Mushoku Tensei: Reincarnated as a Beast Race Chapter 382: 381 - The Bewitching Sword Broken

As soon as she heard Linia's warning, Aisha quickly made a decision.

And with that decision, the entire flow of her fight changed completely.

Kalman III was stunned by what he was witnessing.

He had been training with Dragon God Orsted and Rudeus Greyrat for several years, both with the goal of becoming a true warrior and with the goal of surpassing them.

During that time, he had been defeated, corrected, pressured, and forced to learn things he had never considered important before.

He had become much stronger, of course.

So much so that he was certain he could easily defeat his self from five years ago.

Of course, as long as it was without the Kajakut Sword.

The important thing was that Alek definitely had not expected a young human woman, who seemed to be in her twenties at most, to be capable of giving him such a clean beating.

The earth closed around him.

A sphere of earth rose from every side at the same time, compressing itself to trap him and sink him down. From the way the magic formed, it was obvious that Aisha intended to bury him many meters beneath the ground.

Kalman reacted in the same instant.

With his black blade, he cut the sphere of earth from the inside out.

The slash opened a wide fissure in the prison, and he passed through the opening. For an instant, his feet touched the white sandy ground again.

But he did not get a good view.

As soon as he emerged, lightning began to fall on him without cease.

White flashes filled his vision.

Kalman leapt to the side, but another bolt of lightning fell toward his new foothold. He twisted his body, slid across the sand, jumped, and dodged in succession.

Using his divine-level swordsmanship and physical power, all he could do was dodge and try to observe the caster.

But, after all, he was a North God.

Even while running and avoiding the rain of lightning, Kalman managed to identify his opponents.

Aisha, Nina, and Randolph.

And, upon noticing the position of two of them, he finally realized that he was not even the main target.

The Divine Sorceress was apparently... going easy on him.

The attacks against Kalman were dangerous, but they were not decisive.

Aisha was not trying to finish him off.

During a moment of contemplation as he ran, Kalman noticed Aisha giving him a meaningful look.

At the same time, she was blocking Randolph's escape route.

Although he was not especially intelligent, Kalman was not stupid.

He immediately understood Aisha's intention.

In the next instant, his movement changed.

He launched himself faster than normal across the field, taking advantage of the debris provided by Aisha herself. Kalman disappeared among the wreckage, his eyes gaining a sharpness and concentration rare for him.

Meanwhile, Aisha continued fighting Randolph.

It was a rather peculiar fight.

Aisha was a specialist in the Water God Style, focused mainly on counterattacking her opponent.

But she was also the Divine Sorceress.

She did not need to wait for her enemy; she could force him to attack with Magic.

If Randolph tried to remain still, she could trap him in a Barrier. If he tried to retreat, she could manipulate gravity around him.

If he tried to reposition himself, everything around him became an obstacle. Aisha had countless ways to make the Death God move, even if Randolph had the Eye of Absolute Void.

And Nina was still on the battlefield to pressure him even further.

Whether he admitted it or not, a single clean strike from Nina would be enough to practically end the fight.

Knowing this, Nina was acting like an assassin, rather than an ordinary swordswoman.

She kept herself close enough to be a threat and far enough not to fall into a trap.

Her eyes searched only for one flaw.

If that instant appeared, Nina would enter.

The only reason Vita had managed to keep that body alive until then was that this was a three-front battle.

Kalman III was an obstacle that Aisha and Nina could not ignore.

And even if Randolph was at a disadvantage, Sword of Bewitching was a truly formidable technique, and strange to deal with even for Aisha.

Randolph's sword did not follow a clean trajectory, and his strikes seemed to change intention halfway through the movement.

Sometimes the blade seemed delayed in relation to the arm. It was a technique made to confuse the opponent's reading and break the timing of any attack or counterattack.

Of course, if Aisha truly wanted to, she could end the fight with a single Magic, her most powerful Magic...

