Chapter 39: Matthias

“!”

Despite being thrown into the air, Matthias swiftly turned his body in mid-air. He adjusted his position and landed on the floor.

The back of his hand, which he used to wipe his lips, had a slight slippery sensation when his face was lifted. Having not shed blood in a long time, a tightened expression fell on Matthias’ features.

On the contrary, Sharon and Rain, both of whom thought a critical blow had been struck, remained unflappably calm.

“I figured I caught him by surprise perfectly…”

“Yes. It appears, though, that your kick was scarcely avoided.”

Rain’s vision was clear. At the very precise timing when Matthias received the kick, he twisted his own neck to attenuate the impact of the kick to the bare minimum.

Notwithstanding an ordinary human kick, Sharon, a specialist in close-range combat, had been bolstered by sorcery with her own body, and yet, he was able to parry the kick with all his might. The presence of magic usage was nowhere to be detected in Matthias’ body, which meant that he had literally sustained the current attack with his whole body.

“I was confident in my melee skills…”

“The opponent is truly unbelievably tough. Even that Mr. Shiva was defeated in an instant.”

Alongside Sharon, the specialized weapon of Rain unfailingly pointed at Matthias. The rapid firing of magic bullets has been one of Rain’s forte, but it has just come to light that the assassin before him was far superior in terms of reaction speed than he was.

Forming a two-person team with Ms. Sharon turned out to be the wise move after all, as I had thought.

Even if the remainder of the Kaguya staff was in no way inferior, few of them could respond to the speed of the man at hand. Even taking into account their other abilities, the only one who could hold a candle to him right now would be Karen, who was asleep in her hospital room. In that respect, Sharon was more seasoned in actual combat than Rain, which signified he could focus on himself unrestrictedly.

“…!”

Silence reigned supreme momentarily, followed by Rain making the first move. Sensing Mathias’ extremely faint bloodlust, Rain struck preemptively with the rapid firing of the magic bullets.

With only an eyebrow raised mildly, Matthias twisted and ducked the invisible attacks effortlessly.

That was enough, nevertheless, to set him on a bad footing. Sharon flew out like an arrow at the same time Rain released his second bullet.

At the sight of this, Matthias immediately aborted his evasive maneuver. He utilized his bare hand to take out the second invisible magic bullet with a sweep of his fist into the air.

“…Hah!”

“…!”

The turmoil in Sharon was evident, but it lasted only fleetingly. Filled with a ravenous spirit, she collided head-on with Matthias.

Matthias went for Sharon’s neck from his adverse position in spite of his crumpled stance with the suppleness of a serpent.

Sharon, who had just managed to parry it in the nick of time, returned the favor by unleashing a knifehand strike imbued with magic.

“Eh――Ah!”

Even Rain, who had been observing from afar for a moment, failed to discern what had just unfolded.

In the blink of an eye, Matthias was able to drive Sharon—who was meant to be the aggressor—away in the opposite direction.

From earlier, a trace of magical power could be perceived in Matthias’ fist, but as usual, no other magic appeared to have been employed. And yet, Sharon, who was flung away, crashed through the wall and plunged into the hospital room on the side with a resounding clang.

“Tsk!”

There was no leisure time to be concerned about Sharon.

Rain launched magic bullets at the last second as Matthias suddenly closed in on him, but all of them were deflected by his fist as though the bullets were visible. It was unclear to Rain how Matthias could distinguish these bullets without the assistance of Magical Eye.

Even if it wasn’t addressed, he would still have to cope with the uncertainty since his own life would be in peril. Rain transformed his magical tool, which was in the form of a gun, into the shape of a dagger. And conversely, he stepped forward and slashed at Matthias.

The change in the appearance of the magical tool did not seem to astonish Matthias that much, and he calmly repelled the attack with his fist.

With the other fist, he attempted to hit Rain in the skull, but Rain had foreseen that.

“‘Flow’!”

“―!?”

Rain’s body suddenly took two steps backward as if he were being pulled in. From a distance, Rain’s refined Flow must have appeared to be an instantaneous movement even if it was the most rudimentary of all movement magic.

At the immediate point of the transition, Rain shifted the dagger back into the shape of a gun. Setting his focus on Matthias, the latter strained to his feet to evade quickly as if he sensed something…

“―Ugh!?”

…but a flash of light pierced Matthias’ shoulder earlier than he could do so.

It was the “most” advanced-class magic, “Raiko-Chidori”. It was Rain’s trump card, a magic that discharged thunderstroke at the same speed as lightning―but even for Matthias, this was a feat that he could not fully sidestep. Even so, the fact that the attack aimed at his vital spot was averted indicated his truly inhuman reaction speed.

“…!”

Matthias sought to hurry away, but his body responded with shocking sluggishness. His body was temporarily incapacitated by Raiko-Chidori’s electric shock. And no way would Rain overlook such an apparent window of opportunity.

“!”

Two more Raiko-Chidori pierced Matthias’ right limb. Matthias somehow managed to stumble back and ultimately dropped to one knee, but Rain, likewise, was drained of magical power by the current Raiko-Chidori attacks.

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But this is my only chance!

Rain converted his magical tool into the shape of a dagger with which he surged forth. His magical power had been depleted, but he still had a small amount of magical power left to enhance his body with sorcery. In two steps, the distance between the two was more than ten meters, and with the same momentum, he unleashed a thrust.

“―Hmph!”

“Whoa!?”

Mathias, on the other hand, stomped once on the ground even as he was down on one knee, causing Rain’s body to abruptly freeze. As if each muscle in his body had been locked in place for a split second, his body tensed up, bringing his movements to a definite halt, even if it was only for a moment.

