The duel between Claire and Nellin began right in front of Squishy.
Even for the monsters, it was an exciting spectacle worth watching.
▶ Didn’t that elf girl usually use a bow? Why’s she using a wooden sword now?
▶ She doesn’t know bows are ant for long-distance? Guess she’s never fought a human.
▶ Even if you haven’t fought humans, you’d know from dealing with spitters and spit-shooting monsters.
▶ So who’s gonna win?
▶Dunno?
The monsters had only seen Nellin’s skills once—when she shot a deer with an arrow during their first encounter.
So it was hard to predict whether the human who used fists or the elf who now used a sword instead of a bow would co out on top.
However—
Since the other humans told the elf to go easy, doesn’t that an she’s actually the stronger one?
So monsters tried to infer based on what others said.
▶Furry got way stronger after that sparring match with the Squishy.
▶Maybe the furry one is the strong one.
[Noblesse Fire] ▶ Whether furry or elf or human, they’re all weaker than anyway.
▶Ugh, the boor’s flexing again without reading the room.
▶Aka.
▶Murasaki.
▶Boor trait #1: Can’t shut up for more than a few minutes without bragging. Trait #2: Gets roasted hard for bragging without reading the room.
▶lolol
[Noblesse Fire] ▶ Yo, where’s your lair, huh?
[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶ This is just embarrassing to watch. If you’re a shut-in loser dragon, stay quiet and rot in peace.
[Noblesse Fire]▶ You damn bag of bones, talking crap again!
As the fire dragon and the bone dragon bickered as usual, the duel between Nellin and Claire began.
Thwack!
Claire clenched her fist and dashed forward.
‘Oh, she’s faster now.’
Thanks to her experience fighting the orc horde and sparring with Squishy, Claire’s speed had improved.
Compared to the first ti she charged at Nellin, her skills had clearly advanced, bringing a smile to Nellin’s face.
‘Looks like she wasn’t just playing around. Still... she’s got a long way to go if she wants to beat .’
Nellin elegantly swung her wooden sword, eting Claire’s attacks.
She sidestepped and deflected Claire’s faster punches with ease.
Thwack!
“Ugh!”
Whenever Claire showed the slightest opening, Nellin swung her sword and struck.
No matter how much Claire had improved, she was still no match for Nellin, who had fought through countless battles and even defeated a black dragon.
Still, Claire made fewer mistakes than before.
Nellin found that admirable, and Claire herself felt a sense of accomplishnt at her growth.
“You’re not holding back, huh?”
“Heh, she’s totally toying with her. That snowflake punch that once overwheld ! That’s Nellin for you.”
“Gonna have to ask the Saintess for healing when she gets back.”
“Ah, that’s gotta hurt.”
To everyone else watching, the only thing clear was that Claire was getting absolutely wrecked.
▶ She’s getting clowned lolol
▶ elf’s got so unexpected moves, huh?
▶ You furry punk—how are you not landing a single hit after all that sparring with Squishy?
▶Trash~! Furry’s trash~!
[Free Spirit]▶ That elf’s freakishly strong, okay? Claire’s not weak.
Seeing enough, Troll tried to defend Claire just a little.
And a few minutes later—
“Huff, huff, huff.”
“Alright, I’ve got a rough idea of your skills now. Let’s stop.”
Nellin tapped her shoulder with her wooden sword and grinned.
“You’ve gotten a lot stronger since last ti.”
Catching her breath, Claire nodded.
“Yeah. I’ve hunted a lot of monsters since then. And I sparred with Squishy a lot. When you train with strong opponents, you really improve fast.”
“Hmm~? That so? Squishy’s that strong?”
Looking intrigued, Nellin turned her gaze to Squishy.
“Yeah. Squishy’s super fast. And really strong too.”
‘Co to think of it, didn’t they work out together at dawn?’
Nellin recalled what happened earlier that morning.
She had been sleeping soundly when she was jolted awake by Paulen’s emotional shout.
Frowning, she opened the window and looked down to see Paulen crying in the inn’s backyard, while Squishy—just like yesterday—had ford tentacle arms and was lifting dumbbells.
‘Those weights looked heavy just at a glance. If she can lift those, she must be pretty strong.’
Nellin had heard stories about Squishy taking down a lesser troll and even an orc champion.
But in her mind, the image of that blue elf she first t in the forest was still vivid.
Sure, she’d seen Squishy spar with Paulen—but it had only been light training.
‘Maybe I should see for myself?’
Nellin now wanted to personally test Squishy’s skills.
“Hey, Squishy! Switch with Claire! You co here too. Let’s see how strong you really are!”
‘A duel!’
As soon as Squishy heard Nellin, she leapt out of Def’s hands.
▶Oh, he’s dueling elf now?
▶Who’s stronger—elf or Squishy?
▶Probably Squishy?
▶elf didn’t look weak either, though.
Since no one knew their exact abilities, the monsters began debating who was stronger.
‘Nellin’s fast!’
anwhile, Squishy was excited to spar with Nellin.
Just by watching her fight Claire, he could tell Nellin was strong.
And unlike Paulen, Nellin didn’t use a shield—she moved around agilely in battle.
Squishy was curious to see what kinds of moves Nellin would show when they fought.
And Squishy’s expectations were t with even better results than he imagined.
Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing!
“Ooh, he’s quick.”
Squishy moved even faster than when he sparred with Claire, lunging in with tackles.
But Nellin read her movents in advance and dodged or redirected them with her wooden sword, just like she had done with Claire’s punches and kicks.
It was a new experience for Squishy.
When he sparred with Paulen or Troll, his attacks were mostly blocked.
Be it with a giant shield or a magic barrier, it felt like going up against an unbreakable wall.
