The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 248
The balance was evened to 1-1 as Gunther overwhelmed his opponent with pure strength.
The third to step up was Eonia, who displayed her unrusted spear skills and dealt with her opponent in just 15 minutes.
Upon returning victorious, she winks at me, visible only to my eyes, as if asking for praise.
“Well done. As expected of my leading vassal.”
When I praise her with words she would most like to hear, she blinks and whispers in my ear.
“By leading, you mean I’m the best, right? That’s what it means, right!?”
“Calm down, I meant you’re one of the leading ones.”
“…”
Eo pouts as if upset, and rubs against me as if wanting to protest.
Recently, she’s become more expressive with such direct emotional displays. Perhaps it’s thanks to her dropping the unnecessarily rigid etiquette she used to maintain.
Like now, she’s started clinging to me openly even when others are around.
Ash and Gunther, seemingly unable to stand this sight, cried out.
“Uoooooh-!”
“Damn this world! To think we have to watch this lovey-dovey display even in a place like this!”
Ash, seemingly wanting to vent his frustrations, stepped up to the training ground.
“Anyone come up! I need a fight to feel better!”
And then he lost.
While Ash was excited, the opponent’s skill was beyond expectations. So much so that I couldn’t gauge what the outcome would have been if Eonia had faced this opponent.
Anyway, with the score now balanced at 2-2, it was my turn.
I gave Master Ilya instructions on how to handle things in case I lost, then stepped onto the training ground.
My opponent, an Orc, was unusually skinny. His only weapon was a single staff.
‘Could he be a mage?’
That suspicion proved correct.
As soon as the leader gave the signal to begin, the opponent immediately cast a spell.
When he struck his magic-infused staff into the ground, the earth writhed like a snake and rushed toward me.
“I thought magic was bad manners!?”
I tried to dodge by jumping, but boom! Plant-like stems shot up from the ground and bound me.
Those plant stems were moist and slimy, making me feel disgusted.
“Save this kind of thing for female warriors!”
Slash! I used the sword in my left hand to cut the stems. Being created by magic, they couldn’t withstand my aura-infused attack and were severed immediately.
However, the time spent in this process had already allowed him to turn the training ground into his domain.
Swoosh! Plant stems aimed at my head came flying in. These stems had eerie thorns embedded throughout.
Meanwhile, other stems were black and dead, presumably containing lethal poison.
Besides these, various stems containing different poisons rushed in targeting me.
‘Not bad.’
I’m not just saying that – I couldn’t think of any solution other than countering with magic. If I just charged in, I’d be caught and killed for sure.
‘Between this and the one who beat Ash earlier…’
Their level far exceeded my expectations.
Still, this match was in my favor.
The guy couldn’t move a single step from his position, presumably because controlling the stems consumed considerable mental energy.
If that’s the case, the solution was simple.
Tap! Tap! I kicked off the rushing stems and jumped high into the sky.
“Huup!”
Then, after enchanting my spear with light and arcane aura, I threw it toward the stationary opponent.
“…!”
He widened his eyes and gathered all the plant stems to try to block the spear.
Crash crash crash crash! The spear advanced like a bulldozer through the wall of plants. But thump! Several plant stems caught and held onto the spear shaft, quickly killing its momentum.
Thud! The spear stopped, caught in place.
“Hahaha!”
He laughed sinisterly, but as if to embarrass him, the spear suddenly glowed white and exploded.
A powerful explosion that tore apart all the plant stems holding it.
He was confused and flustered by the explosion’s aftereffects.
I used that opening to quickly approach and cut off his head with the sword I was holding.
Thud! His head falls belatedly. The audience is enveloped in silence.
“Phew!”
Only when I put away my weapon and whistled in relief did the Orcs, finally grasping the situation, begin sending earthquake-like jeers.
It seems it was because I used magic.
“You used it first! When you do it, it’s romance?”
Anyway, this makes it 3-2. At least I secured a match with their leader.
After Elena claimed victory too, we won on the scoreboard, but this score didn’t seem to mean much from the start.
In the end, as if we needed to defeat their leader, the Orc leader sitting in the large chair suddenly stood up.
The Orcs then solemnly chant his name.
“Ah Ula, Kreal!”
“Dei Ola, Kreal!”
It felt like they were praising him as ‘Great Leader Kreal’.
Kreal, the leader Orc, held a human-height greatsword in one hand and a shield made of special metal in the other.
He jumped down to the training ground and pointed his sword tip at Elena who had just won. It seemed he meant to face all of our victorious warriors himself.
“Hmph, just what I wanted!”
Elena responded confidently. The two engaged in fierce combat, but the opponent’s level was clearly higher.
Elena used her magical power to utilize heat, but it wasn’t enough. The location was too open to fully utilize the heat, and the opponent’s physical enhancement abilities were superior.
“Ugh…!?”
Elena disappears as her teleportation scroll activates after taking a decisive blow from the opponent’s greatsword.
Wooooh! The Orcs in the audience cheer as if they might take off.
“To think Master would be defeated so helplessly…!”
Eonia swallowed dry saliva.
I agreed.
‘This is bad, he might be on par with Anton.’
If so, that meant we had no chance of winning. At least not without Juras’s help.
‘The only option is to launch a surprise joint attack….’
While Ilya Master fights, me, Gunther, and Eonia would jump in and work together to deal with him.
It went against the spirit of martial arts, but there was no other way.
I was about to secretly tell the others about this plan when Master Ilya patted my head and said.
