Chapter 27: The blade and the arrow

After a short breath, trying to breathe as much air as I could into my lungs, I also calmed down and looked around. The person who had strangled me, made me half dead, was now lying flat on the ground. I sat up, pulled the arrow from Kisei's foot, it was about 30cm long, the arrowhead was made of silver about 2cm long and 1cm wide and only as thin as a key. In addition, the arrow tip is still stuck with some strange green marks, maybe that is the solution that the person who shot the arrow soaked in the head. Suddenly I heard strange noises in the distance, constantly the sound of rustling trees growing louder.

Someone is coming this way!

Picking up my sword, I took a few steps back, paying close attention to the source of the sound. Someone just jumped down from a nearby tree, I got ready to fight, my left foot stepped forward, lowered my body, my sword landed close to the ground, even though it was called to prepare to fight, I kept having It feels more like a relaxed posture. But strangely, the person didn't rush over but slowly walked over, and it was Togabe.

Why doesn't he attack me? Or did he forget that the armistice had expired?

Is not! He certainly did not forget. Behind the man walking like an elegant gentleman is an invisible power that threatens everything around him, every step closer to me makes me feel chills. Finally he stopped at a place about 10 meters away from me and smiled.

—Perhaps I have underestimated the craftyness of the first year students.

Seemingly secretly praising me for discovering that he was the captain, I nodded wryly to thank him.

-So that...

He raised both hands.

-... if you dodge ten arrows, I will switch to melee combat.

Huh? It took me a long time to think and understand that this was a rather strange proposal. But if I can, I will definitely have a great advantage and win. Is not! Certainly not so simple, even if I really dodged those ten arrows, there was no certainty that Togabe-san would switch to close combat. As if reading my mind, Togabe just smiled.

-Haha. You don't need to worry that I'll turn over. I may be a specialist in tricks but I always keep my promise.

Although I still had many doubts, I reluctantly nodded to accept the challenge, but I had to fight him anyway. Taking ten steps back, Mr. Togabe pulled out a small knife from his hip bag.

-I will throw this knife up, as soon as it touches the ground our game begins.

I just nodded, then as I said, Togabe threw the knife high. It was very short, but the few strings when the knife was still in the air for me passed a long time, each of my nerves worked at full power, everything around them slowed down or rather no longer exist in my consciousness. Only me and Togabe and the knife were slowly falling down.

-Box.

Surely at that time I did not hear wrongly, the concentration completely made the five senses more sensitive than ever before, so much so that I could not hear any noise but only the sound of the knife hitting the ground. As fast as I could, I charged towards Togabe, the distance between the two shortened to only 1m in a second. The only thing I did was swing my sword and slash my brother Togabe. Died! It was the word that came to mind when I was about to slash, as always, whether I or the other opponents use weapons, we all have one thing in common, that is, not to attack dangerous places, or to cause inflicting heavy wounds or launching attacks that the opponent cannot avoid. But this time it was different, my speed was twice as fast, no, three times faster than usual and this slash could unfortunately take Togabe's life. Come to think of it, I'm creepy and trying to slow down my swing. But no longer keep up, all I can do is close my eyes. And when I had swung the sword to the left for a while, I opened my eyes, fortunately Togabe was no longer there. But instead of smiling happily, I should now worry more about myself because now Togabe jumped into the air and stretched the bowstring to shoot the first arrow.

-Pack!

The arrow left the bowstring, I swung the diagonal sword from the left and cut off the arrow. Togabe then used his magic to continue moving in the air, then pulled three arrows out of the bow case and shot them at the same time. If I continue forward, I'm not sure if I can block them, so I jump back to avoid them. That gave Togabe a chance to hide behind the trees.

-Huh!

Only then did I feel the consequences of such complete concentration. Eye sockets become throbbing, ears are buzzing, muscles also start protesting demanding rest. But it didn't work out, I still had to concentrate to be able to react to those unexpectedly fired arrows. However, since Togabe was hiding in the trees, I could not hear a sound.

Or do we burn all those trees with magic?

This is the gamble that I decided to put my faith in. If I do that, I will definitely consume my remaining magic power, but I can lure him into the open space in return. I took a deep breath, inserted the sword into the ground and poured magic power into the sword. The flames exploded on the blades, and when they touched the ground, they spread out in 3 quick directions to the nearby trees. Soon it was turned into a sea of ​​flames and made me run out of magic. But strangely, the entire area of ​​the fire was immediately extinguished after only 3 seconds when I drew my sword.

Are you kidding? Or is it because Togabe uses magic? No way, I don't feel any wind or magic.

-That's because you lack knowledge of barriers like this.

