Reysir’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment, then narrowed as a smile appeared on his lips.
He seemed about to say something.
But trying to decipher a voice that’s been smudged by the slow flow of time requires both patience and concentration.
So, to keep the Mental Acceleration skill active, I decided to make a rough guess.
‘Is he praising my reflexes, as expected? Or maybe he’s saying that my last chained move was quite good?’
If I listen carefully to his muffled voice while observing the movement of his lips, I might be able to get the answer more easily.
But right now, I’m in the middle of a match.
This is the time to observe not the movement of lips, but the direction of my opponent’s gaze and every motion of his body.
‘Not that it’s the first or second time I’ve ignored what Reysir was trying to say, anyway.’
There’s no need to respond. So I silently swung my whip.
Even as I blatantly ignored him, not listening to a word he said, Reysir wasn’t the least bit displeased.
He continued to maintain his gentle smile as he leisurely dodged my attacks.
At the same time, he raised the tip of his spear upward.
It was the movement to send Aether up to the sky.
No doubt, it was to strike down lightning.
‘If I move my position too quickly, he’ll just send the lightning to wherever I’ve moved.’
But it’s not like I can just keep looking up at the sky, waiting to dodge at the right timing.
While doing that, I’d lose track of Reysir’s movements.
More importantly, by the time I see the flash of lightning, it’s already too late.
Even with the Mental Acceleration skill activated, it doesn’t mean my body can keep up with that speed.
So, for moments like this, I had prepared a dagger in advance—I tossed it overhead to draw the lightning away and dodged to the side.
At the same time, a blinding flash lit up, and a beat later, a grand thunderclap rang out.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure if this would work, but somehow, I pulled it off.
Crackle, crackle. There was no time to admire the sight of the sparking dagger falling to the ground.
I kept swinging my whip to keep Reysir at bay.
Still, true to his role as the munchkin protagonist who plays “me” in the original novel, 《I Alone Am SSS-Class Einheri》, Reysir dodged my attacks with ease.
‘Even so, he couldn’t protect a single person around him, so he can’t be called a true munchkin character in the real sense…!’
Even as I kept whipping while retreating, the distance between us gradually closed. Even with the help of Mental Acceleration, I was no match for his fighting skills or physical specs.
Even though I had strengthened my stats with [Encourage] and [Goyang].
Throwing daggers with my left hand while swinging the whip in my right only resulted in them being knocked aside by his spear.
I only carried enough daggers not to hamper my movements, so unless it was an absolutely crucial moment, it was better not to throw them.
Not like I could hit him anyway.
Thinking that, I drew a new dagger.
Not to throw.
It was because Reysir had closed in so much that I couldn’t even swing my whip anymore.
And I’d already reached the edge of the Stage, so retreating further was impossible.
Feigning as if I were going to press in with my dagger, I closed in on Reysir’s guard. When he moved his spear close to his body to block my attack, I slipped past his side.
You must never show your back to your opponent during a match.
So I immediately turned my body to face Reysir again, and Reysir made the same movement.
When we faced each other once more, the tip of Reysir’s spear pointed at me, then released a burst of golden light.
Even with Mental Acceleration active, the speed of the lightning bolt shooting from the tip of his spear seemed incredibly fast.
Dodging with mere physical movement was impossible.
‘Then what if I block it with Aether?’
No time to hesitate.
The lightning was now flying toward my left thigh.
I drew out Purple Aether from my lower dantian and wrapped it around the targeted area.
At that very instant, Reysir’s golden lightning collided with my Purple Aether barrier.
It was a perilously close call.
“……!!”
Perhaps he hadn’t expected me to block this attack—surprise spread across Reysir’s face.
His eyes slowly widened, mouth agape as his expression changed.
Instead of leisurely watching surprise completely settle on his face, I whipped my weapon at him.
‘Could I finally land a hit this time?’
For a moment, I entertained that hope, but it was pointless.
Reysir lightly swung his spear and deflected my whip.
The wall that is the original protagonist is simply too high.
‘Well, considering how many years Reysir has desperately devoted himself to training… it’s only natural for things to turn out like this!’
If I’d managed to land a solid hit on him here, that would’ve been a real plot hole.
So, I quickly shook off my disappointment and refocused on the match.
‘Was it because I’d just managed to defend against the incoming lightning?’
Reysir began to use his Aether Attribute skills more actively than before.
If I let my guard down even for a second, I’d get shocked, so I had to keep my brain working nonstop to prevent Mental Acceleration from wearing off.
If I were to describe everything in detail, just the battle scene ahead would need at least five more chapters.
Honestly, even in the combat scenes I’ve described so far, most of my thoughts while maintaining Mental Acceleration have been omitted.
That’s for the sake of pacing.
‘Reysir must be holding back, but the fight’s gotten quite long!’
That fact itself stirred up a certain emotion in me.
I must be doing well; my efforts so far haven’t been in vain.
