Isekai sword - chapters 191-200

Fran gave into her frustration and launched an attack backed only by brute force. It was a bit crude and lacking in finesse, but more than powerful enough to end the match if it happened to land.

Zefmate defended against the strike by crossing his blades and blocking. He then began attempting to wrap his two swords around me in order to disarm her. The technique was stellar, but his attempt ended in failure for the sole reason that he wasn’t capable of matching Fran in terms of pure power.

The fight turned into a series of back and forths after the initial clash; both combatants continued to swing their blades at one another in an attempt to get a hit in. Though Zefmate was armed with two swords, and Fran only one, she gradually gained an edge on him and began taking control of the battle’s momentum. The reason she was able to suppress him wasn’t just because of her strength stat, but also because she was simply more skilled in the way of the sword.

Realizing that he was at a disadvantage, Zefmate leapt a whole ten meters back and disengaged, an effect likely brought about by that Leopard’s Paw skill of his. The sheer amount of momentum it gave him was so great that it rendered Fran unable to catch up and immediately assault him as he landed.
[OUTSKILLS A MERCENARY LEADER IN COMBAT]
- Chapter 192
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「We Blue Leopardkin are a species that specialize in enhancing our own bodies. You’d be best off not thinking of me as the same person you just exchanged blows with! Blink Strike Blade!」

「Gmph!」

Zefmate’s attack almost seemed to be paired with an instant transmission, as he almost seemed to vanish, only to reappear right next to us as he delivered his blow. The strike was so fast that Fran was unable to counter, and forced into only blocking it.

「To think you’d block even the first strike…! Haaaah!」

The Awakening skill had boosted his strength stat by more than 30 and his agility by almost an entire 200. If one were to judge him based solely on his speed, he’d likely be classified as an A ranked adventurer. His assault was fearsome, and really ingrained into my mind just how much more powerful Beastkin became upon evolution.

Blink Strike Blade seemed to be the type of skill that boosted one’s speed as one used it to attack. It, combined with Zefmate’s innate high speed, made him so fast that we actually couldn’t keep track of him with just our eyes. He seemed to be the most speed focused fighter we’d ever encountered to date.

He began using both Blink Step and Leopard’s Paw to move around at super high speed in an attempt to throw us off while also attacking with Blink Strike Blade.

A ridiculous number of incredibly fast attacks came at us from every direction. If Zefmate were up against any weaker adventurer, he probably would’ve already completely torn his opponent to bits.

However, Fran wasn’t what one could call a weaker adventurer. Thus, he hadn’t even managed to get a single clean hit on her.

All that training we did had allowed Fran to grow much more accustomed to using her detection-based skills. Through their use, she was able to sense every single one of his moves — and that was all she needed. The fact that Fran could detect his attacks allowed her more than enough leeway to react to and defend against them.
[FRAN BLOCKING A VOLLEY OF ATTACKS BY SOMEONE MOVING TOO FAST FOR HER TO SEE]
- Chapter 192
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The Blue Leopardkin’s attacks grew more frequent as he lost his cool. He stopped doing as many feints, and moved around much less between repeated offensives. His impatient attacks would’ve ended anyone that couldn’t keep up him. But again, Fran could. As a result, his assault only grew duller. His strikes became monotone, repeititve, and predictable.

「Stone Wall」

「Gabahh!」

A low rising stone wall spawned in Zefmate’s path as he closed in on Fran from behind.

The result mirrored exactly what would expect to see if a bike smashed into a guardrail at full speed; the impact of ramming into the wall caused Zefmate to go flying through the air.

「I was read like a book and baited!?」

「Inferno Burst」

Fran fired a spell towards what I presumed to be the now defenseless Blue Leopardkin — only to have me realize that I’d been underestimating the effects of his Leopard’s Paw, as Zefmate kicked the air and changed his trajectory to avoid the incoming flames. His actions had been so far out of the scope of my predictions that I even ended up unconsciously clicking my tongue.
[STONE WALL CAN COME UP FAST ENOUGH TO HIT SOMEONE WHO'S TOO FAST FOR FRAN TO SEE (FRAN IS FTE+ IN COMBAT WITH SUPERSONIC REACTIONS]
- Chapter 192
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I felt like the only reason I thought it was over was because I’d decided to leave everything to Fran. If I wasn’t effectively functioning as a spectator with the best tickets in the house, I probably wouldn’t have assumed that victory was assured even after Fran fired that supposedly final spell.

In other words, I wouldn’t have let my guard down.

I would’ve instead acted as Fran did.

