TL: airsblue

TLC: greujnik

Arc 21: Women’s battle

Chapter 178: The Boxing Match and a Nullified Poison

The sounds of clas.h.i.+ng metal are echoing repeatedly across the stage. Hit, defend, hit, defend, hit, defend, hit…….

It looks just like there is a rule to alternatively hit each other. Their speed was gradually becoming increasing, and before long, it became a barrage in return for another barrage.

「Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~!!」

「Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~!!」

A grand sound of clas.h.i.+ng metal was made as both of their fists slammed against each other when they have unleashed a right straight with all their might towards each other.

Both of them stood still like that for an instant, mutually grinning and laughing at each other. Like I said, stop riding on that flow.

Suddenly, both of them simultaneously jumped back, rushed in again, and unleashed upper kicks at each other. The metallic clank of their leg protectors 《Greaves》 roared, and then again the sound of gauntlets’ rally echoed again.

「Yaaaaaa~!!」

Along with her shrieking yell, Elise made a rotating kick which Sonia-san tried defending against, but she couldn’t kill its momentum and was made to retreat a few steps. Then Elsie took a step forward to do a finis.h.i.+ng blow, but Sonia-san quickly rotated her body and attacked with her heavy tail as a whip.

Without being able to avoid the blow of the thick tail that hit her from the side, Elsie reversely ended up retreating backward as she absorbed the heavy impact.

Seeing that, Sonia-san chased after her and tried to land a dropkick, but Elsie defended by crossing both of her arms. Sonia-san then immediately kicked her arms, rotated once, and took a distance from Elsie.

Switching between offensive and defensive, the white heated battle continued, the venue was also heating up.

「Moroha-chan, How do you see this match will end ~noyo?」

「Who knows. If it was a sword match, I might be able to say something, but when it comes to [Fists], I am not sure ~ne. Well, I feel that in terms of speed Elsie is superior, and Sonia-san has the advantage in terms of power, but it is not the gap between them is that big. However, Sonia also has a hidden card to play ~nee」

That [Hakkei], you mean? It seems that a single moment is necessary for her to use it, so Elsie has to make sure not to give her any gap.

At the same time, Elsie cannot even use her [Boost]. Just like Yae, Elsie also watched martial arts’ videos on my smartphone, and so she incorporated various techniques from them but that’s not all.

Is it because their stamina got exhausted on the stage? The movement of the two was getting a bit dull. Even so, they continued to exchange fist attacks without stopping their hands.

Elsie’s sweep was approaching Sonia-san, and though she looked like she was about to fall backward, she somehow defended with her big tail and managed to regain her balance. That tail is amazing. Does it keep her balance like she is a dinosaur?

Sonia-san then attacks Elsie with that tail. Without avoiding that swing, Elsie resolved herself to receive damage and firmly stopped the blow. She then grasped it by both hands without letting it go and threw Sonia-san with all of her might over her shoulder.

(TLC: Seoinage – A judo “over shoulder throw”)

「daaaaaaaa~!!」

「Guuuuu…!!」

Towards Sonia-san who was thrown into the stage, Elsie swings her fist down to give the final blow. However, Sonia-san avoided it by rolling sideways, began to stand up with a hop, and extended her palm from a half-rising posture. This is bad!

「Haaa!!」

A loud thud reverberated and Elsie was blown off. Rolling all over through the stage, she managed to somehow stop before falling outside the bounds.

Dangerous! A little more and it would have become the same as with Rue.

As expected, that is nasty. It is definitely an invisible range attack. Though she might not received the attack, I think she got quite the damage from being blown off like that.

In fact, Elsie is down on her knees and seems to be in a considerable pain. Not missing this chance, Sonia-san begins her attack. Having stood up, Elsie intercepted her, but is the previous attack still showing its results? She is being on the defensive. With with stage boundary being behind her, she will fall from it if it goes like this.

「Haaaaaaaaaaaa~!!」

Sonia-san launches her right fist, and Elsie catches it firmly with her left hand. Disregarding her right hand, Sonia-san then unleashes her left hand, but it is grabbed by Elsie’s right hand too. “Then how about a kick”, Sonia-san tries to raise her leg and in that moment Elsie starts throwing her towards the back.

All the while putting her leg on Sonia-san’s abdomen, Elsie throws her with her full strength.

It looks quite irregular, but is that an overhead throw?

