Duel

A space had formed in the city plaza, with a boy and a girl facing each other.

The onlookers had taken sufficient distance, but honestly Sei would have preferred to fight in the wilderness outside the city. This place was far too cramped to use large-scale offensive magic.

However, Akira had decided this location would be sufficient. Not because he had any particular strategy, but simply because it was too much trouble to go all the way outside the city. Sei didn't bother objecting. Wide-area offensive magic was one option against his Gift, but it wasn't the only one.

The crowd should have been cheering for Akira. But the reality was that there was almost no support, which reflected one aspect of his personality.

"Well then, I don't want to get all worked up over a woman, but I'll go easy on you."

Akira spoke with feigned confidence, but Mako, acting as referee, wasn't worried about Sei at all.

Together with Ria and Carla, the four of them had already identified the weakness of the Absolute Reflection Gift.

"If I lose, I'll honestly go back to Earth. But if I win… let's see…"

Casting a lustful gaze at Sei, Akira said:

"I'll have you keep me company for a night. The adult hard course."

Mako made a disgusted face, but Sei remained expressionless.

The abilities of Hero Akira. Sei had Identified all of them.

He had combat skills around level 5. And his magic skills, the ones suited for offense, were also around level 5.

However, to survive as a strong individual on this continent, those levels were far too low.

His base level was over 200, but speaking only of skill levels, the warrior and mage who seemed to be his subordinates were superior.

The reason Akira had still risen in level and stood at their apex was entirely due to the Absolute Reflection Gift.

Akira himself understood this.

That's why he had conducted considerable experiments regarding this Gift to verify its performance, and had considered attacks that might become weaknesses.

For instance, attacks he received when he wasn't activating his Gift.

When he was sleeping, for example. Or when he was completely off guard.

Even when poisoned, if he noticed, he could expel it from his body through reflection, but by the time he realized he'd been poisoned, he was often considerably weakened.

In fact, since being transported here, he'd been poisoned by someone he thought was an ally. It was fortunate that it wasn't an instant-kill poison.

That's why he'd been careful in selecting his companions.

A warrior who was a former knight and the embodiment of chivalric spirit. A mage who needed materials from the monsters Akira hunted.

He trusted these two for their noble character and mutual interests.

As for the rest of his entourage, he gathered simple, pure people who honestly admired Akira.

The reason there were no high-level individuals around him who might try to usurp Akira's position—that was why.

The story goes back to before Sei departed on his journey.

"There was a character in a famous light novel from Earth who used an ability like absolute reflection."

This was during the time he was planning countermeasures against the hero together with Mako, Ria, and Carla.

Mako didn't know about it, and Sei had only lightly read the manga adaptation, so there might be errors.

"Oh, did that character never lose? According to standard storytelling, they should somehow find a countermeasure and be defeated."

Ria asked with an interested tone. She was also from Earth, but there was a generational gap with Sei, so she didn't know that famous work. The novels she read were things like swordsman stories, or at most Yamada F*taro.

Perhaps that work didn't even exist on Ria's Earth.

"He lost. To the protagonist."

"How?"

"Well, the protagonist basically had no magic or special abilities, but possessed a kind of cheat ability that could erase any magic or special ability, so in the end he defeated him with bare fists."

Of course, Sei had no such special ability.

"There are spells and Gifts that can nullify skills and Gifts to some extent, but I've never heard of one that works against everything."

Not only the knowledgeable Carla, but even Ria, who possessed the knowledge of the Dark Dragon, had no such recollection.

"It's possible to overwrite or remove a Gift, but honestly it's difficult."

Since Gifts were granted by gods, overwriting or erasing them with a divine dragon's power wasn't impossible.

However, just as mixing milk into coffee is easy but separating it is difficult, neutralizing a Gift that had already settled into an individual required many times, even tens of times, more power.

Even so, it wasn't impossible for a divine dragon, but there was the matter of degree.

According to Ria, even with her power it would place a considerable burden on her, and would require the cooperation of the target. On top of that, it was troublesome.

If they went through all that to strip away the Gift, and then were attacked by a powerful enemy in their weakened state, they couldn't fight with their usual strength.

Even in wars in this world where there were multiple warriors with literally one-against-thousand power, there was a need to gather numbers for that very reason.

