Chapter 246
Our glances were drawn to Kilik, who was screaming and wailing――Felix, who was facing me, also did the same. Predicting each other’s next move, repeating slight movements to counteract the opposite.
Kilik and the current King were in front of the throne a few steps up the pedestal, and Felix was a little further away. The one closest to them is me――.
―― the next move has been decided.
Throwing away the FN P90 and jumping over the pedestal in a single bound――at the time I decided to use Shaft’s avatar, four Smith & Wesson E&E Tomahawks hidden inside the overcoat I was wearing. I grabbed the tomahawk in both hands in the air and aimed at Kilik’s collarbone.
“Lightning Drive.”
The next moment when the sound-collecting sensor caught Felix’s voice coming from behind, a flash of light ran across my field of vision, and Felix, with a light-speed movement skill, intercepted the powerful blow that would’ve cut Kilik vertically from his collarbone. He used his sword as a shield to block it while on one knee.
A katana with a beautiful blade pattern reminiscent of a thunder flash met the two black tomahawks. The first time he showed this light-speed skill was only a few minutes ago, a minute or two, and his light speed skill definitely had a cool down――a period of time before it could be used again.
“You move differently from that time.”
“Are you looking down on me, monster?”
By that time, right after chasing the phantom thief Nekoyanagi at the King’s Festival, I was attacked by six clowns, assassins from the clan Cactus. Felix saw my zombie face and attacked without question. Now that Felix’s speed-of-light movement skill is in cooldown, it’s the greatest opportunity.
“Your Majesty, escape aboveground. I’ll catch up soon.”
“Kilik, heal your wound later. Get deeper.”
We stopped on our track as we pushed each other as hard as we could. Now is the time to let the current King escape above ground. Even from Felix’s point of view, I guess it’s time to move the screaming Kilik to a safe place now that our weapons are locked with each other and our movement has stopped in a back-and-forth situation.
But, what did he mean by “Get deeper”? Looking at the map, there is only one small room behind the throne. Did he want Kilik to go there… is there something there?
“Leave this place to me.”
“Go ahead… Don’t worry!”
He must have recognized me as an ally. However, as a King, he may not easily say words of gratitude or apology. The current King stood up with his arms bound and staggered a little as he began to move toward the entrance to the throne room.
“Felix! Father is running away, kill him! If you don’t kill him immediately, the throne will never be ours!”
“Give it up. We must retreat. Get treated and wait for a better chance.”
“Th, that’s…. Kuuuuh! You are the “Black Mask Shaft”, aren’t you!? The frustration from you denying me my ambition… I will never forget it!!”
Kilik, who barked behind Felix, ran into the depths of the throne room with tears of pain in his eyes. Maybe it’s difficult to balance because he lost both hands, but he walked away with a more wobbly step than the current King.
Only me and Felix remained in the throne room. About two minutes after the battle began, Felix started to move first.
“Lightning Drive.”
Felix, who should have stiffened his movements with his strength, instantly disappeared from my sight as soon as he activated his skill――but I could already predict his movements. The skill activated by chanting Lightning Drive is not a completely invincible movement technique. Its weak point was already visible――even if you ignore your posture and move at the speed of light, the direction of movement is literally indicated by a band of light.
In addition, it seems that this <Skill> has a fixed movement distance or a movement limit distance. The target I was applying force to push and cut disappeared, and the moment the band of light ran, my vision followed it, and the tomahawk on my right flew to its final destination.
A loud, dull metallic sound resounded.
He’s a lucky guy――the Tomahawk flew to the position of Felix’s sword, which stopped it. The knocked-out Tomahawk pierced the ceiling of the throne room as I once again glared at Felix.
However, I will not relax my attack. For about two minutes until the cooldown of <Lightning Drive> ends, the short period when he can only avoid gunfire with martial arts is his biggest weak point.
Up to this point, he had used Lightning Drive for evasion and defense. I don’t know how far my CQC (Close-Quarters Combat) will be able to respond if the skill is used for offense. And if I’m caught off guard, it’s most likely instant decapitation.
I also roughly understood the movement distance of the Lightning Drive. I should maintain a sense of distance greater than the maximum movement distance, always attack from here, and not let him get me.
I threw the tomahawk I held in my left hand sideways――at the same time, I pulled out Five-seveN from the holster on my waist with my right hand.
The metallic sound resounded in the throne room with a clearer tone than before. It wasn’t a sudden collision, it was bounced off by technique――no, the tomahawk that bounced back flew straight toward me.
“Kuh――!”
I sent the crosshair toward the tomahawk with just a sensory aim, and almost unconsciously stopped suddenly――I realized that the tomahawk and the crosshair were perfectly aligned, and fired the trigger twice in rapid succession at almost the same time…
The first shot didn’t match the timing of the rotating tomahawk――the second hit the handle, and the tomahawk changed to a sharp angle and pierced the floor in front of me. But, my shooting didn’t stop. Five-seveN has 20 bullets. After firing two shots at Tomahawk, I slid the crosshair over Felix again and pulled the trigger.
Felix deflected a 5.7 x 28mm bullet with his sword while moving sideways, bending his upper body to dodge, and swinging his sword as if scooping it up again. Regardless of whether he was looking at the bullet that flew in, or where the muzzle was pointing, Felix foresaw the trajectory and dodged it, even though I was aiming at the center of his body.