「Burnia」

「When did you!?」

Fran had immediately started moving after firing off her attack. She used the flames she shot at Zefmate as cover, got around him, and approached him from the rear through the use of Fire Magic the moment he attempted to dodge the attack by using Leopard’s Paw.

「Haaah!」

「Gaaaarrggh!」

Zefmate was fast, but so was Fran. She was capable of moving just as quickly as he was, even after he’d awakened.

To him, it must’ve felt like Fran had instantly teleported behind him, like someone had matched his speed. And that was something he didn’t quite seem to be used to. He wasn’t capable of properly defending himself from her assault.

All he managed was to throw the sword in his left and thrust the one in his right in order to retaliate.

Both attacks, done purely out of desperation, proved ineffective. The sword he thrusted at Fran only barely managed to scratch her cheek, whereas the one he threw ended up getting tossed inside her dimensional storage.
[FRAN, WHEN AMPING HER SPEED WITH BURNIA, IS ABLE TO MOVE AT THE SAME PACE AS THE MASSIVELY FTE GUY. SHE ALSO CATCHES A THROWN SWORD INTO HER DIMENSIONAL STORAGE AS IT'S COMING TOWARDS HER]
- Chapter 192
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Fran didn’t say a thing. She simply drew me and attacked the girl in front of her eyes. The attack wasn’t a well refined one. All Fran was doing was just lashing out in anger. Still, her strike contained more than enough power to reap the other girl’s life.

But my blade never reached her.

Instead, it cleaved the flesh of another.

「Gafuuhhh….」

「Z-Zefmate!」

Zefmate had dashed between Fran and Seren so he could function as a meatshield and tank the hit; my blade smashed through his collarbone and dug all the way down into his lungs.

Fran had just tried killing his sister, but, despite that, Zefmate’s glare fell not on her, but on the person he’d been trying to protect.

「What… are you saying…Seren…?」

「Zefmate!? Are you okay!? What the hell did you just do to my brother!? I swear I’ll never forgive you, or your kind! I’ll wipe out every single last Bl-」

「Stop it…!」

「Kyah!」

The Blue Leopardkin slapped his little sister across the face shortly after she began cursing at Fran.

He didn’t bother treating his wound, and instead just immediately prostrated himself before the person that had just mortally wounded him in an attempt to apologize.

「I’m… sorry… my sister… didn’t mean it…」

「Don’t… care…」

Despite that, Fran’s response wasn’t a favourable one. She’d been pushed way past the limit of what she could bear. Her anger could no longer be abated by a mere apology.

「I swear… I won’t… ever let her… say something like that… ever again! I’ll… re-educate all… my troops… and exile the ones that won’t listen… no… I’ll even force them… into slavery…!」

Zefmate knew that something like mere banishment wouldn’t be enough to calm Fran down. It was too half-hearted. And so, he even offered to voluntarily sell his own blood related sister into slavery.

His battle with Fran had caused him to realize that she was way out of his league, and that she might end up slaughtering every single last one of Blue Pride’s members if he didn’t manage to influence her mood..

「Wait, what are you saying? She’s just a-」

「Shut… Up…」

Zefmate clobbered Seren, knocked her unconscious and caused her to collapse on the spot.

「I’m… really sorry…」

His injuries were serious. He was on the verge of death, but he completely ignored his own safety and only continued to apologize.

I sensed the people that lay within their tents begin to move.

『Well, Fran, what do you say? More people’ll start showing up if you don’t make up your mind fast.』

「I’m… sorry…」

「…」

『I’ll have your back regardless of what choice you make, so don’t hold back. Do whatever you want.』

「…」

Fran hesitated.

「Greater Heal.」

She couldn’t make up her mind immediately; it took her a few moments, but ended up deciding against completely obliterating every Blue Catkin present. She didn’t trust them. In fact, she hated them, but her impression of Zefmate was a good one and she didn’t think he deserved to die.

「Will be back another day. If no changes by then, will take action.」

「Thank you so much!」

Sensing the fury that lay within, Zefmate dropped to his knees and thanked Fran for her mercy.
[FRAN HEALS A SWORD WOUND FROM SOMEONE'S COLLARBONE INTO THEIR LUNG WITH A SINGLE SPELL]
- Chapter 193
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She wandered around like that for about twenty minutes before suddenly turning heel right as she felt an incredible amount of magical energy burst out from behind her.

『I can sense the…』

「…Beast Lord?」

Its source was Blue Pride’s campsite, but it was so potent that we could measure the extent of its power from all the way back in town.