The pattern found in some Three Kingdoms stories where the armies' prized warriors engaged in single combat was quite common in this world.

Though in Ria's case, as overall commander, she apparently wasn't allowed to indulge in such hobbies.

The stage returns to the present.

Currently, Sei stood facing Akira. The distance between them was about 10 meters.

Mako was there as referee, but she planned to do nothing except signal the start.

This was an anything-goes duel, and the outcome would be decided by incapacitating the opponent.

"All right then, begin!"

Mako shouted loudly to start. Sei smoothly drew his katana, but Akira didn't even grasp the longsword at his waist.

"Let me tell you upfront, my Gift is called Absolute Reflection. I can reflect any attack back at the opponent, or into the surroundings. When I was attacked by a dragon I was immature, but now I could beat even a dragon by myself."

He conveniently blabbed about his own abilities, and Sei nodded at the content.

Probably even an adult dragon couldn't defeat Akira with this Gift. However, they shouldn't lose either.

Unless it was a really stupid dragon, they would understand that the opponent's ability specialized in defense, so they could just flee.

An ancient dragon could probably win. After all, they could normally use meteor shower-level magic. Honestly, even Sei and Mako together probably couldn't beat an ancient dragon.

Much less a divine dragon.

"A man who talks too much appears small-minded."

While saying this, Sei had silently closed in on Akira.

First, a light probe. He lightly thrust at Akira's shocked expression.

The impact returned from the katana to his arm. I see—the kinetic energy is physically reflected.

"That was close. What's the principle?"

Akira couldn't follow Sei's movements, but this was a special footwork technique from the old martial arts Ria had taught him.

It was often called shukuchi, or ground-shrinking, but the actual characteristic was in the weight transfer and footwork, allowing one to close distance with an opponent without preparatory movements.

"Normal attacks won't work, huh. Then how about magic?"

Sei directed the weakest offensive spell, fire arrow, at Akira. Honestly, at the hero's level, it probably couldn't even cause a burn.

The arrow that hit Akira's body surface bounced back accurately toward Sei.

Sei's attacks were weak enough in power to verify Akira's Gift.

In addition to various types of magic, even disorderly volleys from all directions and light-speed ray magic—Akira's Gift reflected them all.

The attacks from all directions scattered wildly into the surroundings, and the spectators fled in panic. As the space for combat expanded, Lavi set up a barrier to prevent casualties from the attacks.

"Isn't the woman over there stronger?"

"Who knows? If she fought seriously, I might lose."

Sei and Lavi's close combat skill levels were too different, but that limitation disappeared if she reverted to dragon form.

Dismissing such irrelevant thoughts from his mind, Sei continued his attacks.

About ten-something minutes later.

He had tried all legitimate methods of attack. And all of them had been neutralized.

Just as calculated.

"Hey now, is that it? I haven't done anything yet."

Indeed, he'd done nothing. Sei had simply been preparing the stage one-sidedly.

Yes, preparing. He hadn't been trying to defeat him.

"Well, your Gift is certainly powerful, and against low-intelligence monsters or insect-people, you'd be invincible."

Sei used magic with complete silent casting. A gruesome magic he didn't normally use.

Poison magic.

It was an assassination-oriented spell that activated toxins within the target's body. But that didn't mean it couldn't be used for attacks.

In fact, it worked well against small monsters.

"You bastard…"

Akira's face twisted for a moment, but the next instant he wore a confident expression.

The poison magic was returned.

Then the toxins in Sei's body activated. But Sei had level 10 poison resistance.

"This doesn't work either."

At Sei's composure, Akira's gaze sharpened, but this was still all according to plan.

"Poison magic, huh. I should have reflected it—why aren't you taking damage?"

"That's a secret."

Then Sei generated acid mist, sleep mist, and irritant mist around Akira.

Without a moment's delay they were returned, surrounding Sei with mist, which immediately dissipated.

Neither had taken even the slightest damage yet. But psychologically, Akira was the one being cornered.

Until now, his enemies had their own power reflected, gradually driven by impatience, and collapsed without understanding why. Among them had even been demons with sufficient intelligence.

However, no matter what enemy, they were powerless before Akira's Gift. In a direct fight, Akira was invincible. That's how it should be.

