With ruffled yellow hair tied in a red bandana. Eyes that leave a striking impression, a face which gives a friendly vibe caught my eyes.
But the thing that took his interest more is his condition.
âYou, you can fly?â
Thatâs what I like to hear from him, or so. I was sure I hit him at that time. I intended to catch him at the exact moment while heâs still in the air.
But the instant the sword hit, that spiritâs presence vanished from that place. He evaded instantly, as if he was using some kind of booster.
Therefore I came with the opinion that he can move to the sky freely.
âNope, I canât do those things you know?â
ââŚâŚâŚâŚâ
âI merely jumped out to begin withâ
ââŚâŚjumped?â
âReally. I just felt like itâ
He made a big jump in the sky as he said so. I traced him with my eyes, not getting him away from my sights. As he was about to reach the ground,
BOFU!
Then, Tennâs feet shine faintly, and jumped again to the sky from that place. Everytime he is about to fall he moves his feet in the air many times, and rises to the air again.
âThatâs too convenient!â
I see. This is why he was able to move at that timing. This guy canât fly in the sky. Instead he can jump in the air. Itâs just as he said.
ââŚâŚis that some kind of magical enchantment being stored on your feet, then discharged instantaneouslyâŚâŚ? Or, conjuring a small explosion of magical powerâŚâŚ?â
I unintentionally let out my bad habit of analyzing an unknown entity. Looking at Hiiro, who has his hand supporting his chin, Tenn tilts his neck and went down the ground.
âOď˝ii, can we continue?â
Tennâs words brought me back to my senses. Then pointing my sword to the opponent for the second time, I took a stance once again.
âI see. This is getting more of a pain in the ass than I thoughtâ
Another opening has vanished in my opponent. On the other hand, I canât even use magic here. Though there are some countermeasures, their effects are all weak.
Moreover, I canât grasp the ability of my opponent that has taken that form. If I were to put it, itâs very different from when he was still a monkeyâŚâŚ or rather, an overwhelming difference of power is gushing out in my opponent right now. Heâs like an absurd existence.
Though heâs not giving his full power yet, I can already feel the pressure way above the one I felt when I was battling with Shishiraiga.
While thinking how to catch him off-guard, Tenn disappeared in my scope.
â!?â
Being taken aback, I felt hostility from behind, and crouched down in an instant. The sound of something cutting the air ran above my head, and feeling a bad premonition I escaped from the spot immediately.
âI missedď˝, but that was only a greeting so you can avoid it easilyâ
Though his face sticking out his tongue annoys the hell out of me, there is no time for me to be angry right now. That was a tremendous movement. Itâs a simple movement but I couldnât even see a thing, and made me completely taken by surprise. Though I was able to avoid it because I felt the bloodlust, my whole body became cold, as if dousing cold water to a hot body.
(Furthermore he was not in full power yetâŚâŚ that movement, added to this Magic Nullifying ExistenceâŚâŚ youâve got to be kidding me)
I thought Shishiraiga was fast enough, but this Tenn was even faster. Of course, I didnât fall behind in my Peerless Mode back then, but sticking with nothing but my physical strength, frankly speaking, I can only barely catch up.
(is this the difference of the human model?)
It is incomparable from the time he was a monkey. Every movement, every attack of him makes my spine shiver. I have to make a breakthrough in one way or other or Iâll be dead.
âheyâ
Though calling him out of the blue made him raise his guard, his wariness subsided when he saw his opponent with his hands behind his head, smiling with a loose face.
âYou can manage Red Qi, can you? But from what I see, you canât seem to use it wellâ
ââŚâŚwho knows? Are you provoking me to let my guard down?â
âHmmmď˝ so you can do it to an extent, from what I can sense of youď˝â
He has seen through me. Having suddenly remembered, I put an unpleasant expression in my face. That reminds me, my opponent right now is an All-Seeing-Race. With this, there are no more cards available for me anymore.
âHmmmmď˝âŚâŚâŚâŚâŚâŚOh well. If you can master Red Qi then you might be able to match me, but this is fine for nowâ
ââŚâŚâŚâŚWha?â
I asked him again of his conclusion earlier.
âHmmď˝ You see, I didnât expect that you will drive me to use this form. And as there is no point in competing with you in this eitherâŚâŚâ
As Tenn said so, his body blurs slightly. I focused my eyes hard, but in an instant,
HYUNHYUNHYUNHYUNHYUN!
