The will to fight

[Someone close to you is in danger]

I didn't have time to think, even inside the slowed time Aki was moving fast, he was clearly aiming to end Chi-senpai with a single attack, her expressions didn't change she's yet to realize what's happening. I quickly grabbed Chi-senpai's hand and pulled her close to me just enough to barely dodge Aki but I know that this can't work a second time he's too close now

Think Aru think what can I do? Teleport! But the barrier makes teleportation hard it will use a lot of my mana

[Nullifying the barrier has started]

Aki's eyes quickly caught to what I'm doing so he extended his arm trying to enter my teleportation range, if I let him come with us it's as good as over even I can't fight while suffering mana exhaustion.

I had to create space somehow, but it's easier said than done! His hand is already grabbing my wrist.

It was muscle memory,my body moved on it's own and kicked Aki's stomach sending him away from me, although I managed to create distance it won't last for long.

[Barrier has been nullified]

Without a second of hesitation I teleported to an empty place, we don't have much time until Aki find us but this place should be perfect to fight

"What just happened..."

For Chi-senpai the entire exchange happened in less than a single second so it's expected that she will be confused, that's not the time to ask her, I have to regain as much mana as I could

Using the system I scrolled through my skills really quickly, Using it this way instead of the phone screen is infinitely more convenient

[Meditation]

[Massively increases mana regeneration while the user isn't moving]

That's it, I need to just breathe.

I already decided that Aki isn't a bad person it's just a bad misunderstanding, even if it comes to a fight all I need to do is stall time until my words go through him

[Someone close to you is in danger]

[Meditation is over]

Currently we're using an abandoned factory, as far as I know it's a place Boss specifically created in case of emergency to keep civilians outside of fights like this one, there's no way Aki doesn't know it although he may had to teleport to one or two before this one it was bound to happen

The blonde guy standing in front of me is a little different than the one who attacked Chi-senpai a few minutes ago, he's a little calmer this time.

"Why are you doing this"

I made sure to hide Chi-senpai, it's not hard to find her with a little searching but I won't allow him to do that

"Why am I doing this? I SHOULD BE THE ONE ASKING YOU"

My previous question provoked him for some reason, he threw a big fire ball to me, but for a fire spell it's size and speed seems different than the ones I use

[Warning]

[This is an explosion spell]

"You bastard!"

He's intending to bury the entire factory to make sure he ends the job

Shit I can't think of anything what can I even do in this situation? Cancel magic? I've never used that skill I don't know how well it's gonna work...

"Damn it"

[Your health is Low]

[Commencing Auto-heal]

I couldn't think of anything so I just jumped at it directly...

"You absorbed the blast on your own without any protection... and more than that you are still standing. You need to focus all your stats in endurance to do such a thing"

I didn't use any defense increasing skills so I was expecting to get some damage but damn it not this much! My stats are fucking maxed how strong was that explosion?!

No Aru focus, there's no way he can use that kind of skill multiple times, and now that I recognize it dealing with it will be easier so he'll do something else

As expected he changed his strategy and dashed towards me reducing the distance between us in a single move

"Why are you so fast damn it"

Although it's hard to keep up with him I still have the advantage in a hand to hand comb- Fuck of course it's not a hand to hand!

["Partner" is ready to be summoned]

I quickly grabbed my sword from the inventory and blocked the attack coming to me as fast as I could

"You're fast, but you are full of openings"

Even though I blocked the attack coming from his rapier using my great sword I still got sent flying backwards

Three hits in a single one? No it's more than three!

Aki didn't waste a second, unable to dodge since I was flying I had no choice but to tank the hit

Using his left arm Aki threw a punch that ignored my defense and hit my body directly

[You suffered a critical hit]

[Defense stats has been reduced temporarily]

A crit? How the fuck am I supposed to deal with it?!

My body slammed the wall sending severe pain through my back

"Fuck, I can't move.."

