Episode 122 – Declaration of Victory
“Man, last month you came in 4th, but now you already took a win off each of us three! Maybe in this month’s mock battle tournament, you’ll be higher than 3rd place at this rate.” (Byrne)
“I agree, your growth rate is just too insane, Lewin. If we’re not careful, there’s a good chance for you to walk away with 1st place this time.” (Lyra)
“This time, I’m going to go for first place in the tournament. I’ve been losing to the three of you, but this time I finally think I’ve caught up.” (Lewin)
After the series of consecutive battles at the abandoned Dungeon, half a year already flew by. I had been receiving Kirty’s guidance every day, and after that first battle at the abandoned Dungeon, I had been battling more and more monsters. Compared to about a year ago before Kirty started teaching me, it was safe to say that I had grown so much that I was pretty much an entirely different person now.
Even still, I haven’t ever won against Kirty, and I still couldn’t envision any way of accomplishing that. In the mock battles against [Iron Gear], I’d been slowly increasing my chances of winning against each of them, and every match seemed to be getting closer and closer. And on this plant gathering trip’s mock battle tournaments, I declared in front of everyone that I seriously intended to emerge victorious this time.
“I can’t believe that Lewin, who was always so timid, is now declaring his victory against us….. You can really feel his growth alongside us this past year!” (Lyra)
“We’ve been promoted from F-rank up to C-rank already, so I’d say our growth has been coming along steadily too. Although in terms of overall growth in the past year, I do feel like we’ve very clearly lost to Lewin.” (Byrne)
“……I gotta agree. But even if we lost in terms of the amount of growth, we haven’t been beaten in terms of overall ability yet, so I guess we’ll still have to see how it goes in this time’s mock battle tournament.” (Nina)
Inspired by my declaration of victory, I could see a fire being lit in Lyra, Byrne, and Nina’s eyes. Kirty was one thing, but if [Iron Gear] wasn’t here with me along the way, there was no way I would have grown so much. Every time I heard about them successfully completing a high ranked quest commission or going up a party rank, I would feel even more motivated to put more effort into my training. Just as we declared ourselves as rivals a year ago, I felt that we had really managed to grow a lot alongside one another, although I wasn’t sure if this was a one-sided opinion or not.
“Then, let’s get right to deciding our opponents. Let’s go! Rock paper scissors, shoot!” (Lyra)
Putting out paper in response to Lyra’s shout, the one who matched with my paper was… Lyra. When she looked at me and confirmed our pairing as opponents, she struck a guts pose1 with a delighted expression on her face.
“I did it! My first match is against Lewin! Fufufu… I’ll show you the real strength of an adventurer!” (Lyra)
“Nope, I’m going to be taking the win this time unfortunately.” (Lewin)
Grinning at each other evilly, we bumped fists. Even though drawing Lyra for the first match was pretty rough, if I wanted to win the mock battle championship, I couldn’t afford to lose the first match on the first day. To keep Lyra from gaining too much momentum, I had to put forth my entire strength into beating her.
“I guess I’m paired up with Porta, and Nina gets a bye for the first round. Now, who wants to go first?” (Byrne)
“Me, me! I wanna go first! It’s fine with you too, right Lewin?” (Lyra)
“I’m fine either way!” (Lewin)
“Alright then, let’s start with Lyra versus Lewin. Nina, refereeing is on you.” (Byrne)
It was decided that I was participating in the first match. I took the wooden sword out of my bag and checked my grip. Directly across from me was Lyra, who was waving her sword around, smiling brightly like the sun.
Gazing at Lyra, I ran through the information I knew about her in my head. She had a fairly wild and unrestricted movement style, kind of like a monster. The ability I really needed in this fight was not the ability to read her attacks, but the ability to respond instantly. As long as I could respond flexibly to her eccentric movements without rushing, I would be able to win.
Reciting in my head the words that Kirty had taught me for when I took on monsters, I slowly readied my sword.
“…..Now then, let’s begin. First match, start.” (Nina)
The moment Nina’s voice floated through the air, Lyra lowered her upper body and charged in with a smile. The fact that she moved so suddenly meant that the tempo of this match was going to be fast, but there was no need for me to rush.
As Lyra’s incoming attack was coming from below, I calmly responded with an overhead slash. When Lyra saw the overhead slash, she responded by moving to block it. But perhaps she misjudged the power of my attack or something, she was unable to completely stop the force behind the blow and ended up losing her balance.
Since she still had leftover momentum from charging in, she lost her balance and exposed a gap, which allowed me to respond with a strong reverse slash. It seemed that she wanted to be the first one to make a play with a surprise attack, but I managed to turn the tables on her.
But as expected of Lyra, the moment my reverse slash made contact with her shoulder, she forcefully restored her balance in midair out of pure athleticism and jumped back to create some distance.
“…I was planning to get the first hit in right off the bat, but I ended up taking one instead.” (Lyra)
“As expected of your evasive maneuvers, Lyra. I thought I might have been able to get a second hit in too.” (Lewin)
With some distance between us, we bantered a bit and then laughed in unison.
This tingling feeling was really interesting. The more I felt myself grow, the more fun I was having while in combat. I wanted to have a mock battle against Ahmed, Dion, and Smash some day. Suddenly seeing the faces of each person in [Azure Alliance] resurface in my mind, I shook my head to clear my thoughts and readied my sword again. I couldn’t afford to think of anything else during this battle.
I focused my entire attention towards Lyra, who was now slowly closing the distance as she inched towards me cautiously, which was a complete opposite of her previous approach.
