The Dance Festival (Back part) - part 1

Like I said last post, I will be splitting this chapter to 2 parts.

Translator : Lunate, Editor : Champion9124

Daybreak, the very same day~~

At once, Yuusuke had transmitted his message to the soldiers stationed at Rufk. Thalys’s group was visiting from Gazzetta, and Violet who understands the personal circumstances surrounding Sun, bestowed the words “go kick some ass!”.

“Seems very Violet-like…”

“Hohoho today’s the day of the dance festival, some sightseers have come.”

「ヴォレットらしいというか……」

「ほっほっほっ　今日が舞踏祭でなければ、見物に来ていたかもしれんのう」

Likely consenting to Zeshald’s words, Yuusuke was preparing himself for the duel as he headed towards the plaza. As it seems, lots of villagers and soldiers had gathered, and as Yuusuke appeared in sight, cheers of excitement began to flood the area.

Sun was dressed in a costume which was covered with feathers as her role was to congratulate the winner, while Bahana was sitting on a location which overlooked the entire arena of the duel.

On the other end of the arena, Thalys was dressed in a white training soldier’s armor, as it seems that he had listened to the advice and was clad in the artless warrior armor. Directing his line of sight towards Yuusuke entering the arena, he returned the words of the artless with occasional nods.

Yuusuke had a mountain pile of timber on his area of the field while facing an opened customization screen. Earlier this week he had been toying with the map item data and had already checked whether it was possible for him to use the timber.

“Ng, with this it should be alright.”

In the first place, he could only customized the materials of the ground which was linked to his feet for battle, thus for safety precautions he had prepared these materials before hand. Unknown whether the battle will turn to his favor, he had prepared the data of the familiar barriers and pitfall he had usually used.

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“Are both of you ready! If so, please proceed to the center!”

After hearing the voice of the MC, Yuusuke and Thalys walked towards the center of the arena, while the MC announced their names and titles to the audience. (TL notes: WTF WWE?)

On this side, the name everyone in Fonclanc would have heard before, the one who is also known as the hero of Deernook, the Darkness God Corps Captain, Yuusuke. And on the other side, an artless apprentice warrior borned from this very village of Rufk, currently under Gazzetta’s white cavalry training soldiers, Thalys. (TL notes: just imagine WWE announcer announcing it over the mic. This is a damned good theme for the announcement.  https://youtu.be/wRRsXxE1KVY)

The current situation which the masses know was a dispute concerning Sun who was appointed as an exclusive servant to the Darkness God Crops, as the youth’s childhood friend an unnamed apprentice warrior challenges the Hero of Deernook.

The arena of the duel, the square, was currently full of heated crowds thus the event is worthy of being known as the dance festival.

The rules are not dealing a mortal wound. Listening to the instructions of the referee. The match will be settled when either one of them loses consciousness. After receiving the information, both of them back into their own corners.

After Yuusuke returned to his side of the arena, he began tampering with his opened customization menu of the battle map item data and peeped at the screen of the stats of his opponent Thalys. It seems that Thalys was using a greatsword due to his build, thus his technique was to bunt and win in one swing.

Within the timber that Yuuske had prepared, he had craved some of them yesterday. Although they are made of wood, it is still considerably heavy.

“....ah, somehow it feels like deja vu, your stance is some what similar to Shinha.”

“I respect Shinha’s-sama strength, that’s why I had applied to join the white cavalry.”

During the Gazzetta’s army selections for the talented, as he did not have any combat experience, he was placed to be trained under the novice group of the white cavalry. It was during one of the training sessions, he became attracted to passionate swordplay which Shinha had displayed, thus he aspired to enter the white cavalry.

“Don’t hold back, Yuusuke. After winning over you, Sun will understand my earnest convictions.”

“Hmm, I believe it won’t turn out that way though….”

Thalys was rather spirited as he wielded a greatsword which was similar in style to Shinha’s, while Yuusuke seems halfhearted and unwilling as he raised one of his hands aloft while half of his body was taking up stance.

This is the usual style of Yuusuke, the audiences could see that the Hero of Deernook is showing his “composure” to his opponent.

“Thalys~! He’s looking down on you, get fired up~!”

“Show the hero you could blow him away!”

From the situation, the promise of jeers had followed. Yuusuke seems to be getting more and more unmotivated unlike his opponent, Thalys was giving off an aura from his body. “The Darkness God captain seems weak against close combat, so try to close the distance,” an advice was given to him.

“The moment it starts, dive straight towards him!”

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“Na moh~~, that Yuusuke…..this is about Sun’s happiness, why can’t he be fired up?”

Bahana was watching the 2 from the special seat as she sighed at Yuusuke being unmotivated.

“Yuusuke will be fine, most likely.”

“Sun, how does Yuusuke normally fights?”

“Erm…, technically I am not sure…”

“....you trust Yuusuke too much to have no sense of danger…”

While Sun was playing with the feathery costume, Bahana was sighing.

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“Start!”

Along with the declaration of the referee, the fabric which marked the start was swung. At the same time, Thalys jumped out with such a huge force, like an arrow shot out of a bow. Despite being equipped with a greatsword and in full armor made for training soldiers, he was rushing at a tremendous speed.