Was the damage from the explosion that big? Or am I just this weak? I overestimated myself a lot

"Is that all you got?"

I can feel something cold on my neck...I see, the way Aki is looking down on me woke me up there was no way I could've won from the beginning, even if I was stronger the lack of experience was obvious... my body refused to move the way I wanted it to, it feels like something was stopping me...

"Why are you doing this?"

I asked again, this time however Aki answered me

"The girl you are protecting is the vessel of the demon king, a hero should've been able to notice the moment he saw her but you..."

Ah so that's it? The feeling that something I knew but I didn't want to know...I was trying to pretend that I didn't know it because I was afraid... I ignored all the obvious hints and closed my eyes

My body feels heavier than usual, so that's it huh? I wasn't able to get all my strength from the beginning because I was a hero.

"A hero can't use his power to help the demon king huh?"

"I see your memories are messed up, you are just a normal person with a little more power than other humans"

That's right, as I saw Aki walking away I knew exactly where's he going... in the end I failed to even protect one person in front of me

[Someone close to you is in danger]

The system notifications kept appearing in front of me but what am I supposed to do?

[Are you going to give up?]

"What else can I..."

I heard a big explosion, Aki flew away with a disgusted face...Chi-senpai was panting as she used a strong attack that her body can't withstand

"I won't allow you to kill me, if I'm dying anyway I want Aru to do it!"

"Do you think you have the right to decide you ugly creature!"

Even when she's faced with death, Chi-senpai stood there, her legs are trembling and even breathing seems hard for her...

[Your health has been fully recovered]

I knew that being defeated was a single strike wasn't possible, my body is far stronger than that, this weakness I feel is just an illusion, an excuse because I'm afraid of fighting again

Using all my strength I forced myself to stand up, all I needed was a reason to use my strength and now I'm looking at it, the fragile girl who's fighting an unfair battle yet refuses to give it up, if I didn't protect her then can I call myself a hero? Even if she's the demon king that doesn't matter,I'll deal with it later. All I care about now is protecting her

I stood up, this time I feel like the limiters I put myself are finally gone, I can see things even slower than I used to

Aki dodged another beam from Chi-senpai effortlessly this time and his sword is only a few seconds away from piercing her heart

"Let's do this"

Faster than anything I moved to protect her, my sword clashed with Aki's before he even realized I stood up again

"How did you..?"

I don't know anything about sword fighting, so instead of pretending to be an expert I'll just brute force myself to a winning position

Using my great sword as a baseball bat I sent Aki flying with a single swing, he tried blocking it but in a pure strength battle he can't hope of winning

"Now that we're both done warming up how about we start round two?"

Aki's back slammed into the wall pretty hard, it must have caused a considerable amount of damage to him.

I need to end this before he gets to start healing himself.

"Aru! Now before he gets back up please kill me"

Chi-senpai held my shirt tightly, hee eyes are full of determination but...

"You hand is trembling"

There's no thing such as someone who doesn't fear death, even though she might manage to deceive others she can't lie to herself. I have so many questions but it can wait until I'm done with Aki first, however...

"since you're the demon king aren't you a man?"

"It doesn't work like that..."

Before she could finish her answer Aki cut us off with a scream

"Do you understand what are you doing?"

"I do and I'm fully prepared to beat you"

"I was willing to ignore this thing because of your memory loss but now it's unacceptable, I'll fight with the intention of killing you as a traitor now"

He wasn't fighting seriously before huh? So it's not only me that's going to get serious now

Using his left arm Aki created flames that started burning his clothes, this time it's a fire skill and not an explosion one, I wonder if fire is his specialty? Anyways I know what to do

[Fire arrow]

Copying the same skill he used wasn't hard at all, we both created a bow of fire to launch a single arrow with all the mana we have, when the arrows make contact the one with superior fire power is going to win and burn the other

In the moment the arrow left my hand his arrow was already on its way to hit me...No, wait...