Though Elsie’s neck was out of the stage boundary since earlier, she was safe yet as the rules didn’t state that you would lose unless you fall down from the stage.

「Sh……!」

With how things are going, she is going to be thrown out of the boundary. Sonia-san spins her body in the air, breaks free from Elsie’s grip while greatly swinging her tail, and leans her center of gravity towards the stage.

Sonia-san barely managed to land at the end of the stage, but Elsie went around and cut in front of her before she noticed anything.

「Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!」

With a yell, Elsie unleashes her right straight. Whether it be by reflex, Sonia-san defended against it with her gauntlet. I guess it was probably difficult for her to avoid it while in that posture.

As a result, Sonia-was was thrown out into the air and then landed on the ground. Thus deciding the match.

「The winner, Elsie s.h.i.+luesuka!」

The referee’s voice echoes loudly, and the venue gets noisy all at once. Cheers and thunderous applause are being sent to the two.

「She won! Elsie has won ~ja!」

Suu voice raised in high spirit. Though honestly speaking, it feels like a draw because of all the injuries. Neither managed to K.O. the other. Well, even if they were in a real fight and were not being tied by the rules, I believe Elsie would have won.

Elsie shakes hands with Sonia-san who has come back to the stage and we applaud as well.

It is now one defeat and one win. We will advance to the finals if the two among Yae, Hilda and Pam will win.

I thought the reason we might lose would be due to Pam, but that was nothing more than a misplaced fear. She partic.i.p.ated in the third match and managed to finish it in a mere three minutes. With earth-shattering vigor and power, she displayed a hurricane of surging attacks, her opponent was knocked outside the boundaries.

Yae came out in the next match and easily achieved victory once again. The Rauri tribe who got three victories promptly overtook the Lulush tribe and advanced forward to the finals.

「Have we managed it somehow?」

If I were to say something about this match, I feel relief down in my chest since the Lulush tribe was more formidable as an enemy than the remaining two tribes against which we may appear in the finals.

I express my appreciation to everyone who came out from the Deity Tree area and casted a recovery magic and [Refresh] on them just to be on the safe side. I especially paid attention to Elsie and Rue.

Later, I casted [Slip] on Rengetsu-san, about whom I didn’t forget, thus causing him to magnificently fall down. While he was talking with others from the Lulush tribe Rengetsu-san magnificently fell and banged with the back of his head on the ground. He stood up without understanding what had happened and confirmed the soles of his feet. There was no damage to him because he was standing on the bare soil.

「What do you think you are doing……?」

「But you know~ Seeing how he hit Rue, I kinda got angry」

「I was pretty beaten too though」

「With you guys I couldn’t get angry. You looked like you were in some youth drama」

Elsie sulks while puffing her cheeks. Well, one will usually draw back when two young girls laugh while exchanging blows. I guess that should her opponent be a man, I would undoubtedly make him full of holes.

「In any case, one more win and we are done. Do your best. Take this as well」

I hand small vials that have pills that look like lemon soda to the girls. It is an antidote which Flora made before. Even if poison enters the body, it will immediately be purified with this.

「About the scattered poison on the stage, be sure to wear masks before your turns come up and then hold it in your mouths when your matches begin. If you take it, the poison won’t have any effect even if you receive an attack from those claws. The scattered poison can be disregarded as well. While you take it, it will be effective for approximately 10 minutes, so everyone should take three pills in advance」

After girls received the pills, they returned back to the Deity Tree area.

Then, as we tried to return back to our seats in the audience, a big commotion could be heard from the venue.

It isn’t the usual commotion. When we came back to the Rauri tribe’s place, Rivet tribe had already won three times and was declared as a winner. Oi-oi, no matter what you look at it, isn’t it too fast? What happened?

「The Lemuna tribe started to attack the moment match started, but then they suddenly fell down. Apparently, it seems the Rivet tribe used something like a blowgun. In addition, the dart was extremely thin, it was difficult to glimpse with the naked eye. Even though they defended against the scattered poison with masks, I guess they couldn’t do anything against poison entering directly inside their bodies. Moreover, the poison that they used was apparently a fast-acting poison. It may not be life-threatening, but if the medical treatment is delayed……」

As I looked down at the venue while hearing the commentary from Moroha-nee-san who saw the game, Elsie approached the people from the Lemuna tribe and handed them several antidotes from before. Un, they should be alright with that. Because they have a lot of pills, there is no problem giving out some.

