Chapter 66: Eh? Is This It?
Kazuma, facing Amrutat who had transformed into an Ibinom, tried lightly firing magic, but it didn’t hit due to its Invisibility Gift.
He already knew this, but it seemed only a counterattack aimed at the moment it launched an attack would be effective.
Once that was decided, things moved quickly.
Kazuma, unsure if it would work, beckoned with his hand as if to provoke Amrutat.
Seeing Kazuma’s gesture, like that of some master, Amrutat charged.
Kazuma was grateful that it moved as he intended, though he didn’t know if the provocation had actually worked.
“There!”
Just like before, as Amrutat charged, Kazuma slammed his magic into it at the moment of impact.
Kazuma was convinced he’d landed the hit, but the next moment, he witnessed an unbelievable sight.
The instant the magic struck, Amrutat’s form vanished like mist, and the ground exploded from Kazuma’s magic.
“What?!”
“Giiiiiiiiih!”
Amrutat, having vanished like mist, reappeared from behind.
His reaction was delayed by surprise, but Kazuma wasn’t one to be hit so many times.
He spun like a tornado, evading Amrutat’s attack, and simultaneously prepared to unleash magic.
At that moment, he was struck in the side by an impact and sent flying.
“Nuwaaah?!”
Tumbling sideways, Kazuma let out a pathetic cry.
Though knocked down by the sudden impact, he immediately stood up and turned his face in the direction the impact came from.
There, another Amrutat was extending its tongue like a frog.
Amrutat retracted its tongue into its mouth and then vanished smoothly.
He couldn’t tell if it had blended with its surroundings like a chameleon or simply turned transparent.
Regardless, it was still annoying.
“Seriously…?”
The Gifts identified so far were three: Multiplication, Acceleration, and Invisibility.
He suspected the remaining ones might be things like Duplication, Illusion, Transparency, Camouflage, or Assimilation, but he couldn’t be sure.
One thing he could say for certain was that this was, without a doubt, the most critical situation he’d faced since returning to this world.
“This is bad. If I don’t go all out, I might actually die, huh?”
Amrutat had swallowed at least over a hundred Amplification Pills.
The Amplification Pills were tablet-shaped and easy to ingest.
“My Powered Suit… And this was supposed to be its first real outing.”
The Powered Suit couldn’t keep up with Kazuma’s true speed.
Originally, Kazuma’s specs were so abnormal that the Powered Suit was meaningless.
That said, it was convenient for hiding his identity and looked cool, so it was hard to discard, but in this battle, it was a hindrance.
“You should be honored. This is the first time I’m getting serious since returning to this world! I’ll make you the first and the last!”
Uttering lines a final boss might say, Kazuma deactivated his Powered Suit, returning to his casual clothes.
Then, he applied not only Body Enhancement and Sensory Enhancement but every conceivable enhancement.
Unleashing all the magic he had used in the battle against the Demon Lord, Kazuma lowered his stance, his eyes more serious than ever as he readied his fists.
“It would’ve been nice to have a weapon, but it can’t be helped. I’ll go with this!”
Within accelerated time, Kazuma kicked off the ground and closed in on Amrutat.
If it were an ordinary opponent, the fight would be over in less than a second, but his opponent was Amrutat, capable of standing on the same stage as Kazuma.
The match wouldn’t be decided so easily.
Kazuma threw a punch at Amrutat, unsure if it had turned transparent or blended with the scenery.
However, perhaps due to its Invisibility Gift, Kazuma’s fist passed right through, creating a fatal opening.
Amrutat, reappearing there, attacked Kazuma with its sharp claws.
“An attack of that level won’t work on me!”
Kazuma dodged the approaching claws by a hair’s breadth and simultaneously touched Amrutat.
Aiming for the moment its Invisibility Gift lost effect, Kazuma sent Elec flowing into Amrutat’s body.
“Gugaaaaaaah!”
However, it was Kazuma who was bathed in Elec.
Kazuma, emitting puffs of black smoke, wondered what had happened.
The conclusion he reached was a Reflection Gift.
It was a simple Gift that returned an opponent’s attack directly back to them, but as one could see, the stronger the opponent, the stronger it became.
Because of this, Kazuma had suffered immense damage.
“Having Invisibility and Reflection too? Isn’t that too unfair?”
