Disclaimer: Log Horizon, all of its characters, musics, and stories belongs to their own respective owner. In this case, is written by Mamare Touno, illustrated by Kazuhiro Hara and published by Enterbrain. The only things I own here is the OC named Drest. This fanfict may or may not be canon. Besides that, I've got nothing else to say. So with that, please take a seat, grab your drink, pick your snack, and have a pleasant ride (or read).

Chapter 10 "The Match Continues"

Drest breathe out slowly, releasing his tenseness from his whole body. Moving his shoulder that he used not long ago to flip his opponent, he made a cracking sound that came from his joint. After a while, he quickly walked toward his opponent.

Still in a shock, Kawara didn't move an inch from her last position. With her back made impact first, she was still unable to do anything besides laid there in silence, trying to digest what had happened to her.

"Are you hurt, Kawara-dono?" Drest's voice was the one that broke her shock and pulled her back to the present. With his hand put forward, Drest looked at Kawara with a rather worried expression. At that, Kawara flashed a smile.

"Nope, fine as I ever be." She grabbed his hand and then stood up with his help. "Although a bit sore on the back, I'm fine, Drest-san." She dusted her clothes as she faced him again.

"Ah, I see. That's good to hear, Kawara-dono." Drest said with a tone full of relieve.

"You know, even Master didn't throw me that hard." She grinned at him.

"R-Really?" He didn't know that. He didn't even know that they have already started fighting before he got there, although he already had a hunch.

"Ah, but don't feel guilty and all, you know? It just showed that you took the match seriously," said the female monk to him. She then took a distance from him and then gave a bow. "Thank you for the match!"

"E-Eh? Y-Yes." He returned the bow with one of his own. "Thank you for the match!"

"Well, well, your move there was quite something, dear." Dolce walked near the two fighters, looking satisfied at the result of the match. "Drest-san, you're quite scary when you get serious, you know?" The tall man patted his shoulder slightly.

"Is that so? I…didn't know." He said that with an awkward smile on his face.

"Ah, sorry, did I touch a sensitive subject?" He replied to him as he noticed his expression.

"No, no. Don't worry. It's just that I don't have the memory of anything like that with the amnesia and all." He tried to give a smile, but it turned out to be much too forced as they looked somewhat worried after seeing his smile.

"Oh, yes, yes." Dolce nodded while crossing his arm. He then put his left hand on top of his shoulder and continued, "Don't worry, Drest-san. We're here with you all the way!" He gave him a thumb up with the other hand.

"You bet we are!" Kawara added with her own cheerful tone.

Looking at the two reactions, Drest couldn't help but smile at them. He felt somehow that this guild was a filled with strong people, both in for their body and their heart. They were strong enough to even care for a stranger like him. He felt quite fortunate to encounter them.

"Well, now that you've lost," Dolce said while looking at Kawara, which earned him a sour look and a little pout from her, he then continued. "We will have the next match."

"Oh, me! Me!" A hand was raised from the spectator. All eyes shifted to that.

"Oh, Kyouko it is then!" Dolce said as he announced his next opponent. Having already experienced her way of fighting, Drest was having mixed feeling. At one hand he already knew her way of fighting, making him much easier to predict her movement. On the other hand, Kyouko's way of fighting was quite brutal, befitting of her guardian class. She would just rush on and proceed to pummel her opponent. Although that was done with the intention to kill, he just couldn't get that worry away from his mind.

"Next match, Kyouko versus Drest!" Dolce announced the match again when Kyouko has walked to the stage while Kawara sat down with the rest of the member.

"Don't go easy on me, Drest-san!" Kyouko said with her usual cheerful voice.

"Yes, will do, Kyouko-dono." He replied to her.

(Although I can't say the same to her.)

With that in his mind, he decided not to say anything more.

"Ready?" Dolce asked the two fighters.

"Ready!" The two of them shouted in unison.

"Begin!" Dolce announced the start of the match while swinging his hand down.

"HYAAAHHH!" Kyouko gave a shout as she charged forward toward her opponent. Half expecting that coming from her, he kept his calm and moved out of her course slightly to the left. He raised his arm slightly to perform another throw using her momentum.

"What the!?" But to his surprise, she tried to hook his neck with her right arm. He ducked just in time, barely able to avoid that tackling attack from her. But with his plan disturbed, he needed to make another move.

"Gotcha!" She shouted as she performed a round house kick toward him. This time he was unable to move away because she managed to do that in a split second. He blocked that with his arms crossed.

