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Skirmish - Oni vs Wind and Lightning ④

Wind lashes at me. When I was slammed onto the ground, I somehow managed to get back up against the force that seems to be trying to crush me. Blood is flowing from my forehead. It’s clear and simple as to what did me in. I was dropped by just a bullet of wind. Just that. Just that one attack, and I was knocked onto the ground.

I underestimated the power of the wind. An invisible bullet of air. To think something like that would be so annoying. Furthermore, the violently blowing wind takes away my ability to move, and because the air around us is constantly flowing, it becomes even harder to sense where the bullets of wind are coming from. I’d been so focused on the showy lightning strikes, that I hadn’t noticed the real value of the wind the Pteranodon dragon controlled. This wind-swept landscape is the Pteranodon dragon’s hunting ground.

The wind sweeps around. Due to the strong wind, it’s becoming difficult to keep my eyes open. If anything, it’s also becoming difficult to breathe. It’s like I have a plastic bag pressed against my face. No matter how high my status values might be, I’m still a living creature who breathes. If this situation where I’m unable to breathe properly continues, it’s obvious that I’ll become oxygen deficient. It’s not like I can’t breathe at all, but as to whether I could move about at my maximum strength, I’d be forced to concede that it would be difficult.

Focus your mind! Incoming! An air bullet flies in towards me. Just about, I manage to avoid it by a hair. However, dodging was my absolute limit. Even if I could dodge the bullet itself, it puts me in a weak stance that makes it impossible to oppose the fiercely blowing wind, and my body is captured by the wind. In addition, unlike earlier, there’s no way that they would let me be blown away and do nothing.

『Hyahoo!』

「Gahah!?」

Waiting for me in the place I was being blown towards was the leopard dragon. His claws tear into me relentlessly. I grit my teeth against the pain, taking a firm grip on my fire sword. The leopard dragon completes his swing with his claws, and turning to face this guy who seems to somehow have an expression indicating joy, I drive my fire sword towards him in a counterattack.

But, suddenly my body is pulled up into the sky, as if the wind which suddenly blew again was manipulating me. Then, I immediately drop. From high to low. A gust of wind smashes me down into the ground. The impact strikes upon me so strongly that for a moment I have a delusion that my body was smashed into pieces.

So strong. To think I’d be so helpless……

I guess there are times when everything is against you. My greatest speciality is close range combat. I’m not being allowed to use it. In addition, it’s also impossible to use my magic swords to bombard them due to the wind. My landmine swords aren’t useful against one flying up in the sky. However, even beyond that, the Pteranodon dragon’s fighting technique is too skilled. There’s nothing I can do to simply avoid being toyed with by him. Perhaps, if I was facing the leopard dragon alone I’d probably win. However, I’m not sure whether I could win against the Pteranodon dragon one-on-one. At the least, if I didn’t have a trump card I believe I’d have little hope in winning.

『Hah hah! This is the end!』

The leopard dragon leaps towards me after I had fallen. This is not the time… to worry about trivial stuff huh. Wrath - activate.

「GAAHHHH!」

At the same time as activating Wrath, I howl. I’m bursting with power. Using that power to forcibly tear through the restraints of the wind, I stand up.

While leaping towards me, a surprised expression shows on the leopard dragon. I relentlessly drive my fire sword at that face.

『Nugahh!?』

The leopard dragon nimbly avoided my strike by twisting in the air. But, he wasn’t able to completely avoid it, and a rear leg was cut off at the trunk. With the momentum he had carried with his jump, the leopard dragon tumbles onto the ground while scattering blood spray. I want to finish him off immediately, but I’m going to deal with that Pteranodon dragon first!

I activate Space Maneuver, creating footholds in the air to approach the Pteranodon dragon up in the sky. Since I have now activated Wrath, I can overcome the raging wind with just a single step, and close in towards the Pteranodon dragon.

『Woah! You intend to challenge ME to an air battle huh!? You’re on!』

The Pteranodon dragon whirls through the sky. Although his movements already looked highly refined, that speed now is unreal. He’s flying through the sky so fast that he can even cause wind to blow in his wake. However.

『Seriously!?』

My speed with Wrath activated is 99,999. That speed that would likely have been overwhelming for me without Wrath, is now ineffective against me. I clad the fire sword in flames. Then, I swing it towards the Pteranodon dragon with the intent to bisect it.

『Damn!』

The Pteranodon dragon flips his body around. Simultaneously he fires a gust of wind and wind bullets. While Wrath is activated, my defensive abilities also hit the maximum value. Even if I’m hit by a wind bullet, it wouldn’t do much damage. However, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to take the impact though. Because of the gust of wind and air bullets, my aim was a little bit off. As a result, instead of bisecting the Pteranodon dragon like I had planned, I only so much as cut through a wing.

『Kahhh! Damn motherfucker!』

The Pteranodon dragon howls. The next moment, a lightning bolt hit me. For a moment, I thought it was the leopard dragon’s work, but it seems to have been the Pteranodon dragon’s work. So the Pteranodon dragon can also use lightning magic huh. There’s almost no damage. However, my eyes were dazzled for a moment. Then, just that one moment was enough for that dragon of extreme speed. Without paying any attention to me, the Pteranodon dragon flew towards the leopard dragon sprawled on the ground. Then, he used his hind feet to grab that body, and retreated without paying attention to anything else.

I watched them leave. There wasn’t anything else I could do.

「Ugh……!」

My vision is starting to go completely red. I force that down, and a moment later Wrath is deactivated.

「Pant…… Pant……」

Because I had trained up my Heresy Resistance skill, I have become able to suppress to some extent the demerit of Wrath - namely that your sense of reason gets swallowed in the rage. But, only to some extent. It seems that it’s not so easy to cancel out the demerit of a Seven Deadly Sins skill. My Heresy Resistance has reached Heresy Nullity, but it wasn’t enough to negate Wrath. It seems that this was unexpected for Shiro-san as well, and she was surprised. She explained that most likely, Wrath was configured to be not subject to Heresy Nullity. The duration I can activate Wrath for without losing my sanity, is a very short amount of time. Also, if I get swallowed up by Wrath next time, there’s no guarantee that I can return.

That’s why I was in a rush to conclude it. The reason why I didn’t finish off the leopard dragon, and prioritised defeating the Pteranodon dragon is because of that. However, in the end both of them got away. After all, maybe I should have forced myself harder and finished off the leopard dragon? …No. This doesn’t change the fact that I let them get away. At any rate, I succeeded in driving them back. Let’s be satisfied with that.

To be honest, with those two dragons, if one of them had headed towards Ariel-san, leaving the other behind to stop me, it could have been bad. I guess the reason why they didn’t do that, is that those dragons have their own sort of pride. They must have been taking action based on their own convictions. Thinking about that makes me depressed, but the situation has already begun to move. Let’s make sure to do everything that I can…… and I guess I could start by healing my tattered body.