Chapter 83

(Liner’s pov)

【”Damn it, I can’t see ahead…!”】

Unable to see even a few meters ahead, Liner cursed at the poor view that was hindered by both the night’s darkness and thick fog.
The previous day, he had dashed out from Bloche village around noon and had taken almost no breaks till he entered the fog valley. As for why he went there, it was due to a conversation he had overheard from two men who were sitting next to each other at a diner that Liner had gone to, due to having felt some hunger on the way.

『What was the deal with those suspicious people dressed all in black earlier?』
『Who knows? Still, they were going to pass through the fog valley apparently, that’s quite unusual at this time of the day. 』

Suspicious people dressed all in black. Upon hearing those keywords, Liner gave up on his meal, and as if flaring up at them, he forcefully asked the two men about those people.
Maybe due to how forcefully Liner asked them, the men were slightly shaken, but they still did answer his questions.

About an hour prior, just before sunset, they had seen two people dressed in black robes enter the fog valley; that was all the two men had to say.
The fog valley, as its name implied, was a valley shrouded by fog. There, even in the middle of the day, one’s field of vision would be limited to a few meters ahead. Obviously, after sunset, the valley was dominated by a complete darkness that even the light of the moon could not penetrate through, regardless of any fog. Moreover, it was a rocky peak which made it difficult to walk through. No one would ever go there at night.

After hearing that story, Liner immediately dashed out of the diner. Of course, he was heading towards the fog valley.
He had no solid proof, but, given the situation and timing of it happening, it was highly likely that those two people were the criminals Liner was looking for.
Thus, Liner recklessly rushed ahead and managed to turn up at the fog valley as the night’s veil of darkness was coming down, but due to the bad field of vision he had and the uneven ground, this was going to take him some time whether he liked it or not. With that, by the time the sun started to rise, Liner’s legs were slowing down due to the accumulated fatigue that came from having kept walking all throughout the night.

Feeling naturally tired, Liner sat down on a nearby rock to catch his breath.

While repeatedly taking deep breaths, Liner was thinking about just how long it would take him to catch up to the criminals.
Based on the talk Liner had with the two men in the diner, the pair of criminals had entered the fog valley one or two hours before him. So he had thought that if he hurried ahead and didn’t take any breaks, he would immediately catch up to them, yet even though he had been walking without any rest so far, he had not gotten a glimpse of anyone.
Therefore, Liner decided to lay down on the rock that was under him. If he did not get a small break soon, he would have no stamina left.

This was a very peaceful place; aside from Liner’s own disturbed respiration and heartbeat, there were no sounds to be heard.
As he inhaled the clear air of the early morning, Liner’s heart gradually calmed down. That was not limited to his heartbeat and respiration, for it also included some of his emotions, such as his anger and anxiety.
By no means did he start feeling like forgiving the people who stole the sword from him. However, he felt that the impatience he had been holding onto for a while had now declined, to some extent.

(Right, I don’t have to be impatient. I am definitely getting closer to them.)

Liner would sometimes be warned by his parents during his usual fencing training sessions about how he let the blood rush to his head too easily.
It was a bad habit that made him concentrate on one thing and ignore everything else around him. Thought it was not bad thing in a fair, one-on-one battle, it could make him expose a fatal gap in his defense when taking on multiple opponents at once.
Hence why his parents had instructed him to broaden his field of view, and for that purpose they were always telling him, over and over again, to keep his mind steady.
Clearly, keeping control over the mind was not a good field for Liner. However, that also meant that if he could overcome this weakness, he would be able to become stronger.
That was what Liner believed, therefore, whenever he felt his mind was excited or in disorder, he would engage in a spiritual training that he was not fond of, so as to calm his mind by his own will in order to be able to fight without any sort of hesitation weighing on his spirit.