But knowing that there were far more powerful enemies ahead forced Aisha to restrain herself. She had to neutralize Vita while spending as little as possible.

So, Aisha created a perfect opening.

An Antigravity Zone successfully struck the area where the Death God stood.

Randolph's body lost weight for an instant.

His closed stance suffered a minimal alteration.

For Aisha, that was enough.

She attacked with Undertow, using the secret technique of instant counterattack.

But in the next second, she regretted it.

A sinister smile appeared on Vita's skeletal face.

Randolph's sword traced a strange path.

The blade moved as though it were snaking across the battlefield, circling the space between them in an instant. The strike seemed to come from Randolph, but its trajectory was not like the normal path of a sword.

Even so, Aisha's gaze remained still.

When the strike was about to hit her, a Barrier formed instantly at the point of impact.

The blade touched the magical surface.

Instead of being simply blocked, the strike was gently absorbed.

The Barrier received the impact, deformed at the point of contact, and dispersed the force to the side, as if the cut were sliding over soap.

The trail of the strike continued, passing by Aisha and hitting the ground behind her.

The earth opened in a crooked and deep line.

Randolph already had his guard completely closed again.

And he did not seem worried.

Soon, the reason became clear.

A magical Barrier established by Aisha was cut in half.

On the other side of it, Kalman III emerged again.

He was advancing toward Aisha with a murderous look.

But at that same moment, without even an instant of delay, a blue blur advanced toward Randolph.

Randolph was surprised.

Kalman too.

Even Aisha.

Nina attacked at the worst possible moment.

The Death God's position was far too closed. His guard was high. The distance was bad. The angle of entry was far too narrow.

It was the kind of situation where a truly experienced swordsman would never attack.

It was very difficult to enter and perform an effective attack, but Nina attacked without considering any of that.

In a certain sense, Randolph's technique was very easy to understand.

To defeat it, you needed to keep two things in mind.

Attack when you should retreat.

Retreat when you should attack.

That was the principle.

Sword of Bewitching was such a deceptive style of swordsmanship that even the brightest minds would be confused when facing it.

Not because the theory was impossible to understand, but because understanding it and acting according to it were two completely different things.

To what extent could a powerful warrior completely trust themselves to advance against a God-level Swordsman, when all their instincts were clearly telling them that doing so would be suicide?

The answer was almost zero.

Strictly speaking, there were no warriors that lunatic.

Anyone who reached Emperor level would have at least some trust in themselves.

Trust in their own technique and in the instincts that had kept them alive until then.

Choosing to retreat when the enemy was leaving a huge opening?

Advancing when everything in the situation said that it was a trap?

The theory was easy, the execution was much more complicated.

At that moment, Randolph seemed extremely dangerous.

Nina saw that clearly.

Her mind told her that, if she advanced now, the Death God could easily decapitate her.

Or use his Demon Eye.

Or even use her against her allies.

Nina knew that, and ignored everything.

She even ignored her most obvious instincts.

Ignored the clear image of her own head being separated from her body.

And advanced toward death, applying her fastest attack.

That was an extreme feat.

Not only because it required courage, but because it required a kind of conscious stupidity.

Nina needed to know it was suicide, accept that it was suicide, and even so advance without reducing her speed for a single instant.

She only had the courage to do this because she believed that, even if she lost, Aisha would find a way.

Of course, beyond all of that, a fraction of her also acted out of atonement.

Nina advanced more and more.

Her body cut through the distance in a straight line.

She waited for the fatal strike that would end her life.

Waited for the Eye of Absolute Void to bind her.

Waited for the inevitable counterattack.

But, unexpectedly...

She truly encountered no obstacle.

Vita, inside the Death God's body, dodged clumsily.

Randolph's aggressive posture broke the very instant the core of his style was violated.

Vita only managed to raise the sword to block partially.

It was insufficient.

