Gluttony Demon King with the Swampman ~A Man with No Magic Power Who Dreamed of Magic, Wielding Knowledge from His Past Life Through Steady Research and Hard Work to Become the Most Vicious Final Boss~ - Chapter 15: Lessons from a Killer

Chapter 15: Lessons from a Killer

“Rise up, awaken, o thunder! And die!”

This attack was a magic bullet barrage—Countless bullets of lightning poured down in a curtain of thunder.

Kujack closed the distance by overlapping himself with the barrage, his wave after wave of attacks utterly relentless.

“Swirl back.”

I handled the magic bullets with ink—But once it came to this, there wasn’t enough ink left over to trigger Ricochet Seal Pinball.

I tried to meet the sweeping sword flash with my own blade, but I was blown away. The tip of his sword carved a shallow line across my shoulder.

A piercing pain shot through me, and blood sprayed into the air.

“—っ! Haro!”

“No problem.”

I answered Zaria’s cry like that.
In truth, everything was a problem, but right now I had no choice except to say it was fine. The two of us had run out of magic power; there was nothing more we could do.

Man, the pain was intense.

A moment later came a powerful numbness. Probably lightning magic enchanted into his longsword. That was extremely troublesome too.

The chain of numbness slid from my shoulder down to my toes, and my legs froze just as I tried to stand. Then came the follow-up sword strike swinging down.

I blocked it imperfectly with the sword in my right hand.

My body was sent tumbling again like I’d been shot out of a cannon.

“Oh, I see now!”

Kujack chased after my flying body and spoke with a villainous grin.

“Kid, your right arm is no good!”

“…”

“Is it a congenital disability or paralysis from some injury? I don’t know which, but the movement is bad anyway! You can’t overwork it! Yet your left hand is absolutely necessary for magic control, so you have no choice but to hold the sword in your right… That’s how it is, isn’t it!”

He figured it out just from crossing blades.
As expected from a veteran.

“Then it’s checkmate! I’ll just keep aiming only at that right side until the arm stops moving completely!”

And his personality is rotten too.

Yeah, this guy is strong.

From that point on, it was nothing but defense on my side.

The opponent was a master swordsman. Once he read the habits of my attacks, it became hard even to create a single opening. I somehow managed to deflect the lightning magic with ink, but my options for stopping his sword strikes were meager.

We clashed over and over.

I bounced around like a bullet, launched attacks, only for him to beautifully dodge and counter, then our swords met again and were repelled. Yet I was at a disadvantage in every possible way.

Above all, he had seen through the weakness of my right hand.

Every time the sword in my right met his, pain and numbness showed on my face.

“It’s going numb, isn’t it! I wonder how long you can keep holding that sword—quite the spectacle!”

“…That’s pretty childish. Chain Crown Chainsaw.”

Kujack swung his sword with obvious enjoyment and fired lightning magic.

I slashed back in something like a counter—

“Too sweet! Of course I can dodge spellcasting once the trick is known!”

He easily sidestepped the Chain Crown Chainsaw I released and kicked my right arm that I had raised in defense.

“—っ! Ricochet Seal Pinball!”

I rolled across the ground.

Facing Kujack closing in at a speed no human should have, I stepped on the black-ink magic circle drawn on the ground and retreated further.

But at that moment, Zaria gasped behind me.

“H-Haro! Your arm—won’t—lift—up—!”

—Indeed, I realized a beat late.

The right arm I had ordered to take a defensive stance wasn’t moving as commanded.

Right in front of me came a barrage of lightning magic and Kujack with sword raised, attacking at the same time.

“Swirl back—!”

I poured every last drop of ink I had into neutralizing the magic bullets.

Yet right after that, Kujack sliced through the veil of black water and stepped inside my guard.

“So your right arm is finally broken! Then this time for sure—die!”

Kujack shouted with a huge smile across his whole face.

Facing the mercilessly swinging flash of Kujack’s sword—I snapped the knuckles of my left hand—crack.

To speak of the result first: Kujack’s sword flash did not cut me.

But that wasn’t because I defended, nor because Zaria or Noiche came to help.