A series of Tenns filled up the surroundings and multiplied one after the other. I watched my surroundings while maintaining caution, but their numbers became too many to count.
âI can see through you, glasses bastardâ
âWhat did you say?â
I said it in order to probe him but he doesnât seem to budge either.
âThere is only one original body. Try to win this. But you have only one attack available. Can you do it? Show me what youâve gotâ
I observed without moving from my place. However, I canât tell the difference between the genuine article and the imitation.
âoioi, you are thinking that there are fakes in them, am I right? Wrong, wrong. All of them are real at the very leastâ
ââŚâŚ!?â
âAll of themâŚâŚare real!?â
With that power out of the standards, I almost yelled it out. Just thinking when they all attack makes me shiver. I may knock down several copies, but defeating all of them is indeed impossible in this situation.
âThe one Iâm talking about is the original body, in other words, the original! By the way, we wonât move from here, so get on with it already! Oh, I donât have the intentions to do it long soâŚâŚ you only have ten minutes!â
He said so, with an irritating smile resembling his monkey form a while ago. Even those who are in the air became stationary, as if they are floating, completely stopped in the air. Well, I donât have the time to wonder about such things.
(the original bodyâŚâŚwhere is it?)
I cannot tell the difference at all. I can only attack once. If I miss, Tenn wonât recognize me. Even if that monkey wonât accept me, I donât mind it at all, but Iâll end up being made fun of.
If Lilyn were to find this out, sheâll make a fool of me certainly.
I put up strength in my clenched hand and looked around once again.
(FineâŚâŚIâll make sure to win this game by all means)
While itâs good to aim to win by all means, I canât think of a great plan with this time passing.
âOra ora, whatâs the matter nowď˝â
A monkey bastard lands in the vicinity, but thereâs also some in the air as well as on the ground, so itâs truly irritating.
I can attack only once. Finding just one person from the midst of the enormous crowd is very difficult.
Even if I move and check them one by one wonât get me anywhere. His face shows a smile of sense of superiority, but I calmed my mind and observed all of the Tenns.
However, I canât see the difference between all of themâŚâŚ
(What a difficult ordeal you have given meâŚâŚ)
Even if I strain my eyes to death, I canât notice a single thing.
âEight minutes leftď˝â
Time passes by at every moment. If this continues, then distinguishing the original one from the rest wonât be possible. Though I can easily do it if I were to use magic, after coming here, I canât do but only praise the value of the magic Iâve taken for granted.
Even if I move around and verified each of the Tenns, I wonât be able to judge their differences.
âSix minutes leftď˝â
It gradually took my patience. I made my eyes look sharper on their every movement, but still there is no use.
(3rd Person POV)
âMaster! Donât give up desuzooď˝ďźâ
âNnâŚâŚHiiro can do itâ
Nikki and Camusâ cheers reaches towards my back. But no matter how much they cheer, the time just passes by because he couldnât do anything.
âAra, if you canât handle such trial satisfactorily, then you wonât be able to make a contract with a spirit even moreâ
A voice filled with thorns stung my back. Moving my sight, it was the princess that was being teased a while ago, sneering at me.
âNiĂąa-sama, though grandfather somewhat favors him for some reason, I think youâre overestimating him too muchâ
âFour minutesď˝â
In addition to the cheeky remarks of the princess, Tenn overlaps it with his countdown while pulling a grin. If I were to explode here, Iâll end up being treated as the immature one. So even though itâs irritating, I gave priority to the challenge that I must do for now.
âMumumu! Princess underestimates master way too much desuzoo!â
âEh? Wh-what?â
Nikki shouting all of a sudden made the princess exclaim in surprise.
âHiiroâŚâŚnot a foolâ
Camus too, retorts, causing her to show a state of confusion.
âBu-but this is as you can see! With this little time, how will he find a way to break through in this situation?â
It is what as she said. Therefore IÂ canât talk back.
Muuď˝ Still, master will do something about it!â
âHe canâŚâŚHiiroâs that personâ
âUuâŚâŚâ
The princess steps back in defeat to the pressure emitted by the two.
âN-no matter what you say, his situation is quite severe. This is a trial to make a contract with a Spirit, you know? Even though heâs a person from a different world, whatâs impossible is impossibleâ
With puffed-up cheeks, the two people opposed her, but instead of hearing the words of the princess, Hiiro focused his consciousness on the other matter.