“Ars, do you not trust your Master?”
“That’s not it, but…”
“Don’t worry, a master can become several times stronger in front of their disciples. Just watch.”
Master steps onto the training ground, gripping weapons in both hands.
Kreal, the opponent, smiles aggressively as if he knew from the start that Master Ilya was the strongest.
“Chester-style Armor First Grade, Ilya Anfei.”
Master declares. Though the opponent couldn’t understand the words, he returns the gesture.
“Arc Ola, Kreal Pekester!”
The formalities end there. The two begin swinging their weapons to kill each other.
* * *
As the two exchange weapons in a top-tier battle.
I was harboring doubts about this dungeon itself while watching them.
I understand that the dungeon materialized past events. And that the dungeon monsters possess intelligence.
However, it was difficult to gauge the extent of that intelligence.
‘Do they know what kind of situation they’re in?’
If they only had a mission to kill and exterminate humans, this kind of one-on-one duel staking both sides’ honor would be strange from the start.
If killing humans was their only purpose, they could just all attack together to kill without any fuss.
If this was a recreation of past events, there’s nothing to say, but these Orcs gave off a different feeling from that.
‘This is… Grudge? And… Anticipation?’
I couldn’t understand why I suddenly felt these sensations.
From the point when Master Ilya began dueling with the leader Kreal, my head started throbbing and I felt uneasy for some reason.
“…Ars.”
Then Gunther approaches and whispers to me.
“I think it’s time we make a decision. If Ilya loses, the subjugation will end in failure. We’ll have wasted precious teleportation scrolls.”
“That’s true, but…”
“I know it goes against the warrior’s spirit, but we carry something bigger than that. This is practically war. You know best what kind of ruthlessness is needed in war, don’t you?”
I understood completely.
However, for some reason, it felt like we shouldn’t do that. It felt like even if we solved it that way, we couldn’t say we truly subjugated this dungeon.
Gunther pressures me, saying it’s frustrating.
“Ars, if this continues, even Ilya could be in danger! Teleportation scroll isn’t omnipotent!”
That was also true. Because teleportation scroll is magic that uses the concept of reading the future, it can’t be called completely safe.
When a living future is confirmed, all damage that occurs in the process remains as is.
For example, when using a strategy of trading flesh to strike bone.
Master was making such moves to end this.
It meant giving up a part of the body to strike the opponent’s neck. In this case, because a future of survival is confirmed, teleportation scroll won’t activate and you actually lose that body part.
“…Let’s watch for now.”
“But!”
Gunther shakes his head, saying he doesn’t understand.
I decided to trust Master and keep watching the situation. If this decision leads to Master losing an arm or becoming disabled somewhere, I’ll regret it for life, but still, I felt we needed to watch.
“…Thank you, Ars.”
I could hear Master’s muttered words.
Master, having made a decision, attempted the final attack.
Screech! After blocking and deflecting the opponent’s greatsword by crossing sword and spear, Master spun and thrust the spear with full force at the opponent’s shield.
The shield, already dented from consecutive attacks, was penetrated by the spear.
Master threw away the spear far away like catching a big fish, forcing both to discard Master’s spear and the opponent’s shield.
Both were left with only one sword each.
The standoff wasn’t long.
Master rushed in aiming for the opponent’s neck, and the opponent counterattacked.
Here, the speed of the weapons decided the match.
In close range, a greatsword that’s difficult to exert force is disadvantageous in technical exchanges. He had been offsetting this with his shield, but now that shield was gone.
After several exchanges, Master spotted an opening to target the opponent’s head.
However, that wasn’t complete either.
Because the opponent’s greatsword was targeting Master’s legs. If it cuts through, both legs would be severed.
A gambling move of trading legs to strike the head. Master judged this was the only way to defeat him.
This could secure victory. But Master would suffer irreversible damage.
‘Was I wrong to think that way after all…?’
Would my wrong judgment lead to losing a precious person like Ilya Anfei?
But that’s when it happened.
Thud! The opponent’s greatsword stops midway.
Kreal, the leader, stopped his sword and was faintly smiling. Somehow, I could fully feel his emotions.
It was a show of respect, and a blessing for the future.
“How could this be….”
I finally realized instinctively.
That Orc, all these Orcs here, knew that they were dungeon monsters, fleeting lives made of magic by the Mother God’s power.
That’s why in this decisive moment, he didn’t take Ilya’s legs.
Unlike himself who would disappear anyway, Master Ilya had a future to live. It was consideration toward a warrior who faced him as an equal in martial arts.
“…!”
Master Ilya must have felt this too, stopping the sword that was about to cut off the opponent’s head and stepping back.
“What are you doing? This is rather insulting to me!”
Master showed anger at him not cutting the legs.
The leader smiled more satisfyingly and shouted loudly.
“Urea Kunta!”
At his cry, all Orcs made solemn expressions and shouted following Kreal.
“Urea Kunta! Urea Kunta!”
Shouts that seemed to shake the ravine.
Along with it, the Orcs’ bodies and the fortress structures began slowly disappearing, turning into magic.
“Im-impossible! The leader didn’t die!”
Gunther widened his eyes. I felt the same way.
‘The dungeon accepted defeat on its own…!?’
And disappears by itself.
The scattered magic was gathering around leader Kreal.
When that magic condensed together, my head, which had been throbbing since earlier, felt like it was being stabbed.
And a clear vision arose in my mind.
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