ch61-ch80 · 063-ch62

Chapter 62: Rock VS Berdigri

"Hah! Let's see you try it, if you've got the guts!"

Berdigri pointed the tip of his lance at him. It was a knight's lance with a blade that had both width and weight.

Rokuro, on the other hand, took his stance without any weapon in hand.

'Heh, looks like you're too drained to even bring out a sword. Makes sense—time's almost up.'

Berdigri had been watching the battle between Chartreuse and Rokuro from hiding, waiting for the Black Knight's Unison transformation to run out.

Though only a little time remained, he had emerged before the transformation wore off to prevent the Black Knight from being struck down by Fuchsia. If the Black Bird's 'Egg' happened to be compatible with Fuchsia, she would become a Black Knight possessing a large amount of eiyōso within her body, making her extremely difficult to defeat. To prevent that, he needed to strike down the Black Knight himself.

'Since I'm killing Chartreuse anyway, I need to silence Fuchsia too... Guh!?'

Even as he processed these thoughts, he kept his eyes on the Black Knight. And yet, a Black Claw closed in before his eyes at speeds he couldn't even follow.

Berdigri deflected it with his lance by the narrowest of margins.

"Tch, you still have this much power left—!?"

There was no Black Knight behind the Black Claw he had just deflected.

'On the left!'

Using the Black Claw he had fired himself to enter the blind spot, Rokuro circled around to his opponent's left side and unleashed a fist without a moment's delay. At such close range, the straight punch was far faster than the wide swing of a lance.

THUD!

"Guh!"

He took a powerful blow to the flank, and the armor there caved in in the shape of a fist.

'—It's shallow.'

Because he noticed Rokuro's position and twisted his body before taking the hit, the damage was somewhat reduced.

"Don't you look down on meeeee!!"

"!"

Berdigri swept his lance as a feint, but Rokuro read through the movement and dodged with minimal motion.

And immediately after the lance's swing passed through its full arc, he closed in again and drove in another fist.

"Gahh!!"

This time, the body blow hit dead center, shattering the abdominal armor.

Unable to bear it, Berdigri leaped upward to put distance between them.

"High!"

Unlike Chartreuse, who used the power of wind directly for attacks, Berdigri used it to accelerate and amplify his own movements.

With the amplification of wind power, his jump reached over a dozen meters, surprising even Rokuro.

But as he hung in the air, Berdigri glared down at the ground with a bitter expression.

'Shit, so I was the one underestimating. Even in his diminished state, he's still the Black Knight—he's battle-hardened!'

Berdigri had an arrogant personality, but he was the type who could reflect on and observe during battle.

Sensing a threat from Rokuro, who attacked with pinpoint accuracy using minimal eiyōso, he decided to change his fighting style.

"If I just go for a direct strike, you'll dodge it again, but how about this!"

Berdigri leveled the tip of his lance at the ground, repeatedly changing direction and accelerating with the wind, descending like lightning in a zigzag pattern.

Moreover, with each acceleration, he increased his speed and boosted his power.

'Not good!'

"Die, Black Kniiight!!"

―　◆　―

BOOOOOOOOOM!!

"W-what, what!?" "What is itttt!?"

A massive explosive sound reached even us outside the park, and the ground shook.

When we looked, a cloud of dust was dancing higher than the buildings.

"Hey, isn't that bad?"

While everyone was wide-eyed, Sumi poked my shoulder and pointed in the opposite direction from the park.

Looking over, we could see company employees looking out the office building windows at the park and starting to make a commotion.

"Ah, right—that green wall is gone now... What should we do?"

"There's nothing we can do, I guess. All we can do is pray the fight ends before anyone comes to look."

With his arms crossed, Shudo-san was surprisingly calm... or maybe he was in a state of resignation.

I don't know who Shudo-san is, and he seems super strong, but he probably can't win against those people in armor. He did say the lady who fell in the pond was stronger.

"But why did they take down the wall? Even people from that world would find it troublesome if they caused a commotion, right?"

I nodded at Kiriko's question.

If they didn't care about causing a scene, they wouldn't have made the wall in the first place.

"Most likely, the Green Knight who created the wall has already been defeated. The one fighting now seems to be an Underz who came afterwards."

Melkid secretly spoke up to teach us.

But something like that—Papa can't stay transformed for long, and now a new enemy—

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

"Whoa!" "That's the second one!"

And this one was bigger than before. The smoke spread throughout the park and drifted all the way to us.

"Papa!"

Just as I was about to start running, unable to stay still any longer, Shudo-san stopped me by pressing down on both my shoulders.

"Let go! Papa is—!"

"No! If you go, your father won't be able to fight at full strength. And if that happens, he might lose a battle he could have won."

"Uuuhh, uuuuugh~"

It's frustrating, but he's right.

I'd just get in the way if I went. I'd be nothing but a burden.

But Papa is fighting.

Papa said it was because of himself that he escaped and transferred here, but somehow it feels different.

Because just now, they were targeting me. The reason Papa is fighting— isn't it really for my sake?

To leave such a Papa... a Papa risking his life to fight... and have nowhere to hide except staying here...

I, I am...!

Flash.

Huh? Did the pendant just light up for a second again?