Episode 122 – Declaration of Victory
“Man, last month you came in 4th, but now you already took a win off each of us three! Maybe in this month’s mock battle tournament, you’ll be higher than 3rd place at this rate.” (Byrne)
“I agree, your growth rate is just too insane, Lewin. If we’re not careful, there’s a good chance for you to walk away with 1st place this time.” (Lyra)
“This time, I’m going to go for first place in the tournament. I’ve been losing to the three of you, but this time I finally think I’ve caught up.” (Lewin)
After the series of consecutive battles at the abandoned Dungeon, half a year already flew by. I had been receiving Kirty’s guidance every day, and after that first battle at the abandoned Dungeon, I had been battling more and more monsters. Compared to about a year ago before Kirty started teaching me, it was safe to say that I had grown so much that I was pretty much an entirely different person now.
Even still, I haven’t ever won against Kirty, and I still couldn’t envision any way of accomplishing that. In the mock battles against [Iron Gear], I’d been slowly increasing my chances of winning against each of them, and every match seemed to be getting closer and closer. And on this plant gathering trip’s mock battle tournaments, I declared in front of everyone that I seriously intended to emerge victorious this time.
“I can’t believe that Lewin, who was always so timid, is now declaring his victory against us….. You can really feel his growth alongside us this past year!” (Lyra)
“We’ve been promoted from F-rank up to C-rank already, so I’d say our growth has been coming along steadily too. Although in terms of overall growth in the past year, I do feel like we’ve very clearly lost to Lewin.” (Byrne)
“……I gotta agree. But even if we lost in terms of the amount of growth, we haven’t been beaten in terms of overall ability yet, so I guess we’ll still have to see how it goes in this time’s mock battle tournament.” (Nina)
Inspired by my declaration of victory, I could see a fire being lit in Lyra, Byrne, and Nina’s eyes. Kirty was one thing, but if [Iron Gear] wasn’t here with me along the way, there was no way I would have grown so much. Every time I heard about them successfully completing a high ranked quest commission or going up a party rank, I would feel even more motivated to put more effort into my training. Just as we declared ourselves as rivals a year ago, I felt that we had really managed to grow a lot alongside one another, although I wasn’t sure if this was a one-sided opinion or not.
“Then, let’s get right to deciding our opponents. Let’s go! Rock paper scissors, shoot!” (Lyra)
Putting out paper in response to Lyra’s shout, the one who matched with my paper was… Lyra. When she looked at me and confirmed our pairing as opponents, she struck a guts pose1 with a delighted expression on her face.
“I did it! My first match is against Lewin! Fufufu… I’ll show you the real strength of an adventurer!” (Lyra)
“Nope, I’m going to be taking the win this time unfortunately.” (Lewin)
Grinning at each other evilly, we bumped fists. Even though drawing Lyra for the first match was pretty rough, if I wanted to win the mock battle championship, I couldn’t afford to lose the first match on the first day. To keep Lyra from gaining too much momentum, I had to put forth my entire strength into beating her.
“I guess I’m paired up with Porta, and Nina gets a bye for the first round. Now, who wants to go first?” (Byrne)
“Me, me! I wanna go first! It’s fine with you too, right Lewin?” (Lyra)
“I’m fine either way!” (Lewin)
“Alright then, let’s start with Lyra versus Lewin. Nina, refereeing is on you.” (Byrne)
It was decided that I was participating in the first match. I took the wooden sword out of my bag and checked my grip. Directly across from me was Lyra, who was waving her sword around, smiling brightly like the sun.
Gazing at Lyra, I ran through the information I knew about her in my head. She had a fairly wild and unrestricted movement style, kind of like a monster. The ability I really needed in this fight was not the ability to read her attacks, but the ability to respond instantly. As long as I could respond flexibly to her eccentric movements without rushing, I would be able to win.
Reciting in my head the words that Kirty had taught me for when I took on monsters, I slowly readied my sword.
“…..Now then, let’s begin. First match, start.” (Nina)
The moment Nina’s voice floated through the air, Lyra lowered her upper body and charged in with a smile. The fact that she moved so suddenly meant that the tempo of this match was going to be fast, but there was no need for me to rush.
As Lyra’s incoming attack was coming from below, I calmly responded with an overhead slash. When Lyra saw the overhead slash, she responded by moving to block it. But perhaps she misjudged the power of my attack or something, she was unable to completely stop the force behind the blow and ended up losing her balance.
Since she still had leftover momentum from charging in, she lost her balance and exposed a gap, which allowed me to respond with a strong reverse slash. It seemed that she wanted to be the first one to make a play with a surprise attack, but I managed to turn the tables on her.
But as expected of Lyra, the moment my reverse slash made contact with her shoulder, she forcefully restored her balance in midair out of pure athleticism and jumped back to create some distance.
“…I was planning to get the first hit in right off the bat, but I ended up taking one instead.” (Lyra)
“As expected of your evasive maneuvers, Lyra. I thought I might have been able to get a second hit in too.” (Lewin)
With some distance between us, we bantered a bit and then laughed in unison.
This tingling feeling was really interesting. The more I felt myself grow, the more fun I was having while in combat. I wanted to have a mock battle against Ahmed, Dion, and Smash some day. Suddenly seeing the faces of each person in [Azure Alliance] resurface in my mind, I shook my head to clear my thoughts and readied my sword again. I couldn’t afford to think of anything else during this battle.
I focused my entire attention towards Lyra, who was now slowly closing the distance as she inched towards me cautiously, which was a complete opposite of her previous approach.
