As if understanding my words, the lizardape monster snarls loudly, baring its ferocious teeth.
No companions around.
It must be certain there’s no need to search for me. It came looking for a pure one-on-one.
“Ah, but hang on a second.”
Then I have to respond accordingly.
“Transition: [Puppeteer]”
Hm?
I’m sure I chanted the symbol but the scenery hasn’t changed at all.
Ah, I see.
It was already activated long ago.
Then all I have to do is increase the multiplier.
I can attack as much as I want now. Because even if I die, no one else will. I don’t have to think about surviving.
Wait. Just a tiny bit. Like letting one drop trickle from a cup. I loosened up a little.
Here it comes.
My consciousness expands with a whoosh.
My head spins round and round. My vision flickers.
Thoughts pop up at random. Irrelevant memories keep flashing back.
Recent things and things from long ago surface then vanish, to the point I lose track of where I am.
Don’t break concentration. Calm down, no, don’t calm down.
Don’t stop your thinking from progressing. Don’t cut off the ideas that come to you. Grasp it all. Process all the information welling up one after another.
Even though my head’s already a mess, I intentionally make it even more chaotic. I don’t even think about pulling it together.
“Haah…”
I inhale.
Fwoosh, blowing to make my teeth chatter.
Spinning round and round. I’m intentionally accelerating the raging flow of emotion and information.
I’m dancing on the brink of my consciousness being severed.
Right now in this moment, it would be no surprise if everything went dark. But awareness has seeped through every part of my body, and I feel like I can move completely freely.
“Pfft…”
Whoops. I’m about to start laughing uncontrollably.
My knees are shaking. It’s been a while.
Now I understand. I was never really scared. I was sensitively detecting the looming danger.
This is warrior’s trembling.
My heightened senses extend through the hilt, conveying even the state of the sword blade’s tip.
I feel the air vibrating. It’s like my skin has become a drum membrane.
The lizardape monster is watching me.
I can see the movements of its eyeballs in sharp detail. I can even hear the gyrin sound of it moving. Waiting expectantly for me.
Sorry for the wait.
My intent gets through without speaking.
We recognized each other’s exaggerated preliminary motions as we closed in.
I didn’t have to allow it, but it’s an important first strike. I want to solidify my full power and strike as hard as I can.
First, one slash. Loosely gripping the hilt with both hands, extremely relaxing every muscle in my body.
In the instant I kick off the ground, exponentially increase elasticity. Like oscillating between whip and iron. Accelerating to the rhythm.
A brief time. And I grasp the point our pacing will become a common multiple. We agree to clash there.
At the moment nail and blade make contact, I concentrate the strength of my whole body into a crushing grip on the hilt.
I come down on it from above, it comes up at me from the right using the recoil of its legs and rotation of its hips.
The collision of strength against strength. Our motives differ. Neither of us considers receiving the blow. The clash of both forces results in us being greatly knocked back.
Blown away, I’m bewildered.
I roll along the ground clockwise.
I fiercely slap the ground with my right hand, forcibly converting that rotation into power to stand back up.
I face forward.
We stand back up almost simultaneously. There’s no sign of a second strike coming yet.
Then next comes that, right?
I jump sideways. The battlefield shifts to the forest. Lots of footholds in front, behind, left, right, and up and down. And since I’ll be fighting the opponent in its home turf, strategically I’m at a disadvantage both ways.
But advantage and disadvantage don’t relate that much to enjoyment.
If anything, compared to simple head-on collisions, this side has more fun using my head. Calling my brain enhancement an empty boast would be mistaken.
I remember the complexly intertwined branches, roots, and trunks of the trees. And of course predict the lizardape monster’s trajectory as well.
A single line naturally comes into view. The correct behavior I should follow.
I immediately stick to it. Jumping and jumping from tree to tree, accelerating more and more.
Here’s the collision. From here on considerations are out the window. If I can’t bounce back up after the impact, I’ll be shredded to pieces in an instant.
When we passed each other, the lizardape monster was the one with the idea.
It abandoned defense, lashing out both its long arms from two directions.