(âŚâŚTrial to make a contract with a spiritâŚhuh. A spiritâŚâŚ)
Hiiro repeated the princessâ words in his mind, put the sword gently and stood still.
âHouâ Hoozuki who is watching Hiiroâs state suddenly exclaimed as if saying âwell done!â
âPrincessâ
âWhat?â
Hoozuki calling her suddenly made her ask in reflex.
âHavenât I always told you?â
ââŚâŚEh?â
âAs long as you donât give up, you will definitely see the lightâ
The princess kept silent to those words, and pouts in displeasure. But that expression immediately broke when she saw Hiiro with a serious face. As for the reason, it is because an unbelievable amount of magical power oozes out of him.
âWha-whatâs with this magic powerâŚâŚ!â
The amount of Magic power their thoughts is being released by Hiiroâs body, covering the entire barrier.
âHohoho, It seems that heâs harboring a power even beyond our imaginationsâ
The amount of magic power is so surprising that they all unintentionally gulped. And because the magic power passed though and surrounded the whole barrier, it is outside its influence⌠can Tenn be able to withstand this magical pressure?
âHow far will he keep on growing?â
NiĂąa beside them uttered a cry in surprise. Hiiroâs growth rate became an existence immeasurable for them.
âY-yeah, surely his magic power is enormous, but how will he distinguish the original body with thisâŚâŚAh!?â
âSo you have noticed too, princessâ
Then she was able to understand clearly why Hoozuki expects much from this man.
âEeeh, but this is too reckless!â
âHohoho, what an interesting ladâ
Traces of despise can no longer be felt from the princessâ eyes. Keeping silent, she only focused her attention on what will be the outcome of Hiiroâs action with her very own eyes.
(Tennâs POV)
âUu, what an incredible magic power!â
Tenn who was in the middle of the maelstrom was caught and was suffocating in the midst of pure magical power gushing out like a fountain.
(No way, this amount magic power even surpassed the Spirits!)
In terms of of magic power capacity, Spirits wonât lose compared to other races. Rather, for them whose entire existence is made up of magic power itself, this is not an exaggeration. As it is their predominant point, they took pride in their enormous amount of magic powerâŚâŚbut in the end, this man emitting such a great amount of magic power exceeded our expectations
ďźMoreover, the great amount of magic power is breaking away my Mind Control. This is badď˝)
(TN NOTE: Mind control is ĺżč¨ą(ăăăăă¨) in raws. Not sure if this is correct)
While thinking this, I turned my eyes on the perpetrator discharging his magic power. No matter how much magic power being released, it doesnât matter if you are unable to control it perfectly.
But from what IÂ see, he is not only releasing magic power, but also investigating each of the bodies by wrapping them of this.
No matter how much you divide and separate the distribution of magic power, the core which produces magic will always reside in the original body.
But because this magic power which enveloped the bodies is analyzing them carefully, the original body will be found in no time. The âcoreâ that produces magic. The thing that forms the spiritâs soul.
That is what the clones are lacking. Hiiro who became aware of that is examining the bodies by freely operating his magic as it is.
However, to do this, one must have precise control of their magic power, and if he keeps on releasing this great amount, it wonât be strange if he depletes his reserves early.
Though his thinking is quite correct, his method is too reckless.
(If this continues Iâm going to lose big time!)
Though he didnât intend to move normally and inspect them as what I expected, I declared to him that I wonât move from the spot.
His magic power hasnât spread in all the members yet. It hasnât even reached the original one either. Will he be able to maintain this release of magic power, or will it run out midway?
(Hehe, this is exciting! Letâs see how this one will come out!)
(Hiiroâs POV)
This gamble is quite rigged with disadvantages. But I have no other ideas. If I have a little more time, maybe I have thought of something better, but I canât risk anymore, so I decided with this.
A trial to make a contract with a spiritâŚâŚwith that princessâ words, I remembered what kind of existence the spirits were.
The spirits are magic in itself. Itâs existence is magic power in itself. It is not an exaggeration to say that their body is made up of enormous amount of magic power.
And I also remembered that the spirits have a âcoreâ that serves as the nucleus, or the source of their magic powers themselves. It is their unique part, and even if they split themselves like this, only one will exist, and thatâs in the original body.
Iâm still unsure of this. But this is only what I can think of. Therefore I thought, how am I going to look for the core? And came up with covering the entire barrier with my magic power to be able to check them all.
Magic reacts to magic. Therefore if I release magic power in my body, I judge that it will make a reaction to the âcoreâ of my opponent.
