An Old Man from the Countryside Becomes a Swords Saint: I Was Just a Rural Sword Teacher, But My Successful Students Won’t Leave Me Alone! - CH 131

“Thyssel!”

I didn’t turn around because the opponent’s offensive was intensifying, but I was able to understand the true identity of the person behind me without even looking at her. I involuntarily call out her name.

Thyssel intercepted all the attacking shadow arrows with sharp magical slashes full of magic. The shadow wolf’s arrow collides with her blade, and the overwhelmed shadows are shot down.

It was dangerous. I think it’s probably possible to simply dodge or knock down those shadow arrows, but I wanted to avoid touching them directly because the degree of danger was unknown.

In that respect, I am grateful that Thyssel who also has ranged attacks joined me.

And one more point. The important thing in this scenario is that Thyssel is intercepting using sword magic.

So, one of the problems can be considered solved.

“Thank you for your help!” I said.

I keep my distance from the gigantic wolf and line up shoulder-to-shoulder with Thyssel near the entrance.

I’m still more skilled than her, but she’s become much more reliable. Seeing the growth of a former student right beside me makes me feel a little moved even though the feeling’s it’s out of place.

This is the second time I have been saved by Thyssel. The first time was when I captured Bishop Lebios, and the second time is now. It should be quite different if the opponent is a human and a beast that defies sense, but let’s expect her skill will shine here, too.

“The magic equipment has been destroyed,” Thyssel said.

“I see, that was fast,” I said.

“Yeah, it was easy,” Thyssel said.

We exchange information while keeping our swords ready. Apparently, Deputy Headmaster’s magical tool was already dealt with.

To be honest, it’s been very helpful for me that that’s off the list. I don’t think it would have happened, but if Thyssel had to stop and analyze the device first, I would have been in grave danger.

“Muu… this looks strong,” Thyssel said.

“Ah, my attacks seem to be working, but there is no breakthrough yet,” I said. “We still don’t have enough information.”

Well, now the fight has shifted to 2:1, but I’m afraid that I can’t feel relieved at all.

I think it will definitely be easier than doing it alone, but even now that I’ve gotten the all-purpose Thyssel by my side, I still can’t figure out a path to victory.

As I said, there’s a lack of information. The main reason for this is that we have not fully grasped what this giant shadow wolf is capable of and what kind of attacks are effective against it.

“For the time being, I’ll try and experiment,” Thyssel said.

“Understood,” I said. “I’ll leave it to you.”

It seems that we don’t have the option of coming this far and then retreating. If we run away with our tails between our legs, the impact on others will be immeasurable.

Of course, I don’t intend to crush this thing, but I should use as many moves as I can here.

“――――、――――”

“… Is it talking about something? But I don’t understand,” Thyssel said.

“Yeah, I don’t know either. We don’t have much time to worry about it,” I said.

The gigantic wolf, on the other hand, paused for a moment and let out a wordless voice, as if it were wondering about the new foe. I wasn’t expecting much, but it seems like even Thyssel doesn’t understand what it’s saying, either.

Well, isn’t it something you shouldn’t think about in a situation like this? For the time being, it is certain that the opponent is hostile, so I will only fight it. Of course, if things get really bad, I plan to take Thyssel and run away.

“… Come on!” Thyssel said, quiet like a whisper.

And at that, the giant wolf moved.

The same as before, a ranged attack where it the shadows from part of its body and fires them like arrows.

If you look closely, it’s easy to understand because there are still preliminary movements. Part of the body is unnaturally bubbling, so if you don’t even look away, you might be able to dodge it.

“Muhn,” Thyssel huffed as she approaches and unleashes a regular sword attack.

They struck at exactly the same moment, the blade hit part of the shadow arrow and shaved it off, before it disappeared.

“… It doesn’t feel like it’s effective,” Thyssel said.

“I agree…” I said.

And it seems that Thyssel, who saw the whole situation, had the same impression as me.

If, as it appears, the fired shadows weaken the opponent, there is hope. It’s not without hope, but even now that the number of its foes has increased to two people, it’s too inefficient to use that tactic.

If there was a mallet, a large axe, or simply a gigantic weapon, the story might have changed again, but there are two swordsmen here now. After all, there may be a limit to physical attack methods.

“Next is this,” Thyssel said.

After taking a breather and sorting out the information, Thyssel launched another attack.

This time, instead of a direct sword attack, she decided to try shooting sword magic like how she intercepted the shadow arrow earlier.

Thyssel’s sword magic is sucked into the giant wolf’s main body. A few moments later, I could see some of the shadows melting away as the impact zone bubbled.

Apparently, sword magic works better than physical attacks. That said, I don’t have a clue at the moment how much we should hit it with.

“I have to do something, too…!” I said.

Anyway, I can’t leave the full offense to Thyssel.

It’s a mystery how much intelligence the opponent has, but it’s also a problem if the attacks that were focused on me until now are only focused on Thyssel. There is no reason not to take advantage of our numbers.

When the giant wolf’s attention turned toward her, I approached it and gave it a blow.

Hmm. I feel like I’ve gotten a little deeper than before, but I still don’t feel like it’s working.

It’s true that I should have cut it, but the response is too strange and I feel a terrible sense that something is off. The difference between the information processed in my head and the feeling in my hands is remarkable. As a swordsman, I don’t want to get used to this.

“—,——”

“Shit, you’re going crazy…!” I said.

Even if there are no sounds to this voice, if you can read something emotional from it understanding it might be a different story. Unfortunately, I still don’t understand anything. It’s even doubtful whether it even has emotions.

