WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 304: The regressor fights (23)

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"Thrusts... those are fine. Cuts too. But my response when the blades lock is still a bit weak. Right now Heavenly Demon's strength is around the same as mine, so locking blades works, but I need to think about how to respond if he suddenly puts more force into it. He might pull a trick like deliberately going slack, like last time, so I need to watch for that too. Oh, and when I'm blocking attacks near the lower body..."

"Jun-ho."

"A sword has to block the line, not the plane, in the end. You can angle the blade flat and block with the plane, but that depends heavily on how rigid the sword is. Even if the sword I'm using is a dwarven masterwork, unless it's Bung-bung tier, swinging it around carelessly could break it. So keep that in mind at all times..."

"Jun-ho!"

"Uh, yeah. Ji-won. What?"

"Let's go back to reality and rest for a bit."

A quiet restaurant. This place ran strictly on reservations, and Choi Ji-won said she'd been introduced through some government contact, passed along a few hands.

"This is good."

The portions were small overall, but the food tasted good. Still, I couldn't help thinking, is this really worth what we're paying? Even after becoming financially free, that thought still crossed my mind, so I guess a person's core habits don't change that easily.

"Jun-ho, look at this."

I was eating the tart that came out for dessert when Ji-won showed me her phone screen.

-Creepy creepy... the NPC illness that's apparently trending among teens these days...txt

"...What is this?"

"You said people look like NPCs to you these days, right? I searched it on Google and this came up."

"...Are you insane?"

"Pfft, hehe..."

"Ha, no..."

I let out a chuckle and finished the tart. Sweet music, good food, good company, good time.

I sipped my green tea, silently repeating some line a used car dealer might post on their Instagram story. Ji-won had probably brought me here because she had something to say, so I waited patiently.

"So, how are you feeling these days? Doing okay?"

Choi Ji-won asked carefully.

"About what?"

"Lately it just feels like... all you do is fight. I only keep fragments of my memory, so I don't really know how many times you've regressed... but it feels like it's been a lot."

"Hm."

Had Ji-won been worried about my state? I thought she was going to bring up something else entirely.

"I'm fine. Really. It's honestly kind of fun, too."

"...Is that right?"

"Yeah. I can really feel myself getting stronger, so there's a thrill to the fighting."

"..."

"As for the mental side... honestly, it's not great. But I think it's temporary."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. Repeating regressions in the same environment over and over messes with your head a bit. But I had a completely normal conversation with the waiter earlier, didn't I?"

"..."

I couldn't remember Ji-won ever being the one to suggest we go rest first. Had I looked that bad off? It left me with a strange, mixed feeling, a little annoyed but also glad she was worried about me. Maybe part of me had wanted to push myself too hard.

"I'm fine. I'm fine."

But now was the time to fight. Now was the time to push myself.

I'd cracked Heavenly Demon's swordsmanship. Next was the spear. Next was the hidden weapons. Next was... next was...

There was still a mountain of martial arts left to conquer. The road ahead stretched long and far. I could see the peak I had to climb, and I couldn't stop here.

"I can feel it. Right now is my time."

I needed to get stronger.

Despite what I'd boasted to Choi Ji-won, I didn't become dramatically stronger. There was no terrifying epiphany in swordsmanship. I just got a little better at what I was already doing.

In contrast, my progress against Heavenly Demon sped up in a genuinely frightening way. I'd already grown used to every sword style he used, and now the other martial arts were slowly starting to feel familiar too.

Call it a side-grade rather than an upgrade. I'd gained flexibility, I guess you could say.

"When the opponent has longer reach... it's actually better to put extreme distance between us. Hovering near the edge of their range just puts me at a disadvantage. Better to close the gap in one sudden rush and create a variable."

For all my progress, my swordsmanship still leaned heavily toward offense. It was a style built to take the opponent down before I got hurt. That was its core, and also my will, poured into the blade.

The problem was that a genius on Heavenly Demon's level grasped the essence of my swordsmanship instantly. That was why the techniques he pulled out were all specialized for countering, or built around long reach to toy with me unilaterally. He wanted to keep me at bay without giving me any room to attack, and cycle after cycle, I steadily built up countermeasures against it.

"...You bastard."