Rain was positive that if Matthias had relied on magic, he would have been able to react with absolute certainty. But he didn’t even engage in his magical power, which begged the question: how on earth did he manage to pull off anything like this―

“…Looks like you are agitated.”

“Oh no.”

A fist of Matthias’ landed flawlessly in Rain’s chest. Accompanied by a crushing sound, Rain’s body was propelled backward, creating a crater in the wall at the end of the corridor.

“Gah, ahh.”

The paralysis may have still been present, yet Matthias’ fist still retained ample power. Collapsing to the floor, Rain could not rise to his feet for the intensity of the pain was too overwhelming.

“Rain!”

“!”

Sharon, although not yet finished off, had been under the impression that she would be immobile for some time, but when she stormed toward Matthias again, even Matthias was overcome with a touch of amazement. Exhausted from the struggle with Rain, Matthias still braced his fists to intercept Sharon. But from the perspective of Sharon, a melee combat veteran, it was clear that Matthias was so worn out compared to the previous bout, that a solid chance of victory against him was felt even by her.

Having maximized her own magical power, Sharon at once moved toward Matthias’ chest. While the movement of Sharon can be followed by Matthias with his eyes, his physical body remained frustratingly sluggish.

Despite this, Matthias “laid” his fist where Sharon’s head would be anticipating her next move with a battle intuition that bordered on futuristic vision.

Within the following fraction of a second, an average warrior would have deliberately poised themselves to intercept Matthias’ fist, resulting in an instantaneous crushing of the head. In contrast, Sharon was a superb warrior—far from being a common one.

“! Don’t underestimate me!”

“―!?”

At the very last time, Sharon decided against attacking after recognizing Matthias’ intention. A dreadful “Rise” converged on her right leg as she dodged Matthias’ punch.

“‘Icicle Burst’!”

“Rise” was executed, forcing Sharon’s right leg to shoot forth a blast of frigid energy while Matthias defended against it. In the span of a heartbeat, Matthias’ arm froze, and in the seconds that ensued, several cracks formed on it.

“…!”

“What!?”

But then Matthias promptly shattered the object in his pocket―Kanaki’s custom-made magic crystal stone, causing it to shatter into pieces right away.

Then, right there, Matthias’ arm—which was on the brink of shattering at any moment—regenerated. All the cracks disappeared, and the frost gradually began to thaw. Concurrently, the icy wind emanating from Sharon’s right leg was drowned out by the hot air generated around Matthias as well.

“Damn… aahhh!”

“Zuu!”

This was the part where Rain had revealed his agitation and exposed a flaw earlier, whereas Sharon was different. It was attributed, in a sense, to the mismatch in fighting expertise. Sharon’s movement did not halt.

Determining that her own magic was obstructed, Sharon withdrew her right leg, which she had bumped, and kicked the floor as it was, before settling for a knee strike with her other leg. It was out of the scope of Matthias’ expectations that she would launch a different attack without being swayed at all, and he took that one blow straight on, his body contorted into a crouching form. Sharon further lifted her right leg upward straight and sent down an all-out heel strike, destroying Matthias’ right shoulder, but that was the last of her maneuver.

The heel strike undoubtedly fractured Matthias’ collarbone, but he managed to hold back the anguish and use his left arm to grasp Sharon’s ankle, which was impaled on his shoulder.

“Damn, ahhhhh!!”

Matthias caught Sharon’s ankle in his hold and crushed it before she could even begin to struggle to free herself from the restraints.

Then, spinning on the spot to gain momentum, Matthias sent Sharon flying off with one hand.

Sharon slammed against the wall before she had a chance to yell. Even at that point, the momentum persisted, and Sharon’s body crashed through the somewhat thin hospital wall and into a nearby structure.

“…This isn’t looking good.”

Rain still showed no signs of being able to get up, and Matthias’ two greatest obstacles were now cleared from his path.

But he likewise sustained heavy damage, and above all, had taken excessive delay. Should he falter, enemy reinforcements would arrive from below, in which case the prospects of victory were slim for Matthias at the present stage of the mission. Matthias centered his primary focus on his prime objective, the obliteration of Karen, and shoved aside the task of dealing with Rain for now.

——————

T/N:

For clarification, the English skill names given by the author are sort of strange, or rather, incomprehensible at first glance in English, at least, I personally did not get it unless I read the raw’s name. Like “Rise”, the Japanese version is freezing energy, technically the English version is Wraith but yeah, no one will get it is the name of ice magic so I changed it to Rise (I know Rise doesn’t really have anything to do with ice magic but the explanation is given in its first appearance anyway). And even Magical Eye is called Evil Know and Magical Bullets is called Gun. The context will be somewhat strange if I follow the English version names so I will be translating using the raw version or make up something conveniently. So if you see any strange words in the narrative, just see if it is capitalized or not, all skill names along with monsters & demons will be capitalized. And Magic Bullets from the next chapter on will be capitalized as well, it’s a skill also after all. And also, there will be scenes coming up soon where you might see a “positive” quality of Kanaki, but as I have mentioned at the beginning of the prologue, he’s a pure evil/simply evil/extremely twisted person/psychopath or whatever it is depending on how you view it until the end of the second series regardless of what happened next. You can read the third series if you want even before finishing the second series, his “evil” conduct and disposition remain the same in the first 17 chapters that I have translated, the storylines are not intersected yet and there’s no major reveal so you don’t have to worry about it. You can just treat it as watching a teaser and enjoying your popcorn. This might look like a short novel around 200 chapters now but in fact, the raw’s word already exceeded 900k which means you are basically reading more than 700 chapters

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