The oppressive force was so tremendous it could erase my very existence in an instant.
Light flooded my entire field of vision as a golden blade traced a graceful arc, descending toward my skull. Had this been the first time, fear alone might have driven me to make the wrong choice.
But this wasn't the first time I'd found myself on the brink of death. So without offering the slightest resistance, I held Tinno tightly in my arms and manually activated my second Barrier Ring.
Not to brag, but I was confident that no one could outdo me when it came to handling Barrier Rings. In fact, even in this era where powerful Hunters roamed unchecked, nobody had put this emergency evasion tool through its paces as much as I had.
Based on past experience, once an opponent reached around Level 3 Hunter caliber, I simply couldn't cope with their attacks. In a one-on-one where they had their sights locked on me alone, it didn't matter whether I dodged sideways, backwards, or charged forward—there was no avoiding the blow, let alone countering it.
So I took the attack head-on. Rather than waste precious moments deliberating over evasion, I activated the Barrier Ring.
The blade, the lightning—all of it was violently repelled by the barrier pressed mere inches from my body. Arnold's fighting style apparently favored power over volume, yet I still couldn't track how many times the blade had swung down in a single second.
And that was fine. That's what Hunters were. But no matter how many strikes were unleashed, that blade couldn't wound someone who knew the Barrier Ring's capabilities inside and out.
Eventually, the frenzied barrage ceased, and Arnold took a step back. His eyes—narrowed like honed blades—now held something different from before: beneath the anger, a sharp wariness.
The ground behind me had been torn open into a massive crater. The aftershock of Arnold's assault, no doubt. I released Tinno, who had been cowering in my arms, and she immediately retreated a step with a pale face, still on guard.
It seemed like we might finally be able to negotiate. Having Liliz and Citry nearby gave me more confidence than usual.
I couldn't understand why Arnold was so angry. It was probably just another misunderstanding.
"Feeling better?"
"How... how are you still standing? Impossible."
I trusted the Barrier Ring.
Generally speaking, the Barrier Ring was considered a Treasure Weapon that automatically deployed an invincible barrier against fatal attacks, but that wasn't quite right.
The Barrier Ring had several functions. Simply mastering them could extend my survival time, if only slightly.
One such function was "manual activation"—the ability to deliberately trigger the Barrier Ring, which would normally activate automatically. With this method, you could slightly alter the barrier's coverage area, which normally couldn't be controlled.
In my case, when facing a frontal downward strike, if I activated it the instant I thought "oh crap," the barrier would deploy at just the right coverage. (By the way, if by some chance I didn't make it in time, the other Barrier Rings would activate automatically.)
I couldn't help but feel a little proud.
Arnold wore a fearsome expression, but I'd been attacked by countless frightening faces before. It wasn't exactly something to brag about, but for an ordinary person like me to have survived hell itself, a small measure of pride was surely warranted.
"Arnold, calm down. This is... a difference in experience. I've been attacked countless times before—but nobody has ever managed to wound me."
"!"
With a faint sound of something vanishing, Arnold's massive frame disappeared. Before I could process the situation, a deafening impact erupted from the back of my head.
"Mastaa?!"
Tinno's scream pierced the air.
One Barrier Ring activated automatically. He'd apparently realized a frontal assault wouldn't break through and switched to attacking from a blind spot. The speed was terrifying for someone of his stature.
But it was useless. Utterly useless. Arnold didn't seem to understand, but what he was fighting—what he was trying to break through—wasn't me.
What he was trying to break through was the history of the Barrier Ring itself!
Throughout all of history, across every land, the Barrier Ring was regarded as one of the strongest defensive tools in existence—and he was up against that very legacy!
I might be a tiny existence, but I had seventeen Barrier Rings equipped—the kind that traded hands for eye-watering prices.
Being stubborn to the end, Arnold didn't stop his assault and continued slashing at my back in rapid succession.
"Im—possible!"
"Calm down. You should probably stop soon."
I'd be the one dying.
The remaining charges on the Barrier Rings I'd restocked at the expense of my clan members were being ground away at an alarming rate.
Barrier Rings maintained their strength in trade-off with activation duration. In other words, they could reliably block seventeen hits, but after that—not a single one.
An ordinary warrior who could block one hit would look for an opening to counterattack, but all I could do was defend.
To buy even a little more time, I spun around and swung my right arm wide. My slender arm met the massive golden blade head-on, and the impact brought both to a halt.
