Chapter 110.2 (1/2)

Chapter 110 (Part 2)

One of the experiences Harold had acquired from his very thorough playthroughs of ‘Brave Hearts’ was to play by imposing himself a sort of handicap. This handicap consisted of composing the one’s party of only Liner, Colette, Francis and Hugo, who could all hardly use any magic or ranged attacks.

Since most of their techniques were close or mid-ranged, and given that their recovery spells were not sufficient to heal themselves, it was necessary for the player to be particularly precise with their defense and their coordination when using them together.

Back then, Harold had found it to be extremely arduous to use that combination of characters to fight against opponents such as the combo demon, Harold Stokes, the melee expert, Vincent, and the last boss, Justus, who fought by firing storms of highly powerful, long-ranged attacks.

That being said, it was thanks to that laborious playthrough that he knew. He knew they could not reach the current ‘Harold’.

More importantly, in the past, Harold had already prepared counter-measures in case the party were to become hostile towards him one day. Indeed, it was in preparation for such times that Harold had kept fighting all by himself against Sid and the others, as well as Isaac and his squad, for almost two months straight.

Of course, Liner and the rest of the party were much tougher opponents. Still, those days of training had undeniably helped him learn how to instantly tell when he should dodge or block while being attacked from every direction.

A long halberd came down and was easily dodged by Harold. The attack did not have enough power to destroy the ground upon landing, so there was no way it could have been a threat.

Hugo naturally tried to raise the halberd back up and fix his stance, but Harold used the power of that lift to kick himself off the halberd’s long handle and jump up, neatly avoiding the thrust of Francis’ weapon, who had been right behind him.

Harold’s jump pushed him three meters up in the sky, yet that did nothing to stop a fleet of arrows from coming for him immediately after. Only a few of those seemed like they could hit, and they were all blocked by his sword.

However, Harold soon found out this was only a distraction.

【”『Bolt Lance』!”]

The frontal attacks of the four’s combined efforts had been coming from every direction, blocking all of Harold’s escape routes. This left him with a single path of escape; jumping to the sky. But the only thing waiting for him there were Erica’s arrows. This barely but unavoidably diverted his attention, making it impossible for him to completely dodge the spell that was fired by Lifa through her own brand of magic, backed up by the power of science and Justus’ guidance.

This coordinated attack between the group of six was beyond what could be achieved in the game. It was a truly splendid display of cooperation. Or rather, it could have been, if Harold hadn’t already seen through it.

The truth of matter was that, while Harold had been dealing with the attacks of Liner and the others, the ones he had been the most wary of were Lifa and Erica, as they could both use very powerful spells.

Given the circumstances, he had already anticipated that Lifa would be the one dealing the finishing blow.

After all, the rest of the group had been in the middle of a chaotic fight against him, and they had all been standing 3 meters below him at the moment of the attack. As long as they were gathered together, using a large-scale spell that could reach the surroundings would be too difficult. Hence why Harold was daring to face them one by one.

Moreover, Harold knew that the power and speed of Erica’s arrows made them the ideal attack to restrain him from a distance. Having fought alongside Erica before, the rest of the group was surely well aware of that, too. Therefore, the optimal choice was clearly to let Erica restrain Harold, and let Lifa attack.

But Harold’s specialty was speed, so if Lifa was going to attack him with her magic, she would most likely have to pick her fastest spell, ‘Bolt Lance’.

Indeed, using that spell would be her best chance to land a hit. Although the attack was not powerful enough to defeat Harold in a single blow, it could still induce complete paralysis.

However, that spell happened to belong to the attribute Harold was the most proficient at using, the lightning attribute. By the time he had blocked the group of arrows aiming at him, he had been fully ready to fire that very same spell.

【”『Bolt Lance』“]

Harold fired his spell at almost the same time as Lifa, and her Bolt Lance was easily swallowed by his. As the two identical attacks cancelled each other out, they turned into a blinding light, more powerful then the light of the sun in the clear sky.

Everyone in the party reflexively looked away and closed their eyes. When they opened them back after a short moment of silence, they found Harold calmly standing there, without a single bruise on him.

【”…Is that all you’ve got?”]

Unlike what his words of disappointment seemed to imply, Harold had actually barely made it.

The only reason he had been been able to avoid taking any damage was that he had no intention to attack and was fully focused on dodging. This would have been a whole different story if he had been intending to defeat the whole party. Then again, the final decisive battle had never been closer, so injuring the party now was the last thing Harold wanted. He had to avoid that at all cost.

But considering the events that were coming, it would not be a good idea for Harold to let himself get injured either. If that was going to happen, then it was better for him to escape directly and ignore the bad blood between him and the party. However…

【”We’re not done yet!”]

Annoyed by Harold’s words, Liner rushed to him while shouting in anger.

Although Liner hadn’t really been injured, this battle was about avenging his parents. It was unfortunately very understandable for him to be angered upon being told “Is that’s all you’ve got?”.

Before the start of the battle, not everyone in the party had agreed to let the fight happen, so Harold had figured he could use that opportunity to say “Guys, how about we stop this and put this fight behind us?”.

But that did nothing to change their mind.

Well, it was a natural result since what actually came out of Harold’s mouth was “If you’re not going to fight, I’ll end this right here.”, which was more of a declaration of war than an offer of truce.

Even so, thanks to that mishap, Liner, whose biggest flaw was that he was too emotional, let his feelings get the better of him and did something very careless.

【”Aaaaaaah!”]

The power of his fire-sword had grown ever higher. As it came down and hit the ground, it called forth a raging flame.

What Liner had failed to realize was that his dash forward had left him with no one to cover his back.

Harold avoided the attack effortlessly, and in one smooth motion, he went behind Liner and hit him with the handle of his sword on the back of his head.

【”Ugh…!”]

Liner groaned but held his ground and did not fall down. Harold had intended to make him pass out in a single blow, but as expected of Liner, he was very resilient. Perhaps this was a pure manifestation of his determination to not be defeated.

Harold proceeded to stab his black sword into the ground, and then pressed the back of Liner, who was still staggering, with his left hand.

The next moment, there was a loud sound followed by a flash of light. Without uttering a single sound, Liner crumbled down to the ground.

【”Liner!”]

Colette ran up to him right after, and was soon followed by Hugo and Francis.

Colette and the others overlapped each other right in the place that Lifa and Erica had been aiming at.

Erica had been ready to fire her next arrow, but this had surely forced her to stay her hand. After all, even though she was a master of the bow, landing an arrow on Harold would be no simple task for her even under normal circumstances, as he was fast enough to easily avoid such attacks. Besides, Lifa, who was standing right next to her, was still not ready to fire her next spell.

After confirming that he would be safe on that front, Harold lightly lowered his body. As his posture suggested that he was about to leap at Colette, Francis and Hugo tried to step forward to protect her.

However, Harold was much faster. By the time they pushed their feet against the ground, Harold had already covered the distance that separated him from them.

【”Huh?”]

The one who let out an exclamation of surprise was Hugo. That was probably because he realized that Harold had suddenly switched targets to himself instead of Colette. Not only was Harold too fast to be followed by sight, but Hugo had also likely not thought for a second that he, of all the people present, would be picked as a target.

To him, this was basically a surprise attack.

Harold once again used the handle of his sword, but his time, he went for the chin. Even Hugo, with his strong armor of muscles, was powerless against this attack that quite literally shook his brain. His muscular body fell face-up, and he stopped moving.

The very next moment, before Francis could finally fix his stance, Harold kicked him in the abdomen, and then charged a bolt of electricity in his palm. This was a ‘Lightning palm’.