Maseki Gurume - 027a (Patreon)

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First Real Battle

Dark Knight was a unique skill, a unique job of a Dullahan.

Despite them being monsters, they were able to have interactions with people, and they were also a belligerent race who loved to fight.

The cause of their extinction can be said to be their mode of birth. They can’t reproduce as normal monsters can. The Dullahan species can be born purely by evolution.

That's why, when a Dullahan was born, they were without exception powerful and dangerous existences.

In the past, it is said that the Demon King subjugated in Ishtalika had two aides, one of whom was a Dullahan.

If you fight them, you should never take them on a one-vs-one.

If you fight them, you should never take them at a close range.

No one would stand a chance in close combat. That was the monster that earned the great trust from the Demon King, the Dullahan.

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"I know this is just your job. But that doesn’t mean your opponent can just take your words."

"Did you say something, brat? ……If you have time to complain, then……come……at."

Ain had yet to fully utilize the Dark Knight's abilities.

The only thing he was able to use right now was the "phantom hand". One of the basic skills for a Dark Knight. Just like a Dryad was born able to use Absorb, so was the "Phantom Hand" to a Dark Knight.

The third arm was activated with the use of magic. Or rather, it worked by 'feeding' magic into it, instead of just 'using' magic.

This made the strength of one of these hands adjustable by changing the amount of magic you fed it, similar to a magic-eating insect.

It could become as strong and hard as you wanted, and if you fed it magic while angry, you could achieve endless strength.

Ain knew he shouldn’t make a big show of it. He just wanted to threaten the instructor and make him eat his words.

Thus, the Dark Knight's skill that was not supposed to be used, was activated.

"Hey, brat, what are you doing!? "

The magic power listed in the stats of an untrained human would be basically around 200, and 500 for a fully-fledged mage.

Ain, on the other hand, had over 2,500 in magic power, more than 5 times that amount.

Seeing the black aura emanating from Ain, the examiner asked him what he was doing. However, Ain didn’t respond.

"If I knew something like this would happen, I should've checked the power beforehand. Well, I guess little by little should be fine."

And thus, Ain fed it about 200 magic power.

There's no need to use more magic power after feeding it. One didn’t need to use more until the Phantom Hand was destroyed or it had exhausted the power poured into it.

And so, after feeding it magic power, he made the Phantom Hands appear.

Despite them looking like black tentacles, they were muscular arms that gave off an intimidating feeling.

He didn’t plan on using the "Dark Straw", and although he never tried it before, he made two of them from around his shoulder blades.

The phantom hands that appeared were about 1.5m in length. Ain was slightly looking forward to how strong one of these arms would be, having the magic of one ordinary person.

"Wh-What is that……!? Hey, what are you-!? "

"I'm not sending flames so it's fine, isn’t it? "

"I’m telling you to explain! "

"There's no such rule. If you're scared and you want me to stop, you can always forfeit, you know? "

Bickering back. This was not something necessary to do for taking the examination.

However, Ain decided he was no longer put up with it, so he was more stubborn than usual.

"……Hahaha! I see you're still cheeky, well, it doesn’t matter if I don’t know what skill it is. If you could get stronger just because you have more arms, then insects would be stronger than you……Right!? "

After finishing saying so, the examiner dashed towards Ain.

Putting more effort than before, the examiner used that gap to break into Ain's range at an accelerated speed and swung his sword towards Ain's head.

" !? It's quite the dexterous arm! Tch! "

Using one of the Phantom Hands, he held down the wooden sword the examiner swung.

Ain still had three hands left to use. This time, using his own arms, Ain took a swing toward the examiner.

"Hmm! Despite having more arms, you're a troublesome opponent."

From the beginning he already noticed, the examiner was strong. Or at the very least, stronger than the castle knights he always sparred with.

He dexterously guarded Ain's attack using the armguard.

"That's not what you said before. Haa!! "

He tried to hit the examiner with the other Phantom Hand aiming at his torso, but his opponent curled up his body and Ain wasn’t able to get a clean hit because he guarded with his arms.

"Guuh……Nuh. Isn’t it a bit too hard!? Damn it! "

The Phantom Hands were created with 200 magical power. It was powerful enough for a strong person like the examiner to take damage, even while guarding. However, Ain thought that he still needed a bit more power.

"No. A bit more, this isn’t enough."

The examiner then thought after hearing those words: More what? What are you talking about?

From among the examiners, Ain's first attack was enough for him to pass.

And then, Ain put more magic power into it. Let's just go with double, he thought. Thus, he added 200 more magic power.

With this, the magic power used in the two Phantom hands had now doubled.

"(What the heck is this? Maybe because it's strengthened, but the arms are pulsating with a blueish glow, and they seem like blood vessels will pop……!)"

After making a motion as if absorbing, the Phantom Hands became a tone darker.

"This time is my turn."

Ain then dashed towards the examiner who had now made some distance.

Ain was by no means agile.

Rather, his agility was lower than the castle knights.

And usually, Dark Knights fought using skills and body reinforcement, so their agility originally low.

"You use some strange skills, but it helps me your movements are still slow......fuu! "

The sword that Ain wielded with both hands was easily parried. However, with his sword swung down with both arms, Ain forced the examiner to put strength into his waist and parry the sword with both arms.

"Are you sure this is fine? "

For a moment, the examiner looked scared as he saw the black arm coming out from behind him. The black arm began to move the moment the examiner guarded Ain's attack.

But even in such a critical situation, the examiner managed to rotate his body and tried to guard against it using the sword as a shield. From a third party's point of view, the movements and reaction time of the examiner could be called nothing less than superhuman.

Still, the strengthened black arm of the Dark Knight didn’t care about guards.

After an audible cracking from his equipment, the examiner was blown back a few meters.

Ain's Phantom Hand feigned an attack for a moment, and that's when the other one attacked. He made a bluff.

Still, the examiner moved and managed to defend from that feint. Ain felt amazed by the examiner's movements.

Shortly after, the blown away examiner stood up and looked at Ain.

"Haa……Haa……What the hell was that? This is the first time I've seen a kid like you."

"I'm honored to hear that. Alright, let's continue."

"Are you dumb? It was my loss, in the first place it's unprecedented for an examiner to lose in an entrance exam...... You've passed."

Right at the end of the battle, Ain had already forgotten he was taking an entrance exam. At the same time, he regretted using Dark Knight and also his attitude towards the examiner.

"I apologize for my bad attitude during the exam."

So, for now, he decided it was best to apologize. He couldn’t forgive him for insulting his mother, but he knew he only said that for the sake of the exam.

"Same here. Geez, even though there are still test left, I guess I'll have to ask for a substitute. You've passed, after completing the procedure, you can go home."

He passed the entrance exam to the Royal Kingsland Academy, which was his purpose. He did it, but he never expected he would be using the Phantom Hand, so Ain's body felt tired.

"O-Okay. Well then, thank you for the test."

After it was over, the adrenaline due to excessive anger and pumping himself up left his body like a wave.

All that remained was pure tiredness and a bit of regret for the fuss he caused.

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