Then――
Hiding my left hand inside my overcoat, I summoned the M84 Flashbang and Smoke Grenade again. I flicked the pin away with my finger and threw it away as soon as I took it out.
The Five-seveN’s crosshairs were still overlapping with Felix. I fired three times as follow-ups to the two types of special grenades. However, Felix doesn’t seem to have any intention of waiting for <Lightning Drive> cooldown to be on the defensive.
Felix took a step forward and repelled a 5.7x28mm bullet, stabbing his sword into the floor and spinning around it like a top to dodge the second and third bullets, and at the same time, he kicked away the two grenades.
“Sword Draw – Shiden Issen!” (TL Note: Purple Lightning Flash)
At the moment when he landed smoothly from the spinning top move, he seemed to have sheathed his sword at the same time and chanted the Skill name. His figure faded. Felix moves so fast that he couldn’t be seen――
“Kuh――!”
I couldn’t read his movement!
I immediately deployed the Circle Barrier Shield with just my intuition while bracing myself to protect my body.
A flash of light pierced right beside me, wiping out about 30% of CBS’s durability with a single blow. A special grenade that was kicked a little further away exploded, and an explosive sound, a dazzling flash, and a smoke screen began to spread in the throne room.
Felix should be behind me now. I turned 180 degrees to follow him and prepared the Five-seveN――
“This is the end.”
When I turned around, Felix was standing behind me, readying his sword at exactly a one-sword distance away from me.
I used the Five-seveN as a shield to dampen the momentum of the sword that was swung down. But there was no way I could block this blow with a handgun. Five-seveN was cut in two, while I pulled back to dodge――but the tip of the sword still grazed the Kevlar mask.
Felix, who should have passed through, shouldn’t be there anymore. Right after running right beside me with Shiden Issen, did he activate Lightning Drive and come back behind me?
A coordinated attack using a skill that I, a non-human of this world, cannot learn――I can’t let this flow continue. While pulling back my upper body, I put strength into my lower body――I was able to dodge a direct hit while losing my balance with a sudden backward slide jump.
However, as the distance increases, the Kevlar mask was cut and torn, revealing the true face of Schwartz instead of a zombie’s face.
It was only for a moment, but my gaze overlapped with Felix in front of me――my body jumped backwards and jumped into the smoke screen that spewed out from the smoke grenade.
“It’s not the ugly face you used to have, is that your real face?”
Felix’s voice echoes through the smokescreen. Is he wary of the smokescreen, or is he just waiting for me to pop out? I switched to FLIR (infrared thermography) mode to confirm Felix’s heat source.
“……Are you not going to answer?”
No chance. If I answer, it’s like telling him where I’m hiding in a smoke screen. About a minute left until the smokescreen disappears… In this stalemate, the battle will be decided.
Activating TSS with my thoughts, I selected the support weapon section and summoned it. What I intended to call were two heavy machine guns and remote-controlled sentry guns. Quickly scrolling through the SHOP, I purchased and summoned the firearms immediately.
Two GE M134 Miniguns were summoned in both arms akimbo. No matter how much Felix swung his sword, there was no way Felix would be able to repel the barrage shot by these two electric Gatling guns, which fired 4,000 rounds at 100 rounds per second. There’s no way he can keep dodging. Not to mention the two Sentry Guns.
I have to defeat this man when I can, even if I have to take the chance to face him one-on-one in this confined space――
I adjusted my crosshair to the heat source that showed Felix standing still beyond the smokescreen――but Felix’s surroundings began to blur.
The area near the ceiling of the throne room rapidly turned blue, indicating a low-temperature state, and red streaks rising from the floor area, indicating a high temperature, increased in number, and began to swirl around Felix. .
The Minigun began to rotate, and a roaring electric sound echoed through the smokescreen. As if to counter it, thunder began to roar from around Felix. At the same time, Felix, who had been visible until then, was hidden by a vortex of cold and hot temperatures.
“Roaring Thunder Invitation――Divine Sword manifestation――”
A roar of thunder resounded like a dragon’s roar, and the area beyond the smokescreen was enveloped in high temperatures. This is bad. This attack is bad news. Felix may have felt the same way as we faced each other in a stalemate inside this confined space.
“Sword Draw――Thunder God Dragon Kanna Kamui!”
Relying on a voice faintly heard beyond the thundering smokescreen, I aimed my crosshair and sentry gun and started firing. As time passed, the smoke screen disappeared, and at the same time, two Miniguns and two Sentry Guns fired, as the jaws of a giant thunder dragon approached me.
“Uwooooooo!!”
Normally, I need to hold the Minigun with both hands, but I only used one hand to forcefully control the recoil and fire at Felix, who was supposed to be ahead of the thunder dragon. Circling fire from two sentry guns from the left and right.
Even if the smoke screen cleared, the scene was shrouded in lightning and nothing could be seen. Even with the light shielding function activated, I couldn’t see beyond the flash of light.
Adjusting my aim by relying on the expansion and vibration of the crosshair when the bullet hits, at the same time I deployed CBS in front of me with my will――However, the shape of the deployment is distorted into an oval shape that hides the center of my body.
CBS took in all the attacks, including attacks from the user themselves. Unless I do this, the 4000 bullets fired from the minigun won’t reach Felix.
However, there was no way the bullets could defeat the incarnation of the approaching Thunder Dragon. Not only my vision, but my hearing was disturbed by the thunderous thunderclap. And then, I was swallowed by the thunder dragon’s jaws.