The Barrier Ring's barrier blocked everything beyond a certain threshold—impact, light, sound. So if I stacked enough of them, even I could temporarily hold my own against a hero.
My bare arm, without even a gauntlet, clashing against that enormous blade was an obviously unnatural sight. Arnold's eyes widened in shock.
The blade, which had been swinging wildly, stopped. Here was my chance to convince him. Arnold wanted to kill me, but I had no will to fight.
I feigned composure and offered a smile. So much for my vacation—I felt like throwing up.
"Sorry, but I have no intention of fighting you. I've always hated brawling. It'd be pointless anyway."
And I'd die. Since you're so strong, go pick fights with other strong people. Besides, if that opening strike and all the follow-up blows had connected, I'd be dead already.
This was why Hunters who didn't know their own strength were so terrifying. They assumed I was Level 8, so they came at me full force almost every time.
"So anyway, what are you doing here? It can't be a coincidence, right? I'm on vacation, you know..."
"!"
To my perfectly reasonable question, Arnold glared at me with an expression that said he'd shoot me dead if he could.
Was he looking for an opening? He kept his sword raised, lowered his center of gravity, and breathed heavily. Not that he needed to look for openings—I was full of them at all times.
But the stalemate worked in my favor. My only weapon was my tongue.
"If Liliz's teasing is what set you off, I'm sorry about that. My apologies."
"............"
Say something, will you? Should I get on my knees?
But even as the one who'd been ambushed, I had things to say. That attack could have killed me. Especially for Tinno, who didn't have any Barrier Rings—the possibility of serious injury was very real.
I pulled Tinno, who was standing guard beside me, and patted her head. The barrier range expansion had reached her in time, so she was unharmed. Good, good.
I kept my head on a swivel while running my mouth nonstop.
"But honestly... I'm not that interested in you all—ah, wait, forget I said that!"
The moment the words left my mouth, I knew I'd messed up.
The truth had slipped out. After all, even Liliz's teasing had been playful banter, and for Hunters, that kind of thing wasn't unusual. So in my mind, they had no justification for chasing me down like this.
But if a simple explanation would satisfy them, they wouldn't have pursued me all the way to these mountains in the first place.
I tried to take it back, but it was too late. Arnold's eyes went wide for an instant, and whether he'd grasped what I'd said or not, his expression twisted like a demon's. I had completely poured oil on the fire.
"You—how dare you, at a time like this—?!"
The side of his face met Liliz's boot in a surprise kick. Arnold raised his blade almost reflexively, but she slipped past it as if by magic and landed a devastating strike to his chin. His massive body was sent flying, though he managed to regain his footing mid-air.
Liliz was absolutely furious. Whether from the residual effects of the lightning attack, black smoke rose from her outfit in little wisps, but her posture showed no signs of damage. The reason I'd shielded Tinno instead of Liliz wasn't that I was prioritizing Tinno—it was an entirely valid judgment that Liliz could take a hit and be fine.
Liliz's expression was just as demonic as Arnold's.
"Are you done talking? I told you... to stay away... from this piece of trash... bothering Liliz..."
It seemed the interruption of their little moment had set her off completely. She'd lost all capacity for coherent language.
With the demeanor of a street thug, Liliz launched herself at Arnold. A Thief charging a swordsman with a higher confirmed Level—her will to fight was off the charts.
Against her godlike kick, Arnold met it with a well-handled greatsword.
Liliz struck without hesitation against the lightning-wrapped blade. The lightning clearly passed through, but her speed didn't diminish by even a fraction.
"You! Right when things were getting good! Get kicked to death by a horse! Die and pay for it!"
"!!"
Arnold was on the defensive against Liliz's barrage of verbal abuse as she flew at him.
Liliz's speed-specialized attacks were an unknown world for most swordsmen. That Arnold could endure them without taking an unprotected hit was proof of his exceptional skill.
Tinno watched the scene in stunned silence. It was a battle between heroes of the highest order.
Liliz, who had been delivering fluid combos, suddenly accelerated. She slipped under the greatsword he'd raised for defense, circled behind him, and landed a strike to the back of his knee.
As Arnold's posture crumbled, a powerful kick swung toward the back of his head. In that instant—Arnold's body blazed with light.
It was "Thunder." Sparks scattered, and the light seared Liliz. She was blown back as if repelled, spun twice in midair, and landed on both feet.
Arnold rose slowly, breathing hard, and fixed Liliz with a glare.
So that was Arnold's "trump card." He'd channeled lightning through his sword into his body?
