Boing, boing, boing.
“Ao, you’re back!”
“Your magic was amazing!”
“Horn can’t do magic like that yet.”
Shiro and the others were frolicking with Ao, and the adventuring duo watched them with obvious admiration.
“Wow… this slime is incredible. As expected of the martial arts tournament champion.”
“Right. Though I suppose it’s the nature of adventurers to want to fight strong opponents.”
Seeing Ao take down the wolves so effortlessly only fired them up even more. Ao, for her part, hadn’t even broken a sweat, so it was decided that the sparring match would begin. Since both adventurers were swordsmen types, Ao would fight in a swordsman style too—without using any offensive magic. Both sides would only enhance their physical abilities.
“All right, let’s begin!”
“““Go, Ao! Do your best!”””
At my signal, they stepped back, taking their positions with swords drawn. Ao held a wooden practice sword in her slime form.
Cheered on by the usual enthusiastic support from our little group, the three of them slowly move. Swords at the ready, they gradually narrowed the distance between each other.
“Hah!”
“Sei!”
In an instant, the two adventurers surged forward in perfect tandem, attacking Ao together. But Ao moved with calm precision, dodging their strikes and calmly parrying with her wooden practice sword. Time and again, they tried to strike her, but Ao didn’t even break a sweat. It was clear she was merely observing them, sizing them up, rather than committing herself fully.
Shu~
Tap. Tap.
““Ah!””
And just like that, the match was over.
Ao circled behind them in the blink of an eye and was gently tapped their legs with her wooden sword. The adventurers’ faces were a mix of shock and disbelief, but they immediately conceded defeat.
“Woah, she’s strong. No wonder she’s the champion. We thought we were pretty good, but we didn’t stand a chance.”
“Indeed. But it’s a good chance to witness the true strength of a martial arts tournament champion. Looks like we have a new goal to aim for.”
Though they had lost, the adventuring duo wore bright, genuine smiles.
From what I could tell, they clearly had the skill to make it through the preliminaries and even win the first round of the main tournament.Back in the carriage, the two of them continued discussing their impressions of the sparring match with Shiro acting as translator. It seemed everyone had benefited from the friendly duel—it had been a good experience for all of us.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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