Though this aggressive action makes the heartbeat of the opponent shot up, because it doesnât make the other party any harm to be considered an attack, I feel relieved in doing this at least.
But this is the first time I did this, so itâs quite hard. Though I have released magic power many times, this one is a complex process of discharging magic in a big surge at once, maintaining it, and then concentrating in manipulating it to examine each magic entity.
And my feeling of exhaustion accelerates from that, to the point that Iâll fall down if I let my guard down a little. It was thanks to the large amount of magic power I have that I was able to make it till this point.
(But is this my limit? Itâs too slow! I havenât spread it in the entire whole yet!â
I grit my teeth while sweating like a waterfall. I feel like the weight of my body is gradually getting heavier and heavier as times pass.
I couldnât hear Tennâs countdown anymore. Perhaps because he was fretting in this tactic, too. For that, Iâm determined that Iâll surely win with this.
However, I lost my strength in my knees. No, not yet. If I fall here, I wonât be able to stand up anymore. Then it will be over.
(As if something like thisâŚâŚwill hold me back!)
I took a deep breath, then
âUOoooooooo!â
I squeezed out my remaining magic power in a burst. ThenâŚâŚ
(âŚâŚfound you!)
I opened my eyes in a glare, then approached the target I heavy steps. The opponentâs face gradually enters my view, with a face not grinning anymore like from earlier.
I put power my trembling fist and swung it as hard as I can.
SMACKâŚâŚ
A weak sound strikes the opponentâs cheek. There is hardly no damage, in reverse to their expectations. However, the attack is successful. But as for the target is the real one or notâŚâŚ
The moment I try to confirm it, my both legs have lost its strength. Still, I didnât separate my sight from the person in front.
ââŚâŚyouâre quite something, humanâ
The other partyâs mouth moved so, and my consciousness drifted to the darkness with a smile.
Rushbelle (Head Commander of the Demon Corps, let to the nose by Yuhito)
Havreed (Slender Captain of the Demon Army)
Eunice (Captain of the Demon Army who is formerly blindfolded and looks good in China Dress)
Judom Lankars (Reliable Guild Master)
Max (The Bearman friend of Arnold and as fat as a pig)
Leowald (Present Beast King, Battle Maniac)
Regulus (Wise first Prince of the Beast Country)
Lenion (Impertinent Second Prince of the Beast Country)
Kuclear (The first Princess of the Beast Country and somehow attracted to Hiiro?)
Mimir (Second Princess of the Beast Country, Hiiro nicknamed as Blue Ribbon and also likes Hiiro)
Blansa (Beast Countryâs Queen)
Barid (One of the Three Beast Warriors, Birdman)
Crouch (One of the Three Beast Warriors, nicknamed Nyan-girl. A girl pained by the urge to make Hiiro hers)
Putis (One of the Three Beast Warriors, enigmatic costume-wearing girl)
Rarashik (Combat Genius who invented the Binding Techniques, a Drinking Loli-baba and nicknamed Chibi-usagi)
Raiv (Arnoldâs elder sister, Head Maid and Cigarette Lover)
Yuhito (Rarashikâs Research Maniac Elder Brother)
Niniaho (Fairy Queen)
Orun (Noisy Red-haired Sprite)
Camus (Young chief of the Asura Tribe and faithful subordinate of Hiiro. His girl power is stronger than anyone)
Jinu (Camusâ assistant, nicknamed topknot guy by Hiiro)
Shivan (Old friend of Lilyn and Camusâ grandfather)
Rigund (Father of Camus, transformed into a demon causing his death)
Potnis (Head Priest of the Ordine Main Temple)
Avoros (Pevious Demon Lord and elder brother of Eveam, a beautiful shota)
Iraora (Former Cruel who killed Greyald)
Hiyomi (Avorosâ companion who harmed Camusâ father)
Kainavi (Tried to kill Hiiro, but is counterattacked by Lilyn and Camus)
Kokurou (Beastman with a dreadful past)
Hoozuki (Spirit King and a huge white snake)
Hime (Spirit, a tsundere miko girl. Normally a small white snake)
Tenn (Spirit, a naughty monkey rascal)
Yukiouza (Spirit of Rarashik with the form of a snow rabbit)
Shishiraiga (Spirit of Leowald with the form of a lion. Normally a small ginger cat.
So have you picked already? Perhaps, thereâs too many, but what do you feel is the best character? Please only choose one overall best character and best heroine per person!!!