"Ugh!" The impact landed quite heavily and Drest was forced to move backward due to that force. Not leaving him any time to react, she charged toward him again. By the time he realized her attack, she was already a few inches away from him. With no way out, he let his instinct took over his action. He placed his hand on her shoulder and then he jumped over her using her shoulder as a support for his jump.

"Oh wow!" The first one that exclaimed amazement was none other than the Guild Master. He looked at his move with excitement visible on his eyes.

"He's really good." Kawara commented with a low tone and a grin on her face.

Ignoring any comment, Drest quickly placed himself to the attacking stance. This time he planned to use the same move he used against Kawara. He readied his stance and then waited for her to attack.

Noticing that her opponent already switched to an attacking pose, Kyouko became cautious. She circled him with caution while looking for a gap for her to attack. But she couldn't see any gap in his defense. One wrong move and she will likely be defeated like her friend, Kawara. This fact actually made her excited instead of scared.

Drest looked at her with the same cautious look as her. He noticed that she was trying to exploit his gap as she was circling him. After waiting for a few seconds, all she did was circling him. With no sign of her attacking, Drest judged that his plan to use the same move was already read by Kyouko. He switched tactic again.

He couldn't find ant gap in her defense that he could use. If he waited any longer, she might found a gap in his stance. He was at a dead end again.

"Feel, don't think."

Once again, the words rung on his head. Reminded of that, he relaxed his stance as he breathed out slowly. He brought his entire body lower and then concentrated on the flow of the battle.

Seeing a change on him, Kyouko perceived that as a gap in his stance. She put her foot behind her and then she pushed forward, charging at him again.

Everyone on the room expected him to do the usual dodging move, but they were surprised by the way he reacted. Instead of moving away, Drest moved directly at her with even faster speed.

In a split second, he was already nearing her, startling her. Fearing a direct impact because of that, she immediately pulled back.

But Drest kept on charging ahead toward her. Unable to evade, she tried to punch him with a straight jab. To her surprise, he didn't evade that blow but instead parried it aside and caught her hand while still nearing her. With her hand caught by the black haired man, she was too shock to do anything. Using that as his cue, he put his counter action while still holding her hand with one hand. His forearm was placed onto her neck and he used that as a point to throw her balance off.

"GAAAHHH!" Her scream and the sound of impact filled the hall as her back met the dojo floor. A little shockwave was made from that fall. And just like the match with Kawara, the spectators were unable to give any reaction instantly.

Dolce, just like before, was also the one that recovered from the shock first.

"Winner, Drest!"

The final result of the match was announced with Drest finally pinned Kyouko on the floor with one hand gripping her hand while his other hand was placed on top of her neck.

Hearing the result, Drest quickly got up and readjusted his breathing. After he had finally calmed down, he looked at his opponent who was still lying on the floor with an expression of confusion. Her eyes were directed at the ceiling staring at absolutely nothing. Seeing that, he reached out his hand toward her.

"Are you hurt, Kyouko-dono?"

He could see that consciousness started to gather in her eyes and she turned around to the source of the voice. "No, I'm fine," said Kyouko while grabbing onto his hand and pulled that as a support for her to stand up.

"You don't seem to be fine, Kyouko-dono," he said as she lacked her usual vigor.

"No, don't mind it. I was just a little taken aback at the fact that I was defeated so fast." She gave a sigh after saying that.

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yes, that is so. And as a guardian that is supposed to be tanking for everyone else," she looked to the other member and once again gave a rather heavy sigh, "I felt rather pathetic, you know?"

"Hmm, I don't think that you need to think that hard." Drest said while touching his chin, trying to look for better word he could gave her. "Besides, your move was rather strong, I could at least verify that."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. The reason I tackle you like that is also because I can't take much more of your blow or my chance of winning decreased into next to nothing."

"You're exaggerating, Drest-san."

"Oh no, no, absolutely not. If I fight you in a normal condition, I'll probably lose," said Drest while waving his hand to her. "Not to mention that Kyouko-dono is a guardian. You have a wide array of skill that you can use to tank for the other."

"Ah yes, I didn't use any skill back then, didn't I?"

"Yes, yes. So please have more confidence in yourself. You already proved your power back at when we fight the goblins, right?" He said with a smile on his face, clearly showing his honest opinion toward the female guardian potential.

Seeing that, a faint smile appeared on her face. "Then I guess next time we have to spar using our weapons and skills, right?"

"Err, if you want to, Kyouko-dono." He said rather unsurely, afraid of facing her in a real battle.

"Oh come on! Where's your spirit, Drest-san?" she said to him while punching him playfully on his arm, which made Drest winched a bit.

