On the surface, you couldn’t tell what was so impressive about this boy Kalimer. The only thing that gave off even a slight sense of pressure was the black short sword he held…
But now, it seemed his intimidating presence had grown considerably.
I blocked his four consecutive lightning blade strikes in a row, marveling at how unique the skills he’d mastered were, then raised an emerald shield to block a heavy blade strike. Wasn’t this getting a bit dicey? Wasn’t this kid a little too amazing? I’d already seen no fewer than four sword skills from him alone.
After backstepping to dodge a few burst shots, I wanted to cast my own spell, but found myself hesitating because of his agile, swift movements. Kalimer seemed to have his own tactical style—after I caught his sword techniques one after another, he quickly closed in on me.
“That’s fast. On par with a hero.”
Tossing out that remark, I stomped hard on the ground, leaped into the air, and swung my legs forcefully backward to flip my body into an inverted spin, scattering a large batch of prepared [Justice] downward.
If the training barrier was set up so people wouldn’t get seriously hurt, then using a bit of force with physical techniques shouldn’t be a problem, right? But like what happened when I beat up that goblin before—I didn’t want to leave someone half-paralyzed on our first meeting.
Well, he wasn’t so weak that he needed my sympathy.
Watching the Justice orbs morph into spheres and split apart, filling the entire backyard with bright yellow beams, I slowly landed and frowned slightly, looking at the boy who had hidden beneath his shield and come out unscathed.
“You released a shield in time to protect yourself? Clever.” But doing that would have to consume a massive amount of magic. No matter how impressive Kalimer was, he couldn’t possibly keep fighting me under these conditions.
For a fair fight, I hadn’t used Origin Force or [Impression Teleport], let alone the balance-breaking [Time Stop], because I just wanted to see the limits Kalimer could reach right now. For a long time, unless things were truly dire—even if I were about to die—I wouldn’t use skills that were taboo to the world…
While I was lost in thought, Kalimer had already rushed over at some point. Just like what I’d done earlier, he leaped into the air and landed behind me. At the same time, something landed on my head too—wet, sticky, and slippery.
“Slime?” I looked at the green goo dripping onto my clothes bit by bit, feeling rather displeased. I tried to turn around but found my movement restricted. Was this part of his tactics too?
Using slime’s mucus to gain a combat advantage? Impressive. But for me, it was nothing more than an appetizer.
I exerted force suddenly and whipped out a cyan rope, successfully binding him. Then I gave it a sharp tug and activated [Perseverance]. When Kalimer crashed into me, he was sent flying by my body-counter barrier. Seeing everything unfold exactly as predicted, I let out a soft sigh and cleaned the slime residue off myself.
“Still got energy?” I asked deliberately, not even waiting for Kalimer’s response. “If you do, get up and keep going. Whether you can stop me is up to you.” Honestly, I’d almost forgotten my original purpose—winning and then finding some way back to [Cliff].
Not caring at all about HP loss, Kalimer stood back up in one step. The short sword he held began to gleam… no, to glow black.
“Going to show your true power?” My lips curled into a grin. I was so excited—I’d never imagined sparring could be this fun. I really needed to ask Iris for the method to use this training barrier later.
Huh? What’s that… In the blink of an eye, an ice-blue greatsword appeared in Kalimer’s hands. After briefly guessing how it worked, I propped up my chin and tossed out a deep-blue light saw—
After deflecting the light saw with his greatsword, Kalimer leaped into the air with the blade, spinning in an inverted arc. The steam in the air instantly condensed under the chilling greatsword’s effect, forming incredibly powerful ice blades. Truly amazing—the ice blades scattered in all directions from the hurricane created by the user’s spinning motion. Just that alone could cause considerable damage, not to mention the greatsword itself.
I’m actually quite afraid of the cold, but in this situation, for some reason, the chill didn’t hinder me at all.
