Chapter CLV - The Dragon Slayer (part 2)

He wiped the tears quickly with his right hand, and turned his sharp glare back to me. 

"And now, one year later! Our hero, finally shows up!!!"

ZRING!!

Cane pulled out his sword loudly and pointed it at me. His eyes are brimming with extreme hatred and hunger for vengeance. The sword was quite powerful, and I can sense that it was already enhanced the moment he held the handle.

"Do you remember… what you said at the carriage, Rize?"

The carriage…? Ah…

"You… asked me why I became a rank dweller. And you told me that I can become a higher rank, and rank up.

I ranked up so that I can protect people, to become a hero… to become more than what I am back then… to gain more.

And yet, here I am, at the top… with nothing! 

I have... Nothing, Rize!!

Don't you see the problem, here??"

Cane kept on shouting at me, but there is just something that I can't seem to understand from all of his blabbers.

…

He is... blaming this at me…?

"That day… if only you didn't tell me to rank up, if only we didn't meet you on that mission… All this! 

All of this… wouldn't have happened.

Gen and Brian would still be alive… And I probably will rank up into White rank at some point with them, right!?

And yet, I climbed the ladder! I became a Yellow ranked in no time, and had dangerous missions shoved to my ass, every... single... Day!!

I couldn't handle being alone during missions. They all said they wanted to come, and I did give it some thought. 

But I ended up inviting them anyway, and look where that ends up, Haha!!"

He laughed with his eyes wide open and crying… maniacally.

"They are all dead, Rize!! They're Dead!!! 

Why are you saying sorry to me!? Feel sorry for them!!"

Cane is shouting at me, but I simply stayed silent. He realized that I had been silent the whole time, so he quickly asked.

"Oh? Chickening out? Why are you so silent?"

"I... don't get it…"

I looked up to him with a confused expression, and I opened my eyes wide. 

With ease, he can tell that I am also enraged. A slight brim of the same intensity of insanity can be seen on my eyes, which immediately silenced him.

The air turned colder, and Cane immediately had a stumble with his heartbeat. His pressure was already released long ago when he started talking, but mine appeared just now. And comparing the two strengths… is laughable.

"Why are you… blaming me?"

I let out a little bit of pressure, and he bit his lips to focus.

"… That day… if only you didn't convince me to rank up, things wouldn't have gotten this way... I would have ranked up with everybody else!! Together, like real brothers would!!"

"And how many people can you save if you do that--"

"Fuck with people!!"

Seeing him like this really pains me. I was very similar to him just a few days ago. 

Eyes brimmed with insanity, heart aches so bad that you simply wanted to die… The feeling of wanting to remove simply everything that gets in your way.

But, he had something I didn't. 

The feeling of guilt.

He tried pushing the blame to someone else... and it is clear that he is pushing them to me. He couldn't handle living with the pain, and with the guilt being there, the direction of the insanity can go in any direction.

His insanity… His rage, it was directed away wrongly.

"I don't care about other people! I don't care about everybody else!! What's the point of saving everyone when you lose everything!!? Huh!??--"

"The point… is helping the weak--"

"Stop talking nonsense!! They are fucking dead because you told me to-"

"Because I told you to save people?"

"Yes!! Because you told me to-"

"Wouldn't that be what they wanted, as well?"

Those words made him choke and stopped. He stopped his sentence and completely boiled up. His eyes began to glint even brighter from hatred, and I know that I must have clicked a trigger by saying that line.

He lifted one finger, and his eyes grew so much sharper than it has ever been before.

"You… don't have… the right to talk about what they want. You don't even think of them as your friends."

"Unfortunately, I do. They are annoying, but they are fellow adventurers, and I do quite know them from just a single mission we had that time. So yes, I do count them as somewhat allies.

Ranking up the ladder, becoming a high ranking adventurer. Don't you think your friends aren't proud? They came with you to that death mission, don't you know why they want to do that?

Because they wanted to see how the great Cane did against powerful enemies. They wanted to stand next to you, to be with you. They wanted to be proud of who their friend really are--"

"No… Shut up!"

"… They are proud of who you are-"

"I said Shut Up!!"

VWOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He unleashed his full energy, and the ground around us shook heavily. The trees got pushed back and some even got knocked down. The whole forest became alerted from the heavy pressure he released just now.

It is indeed fitting of a White ranked adventurer… possibly even stronger. He is so much stronger than before, and I can see why he held the highest kill count of dragons.

Left alone… he is very dangerous.

Cane tried controlling his breath. He glared his eyes at me deeply, and it is now filled with bloodlust.

"They... would have wanted to live..."

"I know. That is exactly where you come in."

"Stop spouting riddles--"

"Why do you think they are dead, Cane…? What do you think is the main reason for their death?"

Cane opened his eyes wide at me again, showing me the full hatred inside of him that is very close to getting released.

Unfortunately for him…

"… Say… one more god damn--"

I am also… quite pissed off.

"They are dead… because of you."

ZRRIIIINNNNGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cane dashed forward with his sword and body enchanted with light magic. His movements became as fast as light, and he suddenly appeared behind me.

BAAARRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

The entire surrounding was completely devastated, but the destruction kept on going. 

Cane's speed was indeed incredible, but if there is only one person in this world who is much faster than him, that would be me.

FTANGG!!!!

BAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The fight could be heard even outside the forest, and explosions are occurring massively here and there. If only this was anywhere else, this fight alone could be a problem. Luckily the closest civilization is like ten kilometers away, so going this destructive should pose no issue.

Cane's pure speed was already a headache, but the firepower of his light magic is also quite stupid to ignore.

His sword destroyed my shadow sword ten times already in just a span of three seconds. And what's funnier, is that I know we both could have gone even faster.

Cane is still focusing his energy on strength, because he was so angry that he wanted to beat me by strength. Meanwhile, I just haven't truly given him my all.

After assessing his strength for a while, I became sure.

His strength… is too dangerous to be left alone.

If anyone else were to receive these kinds of blows… they would've been sliced like toast.

He swung his sword with all his might at high speed, but then an item stopped his sword from cutting me.

FWOOOSHHH!!!!!!!

The wind force followed the sword and removed all the trees within the sword's trajectory, while the sword itself was stopped by me.

Specifically, my two fingers.