His attacks were extraordinarily fast.
He vanished and suddenly reappeared so quickly that I could have mistaken it for Teleportation.
‘No. Perhaps it is not a mistake?’
Even when I tried to sense his presence, I could detect no trace of movement whatsoever.
WHOOSH!
BANG! BABANG!
The spear he wielded tore through the air.
‘…There is no killing intent? Is he playing with me? Or is he trying to make me dismantle the Sharp Matte Thread surrounding the Guardian Stones?’
I could barely evade whenever I heard the air being split.
Each attack missed me by only a hair, and wounds gradually accumulated across my body.
“Heh heh. What happened to all that confidence from earlier?”
Wielding the spear and shield I had given Park Gilsu, the bastard blinked around the area and continuously attacked my blind spots.
‘He is stronger than I expected. Even a Time Acceleration user should not be capable of this.’
The speed at which he disappeared was astonishing.
No matter how powerful a Time Acceleration user was, they inevitably left some trace of their presence.
By expanding my Sensory Perception, I could normally read and avoid their attacks.
However, this man produced no detectable presence while moving. I could sense him only when he swung his spear.
More precisely, that was not Sensory Perception either.
It was the trembling of the air.
I rapidly detected the traces created by the spear splitting through the air and evaded.
With my current Stats, that should have been impossible.
However, the fool stubbornly attacked only from my blind spots.
Had he attacked honestly from various directions, my reactions would have been too slow.
Blind spots, however, were limited. As long as I prepared for them in advance, avoiding his attacks was not particularly difficult.
‘It is almost fortunate that he is carrying weapons.’
Had he attacked without the spear and shield, I could not have avoided everything like this.
The weight of the weapons created larger disturbances in the air whenever he moved.
Nevertheless, his attacks were so stealthy that the slightest lapse in concentration could leave me impaled.
SWISH-
SWISHSWISHSWISH!!
“Wow, you are the first person who has dodged me this well. Do you have eyes in the back of your head?”
“If an attack that slow hit me, my ancestors for three generations would be ashamed.”
“What? Heh heh. You think this is slow? Let us see how long you can continue walking that tightrope.”
I continued observing him closely even as I spoke.
He had already attacked through dozens of exchanges, yet his breathing remained perfectly steady.
‘…Is that even possible?’
That degree of composure should not have been possible at this stage.
Even if he had invested every Stat Point into Vitality, recklessly using his ability like that should have left him at least slightly breathless.
‘His ability is acceleration, is it not?’
Wondering whether I had overlooked something, I carefully considered the matter while avoiding his attacks.
<The feet of Hermes meet Arachne and burn away in the sun like Icarus’s wings.>
The feet of Hermes probably referred to his winged shoes.
In that case, the ability obviously involved Gliding and acceleration.
‘Am I making a fundamental mistake? It could be a different ability.’
Time Acceleration accelerated the user’s personal time, allowing them to move faster than their surroundings.
It ordinarily consumed an enormous amount of Vitality.
I knew that with certainty because I had once learned such a skill myself.
Using it felt like trying to walk quickly through deep water.
Its effects were equally remarkable, but it eventually became useless against people who had developed senses beyond ordinary sight.
During the later stages, the benefits became too insignificant compared to the Vitality consumption.
There were many better movement-related skills.
“HAAH!!”
BOOOOM!
BAAAANG!!
A prolonged gunshot echoed through the area.
The moment my bayonet struck the shield in his hands, I pulled the trigger.
However, the shield bore nothing more than a scorch mark, while the bastard himself remained unharmed.
‘Damn it. Did I make that shield too durable?’
I could not create distance and unleash a barrage of bullets either.
Against an acceleration user, any projectile that was not fired at point-blank range moved no faster than a paper airplane.
“Oho. You managed to counterattack during that opening? I am beginning to doubt that you truly entered the tower only recently. Even with Guardian Selection, your Level should still be low, yet you possess reactions like these. Or are you an acceleration user as well?”
“I already told you. I cannot allow three generations of my family to be ashamed. I am practically yawning, so why do you not try a little harder?”
“Ha! What an obvious bluff.”
It was indeed a bluff.
If he became even slightly faster, not even I would be able to evade him.
That counterattack had only been possible because he exposed an opening.
Rather than striking once and immediately disappearing to another position, he had remained in place and unleashed a continuous assault.
That allowed me to evade and block before counterattacking.
‘Something is strange. His consecutive attacks were not fast at all. They truly were slow enough to make me yawn.’
If he genuinely possessed Time Acceleration, that flurry should also have been absurdly fast.
I would have been helpless against it.
However, he displayed that grotesque speed only when disappearing from one place and appearing in another.
‘Does he deliberately deactivate the acceleration during consecutive attacks to conserve Vitality?’
It was possible, but why would he bother?
He was still moving energetically without even breathing hard.
Would someone in that condition already need to conserve Vitality?
“Heh heh. I will continue playing with you. Let us see how long you can maintain that ridiculous bravado!”
SWISHSWISH-!!
BANG! BANG! BOOOOM!
Several exchanges of attack and defense passed in an instant.
Whenever he appeared suddenly and attacked, I narrowly evaded.
When he followed with consecutive strikes, I blocked appropriately, counterattacked, and exchanged offense and defense with him.
I still felt no killing intent in his attacks.
‘This is strange. Even if he finds me easy to handle, he does not know when our reinforcements might arrive. He is far too relaxed.’
At the very least, he should have displayed the intent to kill me.
I had claimed that I knew how to dismantle the Sharp Matte Thread, but he had no reason to waste time fighting me for that purpose.
If dismantling it was difficult, he could simply tear it apart quickly.
