arc1 · 022-ep22

Episode 22: Watch the Hind-Leg Claws

"Um, see, if you try to wait out your opponent's attack and dodge after, you end up having to match their speed, and that's rough, right? That's why slipping in just a little to the side before the monster leaps is easier—you get to move nice and slow."

"That's exactly what I'm asking—how do you judge the 『before it leaps』 and the 『just a little to the side』!? Where on a monster that hasn't even moved yet do you look to know you can step forward without clashing head-on!?"

Faced with Fumino, planted in the very middle of the corridor and refusing to let it go, Iori tilted his head—"Hmm."

In his usual dives, whenever a monster came closing in, he simply knew—Ah, it's going to leap this way—and kept walking on the strength of that. Asked to put the steps in between into words, he hadn't the faintest idea what to say, or how.

Still, he understood full well that the junior in front of him wasn't complaining to be mean—she was asking for all she was worth, genuinely trying to grasp how it was done.

After a few seconds of thought, Iori happened to cast his gaze down the corridor and pricked his ears, just a little.

From beyond the corner some thirty meters ahead, a second set of dry footsteps—like something raking its claws across the stone flagging—was drawing closer.

"I can't really put it into words, so it's probably quicker to watch how it actually moves from right beside me. And a second one looks about ready to come out from over there, too."

"Eh?"

When Fumino turned around, another Grey Wolf was just then coming into view around the corner, snorting through its nose.

"This time I won't cut it down right away—I'll just walk in front of it, so watch from a little behind me, Kirise-san."

"W-wait just a moment, senpai! You're planning to put on a live demonstration with a living monster right in front of us!?"

"Yep. With just the one, it's fine—I won't ever let it come over to where you are."

Without so much as touching the sheathed one-handed sword, Iori stepped forward, easy and unforced.

Fumino hurriedly retook her dagger stance and timidly planted her feet a few steps behind.

The wolf, having found its prey, rumbled low in its throat, kicked off the stone flagging, and came charging in a dead-straight line.

Five meters, then four—the distance closed, and it was the instant right before the monster sank onto its hind legs to pounce.

Iori, standing there without even drawing his sword, took half a step diagonally forward-left—not running, not leaping, merely at the pace of an ordinary walk.

The next instant, the wolf's body—fangs bared, dancing through midair—blew straight past just beside Iori's right shoulder at breakneck speed, and touched down behind him with a grandiose skid of claws across the flagging.

"......!?"

He could sense Fumino, watching from behind, catch her breath.

Vexed by the whiff, the monster wheeled around at once and pounced at Iori again from a lowered stance. But this time too, a bare instant before its feet kicked off the floor, Iori slipped smoothly half a step to the right.

GAW!—its jaws clacked shut, slicing the air to no effect, and the gray bulk sailed past right beside Iori yet again, cutting through empty sky.

Once, twice, three times. No matter how desperately the monster threw itself into its pounces, Iori never even quickened to a brisk pace—just shifted his footing half a step at a time, sending every charge whiffing past like it was nothing.

『Why is the wolf going out of its way to leap into empty space? Does this one have bad eyes or something?』

『No, apparently by the time the wolf leaps, Onee-sama's already not there anymore!』

『Don't hold a demonstration lecture using a live monster as teaching material, lmao』

『This is the exact same thing as when I show my dog a toy and tease it with it』

『Newcomer-chan is completely frozen up back there, lol』

Having ridden out the fourth pounce with that half step, Iori, still facing the monster, called out loud enough to reach Fumino behind him.

"Kirise-san, when you took your stance earlier, you were watching the monster's face—around its fangs, right? If you watch there, you can't move until after it's already leapt at you. So try watching only the area around the claws at its feet."

"You mean, the claws at its feet?"

"Yep. This monster, before it leaps, always—just once—goes grip on the floor with the claws of its hind legs. —See? Just now, its left hind leg went grip, didn't it? When that happens, walk half a step to your own left, and it can't hit you."

True to his word, Iori planted his foot half a step to the left, and a fraction of a second later the wolf launched—blowing right through the space on the right where Iori was supposed to be standing.

It was still that sort of by-feel phrasing—"it goes grip on the floor"—but Fumino, staring fixedly at the monster's feet from behind, went wide-eyed as if struck awake.

"Ah—the center of gravity on the hind legs! The moment it loads its weight onto its left hind leg and digs its claws in right before the leap, its trajectory to the right is already fixed, and it can't change direction in midair!?"

"Ah—yeah, yeah, that's it. You're good at putting things into words, Kirise-san."

"It's not that I'm good at it, senpai—it's that you skip every bit of the reasoning in between and settle far too much for a single 『it goes grip』!"

Fumino's voice rang out as if it had gotten away from her.

With a wry smile, Iori strolled casually up to the wolf that had turned to face them once more, and this time drew the one-handed sword, sweeping through its neck in an instant. On the flagging where the wolf's form had vanished, a second magic stone hopped once and came to rest.

When Iori turned around, magic stone in hand, Fumino was clenching her own dagger hard, still staring at the flagging on the floor as if chasing the afterimage of the wolf from moments before.

Just then, from a small side opening deeper down the corridor, a third Grey Wolf—drawn in by the noise—appeared, glared their way, and let out a low growl.

"Ah, another one's come out right on cue. Want to try that way of watching the feet yourself once, Kirise-san? If it starts looking dangerous, I'll stop it from beside you straight away."

"I'll do it! Please let me!"

Fumino stepped one pace forward and took up her diagonal dagger stance once more.

So as not to be in her way, Iori quietly dropped back to where the right-hand wall of the corridor dipped in slightly—a spot just diagonal behind Fumino's right—and watched over her, poised to cut in at any moment.

The third wolf kicked off the flagging and bore straight down on Fumino.

With the first one earlier, Fumino had watched nothing but its face while her knees went stiff—but this time, her gaze dropped straight to the monster's feet from the very start.

Five meters, then four—the distance closed.

For a single instant, the wolf lowered its stance to pounce—its left hind claws bit hard into the flagging, and the line of its shoulders sank down ever so slightly.

It was a single heartbeat sooner than the monster's body lifted off the floor.

Fumino's foot moved without a flicker of hesitation, stepping out half a pace diagonally forward-left. The moment after, the wolf's body—fangs bared—tore past just beside her right shoulder, cutting the wind.

"—haaah!"

Into the neck of the wolf, whose landing had broken its posture, Fumino stepped in and drove her dagger in sharp.

With a solid feel of resistance, the monster's body crumpled to the floor, and after it faded away into black mist, a small magic stone went rolling with a dry clatter.

Breathing hard, Fumino looked back and forth between the dagger in her right hand and the magic stone at her feet—then her face snapped up as if jolted, and she turned back to Iori.

"I—I dodged by getting ahead of it! When I watched the claws of its hind legs instead of its face, I could really, clearly see which way it was going to fly—before it even leapt!"

"Yep—your feet didn't freeze up either, and that was a remarkably clean strike. If you keep watching the feet the way you just did, the beast-types of the shallow layers won't be able to catch you off guard anymore."

To his junior, cheeks faintly flushed with excitement, Iori stepped out from the dip in the wall and nodded, eyes crinkling with delight.