sorry, we couldn’t fight Abel.”

“No, I don’t mind at all. Rather, I think it was good—we were able to get information without fighting.”

“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

“Huh?”

Lau said, laughing, and Abel met his gaze without understanding the meaning.

“A human who carries ‘Ex’ saying they were glad not to fight… no one would believe that.”

“Even if you say that. This magic sword…’Ex’? Is it really that dangerous?”

“When you say it with such pure eyes, it makes me feel like my understanding might be wrong.”

Lau gave a wry smile.

“‘Ex’ was Richard’s sword.”

“Ah… I had a hunch it was something like that.”

Even Abel had thought at least that much.

Richard… King Richard, said to be the restorer of the Kingdom of Nightley.

“Just to confirm, Abel, you’re a descendant of Richard, right?”

“Yes.”

Abel answered while looking at Admiral Myun and his subordinates standing beside him.

They were all frozen in place.

One could say they were standing but unconscious.

“I didn’t want them nosing around after finding out certain things, so I knocked them out.”

“Thanks for going through the trouble.”

“Don’t worry about it. As for ‘Ex’, it should have been unusable by anyone other than Richard.”

“Unusable? What do you mean?”

“I only heard it in passing, but if an unpleasant person took hold of it, it would get incredibly heavy and you wouldn’t be able to move it.”

“‘Ex’ would? Seriously…”

Abel drew his beloved sword from its sheath and looked it over.

As always, it merely glowed red.

“I’ve never heard a story about such a magic sword… who said it would get so heavy you couldn’t lift it?”

“Of course, Richard said it.”

“I-I see…”

Lau, not glowing blue like last time and looking human, sometimes made Abel think he really was human.

But no—he was a Dragon King.

A being that lived for hundreds of thousands of years… completely unlike humans.

“Maybe ‘Ex’ shines red like a magic sword, but I don’t think it’s a magic sword in the usual sense.”

“Huh? I don’t get it.”

“Well, whatever. Time will tell. For now, the fact that Abel can use it probably means ‘Ex’ recognizes him as a provisional master.”

“Provisional, huh. So I need to make more effort so I’ll be properly acknowledged.”

Abel said that, tapped his beloved sword lightly, and sheathed it.

“Human life is short, given the time they’re allotted. It’s tough in many ways.”

“Well… from the dragons’ perspective, yeah. Still, even without facing your true body, some can put up a fight. Ryo, in particular, is like an incarnation of effort.”

“That’s true. Well, whether Ryo is truly human or not, I honestly don’t know.”

Lau’s latter words were so quiet they didn’t reach Abel’s ears.

While Abel and Lau chatted like that, Ryo and Fan’s sword clash continued.

Last time, during the duel, Ryo ended up covered in wounds.

But this time…

Clang, clang, clang….

A small, high-pitched sound rang out.

Among the sword strikes, the little pellets of ice Fan hurled pinged off something and were repelled.

“Amazing, Ryo. At the moment they hit, you generate an ice membrane to deflect them, and then you carefully erase that membrane afterwards.”

“If I erase it before it can be taken, it can’t be taken.”

“Very philosophical.”

“No, I don’t really understand what you mean.”

Fan said, impressed, while Ryo had merely been stating facts and didn’t share that sense of philosophy.

Generate when needed, erase when unnecessary.

Do the most basic things carefully.

Ryo believed that philosophy lay at the deepest core of his actions.

So he decided to carry it out faithfully.

However…

“Ugh.”

A muffled sound escaped as Ryo was suddenly blown away.

To Ryo, it felt sudden, but to those watching from a distance, what had happened was immediately obvious.

“A huge ice pillar suddenly formed, wedged into Ryo’s stomach, and blew him away?”

“Mass attacks are strong. The defender can only use inertia equal to their own weight, but the attacker using magic can add velocity… this world is absurd.”

“Don’t use words like ‘mass’ or ‘inertia’… words like Ryo would use.”

“Huh? Really? Didn’t Abel learn those in the castle?”

“No, I didn’t.”

Abel shook his head honestly.

“Eventually, everyone will start using those words.”

“Is that so?”

Lau said casually, and Abel grimaced.

“I was suddenly blown away.”

“Then, at the moment you hit the big tree behind you, you absorbed the impact with a lump of water?”

“You figured that out well.”

“Lau does that a lot. He used to say ‘butsuri’.”

“…What? Physics?” (TLN: ‘Butsuri’ = Physics in Japanese)

Among Fan’s words was a surprising term, and Ryo widened his eyes.

Ryo wanted to glance at Lau, who was looking his way along with Abel, but Fan didn’t give him the chance.

Clang, clang…

Ryo deflected Fan’s flurry of blows.

Of course, since the sword Fan wielded was swung with non-human strength, Ryo wanted to avoid taking it head-on with Murasame.

Murasame wouldn’t break… but if he kept taking hits, Ryo’s arm would wear out.

Still, Ryo always wondered.

