Great O’Browns ②
To be honest, I have no idea what kind of fight this will be.
Doha-san and Gymnema-san. I’ve met both of them before.
I shared a table with Doha-san at ‘Cidre Tavern Second’.
And I saved Gymnema-san when he was drowning.
An Exhibition Match between these two.
“Hey, you! Today’s the day we settle this, yo!”
“What a coincidence. I, too, was thinking the same.”
The two faced off.
Alhazardo Abramelin stood in the middle.
Is he going to be the referee too?
“Well then, the Exhibition Match between Doha of ‘Doha’ and Lord of the Seas, Gymnema Sylvester, will now begin. Victory is achieved by surrender or knockout. Actions that would kill the opponent are prohibited. Understood?”
“Yeah, yo!”
“Mm.”
“Then, begin!”
At the signal, both of them leaped back.
“Hey, hey, yo! C’mon!”
As he swung his right arm as if dancing, earth rose from beneath his feet, forming a giant right arm.
He clenched its right hand, creating a colossal fist.
“So that’s your first move.”
“Get ready to be blown away, babyyy!”
The earthen fist flew.
No way, a rocket punch?!
No, giant earthen fists were being created and launched one after another.
“A rapid-fire rocket punch!?”
Just the fists from his right arm alone had considerable rapid fire and power.
“Rocke…?”
“Ah, no, it’s nothing. Still, earth, huh?”
“Ah, yeah, Doha’s Relic, see, he only has one. Relic [Earth]… That’s all he has, but, y’know, he’s mastered [Earth].”
A man who mastered a single Relic.
“Um, wouldn’t even one hit from that be fatal?”
“Hmm, well, yeah, I guess so,” Chive-san said with a wry smile.
“No, isn’t that bad?”
“Well, it’s fine. If they died from something like that, they wouldn’t be First Class, y’know.”
Hearing that, I found myself agreeing.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, whoo-you! Fo-aooohhh!”
For some reason, Doha-san was jumping and dancing.
He’s really getting into it with those sharp dance moves. Surprisingly, there are a lot of high-pitched cheers.
In contrast, Gymnema-san somehow managed to evade the rocket punches.
He’s running in wide circles, boldly dodging them. Just being able to avoid these is amazing.
If it were me, I’d probably be using 【Vanish】 to erase them one after another.
What’s this? As I watched Gymnema-san, I noticed the arena floor was getting wet.
In an instant, it was flooded up to my knees. This strangeness… A Relic?
I somehow feel this is Gymnema-san’s doing. I mean, he has a fish head.
“Awooo-oh-you? Somethin’ like that won’t stop my earth fists, ze!”
“Is that so, I wonder?”
As he said that, a giant earthen fist closed in right in front of Gymnema-san.
The moment I thought it was dangerous, the giant fist was split vertically in two.
Before I knew it, Gymnema-san was gripping a katana.
According to my memories from my past life, it was a blade with a plain wooden hilt—a dosu.
“There it is—the ‘Sashimi Carver’,” Chive-san said.
“Eh?”
“That’s Gymnema Sylvester’s beloved blade, the ‘Sashimi Carver’!”
‘Sashimi Carver’… What is this… this unsettling feeling?
“Hey, hey, just ’cause you cut one—Woahhh?!”
Doha-san hurriedly leaped back. It was because something huge with four eyes had suddenly attacked him.
It splashed down into the knee-deep water and submerged, its dorsal fin exposed.
Ah, that silhouette is!
“A shark!? Why a shark!?”
“That’s a Relic of the ‘Lord of the Seas’, y’know. I think it was [Sea Stage] and [Fish Master], if I recall.”
“What kind of Relics are those?”
“[Sea Stage] creates a sea, and [Fish Master] lets him freely summon and control sea creatures, y’know.”
So that’s why it got flooded and a shark appeared.
So that’s what ‘Lord of the Seas’ means. However, Gymnema-san… he can’t swim, can he?
That aside, I have a question.
“You’re quite knowledgeable about the Relics they possess, Chive-san.”
The rarer a Relic is, the more one tends to hide it. I’m a case in point.
Knowing about them… I don’t doubt her, but… I can’t help feeling a bit uneasy.
Chive-san answered right away.
“First Class Relics are, to some extent, publicly known, y’see.”
“I-Is that so?”
“You look puzzled. Well, it’s true that keeping them hidden is one way to go. But, y’know, making them public… it’s not all demerits, Woff-cchi. Get what I mean?”
“No, I don’t understand…”
Chive-san grinned, showing her jagged teeth.
“It’s a deterrent. There are things that can be suppressed just by knowing about them, y’know.”
