Regression is Too Much - Chapter 301

WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 301

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The regressor fights (20)

"Whew..."

"Haaa..."

There was some strange mana embedded in the sound of a sigh, an effect that drained your energy just from hearing it. If two people kept sighing over and over in a cramped room, whatever aura had been left in the place would drain out completely.

"What do we do..."

I'll be honest. This wasn't an "if." It was blunt reality. Choi Ji-won and I were sitting in the room the Colosseum had given us, sighing our lungs out.

How'd the fight with the Heavenly Demon go, you ask? I lost. I regressed. And now I was holed up in this room doing nothing but sighing. Of course, I never expected to win in one shot. The problem was how I lost.

To cut to the conclusion.

The chill worked.

"Damn it..."

And I also confirmed that I couldn't use it.

Before the regression. Me and the Heavenly Demon, facing off with swords drawn.

"You really are a strange human."

He watched my stance and smiled.

"...What?"

"..."

"You talk, then answer me."

I asked without meaning to, but the Heavenly Demon didn't answer. Maybe he still hadn't recovered his full power, and speech itself came with restrictions. Or maybe he just didn't think I was worth answering.

"This bastard."

I smiled just as fiercely back. If he wanted to provoke me, I had no reason to hold back.

The Heavenly Demon gripped his sword. I gripped mine too. If this came down to a fair fight, I'd lose without question. Someone as weak as me couldn't afford to hold anything back.

I lowered my stance, weaving in the principles of Flash Step. I drew out my mana to its absolute limit, wrapping it around my entire body, right up to the line where it wouldn't trigger a regression. White mist spread across the floor. My sword gleamed cold enough to sting the eyes.

One strike carrying everything I had. A killing blow. Every bit of know-how I'd built up through repeated regressions, poured into it. Aimed straight at the Heavenly Demon glaring back at me...

"Huh?"

Where'd he go...? The Heavenly Demon had vanished. He'd been standing there smiling at ease just a second ago. Wasn't he supposed to take the hit? He'd been way too relaxed. Where the hell did he go.

I dropped my stance and scrambled to find him. He was outside my field of view, off at the far left edge, crouched low with a whip in hand. None of that earlier ease remained. His mouth hung open, his face frozen in shock.

"...What are you?"

"What do you mean?"

"..."

The Heavenly Demon didn't answer again. His eyes darted busily over my entire body. He looked like he'd just seen something he couldn't believe.

Why the reaction? There were only two possible reasons. Flash Step. Chill.

If I had to bet on one, I'd bet on chill. And if I was wrong, well. I'd just regress.

"Here I come."

Calculations done, I kept the mana wrapped around my body and stepped forward, one step at a time. The Heavenly Demon stood there, glaring at me without moving. His head was probably just as crowded as mine. He probably knew backing off wasn't going to save him either.

Chill worked like an aura, growing stronger the closer I got. To really feel its effect, I had to close the distance enough. If I set up to use Flash Step, he'd just put distance between us again. So I closed in slowly. Aiming for his throat...

Kaaaaang!!!

I swung my sword on instinct. A thin, needle-shaped throwing weapon came flying at me, and I knocked it away just in time. It was just a small needle I'd deflected, but the sound of metal on metal rang out. What the hell did he do that with.

"?!"

There was no time to catch my breath. Throwing weapons rained down on me like a downpour. Chill could stop a living creature, but stopping an inanimate object like that was impossible. I could slow it slightly through the difference in air density, but the effect wasn't significant.

Drawing on old know-how, I shifted my clothes to cover my whole body and deflected every attack I could reach.

Fwip.

"...Ah."

A needle drove deep into a joint. Even setting aside the regression, that was a spot that would've caused serious trouble for moving.

In the end, I regressed without even crossing swords with the Heavenly Demon.

[You have taken damage.]

[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 28.]

I'd regressed, but I wasn't giving up because of it.

"Jun-ho, if what you're saying is true... the chill really does seem to work no matter what."

"Right?"

The chill worked, which was why the Heavenly Demon had put distance between us. He must have known he'd lose if we clashed directly, so he ran. If he thought he could win, there was no way he'd be lobbing needles at me from a distance.

"Ngh..."

So it was basically confirmed, once the Heavenly Demon got exposed to the chill, he'd either freeze up or come close to it. But him running away like that made things seriously difficult. He probably hadn't planned it that way, but the needle attacks were just brutally hard to deal with.

"I think the reason he threw needles like crazy was just simple containment."

"...That's containment?"

"Yeah. The needles are sharp, sure, but if you wrap yourself in mana and charge in, you can accept a bit of damage and close the distance."

"...I can't accept a bit of damage though? I regress instantly."

"He probably didn't know that."

"...True."

