WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 58: Creative Solution

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I naturally considered Unarmed Combat part of swordsmanship too.

Medieval knights supposedly trained in wrestling and other techniques, not just swordsmanship, so it probably wasn't wrong.

Still, I'd deliberately been made to fight with nothing but a blunt training sword and no armor. Responding with Unarmed Combat here would be cheating.

Even if smashing them apart with my fists and feet would be much faster than fighting with a sword that couldn't even deal damage.

Then I wouldn't be using the important part, the sword, at all.

-Whoosh!

Dodging the Shadow Doll's sword, I readjusted my grip on the training sword and swung again.

None of the dolls attacked particularly fast.

I didn't even need Intuition. My raw reflexes were enough to deal with all of them.

-Crack!

The blunt edge of the training sword struck the doll in the side, but once again, it barely dealt any damage.

It felt even weaker than when I'd hit its temple. But its torso didn't seem any tougher.

Was there some condition I needed to meet to deal damage? Figuring that out came first.

-Thud!

One more doll began charging at me. This one carried a heavy hammer.

Its attack power didn't seem amazing, but it didn't look weak enough for me to keep taking hits without any consequences either.

Did another doll start moving every so often?

In the end, I'd have to face all five at once.

The dolls' skill level was no joke. Even I would have trouble if all five rushed me at once.

I had to reduce their numbers before all five started moving, somehow.

"Hup!"

Tensing my muscles, I stomped hard on the charging doll's planted foot.

-Thud!

Naturally, I couldn't step on the doll's foot. But I could pass through it and stomp on the ground directly below.

The ground caved in under my foot, throwing off the doll's center of gravity as it stepped on that spot to charge at me.

Its waist, knees, and even shoulders shifted out of position, exposing a wide-open gap.

I seized the opening and thrust.

-Crack!

My straight thrust pierced deep into the doll's chest. It was a little disappointing, but it had landed effectively enough.

Just as I thought. I didn't know the exact principle, but the damage changed depending on my attack.

Slashes didn't work very well, but thrusts landed relatively well.

Then I'd focus on thrusts from now on.

I pulled the sword from the doll's chest and swung behind me without turning around.

-Clang!

The axe of the doll aiming for my back collided with my sword. The training sword chipped slightly.

Damn it. If nothing else, I couldn't get around the Durability issue. It was already damaged, and we hadn't even properly exchanged blows.

It didn't look like Rizmel would toss me another sword if this one broke, so I needed to conserve it as much as possible.

Still, I knew exactly how strong their attacks were now.

At that level, this method would work.

* * *

Holding the slightly chipped sword as close to the guard as possible, I stepped deeply into the axe doll's range.

The doll swung its axe from the perfect distance. Normally, I should've deflected or knocked it aside with my sword before counterattacking.

[Iron Wall]

-Clang!

I activated [Iron Wall] on my left arm and used my forearm like a shield to block the axe.

As expected, I couldn't strike their bodies with my fists, but I could block their weapons with my body.

Otherwise, their attacks wouldn't be able to hit me either. I figured weapons would be an exception.

The axe blade cut my arm a little, but it wasn't enough to affect the fight.

-Crack!

I pushed straight into the doll's guard and drove my sword into its chest with all my strength.

The power was still underwhelming, but forcing it in with strength made it go fairly deep.

My thrust also threw the doll's center of gravity far backward.

-Scrape!

I swept my foot hard across the ground. With its balance already thrown off, the doll caught on the dent in the floor and fell over.

Then I put my weight behind another deep thrust.

That was it.

-Crunch!

The Shadow Doll, pierced through the torso, vanished cleanly.

"No experience, huh?"

I muttered to myself as I pulled out the sword and turned around. Four dolls had begun moving at once.

They weren't much of a threat now. I already had a rough idea of how to take them down.

-Clang!

I swung the training sword at the first doll to rush in and knocked away its weapon.

The blade chipped with every collision because of its Durability limit. It didn't matter.

-Clang! Clang! Clang!

Accepting the damage to my sword, I exchanged blows and forced one doll backward.

