Chapter 268: Survival Battle Ends!

“I had no idea that Zeros-sama was the goddess’s apostle. Please forgive me for all the rudeness I’ve shown you.”

Ku…I left behind the two people I shouldn’t have left behind. Why didn’t I make sure to finish off the saint that time…. If only the saint was gone, there was no need for Sophie to hold back Bequa and the others. I didn’t have to take down all four of them by myself.

“Hmm?”

I could see magic coming from behind me. The magic was attracted to me, so I didn’t avoid it, even though it would probably hit me directly. Because that magic was lightning magic. Well, if it wasn’t lightning magic, I wouldn’t have  attracted it.

“Thank you.”

The magic was released by Sophie. I have no more magic left to use. I know that Sophie had anticipated this and had me absorb the lightning.

“I’m sorry, Apostle, but this time I will win. Holy gift, Holy Lost.”

“Spirit Zeal Enchantment.”

Sophie gave me magic power, but I don’t have that much time to spare. The only thing I can afford is one spirit enchantment, even while absorbing the lightning with the Lightning bolt. One spirit Zeal enchantment is the limit.

“Ka-ha!”

The female hero hit me in the stomach with a time stop. Most of the lightning enchantment is used to absorb lightning to replenish magic power, so the defense is thin. Therefore, the damage from the punch was greater than before.

“Lightning shrink.”

I moved to the saint who was about to move away from me with the lightning shrink. I don’t know how much magic she has left, but it would be faster to finish her off than to wait for her magic to run out.

“I knew you would come here.”

“Ugh…”

The saint anticipated my move and swung her mace at me from above. I managed to parry it and keep my distance.

“Calm down…”

I was a little impatient and made a serious error in judgment. The reason for this is that I repeated the suicide attack on the saint with the lightning shrink again, even though I had done it before. I was convinced that she could read me. And I knew that the status of the female hero and the saint exceeded mine now in this little attack and defense.

How can I win? I still think I could win if it were one-on-one with either one of them. But I can’t create that situation.

Maybe if I try to attack the saint, the female hero will use time stop. Then she would attack me and we would have to start all over again.

And even if I attacked the female hero, it would be difficult to finish her off during the time-stopping interval. So I would just be attacked unilaterally by the time stop.

If I could somehow prevent the time-stopping attack, the flow would change at once. But I can’t do that…no, I have seen with my own eyes that I have been able to parry an attack the moment I was hit by it. This time, since the attack wasn’t with a blade, it would be easier than what the old man did.

“Lightning shrink.”

I moved to the saint again. She seemed to have read this and attacked me again with her mace. I parried it and slashed at her. Now… this will come, won’t it?

“Gah…”

The female hero attacked me just as I had read. But this time the attack was a kick to the face. I see…there are two major places of attack, the belly and the face, and two means of attack, punching and kicking. I had to read them perfectly, and then I had to pass them off…. It’s a game of how long my magic power, stamina, and HP will last.

“Lightning shrink.”

I moved to the saint again, not learning my lesson. I know it looks funny to those around me that I keep doing the same thing over and over again and keep getting attacked.

“Ku…”

This time, I knew perfectly what to expect. As expected, it was a kick to the stomach. However, there was no way I could have parried it with a single blow, and I was kicked normally.

After that, I kept repeating the same thing. The number of kicks exceeded 30. Finally, the time came.

“Gufu…”

“Nii-sama, are you okay!?”

My magic power was gone again. And my HP also dropped below 500. I also no longer have enough stamina to keep up the lightning armor. Sophie also noticed the loss of my magic power by sensing my magic power, or was she worried? She called out to me with her magic tool.

In hindsight, I think I should have released a wide range of magic with all my might to keep the female hero away from me and killed the saint while I was at it. If I had done that, Sophie would have defeated the female hero.

“Are you okay, nii-sama…”

”Haha…”

Hearing Sophie’s subsequent words, I burst out laughing. With that, her words were also quite powerful.

”…Lightning shrink.”

I went to the saint with lightning shrink as I had done up until now, and I let the attack pass me by. Then I meditated. For a moment, the crisis high-speed sensing reacts at the moment the attack hits from the time stop. At that moment, I use my divine high-speed reflex to pass it off. This time, instead of anticipating and passing it off by intuition, I do my best to pass it off by relying on my skills.

“Eh…?”

“Ha!”

I should have done this from the beginning. The moment the crisis high-speed sensing reacted to my face, I turned my back and shook my face. Then, I was able to pass off the female hero’s attack in a good way. She, who had been attacking more forcefully than ever before, was greatly disoriented, as if she was planning to finish me off with this. I took the opportunity to drop her head from behind. Perhaps because she was defenseless, I was able to kill her with a single blow.

“I see, you’ve been wanting to do that for a long time, haven’t you?”

“Haa…haa…”

“But, can the current Apostle-sama afford to defeat me?”

Unlike before, I have no magic power and low stamina, unfortunately I can’t afford to defeat the saint one on one now.

“Sophie.”

“Yes.”

I spoke to Sophie with my magic tool. Then, a lightning bolt so big that it easily engulfed me and the saint came down from the sky.

“How could this happen………?”

“Lightning enchantment, lightning contraction.”

The saint seemed to have realized what was going on as well as to have protected herself from the lightning with her barrier. Thanks to the barriers, she was indeed able to prevent Sophie’s lightning. However, because of the barriers she had created around herself, the saint couldn’t move. I moved with lightning shrink while absorbing the lightning from Sophie and destroyed the barriers with a magic slash. Sophie’s magic was already gone, so the saint was unharmed by the destruction of the barriers.

“Holy impa…”

“Ha!”

But there was nothing the saint could do now that I was so close to her. This time, I cut her head off.

“The match is over! Survival battle #1! The Kingdom of Lingaria!”

“Haa haa…”

With Sophie’s help, I managed to defeat the four of them. But Sophie was the type to say unreasonable things with her magic tool.

“If nii-sama is alright, please kill the female hero first. Now, thanks to the distance from the saint, the resistance of Bequa and the others has decreased. I can use just a wide range of magic now. But once they find out, the saint will come this way. For that reason, please quickly eliminate the female hero who’s in the way.”

What did Sophie say with her magic tool? I immediately understood the reason why she left Sophie and our friends.

1. Move with lightning shrink and parry the Saint’s attack.

2. Take a time-stopping attack from the female hero.

3. The Saint tries to get away from me again in the meantime.

This cycle seemed to keep us apart from Sophie and the others. Neither I nor the saint realized it.

Sophie had no thought that I wouldn’t be able to defeat the female hero. She also thought that if I could just create a little gap, even the saint wouldn’t be able to defeat me. That made me quite happy in my weakened state.

“Now, let’s go…”

I’m so tired that I want to collapse right now, but I still have things to do. That’s why I’ve been handing over the magic power to Yug and the others during the battle and now that the fight is over, what’s going on inside the stage won’t be shown on the outside. I had to do it quickly before I was ejected. I walked over to Yug.

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