The Duel (1)

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"Ow! What the hill!" I moaned as I clutched my nose. "What the living sounds of music was that for?!"

Elze shrugged. "No reason. You were just looking so self-satisfied, I felt like I had to hit you."

"You're not a tsundere, you're just an asshole!" I spat back. Then I raised my left hand with a thumb up. "I LIKE IT."

Elze dilated her nostrils and made some sort of engine-like noise from the back of her throat. Nghh rangrhang ranngg. Ah, such a bro. You were such a treasure, Elze.

Monika's eyes were still a little bit glazed. /"Player… that was… what the heck was that?! Last night was...? I should… I need to talk to Linze. Linze is Not Safe."/

I surely had nooo idea what she meant by that.

But I handed out the Bluetooth earbuds again to Linze, telling her that Monika wanted to supervise her for the day. Linze nodded and looked excited about it. A part of me envied their relationship of besties, based on respectful communication instead of punching each other in the face and laughing about it.

I flicked a finger and sent a stream of water up Elze's nose.

"Blargh!" She began sputtering and sneezing.

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It was a bright and fresh new day in Reflet.

We quickly finished registering Yae as an adventurer. While we were rich enough that we didn't need to go adventuring for a good long while, but just sitting around was why a lot of nobles were such useless shucks.

/"Isn't this at odds with your constant hankering for passive income?"/

"Nah, it's like you need first the ability to secure your own survival before you can look for improvement. It's like why permanently lifting yourself out of poverty tends to be a multi-generational effort – the first generation almost kill themselves from working just to allow their children to go to school, that generation having grown up in poverty do everything to save and scrimp and give their children better lives, and either they or the children after them make it big with a business or a trade… and then the ones who grow up in plenty don't appreciate the sacrifices involved to give them a good life and skack it up with their spoiled brat ways... hnngggh."

I stopped and gasped for breath to recover from the run-on sentence. "But nobility and the landed class don't usually have that problem of the rich second-or third-generation spending away all their hard-earned wealth and influence and just continue thinking they deserve to have everything for nothing."

Then I stopped flapping my hands about.

"That… sounds about right," Linze had to admit.

"Seeking strength is its own reward," Yae spoke up suddenly. "Nobles have a responsibility to their lord. It is their duty to raise arms in the service of their liege and fight in their name. Is that not the case here?"

"But so what if they're fast to call up troops? Does that make it okay for them to abuse commoners?" Elze interrupted with a scowl. "Not even wealthy merchants can't stop nobles from just taking whatever they want. Not all nobles are there to fight."

/"But an adventurer is free…"/ Monika murmured. /"Yae, you're correct, strength is its own reward."/

So we looked at the job board for something suitably challenging. The smile castle quest was still there. Elze saw my head tilt up towards it and repeated her veto. I could only laugh back and replied with how much I spent for the new armor clothing sure as heck I wouldn't want them to just be melted off by some slimes.

"… but we're not wearing armor clothes /now/…" Linze logically pointed out.

"I'm a frontliner too, you know? It's not just your clothes at risk. Do you really want to see me naked that much?"

While Linze blushed and indignantly puffed up her cheeks, Elze laughed and playfully punched my shoulder again. "Nice one. But don't bully Linze."

"N-no! I didn't mean it like that!" Linze squeaked.

I posed, tightening my biceps and standing one foot on tip-toe. "Ah, the tragedy of fiscal conservatism."

"I still want that duel you promised, Playa-dono."

Aw come on. Fiine.

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In the end we picked the quest that allowed us to fight a group of Tiger Bears in the nearby mountains. While technically it was reachable within the day the terrain meant we couldn't use horses or wagons. We would be paid twelve silver for our time. Considering that we were paid seven silver for almost two weeks off to deliver a letter that sounded fair.

While I technically would be able to reach the place inside an hour's semi-rocket flight, and Elze could [Boost] her way over in about an hour and a half carrying Linze on her back tree-jumping all the way, Yae had to run on her own. While Monika could [Amplify] her physical abilities, it felt like it would be rubbing in her inadequacy without magic.

So, we walked. I didn't even bother to cheat with reducing my apparent weight. Only with ambient air conditioning. We walked in a bubble that blew a sustaining cool breeze to make the march easier.

