Chapter 16
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Although I was surprised when Helia suddenly appeared, I calmly used time stop to save her.
Somehow, it ended up looking like I saved Helia.
But that wasn’t the important thing right now.
Even though I saved Helia as quickly as possible and deactivated the ability, it still took about 10 seconds.
In other words, the cooldown of time stop was now about 20 seconds.
To put it another way, it meant that I had to endure fighting the Togui for about 20 seconds without the time stop ability.
Since that was obviously impossible, I immediately opened my mouth.
“Let’s not rush too much.”
Please.
“There’s still plenty of time, you know?”
I need to wait for the cooldown.
Fortunately, in the midst of misfortune, the Togui had shown no interest in me earlier.
The Togui sometimes just left if it lost interest.
If I could use that to send that guy away…
I was concentrating all my senses to be wary of the Togui.
That’s why I couldn’t understand the Togui’s actions that immediately followed.
The Togui suddenly bowed its head to me.
“I sincerely apologize.”
“???”
“It was my mistake to judge based only on appearances.”
The Togui suddenly bowed its head?
Faced with a completely unexpected situation, my eyes widened.
But somehow, I had a bad feeling.
The Togui soon explained the reasons.
“A speed that these eyes couldn’t even perceive.”
“Huh?”
“And sword energy capable of wounding this body.”
“???”
“You are undoubtedly a warrior. Worthy enough to face!!!”
I’m screwed.
Could it be that the reason the Togui bowed its head was actually to gain momentum?!
The Togui roared and immediately charged towards me.
I clicked my tongue and got up.
I wanted to run away if I could, but I couldn’t do that right now. Because Helia was still nearby!
If Helia died here, there would be no future at all.
So, I had no choice but to somehow take it head-on!
The Togui’s fist, which had closed the distance in an instant, swung with a momentum like a raging wave.
For a moment, my body froze properly due to fear.
Fortunately, I had insurance.
Thanks to the Togui’s nonsense earlier, the cooldown of time stop had already ended.
Just before the fist reached me, my surroundings turned gray.
I moved alone.
There was no time to waste.
One of the things I had found out while saving Helia earlier was that the Togui’s body was incredibly hard, even more than I had imagined. Even more than the Gourmet.
Of course, Anieta, the Gourmet I had faced before, was also incredibly tough, befitting a demon.
But unlike the Gourmet, this guy’s skin didn’t even yield to teeth.
In other words, the previous method wouldn’t work.
Moreover, the current Togui hadn’t even obtained the position of a demon yet.
Nevertheless, its specs were stronger than the Gourmet I had faced before.
In other words, clashing head-on was close to suicide.
“So, I have no choice but to use tricks.”
First, the disadvantages of time stop were extreme stamina consumption and cooldown. And my below-average skill.
In fact, if my skill alone were excellent, the two problems ahead would have been solved long ago.
But since it was a problem that couldn’t be solved right now, I had no choice but to use tricks.
As I said before, if it’s not on cooldown, the time stop ability activates when my life is in danger.
I took advantage of that.
I deliberately didn’t use the time stop ability myself and aimed for it to activate automatically when my life was in danger. And I immediately released the stop.
Woosh!!!
It felt like a train was passing right above my head.
Thanks to that, it gave me goosebumps, but I somehow avoided the attack.
The time used to see and dodge was roughly 1.5 seconds.
Then the next cooldown would be 3 seconds.
But the opponent also needed that much time.
I had seen somewhere that in a fight between masters, victory or defeat was decided by a 0.1-second difference.
Fortunately, the current Togui wasn’t at that level yet.
It took 1 second for the Togui to find me after I dodged the attack, 1 second to take advantage of that gap and attack, and 1 second for the Togui to react.
A little blood splattered from the Togui’s neck where my sword had struck.
One more thing I had found out while saving Helia earlier.
The teeth somewhat worked on the parts of the Togui’s body where there were scars.
In other words, I would use time stop as little as possible and only when in danger. And slowly gnaw at it, taking advantage of the gaps when the Togui’s reaction slowed down.
That was the best I could do right now.
“Indeed, are you fighting while protecting your cub behind you?”
“What?”
“There’s no need to pretend. I have my pride too.”
“???”
Oh, seriously.
Helia was still behind me.
What the hell, I told you to go back quickly.
What are you doing here instead of leaving?!
For a moment, irritation surged up, but I forcibly swallowed it.