Liner believed this was the right attitude to have. However, by nature, human beings had fortes and weak points, and one could not overcome them so easily.
Suddenly, Liner noticed his consciousness returning. This implied that, before he came to, his consciousness had actually faded away.
Liner felt like the sun was quite high up. He could not see the sky as it was obstructed by the thick fog, but he could still roughly tell the sun’s position thanks to the glimpses of light that somehow pierced through the fog. The sun, which was supposed to have merely started its rise a little while ago, was much higher than it should.

【”…. this is bad! I fell asleep for a moment there!”】

This was largely due to the fatigue Liner had accumulated. The clear air was not free of guilt either, as it lured Liner to sleep and allowed him to ignore the lack of comfort of his rocky bed.
However, the biggest reason was Liner’s total lack of control over his mind which got him to doze off whenever he tried too hard to calm down. Still, given how he was able to fall asleep in his current situation, it could at least not be denied that he had nerves of steel.

Liner jumped up with great vigor from his sleeping spot. Though he did not have any sense of time, from the surrounding air, he guessed, wishfully, that it was still around the early morning.
I’ve probably been asleep for only a few dozen minutes, and at the very worst, it shouldn’t have been more than an hour, right? Liner wondered. At any rate, he had taken an unexpectedly long break. It would have been bad if he didn’t get back to his pursuit immediately.
While seriously reflecting on his mistakes, Liner quickened his pace.
Still, he felt like his unexpected overstay was not a bad thing at all, even though this was just an after-thought. His body had rested for a moderate time, and although the night had already come to an end, it was still dim at that time, so his eyes had to get used to the darkness for him to be able to traverse the valley. But now, the sun had completely risen, and the only hindrance left was the thick fog, which made Liner feel like it was easy to walk forward. Actually, his field of view was still pretty narrow, but as it became brighter, he could rely on his sight more and more.

Then, a little while after resuming his pursuit, Liner finally found the people he was looking for.
He suppressed his impulse of dashing at them immediately, and he hid behind a rock to observe the situation. The fog was still pretty dense, but by concentrating his eyes, Liner managed to confirm that those people were a duo. However, he didn’t know whether they had the box that contained his treasured sword or not.
While being careful not to make any sound with his feet, Liner reduced the distance between him and the two people.
As for them, they did not show any signs of movement. They did not seem to be talking to each other either. Perhaps they were taking a break, just like Liner did.

(In that case, I might be able to take them by surprise and take back what’s mine.)

Liner concealedly adjusted his breathing. Then, the moment the state of his body and mind coincided, he rushed out of his hiding spot without any hesitation.
He immediately dashed at a speed that made him unable to feel the rocky ground beneath his feet. When there were only a few meters remaining between him and the enemies, they finally sensed his presence and started moving.
One of them was wielding a long spear, there was no mistaking that. Liner accelerated his pace even more.
He had the opportunity to make the first move.

(I’ve got to crush the distance between us and get close to the enemy with the long-ranged weapon!)

Liner faithfully applied his parents’ teachings and moved to attack at a distance from which the man with the spear could not use his weapon properly.
However, this was no ordinary opponent; he completely parried Liner’s surprise attack that could not be said to be perfect. He had used the solid shaft of his spear to catch the slash of Liner’s sword.
If Liner were to stop his attack here, he would be defeated. The battle from that night had been burned in Liner’s eyes, and he knew that the abilities of his current opponents were above his own. Moreover, they had the advantage in numbers.
Liner’s only real chance of winning was to settle things before the enemies could make use of their superior abilities. Hence, he went with a surprise attack.

Liner put all his weight into his sword so as to cut into the shaft of the enemy’s spear. The spear-wielder stayed his feet without warding off Liner’s power, and he changed his stance to face Liner in a contest of strength.
What Liner did was only natural. There was one other enemy to worry about, and if Liner could just take advantage of these few seconds, he would get to attack said enemy while he was was still defenseless. But before that, Liner had to render the spear wielder powerless.
Liner kept putting strength into his sword, and with his right leg, he kicked the spearhandle as hard as he could.
The spear suffered damage from Liner’s strength and from the spear wielder’s strength that came to counter it from the other side. Then, Liner’s kick had also struck there. As great force was accumulated on both of its sides, the spear broke in half.

