Chapter 28, Unforgivable!

Translator: Lizz

 

While Masato focused on recovery, the three girls surrounded the ogre, and Seiji attacked from a distance.

 

But not everyone attacked at the same time.

 

The ogre’s blows were too heavy, so they couldn’t act aggressively.

 

Hinata, with her short weapon reach, mainly distracted and dodged, dispersed the enemy’s attacks. Rika, unaware that Masato was still alive, held onto her frustration at not being able to avenge him, quietly observing the ogre’s movements and waiting for an opening.

 

Reika couldn’t land a flesh-tearing strike, and the ogre’s right eye, stabbed by a knife, slowly healed.

 

“Gwoooaaah!!”

 

Annoyed by the humans darting around, the ogre roared, and its arms, which had been moving like a storm, suddenly stopped.

 

Rika seized that moment and swung her sword sideways. She lacked the strength, so it only cut the ogre’s thigh lightly, but the pain distracted it, and its Self-Recovery skill was temporarily interrupted.

 

“Gwooo!! Gwooo!!”

 

The ogre stomped and rampaged even more violently, sending chills down their spines, but Rika and the others didn’t run. Everyone there believed that now, while the ogre was still blind, was their first and last chance.

 

But sheer determination couldn’t overcome the overwhelming difference in strength.

 

Though they wanted to defeat it, their attacks only bought time. Eventually, the healing finished, and sight returned to the ogre’s right eye.

 

The four of them reacted differently when they saw that.

 

Rika resolved herself to make a desperate attack, while Reika and Hinata wore bitter expressions. Seiji was so overwhelmed by despair that his hands stopped moving.

 

But not everything was bad. At that very moment, Masato had managed to recover at least the minimum amount of mana.

 

He used Physical Enhancement and instantly moved to the enemy’s location, standing beside Rika, who had been waiting for a chance to strike in order to vent her grudge.

 

“Could you lend me your sword?”

 

His tone was so light it almost sounded like he might wink.

 

“Y-yes… huh!? Are your injuries really okay?”

 

She was startled by his sudden appearance, but when she remembered they were fighting the ogre, her emotions quickly shifted.

 

She had thought it hopeless for him to return to battle. Deep down, she had even resigned herself to the idea that he was dead. She had been prepared to fight to the death and follow after him, so her shock was beyond words.

 

“Thanks to everyone! You bought me time, and that saved me.”

 

Masato patted Rika’s head before taking the sword.

 

“Are you really okay?”

 

“I learned from watching the ogre’s movements. I’m completely healed.”

 

“Ah! I see, that’s what happened.”

 

With that single remark, she realized he had absorbed the ogre’s Self-Recovery skill through Skill Sublimation.

 

Understanding that he had recovered at an impossible speed and returned to an uninjured state, Rika also saw a glimmer of hope in this seemingly hopeless battle.

 

If Masato was alright and could keep fighting, then with Skill Sublimation, it wasn’t impossible to overturn the course of battle. As long as he was alive, he could continue learning and growing until he was strong enough to win.

 

“Let’s make it back alive.”

 

With a flood of emotions, Rika handed over her sword and stepped back.

 

“Of course.”

 

Masato lightly swung the sword he received.

 

It wasn’t a weapon he usually used, but his movements were smooth, as if he were accustomed to it.

 

Masato had chosen knives only because larger weapons were inconvenient for surprise attacks; he had trained in handling common weapons like spears and swords as well.

 

“So, what should I do now?”

 

He wanted to press his attacks with Short-Range Teleportation, but doing so would drain his mana completely. Even though he had recovered somewhat, he had no reserves left.

 

Despite their despair, Reika kept attacking with her naginata without losing heart, but her strikes never landed on the ogre, whose eye had already healed. Hinata stabbed from behind with her rapier, but the wounds healed instantly, making it useless.

 

What they lacked was overwhelming attack power.

 

Masato temporarily consumed more magic to heighten the effect of Physical Enhancement.

 

The moment Reika stepped back to dodge the ogre’s sweeping strike, Masato circled around from its blind left side and unleashed an upward slash.

 

“Gwooo!?”

