Chapter 268

Chapter 268 United Front

A moment later, the girls responded as well .

"Eh! This mana reaction . . . !"

"It wasn"t there just a second ago!"

"Yeah . It"s the 『Swords Extremers』 . "

Looks like the girls have noticed their mana reaction as well .

They wouldn"t have noticed if it was just an ordinary mana reaction .

But this mana reaction is unlike that of a monster nor a human .

It"s more distorted and bizarre .

"This mana reaction . . . Is it because of 『Broken Star』?"

" . . . Nope . Grevil who was also resurrected by the 『Broken Star』 had no oddness in his mana reaction . "

Rather than from the [Broken Star], the bizarreness is more like . . . something that"s been manufactured roughly and shabbily .

In my past life, there were experimentations done on humans to forcefully restructure Crests and remodel their innate power . . . This guy feels kind of similar to those test bodies .

. . . I don"t know the details since I wasn"t involved in that research though .

"They must have undone their stealth magic . . . Like declaring that they won"t run nor hide . "

"They"re going out of their way to show themselves up even though they could launch a surprise attack here?"

"Yeah . . . Their goal is not exactly our death after all . "

The goal of 『Swords Extremers』 is to fight .

Surprise attacks are completely out of question from their perspective .

"They didn"t have to kill then . . . "

"You can say that again . . . We wouldn"t have bothered if they were a group that only likes to have a fight without the killing part . "

The [Swords Extremers] shortened their distance while we were talking .

"Here they come, don"t let your guard down!"

I stepped ahead to cover the girls .

One man stopped in front of me .

"The one who used 『Enforced Detection』 . . . Must be you . "

The man had long unkempt hair and beard .

His eyes are bloodshot with rough breathing .

--His condition is clearly not normal .

But that"s because he"s only thinking about fighting--or not .

His body is falling apart due to the twisted resurrection .

Let alone exerting 1/10 of his power, I"m amazed he"s even alive .

And despite all that, he managed to kill a high-ranking adventurer, as expected of [Swords Extremers] .

"Correct . "

I confronted the man as I answered back .

Defeating this man without saying anything is an easy task .

But if I did that, I would have to look around for the second [Swords Extremers] .

I need to make this guy bring us to the other members of the group .

"Twas" a beautiful magic . There was absolutely no wasteful mana expended, like it was a spell art cast by elite magic combatants in the past . "

" . . . And?"

"In honor of your strength, we 『Swords Extremers』 implore you for a match . . . After we are done with those, of course . "

The man turns his back on us after saying that .

Toward a horde of monsters coming here due to the effect of [Enforced Detection] .

『 . . . Is he gonna help us?』

『Or so he pretended to and then used the chance to attack our back . . . 』

Ruli and Alma sounded perplexed to see [Swords Extremers] turned his back on his opponents .

They can"t comprehend the reason behind his actions .

. . . Well I guess it"s something only those who live for battle can understand .

『He won"t do that . . . From his perspective, we"re the sparring partners he has been looking for all this time . Wouldn"t it be a waste to kill us in a surprise attack? I believe he intends to fight us in perfect conditions after moving the small fry out of the way . 』

『A waste . . . ?』

『I-I don"t really get it . . . But I guess you do, Mathi-kun?』

『Yeah . . . But I don"t get how they would just kill their sparring partners . 』

I mowed down an incoming monster as I said that .

It was a boar monster .

. . . It"s not that strong but probably exceeds rank D at least .

The [Swords Extremers] man muttered when he saw my sword .

"Impressive swordsmanship . I thought there were only weaklings in this era . . . I almost feel bad to have you killed . "

" . . . Who"s going to kill whom?"

"I, kill, you . Death to the losers . That"s what I"ve always done . "

The man cut down a monster close to him as he said that .

The monster that had been hit by the sword of [Mira Combat Art] kept charging forward without even realizing that it had been cut--before falling down split in two .