Dragon Chain Ori : Ch 5 Part 2

Early Release!!

Chapter 5 Part 2

Translator : PolterGlast

Proofreader : John4891

Irisdina and the others parted ways at the school gate.

After the morning assembly, Nozomu and Mars came to the training ground for their morning class.

The contents of the third year's lesson began with the formation of parties for the mock battle they were about to do. Now, the students who came to the training grounds swung their swords and talked to their own party members, wasting their time until the lesson started.

 

"Nozomu, do you have a little time?"

"? What's wrong, Mars?"

 

Nozomu was making sure he was ready for battle, but he was approached by Mars from the side.

 

"I have something to try in today's mock battle."

"? What are you going to try?"

"... I learned quite a bit of magic from Tima, so I want to see the results in today's mock battle."

"...Then?"

 

According to his story, it looked like Mars wanted to test the magic he’d learned while training with Tima in this mock battle.

Nozomu also knew that Mars had been studying magic with Tima recently, so he chose to listen to what he had to say for now.

 

"... Well, even if I say I've learned it, it honestly still has a long way to go. I can't do it as well as Irisdina. That's why I want to try it in a one-on-one situation as much as possible."

"... In other words. You want me to attract the other members, right?"

 

It seemed like Mars wanted to try using his magic, but he wasn't very confident.

 

"... Yeah, honestly, it'll just put a burden on you, but if I can't use it properly in such a mock battle, it won't be useful in actual ones ... So, can I ask you to help me?"

"Well, I'll try ... I don't know how long I can distract them. I can't use magic, and I can't use Qi techniques because they're dangerous to use."

"It's only for a little bit, so it’ll be fine. I think it'll be alright if it's you. On the contrary, can't you just beat them? "

"... Maybe I can do it in close-quarters combat. But, I want to ask you something, why are you deciding to use it in a mock battle? Based on your explanation, I think it's better to learn a little more ..."

"No ... Well, that ......... I thought it would be easier to remember because, for me, it's easier to understand by swinging my sword than messing around on my desk."

 

Nozomu tilted his head at Mars's unusually poor reply, but he could understand what he was saying.

Considering Mars' personality, swinging a sword was more suitable than holding on to a desk. Everyone had their own way of remembering things.

Nozomu thought that if there was a method that seemed suitable for Mars, it would be a good idea to give it a try.

In fact, this was just a mock battle. This was a place to practice and learn various things.

 

"... I understand. I'll give it a try."

 

Nozomu couldn't use Qi techniques to attack, so he had to take it to close-quarters combat to defeat his opponent; however Nozomu was also growing. He could still compete with his opponent, so he wouldn't lose right away.

 

"Then I'll come forward first. Mars, you’ll follow after me and use the magic you want to use."

"I'll leave it to you"

 

"Oka~y. Everyone, please gather ~~. Let's start the lesson ~~"

 

Nozomu told Mars to do what he wanted since he’d be backing him up. After Mars thanked him, Anri-sensei's voice echoed in the training ground.

The students who had prepared gathered at once.

Nozomu and Mars nodded to each other and started walking towards Anri-sensei like the other students.

 

"So, they’re our opponents ..."

 

Mars muttered and looked at the opponent he was about to face in the mock battle.

His opponent was mid-rank or slightly lower in the 10th class, and he was the same opponent Nozomu fought when he first teamed up with Mars; however, unlike before, the number of their opponents was five.

 

There were two male students holding longswords. They were the vanguard. Their names are Jin and Tommy. There was also a student holding a spear, his name was Deck.

In the rearguard, there was a dagger-wielding female student named Cami. She could also use magic, and in addition, a new girl who was a mage, Hamria, had just been added.

On the other hand, Nozomu's party still only consisted of Nozomu and Mars.

 

"Then, let's begin!"

 

The mock battle began with Anri-sensei's clear voice.

 

"!!"

"Wha!?"

 

With the signal for the start of the battle, Nozomu moved towards Jin and closed the gap instantly.

In every mock battle so far, Nozomu always followed after Mars.

This time, the opponents thought that Mars would take the lead, so they were surprised that Nozomu rushed to take the lead; however, the opponent was also a human who had studied at Solminati Academy despite only being in the 10th class. Jin immediately raised his longsword to parry Nozomu's slash.

However, Nozomu already predicted it. Just as Nozomu's katana was about to be parried by the opponent, he circulated the Qi inside of his katana and let it flow into his body. Using the momentum of the slashing attack, his body made one full turn and released a roundhouse kick.

Nozomu's roundhouse kick was caught by Jin's longsword, but Nozomu had sent Qi to his feet in advance and released the compressed Qi the moment the roundhouse kick made contact. Jin was blown away along with the longsword he was holding due to the explosive momentum at such a close range, and he almost completely lost his posture.

