This Novel is not my Novel

*As soon as her body recovered, Fjodora gave a potion to her familiar, Lausa.

Even if a familiar's attribute resistance stat was higher than a human's, it had taken a direct, unexpected hit from lightning.

She must have judged that the damage was not light.

Or maybe she felt sorry for taking a potion by herself when they were hit by the same attack. Or perhaps, having been hit herself, she realized how painful it was and assumed Lausa felt the same.

Reisir watched the scene quietly, and the moment Lausa finished recovering, he gathered Ether in his hand.

After drinking a potion, its effect is halved if taken again for a while.

The timing was as good as saying he had deliberately waited, knowing that if they were hit by the same attack now, they couldn't fully recover even with a potion.

Therefore, when Reisir stretched out his hand, where golden Ether had gathered...

It was a perfectly natural reaction for Fjodora to hug Lausa, throw her body to the side, and urgently call out someone's name.

"Ríolíkin!"

At the cry calling his name, Ríolíkin burst through the dense bushes as if he'd been waiting and charged at Reisir.

And Reisir had been waiting for this situation as well.

He was resolved to finally break free from Ríolíkin and Lausa's mark.

Without even confirming whether his lightning bolt had hit, Reisir readjusted his grip on his spear with both hands and turned his body toward the side from which Ríolíkin had emerged.

My conjecture is that he hadn't launched the lightning just now with the grim determination to land a hit.

I suspect it was an attack made with a "good if it hits, oh well if it doesn't" kind of feeling.

I'm sure you readers know why I'm going out of my way to overthink the actions of the protagonist of someone else's novel and come up with this conjecture.

It's to activate the 【Character Analysis】 skill.

Now that Reisir and Ríolíkin were clashing, it was Fjodora's turn to attack using 【Spatial Leap】.

Not immediately, though. She'll likely fire an arrow first, aiming for the moment I react to it.

As expected.

I saw Fjodora, who had regained her posture, nock an arrow and draw her bowstring.

Wait a minute. She didn't pull the arrow from her Inventory while drawing the bowstring; she nocked the arrow and then drew it...?

Since the arrow appeared out of thin air, it was reasonable to assume she'd pulled it from her Inventory.

I wasn't sure why the timing of nocking the arrow was so important, but for some reason, it concerned me.

If she's utilizing Pret's 【Disguise】 skill, she could easily create the effect of an arrow appearing from thin air, as if it were taken from an Inventory...

And above all, the direction the arrow was flying was strange.

If it flies on this trajectory, it won't hit anyone and will just pass between me and Vigdís, right?

Since it was an arrow shot by Fjodora, who wielded the power of wind, its direction could change at any moment, so it was best not to disregard it.

And since Vigdís, the owner of the 【Iron Blood Steel Body】 skill, would suffer no real damage even if hit by an arrow...

The target must be me...

Just as I was thinking that and decided to strike the arrow down, a thought struck me.

I saw a thin red line being drawn in the air, as if the arrow were leaving a trajectory as it flew.

The arrow was imbued with teal Ether.

It's possible to see a red afterimage, its complementary color, if you stare at the light for too long.

But the line is far too clean for that, right? Besides, it's not directly attached to the arrow's tail; there's a bit of distance...

A wire was clearly tied to the arrow.

The line's reddish hue was likely due to Helga's Fire Attribute Ether.

The moment Helga pushes her Ether to the end of the wire and creates a flame, it will meet the Wind Attribute Ether in the arrow and erupt into a much larger blaze.

If I were to strike something like that with my Ether-infused whip, it would obviously explode, sending flames scattering everywhere.

With Helga's current skill, she wouldn't be able to control all those flames.

But I couldn't rule out the possibility of her utilizing some of them to create something like fire arrows, which would be a considerable threat.

Not just to me, but to Vigdís as well.

But what if I just left the arrow alone?

Judging by its trajectory, the Ether Helga had imbued in the wire was most likely intended to separate me and Vigdís.

Even though Fjodora could readjust the arrow's movement at any time, she had a habit of always aiming precisely at her target before shooting.

Is her main purpose to guide me into fighting alone by separating me?

Not only was the risk I'd have to shoulder by striking the arrow quite high...

Me holding out on my own also aligned with our side's plan.

Thus, instead of swinging my whip, I pushed Vigdís's shoulder and simultaneously took a step to the opposite side.

The arrow passed through the space that opened up between us, and the wire following it erupted in a great flame, creating a barrier.

Since Vigdís and I were some distance away from it, there was no danger of being burned by the blaze.

Besides, maintaining a fire large enough to form a wall for a long time would consume a large amount of Ether, so it should go out soon.