Those weren’t words Kazuma, who could use magic, should be saying, but Amrutat’s Gifts were indeed foul play.
It nullified an opponent’s attacks with its Invisibility Gift, and even if it was counterattacked, it reflected the damage straight back with Reflection.
If this were a game, it would be an utterly unreasonable opponent.
It was the kind of setup that wouldn’t be surprising if it were called a “terrible game” and had controllers thrown at it.
“Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiih!!!”
Through Multiplication, Amrutat increased in number.
Even a few were troublesome, but hundreds would be a threat even to Kazuma.
Having recovered, Kazuma prepared to meet the onslaught of the Amrutat horde.
Understanding that he couldn’t damage them through their Invisibility and Reflection, Kazuma imbued his hands with magic and aimed to counterattack the moment an Amrutat attacked.
Kazuma slipped through the attacking horde of Amrutats, singled out one, and struck it with a fist imbued with magic.
Even magic had been reflected, but by pouring magic directly into its body and destroying it from within, he defeated the Amrutat.
He found that this method worked without issue, but at the same time, he remembered it would be faster to destroy its soul with dark magic, just as he had done to Makoto, and fell into self-loathing.
“…Let’s switch gears.”
As a result of analyzing Amrutat, he found its soul hadn’t been altered, so Kazuma destroyed their souls with dark magic, defeating them one after another. However, Amrutat kept multiplying endlessly.
He needed to wipe them out in one fell swoop, but their multiplication speed was too fast for Kazuma’s magic to keep up, and at the same time, his calculation speed was too slow.
“This is just a game of whack-a-mole!”
No matter how many Amrutats Kazuma defeated with dark magic, it was meaningless as they just multiplied.
He had to wipe them all out at once, but he didn’t have time to develop such a spell.
Even if he restrained some Amrutats, other individuals would attack, so he couldn’t buy time either.
At this rate, the battle would never end.
“What a dull fight this is…”
Even though he’d finally gotten serious, all he was doing was annihilating souls with dark magic.
Moreover, what he was doing was the monotonous task of simply counting the number of Amrutats and activating dark magic.
Just as Kazuma said, it was a dull scene.
Furthermore, Amrutat had no ego or reason.
Thanks to that, they just kept attacking Kazuma like a one-trick pony, showing no signs of trying to escape.
They had no survival instinct and felt no fear, so there was absolutely no indication Amrutat would flee.
Therefore, this was actually quite fortunate for Kazuma, but the sheer number of them was the bottleneck.
“It can’t be helped!!!”
To end this hellish infinite loop, Kazuma steeled his resolve.
He created a massive number of insect-type golems, released them worldwide, shared their vision, and located each Amrutat one by one.
An enormous amount of information flooded into Kazuma, putting an extraordinary strain on his brain.
Suffering from dizziness, nausea, and a severe headache, Kazuma used dark magic to instantly defeat all the Amrutats he could confirm.
He defeated the Amrutats hidden and scattered around the world, leaving only the Ibinom-transformed Amrutat before him.
“Alright, this is the end.”
The only one remaining was the Amrutat right in front of him.
All other Amrutats had been defeated by Kazuma, who shared vision with his insect-type golems.
All that was left was to defeat the Amrutat before him, and it would be over.
“I’m gonna finish this quickly and go home! Then I’ll take a bath and sleep!”
It hadn’t been an epic battle, but rather a dull one, yet Kazuma was exhausted both mentally and physically.
That’s why he wanted to end it quickly and sleep.
“Kieeeeeeeeeh!”
Just as Amrutat tried to multiply and increase its numbers, it was defeated by Kazuma’s dark magic.
Any onlookers would likely have their jaws agape at the anticlimactic ending, but only Kazuma and Amrutat were here.
“…It ended so easily. I thought I’d be in trouble if I didn’t get serious, but once I actually fought it, it wasn’t so bad. Well, it’s a huge help for me, though.”
If Amrutat could have defended against magic and even altered souls, it might have been a good match.
However, Amrutat didn’t possess such advanced Gifts.
That’s what decided the outcome of the battle.
If not for the cheat-like ability of magic, the result might have been different.
It was an indescribably underwhelming conclusion, but a win was a win.
Kazuma claimed his victory and returned to the conference hall.