Chapter 41 – Thirst of Tiger Part 2 (1/2)

Unedited for now, btw the previous is now edited. Same as before this chapter’s this part is sponsored by: Brandon Erwin.

EDIT: This is now the edited chapter

Chapter 41 – Thirst of Tiger Part 2

Frankly speaking, it’s not like I hate her invitation, but I only have a bad premonition and so I hesitate.

I’m doing it every day with Elk, so it’s not like I hate sparring.

In fact, that near-true-battle sparring can be said as a part of training. Even when I was with mom in that western house, the sparring near the end was really deadly,

And Sherry-san is an『A』ranker, the only person, among all people present here, with the same rank as me. She is the only person with ability near mine ever since I’ve left the house, the other people, let it be adventurers or guards were all at most B.

The only person going above that would be Irene-san, but……in that person’s case, she’s just too above me to be compared, that sort of feeling I sense from her.

I don’t want to say something wrong about Elk, who is always sparring with me, but this is a great chance to gain experience.

Even so the only reason I hesitate from taking her invitation is none other than her being a『Battle Maniac』.

The people loving fighting are, well, types of people who love it more than the other people, aside from that reason, they, not necessarily have much difference with other people『in the middle』of fights.

But, the problem comes in later……

It might be an image I made on my own after watching too much fantasy stuff in the previous world, but these sort of people, after the fight ends, keep on demanding the same thing over and over again.

If it’s once per day, it won’t get past the limits of training, but they want it several times per day just to kill time……

Moreover she’s a person I will be together with for 2 weeks, so if she actually challenged me to a spar many times then……

Though I can’t say that for sure, after all I don’t know how much of a『Battle Maniac』she is.

And this is just my intuition but maybe she also is thinking that same as me –that it would be a great experience because our ranks are same-.

But well, I concentrate all too much just because Sherry-san might be faking with that thinking, and it’s also true that this will be good experience for both of us.

After getting out of the house, the fights where I had some resistance would be『Naga』and『Exceed Hopper』, in that case sparring against an A ranker does seem fascinating.

Moreover, because the opponent is a human, I think I can learn something, surely.

I also feel it would be good if I just refuse her invitations if she kept on challenging me in future to an irritating extent.

While calculating the pros and cons, I think about what to do, well, it will surely turn into a good experience, with that pretext I let out my decision.

「……Then a simple and light spar」

At this moment, Sherry-san’s eyes held a light that……would even scare a carnivore with the prey in front its eyes.

Yikes, did I just make a damn mistake in choosing options?

☆☆☆

Not long after morning sun rose up in sky, though it’s still dark and visibility is also not good, in that sort of situation,

We came to an open place somewhat away from the place members from the Trader Group and escorts are sleeping, and here the already regretting me and heavily motivated Sherry-san started our mock battle.

In the surrounding, standing somewhat far to not get dragged into the battle, some adventurers who rose early –of course there is no one who is on sleepless vigil duty- are observing our fight for some reason.

They are all who somehow sniffed something is happening when I was preparing the metal fake swords for mock battle.

There are also people who came here to just kill time because they woke up too early, and also who came to appraise us both. They have even started betting on who is going to win……this is just a mock battle for training and not a battle for deciding who wins and who loses.

Well, it’s not hindering us so I left them alone doing their antics.

It was just right good for them to be here, so I asked one of those onlookers to give out the signal for the start of battle.

Speaking of conclusions, Sherry-san was truly severe through-and-through.

As soon as the signal for start of battle was given, she rushed forward at me with the speed of an arrow, and without any hesitation, pushed her sword forward aiming at my heart. At that time, though I knew it was a metal fake sword, I got scared.

No, seriously, her high spirits is just too unnatural.

Of course my body is strong enough that if I put power in my pectoral muscles and abdominal muscles nothing would pass into my body, let it be fake sword or a real sword, but still there is a thing called instinct, yeah that is what let me become scared.

As for Sherry-san, I sensed that from the first strike.

And that turned into conviction within the n-th minutes long fight.

At the first attack she might have assumed I would evade, so she started a rapid counter attack by swinging the sword.

After that was a true rush of raging billows.

From above, below, right, left, she just kept on rapidly attacking without letting me catch my breath.

And each and every of those attacks used not only the arm but also the trunk of body and the movement of lower half of body, they were sword attacks holding enough power and speed, moreover there were no useless movement and the gaps too were none.

If I evade she would promptly connect it to a different attack and pursue me, if I took the blow head-on she would let the sword flow in way to not kill the momentum and again pursues.

Looking from the sidelines, it would either look like a wild fighting or bewitching sword dance, but in truth they are attacks with tremendous precision and level of completion, and that stuff just keep on coming at me at a great speed and high pace.

“So this is a true powerful person who had completed the『basics』, eh”. I was impressed even during the fight.

Due to that, for around 10 seconds, I only evaded or blocked but didn’t attack. Maybe because of that, Sherry-san’s eyes seemed to be filled with displeasure.

I thought that it would be rude if I didn’t take this mock battle seriously, so I clenched my fists, seeing that she showed a smile saying『Yes that’s the way!』.

……It’s not like I didn’t predict it, but still I’ve got no damn idea how to react to her actions.

As expected of an A ranker, she was truly strong. Her ability was the best by far against all demons and others whom I’ve fought after leaving the house.

It was a fight against an opponent with high and fast thinking, the thing which didn’t exist against a fight with demons. Moreover the feeling is different from mom’s, hence there is a lot I can learn from this.

I also got somewhat happy, though I didn’t use『Magic Arts』, but by the end of fight I too was fighting without any restraint. Of course I didn’t use my whole arm strength, but still it had quite a lot of speed and power.