The basic training for swordplay/fencing starts from the legs. Since it’s also his homeground which he is familiar with, Thalys was able to go all out.

　

The distance between Thalys and Yuusuke was roughly around 10 meters, the moment of the start signal Thalys had covered half the distance.

In order to finish this peacefully, for the time being Yuusuke started by creating a pitfall barrier through his customization menu, with that amount of vigor one would tend to be careless and make a mistake.

“Ah, I made a mistake.”

By looking away for a moment, he accident closed the map item data for the pitfalls, thus the scheduled barriers of pitfalls and the soil/earth? materials became unusable.

A forward thrust was incoming from Thalys. As a last resort, Yuusuke began running the schedule of map item data type 2 for the battle. The timber that was piled up behind Yuusuke disappeared in a beam of light. At the same time, a giant humanoid appeared.

“Wh….at!”

Like it was growing from the ground a full body plate armor emerged, the height from the head was around 8 meters, which was the upper body of a giant.

　地面から生えたような全身鎧プレートアーマーっぽい外観のそれは、頭部の辺りまでで高さが八メートル近くある巨人の上半身だった。

Shock by the sudden appearance of a armored giant, Thalys came to a halt, seeing the giant raised its arms, he retreated back. It was the basics of anti-divine arts warfare. No matter how powerful the divine art attack, as long as it can be avoided the divine arts warriors are no match for the artless warriors.

Seeing Yuusuke using his divine arts to move the giant, he determine that Yuusuke would not be able to attack.

“That is a massive thing, it’s movement should be dull! I shouldn’t get hit from it.”

Thalys kicked the ground as he goes in for the kill before the arms of the armored giant swung down. In an instant, a tremendous shock which knocks his body consciousness away as he was sent flying .

　タリスは甲冑巨人の腕が振り下ろされる前に本体を仕留めるべく地を蹴った。次の瞬間、凄まじい衝撃に意識ごと身体を撥ね飛ばされた。

While he was in flight waiting to slam back down to the ground, during that time the upper half of the armored giant chest disappeared leaving light particles behind and a barrier appeared around Yuusuke.

“That was dangerous~”

Yuusuke exhaled in relief as part of the armored giant, which was customized into a barrier, was in placed.

The armored giant had a gimmick function which was a set of 3 stage attack combos, a left and right punch followed by a hammer drop, although it may look dull on the surface the attack rate to execute the entire combo was roughly around 3 seconds.

In that instant, Yuusuke determined that it wasn’t too late, he switched the gimmick OFF, converted part of the armored giant which was configured as timber into the barrier data materials and deployed it.

The 3rd stage of the first combo, the hammer had blown Thalys away and it should be a life threatening injury.

It seems that the unleashing of a huge golem to counter the quick play attack have caused the artless warriors, Thalys companions, to be dumbfounded with a stunned look. Eru (Elfiona) expressionless pupils/eyes began to sparkle as she watched the match from the corner of the arena.

“As expected he was still able to surprise us….”

「流石に今のは驚いたわい……」

Zeshald immediately rushed to heal Thalys, although there were those golem that were created by the soil/earth divine arts user to use for transportation, non of them were seen to be able to make a move such as human hand to hand combat.

However, Yuusuke was speaking in a low tone, perhaps it would be better if he had created the armored giant closer to the soil/earth divine arts golems, as he then recited “type 2 specs”.

“Seems like there is still many problems that remains for this type 2”

Although the armored giant had shown its smooth movement, in reality it was made to repeat a fixed and specified gimmick function, thus it is not aware of the opponent’s attack and only support frontal attacks.

One could easily get out of it’s attack range and take the roundabout path. In that situation, it will induce the opponent to use a barrier, thus he have to create a more flexible armored giant which could change it’s angle to address this problem.

Unable to differentiate enemy or friendly, it’s not very versatile for tactical attacks and is only for long distance attacks. Wholly, used as a surprise attack, it’s appearance had seemed to make an impact followed by the combo hit attack which throws the person off their pace. One could say that it’s a “moving paper model”. (TL notes: 動く張りぼて go google this and you will understand)

Being blown away by that “moving paper model” Thalys was currently on the stretcher being healed and carried away by the villagers whom were in charge. (TL note: … I just realised, One punch man?....)

“How is it?”

“Hmmm, bruises and abrasions. There wasn’t any big injuries.”

Well everything turned out alright, and after Yuusuke saw off Thalys who was being carried towards Zeshald’s house, he turned back and look towards the grandstand at the arena.

“Hey, it’s time to go over.”

“N,ng.”

Bahana prompted Sun and she stood up from her seat. Being the congratulatory girl she walked up to the winner to crown him with the feathery crown. As the crowd suddenly remembered about the winner, they began giving their generous applause.

Once again by feeling the Darkness God Corps Captain, Yuuske’s power, up close, he had gained a recognition that “it’s impossible for there to be 2 heroes appearing” from the villagers and the soldiers stationed at Rufk, thus it was also engraved on the hearts of the artless warriors and the apprentices.

Seeing Yuusuke scratch his head in response to the cheers from everyone, Bahana looked into the distance as she became relieved.