Sensing it had caused Fran to immediately begin dashing, not away from, but towards it.

The only person capable of giving off that much pressure was the Beast Lord. There wasn’t anyone else that possessed such a ridiculous amount of strength. Moreover, we didn’t even need to be present to tell that he wasn’t just training; his magic was laced with bloodlust.
[CAN READ RELATIVE POWER LEVELS FROM A DISTANCE VIA SENSING MAGIC AS WELL AS SENSING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEFAULT USAGE AND BLOODLUSTED USAGE]
- Chapter 194
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She went on the offense without so much as even waiting for me to reply; she drew me in her right, popped Deathgaze into her left, and shot towards the Beast Lord as would a bullet. The slashing attack that came out of the action was one as swift as the strike she’d used to assault Rynford; it was one that combined all her skills and knowledge, stealth-based skills included.
[FRAN'S DASH IS COMPARABLE TO A BULLET]
- Chapter 194
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The Black Catkin girl swung both her blades to form a cross the moment she closed in on the Beast Lord. His defenses were ridiculously high, but we figured we’d be able to pierce them so long as we focused everything we had on a single point. The two swords that closed in on the Beast Lord’s neck… failed to do anything to him at all.

Fran, both blades still drawn, stared at the uninjured Beast Lord with a look of bewilderment. She hadn’t felt any resistance when slashing at him, so she didn’t realize what’d happened until she looked down to my blade.

「Haah? Who the fuck are you?」

We’d successfully managed to stop the Beast Lord from slaying Zefmate, but Fran had fallen onto his radar as a result.

Fran lacked the composure to answer the Beast Lord’s question. She instead stared at the two hilts in her hands.

Hilts.

Both her swords had lost their blades. In fact, Deathgaze was flat out done for, as all its magical energy had already drained out from within it. Even the Black Cat’s Mantle, which happened to have gotten a bit singed, was acting abnormally. That is, it was repairing itself at a much slower rate than usual. You almost couldn’t actually tell that it actually worked based on visuals alone.

The catgirl didn’t understand what was going on.

But I did.

The reason Deathgaze and I had lost our blades was because we touched the golden flames that cloaked the Beast Lord’s body. We both basically evaporated the moment we did. The flames didn’t radiate any heat, but holy shit they were potent. The lack of consistency between the two facts was only made possible because the golden conflagration was born of a skill.
[RIGDIS' FLAME AURA INSTANTLY MELTS BOTH SWORDBRO AND DEATHGLAZE ON CONTACT]
- Chapter 194
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Fortunately, my blade was the only thing that ended up getting burnt off, so I was still fine and not yet irreparable. Unfortunately, the magical flames had robbed me of so much mana that I no longer contained any more than Deathgaze normally did.

『Man, this is looking pretty bad…』

Attacking the Beast Lord had caused me to come to understand that his flames functioned as an automated self-defense mechanism. They were that powerful even when just left in full auto mode.
[RIGDIS' FLAMES ALSO SUCK UP AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF MANA FROM WHATEVER TOUCHES THEM AND ARE ON AUTOMATICALLY]
- Chapter 194
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Given that our match was coming up soon, Fran decided to warm herself up. Namely, she swung me a bit and practiced dodging by having Urushi jump at her.

『Our turn’ll be coming up soon, so don’t push yourselves too hard just yet, alright?』

「Nn.」

「Woof.」

Both Fran and Urushi continued to accelerate despite voicing their agreements. The pair had already gotten so fast that their actions had become indiscernible to the average person. That, however, wasn’t enough to make me stop them, as to Fran, her current actions were pretty much the equivalent of a walk in the park.
[FRAN AND DOGGO CASUAL FTE WITHOUT TRYING]
- Chapter 197
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The Mad Swordsman didn’t attempt to avoid Fran’s strike despite the boost to his agility. In fact, he willingly facetanked it while roaring and throwing out a counter.

Only then did I finally come to understand his strategy. It was perfectly fine for him to take a fatal hit given that he had a Sacrificial Bracelet. His Nullified Sense of Pain allowed him to take advantage of the instant he tanked Fran’s attack. Specifically, it allowed him to retaliate regardless of all other factors.

It was a strategy that didn’t sound too bad given how the tournament worked. It didn’t matter how injured he got. He’d end up getting healed by the tourney’s staff so long as he didn’t die. Pushing himself to the very edge of death would make it possible for him to defeat foes whose stats were higher than his own.

「Gah!」

「Still slow.」

But it didn’t work.

