In Another World With Just Monika - Chapter 129 Faster Than You

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Clack.

Clack.

Clack. Clack. Clack. Clack.

Paf. Paf.

Two figures slid back into view, half-crouched with their swords held up to just above their heads and pointed towards the enemy’s throat. A gap of several stride lengths extended between them.

I heard a ripping noise. One the red sleeves of my jacket tore open in the motion. It was armor cloth, but it was cut through. How?

“… I see. Air pressure. You swing the sword so fast, that it creates an air blade that can hit the enemy beyond the tip of your sword.” And worse than that, because it creates a partial vacuum, the floating leaf can’t use that wind pressure to push itself away.

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Up in the stands, Monika was relaying the words spoken between the combatants. Yae perked up and looked like she had a new idea. Then she remembered she didn’t have usable swords anymore and sighed in disappointment.

She touched the remaining sword by her waist, the one that was shattered to half size.

She was still looking for a way to defeat the darkness within the sword… for wherever light may go, it finds that the shadow has gotten there first.

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I could do that too, but because my limb was inherently shorter, the range and power would be shorter – any more would require magic, and that violates the rule about using magic directly. There were also a lot of things I could do like wetting and freezing the ground to destroy friction needed for footing, but that sort of cheap shot ruins the whole point of sparring in the first place.

Gesturing for magic also had the problem that it destroyed my guard. I needed to open the range for that, but he was fast enough to keep me distracted by constantly stabbing towards my face.

“Not bad. Not bad at all. But is that all?” the King asked. “Why not use your magic? I recognize that you’re fast, boyo, but just being fast isn’t enough. You didn’t beat a dragon with just this, did ya?”

“Don’t look down on me while thinking I’m looking down on you! If I want to fight you with a sword, then I’m beating you the way I want!” I shot back. Then in a lower tone of voice “Are you asking me that because you’ve been using Magic all this while? Your speed isn’t natural, I can tell that. I’m keeping up with my own combat speed spell.”

King Jamukha nodded. “My own special Null ability is [Accel]. It makes the body a bit faster, that’s all. It also makes this magic barrier around the body the faster I move. It eats up magic energy like crazy though, so you can’t really keep it up for long.”

“Impressive. But you just told me that contrary to your words from earlier, trying to tire you out WILL WORK.”

“That’s only if you can take even one of my hits, innit?” He grinned back. The grip on his sword tightened and he crouched lower, ready to put all his thigh strength into a powerful lunge. Right, with how [Accel] works, the faster he goes that safer he is. He was always incentivized to hit with full force, and spells would bounce off his environmental shield.

KE=mv2. The King being so huge made sense now- his speed multiplied the power of his attacks. Just blocking his strikes was already making my bones ache. But only blocking early would prevent the air pressure wave from building up at the tip of the blade.

“Oh, really?” I smiled smugly like a fox. “How are you going to do that when-” [wuld] [na] [kest!]

I vanished from sight, a small spray of sand was kicked off to the right. I pointed my sword at the back of the Beastkin King’s neck. “… When I am right behind you?” (1)

Behind me boiled a ゴゴゴゴ [Menacing] aura.

King Jamukha chuckled. “Impressive. But you’re wrong.” [Accel!].

The event repeated itself. “I am behind you.”

Paf. “No, I am behind you.”

Paf. “No, I am!”

Paf. “No, I’m behind you again.”

Paf. “No, you’re in front of me.”

Monika slapped her face and groaned. /”Seriously? Seriously, Player? That old Bleach meme?”/

I don’t get to use the dankest of powers very often, Monika. Just let me have this.

Paf. “Too slow, boyo.”

Paf. “No you’re slowing down old man.”

Paf. “Now-”

Paf. “I am-.”

Paf. “Behind-.”

Paf. “You-.”

Paf.

Paf.

Paf.

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“What are those idiots doing?!” (2) Elze moaned. “This isn’t a fight any more. If they have to show off, can’t they do it in a way that makes sense?!”

“But this does carry its own logic, Elze-dono,” said Yae as she intently observed.

Logically it takes a lot more effort to flash step behind someone. Kick out with one foot, kick with the other to push in the opposite angle, land and stop making the whole thing look effortless. Only possible if you had the utmost in speed and control. Only possible with those so fast to make the movements in between seem invisible.

“To strike from behind is dishonorable, but that is because it is the best place to strike. But at these speeds, if you miss, now you will be the one left open to a strike from behind. They cannot allow the opponent that advantage, so no one attacks until they are sure. Positioning is quite important, yes it is.”

