Adventurers VS the boy (part 4)

"Ghhhh...! Ugh! Mend." *CRUNCH*

Zorey breathed through his teeth and used his healing Skill, and with a nauseating sound, his damaged arm snapped back to normal as mana welded every tissue back together.

"OWWWW!"

The boy let out a much louder groan as the healing process felt even worse than the actual wound, and he started massaging his forearm.

"Whew...! So there is an actual cooldown before I can use that Skill again, huh..."

After a heartbeat, though, the black-haired boy was already nodding to himself as if nothing happened, clenching and opening his hand and testing his shoulder's range of motion while approaching the shieldmaiden writhing on the ground in the most pain she had ever been.

"..."

Zorey furrowed his brows; no notification about the duel ending showed up, so he walked over to the screaming girl and leaned down, raising his fist...

"Stop! What are you...?!"

"ICE SPHERE!"

*SLAM* *crack*

The bespectacled receptionist was the first person to recover from the shock and called out, but right as she got the boy's attention, someone called out, and a white orb shot through the air and broke apart against the boy's temple, making his head tilt to the side.

...only tilt to the side...

"..."

"!!!"

The black-haired boy slowly moved his head back, and as a drop of blood slithered down his face, he looked in the direction the magic projectile flew from and stared at the ghastly-pale water mage holding a small wand with a blue gem.

"G-g-g-g-gemstone creation."

*ting* x5

Zorey said on purpose, sounding as if he stuttered, and five gems appeared in the palm of his hand – two red and three yellow.

The boy dropped off the red gems and clenched his hand on the remaining ones before swinging his hand and throwing them.

*ZAP* *ZAP* *ZAP*

"KGHYAAA...?!"

All of the projectiles connected with the water magician, and surprisingly enough, all ended up picking the paralysis status effect, causing the girl to cry out as her muscles tensed up against her will, causing her to freeze in place while trembling uncontrollably.

"GET AWAY FROM THEM! PALM OF ENLIGHTMENT!"

"...? Bullet punch."

Red-faced Finlay charged out from the line of the audience too, and the Skill he activated made his extended palm glow, but he appeared so slow that it made Zorey frown before he used his own Skill as a counter and...

*THWACK*

*WHAM* x27

The first hit from the chain of Zorey's Skill was blocked by the monk's palm, but the rest of them aimed precisely in the same spot hit the monk's hand and forced it into his face dealing only slightly less damage.

"...gkkh...!" *splurt*

*thump*

When Zorey stepped back, and Finlay's hand was allowed to drop, blood burst out of the monk's completely crushed nose, and he let out a groan while his eyes flashed their whites, and he fell to his knees, losing consciousness.

"Seriously, what's wrong with you people?"

The black-haired boy frowned while pouting and glared back at the paralyzed mage, just to find that the brown-haired archer was shielding her with his own body with a bow in hand...

...but instead of holding an arrow with the other hand, the archer put it out to the front, trying to stop the boy's next move...

"WAIT! Please wait! This... this is all a misunderstanding!"

The brown-haired boy called out, gulping down his saliva loudly, appearing dangerously close to having a heart attack.

He had a few good reasons, too – the HP of all of his comrades that he could see in the upper right corner of his vision dropped down significantly, with his sister being in the best situation with half of her HP and both Constance and Finlay being on the very verge of death with their HP in single digits... even when combined...

"You bet it is! Why did you all decide to interrupt the duel before it was over?! Tsk!"

The boy scoffed angrily, putting his hand to his temple and clicking his thought at the sight of the blood on his palm.

"Hold on! The duel is over, though – it clearly is!"

"...huh...?"

Thalia stepped up and called out to the boy, but she didn't approach him as he let out a dumbfounded voice.

"...but... it isn't over, though? There is no notification..."

Zorey pointed out, raising his finger up and to the left as if trying to point at the spot where the notification would come up.

"What else do you want to do?! Kill her?"

Thalia shook her head and gasped, pointing at the fallen girl clenching her decimated arm.

"Wait, what?! But...! But you said that you can't die in a duel!"

"!!!"

The black-haired boy straightened his back and cried out in shock, causing everyone around to get almost as shocked as when they saw his first attack.

"I...! No, I just said that it doesn't usually happen...! The participant's HP can drop to 0 during a duel!"

"!!!"

The bespectacled woman took a step back and explained in a troubled voice, causing the black-haired boy's eyes to widen in realization.

"Oh, my System....! I am SO SORRY!"

Zorey's chin trembled, and his eyes fogged up with tears as he realized what almost happened, and he covered his mouth with both hands while apologizing.

"... praise the System... it really was a misunderstanding..."

The brown-haired archer, Amo, breathed out in relief and plopped to the ground in relief as it became clear that the black-haired boy would not continue attacking.

"I...! I will heal them right away!"

"Whew... yeah, it would be... wait... You don't mean with..."

Zorey declared, pointing between the monk and the shieldmaiden, and Thalia breathed out in relief and nodded before freezing up and gasping in realization...

"Mend! Mend!"

*CRUNCH* x2

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

"GHAAAAAAAAAAAA...!"

But she was too late in stopping his time, and the Skill that was known to be more painful the more severe wound it treated has been used, raising the severely wounded people's HP back to a relatively safe amount but at the cost of pain far worse than the one they had experienced from the injuries.

"I...! I give up...! I give uuuuuuuup...!"

*TA-DING*

[You won the duel]

[EXP points granted]

The healed shieldmaiden started sobbing uncontrollably while crawling away from the black-haired boy, and then the awaited notification finally showed up.