"Well, who's next?" Dolce said to the spectator.

"How about me?" A girl raised her arm. It was the blonde samurai, Isami. Realizing that his opponent was him, Drest felt a bit more worry than when about to face Kyouko or Kawara. Among all of the members he knew, she gave out a particularly different feeling. The reason was her statement she gave when he was about to join the guild.

"I am actually afraid to fight. I've never fight in my whole life."

That was not a lie. Her tone was serious and honest. Drest knew that.

"And…I failed to do just that not long ago."

It was a confession of her failure. But on her eyes was a glint of fire that showed her resolution to overcome that failure of hers. Drest was afraid that she would hurt herself in the process because of being blinded by that resolution of hers. With that fact in his head, he felt that she might use all of her ability in this mock fight and resulting in either hurting herself or her opponent– in this case is Drest.

But he had no way to reject the fight. It was his duty of a fellow member to give them enough real experience using their newly acquired body.

"Okay, Isami-san it is then!" Dolce said while clapping his hand twice, signaling that the next match will start soon. While the two fighters faced each other, Kyouko returned to her seat.

"Please don't hold back, Drest-san." She bowed to him.

"I won't, Isami-dono." He replied that with a bow of his own.

"Ready?" Dolce asked the two fighters. They both nodded while taking their stance. "Begin!"

Unlike the matches before, Drest was the one that initiated the first move. He charged forward while keeping his own body as low as possible. When he was only a few inches from her, he swiped her leg.

Trusting her reflex to make the decision, Isami jumped, avoiding his attack. With his first attack failed, Drest continued onto his next move and charged with his shoulder.

Isami managed to avoid that attack by jumping to her side. After avoiding two consecutive attacks, the two now faced each other again.

Refused to waste any more time, Drest charged forward again, this time with intention of delivering a combo of punch. Aware of his movement due to his stance, Isami prepared to defend herself.

Drest gave out the first punch which was aimed directly at her head. It was parried effortlessly by Isami.

The next strike was an elbow blow, which was also deflected by Isami to the side. With his two attacks failed, his third was launched in an instant with the added momentum of the deflection of the second attack. Isami ducked and counter with a kick aimed at his side. Fortunately for Drest, he managed to block that attack and throw her feet, making her slightly unbalanced.

Seeing that as a chance, he rushed forward again and continued his assault. Blow after blow came toward Isami who was only able to defend herself while countering his attack with a simple attack every now and then. The primary difference of the current battle with the ones before was that Drest was holding his role as an attacker as he continuously performing attack after attack. Another difference was that the two of them fight in silence, unlike the two matches before which had plenty of shout and battle cry. It was as if the two of them forgot how to make a sound because they were too busy focusing on the fight.

"Isn't Drest-san being much more aggressive than before?" Hisako whispered to Kyouko who sat near her.

"Yes, it is a bit…scary. Don't you think?" Kyouko said while wearing a rather worried face.

"Uhm, when you say it that way," Hisako paused a while and then shifted her sight at the fight in front of her. She looked at the black haired swashbuckler way of fight and continued her sentences. "He really is a bit scary right now."

Drest who usually looked calm now seemed to have nothing on his mind except fighting. With a cold and emotionless face, his move and his blow had become much sharper and much more difficult to be evaded.

Isami find it more and more difficult in trying to match his move. Fortunately, the body of an adventurer was much more accustomed to a fight than she thought, making it possible for her to dodge and evade his attack. But she knew inside her mind that it was just a matter of time that she would lose her concentration and his blow will hit her hard.

Just like Drest who kept his mouth shut from the start of the battle, Isami also did the same. But she knew her reason of not making a single sound from the start until that moment. It was fear.

It was her first time having a match with the new member of the guild. Although already witnessing two fights, she knew nothing of the black haired man style of fighting. It was very erratic and difficult to be predicted, not to mention sharp and precise. It was as if she was fighting a veteran fighter, not a fellow player who was trapped in an unknown world like her.

Unlike Isami who was thinking quite a lot, Drest completely left the idea of thinking and purely depended on his feeling. Just like that, his instinct kicked in and he immediately went into battle mode. His move, fluid and sharp, was beyond what he expected at first. The more he trusted his feeling, the sharper and deadlier his moves became.

"Ugh!" His hit made impact with Isami's small forearm. Because of that voice, Drest noticed something on her arm. Some parts of it had changed color to a purplish blue. Her arms were getting bruised by Drest's constant attack. Although she managed to avoid most of his attack, from time to time she was only able to block it using her arm.

"Ouch! Nice move, *****-nichan!"