Murasame is a sword that produces blades of ice through water-attribute magic.

Yet it could be used even in a magic-null space.

Also, Fan couldn’t take control of it.

Since it was convenient, he decided to ask.

“This Murasame… it’s an ice sword, but Fan, you can’t steal control of it, right?”

“Steal control? Ah, like erasing it or claiming it as my own? Yeah, can’t do it.”

“I could use it even in a magic-null space—why is that?”

“Who knows? The best thing is to ask the person who gave it to you directly.”

“My master who gave me this… has no head above the neck, so he can’t speak.”

“Huh…?”

At Ryo’s words, Fan’s eyes widened in surprise.

Fan, who rarely changed expression, seemed to show a big change for the first time.

“That guy… the one who gave Ryo that sword is the Water Fairy King, right? The same one who gave that robe and boots.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“He has no head above the neck so he can’t speak…?”

“Yes, he’s never spoken.”

“I knew that guy’s really strange. Makes no sense.”

Fan shook her head slightly.

Apparently it made no sense to her.

To Ryo, everything was nonsensical, though.

Either way, the overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation did not change.

(Reminds me of the Alba residence.)

What floated in Ryo’s mind was the battle at Duke Alba’s residence in Twilight Land.

A swordfight in a magic-null space.

The opponent was one of the top swordsmen of the land… rather, one of the top vampires.

Outmatched in strength and speed, equal in technique…

(Back then, endurance saved me.)

Because Ryo wouldn’t break no matter how long it went, the opponent grew impatient.

But this time, Ryo could not count on that either.

Because Fan was someone Ryo had already beaten once.

Anyone, seeing an opponent who had previously defeated them not breaking, wouldn’t rush in recklessly out of impatience.

They know their opponent is strong.

They would rather hesitate to plunge in to finish off what looked like a fallen foe.

For fear it’s a trap.

Losing means carrying psychological scars for a long time afterwards.

(If I could exploit that, it would be good…)

Yes, Ryo’s only edge over Fan was one thing.

He had once beaten her.

That was all.

How could he take advantage of such psychological wounds?

If many of the clashing elements were even, perhaps a stratagem could be used to manifest that hesitance.

Disrupting an opponent’s composure is the most basic stratagem for interpersonal combat… the phrase Ryo habitually said.

But with such differences in strength and speed, it’s difficult.

Fan understood there was such a gap.

From the previous match, Fan knew Ryo’s strength and speed.

And on top of that, she had prepared to surpass them.

The result of that was plainly visible.

He couldn’t surpass with the sword.

He couldn’t surpass with magic.

Then… yes, there was only one thing left.

“Come forth, Neil Andersen!”

At Ryo’s voice, the knife’s scabbard glowed faintly.

The light of alchemy.

An ice submarine appeared behind Fan, who faced Ryo.

At that moment, Fan’s attention was about to shift to her rear.

Of course—she had seen Ryo’s scabbard glow.

She understood alchemy had been used.

And she felt that something had appeared behind her.

So it was impossible to keep every nerve fixed only on Ryo.

Past defeats, psychological wounds, prompted a check behind.

Exploit that gap!

The generation of Neil Andersen was a decoy.

A lure to pull even a fraction of Fan’s attention away from Ryo.

The instant Fan tried to check her rear, Ryo lowered his upper body and leaped in all at once.

Rising from a low stance, Murasame attacked Fan.

A trajectory that would cleave Fan’s torso clean in two.

But Fan thrust her left hand in, deflecting Murasame’s path!

Fan’s left arm was sliced off, but that wasn’t the point.

Fan rolled sideways while tipping her upper body forward, and with her right hand alone, she thrust her sword forward.

Forward… toward Ryo.

Ryo, immediately after his attack—rather, he himself had rushed toward Fan’s sword.

There was not enough distance to evade.

Fan’s sword pierced Ryo’s left shoulder, and with the rotation of the body, it gouged deeply.

From the shoulder down… Ryo’s left arm was gone.

“Screw it! Deploy: ‘Dynamic Steam Mine II’! Mark 256 torpedoes, 32 rounds. Open forward launchers. Fire!”

Responding to Ryo’s voice, Neil Andersen’s forward gunports opened, and torpedoes were launched.

Fan rolled and dove forward to put distance between herself and the Neil Andersen that had appeared behind her, but thirty-two torpedoes were fired as if tracking that movement.

“Freeze!”

Fan instantaneously gave up on trying to take control of them, understanding they were generated by alchemy, and froze all the torpedoes.

But that, too, was a trap.

What Fan leapt into to put distance from Neil Andersen were… the mine cluster of the ‘Dynamic Steam Mine II’ generated by alchemy.

The instant her body touched them, the mines triggered in a chain reaction… and Fan was frozen solid.

“These are ice generated by alchemy. Even Fan cannot seize control of them.”

Though Ryo had suffered a severe wound to his left shoulder, somehow he had managed to encase Fan in ice…

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