chapter3 · 053-ep53

Episode 53: Trump Card

"What the hell did you do?"

Kanzaki's voice lowered.

The smile had thinned a little from his mouth, which had been twisted in delight until just now. Only his eyes remained narrowed as they stared fixedly between his fist and my palm.

I didn't answer.

I didn't think it would be much of an explanation even if I did, and I couldn't neatly explain all of it myself yet anyway.

There was just one thing I knew.

I'd stopped Kanzaki's fist.

It was different from when I extinguished the giant lizard's fire.

Kanzaki's fist wouldn't disappear like flames did, and even if I stagnated the flow of his physical enhancement, it didn't erase Kanzaki's own strength or the weight of his step-in.

Even so, the final push dulled.

The force that could smash a person into a wall and crush them had stopped in front of my arm.

"Don't just stand there silent."

Kanzaki pulled back his fist.

In that instant, the flow moving through Kanzaki's body roiled violently again within Interference Eye.

Force dropped into his legs.

He drove his foot hard into the floor,

then it passed through his waist, rose to his shoulder, and flowed into his arm.

Amazing.

I could see every bit of the flow.

The first time we'd fought, Kanzaki's movements had only been fast, heavy, and scary. Now they entered my vision as currents.

Of course, seeing them didn't suddenly make my body faster.

If I failed to dodge, I'd still take the hit, and if I received it all head-on, it would blow straight through my Endurance enchant.

But I could tell where he would move from.

If it gathered in his legs, he would kick off.

If it flowed into his arm, his fist would swing through.

Nothing could be easier to understand.

Then Kanzaki's fist shot toward my face.

I shifted my upper body just a little and put my palm against the outside of that fist.

Not catch it. Touch it.

Catch my fingertips on the current.

Stagnate.

Kanzaki's fist dulled for only an instant.

It didn't completely lose momentum, but the fist that had been about to crush my face lost a little of its weight. I slid my body into that opening.

His fist passed beside my cheek.

The wind hit me.

A moment later, the skin of my cheek stung.

It felt less like I dodged and more like I twisted myself into a gap created by killing its momentum.

"Tch."

Kanzaki clicked his tongue.

I stepped inside that arm.

If I fell back here, it would be Kanzaki's range again.

Thinking that, I clenched my fist and drove it into his open side.

Strength enchant.

Shock Grant.

I'd learned the reward I gained when I landed a hit on Kanzaki in Meeting Room Seven was pretty dangerous when I used it against the black giant lizard.

But there was no reason not to use it now.

The instant my fist touched Kanzaki's side, the impact intensified beyond the contact.

It felt different from hitting him from outside.

The force didn't stop against the surface of hard muscle; a beat later, it went into the depths.

"Guh...!"

Kanzaki's body bent slightly.

He didn't fall.

Of course, he wasn't an opponent who would go down from that alone.

But one line of red ran from the corner of Kanzaki's mouth.

Kanzaki wiped it with the back of his hand, twisting his lips.

"Now that's more like it."

It was working.

Shock Grant worked on Kanzaki too.

That hit probably landed only because he had underestimated it as an Enchanter's punch.

"Not done... yet!"

At that close range, Kanzaki swung an elbow at me.

Shorter than a fist, with less of a windup.

But Interference Eye had shown force flowing from his shoulder to his elbow.

I moved an Endurance enchant into my arm and touched the inside of his elbow as though resting my hand on it.

Kanzaki's elbow slowed.

But the impact that remained still hit my arm and shook my body.

It hurt normally.

But it didn't become the destructive power that had blown Segawa away.

If it only hurt, it wasn't a big deal at all.

I swept my foot toward Kanzaki's knee, then at the same time drove a fist carrying Shock Grant into his chest.

Kanzaki caught it with his right arm.

He should have caught it.

Even so, the impact didn't stop at the surface of his arm and pushed through inside.

"...Guaaah!"

Kanzaki's body retreated half a step.

Groaning, he held his right arm.

It really was working.

Kanzaki had trained his exterior well, but if the impact reached inside, it seemed to deal serious damage.

Then I didn't need to change tactics.

Keep pressing him and take Kanzaki down for sure.

"What the hell is that?"

The laughter had been steadily disappearing from Kanzaki's voice.

In its place was clear irritation and the unpleasantness of seeing a power he couldn't understand.

"Damn it...!"

Kanzaki threw punch after punch.

Right, left, shoulder.

Then he came at me with elbows and knees.

But now I could see where the force was heading inside Kanzaki's body.

Kanzaki's attacks touched me over and over.

Every time one grazed my cheek, struck my shoulder, or brushed my side, it hurt.

But none of them landed completely.

Kanzaki's force snagged just before reaching me, losing its momentum.

And amid that barrage, I moved half a step inside with Kanzaki's step-in and drove a Shock Grant-coated fist under his jaw this time.

Kanzaki pulled his neck back to avoid it.

My fist only grazed the tip of his chin.

But the amplified shock struck a moment later, snapping Kanzaki's head sideways.

"Gah...!"

Kanzaki's feet stopped for an instant.

No, not just that.

Holding his jaw, Kanzaki dropped to one knee.

Kanzaki stayed motionless for a while, still pressing his hand to his jaw.

Blood from his mouth ran down his chin and dropped onto the floor.

Kanzaki, who had been crushing people one-sidedly until moments ago, was on one knee.

But I couldn't let my guard down there.

