Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer
Vol. 5 - Ch. 239

(Hmm, how to deal with him now...?)

Now that they had the upper hand in numbers, Tenji ceased the juggle of his thought, and started to contemplate in clear fashion.

Alone, his mind had been focused on how to deal with that nuisance of a dark cloak, how to directly deal damage to Hai, and incapacitate him from fighting while keeping him alive.

And to further put him off, his calling was «Hell Beast Summon»; one that specializes in torturing and killing people. Needless to say, he hadn’t no means to catch him alive… until now.

(It may not be something you like, Hai-san…… but going with that is better than exhausting ourselves.)

Now that he wasn’t alone, he could focus on dealing with that power of darkness. It wasn’t some brain-wrecking task—he just needed to disrupt the leeway in energy Hai had that allowed him to be constantly in darkness.

And he just happened to have that technique to deal with the current situation. He needed to accomplish this, while Mizue Katsunari, his friend, should be enough to deal with the aftermath.

“Argh, I can’t freaking move well. What should I do… right, I shall start by butchering you.”

Akin to melting into the ground, Hai disappeared amidst the darkness.

In the wake, a silence reigned on the battlefield. Not even a slightest disturbance could be heard from Hai after he had disappeared in the darkness—which had been basically everywhere.

The sky wore the color of dusk, the night time reigned supreme by darkness.

He could have shown himself from anywhere.

In lieu of this, Mizue channeled every ounce of his concentration into his sense. To not lead around by eyes, he was perceiving the situation via the entire five senses.

Abruptly, a faint bloodlust directed at him from behind.

Mizue immediately slashed behind—he was planning to strike just as the opponent left the darkness.

However Fwoosh!, the sword cut through nothing but empty air.

A faint color of surprise adorned Mizue’s face.

“A feint?”

“Hiihii, now die.”

From his flank, Mizue heard Hai’s voice. Apparently, he had used teleportation to create a bluff earlier.

Targeting Mizue’s heart, Hai lunged with a sharp spear made from bundled threads of darkness.

However—Hai's attack also ended up slicing through empty air.

"What a straightforward attack.”

Sensing something amiss, Mizue used his flexibility and bent backward, akin to falling motion. He then maneuvered with nary a pause, and followed through by swinging the sword in his left hand diagonally upward, aiming for Hai's neck.

But Hai leaned back just in time, narrowly avoiding the strike.

The exchange of attacks akin to treading on thin ice was far from the level of amateurs high-schoolers, striking through the level of top-class professional’s battle scene even.

The exchange of attacks and defenses clearly surpassed the level of ordinary students.

The battle, and by extension their lives, hinged on who could outwit their opponent in the game of prediction of other parties' moves.

Tenji, who marveled at that sight, remembered he wasn’t here as mere audience to a battle.

"Finally caught you."

Too abruptly, Tenji had grabbed hold of Hai's dark head with his hand.

Both combatants had been pushing themselves to the limit, engaging in intense dodges and counterattacks.As they had locked in a stalemate, Tenji put his prediction—Hai would be able to use his teleportation in the next 1.5 seconds. After going through his fighting experience, he had roughly pinned down the cooldown time of teleportation was 5 seconds.

Five seconds might seem insignificant.

However, for explorers of this caliber, five seconds could be a decisive, fatal span of time.

When he had fought Hai earlier, Tenji couldn’t act accordingly to make his move and decisively deal with him. But the situation was unlike before, he had an exceptional professional to support him.

Tenji wasn’t going to miss the chance.

"—May the dead receive their bloom."

It was a chant mirroring Ibuki Douji’s from that fateful day.

Blossom, O Hell King’s Blade. ‘Tis the time to grant the dead their spring—Tenji chanted the verse with an expression akin to a demon.

With brute strength, Tenji lifted Hai with one hand and flung him high into the air.

(So light... Is this part of Mizue's ability?)

Tenji was surprised when he felt how lightweight Hai was.

Sky had no room to allow an escape. Still, Hai frantically darted his gaze around, trying to find darkness that could caught him.

“Hiihiiii!”

Hai smirked when he found the way—but, he was too late by then.

ThumpHai's heart beat with a bizarrely loud rhythm. It became hot. It was as if something had been rampaging inside his body. He managed to worm inside the darkness, but he couldn’t push down that burning sensation.

“Blossom, O’ dead.”

Tenji pulled the trigger. Immediately, red and white flames—appearing out of thin air—gushes out of Hai’s body. Like a rabid dog made to go through hunger for a hundred days, the flames rampaged, searching for even tiniest of crevices inside his body to appear out from.

And for the finale, in the space dyed in darkness, a huge flaming flower of red and white fire bloomed.

“Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!?!?!”

Under the torment, Hai could no longer maintain his flippant attitude, and an anguished howl escaped his mouth.

Mimicking the hell flame of torture that Ibuki Douji had shown to Tenji, it was an original technique of Tenji. It lacks in might compared to the original, and Ibuki Douji could activate it without a touch as well. However Tenji had yet to achieve that.

He needed to both touch his opponent, and be in his Turn Oni mode to use it. But with that trade-off, he had been now capable of using similar ability.

“Ahhhhhhhhh—argggh…!?!?”

After several seconds, Hai’s howling had reduced to small cries. At the same time, the cloak of darkness around him burst off.

“It's up to you now, Mizue-kun.”

“Already on the move.”

A soft smile spread on Tenji’s otherwise demonic visage as he gave his friend the call. Mizue also stood up to his friend’s word, taking out a lump of iron the size of a 500 yen coin from his waist pouch. He tossed it in the direction of Hai.

The strength behind the throw had been on par with the national baseball player’s pitch.

“—«Switch Location».”

The instant he uttered those words, Mizue vanished from beside Tenji. Instead, there was now the lump of iron that he had tossed earlier.

Tenji darted his gaze and quickly spotted him beside the screaming Hai. His hand on his body.

“Art of Restrain—«Psych Drain Water».”

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