“Excellent. Warrior, now with full power…!!!”
“No, the match is already decided.”
“What nonsense are you…?!”
A thud rang out.
It was like an anvil had fallen. But it wasn’t an anvil, it was the Togui’s knee.
The Togui was now kneeling on one knee and collapsed right there.
“Did you think I was just defending?”
“…Could it be.”
“That’s right…”
“In that fleeting moment, you severed my tendons.”
“…???”
No, I just applied paralysis poison to my sword.
Fortunately, the current Togui was a low-level demon, so it had no resistance to poison.
So I had prepared paralysis poison in advance and applied it to my sword.
And I forcibly thrust it into the scars on the Togui’s body and let it flow inside. And now, the effect of that paralysis poison had taken hold.
But why was it jumping to conclusions on its own?
“Don’t you think I used poison?”
“Nonsense. You are a warrior I have acknowledged.”
“…”
“A warrior who fearlessly faces me to protect his cub would never use something like poison.”
It’s not my cub. And I didn’t fight without backing down.
I was going to fight moderately and run away if I thought I would lose.
I can’t help it even if you curse me.
I want to survive.
Of course, I’m also human, so I made up my mind to do my best and fight.
But if there was even a one in ten thousand chance that I might really die, I was going to turn my back and flee from here without looking back.
My goal was to survive and return to my original world, no matter what.
And if I didn’t beat the hell out of that damn Time Stop Breeding Uncle to death, I felt like I would die of resentment.
“Kill me. As the victor, you have the right to take my head.”
“I won’t kill you.”
“…What?”
To be precise, I can’t kill it.
Instead of answering, I put away my sword.
I can’t kill it anyway.
I realized it while clashing earlier.
With my current swordsmanship skills, I couldn’t behead this guy.
In other words, to kill this guy, I would have to stop time and saw at it again.
It was clear that I would most likely collapse from exhaustion before I could behead him.
And if I couldn’t cleanly behead him right in front of his eyes, he might notice my strength and attack.
Rather than taking that risk, it was better to just let him go.
Of course, I could probably kill him if I cooperated with the soldiers behind me.
But would the Togui just stand by and watch that happen?
Moreover, I had already used up all the paralysis poison I had prepared.
“Are you pitying me now?”
“There’s no law that says the loser of a duel must die.”
“What nonsense.”
“…”
“Kill me. I don’t need your useless pity.”
The Togui was stubborn.
No, I’m telling you I can’t kill you anyway!
I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud.
Damn it, what should I do?
I guess I have no choice.
I have to open my mouth here.
Let’s see, a line that would work in this situation…
* * *
[Why are you all charging in there to die? But why is everyone still going?]
That was the first question it had.
Although they were nothing more than accessories that didn’t share blood, they were still something similar to family, bound by the name of race.
But everyone except it died.
The next day and the day after that, new family members appeared. And they all died.
Only it survived.
It couldn’t understand.
Why did they charge forward knowing they would die?
Why did they have no choice but to follow orders? And that question was barely answered by killing the demons.
[In the end, it’s because they’re weak.]
From then on, it yearned for strength.
Strong enough that no one could dare give it orders.
It wanted strong power.
So, it tore apart and killed the demons that had created it.
After that, it killed the people who came to kill it.
In the process, it became even more captivated by strength.
If it wasn’t a warrior with value, it was meaningless.
They were just trash.
Filtering out the trash, it only ate the flesh of the strong ones it acknowledged.
Monsters, demons, humans, elves, dwarves. It didn’t discriminate between races.
It literally became a predator.
“Let’s not rush too much.”
“There’s still plenty of time, you know?”
And the predator met a predator even stronger than itself.
At first, it thought he was just a meaningless piece of meat.
But after fighting him directly, he was an overwhelmingly strong person beyond imagination.
He deliberately dodged attacks by a paper-thin margin and only inflicted small wounds on its body.
That was all he did, but its body could no longer move.
It was literally a strength beyond imagination.
But it had no complaints.
If it fought and was strong, it would devour it, and if it was weak, it would simply lose its life.
It had taken until now, so it couldn’t be helped if its own was taken away now.
That’s what it thought.
“You can become even stronger than you are now.”
“…”
“Become stronger and come back. Stronger than now.”
It was an emotion it felt for the first time.
The feeling of something black boiling up inside and dominating its mind, the terrible emotion of wanting to get up right away and beat that bastard to death.
That was humiliation.
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