The flow passing through Kanzaki's body hadn't disappeared.

If anything, it was swelling in a more unpleasant way than before.

"...Damn it."

The hand that had been holding his jaw slowly touched the floor.

Kanzaki put strength into that hand against the ground, then rose while cracking his neck.

No laughter remained on his face.

"You damn Enchanter."

Kanzaki's voice growled from the back of his throat.

"Don't get cocky."

In that instant, the force flowing through Kanzaki's body changed.

It wasn't swelling wildly like before.

Force that had once sunk into the depths of his body connected from his feet, through his back, into his right arm.

A bad feeling.

Kanzaki was about to use something.

That kind of presence.

"Fist Domain."

The instant I heard those words, something spread around Kanzaki and me as though a thin membrane were enclosing us.

"...Huh?"

What was this?

It was insanely narrow.

"Hah, now you can't run."

Kanzaki twisted his lips.

"My Skill. You can't get out of the range my fists can reach. This narrow, you can't dodge either."

I focused on Interference Eye.

Rather than a transparent wall, was this a rounded mass of force flow?

If Kanzaki stepped forward once, his fist could easily reach me.

I couldn't dodge sideways or backward either.

That was the range.

Hey, hey. Being unable to get away from a Fighter at this distance—what kind of punishment game was this?

Not that I had room to crack jokes.

I was scared normally.

Too scared.

Then again, I should have been scared the moment I entered the Gate. My legs were only starting to shake now.

"Neither of us can run now. That's all this is: which one goes down first."

Kanzaki clenched his fist.

"...That's what I'd like to say, but."

Force coursing all over Kanzaki's body gathered in his right arm. The current rose from his feet through his waist and back, climbed to his shoulder, then pressed into his right fist.

"In here, my fist absolutely can't miss. Sorry, but this is where you end."

Kanzaki's voice lowered further.

"Mighty Fist."

The instant Kanzaki said that, the air around only his right fist warped strangely.

I could tell even without Interference Eye.

That was seriously bad.

I couldn't shift sideways to avoid it like normal, and even if I stepped back, that invisible wall would only shove me back.

Even if I used Stagnation, I didn't think I could stop a force that absurdly huge without getting hurt.

If I took it, it was over.

But I couldn't dodge either.

Was I checkmated, then?

No. I had one more plan.

On the way here, I had actually completed another Personal Achievement.

The first two black giant lizards I'd beaten.

Then three more as I followed Kanzaki's trail.

I wanted to catch up with Segawa and the others one second sooner, but every time a black giant lizard appeared from beyond a corner or the shadow of the ceiling, it stopped me in my tracks.

Honestly, give me a break.

But just after I beat the fifth one, a display appeared at the edge of my vision.

【Personal Achievement Unlocked】

【Defeat 5 monsters inside a dungeon】

【Personal Achievement Reward will be granted】

【Observer Skill: Stagnation: Recoil】

I stopped for only a few seconds before running again.

I could only check the bare minimum explanation.

【Stagnation: Recoil】

Reverses a force stagnated by Stagnation and sends it back against its source.

Really, I wanted to test it before using it.

How much could it return?

Would it recoil on me?

What would happen if I touched it wrong?

There were too many things I didn't know.

But I didn't have that luxury.

Kanzaki had sealed off my escape with Fist Domain and was gathering all his body's strength in his right fist with Mighty Fist.

There hadn't been an escape route for a while now.

Stagnation: Recoil presumably returned the opponent's force straight back to them.

The logic said it should work.

"Get crushed, Enchanterrr!"

Kanzaki's fist closed in.

I thrust out my palm to meet it.

The instant fist and palm collided, the shock traveled up my arm to my shoulder.

It hurt.

My arm felt like it would get carried away.

But if I let go here, it was over.

I turned my attention to the force packed inside Kanzaki's fist.

First, stagnate it.

Then,

"——Stagnation: Recoil!"

When I layered Recoil onto the force clogged in the depths of his fist, the direction of the weight on my palm changed.

I had been getting pushed, but now force flowed back from in front of me into the depths of Kanzaki's arm.

Then, in the next instant, Kanzaki's fist crumpled.

The fist against my palm was pushed back, and the fingers he had clenched came undone on their own.

That movement didn't stop.

As though the force packed into Mighty Fist ran in the opposite direction, his wrist snapped a beat later and was taken in a direction it should never bend.

"Nngh—"

A voiceless sound leaked from Kanzaki's throat.

But it didn't end there.

The returned force didn't stop at his wrist and ran into his elbow.

His elbow jerked as if it had been struck from the inside.

Kanzaki's right arm flailed as though it no longer belonged to him, and the recoil pulled even his body backward.

"...Guaaah!"

Even so, Kanzaki tried to brace himself.

Strength went into the feet scraping across the floor.

But even that force couldn't make it in time.

A dull sound rang from deep in his shoulder a moment later.

CRACK—

It came out.

The instant I thought that, Kanzaki's right arm was flung backward from the shoulder onward.

His wrist hung at a strange angle, his elbow wouldn't extend straight, and the arm dangling powerless from his shoulder swayed as though it were something separate from Kanzaki's will.

It hadn't been torn off.

But that arm was over as an arm.

Kanzaki looked at his right arm.

Then, for just an instant, he wore a face that didn't understand what had happened.

The next instant.

"——AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

A scream I'd never heard before echoed through the dungeon.