Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu Chapter 37

Defense Specialization and Exploring a Desert

The forest was small compared to the location from earlier.

「Oh, we’re out already!」

「Oh… it’s a desert.」

In front of the two spread a vast desert.

It was all sand, with a few cacti visible in places.

Players were nowhere to be seen.

「Let’s go.」

「Alright.」

The two set foot into the desert.

「It helps that you don’t get thirsty or whatever.」

「Well, we wouldn’t be able to explore if we did, would we?」

Dehydration did not exist in this game.

Just because they were in the desert didn’t mean they would be damaged by the temperature.

The exploration wasn’t comfortable because the sand was hard to walk on, but the two steadily made their way through the dunes and moved forward.

「There’s just nothing here.」

「Well, looks like it.」

There were so many big dunes; perhaps there would be something beyond the dunes they had to climb over.

「Let’s keep going for now.」

「Sure.」

Oboro and Syrup weren’t out.

First of all, even though Syrup had been let out once for a test, it couldn’t go up the dunes properly.

This was because it was being pushed away by the crumbling sand on the way up.

And when she saw that Oboro’s fur was being covered in sand, Sally put it back.

Sally said she felt sorry for it.

And when the two climbed over a dozen sand dunes, they finally spotted an oasis in the distance.

「We’ve found something at last!」

「Let’s go, quick!」

Amongst the sandy landscape, the greenery gleamed brightly.

The two treaded lightly towards the oasis.

「Well? Does it look like it leads to a dungeon?」

「Let’s split up and look through every nook and cranny. It’s not that big, so it won’t take long.」

The two looked through every nook and cranny, only to find that there was nothing in this oasis.

「Mmm… nothing.」

「Sad, looks like it.」

「You want to go after a bit of a break?」

「Let’s do that. I think I’m rather tired too.」

Sally stretched out hard.

Both Sally and Maple had already had a long battle on this day.

It was no wonder that they were tired.

Maple lay down and looked around languidly.

「Mmm… m-m? Sally! Someone’s coming!」

Maple stood up and raised her great shield.

Sally also reacted to her voice and looked at the player coming towards them with her daggers at the ready.

「Oops… someone’s already here. Even worse, it’s Maple… even for me that’s unlucky.」

The one who came in was a woman wearing traditional Japanese clothing.

She wore a sakura-coloured kimono as her top.

And a purple hakama.

And the fact that she was equipped with a katana was a feature that made her easily identifiable at a glance.

「That person came in sixth in the last event.」

「Eh!? That’s true.」

「I’ve done quite a bit of research, I know that much.」

「Yeah, I’m sorry to interrupt you, but… if possible, please let me go.」

Apparently, this woman had no intention of fighting.

Although who knew what her true intentions were.

「…What will you do if we say it’s not possible?」

「In that case… It can’t be helped. I’ll make sure I take one of you with me.」

The woman said “one of you”, but her attention was focused on Sally.

Maple prepared herself to turn to attack or defense at any time.

「Then one of us who will be left can take all the medals, so I guess it’s better for us.」

Sally muttered.

「…ah!」

「Should we do it?」

「Let’s do it, huh?」

The two looked at the woman together.

「【Super Acceleration】!」

The woman ran away as fast as she could.

She was now running away at an imperceptible speed.

「【Super Acceleration】!」

Sally chased after her as fast as she could.

She was now chasing after her at an imperceptible speed.

「W-wait for me!」

Maple chased after them as fast as she could.

She was now chasing after them at a turtle-slow speed.

「Why do you have 【Super Acceleration】…—!」

「Were you underestimating me?」

Super acceleration of the two ended. The place they were in now was a hollow surrounded by large sand dunes. There was nowhere to run.

The woman also pulled out her katana as she had no choice.

In fact, she thought she could win if her opponent wasn’t Maple.

After all, she ranked sixth.

「【First of the Tachi: Heat Haze】」

The woman’s figure wavered and disappeared.

And in the next moment, she appeared in front of her.

The katana swung sideways and cut deeply into Sally’s body.

「Wha…!?」

The woman was surprised.

What used to be Sally melted into the air before her eyes and disappeared.

「Everyone reacts like that the first time they see it, you know.」

Red effects sprayed from the woman’s body.

