Chapter 16
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Although I was surprised when Helia suddenly appeared, I calmly used time stop to save her.
Somehow, it ended up looking like I saved Helia.
But that wasnât the important thing right now.
Even though I saved Helia as quickly as possible and deactivated the ability, it still took about 10 seconds.
In other words, the cooldown of time stop was now about 20 seconds.
To put it another way, it meant that I had to endure fighting the Togui for about 20 seconds without the time stop ability.
Since that was obviously impossible, I immediately opened my mouth.
âLetâs not rush too much.â
Please.
âThereâs still plenty of time, you know?â
I need to wait for the cooldown.
Fortunately, in the midst of misfortune, the Togui had shown no interest in me earlier.
The Togui sometimes just left if it lost interest.
If I could use that to send that guy away...
I was concentrating all my senses to be wary of the Togui.
Thatâs why I couldnât understand the Toguiâs actions that immediately followed.
The Togui suddenly bowed its head to me.
âI sincerely apologize.â
â???â
âIt was my mistake to judge based only on appearances.â
The Togui suddenly bowed its head?
Faced with a completely unexpected situation, my eyes widened.
But somehow, I had a bad feeling.
The Togui soon explained the reasons.
âA speed that these eyes couldnât even perceive.â
âHuh?â
âAnd sword energy capable of wounding this body.â
â???â
âYou are undoubtedly a warrior. Worthy enough to face!!!â
Iâm screwed.
Could it be that the reason the Togui bowed its head was actually to gain momentum?!
The Togui roared and immediately charged towards me.
I clicked my tongue and got up.
I wanted to run away if I could, but I couldnât do that right now. Because Helia was still nearby!
If Helia died here, there would be no future at all.
So, I had no choice but to somehow take it head-on!
The Toguiâs fist, which had closed the distance in an instant, swung with a momentum like a raging wave.
For a moment, my body froze properly due to fear.
Fortunately, I had insurance.
Thanks to the Toguiâs nonsense earlier, the cooldown of time stop had already ended.
Just before the fist reached me, my surroundings turned gray.
I moved alone.
There was no time to waste.
One of the things I had found out while saving Helia earlier was that the Toguiâs body was incredibly hard, even more than I had imagined.
Even more than the Gourmet.
Of course, Anieta, the Gourmet I had faced before, was also incredibly tough, befitting a demon.
But unlike the Gourmet, this guyâs skin didnât even yield to teeth.
In other words, the previous method wouldnât work.
Moreover, the current Togui hadnât even obtained the position of a demon yet.
Nevertheless, its specs were stronger than the Gourmet I had faced before.
In other words, clashing head-on was close to suicide.
âSo, I have no choice but to use tricks.â
First, the disadvantages of time stop were extreme stamina consumption and cooldown. And my below-average skill.
In fact, if my skill alone were excellent, the two problems ahead would have been solved long ago.
But since it was a problem that couldnât be solved right now, I had no choice but to use tricks.
As I said before, if itâs not on cooldown, the time stop ability activates when my life is in danger.
In other words, to kill this guy, I would have to stop time and saw at it again.
It was clear that I would most likely collapse from exhaustion before I could behead him.
And if I couldnât cleanly behead him right in front of his eyes, he might notice my strength and attack.
Rather than taking that risk, it was better to just let him go.
Of course, I could probably kill him if I cooperated with the soldiers behind me.
But would the Togui just stand by and watch that happen?
Moreover, I had already used up all the paralysis poison I had prepared.
âAre you pitying me now?â
âThereâs no law that says the loser of a duel must die.â
âWhat nonsense.â
â...â
âKill me. I donât need your useless pity.â
The Togui was stubborn.
No, Iâm telling you I canât kill you anyway!
I couldnât bring myself to say it out loud.
Damn it, what should I do?
I guess I have no choice.
I have to open my mouth here.
Letâs see, a line that would work in this situation...
* * *
[Why are you all charging in there to die? But why is everyone still going?]
That was the first question it had.
Although they were nothing more than accessories that didnât share blood, they were still something similar to family, bound by the name of race.
But everyone except it died.
The next day and the day after that, new family members appeared. And they all died.
Only it survived.
It couldnât understand.
Why did they charge forward knowing they would die?
Why did they have no choice but to follow orders? And that question was barely answered by killing the demons.
[In the end, itâs because theyâre weak.]
From then on, it yearned for strength.
Strong enough that no one could dare give it orders.
It wanted strong power.
So, it tore apart and killed the demons that had created it.
After that, it killed the people who came to kill it.
In the process, it became even more captivated by strength.
If it wasnât a warrior with value, it was meaningless.
They were just trash.
Filtering out the trash, it only ate the flesh of the strong ones it acknowledged.
Monsters, demons, humans, elves, dwarves. It didnât discriminate between races.
It literally became a predator.
âLetâs not rush too much.â
âThereâs still plenty of time, you know?â
And the predator met a predator even stronger than itself.
At first, it thought he was just a meaningless piece of meat.
But after fighting him directly, he was an overwhelmingly strong person beyond imagination.
He deliberately dodged attacks by a paper-thin margin and only inflicted small wounds on its body.
That was all he did, but its body could no longer move.
It was literally a strength beyond imagination.
But it had no complaints.
If it fought and was strong, it would devour it, and if it was weak, it would simply lose its life.
It had taken until now, so it couldnât be helped if its own was taken away now.
Thatâs what it thought.
âYou can become even stronger than you are now.â
â...â
âBecome stronger and come back. Stronger than now.â
It was an emotion it felt for the first time.
The feeling of something black boiling up inside and dominating its mind, the terrible emotion of wanting to get up right away and beat that bastard to death.
That was humiliation.
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