“…I see…”
So, they keep others in check by deliberately revealing them.
“In fact, everyone knows about my Relic,” she said.
Her Relic, which allows her to transform into the black-armored beast Flazzerei, is famous.
And its fearsomeness and strength are also famous.
Deliberately revealing them to act as a deterrent.
I learned something new again.
The shark circled around Doha-san. Just its dorsal fin showing was scary.
A four-eyed shark. It’s a monster, alright. Bigger than a normal shark, and its teeth look vicious.
“Hey you, this is a real pain, yo! But I’m not done yet, ne!”
Doha-san broke down his giant right arm and reformed it into a boat.
He stood on the boat and took an earthen harpoon in hand. I see. Clever.
“I won’t let you!”
Sheathing his ‘Sashimi Carver’ and holding it at his waist, Gymnema-san charged forward.
It resembles an iai stance, but how is he moving in that posture?
Looking closely, I saw a large shadow on the water surface beneath his feet. He was riding something.
“Whoa, it’s a turtle!” Chive-san exclaimed.
A turtle?
I see. So he was moving by riding a turtle.
As he approached the boat, the turtle leaped. At the same time, the shark attacked.
In that instant, BAAAM! The shark was suddenly sent flying.
“Woahhh!” Doha-san yelled.
“Jennifer!?” Gymnema-san cried.
Next, the turtle Gymnema-san was riding was also sent flying spectacularly.
“Haaaoohh!” Doha-san yelled.
“Madonna!?” Gymnema-san cried.
Gymnema-san instantly jumped from the turtle’s back and landed on the boat.
He’s named them Jennifer and Madonna?
On the narrow boat, the two glared at each other.
Doha-san had generated and equipped sturdy earth protectors.
The hand parts were spherical and looked hard.
He must have punched the shark (Jennifer) and the turtle (Madonna) with those.
Doha-san covered his face with both hands, lowered his stance slightly, and started stepping on the narrow footing.
That stance. Is that—boxing?
“Hey, hey, hey-hey! Hey-hey-hey-hey!”
Closing in at once, Doha-san unleashed a rush of blows.
A rush from all directions. A fierce rush.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!
The crowd roared. Gymnema-san was completely on the defensive.
“Guh, as expected of you. But!”
Deftly dodging the jabs, Gymnema-san drew his ‘Sashimi Carver’.
The blade gleamed.
“Single Stroke Demon Slayer!”
That technique, it’s Mr. Agaro’s!?
A flash—Doha-san’s protectors and the spheres on his fists were sliced.
“Woahhh! As expected, yo! Thanks to you, I’m all fired up, yo! Hoh-hah-aaah!! Hee-heart-aaahhh!!”
The excited Doha-san, without using earth, punched Gymnema-san’s face with his bare hands.
“Guhooohh!?”
“Hey me, it’s slippery, yo! Got scales on me, yo!”
“That’s ’cause I’m a fish!!”
Gymnema-san also shouted and punched Doha-san’s face with his bare hands.
Both of them separated and spat out bloody vomit.
“Gymnemaaaaaaaahhhh!!!”
“Dohaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!”
After that, it was just a no-guard slugfest.
“Uooooooohhhhhh!!!”
“Deeeyaaaaaaahhhhh!!!”
Punching faces, punching stomachs, punching faces, punching faces.
It was just like the classic last battle brawl from a B-grade action movie.
“Ah, ah, there they go again,” Chive-san grumbled, exasperated.
“They’ve started?”
“Woff-cchi. When it gets like this, y’know, neither of them can stop.”
“They’re really going at it, huh?”
How unrefined. Utterly unrefined. Where did the Relics and First Class status go?
But most of the audience in the arena was wildly excited.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!
The deafening cheers wouldn’t stop.
“Ah, it’s about time—see?”
It was almost simultaneous.
Doha-san’s fist and Gymnema-san’s fist strongly struck each other’s faces.
It was so intense I could hear the impact from here, and both of them collapsed as if crumbling.
They didn’t move a muscle after that.
“…A draw…is it?”
“Yep. It was like this last time too, y’know.”
The referee, Alhazardo Abramelin, came out on another boat.
He approached the boat where the two lay fallen, looked at each of them in turn, and nodded.
“Both combatants down! Match overrrrr!!!”
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!
A roar like thunder shook the arena.
And so, the first day’s Exhibition Match ended in a huge success.
Night. I went to ‘Cidre Tavern Second’.
Doha-san and Gymnema-san, covered in bandages, were having a drinking contest.
I wonder if they’re not going to use Potions.