The arrow was fired right at the tree behind me, if I hadn't missed my fall, I'd probably have been hit. Turning up and turning around three times, I dodged the next two arrows. Thinking that Togabe would continue to stay in the trees and shoot arrows, I tried my best to run quickly and jump up to approach. Jumping towards me, Togabe used his magic to make me spin around like a ball, then kicked my back and fell down to gnaw the ground. But then immediately got up, evaded the flying arrow and stepped back about 10m.

-Seems like you're faster than I imagined.

There are two more, but then how to approach?

It caught my eye as soon as it glowed on Togabe's wrist. It is the bracelet that the captain wears. Swallowing my saliva, I gripped the sword tightly, then turned it backwards, leaned my left foot forward for a long distance to dodge the next arrow, and then thrust the sword towards Togabe. Taking advantage of when Togabe was leaning to evade, I rushed forward, sprawled my feet to kick his leg, but he jumped to avoid it.

Not all!

I immediately stood up, pulled out the sword that was now stabbed into the tree trunk, and jumped towards Mr. Togabe. Pulling out the last arrow from his scabbard, he used it to block my thrusting sword. Maybe I was wrong maybe, at that moment, I caught a glimpse of Togabe smiling. But unlike the sinister smiles like my previous rivals, this is a smile of interest. And if that's the case, maybe I have a reason to feel a little bit proud of myself. I immediately turned my sword around, Togabe turned to dodge and used his bow to circle me, then kicked my knees and made me crouch and pointed the arrow at my eyes with my arrow.

- Nice shot, but I'm afraid you have to stop here.

-Oh, really?

I raised my left hand, showing Mr. Togabe the fragment of what I had just broken. Yes, that was the fragment of the bracelet that rested in his hand.

-When.....

The thick surrounding mist suddenly disappeared, followed by a pale yellow magic circle appearing under our feet. Both of us were gradually covered by a strange blue light. And in the blink of an eye, I was standing on a large platform and in front of my eyes were hundreds of other students in the school, the huge door in the distance that helped me recognize the training room.

Did I come back here? But how?

While still in a daze, frozen for being inexplicably, the crowd suddenly cheered, clapped and shouted my name, Kaito, Rin and Togabe. Looking to the side, it was true that they were standing beside me and they also didn't understand what was happening like me.

- Congratulations to the four. You will be the representative students of our school.

-He?

This is the second time I've stepped in, the dark room with the light source is only small flames on a few candles lit up.

-Sorry for this hard habit of mine, I hope you guys understand.

Mr. Leo turned the chair towards us, because the light of the candle on that spot was almost nonexistent, except for his V-shaped chin, I could not see anything else.

-He, it's not daytime ...

Kaito muttered something, though he could not hear clearly but I guess he felt uncomfortable when he met his father.

-Now, let's get to the main job. You guys have months to prepare before the tournament starts, so during that time, instead of going to class as usual, you guys will follow Mr. Gaido to practice ....

-I'm going to interrupt.

-Hum?

-I want to practice on my own by hunting mid-range monsters outside the kingdom boundaries.

Togabe's words surprised the three of us and wondered if we heard wrong. It might be normal for a third-year student to hunt mid-range monsters, especially when Togabe is a genius. Now that I think about it, if it was a real battle, I wouldn't have a chance to win against him. Going back to the reason why we're so shocked is getting out of national boundaries. Kingdom boundaries are boundaries of the land outside the city that is managed by the kingdom. Those who live within this limit can freely enter the kingdom to trade and receive the kingdom's protection. But if one just needed to go beyond that boundary, the protective effect would not be there, but unless it was the person who held the highest position in the kingdom. In addition, if you go out there, you have to face all kinds of dangers.

-That's fine.

-Huh!?

The three of us, like humans in the clouds, didn't understand what just happened.

-You can go home now.

When I first arrived at the door, I suddenly remembered that I had something to ask, so I went back.

-Sorry, could you tell me why Mr. Togabe had broken the ring and why he was still able to go instead of Mr. Haya.

-Well, about that, you were fooled.

-He?

-Our true law is not the winning team will go but the remaining four people on the battlefield.

Permission to leave, I sighed, stretching and stretching the muscles that had been aching since the afternoon.

He was sitting there, the only place where the moonlight shone in this dark place. He tilted his head, rested his chin with his right hand, his feet resting on the small table in front of him and sipping a blood-red wine-like wine. He looked like a king enjoying his luxurious life.

-Dear Sir, all preparations are complete.

Running again was a man in a ragged cape and a hat with a closed head, so he couldn't see his face. The man knelt on one knee in front of him, his left hand in front of his chest looked like a butler talking to his master.

-Yes, well done. You back away.

-Yes.

As soon as the man left, he smiled, the savage smile that made everyone look at him would feel chills to the bone marrow.