Nina's Longsword of Light, aimed at cutting him in half, passed through the incomplete defense and cut through half of his torso.

The blade passed through flesh, bones, and vital organs, and blood sprayed in a dark arc.

Randolph's body was thrown backward, almost bending around the cut, but still remained standing.

The wound was too deep to ignore. His torso had been completely opened, an attack that would be immediately fatal to any ordinary opponent.

Vita panicked.

His only hope was that Kalman would be able to distract them long enough.

Although this blow would be fatal to any normal being, Randolph's body had immortal demon blood.

As long as he had enough time, he could regenerate.

Nina was right beside him, and her gaze was focused.

Blood had splashed across her face, even so, her gaze did not waver for even an instant.

In truth, even though she was serious as a statue, Randolph could see it.

Her eyes were smiling.

He was about to use the Eye of Absolute Void and create a barrier between them. Even if he was not dead, that wound was serious even for him. He needed to stop the next strike.

Nina attacked, but a red barrier appeared.

Her blade struck the magical surface, scattering sparks through the air.

Relief ran through Randolph's body.

For a fraction of a second, Vita believed he had succeeded.

He prepared to retreat.

At that same moment, he turned his face.

And it was the last thing he did while possessing the Death God's body.

A black sword cut vertically from bottom to top.

The strike came from behind his line of attention, passing through the already wounded body before Vita could reposition his guard. The blade entered from below and split him in half.

Randolph's world divided along with his body.

For an instant, his eyes still moved, looking at his killer in disbelief.

Kalman III.

The same Kalman who, until an instant ago, had been advancing against Aisha with a murderous look.

He had attacked Randolph without warning.

At that moment, Vita knew he had fallen into a trap.

Blue light emanated from Aisha's hands.

As she expected, black sludge emerged from Randolph's eyes and mouth.

The viscous mass came out, abandoning the destroyed body the moment it understood that there was no longer any way to maintain it.

It launched itself toward Alek with tremendous speed, but the former North God did not even bother to defend himself.

He merely watched the black slime come toward him.

Then, in midair, a blue sphere suddenly appeared around the sludge.

Aisha's magic closed around the Nether King.

For an instant, the black slime thrashed inside the sphere, tinted by the blue light surrounding it. Its form twisted, trying to escape, trying to divide itself, spread out, leap into another body.

An instant later, the Fragment of Vita evaporated.

It was simply erased, reduced to nothing inside the blue sphere.

Aisha clicked her tongue.

"Tch..."

Kalman III remained on guard, his eyes watching Randolph's divided corpse.

"What is it?" he asked. "Don't tell me he escaped?"

Aisha turned away and activated her Clairvoyant Eye.

Her gaze crossed the distance, searching the distant battlefield.

"No. This one was destroyed."

She paused.

"But he cut contact with the Technique God's fragment at the last second... He is still alive."

Kalman's face grew more serious.

Aisha then looked at him.

"Even if it is obvious now, I propose that we focus on eliminating Hitogami's Apostles as our priority. Our enemy is much stronger than you imagine."

Kalman gave her a doubtful look.

It was not exactly distrust, but he was not truly convinced by the proposal.

Even so, he replied.

"If you can hold back my grandmother, I'll be more than happy to cooperate."

Saying that, Kalman shot toward the pillar of light that had cut through the desert earlier.

Aisha did not follow him with her eyes for long.

She looked into the distance.

Jino's battlefield was in a much worse situation than theirs.

Aisha took a deep breath, then spoke:

"Nina."

Nina, who was wiping the blood from her face, immediately turned.

"Help exterminate the remnants and order a full retreat immediately... things are going to get ugly."

Nina looked into the distance.

She could not see what Aisha saw, but she knew Jino was in trouble. For an instant, her fingers tightened around the sword's hilt.

She only replied, succinctly:

"Understood... Be careful."

Aisha did not answer, and the two separated immediately.

One to each side.

----

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