The day before the dungeon exploration. It was the day El’s armor would be completed.
After El and I finished getting ready in the morning, we quickly had breakfast and sped through the skies of the royal capital with a spatial kick.
“BOOOOORG—! I’m here to pick up the armor—!”
It was too early, and the armor shop was closed, as expected. I had heard that Borg’s home was on the second floor, so I tried to enter with a spatial kick, but El stopped me, so now I was loudly calling him out.
“NOISY—!”
Just as I thought the door had been violently opened, Borg came out with a vein bulging on his forehead.
“Borg, I’ve come to pick up the armor.”
“Before that, don’t you have something to say?!”
When I had ??? above my head, Borg got even angrier.
“First, apologize! Shouting so loud this early in the morning!”
“Ah, sorry. Is this good?”
“…Haa, fine. So, what is it?”
“I came to get the armor.”
“It’s over there…”
El and I immediately took off our clothes and equipped the armor.
After equipping all the armor, I lightly fired up the new thrusters to check usability.
“Oh. Not bad.”
“I see. How about you, Elphas? I changed the position of your shield and such quite a bit.”
“I’ll try it…”
El also lightly fired up the thrusters to check the usability.
As expected of El. He skillfully operated thrusters he had hardly ever used before.
After checking all movements, including the magic shield, I thanked Borg and quickly returned to the mansion with a spatial kick.
The reason I was in such a hurry was that before tomorrow’s dungeon exploration, I wanted to check how usable the armor was and do the mock battles I thought of earlier.
Me: dual-wield daggers VS El: dual-wield daggers
Me: one-handed sword and shield VS El: one-handed sword and shield
Me: one-handed sword and shield VS El: dual-wield daggers
I wanted to see what results came out of these combinations… If it was easy to use, then maybe a magic shield and a magic weapon (one-handed sword) could also be good.
I faced El in the back of the mansion. Considering that we were being watched, I forbade jumping all the way to the second floor.
For some reason, there was a huge gallery…
Grandpa, Dad, Mom, Clara, Teacher Anna, Faristea, Yuri, Serie, and so on…
“El, is that alright?”
“Please wait a little longer.”
El was holding two wooden training knives and swinging and thrusting them to check the movement of his body.
After about five minutes of swinging the daggers, El seemed ready.
“Brother, thank you for waiting.”
“Alright, then let’s do this.”
“Yes.”
First, as a sort of warm-up, El came at me wielding two daggers.
Thrusts, sweeping slashes, leg techniques—things I usually did—but when I was on the receiving end, the attacks came so fast that there was no time to counter.
As I continued to focus solely on defense, next El started swinging a magic weapon, a greatsword.
It seemed El wasn’t used to handling a greatsword, and after the swing, there was a moment of vulnerability, so I didn’t hesitate to attack.
El took a step back to regroup.
Now, clearly getting serious, El throttled the Vernier engines and charged at me.
I dodged to the right, but El also fired the Vernier and followed my movements.
I shouted inside my head, “This behavior is cheating!” but after all, it was originally my own movement. Gritting my teeth, I somehow managed to parry El’s attacks.
In the end, El had some potential, but since it was his first time using dual daggers, I ended up winning.
But if El trained seriously in dual dagger wielding, I wouldn’t have any confidence in winning……
“Brother, you’re strong.”
“No… El… it’s your first time using dual daggers, right?”
“Yes.”
“I realized for the first time that I’m actually scared of you……”
El smiled wryly and denied it.
“Alright then, next. Both of us will use a shield and a one-handed sword, okay?”
“Yes.”
I equipped my wooden one-handed sword and the shield I used with the knights, and for a while, I checked my movements. After about five minutes, once I felt satisfied with my own performance, I stood in front of El.
Maybe because I wasn’t used to it, when I held the shield in my left hand, the poor visibility and the shield’s weight made it difficult to move as usual.
“Brother, is it okay?”
“Anytime is fine.”
Facing me, El slowly approached as if gauging me.
As I waited patiently, El suddenly stepped in once he reached striking distance.
I blocked El’s one-handed sword with my shield and countered!
He blocked with his shield, and we ended up in a standoff, each blocking the other’s sword with our shields…
I deflected the one-handed sword with my shield and took a step back.
“El, you’re good.”
“Brother… are you really not used to the shield?”
“This is the first time I’ve used it seriously.”
“…You’re better than Gaius, Mark, and Tifa.”
“Well, thanks. Now then…”
At the shout, I launched a surprise attack on El, but he easily blocked it with his shield.
Even if I moved like El, there was no way I could win, and it wasn’t what I sought.
“El, I’ll fight in my own way.”
“…Yes.”
I transformed my one-handed sword into a magic weapon (greatsword) and charged at El.
El blocked the downward strike from the high stance of my magical greatsword with his shield.
I immediately bashed.
When El faltered, I followed up with a high right kick.
Then, as he lost his balance, I prepared Reactive Armor, canceled the magic weapon, and pursued him with my one-handed sword.
