Keiichiro opened his eyes.
Spread out before him was a wasteland.
It was clearly a space larger than this facility, with the horizon visible.
Being unaffected by the actual size of the grounds was unique to illusion magic.
“…………”
Ten meters in front of Keiichiro.
A single figure appeared there.
The one who appeared was a girl with red hair reaching down to her shoulder blades.
Age-wise, she looked about high school age.
Light but high-quality cloth equipment.
A holster was attached to the thigh peeking out from her shorts.
That was probably an Item Bag.
“Well then… nice to meet you… Kyouko?”
Keiichiro said before the fight began.
At that, the girl furrowed her brows, her expression clearly showing displeasure.
“Huh? Why are you getting all familiar and calling me by my first name? It’s creepy, old man.”
“O…?”
Keiichiro was speechless.
Old man.
It was the first time he’d been called that.
Keiichiro’s age was 22.
To her, a high school student, he was probably a much older man, but—
“No… sorry. I couldn’t read your family name.”
Keiichiro forced out the words, enduring the pain in his chest.
“Kazari. And you don’t need to call me by my family name either.”
The girl—Kazari Kyouko—said, spitting out the words.
And then Kyouko drew a slender sword from her waist.
Light cloth equipment.
A thin, lightweight sword.
She was probably a Speed Attacker.
“Next time you call me by my first name—I’ll slash your crotch an extra five times.”
Kyouko kicked off the ground.
A rocket start that seemed to make the ground burst.
A distance of ten meters offered no leeway.
“Extra…? You were already planning to slash me a few times…!”
Keiichiro leaped backward.
In terms of speed, Kyouko had the upper hand.
Therefore, simply running away was meaningless.
“! A Trap…?”
When Kyouko landed, a formation appeared on the ground.
A slashing Trap.
Something Keiichiro had set as a parting gift while retreating.
(—With this, I’ve got one of her legs.)
A surprise attack. And the Trap was already activating.
“Like hell that’ll hit me—!”
Kyouko let out a click of her tongue.
And then—she leaped sideways.
The Trap’s slash cut through empty air where no one was.
“…She can still evade even after stepping on the Trap?”
Keiichiro’s mouth twitched involuntarily.
The drawback of a [Trapper] is that you have to make the enemy step on the Trap skillfully.
Conversely, if you could just make them step on it, you could deal damage.
And yet—if she could dodge after stepping on the Trap, he had no ground to stand on.
(This girl… she’s not just any A-Rank.)
As expected, Kyouko was a Speed Attacker.
But her speed wasn’t just about acceleration or top speed.
Her reaction speed and judgment speed had also reached a considerable level.
Dodging by jumping sideways there could be called a masterstroke.
Because of her running momentum, jumping backward from there wouldn’t have been fast enough.
If she jumped forward without killing her momentum, she would expose an opening to the waiting Keiichiro.
To escape unharmed, her only option was to dodge sideways.
Was it calculation or intuition? He didn’t know.
Even so, Kyouko had chosen the best move.
“Seeing that just now, you must be a magic attacker.”
Kyouko said, staring fixedly at Keiichiro.
The distance between them was ten meters.
Nothing had changed since the battle began.
If anything, the difference was that Keiichiro had revealed a bit of his hand.
“!”
Kyouko approached again.
Keiichiro blocked the sword she swung with his daggers.
(She thinks I specialize in long range. In that case, I’ll keep blocking just barely—)
Having seen Keiichiro’s Skill, she assumed he had a class that fought with magic.
Classes that use magic are weak in strength and slow in speed.
If she could force close combat, she could win.
She would likely judge it that way.
(I’ll let my guard be broken at the perfect moment…!)
So he turned that against her.
“!”
An upward slash unleashed by Kyouko.
As if repelled by it, Keiichiro’s hands flew upward.
And so, the guard covering his torso opened up.
—Just as he planned.
“[Trap Set: Arrow].”
Keiichiro deployed an Arrow in mid-air—right near his hands.
Hidden in the shadow of his hands—so that Kyouko and the Adventurers watching the battle on the screen couldn’t see it.
Then, his arms, which had been knocked upward, touched the Arrow.
Following the Arrow, Keiichiro’s hands swung down.
“!?…”
Kyouko, who had been reaching for Keiichiro’s life, froze.
Dual blades pressed down right above her head.
Faced with that, she—
“[Aerial Walking]…!”
—kicked the air.
Kicking off the supposedly empty space, Kyouko leaped sideways.
Once again, Keiichiro’s attack ended up hitting empty air.
The [Aerial Walking] Skill.
Just as the name suggested, it was a Skill that allowed one to walk on air.
Multi-stage jumps in mid-air.