It was simply because Kujack’s right shoulder—nerves and all—was sliced clean through.

“—Huh?”

As if stunned, the man let out a stupid-sounding voice.

The longsword he had been gripping fell from his hand, and the now-powerless right arm simply hung limp.

Behind him, a blade of water spinning with a shrill, ultra-high-frequency screech had just finished carving neatly from his shoulder to his heart.

“Ah… ahh… aaaaaaaaaaah…!?”

A scream, a howl, one beat late.

Pain like hell itself—meat, bone, organs all thrown into a blender and shredded to pieces. When that shock finally reached his brain, Kujack’s body arched backward in violent convulsions, collapsed to the ground, wailed, and thrashed about.

He looked up at me with eyes that couldn’t believe what they were seeing, so I answered as if suddenly remembering.

“That was Chain Crown Chainsaw. Sorry, I forgot the incantation.”

“F-forgot… you forgot the incantation!?”

“No need for chanting or even the spell name. The only signal is this.”

I snapped my knuckles again—crack—for him to see.

All the triggers for ink-based magic are naturally woven into ordinary everyday movements.

So chanting was never necessary in the first place.

“Your left hand is essential for magic control, so you have no choice but to hold the sword in your right—exactly as you guessed. Why are you so shocked?”

“Guh… uuu…!?”

…Well, since I had been loudly chanting “Chain Crown Chainsaw” and “Ricochet Seal Pinball” and “Swirl back” over and over, it was understandable he misunderstood.

When he said things like “Of course I can dodge spellcasting once the trick is known,” I was already pretty confident this bluff would work.

One more detail: the Ricochet Seal Pinball I set up is programmed to return to me after use.

So when I stepped on the Ricochet Seal Pinball to escape, as Kujack chased after me, behind his back the returning Ricochet Seal Pinball transformed into Chain Crown Chainsaw.

Then the Chain Crown Chainsaw kept its returning momentum and carved straight through Kujack’s back. A simple timed attack.

“Well then, suffer just a little longer and die, okay? I think I can give you a more painful death than the maids you got caught up and killed.”

Kujack was blowing bubbles from the pain. The face that looked up at me twisted with rage and agony.

“Y-you little brat! A brat like you—to me, Kujack Meandoll—gya, gi-gi-gi, gi, giiii!?”

Screams—no longer even forming proper words.

His heart severed in two, lungs torn to shreds, airway cut—he soon lost his voice, then lost all movement.

After convulsing enough for a lifetime, that body finally stopped.
It was unmistakably the cessation of life… and an outcome I couldn’t deceive myself about: I had killed him.

“… ”

Oh well. I didn’t feel a shred of guilt.

I let out a tired sigh and hung my head while recovering the ink—then gorgeous cheers welcomed me.

“U-ooooh! Haro, you won! You really won!”

“…! Y-you actually beat him! Haro, that was amazing…!”

The two of them came flying at me. Even Noiche unusually raised her voice.

When I let out a small grunt, their momentum softened a little, but they still wouldn’t stop hugging me tightly from both sides.

“We couldn’t do anything, sorry! You were insane, seriously insane! By the way, is your right arm okay!?”

“Your shoulder’s cut too—we’ll heal it right away once our magic power comes back!”

“Ah, yeah, okay…”

I was overwhelmed by their energy.

I didn’t really know what was going on anymore, but I just nodded and said that was fine.

That said, my right arm really wouldn’t lift.

Until now it had only tingled and didn’t interfere with daily life, but what about from now on? Would there be lasting effects? I didn’t especially regret it, though.

“I figured he wouldn’t let his guard down unless I was driven to the point my right arm became unusable.”

“Wha—!? So you deliberately took everything on your right…?”

“Well, as one possible setup… And his eyes were sharp. Pretending it was broken wouldn’t have fooled him, so the only way was to actually push it until it broke.”

The sisters suddenly went quiet for some reason, so I looked back on the fight.

I had scattered all kinds of misdirection during the battle, but the bluff about chanting worked especially well.

“As I thought, in fights against people, leaving room to bluff is important too.”

I’ll keep that in mind when developing magic from now on.

It became a good lesson.