The Heavenly Demon hadn't relied on throwing weapons as his main method. As seen in his fight with Choi Ji-won, he'd only used them at critical moments to buy time. So Choi Ji-won guessed that this storm of needles had also been to buy time.

"That's how lethal your chill is to him, so he needed time to come up with some kind of countermeasure. I actually see it as a good sign."

"Right? I thought so too."

Choi Ji-won nodded, and ideas kept bubbling up in me.

"Then... what if I don't reveal my mana at first? Just face off while boosting my physical stats a little, and then unleash it at the decisive moment. Wouldn't that win it?"

"That's good."

So I faced the Heavenly Demon again. This time, I circulated mana quietly inside my body only, closing in on him little by little. He still wore that relaxed expression. Guess he really was the Heavenly Demon after all.

"You really are a strange human."

"I think so too."

One step. One step. Five more steps and my mana would be within range. It was a distance my sword couldn't reach, so there was a good chance the Heavenly Demon had let his guard down. Let's see just how far that arrogant face could go...

"...?"

"...What are you?"

Just a little closer would've done it. But the Heavenly Demon was already far away again. His eyes flickered as he scanned my whole body. The same reaction as last cycle.

There was only one thing this could mean.

"...You felt that?"

He'd felt the chill circulating inside my body. And he'd instinctively grasped that if he got exposed to it, he'd freeze solid. It was an instinct closer to a beast's. No, an instinct that was pure beast.

Shwaaak!!!

"...Ah."

I got caught in another storm of needles and regressed again. I think I blocked better than last cycle, but the road ahead was still incredibly long.

[You have taken damage.]

[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 28.]

"...Just carrying mana inside your body is enough for him to read the nature of that energy? Does that even make sense?"

"I don't know either..."

If the Heavenly Demon gave me distance, he'd lose. But if he kept enough distance and started spraying needles, I'd lose. Since I was the one who had to close the gap, this whole setup was one-sidedly unfavorable to me. He could just run while flinging needles endlessly, and that would be enough.

"Do you think he's figured out something about the regression?"

"Didn't seem like it. If he had, he wouldn't have started with a sword. He'd have gone straight for the needles."

He didn't seem to have caught on to the regression. Just bad luck. His containment tactic was too sharp, and my regression was too fragile, and that combination caused the accident.

"What if you hide your mana completely, then... reveal it? Would that not work either?"

"No."

If I didn't use any mana at all, I could probably deceive the Heavenly Demon. Reading mana that was completely stilled and hidden was impossible even for an archangel, let alone him. Even I couldn't do that, and I could see souls.

But mana wasn't like a gun that fired the instant you clicked a trigger. There was a process, waking dormant mana, moving it, sending it out of the body. In other words, it needed something like the time it takes to draw a gun from your waistband.

"But then he'd react without fail."

Judging by the Heavenly Demon's reaction speed, no matter how fast I was, he'd react without fail. I could think about just closing in on him, but catching up to a nimble beastman with a body devoid of mana wasn't easy. And it wouldn't just be him running. Needles would come flying at the same time.

"What if we got a big shield and carried it in?"

If I could just get past the needles. It felt like an answer might be within reach.

"Then he'd switch to something other than needles, a bow or a pike or something."

"A pike? Isn't that a long spear? Does he even have one?"

"There's a folding one apparently."

"..."

Choi Ji-won said closing the distance while holding a big shield would be tough. Unless I had some skill that could counter ranged containment, it looked difficult for now.

"If it weren't for the needles, I could get close..."

"Let's think of another way."

"What about the Hero trait..."

"Might work if we use the beastmen. But we also have to consider that the Heavenly Demon keeps getting stronger as time passes."

"Hmmm..."

I had a one-hit-kill technique in the chill, and I couldn't even use it. Was it because there actually was a way to win? That made it feel even more unfair. He even seemed to predict where Flash Step would land. Damn it, if only the setup time were shorter, I'd win this without question.

We racked our brains over and over, but no proper answer came out. The Heavenly Demon ran without fail the moment I revealed my mana. Was there really no way to reach him?

And so, once again, right now. We sat there, sighing over and over, heads in our hands.

"Wait."

A brilliant idea struck me right then.

"The Heavenly Demon... can't reuse a technique once he's used it, right?"

"...Right?"

"Then wouldn't his needle technique also stop working once it's been broken through once?"

"There might be more than one type, but... once he's used them all up, that should be it, right?"

"Then what if I keep my mana hidden and let him burn through his entire needle arsenal on light containment attempts?"

"The Heavenly Demon would run out of needles to use..."

"And if I unleash my mana right there..."

"He'd have no way left to keep me at bay, so he'd be exposed to the chill as is?"

It wasn't an easy path. But it was a certain one.