 

The ogre’s left arm spun through the air, and its face froze in shock.

 

[Swordsmanship: Movements with the sword, supporting attacks.]

 

At the same time, Masato obtained a new skill.

 

“Now!!”

 

Reika thrust at the ogre’s head.

 

The ogre tilted its head, sacrificing its cheek to avoid the blow. A rapier stabbed into its left chest from behind, but the strike lacked power. It couldn’t damage the magic stone that served as its heart.

 

—Swordsmanship.

 

The sword, glowing with magic, closed in on the ogre. With the effect of Swordsmanship, its power had increased, and it should have been able to cut far more easily than before.

 

“Gwoooooooaaah!!”

 

Sensing danger, the ogre diverted the mana it had been using for Self-Recovery into its Roar skill. The roar was packed with magic, producing a physical shockwave. Just before his attack landed, Masato was blown several meters away.

 

The other party members were also thrown back, their bodies paralyzed and unable to move.

 

Realizing the danger, Masato shouted loudly to keep the ogre’s gaze from turning toward the others.

 

“Over here!!!!”

 

He swung an upward slash from below, but the ogre blocked it with its iron club. The clash rang out with a metallic crash, and both weapons recoiled apart.

 

Masato deflected the ogre’s next downward strike and stabbed into its abdomen. He heard its ugly scream but ignored it, pulling the blade free with a forward kick.

 

[Martial Arts: Supporting unarmed attacks.]

 

Even with heavy bleeding and pain, the ogre’s fighting spirit didn’t fade.

 

The patterns carved into its iron club glowed, and it began to spin like a drill.

 

The rotating club caught Masato’s sword, grinding against it with a shrill, grating sound, and shattered the dungeon metal blade.

 

Shocked by the ogre’s hidden trick, Masato’s eyes widened in disbelief, but he quickly shifted his focus. He discarded the broken sword and chose to fight barehanded.

 

Even as the terrifying spinning club strike closed in, Masato didn’t flinch.

 

—Martial Arts.

 

Using the newly acquired skill, he grabbed the ogre’s right hand that held the club and twisted.

 

Normally, an ogre would never lose in strength against a human, but with the massive blood loss weakening it, and Masato using both Physical Enhancement and Martial Arts at once, resistance was meaningless.

 

The ogre’s arm lost strength, and the club slipped from its grasp.

 

When it hit the floor, the glow vanished and the rotation stopped.

 

“Uoooh!!”

 

Turning his back to the ogre, Masato lifted its arm onto his shoulder and executed a shoulder throw.

 

Unable to break its fall, the ogre’s head slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash, and it collapsed on its back. It didn’t move at all. The concussion had knocked it unconscious.

 

Masato took a backstep to create distance, then cast Fireball. A sphere of flame appeared overhead. He poured all of his remaining mana into it, raising its temperature higher and higher.

 

The air warped, the boss room grew hotter, and sweat streamed down Rika’s and the others’ faces as they watched.

 

The fireball, glowing like a small sun, slowly descended onto the ogre’s face.

 

With sizzling sounds, it burned away, and the ogre’s body began to evaporate. After a while, only a fist-sized magic stone and a single card remained.

 

A weapon and a skill card. Unfortunately, they weren’t lucky enough to obtain both, but even so, defeating a special boss was no small achievement.

 

“D-did we beat it?”

 

Seiji muttered as the effect of Roar wore off, and Hinata, Rika, and Reika followed with cries of joy.

 

The death they had felt the moment they encountered the ogre had been overturned. It was the greatest sense of release they had ever experienced in their lives.

 

“Masato-san—”

 

Rika tried to run to Masato, who had fought until the very end, but halfway there her strength gave out and she fell to her knees.

 

A fierce heat surged inside her, a burning sensation spreading from her core.

 

Her breathing grew shallow, her consciousness began to fade. She felt her body being remade, an unpleasant transformation that stripped away her control, forcing her into something not herself.

 

She struggled desperately to suppress her body’s urge to thrash, but the longer it went on, the harder it became.

 

Watching Masato run toward her with a face on the verge of tears, Rika finally let go of her consciousness.