Chapter 44: Chapter 39 – The Hubris of a Hero

There’s something strange about him, this summoned hero. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something feels off. For now, he seems to just be content to stand still. Staring us down. All he seems to be doing is moving his left arm.

What is he doing? Is he going through his user interface? I guess that’d make sense. Figuring out what he’s going to start with, I guess. But surely he realizes that this gives his opponents time to think what to do, too?

“Stay on guard,” Karine whispers under her breath, “He’s dangerous.”

The anxiety is obvious in her voice. But she must’ve realized that this might happen, right? Surely there’s some plan that accounts for him getting here this soon?

“I’m not sure if we can take him with just us four.”

Is she that afraid of the hero, or does she have that little trust in our ability?

“Should we not try to inform the army of his appearance?”

Nice, Avilia! I wanted to ask that, too!

“Yes, we…”

Wait. What’s he doing?

“Time’s up!”

The summoned hero has straightened out his stance and has pointed his sword towards us. The sword bursts into flames, and those flames form into twelve balls of fire that surround the sword.

He slashes the air with his sword, and the fire balls are sent towards us as a group.

Vaqelin strikes the ground with his staff and envelops the entire group in a magical shield. The fire balls hit it harmlessly. He lowers the shield the moment the barrage ends with an innocent smile on his face.

He didn’t really have to do that; it’ll probably just make him into a target.

“Tch. I see.”

He seems to play around with his interface again. What’s he up to?

“Yes, I see. I see. Aren’t you an interesting bunch.”

Did he check our statuses or something? There’s no spells for that. Is that some sort of a summoned hero special ability?

“I haven’t had an opportunity to kill an elf before. What an unexpected surprise.”

“You will do no such thing!”

“Vaqelin,” I whisper, “Don’t let him provoke you!”

“Sure, sure,” he responds dismissively, “Mister reincarnator. You can’t stop me.”

Vaqelin gasps in surprise and the summoned hero grins all of a sudden. Was he waiting for this?

The summoned hero suddenly backsteps, and…

Disappears?! Oh no!

Physical barrier!

Even though I push Vaqelin to the side, it’s too late. The summoned hero has reappeared behind him and slashes towards his head.

The sword connects, but the strike is dulled. He falls to the ground.

He's just unconscious.

A sigh of relief. I cancel the spell.

Karine wakes from her daze and pushes herself away from the summoned hero.

The hero’s sword bursts into flames again as he pushes it downwards, towards Vaqelin’s defenseless body. What’s he trying to do, burn him to death?!

Thankfully, the hero is conceited. He only sees Vaqelin as a danger to himself. And with all his power, he’s a regular, organic human.

Unaugmented.

I just need to keep him busy, Karine has to come up with something!

I can do that much!

While I don’t like my augmentations, they do have their uses. And Karine’s versions…

Physical boost. Unarmed combat boost.

As the blade falls, I grasp it with my right hand, stopping it before it hits Vaqelin.

Cancel.

I release a bolt of lightning through the sword.

“What?!”

The hero violently pulls his sword away and staggers backwards.

I stand up and dust my clothes.

Yes. It’s true. He's scary. You can tell he wants to kill you. But in the end, he’s just an arrogant boy who’s always gotten everything he wanted with no effort. It never occurred to him that life’s not really a game in easy mode.

“The hell did you do, bitch?!”

I tilt my head to the side. I thought it was pretty straightforward?

“No matter,” he says, “I guess I’ll have to deal with you first.”

‘Use it.’

Use what?

He strikes at me from a leftward angle, and I block it with my arm. Metal hits metal, causing a clanging sound.

“What the hell is wrong with your arms?!”

He still hasn’t realized it, I see. I bet he thinks I’m some sort of a martial artist or something.

“Can’t you see it in my status?”

“Your status is a mess, lady! I bet it’s normal for you elves!”

Well, that’s good to know. Although, didn’t he get to see Avilia’s status…?