Elze vetoed the idea of spending a night out camping, but if just kept up the pace we might be able to reach it, find and kill the beasts, and make it back just in time for dinner.

We had no real need to tire ourselves out in a hurry. Walking teaches patience. Walking teaches humility. Walking forces every stupid powerful mages to keep in touch with their humanity.

"This is boring!" Elze shouted after about an hour of walking in silence. We were already far enough from the roads. "Well this personal magic user is fully in touch with her humanity and her humanity is telling her just walking is boring as heck and she'll have no more of it!"

I stopped and wheezed. "Really, Elze?" I then looked towards Linze. She didn't seem bothered, but then she looked away guiltily. "What, you too Linze?"

Yae spoke up stiffly "I must admit that I am dissatisfied with our pace too, Playa-dono. And I must say, that refusing to use magic to aid our travels for my sake… that is patronizing, that it is. It is almost insulting. Though warriors are born with two feet to walk, for this reason have we tamed horses. It is always permissible to speed one's journey – it is tactically relevant, that it is!"

"Oh. I see. Sorry."

Monika emerged from the projector cube Velcro-taped onto my shoulder. /"I told you so,"/ she said. She turned around then shrugged. /"Well, this was mainly a test for how long Yae would keep her temper before informing Player of his arrogance. As always, if it wasn't for Elze's unwillingness to put up with any of your shite, we'd have to put up with this little hike for a while longer."/

Yae blinked in sudden enlightenment. "I see. This is why Elze-dono has the veto powers, is it not?"

"Dang right!" Elze smugly replied.

"… why… um, if I may ask, why did you not command Playa-dono not to waste our… his… time? If… if Elze-dono had not spoken up, I would have endured. There is virtue in enduring."

/"It is not my place to tell any of you organics not to exercise your muscles."/

"… Organics now, Monika? Next we look you'd be calling us meatbags."

/"M-meat… ah!"/ Rather than the obvious Hk-47 joke I was expecting, Monika glanced at me and suddenly seemed to freeze. For a few moments she stood there unmoving, slowly her whole face turned red, and then she disappeared.

Monika, no. You're not allowed to pretend you're just an AI. You have memories of being an organic too, and you will be one again!

"Um. So… what do we do now?" Linze asked.

"Monika? Helloooo? Could we at least have a map, please?"

While Monika refused to reappear, she did project onto the air the minimap showing where we were and how far off from the mission area.

"While Monika could [Amplify] your own muscle power to equal Elze's [Boosts], I have the map. It would probably be faster if you just ride on my back like Linze would on Elze," I told Yae. "Um, no offense. This would just waste less time with making sure none of us gets lost."

"Or we could trade and let Linze ride on your back for a change!" Elze said with a cat-like grin.

"N-no! This is… I am fine with this. The usual please!" Linze eep'ed.

Yae nodded. "That is acceptable. It is simply efficient, I understand. The mission comes first. We must make haste, that we must."

So I crouched down slightly and with nary a hint of shyness or hesitation she took up a piggy-back ride on my shoulders, looping her legs to be supported by my arms. She secured her place by locking the inside of her knees around my thighs. As a samurai girl she was quite zen about things, huh? Far more than Elze's tomboyishness, she just didn't see a need to worry about the difference between men and women. Warriors should all be treated equally.

Squish. The feeling of her front pressed upon my back however, reminded me only of our differences.

"Huh. You're lighter than you look."

Elze sighed. "Playa, why are you so dumb?" She stood up with her sister already on her back. Both white-haired girls stared at Yae expectantly. "Yae… you're not mad?"

"I am waiting for permission. I choose to take it as a complement for now, that I will."

/"Do it!"/ Monika ordered in a very Palpatine-like manner.

Then her weight-supporting embrace around my neck tightened. "Hurgh. What is strangulations if not /a very specific kind of hug/ anyway?" I hissed out.

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And then we blasted off again.

"[JET BOOTSU!]"

"[BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!] [BOOST!]"

"I take it all back, I am not fine with this after aaaaaalllll...!" Linze wailed.

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We arrived at the mission area without much trouble. Yae didn't even offer a peep of fear as she rode me through our controlled crash and rebounds jump-jetting all over the place. She only complained that moving so fast and so high felt cold. She said understood now why I tried to cover myself up so completely. Somewhat disappointing that her placid acceptable was all the emotion all that violent action could provoke from her.