Perhaps because he had not imagined this situation would happen, the opponent’s body was stiff. Liner did not overlook that chance, and he kept the uninterrupted flow of his right leg’s kick going right up to the man’s face.
The kick had lost almost all of its strength when it hit the spear. Liner could not expect any damages to be made.
However, the man who was kicked had slid his body to Liner’s left. Liner, on the other hand, fled to the right, to separate himself from the man. This was also aimed at taking some distance from the dual-sword wielder who was approaching from the left as well. The spear wielder staggered, and the speed of the dual-sword wielder was somewhat lowered as he had to change the direction he was heading at. So, he took a detour and charged once again.
This made the dual-sword wielder lose maybe less than a second. However, that was enough for Liner to prepare himself.

【”Dragon fire, Hiryu!”】

A crimson dragon manifested itself from the sword that Liner was wielding. It was a high temperature flame in the shape of a dragon, and it swallowed the dual-sword wielder whole…. or rather, that’s what seemed to have happened.

【”As expected, it’s not going to be that easy…”】

Jump; that was all the opponent did. However, that alone was enough for the dual-sword wielder to avoid the Dragon Fire at the last moment.
That dual-sword wielder was faster than Liner and could use many elaborate moves, too. Were he to approach, it would become almost impossible for Liner to defend himself.
Therefore, Liner did not let the opponent come near him, and he was fighting him from a distance. That was also why Liner had used the longest ranged attack that he could currently use. The truth was that, if possible, Liner had wanted to corner the enemy and to make him unable to fight with that blow.

In a fight, accounting for one’s distance from the enemy was extremely important. If someone fought at a distance that fit him, it could allow him to overcome a difference in abilities and it could be a deciding factor between victory and defeat in a battle.
Therefore, in order to crush all his opponents, Liner was trying to erase the advantages that both the spear wielder and the dual-sword wielder respectively had.

However, the reality did not fit Liner’s expectations. The opponent was able to avoid his dragon fire, and was now ready to retaliate.
He had made the other opponent’s spear unusable, but even so, if he was attacked head-on by the dual-sword wielder all by himself, it would still be a heavy load to bear for Liner.
Moreover, even now, the stolen sword was still in the hands of the enemies.
It was impossible to win for Liner.
But those chilling thoughts were drowned on the spot by him, who had a disproportionate smile on his face.

He recalled a day from five years ago. On that day, he suffered a complete defeat for the very first time in his life, excluding the bouts he had with his parents, it was someone close to his age at that.
He was extremely vexed. Thus, he had promised himself that he would absolutely get his revenge some day.
Since then, catching up to him, to his rival Harold, had always been Liner’s objective.

【”Compared to Harold, this guy’s speed is pretty slow! “】

In his fight with him five years ago, Liner had witnessed a much faster speed from Harold. Harold was also stronger than the dual-sword wielder.
In his mind, Liner pictured the image of Harold, the man he was constantly chasing after.
His next objective after this was to gain victory against Harold. So as to be on par with him, who was his rival and friend.

【”Am I going to be defeated here? Harold is going to ridicule me if that happens!”】

Five years had passed, and Harold had surely become stronger. How am I ever going to win against Harold if I can not defeat the enemy in front of me? Thought Liner, so as to encourage himself.
That was enough for Liner’s power to surge from deep within his body.
He was going to win, and get back his sword.
With such intentions in his eyes, Liner fearlessly confronted the opponent that was blocking the way in front of him. For now, he took a small breath, and shouted.

【”Let’s go!”】

Liner’s shout resounded all throughout the valley that was covered in a thick fog.

Translator’s note: Liner seems like a fine fella to me, what do you think? Pretty sure many people hate him, but try to give him a chance >< Next chapter we’ll be seeing the fight and the Harold of it all, do look forward to it! ?

Also, I’d like to thank Ornali and Deluxe for their recent pledges, thanks a lot for the support! ?  And naturally, thank you to every other Patron as well!

Anyway, have a wonderful day everyone ?