Chapter Thirty Five:Don’t Call Me Despicable

"Understood. The rule is, whoever hits more monsters before running out of arrows win," Shirou repeated, giving Alicia a weird look.

"I have no problem with this rule, but are you sure you want to do it this way?" he asked.

Alicia nodded. "Of course. It's not about 'killing,' you just need to 'hit' the target, because we're comparing archery skills, not strength. However, even so, I still have the advantage with my higher base stats."

The [Dexterity] stat increases an adventurer's ability to control weapons and their accuracy. However, Shirou wasn't concerned about that, nor about whether they needed to kill or just hit their targets.

"Alright then," Shirou said, accepting the quiver Alicia handed him containing ten arrows. Alicia herself also had a similar quiver hanging from her waist.

They began moving through the dungeon. Ryuu stayed a step behind to guard the rear, while Lefiya, in the center of the formation, watched the competition with glee.

"Good luck, Shirou!" Lefiya cheered, wanting to prove her judgment right to Alicia, and so she rooted for Shirou enthusiastically.

Soon, they encountered their first monster—a lone orc.

Shirou quickly raised his bow and fired an arrow, but at that exact moment, a "gust of wind" swept past him from the side.

Just as Shirou's arrow left the bowstring, Alicia fired her own arrow.

Her arrow, accompanied by the sharp whistling sound of the air being torn, sped forward. Despite being shot later, it reached its target faster than Shirou's.

The large orc, known for its strength and endurance and capable of troubling an entire party of Level 1 adventurers, was killed with a single shot. The arrow completely obliterated the orc's upper body, even destroying its magic stone.

If Shirou had used a regular arrow, there was no way he could have one-shot an orc unless his arrow pierced the eye and hit the brain directly. But for a Level 4 adventurer like Alicia, a basic attack was enough to instantly kill an orc.

As for Shirou's arrow, it naturally missed its mark. Aside from the wind pressure of Alicia's arrow, Shirou had aimed for the orc's eye—but by the time his arrow reached the target, the orc no longer had a head.

"Alicia-onee-chan, that's cheating!" Lefiya shouted.

"Sh-shut up!" Alicia's face flushed red. She was embarrassed that she used such a tactic against a child, but at the same time, she didn't want to lose!

After seeing Shirou's archery form, Alicia instinctively knew he would hit his mark. Before her brain could register it, her body had already taken action.

Alicia had a strong desire to win and was unwilling to lose at any cost.

"D-don't call me despicable! You're an adventurer too, and as adventurers, we do whatever it takes to win!" she argued, though her flushed face completely betrayed her inner turmoil.

Ryuu, watching from the back, felt so embarrassed she wanted to dug a hole and hide in it. She understood the complicated and prideful nature of elves, and could empathize with Alicia's predicament.

"It's fine," Shirou said with a gentle smile. "Let's continue, Alicia-senpai."

His gentle attitude only made Alicia feel more ashamed, further convincing her that she had failed as a mentor. But despite the embarrassment, Alicia's archery remained steady and flawless.

She scored a perfect ten hits out of ten arrows, eliminating monsters like orcs, goblins, and silverback. One of her shots even pierced through two goblins with a single arrow.

At this point, it was nearly impossible for Shirou to win. He had already lost one arrow, and unless he could somehow shoot through multiple monsters with one arrow repeatedly, which was highly unlikely given his level and strength, victory was out of reach.

"What am I even doing, acting so childish over something like this?" Alicia thought to herself, feeling increasingly flushed. There was no sense of joy in her victory.

However, Shirou wasn't ready to give up just yet. 

"Alright, now it's my turn."

"Is it really necessary? With Alicia-onee-chan's underhanded tactics, there's no way Shirou can win now," Lefiya said with a pout.

"The rule is, 'whoever hits more monsters before running out of arrows wins,' right?" Shirou calmly responded, causing Lefiya to pause for a moment before she suddenly realized something.

"Ah!" she cheered in excitement. Finally, she understood that because of the very rule Alicia had set, Shirou couldn't lose.

Lefiya, like a fan witnessing her favorite team win, became visibly excited. Ryuu, who had seen through everything from the start, remained silent, while Alicia began to feel a growing sense of unease.

"Let's settle this right here," Shirou said calmly as they encountered two silverback.

These monsters, covered in white fur with silver fur down the middle, were on par with orcs in terms of overall strength. They were top-tier monsters in the upper floors, with agility and defense that outclassed orcs, though they were weaker in endurance and physical strength

Shirou drew his bow, and shot his first arrow, hitting one of the silverbacks in the knee. Since there was a vast difference in strength and attack power between him and Alicia, the competition wasn't about kills but rather the number of hits.

As long as the monsters were hit before they died, it counted toward the total.

Shirou fired arrows at a speed that surpassed Alicia's, leaving her stunned. His attack speed was so high that it seemed as though he was single-handedly unleashing a rain of arrows.

One arrow, two arrows, three… nine, ten, eleven…

Wait—eleven arrows?

Alicia realized something was wrong. Where did the eleventh arrow come from?

Her gaze shifted hurriedly from the silverbacks to Shirou, and she saw that the boy wasn't drawing arrows from his quiver at all. He merely placed his hand on the bow, and an arrow automatically materialized, which he then shot effortlessly.

The quiver behind him still held its full set of nine arrows.

No wonder he was shooting so fast!

["Don't call me despicable, Alicia-senpai, you're a high class adventurer, after all."]

The two silverbacks were swiftly killed. First, their knees were destroyed, crippling their mobility, then their chests were pierced, but thanks to the monsters' vitality, they still clung to life. Finally, Shirou ended both their's suffering with two clean headshots.

This was why Shirou had to restrict himself to some degree while adventuring on the upper floors. His archery was so overwhelmingly powerful against the weaker monsters that it hindered his growth in strength and agility.

"The score now is 34 to 11. Alicia-onee-chan, it's your lost!" Lefiya declared triumphantly, as if she herself had won against Alicia.

"I've lost." Despite her strong desire to win, Alicia surprisingly accepted her defeat with ease.

"Despite being Level 1, you're one of the best archer I've ever seen.," Alicia said earnestly. "In terms of archery, I, Alicia, acknowledge you as the strongest!"

"Thank you. Though to be honest, I did cheat a little," Shirou admitted.

"No, you used 'magic' to win, just as I relied on my stats for an advantage," Alicia replied seriously. "A loss is a loss, and I won't make a scene by denying it." 

The cheating Shirou referred to wasn't the use of his magic, [Unlimited Blade Works], but the archery he inherited from a Heroic Spirit.

Alicia had trained with her bow for twenty years back home, mostly hunting rabbits, wolves, and deer, with some monsters here and there, while the arrows of Heroic Spirit Emiya were often aimed at other Heroic Spirits, some with skills like Cu Chulainn's [Protection from Arrows] and Artoria's [Instinct].

Still, even with his own skill, Shirou wouldn't have lost to Alicia—though the gap wouldn't have been as large.

"Be careful, someone's approaching," Ryuu suddenly warned, her hand resting on the hilt of her blade.

"Hahaha, we finally ran into some unlucky bastard! These monsters are all yours now!!!"

Ahead of them appeared a man covered in mud, followed closely by two others in similar outfits, running as if their lives depended on it. Behind them was a massive horde of enraged monsters.

It was one of the dungeon's specialty—a Pass Parade.