To Be a Power in the Shadows!

"Lost"

I shrugged in an unpopular underground facility.

I'm glad we all got into Ajito, but I'm tired of all the miscellaneous fish, and if I want to get ahead and take down the boss, it's this mess. I've been practicing performing when I run into the boss because of it.

But it's a huge facility. I wonder if this time it feels like the bandits have settled in an abandoned military facility.

"Hmm?"

and then.

I felt signs that someone was running from the end of the tunnel.

Looks like they noticed it a little late. He stopped at a distance from me.

"Were you ahead..."

The man has red eyes glowing for some reason with muscle muckies. What? That's cool. Will I be able to shoot a beam or something from my eyes?

"but it's easy if you're alone"

And the next moment I had a distorted grin, the red-eyed man disappeared. No, it moved fast enough to illusion that it disappeared in an ordinary person.

But.

I stop the red-eyed sword with one hand.

Speed isn't that much of a threat if you know where to come from, and power depends on how you use it.

"Become!"

Press the stunned red-eyed shoulder gently and I'll take the distance.

It's more magic than Alpha. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to handle it at all, I'm just a magical idiot.

By the way, I don't like to fight in a powerful way that feels like boosting speed and power with magic would be strong. No, I'm not going to underestimate the physical side. If I was told to choose between power and moves as the ultimate choice, I would choose power without hesitation. Powerless moves are not worth it. But I hate incomplete, distorted ways of fighting, like leaving it to simple power, simple speed, simple reaction, and the strength of those physical surfaces to underestimate and throw away the details and give up.

Physicals are natural, but technology is hard work. So I, the shady power I aspire to, will never lose with skill. I explore the possibilities in reaction by putting my moves to the force, being creative in speed. Physicals are important, but I never do ugly fights that I can rely on. This is the aesthetic of my battle.

Honestly, I get a little frustrated with these bumbling circles.

So let me tell you something.

The right way to use magic.

"Lesson1"

I light up the slime sword and walk.

Two steps at a time, and three.

And at the same time as the third step, the red-eyed sword is waved. That's his time.

At that moment, I accelerate.

The magic power used is minimal, concentrates on the legs, compresses it and releases it all at once.

That's all.

That alone, the slightest magic power compressed explodes to increase its momentum.

A red-eyed sword slashes the sky.

And this is my time.

I don't need speed anymore, I don't need power, I don't even need magic.

I stroked my red-eyed neck with a black knife.

Just one neck skin.

Leave the red muscle on the neck of the red eye, and I'll undo the mistake.

At the same time, the red-eyed sword plunders my cheek.

"Lesson2"

I step forward again as the red-eyed sword returns.

I don't use magic.

So red eyes are much faster.

But no matter how fast, I can't move at the same time as the attack.

So I can be packed.

Just, like, half a step.

Subtle distance. It's a long distance for me, a close distance for the red eye.

A moment of silence.

Red eyes got lost.

I saw it.

And Red Eye made the choice to take the mistake off.

I know.

I've already read the movement from the red-eye magic movement.

So even though the red eye is faster, I move first.

I packed the distance ahead of the retraction of the red eye and stroked his leg at the tip of the knife.

A little deeper than just now.

"Ku......!

Red eyes leaked a distressed voice and retreated even further.

I'm not going after him.

"Lesson3"

Not yet, because we're going to.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇

Have you ever felt so different? While his body was slashed many times by a pitch-black knife, Orba thought.

I never felt this difference when I fought an elf named Alpha, or when I lost a battle with a princess at a martial arts festival.

Suppose there is... about when I confronted my teacher when I was a kid, not long after I still held my sword. Kids and adults, masters and amateurs, it doesn't even make it a battle.

The difference I'm feeling right now was exactly then.

He was a boy who never seemed strong. At least not as intimidating as when you fought Alpha. Nature if you like. The structure, the magic, the sword muscle, everything may be natural. Neither arm strength nor speed are noteworthy. No, I don't need it. By pure skill, the sword was complete.

The magic difference to Olba's despair is overshadowed by skill.

That's why I feel, a sense of defeat until it's overwhelming.

Orba is still standing, and he's still alive, because that's what he decided. If he wants, he can crush Orba's life and so on at this moment.

Orba now regenerates if his body is slashed but not fatally wounded. Of course there are limits, and the side effects are strong.

But if you shed a lot of blood, tore the flesh and broke the bone, it would take time to recover.

But even in all that crisis, Olba was still alive.

No, it was kept alive.

Orba asked.

"Why...?

Why, it's kept alive.

Why, hostile.

Why is it so strong?

So why.

The boy, dressed in pitch black, was just looking down at Orba.

"Lurk in the shadows, hunt the shadows. That's why we're here."

It was a deep, somewhere pitiful voice.

That's all Olba understood how this pitch-black boy was.

"Are you willing to fight that..."

There are those in the world who cannot be judged by law. Olba knows that and thinks he's at its end himself.

rights, privileged classes, and faces behind them.

The light of the law does not reach the edge of the world.

Orba, while benefiting from it, was trampled and crushed by further superiors.

So Olba asked for strength... and lost.

"Even if you are, you can't win as hard as you are. The darkness of the world... is far deeper than you think."

That's why Olba said.

It's not advice, it's wishes. This boy lost like no other, lost everything, and all he had to do was despair, hoping it would be. And I feared it would betray me. Boring jealousy and envy.

"Then let's dive, everywhere"

The boy's voice has no feelings, no temper. I just felt absolute confidence and unwavering readiness.

"Don't make it easy, kid."

I can't accept it.

I can never admit it.

Because that's what Olba once aspired to and was crushed.

And at this moment, Orba decided to be ready to cross the last line. When he took the tablet out of his pocket, he swallowed all of it.

Olba is no longer aware that he cannot survive. Why don't we at least use this life to teach him?

The darkness of this world.