Its sword repeatedly slammed into mine.

-Clang!

Before long, the training sword snapped.

Half of the shattered blade flew into the air.

I caught it and drove it into the doll's neck like a dagger.

-Crunch!

So what if each hit wasn't powerful enough? If I stabbed fast enough, over and over, something had to give.

-Stab stab stab stab stab crack!

Gripping the blade in my bare hand, I repeatedly stabbed the doll's neck. The hits were weak, but striking the same spot over and over worked.

After driving the blade halfway into its neck, I shoved the broken end of the training sword into the other side of its neck with all my strength.

With blades embedded from both sides, I held onto the sword and performed a big tumble, using the rotational force to tear through its neck.

-Crunch!

It was more like ripping than cutting, but either way, that was another one down.

Behind me, the hammer doll was closing in fast. I threw the broken blade in my left hand at its face.

Even in a situation like this, the accuracy of my specialty, Throwing, didn't falter.

-Crack!

It stuck right in its face. It wasn't deep, but that didn't matter either.

"Just wait."

I leaped at the doll with the blade stuck in its face and hit it with a dropkick.

-Crunch!

I wasn't attacking the doll directly. I kicked the blade lodged in its face, driving it deeper.

The full-force dropkick shoved the blade deep inside, taking down another one.

After retrieving the broken blade, I snapped it into three pieces with my fingers.

I used the sharp fragments like daggers or throwing stars, slipping them between my fingers before throwing them.

Two dolls remained: the swordsman type whose chest I'd stabbed before, and the still-uninjured spearman type.

All three blade fragments embedded themselves in the spearman's legs.

Leg strength and mobility mattered when delivering a proper spear thrust.

Even with damaged legs, the doll showed off an excellent thrust. Still, its speed had been cut in half, making it painfully slow.

-Thud.

I trapped the spear beneath my arm, closed the distance, and attacked its shoulder with the broken training sword.

I forced the blade deep into a critical part of its shoulder muscles, damaging it badly enough that it couldn't hold its spear.

Then I took the spear from it.

This spear is mine now.

I threw the stolen spear at the swordsman. A spear with enough Durability to take my full strength pierced straight through its chest.

Perhaps weapons made of shadow vanished once they left the doll that owned them. It slowly disappeared right after piercing through the swordsman.

The vanished spear reappeared in the spearman doll's hand, but there was no way it could deal with me with its shoulder and legs injured.

I finished it by stabbing its neck several times with the broken training sword.

That made all five.

I'd quickly found a way to deal with the dolls and adapted it, taking down all five in different ways.

Even I hadn't expected to fight this well with my options for attacking so heavily restricted.

"This is nice."

It was a training method perfectly suited to a Solo Player like me because it could improve my ability to improvise.

But when I looked over at Rizmel, who stood far away fidgeting anxiously...

"Good grief."

For some reason, Rizmel had covered her face with both hands and kept sighing.

* * *

Rizmel first examined the wound on my forearm from blocking the axe.

It hadn't been deep to begin with, so [Combat Healing] had already healed almost all of it.

After confirming my forearm was fine, Rizmel sighed again and shouted.

"That's not how you do it, you ignorant brat!"

"Huh?"

"Seriously, the way you use weapons like a brute wasn't the only problem...!"

Rizmel picked up one of the training swords scattered around. Then she tapped the ground a few times, summoning shadows again.

It was the same Shadow Doll I'd faced. Rizmel lightly swung the training sword at it.

-Slash!

"What?"

The doll was cleanly cut in half by Rizmel's slash and returned to its original shadow form.

"These shadows are made so they can't be cut unless you follow the correct Sword Path."

Rizmel summoned several more shadows and demonstrated cutting them with the training sword.

"On the other hand, if you use the correct Sword Path, they're easy to cut. It's a test that demands precise swordsmanship."

Ah, that was why every attack had dealt different amounts of damage.

I'd thought it was testing all kinds of improvisation using swordsmanship.

"But... haah... you're the first person I've seen take them down like that."

Still, I'd won, so didn't that count for something?

Footnotes:

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