Changing direction where there was no foothold.
It was a troublesome Skill when wielded by an expert.
“She dodged at that timing…?!”
Keiichiro couldn’t help but let that slip out.
He had missed his attack at what should have been the perfect timing.
Her fine sense in choosing that Skill at that timing.
It was worthy of praise.
“What was that? You… you accelerated weirdly just now.”
Kyouko furrowed her brows and glared at Keiichiro.
She narrowed her eyes, trying to ascertain his abilities.
(She sensed the existence of [Arrow] just from the unnaturalness of my movement?)
Keiichiro was truly impressed.
Certainly, his previous attack had used the forced movement from [Arrow].
Meaning he attacked with a movement that should be impossible given the structure of the human body.
Just being able to see through that made her first-rate.
But more than anything—
—that event should have occurred outside Kyouko’s field of vision.
In other words, Kyouko had sensed the unnaturalness just from the time lag before Keiichiro launched his counterattack.
(This kid—she still has a lot of room to grow.)
Talent alone isn’t enough to reach the top.
But there are peaks you cannot climb without talent.
And Kyouko—possessed it.
(Perhaps her talent—rivals that of Kurenai and the others.)
It was talent that should be assessed as such.
(If she were from our generation, is she a talent capable of becoming an attacker on par with them?)
Thinking that, a smile naturally escaped him.
“This is—quite the unexpected encounter.”
“!”
When Keiichiro smiled, Kyouko leaped backward.
She put distance between them.
In other words, it was a sign of her wariness.
She felt threatened by Keiichiro’s Skill.
“This speed… Considering her fighting style, is she a [Fencer]…?”
When Keiichiro pointed it out, Kyouko’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
—Irritation flickered across her face.
Superior talent. Skill.
However, it seemed her mentality still retained some immaturity.
“Think whatever you want—!”
Kyouko closed in.
Keiichiro blocked her attack without difficulty.
The fight between the two shifted into a deadlock of crossed swords.
If this continued, Keiichiro, being a [Trapper], would reach his limit first—
“This is the end…!”
Kyouko’s left hand lowered, reaching for her holster.
What she pulled from the holster was—a handgun.
“…! She uses a gun too…?!”
The assumption that she specialized only in close combat.
She exploited that gap.
Keiichiro was astonished.
The gun’s muzzle was pointed between his eyes.
“!”
The sound of a gunshot.
Simultaneously, Keiichiro tilted his head.
A Magic Bullet grazed his cheek.
He wasn’t seriously injured.
But—his stance had crumbled far too much.
“This ends it.”
Kyouko swung her sword in a horizontal sweep.
The slash didn’t reach Keiichiro.
But that wasn’t a problem.
Because her target was—his swords.
(Not good…! My weapons were knocked away…!)
Unable to fully block the attack, the Dual Swords flew from his hands.
The Dual Swords spun in the air.
The distance was two meters.
Keiichiro’s body was exposed before Kyouko, unarmed.
(This timing and distance. I’ll definitely be taken down—!)
At Keiichiro’s speed, he couldn’t evade in time.
It wasn’t a weak slash that could be stopped barehanded.
Keiichiro’s defeat was imminent.
(Such a talent. Was just being able to fight her on equal footing a stroke of luck?)
Was he going to accept defeat like that?
The answer was—no.
(I really didn’t want to reveal my hand this much in front of people, but—)
He couldn’t hide his full strength and accept defeat.
That would be disrespectful to the girl before him.
More than anything—he couldn’t forgive himself for such an ending.
“Guess there’s no choice—[Aerial Deployment].”
This battle was being shown on screen.
Some people might realize.
But nevertheless—Keiichiro decided to use his Unique Skill in a visible way.
“Gah… huh…!?”
Kyouko stopped moving, her body swaying.
Near her shoulder blades—a dagger was plunged deep.
Keiichiro had deployed an Arrow in mid-air.
Then, manipulating the dagger that had been knocked away—he stabbed Kyouko.
A complete blind spot.
No preliminary movements.
Last time, she had likely deduced the movement of his arm, which was outside her field of vision, from Keiichiro’s body movements.
But this time, there were absolutely no hints.
Therefore, Kyouko had no way of detecting it.
“What… is this… incomprehensible Skill…!”
Kyouko glared fixedly at Keiichiro.
Even so, she no longer possessed the strength to even move.
Her body, pierced through the heart—burst apart and vanished.
Incidentally, there are no set conditions for promotion to S-Rank; one can only be promoted through ‘certification by the country’.
Therefore, the strength within A-Rank can vary greatly, ranging from ‘A-Ranks slightly stronger than B-Ranks’ to ‘A-Ranks whose abilities are comparable to S-Ranks’.