WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Academy's Turn-Based Swordsman ◈
Chapter 118: Experience of Success
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That was definitely an invincibility pattern.
‘...And that works?’
Invincibility was only invincibility against weak opponents. If you were absurdly strong, invincibility or not, it meant nothing.
That was new to me.
“First.”
Adeline's turn had only just begun.
Kshaaa!
Using the tail of the stingray dragged onto the ground as a foothold, Adeline lightly leaped into the air.
She looked at the demon hovering overhead.
“Second.”
The second jewel shattered.
“New Belhart Style, Second Form. Flying Swallow.”
While suspended in the air, Adeline released sword aura toward the ground.
Rumble!
A pillar of sunlight burst from her sword tip with a thunderous roar. Using the recoil as propulsion, her body shot forward like a cannonball.
Rising like a swallow, Adeline reached the demon's face in an instant.
“Third.”
The third jewel shattered.
“Belhart Style, Second Form. Gravity Pursuit.”
From above to below, her sword, laden with crushing pressure, slashed through the barrier.
Crash!
The barrier shattered in a single strike, and the demon's expression twisted at once.
Before it could even scream.
“Last.”
The fourth jewel shattered.
“New Belhart Style, Fourth Form. Setting Sun.”
Adeline spun in midair, concentrating centrifugal force and sword aura at the tip of her blade.
Then.
The sun fell.
Boom!
With a thunderous crash, the demon fell like a meteor and slammed into the back of the stingray, which had already been flopping on the ground.
Kek! Kieeek!
The shock crushed both the stingray and the demon at once.
Demonic energy scattered violently around their tangled bodies.
Stagger.
One turn.
In just one turn, Adeline had broken the pattern, approached through the air, destroyed the barrier, unleashed overwhelming damage, and knocked out the boss.
From within the thick cloud of dust, Adeline looked back at us.
“If they hide, drag them out. If they block, smash it. If they fly, knock them down. This is the very essence of Belhart Style.”
“...”
“See? Easy, right?”
Luna and I nodded blankly.
‘...What part of that was easy?’
I wanted to learn if there was anything I could, but unfortunately, nothing I had just seen looked remotely possible for me to imitate.
Forneus trembled on the ground.
The expression on its face as I looked down at it was completely vacant.
Both the demon and the stingray.
It was my first time seeing a monster look so aggrieved.
I had expected her to be a bulldozer from the moment she cut down an elite monster in one blow, but this was strength far beyond my expectations.
It felt like playing chess when someone suddenly said, “This piece is a bulldozer. It can move four times in one turn and shove aside anything in every direction,” then flipped over the board.
God, she played chess like an asshole.
Now I understood why the dungeon had kept her out until now.
At full strength, she could probably crush a fist with scissors.
It had been a while since I decided to stop taking the easy route, but the mindset of getting a free meal was slowly raising its head again.
With a carry like that right in front of me, how could I refuse a ride?
If possible, I wanted to keep her by my side until the final dungeon, no, until the ending credits rolled.
“Whew.”
But that was that.
I still had things to do.
My turn.
I carved one Weakness each into the demon and the stingray.
Luna's turn.
When she used Fire Stratagem, six fireballs rushed toward Forneus.
Fwoosh!
Purple Flames clung to its entire body and began burning.
[Status Effect: Purple Flame (6 stacks)]
[The target's Fluidity is reduced and they take continuous fire damage.]
Covered in fireballs, Forneus let out a shriek and opened its eyes wide.
Its Stagger state had been lifted.
Kshaaaaa!!
The stingray's body, sprawled across the ground, began to soften like liquid.
It crawled up the demon's legs and wrapped around its body in an instant.
The stingray's scales coiled around the demon's entire body like armor.
“Oh. Is this Phase Two? It changed clothes.”
“Be careful! The demonic energy has merged into one!”
Forneus's second phase. The Knight of Desire.
Once it entered that state, its defense rose dramatically.
At the same time, it temporarily entered a Super Armor state. It would not stagger from most attacks and transformed into an annoying pattern that mindlessly traded blows.
Its Phase One laser circus pattern remained as well, further scattering our concentration.
In the original game, getting past this phase required a tank to put on a desperate show.
The standard strategy was to have Eugene tank it while everyone relentlessly landed back attacks until it died.
But I wasn't especially worried now.
Even if its defense rose, it would be useless before the sunlight bulldozer.
More importantly, Luna's six Purple Flame stacks had already turned its Fluidity to rags.
Look at that. Slow as hell.