"Three arrows?!"

He simultaneously threw three arrows every single one of them have a 100% of his power, they move together and create a single huge spear of fire, how is that even possible?

I took a defensive position in an instant, my arrow will have to resist Aki's combined arrows to make the damage that comes to me lower. That was what I hoped for but the moment the arrows met there was no resistance at all. The fire power difference was just too big for the resistance to do any meaningful impact.

"Ugh"

The sword that tried playing the role of a shield was completely broken in an instant and the attack was a critical hit

[You dealt a critical hit]

Aki's body was burning as the fire ignored all his defense and aimed for his skin directly

"I didn't expect it to be that strong...."

"Even 300%....No, 450% of my power couldn't even match a single attack from you, who are you?"

[The opponent's fire resistance is high]

[The damage dealt was reduced by 50%]

Aki stood up firmly, he made it clear that he wasn't willing to give up

"You should already know it, physical or magical there is no way for you to defeat me"

"You saw it too right? The annoying system notifications doesn't stop, are you giving up? Are you giving up? Are you giving up? You know it already, there's no way I'd stop fighting"

He jumped at me again this time since he lost his sword he will have to use his hands, he's already at a disadvantage and to add more to it his movement is significantly slower, his body is still injured because there is a limit to how fast can healing magic work, and the mana consumption is massive so healing non-fatal wounds is a stupid decision

Aki threw a punch at me that I was able to dodge easily, however he managed to dodge my counter swiftly and tried to attack me again, this time I decided that I will just take the hit and bury him when he's unable to dodge in time however...

[You suffered a critical hit]

[Defense stats has been reduced temporarily]

"You fucking..."

I moved my sword as fast as I can to end this guy with a single attack before he can do any more damage to me but he managed to dodge it in time again, this time is different though, because I can see it.

"What about you look at me in tge eyes you bastard? Are you shy?"

He is far slower than me, so for him to dodge my attacks so perfectly means that he's reading my moves before I even do them, I don't know how he exactly do it but if I had to guess it's probably reading the movement of my shoulders and feet to predict which way I'm attacking

The solution is pretty easy, all I have to do is move in an unpredictable way, I threw my sword at him with enough power that it created a big blast once it left my hand

"Is that all you got?"

Aki said taunting me, however what he failed to realize that he was already within my strike range, it was a gamble but I quickly jumped to the place I predict he would be in after dodging the sword, it was definitely a clean hit

[You dealt a critical hit]

However the Aki that was hit just now dissappeared suddenly, did I punch him too hard?

[Warning]

It was too late, I failed to realize it but he was preparing for a teleport skill this entire time, my reaction was slow but I managed to catch his hand before he hit me

"Huh?"

His hand was glowing

"YOU! HOW MUCH MANA DO YOU HAVE?"

It was another fire skill, although weaker than the one from before being hit from this distance is going to do some damage, but that doesn't matter now, because all I need is another punch on his face before the skill is activated!

[You suffered a critical hit]

[Defense stats has been reduced temporarily]

[You dealt a critical hit]

Both of us flew in opposite direction destroying the walls in our ways, it took me a few seconds but I managed to stand up again and looked at Aki, his state was far worse than mine.

The fight was basically as good as over, I suffered a lot of damage from his last attack but my mana regenerated enough to heal the fatal damage however he doesn't have the same luxury, his nose is broken and blood covered whatever was left from his torn clothes

"It-it's not over yet"

"It is over"

I walked slowly there, no matter how hard he tried to stand he fell again in a second, he already surpassed his limits a few times now, even if he's refusing to give up there's nothing he can do now

"Just give it up already, you know that you reached your limit already, you beating me alone was impossible to begin with"

"That means it's possible if we help right?"

From nowhere a green area was created around Aki healing his wounds, two men have entered the area, it was a 3vs1 this time

"Shit! Did I jinx it?"