This expectation was correct.

As was the one that Fjodora would attempt a close-range attack with 【Spatial Leap】.

However, the location where she appeared using that skill was somewhat unexpected.

When the wall of fire died down, I could see Fjodora on the other side.

The fortunate thing was that, thanks to Vigdís continuously holding the ribbon's knot with one hand, it didn't come undone right away when Fjodora snatched the ribbon's tail.

Still, the ribbon could come undone if she pulled harder.

Vigdís immediately swung her training sword, and Fjodora had no choice but to let go of the ribbon she'd just caught and retreat.

As Sveinn swung his spear toward Fjodora, I had to turn my gaze away from them.

The conclusion was a bit sloppy, but since Fjodora did succeed in subduing me earlier, I thought she would try to take me on again...

Pret, holding a training dagger in each hand, was rushing toward me, so I had to swing my whip to block his approach.

He put on a frightened expression at the whip that tore through the air toward him.

But Pret's movements were incredibly nimble as he weaved through the wildly swinging whip, throwing daggers at me.

As I continuously swung the whip, I pulled out a dagger with my left hand and struck down the daggers Pret threw.

Suddenly, my sparring match with Skati came to mind.

This was a natural association, as Pret could be considered Skati's superior in traps and her inferior in combat.

But their fighting styles aren't exactly the same...

I'd get myself into big trouble if I tried to fight by reviving those memories.

Thinking so, I observed Pret's movements in detail.

His mouth was moving nonstop, babbling away. Combining his voice, which was drawn out by the thought acceleration effect, with the shape of his mouth, the result was—

"Why are you just standing there, not retreating or approaching me? If you're trying to stall for time, you should create distance, and if your goal is to take my ribbon, you should come closer, right? Ah! Could it be you're being careful because of traps? Wow, you really didn't believe me! You're so mean, sob sob."

—that's what I could make out.

They were just words he spewed out to provoke me, and dialogue not even worth narrating.

It seemed I could completely disregard what he was saying.

According to the original work, Pret knows how to use even the direction of his gaze as a means of deception, right?

By deliberately looking at the opponent's right shoulder the moment he throws a dagger, even when he's really aiming for the heart.

That's why what I needed to focus on and examine was none other than his hands.

A dagger slipped out of Pret's grip.

The next moment, his thumb and ring finger lightly touched before separating. The meaning of that finger-flicking motion was clear.

He must have sent a needle coated in transparent Ether flying.

Just as he did when sparring with Kaldrun in chapter 204.

Thanks to the thought acceleration effect, I was able to figure out that Pret had thrown a needle at me, but actually catching sight of that needle wasn't easy.

It was just too small and thin.

For that reason, I only discovered the needle when it was right upon me.

What's more, I didn't even perceive the needle itself.

It was because the space around it appeared minutely refracted due to the transparent Ether enveloping it.

The needle was flying toward my right shoulder, the one swinging the whip.

I twisted my body to dodge it and, at the same time, moved my left hand to strike down the dagger flying toward my solar plexus.

After that, I saw Pret's eyes widen as he made an admiring expression.

The thought acceleration effect of the 【Character Analysis】 skill really is a broken option...

The problem is that I know it has the side effect of overloading my brain if I maintain it for too long, yet I have no choice but to rely on it.

Pret, who had no way of knowing these circumstances, wiped away his fake, frightened expression and put on a face that said this was exciting.

I have to be more vigilant from now on.

Because this meant he would stop holding back and attack properly.

Pret extended a clenched fist toward me and splayed his fingers wide.

At that moment, the area around Pret's hand seemed to distort slightly.

He had undoubtedly launched a number of needles coated in transparent Ether.

It was beyond my ability to strike down a number of barely visible needles with a whip or a dagger.

Especially since my opponent was far away, meaning the needles would fly in a wide spread.

Is dodging the only way?

Just then, Vigdís and Sveinn had departed from their original positions while dealing with Fjodora, so I took refuge where those two had been standing.

As was perfectly natural, no trap was activated, but it was too early to feel relieved.

Pret once again extended a clenched fist toward me.

I struck the ground with my whip to confirm there was no trap there and then stepped on that location.

Thanks to that, I was able to avoid his attack without getting caught in a trap this time as well.

But this was no different from announcing, "I plan to move here," before moving.

In that case, I have no choice but to either escape back the way we came or advance into the area I've been wildly swinging my whip through to deal with Pret...

We hadn't stepped on every patch of ground as we walked, so there could still be traps behind me.

If I tried to escape by stepping backward in the uneven mountains, there was a high risk of falling even if I didn't get caught in a trap.

Thus, I quickly launched myself forward into the area my whip had swept through.