"Hff."

At some point, Heavenly Demon set the spear down. Next he picked up the whip. Then the axe. Then the bow. Then the scythe. He mixed in hidden weapons here and there too, but not blatantly like before, so I could handle it.

"Gah...! Insane..."

"You fear injury. Why is that?"

Sometimes, Heavenly Demon went straight for my skin, deliberately. Probably from his side it was nothing more than a simple probe, but from mine it was fucking lethal. That was the first cycle where his sharp powers of observation caught on to the fact that I was afraid of getting hurt.

"...No, I need to mix in bluffs too?"

It occurred to me that in high-level combat, not just against Heavenly Demon, this weakness of mine could get exploited the same way. After that, I deliberately started mixing in bluffs. Pretending I wasn't afraid of injury, pretending I was fine, pretending to trade flesh for bone. Early in the regressions my acting was clumsy, so if anything Heavenly Demon went after my skin even more relentlessly, but eventually even he got fooled. Then again, there were hardly any martial artists out there who feared injury in the first place.

The weapons Heavenly Demon used kept growing in number. He'd used what looked like more than two-thirds of the weapons scattered on the ground, and his expression gradually went blank. Considering how he used to wear a fierce grin or a smug little smile, I'd say his composure was slowly draining away.

If Choi Ji-won had been given enough time, she probably could have done the same thing I was doing. No, she probably would have done it even better. She'd tossed the job of fighting Heavenly Demon to me because she knew this moment was a priceless opportunity for my growth.

This was exactly why I liked Choi Ji-won. She knew I would suffer, and it pained her to know that, but she pushed me forward anyway. Because she knew it was for my own good, and because she knew that someday I'd be grateful for it.

That wasn't something you could do if all you feared was being resented. It meant a deep, solid trust in me was sitting underneath it all. Just as much as I trusted Choi Ji-won, Choi Ji-won trusted me. Though I don't think she expected me to throw myself into it quite this hard.

Time passed. In the repeating loop, the only thing that stayed whole was my soul. Heavenly Demon got pushed further and further onto the defensive, and I forced him to reach for more and more different weapons.

There was a strange thrill in seeing Heavenly Demon, who'd once been so strong, cornered like this. Honestly, from his side, I must have looked like an unreasonable enemy. He'd carefully deliberate and pull out martial arts meant to exploit my weaknesses, only for me to have already fully mastered that exact martial art.

Of course, Heavenly Demon used those unique eyes of his to pull out weapons and techniques I hadn't adapted to yet, forcing me back into regression, but even that was starting to run its course. The gap in information. The gap in experience. I knew Heavenly Demon far too well, and though he could see through me too, his remaining hand was thin. This was a fight I couldn't lose.

It was right around when I started thinking I might actually be able to beat Heavenly Demon completely.

"Truly... bizarre."

Heavenly Demon burst out in a hollow laugh.

"Who are you?"

"..."

"Who could you possibly be, to hate me so, and yet seem so accustomed to me, calmly parrying my attacks like this? Everyone who has ever seen me fight in earnest, I have killed. The only exceptions are archangels, yet I sense none of their aura from you. This is unreasonable. Thoroughly unreasonable."

He nudged the countless weapons scattered on the ground aside with his foot.

"I will admit it. You are... a difficult opponent. My road ahead is long, so I will make you a very generous offer."

He turned his palm toward me. That distinctly beastman hand extended in my direction.

"I will guarantee the safety of you and your companion. What say we each go our own way, for now?"

"..."

Instinctively, I realized this was a fork in the road. If I accepted this offer, I might be able to dig up some information. Thinking ahead, that would have been the right move.

"Get lost."

But my pride had been wounded just then. There was still confidence in that bastard's tone, the confidence that he could still kill me. What Heavenly Demon felt wasn't a sense of crisis, but irritation. I didn't like that one bit.

"...I see."

Heavenly Demon withdrew his palm. He slowly curled his open hand shut.

"There's no helping it, then."

He clenched his fist. Took his stance.

"I will kill you."

He unleashed the pitch-black mana from within his body. Death, given form, ruled the space. My breath caught in my throat, but I gripped my sword tight.

Heavenly Demon no longer held back his power.

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