The Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Millinia
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 031 – The Realm of a Master [A]
The first to attack was Hunty.
She activated her instant movement, entering the red space where time of everything around her stopped.
“…“
However, Hunty’s movements didn’t stop in that space. As she ran, she held the sword with both hands then swung it down with full force using its momentum.
Her target was Majin Leonhart who was still smiling in this stopped space. However, if she were to strike him as she was, she wouldn’t be able to produce an impact, much less wound him.
Therefore, Hunty phased back to reality just before her attack landed.
“!!”
The moment she returned to reality, Leonhart’s gaze immediately turned to her. It was an instant reaction to the moment her sword was swung down.
It was an attack with no initial action. It was closer to an invisible sneak attack. If Leonhart were a normal human, it would have been enough to deal a fatal blow.
However,
“You sure have good senses!”
Leonhart moved in front of her. He detected the attack with abnormal reaction speed, and at the same time, swung the demonic sword in his right hand in the trajectory that would hit Hunty’s sword.
The sound of metal clashing with each other echoed.
At the same time, the impact flowed to her body. Leonhart’s power was transmitted through his weapon and forced into Hunty’s body.
“What an absurd power!”
“That’s not something I want to hear from someone who can use instant movement, to say the least…!”
Leonhart took a step forward, swinging the sword in his hand toward Hunty’s torso.
Even as Hunty managed to block it with her sword, her body that was blown away to the left was now receiving attack from the left, forcefully blowing her away to the right this time.
It was a simple attack from two directions. It was a simple movement that could be executed by anyone with the skill of the sword.
But because the one who did it was a majin,
“My sword…“
The impact that Hunty received was enough to knock her sword away. She knew the reason well.
The attack was fast and heavy.
The sword attack that was mercilessly unleashed using the physical abilities of a majin, was enough to turn a simple sword movement into a deadly attack. He only unleashed two sword strikes, from right to left, but the impact it produced was so great that it numbed her hands, making her drop her weapon. If she were an average person, she would be sent flying just by the first attack.
However, since it was a simple chain attack, it was easy to mix in a follow-on attack.
“There, take this!”
“…! Kuh—“
It was a third slash. This time, the slash was aimed at Hunty’s chest, which was wide open.
Hunty unhesitatingly activated her instant movement. This time, she moved her opponent’s right side, the spot where his sword wouldn’t reach and phased back.
“There!”
“…!”
This time, Hunty attacked from the side. Leonhart’s right hand swung his sword to the front, using his power to slash the spot where Hunty was before.
However, Hunty was now on the right side of Leonhart. It was almost impossible to suddenly move one’s hand to the opposite direction they exerted their power to, especially considering Leonhart had the physical stature of a human. If he wanted to block the attack, he needed to either draw back his hand, or go full rotation with his slash.
It meant there would be a moment of opportunity before Hunty’s attack could be blocked. Therefore, it was an attack that she released with confidence.
Hunty was observing Leonhart, thinking about what action he would take.
As expected, will he avoid it?
As she thought that, he reacted with an unexpected movement.
“Impertinent!!”
“?!”
Hunty’s sword was blocked. However, it wasn’t blocked by the blade.
It was blocked by the hilt of Leonhart’s Demonic Sword; Hunty saw his movement.
…He forcefully stopped his arm then put the hilt in the trajectory!
However, that kind of movement required tremendous precision. He blocked the enemy’s attack using the handle of his sword. This wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
As a sword user herself, Hunty was aware of that fact. To achieve such a feat, one needed considerable strength, the capability to make a quick decision, and the precision to make it successful.
The fact that the majin in front of her successfully achieved that, allowed Hunty to confirm one thing.
And that was,
“It seems you are a master of the sword…!”
The fact that his sword skill greatly surpassed her’s — meant that he reached the realm of master.
“Hah, so you could tell!”
As Hunty gazed upon him, Leonhart’s jovial voice echoed in the village.
He had blown Hunty away using the demonic sword in his hand, then as he moved into his natural stance he affirmed,
“That means you are also considered a sword user yourself…”
However, Leonhart stopped his words. At the same time, he casually swung his sword.
His slash was in the direction of a leaf that had been floating in the breeze.
The leaf stopped in the air for what seemed like a second. And in the next moment,
“…You couldn’t win in that aspect anyway.”
The leaf was split in two. But it wasn’t cut in the center.
Although the leaf became two, it was clearly thinly sliced on its base. Such was the result of his earlier slash.
Hunty went wide-eyed and tongue-tied at the display of Leonhart’s amazing skill. It was something that she couldn’t possibly do.
Do you understand?
Was what Leonhart implied as he swung his sword and cut various things around.
“I have fought to the death against many swordsmen and warriors until now. Every one of them was decently strong by human standards. There were even a few of them who reached the realm of expert.”