Fran warded off the blade he thrust at her by smacking its side with her palm and throwing it off course, an action only made possible by the fact that she could track his sword with pinpoint accuracy.
[FRAN CASUALLY BACKHANDS A MAD-ENHANCED C RANKERS SWORD. C RANKERSARE USUALLY AT LEAST FTE]
- Chapter 197
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「Let the third round’s second match… begin!」

「Now come.」

Colbert was doing what we expected. He took on the typical wait-and-see type approach, not because he was going easy on us, but because he was confident he could handle anything we threw at him.

We, on the other hand, had already turned the dial to 11.

『Stone Wall』
『Fire Wall』
『Wind Wall』

The three spells I casted worked to form a sort of tunnel around Fran and Colbert.

He immediately tried smashing its ceiling in order to escape, but he was too late. The fact that he allowed us to take the initiative meant we were already a full step in front of him.

「Inferno Burst」
『Inferno Burst』

Both Fran and I immediately cast a flame-based spell and flooded the tunnel with fire before Colbert could escape it. The attack’s heat was so intense that it caused the stone we created to start melting, but it didn’t collapse right away. The flame and wind walls supported it and managed to keep it standing for a few seconds by regulating its temperature.

In other words, the other two walls attempted to feed heat back into the interior as opposed to allowing it to leak outside, which in turn meant that it ended up not only trapping Colbert, but also providing a bit of a boost to our Inferno Bursts’.

We knew our attack was a fairly sound one, but we didn’t let up. We trusted that Colbert was too strong to fall to just that, and so, we threw in a follow up.

「Wind Bullet!」
『Stun Bullet』

All the smoke and flames made it so we couldn’t actually see him, but that didn’t matter. We simply shot where we felt his presence in order to pin him down and keep him from moving.
[FRAN AND SWORDBRO CAN CAST FAST ENOUGH TO ENTRAP COLBERT IN A MAGIC TUNNEL (COLBERT CAN PUNCH FAST ENOUGH TO CAUSE SHOCKWAVES) AND USE FIRE MAGIC HOT ENOUGH TO INSTANTLY MELT THE STONE WALLS]
- Chapter 198
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The next attack was one I hadn’t had a chance to use in quite a while, my ever so reliable Telekinetic Catapult. The arena was a bit too small for me to reach my full speed, but I still flew at him incredibly quickly nonetheless.

I was confident that not even Colbert would be able to avoid the strike without sustaining a significant injury.

「Nragh!」

『Woah!』

But I was wrong.

A mana-covered fist approached from my side right before I managed to pierce him, one that contained so much force that it seemed like it would send me flying into orbit.

His counter made me realize that he was much more dangerous than I’d been expecting. He was skilled enough to easily knock aside the attack I planned to finish him off with, and basically hadn’t taken any damage from our prior bombardment. The only thing that’d even gotten the slightest bit burnt was his clothing.

We had to defeat him before he actually got serious.

I hit the brakes as hard as I could by using telekinesis and wind magic while also making myself as spiky as a porcupine and cloaking myself in lightning.

「What!?」

Colbert’s voice rose in shock. Never in his wildest dreams had he ever envisioned that the sword he readied himself to hit would stop in place and transform.

His defenses were ridiculous. My needles, which were capable of tearing metal armour to bits, failed to pierce his skin. However, he didn’t remain unharmed. He was assaulted by the lightning I’d wrapped around myself nonetheless.

「Gugagagagargghh!」

「Stun Bolt!」

Fran followed up my attack by throwing another lightning-based spell at him.

The two potent electrical energies shot throughout his body and caused sparks to erupt all over it.

「Finishing blow! Gale Hazard!」

Fran’s finisher, a blast of wind magic, evidenced that she wanted to end the match without having to engage in melee combat. She didn’t want him pulling off what Kurusu tried, and turning everything around at the last second.

Colbert was sent flying over 20 meters. It looked like he’d ring out and crash into the audience.
Fran stayed vigilant, she carefully watched as he flew so she could prevent him from recovering with magic should he try it.

But it wasn’t enough.

「Mmph.」

『Did he just use a Feather of Teleportation?』

Colbert suddenly disappeared. I immediately recognized that he’d teleported, but couldn’t figure out where he went. I wasn’t able to find him by scanning the stage.
[SWORDBRO COUNTERS SOMEONE REACTING TO HIS CATAPULT BY IMMEDIATELY STOPPING IN MID-AIR AND MORPHING INTO A PORCUPINE-ESC SHAPE WITH SPIKES SHARP ENOUGH TO TEAR THROUGH METAL. ALSO IMBUES IT WITH ELECTRICITY TO TASE ANYONE WHO TOUCHES THE SWORD. FRAN SENDS SOMEONE FLYING OVER 20 METRES WITH WIND MAGIC]
- Chapter 198
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One of his many attacks eventually ended up breaking through Fran’s defenses and digging straight into her lungs.