Yae could barely see them as they blinked and shuffled backwards, but she looked past them towards how they approached the colloseum wall. Whoever ended up with his back to the wall has no choice but to strike.

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The soles of my boots slapped flat onto the arena wall. I sat there stuck to the wall for a second, like Spider-Man. The King smirked, but didn’t look behind him. He opened his arms wide, baring his back, silently asking “Well…?”

Phrak.

The stone behind me cratered out as I shot out with the force of a bullet.

The King merely had to step slightly aside to avoid my stab, but I was going too fast for a return strike.

“[ACCEL!]” he roared, and ran after me.

Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak!

A line of small divots were punched into the arena floor, the combatants moving so fast the only thing that could be seen were the footsteps they left behind. Swords clashed as both fighters maintained an even distance from each other. Evading hits only worked if you had the speed advantage – if you were both equal, playing around like that was the fastest way to lose.

Kick. Slash. Block. Kick. Slash. Block. As fast as possible, as often as possible.

Until something breaks through!
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Yae clenched her fists and jaw, her eyes narrowed to the point she was almost scowling, trying to maintain contact with the blur.

Like a snake coiling through sand, the line curved around and around, the faster we we were going the larger was the turning radius. A slow biplane might be able to tightly turn about in a second, but something like the famed Blackbird SR-71 had a turning radius measured in hundreds of kilometers.

“They’re going so fast, they’re now running on the walls!” Linze squealed as the winds kicked up by our passing flowed by. The walls underneath the group were also marked with foot-shaped divots punched into the stone.

Yae let out a slow despairing hiss.

/”Ohh? Envious are we? Do you think this is the gap that separates magic-users from mere warriors?”/ Monika whispered into her ears. /”Beyond technique, there is only power. It’s unfair, isn’t it? Some people are just born into it. Life is so unfair, it’s like someone has written the ending before we even started.

/”You know this. You benefit from this. Imagine if you weren’t born the daughter of the warrior house of Kokonoe, instead just some merchant or farmer’s daughter. The strength in your arms comes from the training and the comfort allowed to you by your station.”/

“Do you… do you mean to say that I should not be jealous of what I cannot have? We are not all born equal, this I know. Duty and fealty, filial piety- I understand this, this I do.”

/”Oh no, no, no, my dear samurai girl. That’s not right at all. Player and I are bored with that sort of Dragon Ball escalation. It’s fine to look for strength, but if you can’t define victory then you’ll be spending the rest of your life looking for something that doesn’t exist. Isn’t that why followers of your school travel the world? You’re allowed to find a way to integrate what you learn out there to improve your swordsmanship.

/”Beyond power, there is perfection. A stagnant, dead sword style is one that refuses to grow. Our sword is the sword that cries out in loneliness from the heart of the world.”/

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Poom. Poom.

I launched myself into the air. The King leapt straight up after me. Yumina and Elze screamed as stone fragments fell down from where we ran up the pillars and pushed off the roof up into the open sky above the Colosseum.

Our swords clashed in mid-air.

“In the air, there’s no footing, is this what you were thinking?!” King Jamukha roared out. “Many winged warriors thought the same dang thing!”

Pakapakakakaka! Our swords struck and parried each other repeatedly as we fell down to earth.

With one last strong strike, the recoil from our blow pushed us apart from each other. Wind billowed beneath my cloak, and I boosted to swoop down upon the snow leopard like a hawk diving after prey. King Jamuka swung his arm about, turning 180 degrees, and somehow in mid-air managed to find the acceleration to swing up and meet me in mid-dive.

What.

Smack!

Is… is this AMBAC?! (3) Shite, I should have been wary about how too much you resembled Ramba Ral! By swinging mass around, he could impart momentum and vector changes without expenditure of reaction energy.

Huge muscles mean more speed! What is this unfairneeess!

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We arced away from each other and landed back down on the ground, facing each other.

We were both breathing hard, no longer trying to disguise our exhaustion. If anything making the enemy think we had less energy than what we had would bias them into over-committing into the next hit. Haaah. Hah.

Not gonna lie, just managing to deflect his hits was painful as all get out. While he couldn’t keep running [Accel] for much longer, if my ability to dodge or block fails even just once I’d be down and out for sure. I needed to go beyond speed. Beyond rocket speed.

I needed godspeed.

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