Nozomu further held both his hands on his hips, sent Qi and compressed it, and fired a Qi technique [Cannon] at his opponent.

Jin was blown away by the burst of energy released at such a close range again, and Cami, who was chanting a spell behind him, got caught in the crossfire.

Nozomu activated [Instant Move] again. His target was Hamria, who was chanting at the back.

 

"E~!?"

 

Hamria, who was chanting, made a perplexed voice since Nozomu had broken through the vanguard in a matter of seconds, but regardless, Nozomu still swung his katana.

 

"Chi~!"

 

However, the slash was blocked by Tommy's longsword. Another male student had gotten in the way at that moment.

 

"Fu~!"

 

However, Nozomu still swung his sword regardless of it and launched a series of attacks towards Tommy.

Originally, Nozomu's purpose was to attract most of the opponents, so that Mars could move freely.

In fact, Mars was in a one-on-one situation with Deck.

 

"Take this!!"

"Damn!!"

 

Mars pushed Deck to his limits. It was natural if we considered Mars' physical abilities, but it seemed his movements were crude. The reason was that he has already used the magic.

If others looked closely, they could see a faint magical glow on Mars' greatsword, hidden behind the Qi Technique [Dust Blade] that enveloped the blade.

Perhaps the blade of the greatsword itself had magical power.

However, as far as Nozomu could see, the technique was incomplete, and he couldn't feel the power that Mars originally had.

 

"This guy!"

"Uwa!!"

 

Tommy, who had exchanged blows with Nozomu, was aiming for the opportunity as Nozomu shifted his consciousness to Mars, and pushed back forcefully.

Pushed by that force, Nozomu backed away slightly, and this time Jin, who had been blown away by [Cannon], regained his posture and launched a slash from the other side.

 

"Ee~e~ei!"

 

Nozomu dodged the longsword that was swung within a hair's breadth and tried to keep the distance with [Instant Move], but this time Cami turned towards the direction of Nozomu's movement.

 

"Haa!!"

 

The daggers in both of Cami's hands were swung, aiming at Nozomu's neck and torso respectively.

Nozomu thrust in without killing the momentum of his legs and twisted his body while parrying the dagger that was swung with his katana and scabbard. His body flowed sideways with the driving force, and he passed through her. Nozomu made one rotation with his feet at the axis and went around to her back.

 

"Eh?"

 

Just when Cami thought she had managed to hit Nozomu with her dagger, Nozomu slipped behind her before she knew it. She made a surprised voice, but Nozomu wouldn't miss this opportunity.

Nozomu fired a Qi technique [Cannon] at her back. Her delicate body was blown away like a leaf to the wind.

At that moment, Tommy tried to close the distance with Nozomu. Tommy was where Cami was blown away, so this time Tommy was involved with her.

 

"Au ~~~"

 

Cami was lighter than Jin, so she easily lost consciousness from the impact of their collisions.

 

"Wha!?"

"Damn!!"

 

Jin and Tomi became impatient. They were surprised that they were defeated by an opponent they thought was lower in rank.

Two of them tried to attack Nozomu with their weapons, but Nozomu moved and avoided being pinched by the two. He managed to fend off their attacks with his katana and scabbard.

However, the reason why Nozomu was moving around was that if he received their attacks head-on, Nozomu couldn't fully deal with them, as he was inferior when it came to raw power.

 

Meanwhile, Nozomu looked at Hamria, who was staring at him and was about to cast a spell.

Because she also felt impatient from the unexpected events, she couldn't concentrate on her chanting.

After all, if the pursuit of the two vanguards loosened up a bit, Nozomu would immediately try to run towards her with [Instant Move].

Moreover, her companions were in close-quarters combat with Mars and Nozomu, so she couldn't shoot her magic due to the fear of involving her companions.

 

(... Well, if I want to earn time for Mars, this seems to be enough ... I don't need to use [Phantom] or "that"...)

 

Due to this morning’s dream, Nozomu, who was afraid of his power going wild, chose a method that didn't use Tiamat's power as much as possible. Instead, he chose to devote himself to gaining time with the abilities he had developed over the years.

For Nozomu, Mars played a major role in this mock battle, he only recognized himself as something extra.

 

"O-Oi. What does this mean ..."

"N-No. How would I know ..."

 

However, from the point of view of others who didn't know Nozomu's true abilities, it was a sight that made them doubt their eyes.

A student they thought was inferior to them was fighting well against multiple opponents, even though he was the same student at the bottom of the same 10th class of the same grade.

 

On top of that, Nozomu's expression displayed his composure when handling multiple opponents swinging their swords at him.