"… Well, guess I'll take the offensive a bit."

So saying, Akira relied on his ability-boosted explosive power to attack Sei.

The exchange began.

Sei's attacks had no effect at all, and Akira's attacks didn't hit Sei at all.

Still, Sei calmly continued attacking, and Akira continued his attacks that didn't connect.

No matter how much of a Gift he had, the skill gap was too great. Sei easily continued evading, but tried blocking Akira's sword once as a test.

Sei's body was blown away.

By Akira's attack plus the force of his own resistance against Akira's attack added together.

"Ha ha! How's that!? Reflection can be used like this too!"

"Yeah well, within my predictions. Meaning I just have to keep dodging your attacks."

The blown-away Sei lightly got up with momentum. There was slight damage to the bones and muscles of both arms, but they automatically healed.

"Don't like it. That attitude acting all relaxed—I'll turn it into a crying face!"

And then Akira's one-sided assault began again.

Even just defending caused damage. Meaning Sei had no choice but to keep dodging.

However, Akira, who continued attacking, also grew irritated at being continuously evaded. Having one's attacks anticipated creates accumulated mental fatigue.

"Damn it! Aren't you going to attack!?"

"I am attacking."

Sei attacked Akira with magic from all directions. But it was reflected and just bounced off the barrier Lavi had made.

He couldn't gauge his opponent's limits. Like the enemies Akira had faced before, now he himself was being driven by impatience. His available options were few, while his opponent seemed to still have plenty of room to spare.

In the first place, what was with the magic assaulting from all directions? Any ordinary mage would have run out of magic power long ago.

But separate from Akira's thoughts, Sei decided it was about time to make his move.

The ground disappeared from beneath Akira's feet.

It was the pitfall spell. Instantly losing his footing, Akira fell headfirst into the bottom of a pit over 20 meters deep.

"Damn it!"

He leapt out with magically-enhanced muscle power. Apparently there was no fall damage.

Akira, who was getting winded, glared at Sei with bloodshot eyes.

Just as he was about to slash at Sei with momentum, the ground suddenly became soft.

The swamp spell. A plain but effective magic that sealed an opponent's movement. However, when Akira had sunk to his ankles in mud, he apparently used reflection to launch his body diagonally.

Sei dodged the slashing attack from the leap, just as expected.

Next, Sei used another earth-type spell.

He extracted components from the mud. It became powder and drifted around Akira.

The fire arrow spell ignited that substance violently. Akira was surprised, but the flame attack was still reflected. However, this too was within Sei's expectations.

The real move was a bag of flour he'd taken out from his folder while blocking Akira's vision.

He used wind magic to fill the barrier with its contents. Of course, except for his own immediate area.

And a small spark caused a dust explosion.

"Damn… what the…"

An explosion not enough to even shake the barrier. Akira of course took no damage.

However, his stamina depletion was severe. Most of it was from swinging his sword and being continuously evaded, but his breathing was rougher than usual.

Was there some attack that couldn't be reflected? While Akira found the enemy before him eerie, he tried to regulate his breathing to stay calm.

But it was no good. His thoughts wouldn't come together. Mental magic? No, even that should be reflected by Akira's Gift.

"What did you do…"

"Can't you tell?"

Sei continued firing fireball spells from all directions to interrupt Akira's thoughts.

It was all meaningless before Akira's Gift.

But it was all calculated.

Akira felt his physical abilities rapidly declining.

His consciousness was hazy, and his body had no strength.

"Fu… ck… What the hell is happening…"

Completely uninjured, Akira desperately continued standing using his sword as a cane.

Against that, Sei used the flame storm spell as if to finish things.

This too was reflected by Akira's Gift.

But Akira had dropped to one knee.

Despite taking no damage at all, his whole body, his thoughts felt like they weren't his own.

Was he receiving some kind of attack? He couldn't even tell. Overwhelming fear.

Against that, Sei's relaxed attitude hadn't crumbled at all, but he wasn't being careless either.

If Akira just realized it, there was still a possibility the situation could change from here.

"Uh… ah…"

But, with his thinking ability diminished, Akira apparently never figured it out in the end.

After several rough breaths, he passed out and collapsed on the spot.