「Bughhh」

『Greater Heal』

I managed to get Fran healed up immediately, but I couldn’t stop her from momentarily flinching because of the hit. The bit of a stagger that resulted allowed Colbert enough of an opening to follow up with a third flurry.

One of his hands even ended up grabbing onto me. It tried tightening its grip in order to hold me in place the moment it did, but I managed to escape by using Telekinesis. Though I did indeed manage to retreat, I wasn’t able to stop him from momentarily restricting Fran’s movements, which, once again, caused Colbert to gain yet another shot of momentum.

Fran was still avoiding his attacks and returning fire, but she was doing so with her face warped in pain. Erza had mentioned before that some of the Dimitris Style’s practitioners were capable of performing attacks that would permeate into one’s body and destroy it from the inside out.

Colbert’s attacks were in fact all of that precise type.

Even the ones that struck me instead of Fran carried through my blade and assaulted her hands with shockwave upon shockwave upon shockwave. I attempted to block the effects of his attacks by deploying a series of barriers, but to pretty much no avail. They passed right through them; even the lightest touch would cause Colbert’s Qi to flow into her body and damage her internals.
[SWORDBRO INSTANTLY HEALS INTERNAL DAMAGE]
- Chapter 199
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〈A new skill has been unlocked as you have fulfilled all of its prerequisites. Your Physical Barrier and Magical Barrier skills have been merged into the Perfect Barrier skill.〉

Perfect Barrier seemed to be a pretty damned good skill. Its level 1 output was equivalent to the two other skills’ max level outputs combined. The term “perfect” initially led me to believe that the barrier could prevent any and all damage, but I was wrong, as it clearly wasn’t completely impregnable. The “perfect” part of its name instead seemed to describe that it could at least attempt to mitigate all types of attacks.

〈The Physical Damage Resistance skill has reached its maximum level and evolved into Physical Damage Nullification.〉

And… we also ended up unlocking a skill I’d been expecting, but not really all that keen on getting.

『Let’s go, Fran!』

「Nn!」

「What!? How are you suddenly no longer taking damage!?」

Colbert’s eyes widened as Fran began stepping forward while completely ignoring all his attacks. He didn’t stop, and continued to assault her, but she didn’t mind his strikes at all. At first, it seemed like she was trying to take damage in order to dish it out, but that wasn’t the case at all. Our two newly obtained skills made it so she didn’t have to to force herself into a trade.

It’d almost looked like she’d become flat out invincible.

But I was panicking nonetheless.

『Shit, Rumina was right! That nullification skill is eating my mana ridiculously quickly! 』

Only a few moments had passed since we’d gotten the skill, but it’d already eaten up a whole 1000 mana. That was just how much energy it took to completely negate Colbert’s incoming attacks.

Again, the skill’s ridiculous mana consumption was something that Rumina had warned us about. Specifically, something she’d warned us about just before the tournament began.
[SWORDBRO CAN USE MAGIC CAPABLE OF NULLIFYING PHYSICAL DAMAGE BUT ONLY FOR A VERY SHORT TIME DUE TO THE RIDICULOUS MANA CONSUMPTION]
- Chapter 199
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But that wasn’t all. She’d also warned us that nullification-type skills didn’t actually provide invulnerability. Certain skills would just go right through them.

According to Rumina, the Gods had made it so that nullification skills weren’t in fact the highest order of skill one could have. They could be broken through by both skills built to pierce defenses as well as skills containing the Gods’ powers.

Rumina herself had actually bore witness to one of these incidents; she’d seen Ignius use its Godflame skill to roast and kill someone that happened to have the Flame Nullification skill.

She’d warned that it was possible that the Beast Lord’s Golden Flame of Extinction skill also counted as a higher order skill.

「Do not let your guard down. Do not rely on nullification skills should you obtain them.」

「Got it.」

Our case was actually a bit different. We were able to choose whether or not we actually wanted a certain skill to be active, so, it was possible for us to avoid using any nullification skills we had unless we actually really needed them. They were quite perfect as far as trump cards went.
[NULLIFICATION DOESN'T MAKE YOU IMMUNE TO ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, AND HIGHER TIER POWERS CAN BREAK THROUGH IT]
- Chapter 199
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Fran raised me above her head and readied herself to a massive downwards swing — an opening Colbert failed to miss.