Until now, they had thought that Nozomu's abilities were inferior to their own, but if they looked at this situation, they could understand the difference in strength between him and themselves. In truth, it was a matter of whether they could accept it or not.

 

On the contrary, Mars was struggling when Nozomu was showing some of his abilities. 

 

 

 

=====================================

Mars' POV

 

"Damn!"

 

I bit my lip. I was frustrated with myself for not being able to attack properly. Even if it was just one on one.

My greatsword was enveloped with magical power and the Qi technique [Dust Blade], but I couldn't still couldn’t use the magic to its fullest.

The power and sharpness of the greatsword that was enveloped in the [Dust Blade] and enhanced by strengthening magic certainly made my sword stronger than ever.

 

However, the simultaneous use of techniques from completely different systems, namely Qi and magic, required a control technique that was incomparable to conventional practice of only using Qi or magic alone. I simply wasn't able to master this heterogeneous technique.

Besides, I was too busy focusing on controlling my technique and couldn't concentrate on the opponent in front of me.

My slash that normally blew away a giant demon beast was parried by the opponent's spear, and instead, the opponent's spear was thrust into my neck.

 

"Ku~!!"

 

I flicked the opponent's spear with the back of my hand, but because of that, one hand was occupied and allowed the opponent to pursue further.

The spearman's name was Deck ……. He launched a series of thrusts, but I blocked it with the back of my hand. If I aimed at one of the series of attacks, stopped it forcefully followed by launching a slash with my greatsword, it would be parried with his spear. It was because I couldn’t swing my greatsword properly with just one hand.

 

"This guy!!"

"Guuuuuu!"

 

Deck and I were fighting head-to-head, and we fought each other at close range, but I couldn't push him away at all.

The underlying cause was that all the techniques I used were incomplete. Only half-finished due to the simultaneous use of magic and Qi.

The wind-enveloped blade in [Dust Blade], which I’ve used for so long, was so weak that it was unrecognizable to me. I hadn’t been able to strengthen my body with Qi properly.

My own body movements were dulled because I was distracted by the technique's control.

 

Nozomu's figure was reflected in my field of view.

He held Hamria back, who sometimes tried to chant, while holding off both Jin and Tommy at the same time. He had the usual good judgment skills and a wide field of vision.

What's more, he rarely used attacking Qi techniques. He never used [Phantom]. The only thing he used was the [Cannon] technique which blew his opponent away with a burst of energy.

 

"Damn~!!"

 

Compared to Nozomu, who tossed his opponent around with precise and delicate movements, my current movements were dull like a slow turtle, and it was almost incomparable.

That seemed to display the difference between us, and it made me irritated and impatient.

 

At the end of the second year, when I saw his true abilities, I immediately thought that he was an amazing person.

Despite the shackles of Ability Suppression, even I knew that the effort to hone his abilities to such an extent was far greater than I expected. When I thought about it, I was feeling terribly pathetic that I only made it difficult for him.

 

For some reason, we started training together, and at that moment, I saw his Qi technique, [Phantom].

His katana was drawn out in an instant. A flying slash passed in front of me at that moment. An extremely compressed flying slash that had been sharpened to the extent that it could easily slice the rock in half.

 

To be honest ... I was fascinated by it.

Secretly, I tried to see if I could do it too, but maybe because I had a rough personality, the Qi I sent into my sword just burst. I just couldn't use a delicate technique like him.

It was at that time. I wanted a technique that was comparable to his.

Honestly, I knew it was childish, but I couldn't help but want something like that.

 

After that, I met Irisdina and the others and came up with the idea of ​​using magic and Qi at the same time, but it was too difficult to control after all.

Even when I read old textbooks and spellbooks, I couldn't understand it at all because I usually skipped studying that kind of thing.

Had Tima not taught me anything, I would still be groaning with a textbook in my hand. However, the magic that could be used in conjunction with Qi was only weapon strengthening magic.

Besides, the success rate was low, and it was still less than 10% even after I practiced it until now. It was quite strange that I could use it today.

 

His back felt so far away.

 

It was when Nozomu fought Rugato that I realized the difference between us.

While fighting against a Rank S, one of the strongest men on the continent, neither Irisdina nor I had any way of dealing with it.

We had no advantage. Somia was held hostage, and we were easily beaten. It was an opponent that was completely out of our league.

He possessed advanced techniques with incredible magical power and simultaneously used 10 magics.

Even Irisdina was defeated by the difference in strength between them.

 

And Nozomu defeated such a powerful person, Rugato.

When he released his Ability Suppression, he was far beyond my expectations, therefore the impatience within my chest continued to grow, making my crude swordsmanship even worse.

 

(Don't rush it!)

 

No matter how much I tried to calm myself down, the impatience did not disappear, and my swordsmanship remained crude until the battle was over.