I somehow managed to ward off his first blow and cast a side glance at the referee.
As I thought, this wasn’t enough to make him raise his hand.
This mock battle was a school lesson, so to speak, so if you could land a hit, the match ended there.
However, it seemed that landing one by throwing a knife at your opponent didn’t count.
Even though I could’ve easily ended it that way.
So I had no choice but to do everything I could to end this battle without getting injured.
With these eyes of mine, I could pull this off.
[Now, here comes the next one.] (Epona)
Epona looked delighted from the bottom of his heart, his face was flushed as he raised his arms over his head and came at me.
It seemed that he took quite the pleasure in fighting me. I was surprised since he didn’t look like that kind of character to me.
Epona’s weapon was his outrageously high physical power.
That alone overwhelmed everything I had accumulated.
However, there was an opening I could exploit.
The long momentum he had to build for his attacks made them easy to anticipate, plus the way he moved his body was clumsy, and there was an interval between his attacks.
Overall, Epona’s attacks were just too straightforward.
I knew that the closer you were to being top-notch, the less likely your fights were to go as you wanted.
Which is why as you watch your opponent’s moves, you think about using feints and changing your attacks in the middle of performing them.
However, because he didn’t take any of that into consideration, he didn’t change his.
He took too much time before every action, and his attacks were so simple I could see them coming a mile away.
I gradually got used to them after dodging two or three times.
Being able to experience the speed and fighting habits of a hero was such an exceptional benefit, his weaknesses were showing.
The hero’s physical abilities exceeded all standards, but although his dynamic vision was superhuman, it was inferior to Tuatha Dé’s eyes. Only there did I have the upper hand.
That was a good information gathering. I’m glad I got to fight him.
…Well, I would if I could make it out alive.
[Amazing, this is amazing! Why can’t I land a hit on you?! Even though you’re slower than me!] (Epona)
My head was spinning. My overworked brain was screaming.
I kept my eyes sharper and my concentration higher than necessary, I didn’t spare a single dodge so as not to get hit, yet my body was worn out.
Every time I avoided a lethal blow, I was sweating bullets, and I felt like my lifespan was shortening.
I was gradually getting a bad feeling about this.
It didn’t look like I could keep this up for long.
However, my spirit didn’t waver. Being agitated wasn’t going to improve my situation, on the contrary, it would give him an opening.
[What’s wrong!? You should attack me too, Lugh. Otherwise, it won’t be training at all!] (Epona)
I was aware of that.
But if I spared even a single effort so I could attack him, then I couldn’t keep evading him.
That offensive power of his was more than I could take, it could break through my defense.
Because of that, I had no choice but to dodge.
However, I just needed a little more time.
My eyes were starting to grow accustomed to Epona’s patterns, his skills, his quirks, I could read them all.
In addition, his attacks were getting wider and wider.
[Take that, that, and that!] (Epona)
I didn’t take any of that, and because he was this impatient, he started moving faster while using unnecessary extra power.
His already dull movements had gotten even duller and easier to predict.
Then, because he couldn’t hit me, he would move on to his best special move.
It was the one that knocked down the knight captain in one hit, a plain old upperdash.
Instead of anticipating his actions based on his preliminary movements like I’d been doing so far, I moved as soon as he was in motion for his attack. What I did was already akin to foresight.
If I could read into my opponent’s abilities and habits, then I could rely on that prediction. It wasn’t just a mere gamble.
Nonetheless, no matter how much I may had laid the groundwork, it was still a risky move. And yet, this was my only chance of winning this.
If I didn’t take that risk, then not only would I not have the time to dodge, I wouldn’t have the time to attack.
The fact that Epona’s attacks could be read was his shortcoming.
…If you were up against an opponent who was capable to some extent and using the same strategy as me, you would switch to a different kind of attack.
However, Epona didn’t have the ability nor the calmness for that.
Even though I was making my move before he was done with his preliminary movement, Epona, being honest to a fault, stepped forward and swung up his sword, but I just barely managed to evade it, then I aimed for the moment when he would stretch his body to the end and go stiff after that slash, and I hit him with a counter.
He slightly reacted with a bump, and the next moment, he was blown far away by wind pressure, and out of the ring.
Unable to land safely either, he hit the ground several times before finally coming to a stop.
…Well, I guess that was bound to happen since I hit him head-on with a counter.
I really shouldn’t have done that.
[Winner, Lugh !] (Referee)
It appeared that the referee was keeping a close watch on the match, as he was able to validate the blow and pick up the winner before he was even out of the ring.
Maybe he could tell because I went for a counter right when she was standing still, but to think he didn’t miss it at all, that was something you could only expect from S-class.
[Lugh-sama, that was amazing!] (Talt)
[Unbelievable, he won against that monstrously strong hero.] (Dia)
[I already had a high opinion of him, but now it went even higher. Finn, do you think you could’ve fought like he has?] (Neusch)
[You’ve got to be kidding. Forget about landing a decisive counter, I don’t even think I could’ve dodged at all… Lugh Tuatha Dé, he’s got incredibly good eyes, and insight to boot. I hate to admit it, but while the hero’s a given, I don’t feel like I could win against Lugh at all. What about you, Neusch?] (Finn)
[I feel the same. And that’s why I want him. If I had you and him as my followers, anything would be possible.] (Neusch)
Having witnessed our battle, our classmates were excitedly commenting on it.
…I somehow managed to win without revealing my hand.
I only use Tuatha Dé’s eyes to enhance my dynamic vision, plus no one can find out about them by watching them from afar.
I tried to get up, but I couldn’t.
I was terribly out of breath, my legs were about to give away, and I was sweating buckets from my whole body.
It seemed that I was more exhausted than I thought.
Not so much physically as mentally.
Even my Hyper Regeneration couldn’t do anything for my mind.
…I shuddered at the thought of what would’ve happened if this had been a real fight.
Even though I said that I was totally exhausted, Epona had no injury. Never mind being done in one blow, I would’ve been done for if he had even grazed me, whereas even though I managed to counter him, the damage I dealt was only superficial.
I felt genuinely bitter about it.
Did I really have to kill that?
That very same Epona came to me and offered me his hand. When I grabbed it, he help me up.
[Lugh, I’m glad to have met you. I want to fight you again.] (Epona)
Those words increased my concerns about him being a battle maniac.
Then no wonder he said something dangerous like how if it were me, I wouldn’t break.
[I’m surprised, I didn’t know you loved fighting.] (Lugh)
[That’s not how it is. Since I’m the hero, I have to get stronger. For that purpose, I have to train a lot, but whenever I fought people, they all ended up broken. I want to get stronger, but I never got to. I’ve always been worried that at this rate, if I ever had to fight a demon or anything that’s stronger than me, I would lose. But you, Lugh, didn’t break, so I could actually train. Now I can finally become stronger. Say, won’t you have another mock battle with me like today? It can’t be with anyone but you, Lugh!] (Epona)
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