By comparison, Linze clung to a solid unmoving tree with her knees shaking and glared at her twin sister. Elze gave a helpless little guilty laugh. Umm. Linze was kinda fun to bully, wasn't she? Sorry, Linze.

The mountain area was a veritable sea of hostile red dots. But we couldn't just walk around randomly triggering encounters until we met the Tiger Bears. Monika's [Search] managed to identify the targets and path us a route that avoided other beasties.

In the end however, it seemed the Tiger Bears decided to meet us halfway and ambushed us, leaping from the cliffs. "What the heck, Monika! Are they attracted by your magic radar?!"

/"Possibly? Or just high magic in general. Magic beasts happen in areas of high magic concentrations. Maybe they like eating other creatures high magic to further grow?"/

We scattered as the Tiger Bears landed smoothly on all four feet. Then they stood up on their hind legs and roared.

They were massive beasts that looked like bears with striped tiger fur and large saber teeth, which as usual had me wondering about whatever adaptational pressures lead to these monster forms. For all that bears thick fur that gave then a deceptively cute roundness to them, that was a thickness that protected against attacks of fang and claws and blunt damage. The saber fangs were more puzzling, since they were meant to stab and hang onto the necks of things that were bigger than the smilodons in our world. Long enough to reach past a protective mat of thick fur or scales. So... did that mean there were even bigger things that these already effhuge Tiger Bears?!

The Tiger Bears had orange and black stripes rather than the spotted fur of saber-toothed tigers. However I did note that the stripes did actually blend well with the rocks and crevices of the mountain terrain. There were three of them.

"Allow me!" Yae spoke up suddenly and moved to stand in front.

"… um. Okay, I guess?"

And with only that, Yae ran out to fight all three Tiger Bears at once. They were twice as tall a man and weighed close to half a ton. Their reach was about the same as Yae and her sword. Their fur was thick and resistant to bites and strikes. I could see in their eyes a certain hateful cunning.

This world might have convenient magic, but also clearing land for use was much harder. Unlike Earth's forests where the wild animals, even predators, were skittish and would flee from pursuit… this world's beasts would attack whoever dared enter their territory.

Yae slit open their bellies with a perfect cross cut and spilled their entrails out onto the ground. Standing with their arms out like that was just asking for it. The third Tiger Bear that dropped back down to bite at her instead of clawing found her foot meeting its snout. As the monster yelped more in surprise than in pain, Yae flipped over to its back and stabbed down. The point of her sword went into its spine. Then Yae put all her weight onto the hilt and pushed her blade deeper into its neck and though the gap into the back of its skull.

The monster beast collapsed like a puppet with all its strings cut. Yae stood up and turned around, her long ponytail trailing an elegant arc behind her from the strong mountain breeze. The whole fight took less than ten seconds.

"Impressive."

Elze, wide-eyed, could only clap.

"Amazing, Miss Yae!" Linze cried out.

Then Yae looked towards me and said sweetly, with blood still dripping off her sword, "And now… we can sate our swords with no interruptions… Playa-dono."

Ahahaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh… Sure, I guess.

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So after snapping off the saber fangs of the Tiger Bears as proof of our mission success, and rolling the corpses off a ravine because while monster bear meat could actually be made palatable we had no time to let it naturally ferment.

It felt so wasteful. But at least we were doing something good for other people. Now it would be safer for other adventurers to come up to the mountain to look for herbs and such. While there wasn't a convenient health potion, there was a lot of practical alchemy to cure illnesses.

We found a nice open clearing for our duel. There was no time for me to ruminate on the possible mutagenic effects of magic.

"I have been looking forward to this, Playa-dono!" Yae brandished a wooden training sword at me with a small smile on her face.

"Well I can't say I have the same level of enthusiasm but I suppose a man who wants to get better at using his sword has got to go through a little assbeating in order to improve!" Wait the phrasing on that? Oh well. "Bring it on!" I retorted, pointing back with my training spear.

Unlike with Yae's duel with the Viscount, we didn't waste time trying to feel each other out. The first virtue is always speed! Whoever strikes first might not necessarily win, but at least they set the tempo! Just like in chess, white moves first and their choice of openings is what sets up the board. Just like in the workplace, timeliness and punctuality is a sign of respect!

