Suddenly, Helia appeared and I was flustered. But I calmly used Time Stop to save her. Somehow, it turned out that I was the one saving Helia.
What was important now was not that. I quickly saved Helia and released the ability, but it still took about 10 seconds. In other words, the current cooldown for Time Stop is about 20 seconds.
This means that I have to endure fighting Togui without the Time Stop ability for about 20 seconds. Obviously, that’s not possible, so I immediately spoke up.
“Let’s not rush things.”
Please.
“There’s still plenty of time, right?”
I need the cooldown to reset.
Fortunately, Togui hadn’t shown any interest in me before. If he has no interest, he might just leave. If I can take advantage of that to send him away…
I focused all my attention on guarding against Togui. That’s why I couldn’t understand Togui’s next action. He suddenly bowed his head to me.
“Politely apologize.”
“???”
“It was my mistake to judge you by appearance.”
Togui suddenly bowed his head? I was dumbfounded by this unexpected situation. But somehow, I had a bad feeling about this. Togui went on to explain his reasons.
“This speed, which my eyes could not even perceive.”
“Uh?”
“And your sword energy that could wound my body.”
“???”
“You are undoubtedly a warrior. You have enough value to be my opponent!!!”
Crap. Was he bowing to gain momentum?! Togui roared and charged straight at me. I stuck my tongue out and got up.
I wanted to run away at heart, but I couldn’t right now. Because Helia was still nearby! If Helia dies here, the future is totally gone.
So, I had no choice but to take it head-on! Togui’s fist closed the distance with the force of a tsunami. My body froze in fear for a moment.
Fortunately, I had insurance.
Thanks to Togui’s earlier nonsense, the cooldown for Time Stop had already run out. Just before his fist could touch me, the colors around blurred to gray. I moved on my own.
There was no time to waste. One thing I learned while saving Helia is that Togui’s physique was tougher than I imagined. Tougher than that monster I faced before.
Of course, the demoness Iniestha I fought before was incredibly strong, but unlike her, this guy didn’t even flinch from bites. This meant my previous methods wouldn’t work.
Even now, Togui hadn’t even gained status as a demon. Yet, he was clearly stronger than the demoness I faced before. In other words, clashing head-on would be suicidal.
“So I have no choice but to use tricks.”
First, the downside of Time Stop is severe stamina consumption and cooldown. And my average skill level. Honestly, if my skill was exceptional, the two problems would have been solved long ago.
But since I couldn’t solve them for now, I had to resort to tricks. As I mentioned before, the Time Stop ability activates automatically when my life is in danger, as long as it’s not on cooldown.
I utilized that point. I intentionally avoided using Time Stop and aimed for it to trigger automatically when my life was in danger. And I released the time stop.
Vwoom!!!
It felt like a train was passing right above my head. It sent chills down my spine, but somehow I dodged the attack. The time I took to react was about 1.5 seconds.
That means the next cooldown is 3 seconds. However, it takes that much time for the opponent as well. I’ve heard fights between masters are decided by a 0.1-second difference.
Fortunately, Togui wasn’t that good right now. It would take him 1 second to find me after I dodged, and 1 second to try and attack. Finally, it would take him another second to react.
My sword lightly kissed Togui’s neck, splattering a bit of blood. One more thing I realized while saving Helia: The scarred parts of Togui’s body showed some mark from my bite.
In other words, I would use Time Stop as little as possible, only when in danger, and slowly wear him down while he was reacting slowly. That’s the best I could do right now.
“So, are you fighting while guarding your kid behind you?”
“What?”
“There’s no need to pretend. I have my pride too.”
“???”
Oh, it’s true. Helia was still behind me. What the hell, go back already! What are you doing here?! My irritation rose for a moment, but I forced it down.
“Well done, warrior. Now with full power…!!!”
“No, the outcome has already been decided.”
“What nonsense…?!”
A thud echoed. It sounded like an anvil dropping. But it wasn’t an anvil; it was Togui’s knee. He was now kneeling down, sitting on the ground.
“Did you think I was just defending?”
“…No way.”
“Yes, right….”
“In that fleeting moment, you severed my vital artery?”
“……???”
No, that’s not it. I just smeared paralysis poison on my sword. Fortunately, since Togui was a low-level demon, he had no resistance to the poison. So I pre-coated my sword with paralysis poison.
And I forcibly shoved it into the scar on Togui’s body, sending it inside. And now, the effect of that paralysis poison had kicked in. But why was he misunderstanding things?
“Don’t you think I used poison?”
“Those foolish words. You are the warrior I acknowledge.”
“…….”
“A warrior who fights to protect their kid wouldn’t use poison.”
That’s not my kid. And I wasn’t engaging in a straightforward fight. If I felt I was losing, I would’ve just tried to run away. You can’t blame me. I want to survive.
Of course, as a person, I intended to fight with all my might. But if it really felt like I was going to die, I would’ve run without looking back.
My goal is to survive and return to my original world. And if I don’t beat that damned Time Stop Breeding Uncle to a pulp, I feel like I’ll die of frustration.
“Kill me. As the victor, you have the right to my neck.”
“I won’t kill you.”
“……What did you say?”
To be exact, I can’t kill you. Instead of answering, I sheathed my sword. I can’t kill him anyway. I realized when we clashed. With my current swordsmanship, I can’t defeat this guy.
In other words, to kill this guy, I need to stop time and saw him down. But most likely, before I can behead him, I would tire out and collapse first.
Besides, if I can’t decapitate him cleanly in front of him, he might notice my weakness and attack. It’s better to let him go than to risk that.
Of course, if I cooperate with the soldiers behind me, we could kill him. But would Togui just let that happen? Plus, I’ve already used up all the paralysis poison I prepared.
“Are you feeling sympathy for me?”
“The loser of the duel doesn’t have to die.”
“That’s nonsense.”
“…….”
“Kill me. I don’t need your useless sympathy.”
Togui was insistent. No, I couldn’t say “I can’t kill you!” I was going crazy. What should I do? I had no choice but to talk.
Let’s see, a line I can use in this situation…
*
[If you rush in there, everyone dies. Why is everyone going anyway?]
That was the first question I had. Although I was just a mere extension with no blood ties, it certainly was similar to family under the name of a race.
But everyone else died. The next day, and the day after that, new family members appeared and all of them died. Only that one thing survived. That was incomprehensible.
Why did they charge forward knowing they would die? Why did they have to follow orders? And that question was only barely solved by killing demons.
[In the end, it’s because they are weak.]
From that moment, I desired strength. Strength that no one would dare command me. Just as I did, I killed the demon that created me.
After that, I killed anyone who approached me trying to kill me. In that process, I became even more captivated by strength. A warrior without value means nothing. They are just trash.
I filtered out the trash and fed only on the flesh of the strong I acknowledged. Monsters, demons, humans, elves, dwarves. I did not discriminate by race. I became a true predator.
“Let’s not rush things.”
“There’s still plenty of time, right?”
Then the predator met an even stronger predator. At first, I thought he was just meaningless meat. But when I fought him directly, he was an unimaginable powerhouse.
I intentionally dodged attacks by a hair, merely leaving wounds on my body. That alone rendered my body immobile. A truly unimaginable strength.
But I have no complaints. If you are strong, you eat; if you are weak, you just lose your life. I’ve taken before, so it’s inevitable that I would lose mine now. That’s how I thought.
“You can become stronger than you are now.”
“…….”
“Come back stronger. Even more than before.”
It was the first emotion I ever felt. The sensation of something black boiling inside, dominating my mind, making me want to stand up and beat that guy to death immediately. That terrible feeling.
It was indeed humiliation.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.