No matter how sharp the thread was or how densely it had been tangled, he could deactivate his acceleration and slowly dismantle the trap.
That might take less time than fighting me.
Even if I interfered, he only had to kill me.
Given the overwhelming difference between us, there was no reason for him to pay me any special attention.
He could simply kill me and take everything.
‘Come to think of it, Park Gilsu and the remaining team members were only unconscious or exhausted. None of them were dead.’
It was an absurd hypothesis, but···
‘He cannot kill anyone.’
There had to be some kind of Penalty.
A Penalty that prevented him from killing.
When a skill was powerful enough to disrupt the balance, severe Penalties were sometimes imposed if its user lacked sufficient ability.
Perhaps this was one of those cases.
However, as far as I knew, abilities associated with Hermes possessed no such Penalty.
They merely consumed Vitality inefficiently.
‘And on top of that, it carries a Penalty that forbids killing?’
That made no sense.
A worthless skill like that would never have been given the name of Hermes.
‘Wait…?’
The bastard had stolen and equipped the items I had made for Park Gilsu.
One of the Radioactive Shield’s effects was to reduce Vitality continuously.
That shield was one reason I was currently breathing so heavily.
Whenever I managed to counterattack, the shield blocked it, and my Vitality rapidly drained.
However, the bastard’s Vitality had not decreased at all.
“Phew- Phew-.”
“What is wrong? Are you already exhausted? You look half dead.”
“Phew… How are you still perfectly fine?”
“Because I am strong. What an obvious question.”
His first word trembled for the briefest instant.
It resembled the momentary stammer of someone whose sore spot had been struck.
The reaction was brief, but it had undoubtedly occurred.
“Park Gilsu.”
“Phew. Yes… I will join the fight.”
Park Gilsu clutched his trembling legs and barely managed to stand behind the bastard.
“Heh heh. Why not remain seated instead of trembling like a chick? Whether there is one of you or two, it makes no difference to me.”
He was right.
Park Gilsu joining the battle would not significantly change anything.
“The riddles. You have two remaining, correct?”
“……!”
“You have one minute.”
“Yes!”
The moment Park Gilsu answered, I launched my first offensive.
“What? Riddles, in the middle of this? Are you insane?”
When he saw me charging toward him, the bastard gave a disbelieving laugh and vanished.
THUDTHUDTHUD!!
BOOM. BANG! THUD!
‘Urgh.’
I finally suffered a solid hit.
The flat of the spearhead struck me rather than piercing my body, but the attack confirmed one thing.
“You cannot kill people, can you?”
“…What?”
I immediately continued attacking without giving him time to think.
I no longer defended myself.
“Are you genuinely insane!?”
It was a strategy of Mutual Destruction.
Even when his spear targeted my throat, I closed the distance and swung my bayonet at him.
SWISH!
“Urgh!”
As expected.
He could have pierced my throat, yet he chose to retreat.
“Heh heh. Is it a Penalty?”
The positions had been reversed.
His face flushed crimson, and he forced out a derisive snort.
“Bullshit. I simply refuse to let someone like you take even a single thread from my clothes! Just die already!!”
Despite his words, his attacks still contained no killing intent.
They resembled playful blows, like someone lightly shoving a friend.
They would injure me if they landed, but they could never inflict a fatal wound.
THUD! THUDTHUDTHUD!!
BOOM! BOOOOM!!
The battle became evenly matched.
I continued attacking with a willingness to trade bone for flesh.
The bastard avoided as many of my attacks as possible while launching an even faster offensive than before.
His blows accumulated across my body, leaving me swollen and bruised.
However, injuries of this degree could never render me incapable of fighting.
If anything, the damage appeared to be accumulating more heavily on him.
His breathing remained steady, as though his Vitality had not diminished, but he could no longer conceal the panic on his face.
“D-damn it!!”
“Go ahead. Kill me.”
BOOOOM!!
However, if the damage continued accumulating, I might eventually exhaust myself and collapse like Park Gilsu and the others.
The bastard, meanwhile, remained energetic despite his growing panic.
No matter how recklessly I pursued Mutual Destruction, inflicting a fatal injury upon someone who could block with the shield or evade in an instant remained nearly impossible.
“I-I found it!!”
Park Gilsu shouted.
“Say it!”
“Th-the Queen of Sparta never left Egypt, yet the tragedy of Troy still occurred!”
…What?
It was a completely unexpected riddle that seemed unrelated to Hermes.
“And… only Orpheus can find the vanished Hermes’ Shoes….”
The final riddle at least appeared relevant, but Park Gilsu’s voice gradually weakened.
He seemed ashamed that he could not interpret the riddles from Sphinx of Thebes and immediately explain the enemy’s weakness.
“What kind of ridiculous trick is this? Playing riddles all of a sudden? Have you lost your minds?!”
The bastard seemed disturbed by something.
He attacked even more fiercely, trying to prevent me from continuing my thoughts.
However, I already knew that he could not kill me.
I concentrated entirely on evasion and defense to minimize the damage.
This was not the time to brawl with him.
It was time to solve the riddle.
‘The Queen of Sparta, Egypt, and Troy.’
The Trojan War began with the abduction of Helena, the Queen of Sparta.
However, if the Queen of Sparta never left Egypt, that meant the abduction had never occurred.
A thought flashed through my mind.
‘The Queen of Sparta was named Helena.’
And there was undoubtedly a skill associated with Helena.
‘Helena’s Illusion.’
A skill that created an illusion.
‘But that is an Infiltration Skill…?’
What did it have to do with Time Acceleration···?
“Ah!”
At last, I understood his trick.