Boioioing!
“I see everything coming!”
But Nellin didn’t block.
Trying to stop a sli’s tackle with a wooden sword would only break it in no ti.
Instead, she predicted the moves and dodged preemptively.
“Coming again~.”
Whoosh!
Nellin swiftly swung her sword and struck Squishy.
Of course, being a wooden sword, it didn’t do much damage—Squishy just went flying.
‘Fun!’
Even getting launched like that was fun for Squishy.
But there was one viewer who wasn’t so thrilled with the scene.
[Squishy Queen]▶That damn elf!!! How dare she fling my kin like that?! How insolent!!!
[Noblesse Fire]▶ Oh boy, here goes the queen's tantrum again.
▶Squishy’s mom has entered the chat!!!
▶But Squishy looks like he’s having fun?
▶He’s so lively! I love it!
▷Fun!
▶ ??? Wait—was he seriously having fun??? lolol
[Thread Lady]▶ I'm so happy to see Squishy enjoying himself~.
[Squishy Queen]▶ elf! Can't you make it even more fun for my kin?
▶LOL
▶The way she flipped her attitude, is that for real?
▶Faster than a crocodile's death roll, I swear.
After multiple missed tackles, Squishy began his next move.
‘Punch!’
Boing!
Just like he did during his sparring with Paulen, Squishy extended his tentacles and unleashed a flurry of punches.
“Oh, that’s the move from yesterday?”
Quick and repeated tentacle punches.
Nellin twirled her sword skillfully, deflecting and dodging each punch.
Tatatatatatata!
“Amazing, she’s fast.”
“She’s faster than when we sparred with her, right?”
“Squishy is super quick too!”
“Wait, is Nellin really an archer? She looks more like a swordswoman.”
“Heh, maybe a true archer keeps her sword hidden.”
“Quit spouting nonsense like it’s so profound quote, Hawane.”
Swoooosh!
Realizing her punches weren’t working, Squishy stopped and extended his tentacle to wrap around Nellin’s wooden sword, then began shortening the tentacle to close the distance.
“Oh, so that’s how you’re playing it? Then how about this?”
As Squishy sped up and shortened his tentacle, Nellin dropped her wooden sword without hesitation.
Freed from Nellin’s grip, the sword was pulled straight into the sli and struck him.
Smack!
‘Whoa!’
The unexpected move flustered the sli.
Taking advantage of the opening, Nellin dashed forward and punched the sli.
“Boom!”
Swoosh!
A swift and light-looking jab.
But the force behind it was strong enough to send Squishy flying all the way into a training post.
Boing!
Of course, just because he hit the post didn’t an Squishy was hurt badly.
Having evolved from a bounce sli, his body was now more elastic and durable, able to absorb most impacts.
‘Amazing! Nellin! So fast!’
As the sli bounced off the post and landed on the ground, Nellin wiggled her fingers and said, “Co on, charge again. I’ll fight you with just my fists this ti.”
‘Okay!’
Boing!
Squishy lunged at Nellin once more.
***
Nellin continued sparring with Squishy for the next fifteen minutes.
Leaving the wooden sword on the ground, they fought only with their bare hands.
Partly for fun—but also to show Claire, the martial artist, sothing she could learn from.
“Phew. Squishy, you’re really strong. Got a good workout. Haven’t sweated like this in a while.”
Wiping sweat from her cheek with the back of her hand, Nellin looked at Squishy with satisfaction.
‘Sparring with Nellin! So fun!’
Squishy felt the sa.
It wasn’t that sparring with Paulen wasn’t fun, but this new style of training was refreshing.
anwhile, those who watched the spar between Squishy and Nellin—
The guild adventurers felt a wave of heat watching a duel between the hero who saved the village and the legendary hero herself.
“Was that duel for real?”
“My heart’s pounding.”
“Our village’s hero versus a living legend! Damn! I’m so glad I saw that!”
The Godrick party once again recognized Squishy’s greatness.
His duel with the paladin was already impressive, but drawing out the skills of soone like Nellin, who had trained them so harshly, hit even harder.
“There’s no way we can stand up to Squishy now.”
“Heh, not like we ever could.”
“Hmph! I’ll catch up to him soday!”
“Y-Yeah, we can’t just let Squishy fight alone.”
anwhile, Claire silently watched Nellin and reflected on the movents she had just seen.
A style of martial arts that efficiently blocked incoming attacks and imdiately countered.
Different from Claire’s own style, which emphasized speed and preemptive strikes.
Though their styles were different, Claire felt there was much to learn from Nellin’s techniques.
‘Amazing. I’m really glad I asked her to train .’
Claire firmly believed that by mastering Nellin’s martial art, she could beco even stronger.
***
At the very top of the Magic Tower—inside the Tower Master’s office.
There sat the current master of the tower, Brooks Vessilja, with deep dark circles under his eyes.
Brooks Vessilja, who had collapsed in shock when Troll removed his beard.
Having barely gotten out of bed, he checked his chin in the mirror every single day without fail.
One day, two days, a week, a month—
No matter how much ti passed, not a single hair grew—neither mustache nor beard.
It caused imnse stress for Brooks Vessilja.
The last ti he was this stressed was when his hair first started falling out.
“My beard. My, my beard… why, why won’t it grow?!”
He even tried using the sa beard-growth elixirs the dwarves used, but to no avail.
After more than a month, all he had on his chin was wrinkled bare skin.
“I… I can’t forgive this. I won’t! That damn lich… how dare an undead who couldn’t even die properly… How dare he touch my beard…!”
Just as his endless despair was turning into fury—
Brooks Vessilja received an urgent report.
“W-What did you say? Saintess Presia died while defeating the lich?!”
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