(Huh!? What was that!?)

A single voice rung inside his mind and broke his concentration. As he pondered the source of that voice, he realized the error he made.

"Argh!" A wave of searing pain invaded his mind, making him unable to focus on the fight. But due to his decision of leaving it all to his instinct, his blow still continued, although they slowed down.

Noticing a change in her opponent's pace, Isami quickly evaded one of his blows, caught his arm, and put all of her weight on that arm to swing her opponent.

Unable to react because of the searing pain inside his head and also being caught in a surprise like that, Drest couldn't keep his balance and he was flung to the air. As his body was on the air, the pain kept coming into his head.

"GGARRRGGHHH!" The sound of his cry and also a loud slamming sound were made the moment his body slammed to the floor just like what Kawara experienced a few moments ago. But since his body was slightly bigger, the sound that was made was a bit louder. In a second, all of the wind inside his lung was forced out. The pain combination from the strange searing one inside his head and the one on his back was a bit too much for him that he was unable to open his eyes. He could only hear Dolce announced that the winner was Isami and also a loud cheering from the other member.

"Are you okay, Drest-san?" Even if he couldn't see at the moment, he knew that it was Soujirou's voice.

"F-Fine…." He struggled to let that word out. "I…hope."

"You're hurt?" Soujirou said with a worry visible on his face.

"…."Still trying to bear the searing pain, he could only shook his head a little. But that made the samurai looked worried more.

"Director?" Isami who was still trying to regain her breath walked near him.

"It's Drest." Soujirou said shortly while crouching down near Drest.

"W-What happened? Oh no." Isami's face darkened as she realized the possibility. "D-Did I hurt him?" She also crouched down near him.

"N-No, don't worry, I-Isami-dono." Drest said between the pulsing waves of pain inside his head. "J-Just…wait…" He requested with a barely audible voice.

For a few seconds, the two of them waited for him to do anything. This made the other member gathered near them too.

"Ah, finally." Feeling that the pain inside his head had subsided to a tolerable level, Drest opened his eyes.

"You okay, Drest-san?" Nazuna asked him.

"Much better now, Nazuna-dono." After saying that, he pushed his body upward into a sitting position. "Sorry for that, everyone." He said while bowing slightly.

"Are you really okay?" Isami asked him, worried that she might have hurt him.

"Ah, Isami-dono, please don't worry. Nice throw by the way." He flashed a smile while saying that. "Oh yes, could you please show me your arm."

"Huh? My arm?" Isami didn't understand why he asked that, but he still showed them to him. The bruises had gone and the color of her skin had almost gone back to normal.

At that, Drest let out a breath of relieve. "Oh, thank goodness you're okay."

"Eh? What happened?"

"It's your memory, isn't it?" Nazuna said without letting him answer Isami's question.

"His memory?" Soujirou asked with a confused look. But seconds later, his face changed, showing that he understood what she meant. All of the other members that had heard of his condition realized that and also shared the same expression with their guild master.

"So the reason you–"

"Yes, Isami-dono," said Drest while nodding slightly. "I lost my focus temporarily because my head hurt all of a sudden. It is because I was trying to search my memory." He rubbed the back of his head with an awkward smile on his face.

"And the trigger was me?" Isami asked while pointing to herself. At that Drest nodded. "Why?"

"I…honestly don't know. The bruises on your arm, they…reminded me of something." Drest said while trying not to think about it.

"Hey, don't you think that we might be able to help him gain his memories?" Olive who was silence all this time gave out her opinion.

"Oh, yes, yes. Nice one, Olive-chan." Dolce praised her. "So if we make Drest-san experience something related to his life, he might have his memory back, right?"

"Oh, that's a good idea!" Soujirou shouted in joy at the prospect of helping his comrade getting his memory. "Then all he has to do is spend his time with a lot of people, right?"

"Yes, Sou-chan, you're correct." Dolce nodded with a smile on his face.

"Then as a fellow guild member, let's help him too!" Soujirou announced his request to the whole member of the guild.

With the guild master's announcement, most of the member started to murmur to themselves. They were intrigued by the possibility of helping their newest member. But some of them still a bit terrified by their newest member show of strength and fighting capability.

Drest ignored all of them except the fact that he might regain his memory by interacting with others. If others were not limited to the adventurer then a certain person popped inside his mind.

He then looked to the far corner of the dojo to a single person, a girl with a short black hair wearing the outfit with the purpose of making her work easier. Her occupation is a housekeeper. It was none other than the girl she met sometimes ago who brought him the dougi, the People of The Land employed by the guild, Sara.