Using [Perseverance] to protect myself all the time would be too much like cheating—at least against a single enemy. In a proper fight, it was arguably the best defensive tool. Well, though I wasn’t sure about its defense cap or how many hits it could block at once.
For now, I’ll release it and use [Mercy] for defense instead.
Under the emerald shield’s protection, I withstood several greatsword slashes—even the final ice burst seemed utterly feeble in my eyes… Just kidding. If it were the normal me, I might have been comboed to death, not to mention the ice burst after that massive ice block formed.
“Wow, what a stunning sword technique. Kalimer, show me whatever power you’ve got—!”
Just as I finished speaking, a shockwave suddenly erupted in front of me, blasting me back a good distance. When I tried to seize the moment to counterattack, I found my body had become heavy.
What is this? Looks like that shockwave wasn’t just a simple explosion.
“Hey hey, what kind of magic is this? Doesn’t even need chanting… Your magic talent is no worse than Rank One’s—ugh!” My head was spinning. What had I been hit with? Mental magic? But if that were the case, it should have knocked me out cold, since my mental fortitude was locked—unless my max mental points were reduced.
What the—! I snapped back to my senses from the binding sensation around my waist, and coming straight at me was Kalimer, riding along vines with his black blade ready. Startled, I quickly raised my azure sleeve blade to block—with a “swoosh,” I felt it. A chilling sensation at my neck. I reached up to touch it, but it was intact…
“Stop right there!”
Aria’s shout genuinely pulled me back to reality from the aftereffects.
“Ha, ha. Hahaha. I lost, hahaha. Hahahahaha!”
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud—not to comfort myself over the loss, but because of the slight sweetness of this match.
“Oh my! I didn’t expect that. I thought I could beat you, Kalimer.” I never thought I’d lose in just a few moves. I’d been way too careless.
“…Big Sister, you’re really strong too.” Head lowered, Kalimer murmured with a slightly red face.
My hand naturally reached for his head, rubbing back and forth. Actually, he wasn’t much shorter than me—I was at most three years older, so I only had a slight height advantage.
“So, Big Sister, can you stay a little longer?” Kalimer said while grabbing my hand and swinging it.
Can’t help it—a bet’s a bet.
I nodded and looked toward Iris and Aria not far away. They both had smiles on their faces—not for me, but out of pride for the boy before them and how much he’d grown.
“Go on, your big sisters are waiting for you.”
“Then you come too, Big Sister!”
Kalimer bounced over excitedly, and I was pulled along by him. After an awkward exchange of glances with Iris, we went back inside the house.
…
“I see. So Kalimer has a curse that forcibly induces… arousal in the opposite sex? I’d roughly guessed as much, but thank you for trusting me.”
“It’s fine. Since you’re still acting normal, Shiling, we won’t force you to form a contract with Kalimer.”
“…Cough cough! Let’s not talk about that for now, meow! It’s still too early for Shiling, meow!”
“It’s fine, feel free to say it. But rather than that, it’d be better to discuss something more meaningful.”
“Yeah yeah, meow! Mm! Shiling! (excited) Can you demonstrate that magic from earlier for me again, meow!?”
“Huh? That… it’s my own personal spell. I can’t guarantee an outsider could master it thoroughly.”
“(dejected) Meow, I see… Ah meow, I thought I could teach it to Kalimer… (suddenly) As I thought, Shiling, you really should form a contract with Kalimer, meow!”
“Speaking of which, what exactly is a contract?”
“It’s that thing, meow! It makes you feel really good—meow!”
“Aria, you were the one who just told me not to bring it up. You can’t drag someone into something just because it’s novel.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine, I don’t mind.”
“…I see. Shiling, I got a bit carried away for a moment. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be like that. Oh, right! Aren’t you preparing a dinner banquet tonight? We’ve got time now.”
“No need, meow. Calling it a feast is really just bringing the cookware outside, meow.”
“That’s right. Shiling, why don’t you take a look around for now? When dusk falls, come back and we’ll have a big meal.”
“Thank you.”
