Leave a comment

A single swing of the halberd was enough to fill the room with powerful winds, controlling it entirely. When Sero reached the center of the room, the Armor King firmly held the hablerd’s shaft and swung it with force.

An instant later a powerful gust of wind began to blow past everyone, but there was also an oddly heavy metallic sound. Sero had dashed forward like a gale, and stopped the halberd with his sword, not letting it finish the swing.

While the distance was limited compared to Mira’s Ground Shrink, it was similar in speed. Considering he achieved that purely by running, it just went to show that a human’s potential was limitless.

「That’s a fantasy world alright, no matter how many times I see it, I’m always shocked.」
「I know, right? It’s only in these worlds that someone can surpass their limits like that.」

After admiring Sero’s skill, Mira and Kagura ran forward at the same time.

「Catch you on the flip side, Sero.」
「Thanks!」

The two spoke to him as they ran past.

「I can’t let that happen!」

The Armor King noticed that, so he tried to force his halberd up again to swing down towards Mira and Kagura.

「I’ve got this.」

But the halberd refused to move. Sero’s blade had lodged itself into the halberd’s shaft, keeping it still.

「You pesky little fox!」

The Armor King raised his voice as he put more strength into his muscles. Eventually the sword gave in, and the halberd fell down creating a powerful wind that coursed through the room.

But there was no one in front of the halberd. Sero’s sword had deflected its aim, making it miss its mark completely. In the meantime, Mira and Kagura opened the iron gate and quickly disappeared behind it.

「Hrngh, famous leader of a guild, you’ve proved to be quite the piece of work.」

The Armor King stepped back, moving faster than one would assume from his large frame, his eyes looking at the opened gate with annoyance. But after taking a deep breath, he grinned as he turned towards Sero.

「But well, at least I still have you here, their most powerful helper. At least I can’t say I’ve failed my mission entirely.」

Saying that, he walked up to the gate, and stood in front of it, halberd ready in his hands.

Sero, the leader of Écarlate Carillon. His exploits were known all over the continent, about how he destroyed entire underground organizations, or hunted down calamity class monsters, and many other stories. In a way, he was known as a light that dispelled evil, and anyone with shady ties would never want to meet him.

With such a name, also came a great following, their many members spread throughout the land. It was the assistant leaders’ job to keep their operations running.

Emera was one such assistant leader, though there were others in the guild. All of them were a cut above everyone else in terms of strength, and watched over large expanses of land. Many of Écarlate Carillon’s stories also involved them. But the one who ultimately led all of them was Sero. And being an organization labeled as evil by everyone, Chimera Clauzen was the most wary of Sero.

「I think you’re misunderstanding something. I only offered to stay because I know I can take you on, and that you’re not worth their time.」

He had stopped Sero, the famous leader of Écarlate Carillon, their biggest enemy. The Armor King believed he had done plenty accomplishing that. But hearing those thoughts, Sero smiled slyly.

「Hm… what are you implying? It sounds like you count yourself as inferior to those two.」
「That’s exactly what I meant. No matter how much I try, I’d never be able to beat either of them.」

Hearing that, the Armor King looked doubtful, but after some time that expression changed into shock.

「Oh no… I can’t detect any deception in your words. To think a powerful man like yourself would say that… hmmm I’ve gravely misjudged the situation. I shouldn’t have focused so much only on you.」

Sero was being truthful, there even was a hint of jealousy in his voice. From his tone and body language, the Armor King was able to discern he was not being lied to. Earlier Gregorius had told them to be careful of Mira, but the Armor King still believed Sero posed the biggest threat. They knew nothing about Kagura, but Sero was such a prominent figure that the Armor King had inadvertently focused solely on him. And that led to Mira and Kagura’s escape.

He looked down in self-reproach, blaming himself for his failure. But Sero continued talking to him.

「Don’t think about it too much. No matter what your plan was, I would’ve made an opening for them to go through.」

Even if the biggest priorities were Kagura and Mira, Sero would have intervened and pushed things into this same situation. Sero smiled, speaking softly as he readied his sword again.

「Fair enough! If this is how it’s meant to go, then let me take you down and regroup quickly!」

As soon as he said that, the Armor King swung his halberd down. The spike whistled as it cut through the air, and a windy storm formed.

But by the time the wind was set free, Sero was no longer in that position. There was a bright flash next to the man, and two high pitched clangs from something hitting his arm. Staggered, he took a few steps back.

「Yep, those spirit arms are truly resilient after all.」

After striking the armor, Sero took a few steps back to reaffirm his grip on his sword. He had aimed his strikes at the weakest joint in the arm, but all he had managed was to push the man back. Still, he had only planned on using that as a threatening tactic, and never intended to cause any real damage. He was told to expect annoyingly powerful spirit arms on the heads, but seeing how sturdy they were first-hand still left him impressed.

「I see, I see. You’re truly one step above the rest, like they say. Was it not for my armor, I would never match up to you. But I have it, so your sword, nay, all your attacks are rendered futile.」
「So you’re saying it won’t have any effect? That just makes me want to try harder.」

The Armor King seemed to be fully confident in his armor, not taking a defensive stance at all, and instead holding his halberd horizontally and pointing it at Sero. Sero too, focused on attacking.

That moment marked the actual start of the fight between the leader of Écarlate Carillon Sero, against one of Chimera Clauzen’s heads.