Vol 1 Chapter 21 (2/2)
“I’s, tone uncharacteristically ablaze “This is—this is nothing!”
Soed in him
This was still bad No zo clai out alone Should Haruhiro help? He was ar to be easy, was impossible even, to pierce that plate aroblin body
“Ranta, go back up Mozgo!” Haruhiro bellowed “I’ll take your place!”
“Ha! The lead actor’s finally arrived!” Ranta quipped, closing the distance between hioblin in three quick hops “[ANGER THRUST]!”
The plate aroblin parried Ranta’s attack with ease, but at the very least, Ranta had zo
“Hey! What the—!” It showered Ranta with a flurry of attacks, and suddenly he was thrown onto the defensive, unable to attack back
Hang in there, Ranta And don’t die… With Ranta’s help, soo, but that didn’t change that if they didn’t take down the reo downhill fast
The sentry goblin still had a firm hold on its small shi+eld, and all its vital points were protected by armor Yuet in position at its rear But as Haruhiro considered his options, the sentry goblin turned towards him and raised its spear to throw
It’s ai for me?! No way!
Haruhiro twisted to avoid it, but not fast enough The spear grazed him in the side of his ribs and then slaroan of pain escaped his lips, and it round When he put a hand the wound, it came aith blood It hurt like hell—but it wasn’t a serious injury
“Haru!” Mary called his name, worried
He kneas silly to think so, but her concern made him a little happy
“I’otta take that sentry out!”
“I’ll go!” shi+horu said, oblin
Wait, what does she think she’s doing?! Haruhiro thought
Apparently, Mary thought the sa off and running after her
The sentry goblin, sword drawn from the sheath at its waist, noticed shi+horu’s approach just as she finished her elelyph
“Oom rel eckt vel dash!+” she cried
Voash!+ The frizzy black sphere shot out from the tip of the staff But at that h the [SHADOW ECHO] ele as [PHANTOM SLEEP]’s, it wasn’t so fast as to be unavoidable So with that fixed, avoidable velocity in e bycloser
In other words, shi+horu took the risk of closing the distance between herself and the sentry to a sound as the shadow struck it in the face, and its entire body started to tremble uncontrollably
Yu “[CROSS CUT]!”
[CROSS CUT]’s half slashi+ng, half s attack stripped the buckler entirely off of the sentry goblin’s left aroblin recovered froer handle its sword properly
Yuht now; she pressed the attack Without stopping to catch her breath, she kept advancing on the sentry This et into position at its back The light line didn’t appear, so he did the same as before
The sentry goblin wailed as Haruhiro slaer into its back Haruhiro wrapped his other ar
When the first sentry had finally stopped struggling, Haruhiro hadn’t really felt anything in particular But this ti like this was cruel Brutal Though despite his nausea, he did not stop
If ere switched, oes both ways
When the second sentry goblin had become still, Haruhiro felt terribly exhausted, and his wound hurt But noasn’t the tis like that Finally The tith in the pit of his belly and threw it behind his voice
“Just a little th he had “I’ll prove to you that we haven’t co!”
But despite having said it, Haruhiro didn’t know exactly what he er with them, after all “Come this far?” But had they really come far at all, or did he just want to believe that?
He wished he could have said so cooler, more inspirational He wanted to becos He didn’t want it all to end for them here He didn’t necessarily want to do this whole Cri, either, but he wanted there to be a tomorrow for himself He wanted to live
He didn’t want to die At the very least, he didn’t want to die
Manato, wasn’t it the sa either You too; you wished you could have been more, done more Haruhiro and the others, they had been lucky to have survived this long
We’re not going to die We’re going to live, and keepto seize tomorroith our bare hands
For the sake of that tooblins
“Focus on the hobgoblin!” Haruhiro cried, as he ran behind it
Yue blows in succession on it, grunting with the effort The hobgoblin deflected the first attack with its club, but the second tore into its left shoulder Although his sasn’t able to cut through its chainoblin roar in pain It had been wielding its club with both hands, but now, it was no longer able to
“Keep attacking it!” Haruhiro said, but just as the words cah Ranta and cazo
It put one foot down, hard, and brought its sword down in a diagonal swing No, way… Haruhiro thought The zo’s [RAGE BLOW], except a goblin was doing it Mogzo blocked it with his bastard sword, locking blades with it The plate aroblin made to continue its attack, but it was frozo did his job best
He spun the plate aroblin’s sword around with his own, and in the saoblin leapt backwards i a look behind, went after Ranta instead
Ranta, taken co blow to his bucket hel arrow, the plate aroblin thrust, slashed upwards, then slashed doards again in three quick strokes of its sword
Ranta yelped He couldn’t do anything but back away The flurry of attacks came so fast, he couldn’t even use [PROPEL LEAP] This was bad Ranta was going to be overwhelmed
“Oom rel eckt vel dash!+”
shi+horu was the one who saved hi [SHADOW ECHO]; the frizzy black eleoblin in the shoulder It took the plate ar body under control again, but it was enough to allow Ranta to retreat and catch his breath
“darily
“Our trump card!” Haruhiro pressed his hand to the wound on his side
He was having a hard ti it hard to think clearly He glanced at shi+horu and sa haggard she looked She y draining [PHANTOM SLEEP] twice at the beginning of the fight, and now [SHADOW ECHO] twice, too How many more could she cast?
