Chapter 497: The Duel (1/2)

“A duel?”

“Lucas! Stop! …Stop this instant!”

“No, young lady. You even offered yourself as a slave to him. Please let me see with my own eyes if this guy is worthy of such an offer!”

Lucas relentlessly challenged Jin to a duel.

“Shion, does he know in which position he is in right now?”

When Jin asked, Shion’s face went pale and she quickly bowed her head.

“I’m… I’m sorry! Please, please, don’t change your mind about helping us!”

Apparently, Shion seemed to understand her position. In other words, she must have feared that Jin wouldn’t really be at a loss if he were to abandon them to their fate.

However, Jin wasn’t planning to do such a thing, because he wanted to keep Kaina Village safe and to learn more about this world’s past.

Jin was sure that there would be no way he could lose if he were to simply deploy a barrier and attack Lucas from behind its cover, though he doubted Lucas would be satisfied with that.

“Father, please let me accept his challenge in your stead.”

Reiko offered this alternative to the pondering Jin. She had asked Laojun to analyze the demons’ physical abilities and inferred that she should be able to fight Lucas.

“Hm, I see. Looks like I have no choice but to take you up on your offer. But don’t go too hard on him, okay?”

Thinking that there might be no other way to resolve this, Jin gave those instructions to Reiko.

“Since you’re acting in Shion’s stead as her attendant, I will be your opponent in Father’s stead as her daughter.”

“Hmph, fine. It’ll be a fight between attendants, then!”

Lucas said that because he knew that Reiko was an automata.

It was still bright enough outside, so they decided to have the duel in the open area in front of Nidou Castle.

“Is your body well enough for this, Lucas?”

“Hmph, as your guard, young lady, I can fight anytime!”

Reiko was quick to throw a comeback at his boastful words.

“And despite that, you still managed to faint and had to be taken into medical care.”

“Ugh…”

Shion had recovered to the point where she could walk, but in order to not overexert herself, she let the castle’s specialist Topaz 101 hold her up in its arms and take her outside.

“Um, so where’s your weapon?”

Jin asked Lucas.

“No weapons! I’ll be fighting with my own body!”

“Got it. Are you ready to begin?”

“Come on!”

The moment Lucas said that, Reiko dashed forward.

She instantly appeared right in front of Lucas and threw a right uppercut straight at his jaw, but stopped it right before it actually hit him.

“Looks like I’ve already won.”

“W-Why you sneaky…! We’re putting our abilities to the test, so come at me head on!”

Lucas’ words had come across as the cold sweat from a sore loser. Reiko jumped backwards, taking some distance from him.”

“Is that so? Then, please come attack me when you’re ready.”

This time, Reiko simply stood there, readying herself for Lucas’ attack.

“You cheeky…!”

This time Lucas dashed towards Reiko. Using his momentum, he threw a punch at a speed that would have been hard for the untrained eye to follow. But Reiko easily moved out of the way.

“Wha-!”

Lucas threw even more punches at her. However, Reiko blocked each of them using only one hand.

“Damn it! How about this!?”

Lucas shifted towards foot techniques this time. A front kick, a roundhouse kick, a knee strike, and an ax kick.

Yet Reiko dodged each of them with just the bare minimum amount of movement.

“Amazing…”

Both Jin and Shion, as well as Belle and Barrow -who had just arrived to see the duel- were witnessing a battle so fast-paced that their eyes had trouble keeping up with it.

“Damn it! Why can’t I hit you!?”

Perhaps he would normally be strengthened by magical power, but these lands had a low concentration of Ether.

Lucas was gradually running out of breath. At this rate, he could end up tiring himself to death.

But Reiko didn’t want that to happen. Considering Lucas’s personality, she thought that the only way to get him to stop would be by showing their actual difference in ability.

“I’ll be attacking now!”

Reiko, who had been defensive until now, had already read Lucas’s attack patterns. And she let out a flurry of punches and kicks that were faster than his.

“W-Waah!”

At this point, Lucas was the one who was restricted to defending. But Reiko couldn’t afford to stop attacking. If anything, she was getting even faster. Even so, Reiko’s output was only 15 percent.

“Ugh!”

Right when Lucas’s right hand seemed to be about to catch Reiko’s fist, Reiko instead caught his right hand with her armpit, and twisted her body. It was an “Armpit Reversal”, one of the secret techniques of the Knights of the Shouro Empire.

“Gah!”

After bending his elbow joint contrary to its intended direction long enough, Lucas naturally lost his balance. When she applied more weight in response, his posture was thrown off. Then, by throwing herself on the floor while holding him in that position, Reiko successfully threw Lucas to the floor as well.

At that moment, Reiko could have broken his elbow or shoulder joints, but she wasn’t planning to do anything like that, so she let go of his arm.

After pushing Lucas away, Reiko distanced herself from him. Lucas, on the other hand, had an amazing sense of balance, leaping away and taking his distance as well without as much as stumbling after being pushed away.

Reiko then instantly measured the distance between herself and Lucas, and then between herself and Jin, and decided to try a single technique.