When El deployed his magical shield on the left side to stop the sword, I charged with a frontal bash using Reactive Armor!
Just before it landed on El, he escaped backward using his thrusters.
“Brother, that’s scary, isn’t it…”
El said that, emanating a murderous aura unlike before.
From there on, it was El’s serious side, the one called the ‘Knight of Carnage.’
After that, no matter how tricky I tried to move, El immediately responded, and it ended entirely with El in the dominant position.
“I give up…”
It was only five minutes after El had gotten serious that I showed my intention to surrender.
There wasn’t anything particularly special. It was simply a matter of lacking strength.
In particular, there was an overwhelming gap in skill when it came to using a shield.
Not just blocking, but sometimes intentionally withdrawing to let my force escape…
Deliberately twisting the shield to release force in an unexpected direction…
It felt like the way El used the shield, which I hadn’t noticed when using a dagger, constantly threw me off balance.
“El, did you recently learn that way of releasing force?”
El answered with a bitter expression.
“It’s been like this for a long time. In practice battles with my brother, I rarely had the chance to use it properly…”
Apparently, he’d been using it since long ago… Sorry, El.
It was about time for lunch. I called out to the gallery.
“Shall we have lunch soon?”
Faristea, Teacher Anna, Yuri, and Dad…
Everyone was looking at us with exasperated faces, but Dad was the worst…
Come to think of it, I’d never shown Dad a practice battle before.
His face was pale, dark circles under his eyes, as if a death omen were emerging.
“F-Father… Are you all right?”
I called out without thinking, but with eyes that didn’t focus, he muttered just one word, “I’m fine…,” and retreated to his room.
I sighed and left it to my mother as she went into her room.
El and I exchanged glances and moved to have lunch.
“El, this afternoon I’ll use the shield and one-handed sword, and you’ll use the twin daggers.”
“Yes. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me too.”
As I was talking with El, Ashera came in.
“After that, a mock battle with me too.”
“Ah, I’ll face you with the shield and one-handed sword.”
“Sister Ashera, I’ll go with twin daggers.”
We had lunch, took a short break, and recovered our strength and energy.
After the break———–
After the post-meal rest, we were fully prepared.
“El, how are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, brother.”
“Then, let’s go.”
“Yes.”
I equipped a shield in my left hand and a one-handed sword in my right, while El wielded two daggers.
I was more excited than I expected for a sparring match with equipment completely opposite to usual.
I waited, shield raised, for El to charge at me.
El used a combination of dagger swings and foot techniques, even showing off with magical weapons (great swords) at will.
Among them, the most troublesome was the Vernier. Its movements, fundamentally different from those of living beings, made my reactions inevitably a moment too slow.
Even when I tried to strike back with my one-handed sword, El would use the Vernier to escape backward.
“El, I know it’s strange for me to say this, but the Vernier… it’s really hard to deal with…”
“I understand…”
El replied with a wry smile.
We reset once, and this time I took the offensive.
Reactive Armor. This style really did make Reactive Armor easy to use.
El tried to trigger the Reactive Armor by hitting it with Wind Bullet, but I evaded with the Vernier and charged in.
It was almost a forced suicide attack, but with the Vernier, I was able to move like that.
Bash with Reactive Armor included.
El activated the magic shield on the right side, but it couldn’t completely block the force, and he was blown back about three meters.
“I give up…”
We could still fight, but there was a rule among us that when we took a good attack, we yielded.
Otherwise, one might get seriously injured—or in the worst case, killed.
El and I lowered our guard and moved closer to each other.
“Brother, you’re strong.”
“You’re the one who’s stronger.”
El shook his head and answered.
“It was just my brother’s final attack. I realized that with the Vernier, I can make a forceful attack using Reactive Armor.”
“Ah, that’s scary.”
Reactive Armor takes explosions at close range, so its original attack power is high.
Being able to hit forcefully with it meant El had gained one more card up his sleeve.
“I’m tired. Shall we go back and take a break?”
“Yes, let’s.”
As El and I tried to return to the mansion, Ashera stood in our way as if to block us.
“Your promise with me.”
El and I exchanged a glance and shared a wry smile, thinking, ‘The final boss is here.’
In the end, our mock battle with Ashera ended with both El and me getting beaten up badly.
However, thanks to the shield, I didn’t feel as much pressure from Ashera’s attacks as usual.
I was able to reaffirm that compatibility really matters in battles. Moreover, the Vernier’s movements were more than effective even against Ashera.
Just having this gain made the fact that I got beaten to a pulp worthwhile… It surely was worthwhile…
From tomorrow, we would resume exploring the labyrinth. During this break, I also thoroughly trained with ultra-vibration, and now I could activate it in six seconds.
It might be difficult to shorten this any further in a short period of time.
In the battle against the Earth Dragon, El and I would use ultra-vibration, and Ashera would try out her magic fists.
Tomorrow was when the real action began. I planned to stay focused and proceed.
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