And with Elia's specially made bombs, we were in a position where we couldn't lose even if we wanted to.
But then.
A red light appeared above the transformed Forneus's head.
The red jewels that always appeared.
But there were two of them.
‘Right. I figured something like that would show up eventually.’
I had expected it to happen someday.
If anything, it was strange that it hadn't happened yet.
Rose and Lilian each had one turn because there were two of them.
The minor monsters Malias summoned had each received their own turns as well.
But now, for the first time, a single entity had appeared with two turns of its own.
Forneus itself wasn't important.
I thought we could take it down without much trouble. We had Adeline, Luna, and Elia's bombs.
The real problem was this.
‘That means the monsters we face from now on can have multiple turns too.’
If a mid-boss had two turns, what about Asmorg, the boss? What about the bosses after that?
Three turns, four turns. Monsters with enough actions to crush an entire party by themselves could appear.
‘The difficulty really spikes from here.’
Confirmed.
Then I had to make sure to stomp it down here.
While I was at it, it would be good to properly coordinate with Luna too. We even had a cheat code.
‘I should make use of everything I can.’
Forneus's turn.
The arm it raised toward the sky transformed into the shape of a greatsword.
Chirik. Chiririk.
With an unpleasant noise, Forneus began searching for a target.
Its gaze eventually reached Adeline.
...
Then it quietly looked away.
“...What? Did it just ignore me?”
“You did give it a reason to.”
Apparently deciding that Adeline was not an option no matter how it thought about it, it turned its gaze toward Luna, who had inflicted the debuff. It had found an easier target.
Maybe getting beaten by Adeline had finally installed the concept of strategy in its head. It was an extremely rational choice.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The ground shook with every step it took.
Its speed had been noticeably slowed by Purple Flame, but the charge speed unique to its knight form was threatening enough to offset that.
As Luna raised her staff to guard herself, I stepped in front of her without hesitation.
“You don't need to defend. Focus only on burning it.”
“...Pardon?”
As soon as the words ended, the greatsword came crashing down toward the crown of my head.
Without taking my eyes off the sword's trajectory, I raised my sword at the exact moment.
[Just Guard!]
“Urgh...!”
A tremendous impact struck my entire body.
Despite blocking it, my body was pushed far back.
The soles of my shoes burned against the ground, leaving long scrape marks.
‘Damn, that's heavy!’
It was the first time since fighting Alain that I had been overwhelmed in a contest of pure strength like this.
“Lord Halibal!”
“...I'm fine!”
I quickly regained my balance and stood before Luna again.
Kshaaaa!
As if annoyed, it swung its sword broadly to the side once more.
[Just Guard!]
This time, I wasn't pushed back.
After deflecting the sword, I pointed mine at its face and stared directly into its eyes, burning with ghostly flame.
“Right. Keep looking only at me from now on. Don't turn your eyes toward my companion.”
A knightly moment for the first time in a while.
I deliberately struck a pose and looked back at Luna.
But.
“...Ah, ah...”
For some reason, Luna's face had gone pale.
‘No, it wasn't serious enough to worry that much.’
That last attack had been strong, but perhaps because I took it with the Work Straight Sword, the impact had been far less severe.
I had learned something else.
A weapon's grade and durability had a major effect on how much damage Just Guard could negate.
‘If I didn't have this sword, my arm might have broken just now.’
It truly lived up to its name.
Anyway, I was perfectly fine right now. Yet Luna still looked dazed, trembling all over like an aspen.
“Luna!”
“Y-Yes?!”
Adeline brought her back to her senses.
“Halibal has always fought like that, so you don't need to worry. If he thought he couldn't take it, he would've dodged. Focus on what you need to do.”
Of course, in reality, I couldn't exactly dodge it.
Even Adeline couldn't have known that. She was probably just trying to reassure Luna.
“...I wish... that were true...”
Even after Adeline's words, Luna still looked empty.
She looked like someone afraid I would break apart and disappear at any moment.
In the end, I raised my voice.
“Luna! Stop spacing out and prepare to attack!”
Startled by my shout, Luna raised her staff again with trembling hands.
‘It seems she has something that sets her off too.’
Adeline, who had actually lost companions in a dungeon, was rather calm.
I didn't know whether that was the composure of an adult or whether she was holding it in.
But Luna couldn't have gone through something like that, so why was she acting this way?
‘Should I talk to her later?’
Still, the battle came first.
Adeline's turn.
“Move aside, you troublemaker.”
Adeline shoved me aside with her shoulder and stepped forward.
