Bluntgre

53

「Let’s do it like this, I won’t be attacking in the first five minutes.」

She was different from the Red Wolf, and she was different from the true dragon that I had faced before.
But we were the same race: kijin.
As she was an existence very similar to my own, I clearly understood it.
The extreme difference between Kohaku’s and my stats.
The difference of the experiences we had piled up.
The pressure I felt was like a huge mountain on top of me.

「First, attack as much as you like. You’re also free to use your skills or arts.」

「…..Yeah!」

Being able to calm down a bit as Kohaku talked carefreely, without using my skills or arts, I just directly rushed at her.
We were both unarmed, and although I had these heavy looking gauntlets on me it wouldn’t change the fact that this would be a hand-to-hand battle.
Since we had different heights, I lost in terms of reach.
So for now, I should get in close to her chest.

What was important was the number of moves I could perform and the speed at which I could do them. It was obvious that I lost in all the status categories, but since Kohaku was so specialized in strength the gap between our agility stats should be the smallest.

And then, thanks to my named equipment, my SP was basically two times what it would normally be. Either way, I needed to resolve myself to charge in, even if I ended up running out of breath.

「Sei!」

「Fufufu.」

She had probably purposefully let me get in close. It had been way too easy for me to start the close combat engagement, but Kohaku had a refreshed face as she warded off my continuous blows.

Knowing that there wouldn’t be any counterattacks, unlike when I was fighting against Rou, I rushed in throwing attacks continuously while occasionally mixing in heavy blows.
Though I said that she warded them off, it was not like none of the attacks were landing.
My fast jabs should have been getting through from time to time, but Kohaku’s HP was not being affected even a little.

The reason was simple. My current attack power, compared to her Toughness, aka physical defense power, was just too weak to get through it.

Kijin being kijin, they were able to develop strong physical abilities. Even if they were specializing in one specific status, as long as they levelled up they would be able to have a physical status incomparable to that of the other races.
I didn’t know how high Kohaku’s level was, but if I considered what it felt like going against her and converted it into a level then it would be at least three digits. Based on certain factors, I suspect that her level might even be over level 200. She wasn’t just doubling my level. If my calculations were correct, our level difference might have been a factor of six or seven.

And then also, regarding Kohaku’s battle style, my affinity to it was kinda bad.
Unlike me, who fought using a combination of my agility, kinetic vision, reflexes, evasion and countering, and an awareness of my SP, Kohaku didn’t hesitate to receive attacks.
She just properly identified the heavy blows hidden in the flurry of attacks and dealt with those, not caring about the other ones.
Most likely, if she wanted to deal with those then she could do it, but she disliked putting in unnecessary effort and chose to instead receive them with her high status.

It felt like I was punching a mountain due to the inescapable differences in ability.
It was no longer an issue of me measuring her or testing the waters. The moment I realized that, I began to feel as if that was a waste of time.
I had made that judgement after trying to check her strength by attacking her nonstop for two minutes. I backstepped once, creating some distance.