If you can move fast enough, one hit is all you need! No defense, all offense! Kinetic energy equals mass times velocity squared!

Clack!

Clack! Clack! Clack!

Unfortunately, without the boost provided by magic, /of course/ Yae who had trained as a swordswoman from childhood and had years of practical experience would be faster than me. For this particular duel, Monika wasn't helping with any body [Amplification] or [Quick Time] assist and I chose not to use any magic to augment any of my abilities or in attack spells.

I managed to fend off her initial series of attacks. I couldn't identify any openings in her guard, so I lunged and stabbed at anywhere. Yae was frowning in concentration. Sparring meant that a light touch counted as a deadly hit, and so we traded hits here and there, pulling our strikes at the last moment.

Yae's placid expression tightened into a frown. We were getting nowhere fast. A naginata was traditionally the weapon of preference for Japanese women. She knew all about how to deal with spears or sword blades at the end of spears.

Yae leaned back and went into another flurry of blows. I managed to fully block half of them.

Unfortunately, I managed to do so with my face.

Fortunately, Yae was so over-conscious about not damaging my sight-granting headset, and my head was nicely protected by a steel helmet, so her sword could only really hit my cheeks. I disengaged and stepped back to rest on the short spear like it was a hiking staff. I worked my jaw from side to side, feeling as if I had the heck slapped out of me by an angry girlfriend.

"Ow."

"Yeah! Make him eat dirt!" Elze cheered from the sidelines. The others were sitting on a log, and Monika was projecting herself to sit beside Linze. She whispered something to Linze, who then shook her head.

Yae let out a frustrated sigh. "Playa-dono… you hold your training weapon like a toy. It has no life to it."

I nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, this is pretty unsatisfying. And that is why I asked the blacksmith to provide us with metal training blades."

I had already asked the Barral, owner of the Three Bears Weapon Shop for a blunt replica of my sword a few weeks back. He had less interest in carving out a wooden duplicate so I had to make do with a short spear.

Elze reached behind her seat, picked up and then approached us with the metal weapons. "You know, what even is the point of this? I thought you wanted to learn how to deal with fighting magic users?" she asked Yae. "What's the point of doing that if no one's using magic?"

"… Hey, I do also want to improve, you know? Sparring is supposed to help both sides," I put in. All considered, we had been in this world for a little under a month. It was still an absurd rate of improvement, you know?

Elze sniffed. "Well swordery is kinda irrelevant for a cheater like you, isn't it? It's just to show off."

"… Elze, someone like you has no room to say something like that to me."

She laughed shamelessly at my face as she handed over my blunt replica sword. "We don't really have time for things you can practice indoors. I kinda like seeing you show off now and then, you know? Try not to make it too boring for us watching. I mean, what else are we going to do here in a place where there's nothing we care about getting blown up?"

"Indeed, that is my wish, Playa-dono!" Yae said as Elze then handed her the iron training weapon. The swordswoman frowned slightly as she hefted the blade, for it wasn't a replica katana but more like a long saber with a katana hilt. It was the best Barral could do within an afternoon of work as we asked for yesterday. "I would like to face your powers as a magic swordsman!"

Her eyes still glittered with a sort of trusting eagerness. She expected a lot more from me than what I was ready to give. All that epic speechifying was backfiring from having people believe that we were vastly more competent than our ages implied.

"… right. Whatever that means..." I breathed. That didn't mean spells more like an artillerymage or Linze's niche. Wizards remained squishies that should be kept away from the front line. My ideal was not some long-range spellcaster, however. Bombardment spells were useless indoors and trying to rescue hostages.

I needed strength. But strength without precision was just wasted effort. There was a lot to learn from fighting to your weaknesses, for even when you choose to specialize at least you will learn what to avoid and how to mitigate damage.

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. And the worst that could possibly happen...

/"I'm still not [Amplifying] your strength or speed,"/ Monika reminded me. /"There will come a time when you can't just count on having me to round out the inefficiencies in your build. How do you plan to compensate for that with only your own magic power?"/

... Is to fail to protect ones I care about. When I am finally and inevitably /literally/ blind. Alone and shattered.

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AN: And that's it for this week's updates.