In every direction he swung his sword, whether it was rock on the ground, grass, leaves and flowers that were brought by the wind, every one of them was cut in two with exactly the same width.
He showed off a series of masterful skills, and executed them effortlessly as if he were just breathing.
“However, even without taking into account the physical ability of a majin, none of them could match my skill. It was around then I realized I was already in the realm of being a master of the sword, and I was at such a level where nobody could ever best me.”
Even as he talked, the number of things he cut grew in number. He cut off things he already cut off, in a smaller, even size.
“Then, I wonder when it started… I began to challenge people with potential in a duel. I thought they might learn something from my skill, or feel the pressure of their life being threatened, and awaken something to match me.”
Just like what happened to me…
Was what Leonhart wanted to add at the end of that sentence.
“However… regardless of how many years it took, there was no one who could achieve that. They all surrendered to my master skill of the sword and perished. It made me feel bored from the lack of a proper challenge…”
“…If you want to boast, how about doing it elsewhere? You’re only troubling me.”
Hunty cut off Leonhart’s word, who told off his disappointment. She cared nothing about that.
Why must I listen to a majin’s woes? She thought.
However, Leonhart disagreed with her. “No, this is related,” he said.
“You will feel what I was talking about from now on. Experience my sword skills which I’ve continuously trained for over two hundred years, and that I’m still honing even now. You just need to continue to resist using everything in your power, whether it be a sword or magic. Perhaps you could see something more valuable the longer you lasted, you know?”
“…Fair enough.”
Either way, Hunty was intending to defeat the majin in front of her. There was no option to escape.
However, if she did try to accomplish that, she would need to struggle hard. It would take a lot of trial and error for that.
As Hunty saw the majin wielding his sword, she already planned what she would do.
Then she put her strength to her leg, jumped backward as she chanted.
“Lightning strike!”
“…!”
As Leonhart reacted, Hunty shot her magic.
Magic combat; that was what Hunty decided to do.
In the previous exchanges, she learned that it was a bad move to fight him in close range.
Hunty was better using magic to begin with.
She was capable of using a lot of advanced magic including teleportation. Also, she possessed Kalar’s racial characteristics of having a high amount of magic power. Unless she utilized them, she had no chance of victory against the majin.
Also, she had another reason for doing so. That was,
“You can’t avoid magic, after all!”
It was one of the characteristics of magic. Magic was unavoidable. Regardless how fast they are, magic would chase after its target. Therefore, once she completed the chant and released it, she could deal damage to her opponent, even if the other party was a majin.
Originally, magic had a weakness of long chanting time and the fact it couldn’t be successively casted. However, that weakness didn’t apply to Hunty.
It was because Hunty was capable of instant movement. Hunty was able to suppress the delay to its minimum by utilizing that.
And as long as she kept her distance, the enemy had no way to reach her, which meant he couldn’t attack her. If she kept it up, she would eventually defeat him; that should be the case.
That was why the first magic she used was a lightning strike. It might be a basic magic of the thunder element, but it was quite fast even for a magic.
Therefore, Hunty was following the magic trajectory with her eyes.
However,
“And what of it!!”
“!”
The lightning strike was supposed to hit Leonhart. However, such expectations were not met.
What she saw was a scene where he swung the demonic sword in his hand and as a result, the thunder was split in two.
By using a sword, he deflected — no, cut the magic. That was what the majin just did.
On top of that, it was a thunder element magic, which was boasted for its speed. Leonhart, the very person who accomplished such a feat, opened his mouth in delight.
“Come on, shoot more of it!”
“Kuh, you monster…!”
As Leonhart closed the distance between them, Hunty took a backstep and used instant movement to open the distance.
As she drew back, she kept chanting the magic and kept shooting it at Leonhart.
…Anyway, I won’t let him come close!
She kept moving both of her hands as she ended her chant, thunder and lightning rushed toward Leonhart. However, just by a swing of his demonic sword,
“What’s wrong?! If that’s all you can do, you won’t be able to defeat me even if we continue for a hundred years…!”
He cut the thunder. He had amazing reaction speed and judgment.
Hunty guessed that he swung his sword before he fully perceived the incoming thunder.
What he saw was the timing, and the movement of her hands releasing the magic.
Regardless how fast it was, the magic would eventually reach him. So he only needed to slash on the magic trajectory to cut the thunder. Therefore, what he needed to look at was the timing and the origin of the thunder; perhaps that was the logic behind it.
However, although the logic was sound, it was a completely different matter as to whether he could actually do it. As expected, the majin in front of her was truly a monster.
…In that case!
Want early access to Cannon Fodder, Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer, and I Was a Man Before Reincarnating, So I Refuse a Reverse Harem? Support the translator on Patreon!
So from MC’s perspective Hunty can more-or-less teleport, use chantless magic and stop her personal time. And MC can still beat her backhanded anyway. Damn he OP AF.
yeah, mc is just that damn op. he rarely have hard combat since becoming majin