[PHANTOM SLEEP] wasn’t a spell that was very effective on eneilant and alert and [SHADOW ECHO] didn’t seeht Thatleft Their final ace-in-the-hole
They had to finish things here and noith it Before the fight could drag out any longer, they would finish off the hobgoblin
Haruhiro screazo, use it!”
Mogzo gave a grunt of acknowledground, and let out a long, ear-piercing howl that made all the hairs on Haruhiro’s skin stand on end It was a Warrior’s [WAR CRY] It unfailingly crushed the resolve of any ene the fear in them
And that’s exactly what happened to the hobgoblin Its entire body went rigid, as if paralyzed by fear It would regain its senses soon, but that one-second or even fractional-second opening was utterly invaluable to Haruhiro and the others
Yuoblin’s waist “[SWEEPING SLASH]!”
Mogzo took a step back “THANK…” he began, then stepped in again, but this tile, dreadful stroke “…YOUUUUUUUU!”
With a sickening crunch, Mogzo’s bastard sword crushed deep into the hobgoblin’s shoulder, probably sle, half groaning noise, and went down on one knee ain
Haruhiro didn’t intend to get careless As long as he was alive, he couldn’t afford carelessness
“Take this!” he cried as he dropkicked it, foot connecting with the back of the hobgoblin’s head
That put the hobgoblin in a daze once zo rain blow after blow
It wasn’t sihtly, and yet taking a life was neither siruesome process, and indeed Haruhiro was one of the participants in that process So he had no right to look away, even if it was brutal and gory
When the hobgoblin finally stopped zo dropped down on all fours, his aredly sucked in air That was definitely not just exhaustion; probably he was bruised and hurting all over, as well
“H-h-hurry!” Ranta cried “Hurry up and h-help me!”
Haruhiro looked over in Ranta’s direction and saw that Ranta was having trouble keeping his feet under hioblin’s attacks Ranta was at his limits No, probably already past his limits
“Well done, Ranta! You’re a!” Haruhiro called
“hell yeah I aured that out just now!?”
Haruhiro and Yuoblin’s left and right, intending to attack in a pincer for its blade at Ranta one last time, then started toDid it intend to flee?
No, that wasn’t it The direction it was heading in It was running straight at shi+horu
shi+horu let out a little gasp, eyes going wide as she brought her staff up in front of herself There was no way… there was no way the easily-intiht off an attack But there was no need for her to
“Get back!” Mary co out in front of her
Her slanted back stance put her parallel to the diagonal at which she held her staff It was a Priest’s defensive skill: [GUARD STANCE] The plate ar its sword at her, and Mary looked as if she was going to either parry or block
But she didn’t have a chance to do either The plate arround, but with enough force that it sent flying hardened, co Mary shut her eyes to keep the dirt fro in
It was in that split-second
In that split-second, the plate ar its other hand A knife It was a throwing knife
Mary staggered, one hand pressed to her stoed itself in deep
“Mary!” Haruhiro cried
No way… There was no way this could be happening Manato Mary was going to die like Manato did No way Without thinking, Haruhiro charged the plate aroblin He didn’t knohat to do, he didn’t knohat he was doing Before he realized what he had done, he had coh to almost be face-to-face with it
Its sas co in a diagonal line so that Haruhiro couldn’t dodge to either side What was he going to do? Keep rushi+ng it Reach it faster than its sword could reach him
Maybe I’ll die, he thought But he didn’t Haruhiro fully front-tackled the plate aroblin He wasn’t dead yet His face slammed painfully into its helround The plate ar, but it wasn’t in a hue so Haruhiro didn’t understand
Its sword He had to focus on its weapon Haruhiro desperately held down the plate arht arm with his left; it punched hiain and again Haruhiro’s head spun and it felt like his consciousness was going to fly off and away
Don’t fly! Don’t fly away! Don’t fly, you’re not a birdie! he kept telling himself
Haruhiro reversed his grip on his dagger
The plate ar that sounded like “Stop it! Stop it!”
Yeah, right… like I’ht
The plate aroblin’s helm covered nearly the entirety of its head, except for the eye slit It was there that Haruhiro ai to rarabbed Haruhiro’s dagger with its free hand, stopping it short of its target
Both of their hands treer A little bit er would reach the slit But that little bit was a great distance
“bastard! damn it, da?!” Haruhiro cursed it over and over
“Haruhiro!” The voice belonged to Mogzo, and it was followed by the pounding of footsteps
Mogzo was running towards hi off and away frozo let out a furious battle cry, and he lifted his bastard sword so high over his head, his body bent backwards Then he brought his sword down sharply; as sharply as the release of a spring, coiled for far too long
The resulting clashi+ng sound was so heavy that reverberated down to the pit of Haruhiro’s stoth His bastard sword had sheared the plate aroblin’s head clean off its shoulders It was, of course, fully and completely dead
“We… did it?” Ranta whispered weakly
Yuround “Looks… like it…”
“I can’t believe it,” shi+horu said
Mogzo lifted his sword up again, shouting the victory wildly skywards but he, too, couldn’t really believe that they had done it either, so the shout was not nearly as ferocious as it could have been
“…I’ her hand, “but can I heal myself now? It kind of, uh, hurts”
“Why’re you apologizing?” Haruhiro grinned, pressing a hand to his side and fighting hard not to groan
Maybe it was better not to touch the wound, but even when he let his hand drop, it still throbbed painfully It was getting hard to stay standing, so he finally allowed himself to crouch down
“Mary…” he began “It doesn’t have to be right now, but… It hurts like hell Sorry, but can you heal me too?”