Actually, where is she?

“No getting distracted!”

He thrusts his sword towards me and I sidestep it. He mutters something under his breath and...

He disappears again!

Physical barrier!

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Knowing how he used the spell before, I leap forward.

The hero screams in frustration.

Cancel.

“Just stop moving and die!”

No thanks!

Karine, any day now!

I can’t let him keep the initiative all the time like this.

‘Use it.’

Use what?!

“Disintegration!”

Karine, finally!

“What the…!”

The hero seems to stop in place, as if he’s in horrible pain. He drops his sword on the ground and falls to his knees. His body seems to, quite literally, be breaking into its constituent parts.

How horrifying.

“Thanks, Karine!”

“Oh, don’t thank me,” she says in response, “It’s thanks to you I had the time to cast it!”

But, wasn’t this all just… A tad bit too easy?

There’s a shadow behind Karine.

“Didn’t think you’d fall for that.”

The voice of the hero!

I shout to Karine, but it’s too late. She’s already falling to the ground.

… Unconscious? Thank goodness.

“Karine, huh? Sadly, I can’t kill her.”

He kicks her in the side. “That was painful. But you should know better than to try to kill a hero with an instakill.”

He grins. I’m sure I saw him turning into nothing… Oh no. Maybe he was playing with his shadow magic?

“But you, I have no quest for. We can fight to the death!”

… I’d rather not. Honestly. I’d really rather not.

But…

Fighting a person feels a lot less scary than the thought of fighting those wolves. He might be after my life like they were, but… He’s not out to eat me.

“I assumed you were just some weakling NPC in a bad spot before, but I won’t make the same mistake again.”

“… Why do you keep calling people NPCs? Can’t you tell they’re real?”

“Real? You mean, like me? People who can’t see the user interface that shows they’re players? People who don’t have a status that shows them as Player Characters, like me and that reincarnator there? Can’t believe he went down just like that. What a newbie. He’d be better off dead.”

“So, what am I to you?”

“Some weirdo elf. Can’t tell if you’re an NPC or a PC. Your status is a mess.”

I wonder why that is?

“Anyway, you’ll have to die now.”

Uh oh.

That’s a lot of boosting spells. Half a dozen, at least, if I can pick them up from his whispers. I couldn’t get to him in time even if I tried, so it’s better to let him take the first step.

I wonder if he’ll use that shadow step spell now or if he’ll attack head on? Since he knows I can sidestep it, it doesn’t seem very useful anymore, right?

‘USE IT.’

A surge of data is uploaded into my brain.

The hero leaps at me at a blinding speed, and I barely stop his attack with my left forearm. His sword cuts deep into it and gets stuck. He tries to pull it out, but to no avail.

The hero looks stunned. Looks like it never occurred to him that my arms are prosthetic, even after hitting them twice

I grab his sword with my right hand and whisper the words. The words that were just put into my mind. I have no idea what they mean. I don’t even know how they are said.

Yet, somehow, I said them.

The hero seems to slow down and his sword loses its flames and magical sheen.

“What did you just do?!”

Honestly? I haven’t the faintest. But it seems to have had an effect.

He seems… Almost immobilized? Not that I can do much, either. I feel drained, and my left arm’s broken.

Seems like I got him good, though!

‘Finally.’

This voice in my head seems less distorted than before. What’s going on, exactly?

“Irene, get away from him!”

Huh? Avilia?

I detach my left arm and stumble backwards.

Sound of metal striking metal. Something strikes the hero’s cheek, causing blood to splatter.

“Tch!”

With obvious difficulty, he tries to take his shield from his back, but he fails. It’s only a matter of time until one of them hits him somewhere critical.

He picks something from a pouch on his belt and breaks it. And just like that, with a flash of light, he disappears. He’s gone just as suddenly as he had appeared.

I wonder what kind of magic that was?

And… Why do I still feel like he went easy on me?

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