「Even so, did you say blowgun? Indeed, unless it is used together with poison, it will be impractical as a weapon, considering its thickness ~right」

The sizes of throwing knife and darts would again be different. Moreover, a fast-acting poison. A certain-kill blow. Well, it didn’t kill though. What on earth is that poison?

Though it may be a neurotoxin if it gives others the paralysis. Is it like blowfish tetrodotoxin if I remember it correctly? But that didn’t have immediate effects. The numbness started from the hands and feets, it should be a poison that gradually takes effect.

Well, I didn’t see any blowfish since I came to this world. There may be many original poisons of this world. When I thought of this, I wonder how amazing Flora is, since she could make a detoxify medicine…….

Though it can be cured in one shot If I use [Recovery]. In any case, you can’t careless.

In the meantime, the last stage in the Deity Tree area gradually raised up.

On the stage which was a little more s.p.a.cious than the ones before, the five representatives of both the Rauri tribe and the Rivet tribe are confronting each other in silence.

Yae and the girls have already covered their mouths with gas masks. Incidentally, the referee was wearing a mask as well. Looking at it in retrospect, the appearance of everyone in masks was really strange scene.

The match started.

Yae is the vanguard. her opponent is the man with bent-back and claws from before. He had something like a short toothpick in the mask near his mouth. That is probably the muzzle of the blowgun.

It may be my imagination, but because he should be able to breathe even if he is wearing that mask, he is probably not holding the blowgun in his mouth and sending forth the dart with his breath.

Yae removes her mask and takes the pill. With this, the poison won’t work on her. Though he stared at her dubious action, the bent-back man prepared his metal claw, and Yaw slowly drew her Katana from the sheath.

「Begin!」

Yae thrusts at the bent-back man as soon the match kicked off with full speed. I was able to see the bent-back man who panicked from her sudden action firing the dart from his mouth. However, Yae only protected her eyes with her left hand, dived into the bent-back man chest without minding the dart sticking to her hand and landed a single blow with her full power into the man’s defenseless abdomen.

「Oguuuhaaaaaa!!」

While spitting out incomprehensible words, the bent-back man is blown off the stage while spinning.

「The winner, Kokonoe Yae!」

Instant kill. It was so quick that the venue fell silent for a moment, but it was wrapped in explosive cheer immediately after.

She was expecting that the blowgun would be coming. I see, did she hear it from the people of the Lemuna tribe awhile ago?

「No way……Why didn’t the poison work!?」

While letting out his thoughts, the spearhead with long hands and a frog-like face confronts Hilda. Did he still not believe the spectacle from a short while ago? it seems like he is shaking, but I don’t care about such a thing.

At the same time game started, Hilda cut the distance at once while receiving the dart without trying to avoid it and sent the frog-man flying in a similar to Yae’s manner.

「Guuarabaaaa~!!」

The poison doesn’t work at all. It seems it gave a hopeless shock to the opponents. While he was trembling very much, the third member stood still in front of Pam who prepared her ax.

Naturally, there is no way he would be a match for her. As expected, just by confirming that the poison dart isn’t effective, he has no choice but to receive Pam’s ax head on.

「…………t!!」

Without being able to raise his voice anymore, the man from the Rivet tribe fainted and slowly crumbled down.

「Winner, Pam! Therefore, this time [Tribe of the tree king] is the Rauri tribe!!」

Straight wins with three people. It was too dull of a final match, but the applause holding no restraint and cheers poured down like a rain on the tribe which won [Pruning Ceremony].

Pam raised war cry (female yell?) on the stage, which was moreover followed by the victory screams coming out from the Rauri tribe.

Is it over? At any rate, all’s well that ends well.

When I thought so, I felt some kind of coa.r.s.e sign.

「What is it?」

Zuzuzuzu…….Deep rumbling of the ground echoes, every tree beside the one in Deity Tree area start to wither and leaves start to flutter down. What the h.e.l.l is that!?

「Kukuuu…… The power of the spirit, we will be taking it……」

One of the Rivet tribe muttered, and I perfectly caught it on my magic monitor.

Suddenly a loud thud and a shock echoed from the ground. Not just one, there are a lot of severe earthquakes shaking the earth. Countless dead leaves fell down from the dead trees.

「W-what is that!?」

When I turned my eyes towards the voice of someone screaming, there were huge giant trees, and I could see the figure of several of them heading towards here. It doesn’t look like everything is yet to end.