I’m purely on the defensive. All I can do is dodge. And dodging means releasing strength.
I pause in midair for an instant.
The situation is equal. I have to keep swinging my arms pretty much on instinct or they’ll be ripped off.
I match the lizardape monster’s barrage.
Don’t block. Evade. Hide in the back of the blade. Slip through the gaps of its slashes.
“Haha!”
I could die. This is crazy.
So fun.
Right as it swings a big blow, I time meeting it, converting the force to propulsion to get away from the spot.
I stand on a conveniently sized trunk.
I’m being pushed back. Still not enough. Raise it higher.
Accelerate my head. I forcibly suppress it crumbling away. I’m driven closer and closer to the brink. But there’s nothing to worry about. The only scary thing is this fight ending.
“Uh…haah!”
I can still go.
I jump again. And exchange slashes as we pass.
Immediately kicking off the trunk, I cut back and close in again.
My brain is working. It feels like fluid is splattering out. Memories surge in like a revolving lantern, flowing away again.
–It was fun, for sure.
Really. But.
“Damn annoying!”
No good. Even though it was fun. I wanted to keep it at just that.
We exchange another blow.
“What’s wrong with continual self-deprecation?”
A heavy strike comes through. The interval between collisions shortens every time I accelerate.
“It’s a habit! Saying stuff vaguely like that is easy and relaxing!”
Once the floodgates open it won’t stop pouring out.
“Sorry for being self-deprecating when I’m strong! I’ll be sure to properly shoulder that weakness relative to everyone’s pride, and fight with all my might!”
Ah, fun. The closer I’m driven to death, the more fired up I get.
That suits me more. If not risky, it’s not exciting. It has to be like this to be interesting.
I was mistaken. The essence of my enhancement art isn’t a single miracle. Rather, the opposite – the danger besides miracles.
“Leave me alone!”
I understand everything. The next instant I break through limits I thought impossible, and know the frail walls from the instant before weren’t worth being called limits.
“Not like anyone’s actually forcing me! But that’s how it feels, right!? You’d think I should shape up, right!? Don’t act all high and mighty, telling me to shut up and accept me and my creepy laugh and way of talking!”
The lizardape monster is perfectly keeping up with me. No, it’s trying to overtake me.
“Our species are different!”
I have to raise it too. I need more ideas. I want my brain to spin faster.
So I raise it. And recall again.
The drinks were delicious. I was the sort of idiot who only ordered one menu item because I had an unsophisticated palate, but now I’m fine with all kinds of flavors.
“I admired the bonds between people, but they weren’t all that great! Come on! Listening to them talk is painful! The conversations are never interesting at all!”
That’s not it. I don’t mean to mock them.
I was happy. So with a little success, I got the wrong idea.
That I could do things together with everyone, that I could do the same things as them.
They treated me so well. There’s nothing wrong with any of them. All I needed was courage and perseverance within myself. That’s surely something ordinary people can do. So.
“I envied the fortunate guys, the honest-hearted people. And then-“
But I did think it.
“It disgusted me.”
That’s how it was. All along.
“Sorry everyone. I seem to be different from you guys.”
The worst.
My emotions stagnate. My back hunches.
But this side suits my nature more.
I’ve gotten used to this speed too.
At last my consciousness returns under my control. Riding out all the frantic sensations, even sublimating them into an intoxication of omnipotence.
I can still go. I can overtake the lizardape monster. To do that, I need to drive it further into a corner. Die. Die more. Die even more.
At some point I’ve landed. There’s distance between us. And soon, we’ll clash again.
“Hehe…”
There’s nothing left to stop this wry laugh.
///
///
TL note :
That’s all for volume 2. Yes, the cliffhanger ending also made me rage a little. Volume 3 translation will start i̶f̶ t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ a̶r̶e̶ e̶n̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ d̶o̶n̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ . Hopefully, see you again soon!
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Thank you for the second volume!
It really ended abruptly but it kind of sticks. I mean, for the first time Vim said that he thinks without holding back. Although, his adrenaline addiction is getting extreme, add mysterious voice and Vim does look like asylum patient.