「Dimitris Style Secret Technique — Rupturing Strike!」[1]

He poured his mana into his fist as he twisted it as he shoved it straight into Fran’s gut. But it was rendered null. The strike hadn’t even caused her to so much as flinch.

「Shit! It had no effect!?」

Colbert’s attack hadn’t damaged Fran, but it’d contained so much force that it drained another 1000 mana straight from my pool, which, once again confirmed that Colbert was one helluva a foe. I couldn’t even imagine how much damage his attack would’ve done had we not the means to completely negate it.

「Nn!」

Fran leapt into the air and delivered a downwards strike with every last bit of her power.

We activated two instances of Elemental Blade, popped Vibration Blade, Magic Poison Fang and Weight Boost as she drew me from a sheath of wind. Her skill with the katana, which had already been remarkable, had become even more refined because of the Sword Lord Arts skill.

Though we were basically in his face, our attack was one that was incredibly easy to read, and thus, Colbert had an easy time avoiding it.

Or at least he would have, had I not stopped him.

I bound him with both Wind Magic and Telekinesis and prevented him from moving either to the left or right. To him, that much was nothing. He easily shrugged it off, but in doing so, lost the instant he needed to avoid Fran’s incoming strike. Realizing that escape had become impossible, he instead quickly opted to use all four of his magical arms to defend himself.

「Haaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!」

「Gaarrgghhh!」

But it wasn’t enough.

We not only split all his magic-made limbs in two, but also left a giant gash running from his left shoulder to the opposite side of his hip. Both his arms were still fine, but the same couldn’t be said for his internals. The majority of the damage had gone straight to his lungs,one of them had even been flat out turned to ash. The flames that cloaked my blade scorched his body and completely turned into a huge mess. The open wound was charred black; smoke wafted off of it alongside a foul, meaty smell.
[FRAN CAN USE THE MOMENTARY NULLIFICATION TO IGNORE ATTACKS IN ORDER TO USE HER OWN ATTACKS THAT WOULD USUALLY LEAVE HER OPEN. SWORDBRO CAN STOP SOMEONE FROM DODGING BY MOMENTARILY ROOTING THEM IN PLACE VIA MAGIC AND TK. FLAME SWORD CHARS THE OPPONENT INTERNALS WHEN IT GOES THROUGH THEM]
- Chapter 199
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I figured that Colbert could still fight, but I never expected him to do as he did. That is, he attempted to avoid the attack by leaping backwards and dodging despite his near fatal wound. He then focused his energies back into his magical arms and once again extended them towards us.

The situation was dire. We’d run out of mana if he hit us even just one more time. If we wanted to win this, we had to end it here and now.

Knowing that, I quickly responded by stretching my blade as far as I could.

「Come on!」

『Reach reach reach!』

「Guaagghhh!」

Colbert reached us right as we reached him. We managed to null his attack, but the same couldn’t be said for him; my blade tore through his gut and caused his blood to splatter across Fran’s face.

He took far too much damage to maintain his concentration, and so, his magic-made arms faded away.

「Sh…it…」

The martial artist fell onto his knees before groaning in pain and collapsing, after which he didn’t even so much as twitch. He was bleeding heavily, crimson liquid leaked from his protruding internal organs and began turning the stage into a sea of blood. To make matters worse, he was even badly poisoned.

Things were looking really bad.

Invalidating Colbert’s last attack had used up the rest of my mana. I was flat dry. I couldn’t do anything for him at all.

Fortunately, I didn’t need to be the one to heal him. A member of the guild’s staff immediately rushed over and did what was necessary in order to save him.
[SWORDBRO RIPS THROUGH COLBERT'S INTERNALS VIA STRETCHING HIS BLADE OUT]
- Chapter 199
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It took a him a good bit, but he eventually managed to do it. He made up his mind and drove his spear straight towards Erza after dodging an attack that left the bigger man off balance. It was the fastest, and most powerful strike he’d demonstrated to date.

The crowd gasped as his spear closed in on Erza’s unarmoured upper body.

But it didn’t work. The spearman’s weapon wasn’t able to pierce Erza’s skin. It was instead stopped by the bigger man’s ridiculously high defenses.
[C RANKERS SPEAR FAILS TO PIERCE ERZA'S SKIN (FOR POTENTIAL FUTURE FRAN SCALING)]
- Chapter 200
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