Sally didn’t do much damage as she didn’t have much attack power, but she slashed her stomach as they passed each other.

Sally then took the distance again.

「If you can’t defeat me before Maple gets here, it’ll be bad for you.」

Sally told the woman.

「Ugh… 【First of the Tachi: Heat Haze】!」

The woman rushed up to Sally again.

Then she pulled out her katana like before.

「I’ve just seen that one.」

It was a strange sight.

The katana was swung out at close range and cut the air as Sally rushed forward as she crouched down.

Sally continued like that and ran past the woman’s left side in a low stance.

「Guh…」

Red effects sprayed from the woman’s legs.

「I didn’t think you’d be this strong…」

「Well, thank you.」

The two turned around and faced each other.

Sally didn’t attack first.

This was because she wanted to dodge her opponent’s attacks and look for points where she was out of stance.

If she took a counterattack, one hit would be the end for her.

Although, her opponent didn’t actually know that.

「…I can only use all my power.」

The atmosphere around the woman who muttered these words…

No, even her appearance changed.

Her beautiful black hair turned snow-white, and her black eyes turned scarlet.

Around the woman, an effect of the same sakura color as the kimono shone.

「………」

Sally also stopped wasting words and pushed her concentration to the limit.

This was Sally’s best trump card.

An absolute power that no one else could imitate.

「【Last of the Tachi: Moon Haze】」

An unseeable series of fencing attacks rained down on Sally.

The blade was being swung so fast that it seemed to have disappeared.

It would be impossible to detect that series of fencing attacks with sight.

「Ugh—…!」

It was the woman in traditional Japanese clothing who quietly muttered this.

The unseeable barrage of attacks couldn’t get to Sally.

Once she activated the consecutive attacks skill, she would only be able to make somewhat fixed motions until the skill ended.

“Hit”, “hit”, she wished as she was swinging her sword out.

Sally dodged this series of attacks.

The movement of her feet.

The movement of her eyes.

The movement of her arms.

The movement of her shoulders.

The sound of the katana cutting through the air.

Using all that information, she predicted the trajectory of the katana and avoided it by a hair’s breadth.

It likely seemed creepy to the opponent. Her attacks were being dodged with minimal movement right in front of her.

Yes, it was as if…

As if the katana was dodging Sally. That was what she saw.

The twelve consecutive strikes, each of which had the power to kill, ended.

The woman looked at Sally, smiled slightly, and fell on her back just like that.

「I’ve lost. Do it with one blow.」

Her hair and eyes were back to their original color.

The aura disappeared as well.

「It was fairly rough over on my end too.」

「Next time, I’ll hit.」

Just when Sally was about to swing down the dagger.

「Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! Wai-t-I-can’t-stoooooopppppp!」

The two reflexively looked in the direction of the shout and saw a black lump thundering down the slope of the dune stirring up the sand.

「Eh? Wai—! Maple! W-wait!」

Yes, the lump was Maple.

The only thing she could be praised for was unequipping her great shield.

And even if she was told to wait, she was already in no state to stop.

Maple flew into the two.

She flashily stirred up the sand and fell down.

It took all three of them a little while to react to this situation.

And so, they could not react to the change underfoot that occurred as if to exploit that momentary hiatus.

「Huh!?」

「Ugh, I can’t escape!」

「Eh? Eh?」

The three of them were sucked into the quicksand at a terrific speed, with all three reacting in different ways.

Two of them landed on the ground, having managed to balance themselves in the air.

*Wham* One of them slammed into the ground.

That was Maple, of course.

Fortunately, the height wasn’t that much, so she took zero damage.

「W-what does that mean?」

「A dungeon that reacts to the number of people… I think. And it reacted suddenly when Maple fell.」

They all noticed when they saw Sally, who was about to scratch her head to figure out what to do.

That the three of them had their arms chained together with a black chain.

「「「Eh?」」」

Sally’s right hand to the woman in traditional Japanese clothing.

Sally’s left hand to Maple.

Only the woman’s right hand and Maple’s left hand were free.

The chains were a little over a meter long, so they wouldn’t be able to move as they normally could.

It took a few more moments for the three to take in the situation.