“Seriously. You're still insisting on that particular way of doing things?”
“...Yes, well...”
“Fine. If that is your path, it can't be helped.”
Fwoooosh.
Her breathing changed.
Sunrise.
“I suppose this big sister has no choice but to match you.”
The sun set, and then the sun rose again.
Four jewels began dancing above her head once more.
“Is it about time for dinner?”
I didn't know the time. But I knew she wasn't really asking about it.
It was a signal that she was about to wrap up the fight.
“Instructor.”
“What?”
“For the final blow...”
I opened my coat and discreetly showed her the Reactive Bomb.
“I'd like to try this.”
“Haah... You want me to beat it without killing it, right? The more I look at you, the nastier your personality gets.”
“Do you feel pity for that stingray?”
“You didn't know?”
Adeline smiled, showing her white teeth.
“I prefer seafood.”
I really hadn't known.
Corona gleamed with brilliant golden light once more.
Her sword traced a path of light as it struck Forneus's arm, which had become a greatsword.
Golden Slash. Under the golden strike delivered all at once, Forneus's arm crumbled like a sugar sculpture.
Kshaaa!
It screamed and tried to retreat, but Adeline had no intention of letting it go.
“Where do you think you're running?”
She slipped into its guard.
Flying Swallow.
This time, however, it was not for mobility.
Her sword swept over its lower body repeatedly at a speed too fast to see.
Shkshkshk!
The stingray hide and scales that formed its armor fell away in heaps, and its stance collapsed.
As the third jewel vanished, a heavy weight settled into Adeline's sword.
Iron Wall Splitter.
She kicked the collapsing creature in the pit of its stomach, launching it into the air, then slammed it down.
Boom!
Forneus crashed into the ground, leaving a deep depression.
Toward the utterly battered Forneus.
Her final turn.
Holding her sword in a reverse grip, Adeline drove it through its shoulder and into the ground like a skewer.
Thunk!
Kieeek!!
Dark red blood burst from its mouth.
It wasn't dead.
But it was in a near-death state worse than death.
With one foot on its chest, Adeline brushed her hair back and smiled mischievously.
“How's that? Satisfied?”
She had literally set the table and placed it right before me.
All I had to do was pick up my spoon.
“Yes. I'll enjoy it gratefully.”
My turn.
I sheathed my sword and took out the Reactive Bomb.
Then.
“Luna.”
“Yeees...?”
“Take this.”
I handed it to Luna.
“You see the wounds I carved into it, right? Hit that spot with the strongest Art you can use.”
“...”
“And use this bomb to finish it.”
As far as I knew, the best way to overcome emotional instability was an experience of success.
Even if it meant only placing a spoon on a meal prepared by everyone else, there was a world of difference between having brought something to an end with your own hands and not having done so.
Negative emotions always vanished in one blow before the memory of success. I had been the same way.
And I could check Luna's current strongest Art while I was at it.
“...Is it really all right for me to do it?”
Holding the bomb, Luna looked at Forneus.
“We're in the same party. It doesn't matter who does it.”
“Ah...”
“Or shall we do it together?”
She looked at my outstretched hand for a long while.
Then she quietly shook her head.
‘Is that a refusal?’
The moment I thought that, the uneasy light trembling in Luna's eyes vanished.
In its place came a purple heat, settled with an eerily calm stillness.
“All right.”
She whispered softly.
“If that is what you want.”
Luna floated her staff in the air. Then she wrapped her hand around the Reactive Bomb I had given her.
“Purple Flame Burial.”
Magic power on a completely different level from before burst from her entire body.
When she mimed grasping the air with her free hand, hundreds of purple flames scattered in all directions from her hand.
Tatadat!
The flames clung to Forneus's body like a swarm of fireflies.
[Status Effect: Purple Flame (21... 22... stacks)]
The Purple Flame stacks rose like crazy.
[Weak!]
The moment the Weakness triggered, a dark purple vortex began swallowing Forneus's body.
‘Level 45 Art, Purple Flame Burial.’
This was Luna's current full strength.
Kie, kieeek...!
Luna looked toward the agonized Forneus.
Then.
Whoosh.
She tossed the bomb.
The instant it touched Purple Flame.
BOOOOM!!!
A purple coffin closed its lid.
Forneus was driven into the coffin, where it melted and burned away, finally vanishing.
Nothing remained where the flames died down.
Even the jewels floating above our heads had disappeared.
Then the darkness of the mine receded, and the countless crystals embedded in the walls shone all at once.
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