The fact that he'd taken lightning and remained unfazed—was it because of resistance, or some other principle at work?
"You're an annoying little pest—"
"I just reinforced my lightning resistance not long ago," Liliz said with the eyes of a predator. But I was completely caught off guard.
Because I'd assumed Liliz was stronger than Arnold.
I knew she wasn't weak at Level 7, but that the fight was still going after a surprise attack was beyond my expectations.
That was when it occurred to me—maybe if I complimented him, he'd be in a better mood. So I buttered him up.
"You're evenly matched with Liliz? Arnold, you're really something, huh."
"!............"
"That sword—is it made from Thunder Dragon materials? Bone, maybe? What a waste... I should've made one too. I never even thought of it. Really impressive, yeah."
While I was trying to keep flattering him despite my shaken composure, a voice called from behind. It was Citry, who'd been preparing the carriage.
She'd apparently been waiting for the right moment. She spoke in a calm voice.
"I used the bones for soup stock and threw them out. They were in the way, you know."
"Ah... oh... is that so? ...Were they good?"
"Chicken was supposed to taste better, so..."
"Ah, ha ha ha... I don't remember at all... you know how forgetful I am. But you can't make a sword from chicken bones, so in a way, we divided up the roles—"
"You could make one, though... I actually made one recently."
Citry delivered this offhand response while I myself had no idea what I was saying.
This was bad. Arnold's veins were bulging and he looked ready to pounce at any moment. If Liliz weren't there, he definitely would have attacked. It had completely backfired.
At that point, Citry reached around from behind and whispered in my ear.
"Shall we run? Everything's ready."
"!!"
As expected of Citry—she understood me perfectly. Of course we'd run. If I'd fled the moment I saw the lightning on the mountainside, none of this would have happened.
The problem was that Arnold's legs were almost certainly faster than the carriage. We had to deal with him first, or the escape wouldn't work.
"Ah, Arnold. Actually, I'm kind of busy right now..."
"...Busy... fooling around with women?"
A misunderstanding. But come to think of it—maybe escaping that situation and Arnold showing up did have some significance. No, it didn't.
I wanted to escape from Arnold, but to do that, I had to deal with Arnold. Completely cornered.
The staredown between Liliz and Arnold continued. The endurance of high-Level swordsmen was absurd. I trusted Liliz's abilities, but with no eye for combat, I couldn't tell who had the advantage.
That was when Tinno, at my side, spoke up as if she'd steeled her resolve.
"Mastaa... I'll fight too!"
"Huh...?"
The most improbable option imaginable. No matter how talented Tinno was, I couldn't imagine her holding her own against Arnold, who was evenly matched with Liliz.
But Tinno puffed out her chest and looked at me with straight, pure eyes.
"I can't keep being protected forever. I understand now—the reason Mastaa had me train in taking lightning strikes was for this very moment!"
"Uh..."
"!?"
That training was assigned by someone else entirely, not me...
Arnold was looking at me with an expression like he'd seen a monster. No, that's not—I'm not the one— "If it's two against one with Big Sis... even I might find an opening... I'm sure of it."
Why were Hunters so death-hungry? This wasn't training—a direct hit from that colossal sword would split Tinno in two. I'd actually seen Luke cut a person clean in half before. It was entirely possible.
Well, Liliz would probably keep the sword at bay, so that might be okay. But the next problem was the lightning itself. Even if she'd built up resistance, I couldn't believe she'd come out of that unscathed. Unlike a sword, lightning was hard to dodge. Our Party didn't even have Anthem right now—this was reckless.
But nobody seemed to agree with me. Neither Citry nor Liliz made any move to stop Tinno. They were the type of women who'd toss their own child into a valley of a thousand fathoms.
Then I suddenly remembered something useful. I rummaged through my pockets and pulled out something squishy. Tinno's expression changed. Arnold's expression changed too.
Glad I'd brought it after all. I unfurled the crumpled object.
The "Evolving Demon Mask," which had been crammed into my pocket, spoke in a fed-up voice.
"Quite the ordeal... Is it my turn?"
"M-Mastaa? That's—"
The Evolving Demon Mask was a Treasure Weapon that drew out the wearer's latent potential.
Last time Tinno had worn it, she'd fought hard enough to hold her own against the duo of Liliz and Citry. I'd honestly debated bringing it, but it was undeniably a powerful Treasure Weapon, so I'd brought it along.
An ordinary Tinno was one thing, but Tinno with the mask would surely be able to fight Arnold.