If I keep working hard, maybe I really can survive in this dangerous world… so I thought.
That emotion was something like excitement, and at the same time, relief, and in some ways, it also felt like a kind of sorrow.
Looking back, I remember that was how I felt at the time.
But in that moment, there was no time to analyze my feelings.
Maintaining just the right distance—not leaving the range of my whip, but never entering the reach of his spear.
Holding that delicate balance was far from easy.
All the while, I had to be wary of Reysir’s falling lightning, and defend against bolts of electricity shooting from his hand or spear tip.
Analyzing Reysir’s every move, thinking up ways to respond, and predicting his reactions kept my mind frantically busy.
Yet, in a single instant.
When I failed to keep him in my field of vision while blinking, a lightning bolt was fired—and by the time I noticed, it was too late.
I hurriedly drew up Aether, but before I could form a barrier, I was struck directly.
A blinding light flashed before my eyes and a numbing pain shot through my whole body.
Maybe it was the sheer pain, or the paralysis that came with it, but I couldn’t even scream.
Instead, I think tears trickled out.
With my mind going completely blank, Mental Acceleration was also interrupted.
By the time I realized this, Reysir had approached right up to me.
With a deeply concerned look on his face.
‘But surely he’s not coming over just to check on my condition, right?’
Mental Acceleration activated again.
Since I hadn’t been controlling the flow of Sky-Blue Aether, Reysir now appeared almost frozen in my eyes.
Thanks to that, I had time to think.
‘What’s with looking worried after you just electrocuted me?’
With Mental Acceleration, my physical reactions should be almost stopped as well.
Even now, it felt like current was coursing through my body, stimulating my nerves.
‘Was this a kind of phantom pain?’
I forced myself to ignore that unfamiliar, alien sensation.
***
After coming up with a way to get out of this situation, I adjusted the flow of Sky-Blue Aether.
Reysir, who’d been perfectly still, now started moving at an excruciatingly slow pace.
And then, the tingling pain hit me.
This time, it wasn’t just ‘as if’. It was real—sharp, itchy, burning, I couldn’t even tell which.
Apparently, the aftereffects of the shock were still lingering.
‘He must have moderated the power, but… it’s no joke!’
If I’d been exposed to the same level of current in the world outside the novel, I’d have collapsed frothing at the mouth, lost consciousness, and been loaded onto an ambulance for sure.
But this is a fantasy world, and the body I inhabit contains a fictional energy called ‘Aether’.
Even if my limbs still trembled from the lingering paralysis, moving wasn’t completely impossible.
So I bit my lip and barely managed to draw my dagger.
Then I swung it at Reysir’s neck.
It was a bold attack only possible because I was certain he’d never actually get cut.
As if answering my faith, Reysir leaned his upper body slightly back, dodging my dagger.
I’d intended to use that moment to pull back and widen the distance.
But things didn’t all go my way.
As Reysir dodged my attack, he swept my leg with the butt of his spear.
It hurt where I was struck, but more importantly, the spear got caught on my leg.
Since the effects of the shock hadn’t fully subsided, I couldn’t keep my balance.
No, even if I had recovered completely, I probably wouldn’t have been able to avoid falling.
‘In that case, the only move I have left in this situation is…’
Just as I was thinking that, I realized I was still holding a dagger. If I threw it, Reysir would have to either dodge or block it.
That would buy me time to quickly roll away and create some distance as I fell.
I finished my calculations, but couldn’t put them into action.
Reysir’s hand shot out toward mine, the one holding the dagger.
I tried to avoid it, but he was faster.
He grabbed my hand and yanked hard.
At some point—when did he let go of the spear?—his strong arm supported my waist, stopping me from falling backward.
And then, he overlapped his hand with mine, still clutching the dagger, and made me point it at my own neck.
My defeat was sealed.
So I released Mental Acceleration and opened my mouth.
“Did you really have to win in this kind of pose?”
Right now, I was leaning diagonally, relying on the arms of another person—the protagonist of someone else’s novel—entirely against my will.
Just like the finishing pose of a ballroom dance.
We were supposed to be on this Stage for martial arts, not to show off a dance.
“I had no choice. You were about to throw your dagger. If I hadn’t caught you like this, the match would’ve dragged on even longer.”
As Reysir said that, the voice of the announcer overlapped, declaring his victory.
If the match had lasted longer, wouldn’t that have given me more opportunities to learn? Wouldn’t that have been even better?
That question came to mind, but there was something else I needed to address right away.
“More importantly, just how long are you planning to keep me in this position?! Let go…….”
I couldn’t finish telling him to let go.
A splitting headache crashed down on me, and at the same time, something warm trickled from my nose.
Rather than letting me go, Reysir scooped me up and ran toward the healer.
“You, you only have to help me walk… No, I can walk on my own, so just put me down?!”
By the time I finished speaking, my body was already set down in front of the healer.
How fast he is.
I totally ship them