That shadow boss may be trying to appeal something, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work. I’m not saying that it should speak in a language that humans can understand, but at least I would like you to speak in a language that I could figure out.

“Fuh!”

My downward slash overlaps with Thyssel’s sword magic.

The reaction remains the same. At the very least, it would be nice if there was something as easy to understand as the sound, not even the sensation of hitting it, but there’s not even that. It looks like it’s just cutting through the air, and it’s really creepy.

“… Hmmm,” Thyssel hummed as she attacked.

The giant shadow wolf, however, is not so meek as to continue to just take all these attacks. If our attack hits once or twice, it hesitates and keeps its distance.

Even though it’s spacious, it’s underground, so there’s a limit to how much you can escape. There is room, but even so, handling the shadow arrows that flew in and harassed us while being tossed back and forth, left and right, was quite exhausting. The same goes for Thyssel.

By the way, my body isn’t strong enough to withstand a tense long-term battle. Although we have not suffered visible damage so far, it was a grim prospect if this continued for a long time, as originally predicted.

“It’s working… what’s lacking is instantaneous damage…” Thyssel said, the analysis continuing through the fight.

Yes. If there was a way to win, it would be an attack with enough destructive power to take out that shadow with a single blow. With a special move that hits a wide area with high power, it might be possible to break through this situation.

But, as I said earlier, this place is underground. I’m afraid that this whole space will collapse if we use such massive magic carelessly. No, well, I can’t take such a means even if I think about it. I was wondering if that was one of the reasons why Thyssel was so hesitant about attacking.

“Master, I have a suggestion,” Thyssel said.

“Hmm, what is it?” I asked.

We keep our distance as I rendezvous with Thyssel. Somehow, Thyssel seems to have the plan to defeat this guy.

At times like this, I really appreciate the existence of mages. Being a swordsman sounds good, but all he does is cut opponents with his sword. So if that doesn’t work, there’s really nothing you can do after that.

“I’m going to gather enough mana to destroy it with a single blow. I want you to protect me during the charge time,” Thyssel said.

“I see… I understand, I’m counting on you with this,” I said.

“Yeah, I’ll do my best,” Thyssel said.

The plan that came out was extremely simple: we release an attack supercharged so high it would destroy our opponent with a single blow.

There’s no way a swordsman could do such a trick against an opponent he couldn’t really grasp, but being able to do this is also a terrifying thing for a mage. If it wasn’t me who was standing here, but Lucy, it would have been easier to defeat this giant shadow wolf.

“I can’t gather my magic while moving,” Thyssel said. “I can’t make sudden movements.”

“Understood, let me narrow its targets down to me,” I said. “I want you to focus on that, Thyssel.”

The strategy is simple. I just want to be the target of the opponent until Thyssel finishes gathering her magic. In other words, I’ll be a decoy.

It’s a trivial task for this Old Man, but let me do it as far as I can.

“Starting,” Thyssel said. “Muhn…!”

“Here I go…!” I said.

It seems that Thyssel started charging her magic right away.

Even when I fought with her, the sword was shining so much that even I, who had no background in magic could see it, but compared to that time, this time it’s already quite impressive. You can clearly see that the magical power wrapped around the sword is swelling up. I was really feeling the pain that I had been too cautious in the sparring then.

“Now then, I have to move, too!” I cried.

And in this state, Thyssel cannot move properly. No, it’s probably possible to move, but if she does that, that charged magical power will dissipate, or something like that. When I first heard about it, I heard that it takes a lot of skill to charge magic and maintain that charge.

So I’d have to move around awkwardly in front of her so she wouldn’t be a target.

“――――,――”

“Come and get me!” I said.

The gigantic wolf reacted to Thyssel’s movements for a moment, but it seems that he narrowed down his sights to me as I approached it.

Shadow strikes from within close range also have speed. Moreover, I don’t know how powerful it is just by looking at it, so I want to avoid being hit poorly.

And this time, I can’t just keep my distance and run away. Naturally, I have no choice but to face them while maintaining a close distance, and it’s meaningless if I just dodge them and lose my attention, so I need to attack aggressively to some extent.

“… Uh-oh!”

In short, getting hit is super painful. Aw, crap, I feel like a shadow has touched my clothes just now.

When I glanced at the part that got attacked, it was sliced apart so beautifully that I thought you’d used some kind of sharp blade on it.

It’s dangerous, after all, it’s a type of attack that you don’t want to get hit full-on.

It may be a little dangerous to block it with a sword because it has sharpness. As expected, this sword won’t fail with a single hit, but if you think about it, it’s ideal to avoid all of them.

“Mmmm……!”

From behind the fighting, I heard Thyssel’s growling.

Woah, what is that? Something that seems to be magical power is surging around the sword, and it’s bloated tremendously. If a human takes an attack like that, they won’t even leave behind bones. Even now, I’m still grasping at the wonders of magic.

“Wait, now is not the time to look away!” I yelled at myself.

When I looked back, I saw that the giant wolf’s front legs were coming down. Instead of dodging backward, I step diagonally forward to avoid the attacks.

Ultimately, it’s terrifying. Fighting by sticking to the opponent like this was something I hadn’t experienced before.

However, if he dodges here, Thyssel’s magical power will be wasted.

Maybe, but that shouldn’t be something that can be charged again and again. I know from experience that if you have your concentration broken, it will end in failure, and it will be quite difficult to maintain that high-level concentration again.

“Fuhn!”

So, what I can do now is cling to this guy and make him narrow down his targets. It regains its spirit and unleashes countless slashes that may or may not work.

I had a strong feeling that my physical strength and mental strength, which I had had a little bit of leeway with until just a little while ago, were being worn down at ever faster rates.