Chapter 278

Chapter 278 – Bear-san Fights Rutum

The match against Rutum was set to start after a short break .

「I don’t want you claiming you lost because you were too tired . 」

I wasn’t sure whether it was his pride or maybe even kindness, but Rutum forced me to take a break .

At first, the plan had been to defeat all of his knights before facing him, but it seemed I would actually get to face him without having to take care of the small fries . Well, those knights were weaker than the knight I had just fought, so I didn’t mind cutting out those unnecessary battles .

「Yuna-chan, be careful . Rutum’s personality might be a bit difficult to deal with, but he really does have strength and skill to back it up . 」

「Why did I fight the knight instead of him, what’s his name, then? Wouldn’t it have been better for him to participate himself since his job was on the line?」

I could have gotten even more out of it if that had been the case . If he was the strongest, just why had he let me beat up the knight instead of him?

「That knight is Figo . I don’t think anybody thought that he was going to lose . Figo is quite an exceptional knight, so, normally, nobody would think that Figo could possibly lose to a small girl like you . Like, how many people here do you think could win against you?」

Basically, he had believed that even the second strongest person could easily win against me .

Hadn’t anybody taught him not to judge a person by their appearance?

As I pondered this, Figo, the knight I had battled earlier, came up to us .

「Eleanora-dono, just who is this girl?」

「My, that’s a secret, of course . 」

「Having my sword stopped by those small arms of hers… was simply baffling . 」

Well, I had only been able to do it thanks to my Bear Hands .

「Also, I could see that her advanced swordplay must have been the result of countless hours of combat practice . It is impossible to handle a sword like that unless you have the experience of using it in real combat . 」

In my gaming days, I had used the sword against people all the time . I had faced many different gamers with many different playstyles, winning against some, and losing against the others . The experience from the game had been of great use in the match .

「Not to mention, she can even use magic . I had planned on holding back, not using my magic to make it fair, yet she was moving so quickly that I was forced into using it . I was so shocked when she dodged it, and then, when she completely overpowered me with her own magic…」

「I was also surprised by how fast you move, Yu-Yuuna-chan . Those dodges of yours were magnificent . 」

Eleanora-san still seemed to be having trouble with my fake name .

「With that timing, you shouldn’t have been able to dodge it . 」

「It was just luck . 」

Actually, it was because of a habit I had developed . In the game, when players had wielded a single-handed weapon and left the other one free, I had learned to keep an eye on the free hand . Some players would use it to cast magic, or carry a secret poison, a paralyzing knife, or something . Other players had been careful of that, too . I had only applied that knowledge in this battle .

「Still, with the strength of your earth magic, if you’ve used it right when the match began, I think I would have lost right away . 」

Well, if I had known I had been allowed to use magic, I would have finished him off earlier…

But it had been more fun this way since I had gotten to chance to participate in a sword fight .

「Miss, I really enjoyed our battle, but I must warn you that you should be careful when fighting against Lord Rutum . If you can, I would recommend withdrawing instead… 」

「I have no intention of doing that . 」

「I figured you would say that . I just hope you won’t get hurt . 」

The knight left after his warning . He actually seemed to be a kind person .

「Yuna-chan, Rutum is calling for you . Are you rested enough? If you need anything, just tell me, okay?」

「I’m fine, really . 」

I had barely used any magic, and thanks to my Bear Feet, my legs didn’t hurt at all . I was only a bit tired mentally . It had been a while since I last participated in a match . Still, it had been quite fun . Maybe it was because I didn’t have my Bear Suit on and couldn’t do anything too crazy, having to be careful of my opponent’s attacks at all times . Just thinking about having to focus so hard again brought a wave of mental tiredness .

Since there were no real problems, I started to head over . I noticed that Rutum had also taken off his armor, and only wore some light weight clothing instead . It looked like he also thought that heavy armor would be disadvantageous for him, especially after watching the previous match .

「Are you ready, Young Lady?」

「Ready when you are . 」

「I want to smack that confident smile off your face, but instead, I’ll give you a handicap . 」

「A handicap?」

I didn’t really need one . In fact, it would be more appropriate if I gave him one myself .

「Is this your excuse for when you’re going to lose?」

「No!」

「I’d be troubled if you think I’m only as strong as Figo . 」

I was definitely stronger than the knight from before, right?

I looked over at Eleanora-san .

「Yes, you are stronger than Figo, but as I mentioned before, Lord Rutum is even stronger than him . I’m not sure why he’s giving you a handicap, though?」

Eleanora-san glanced over at Rutum with suspicion .

「To make her understand the difference between us, of course . 」

「Just asking, but would your idea of this handicap be?」

I asked instead of Eleanora-san .

「You can pick any rule you want, Young Lady . Like, you could say we couldn’t use magic . 」

「I mentioned this earlier, but if I can use magic, I have an advantage, you know . 」

「Like the earth magic you used against Figo earlier? Why don’t you try using that now?」

I created an earth wall with the same amount of magic power as earlier .

Rutum unsheathed his sword, and it shined with a glistening silver color . He proceeded to cut my wall down without issue .

「I can put magical energy into this sword and it will cut anything . Of course, it won’t go through your body if I hit you with it, so you don’t have to worry about that . 」

There was no way I wouldn’t worry after hearing that .

In that case, wouldn’t I be allowed to use my mithril knives?

Well, using knives wasn’t really knight-like… Just as I thought about how to go about it, Rutum passed me a sword he had prepared for me, very similar to his own . According to Eleanora-san, it was a weapon used for practice against magic, reserved for high-level swordsmen, especially the price of these weapons was rather high as well . As I was getting a feel for the sword, I suddenly got a good idea for the match .

「Okay, then I want the rule to be that the best out of three wins the match . 」

「Best out of three?」

「First, we do a match where magic is allowed . If I win, then no magic next round . If you win two rounds, you win the match . 」

I suggested a condition that was actually beneficial to Rutum .

There really was no point in giving me a handicap, after all .

「Young lady, are you trying to make fun of me?」

「You’re the one making fun of me . I don’t need a handicap, and I won’t be happy winning with one . Also, how could I possibly make you acknowledge female knights if you lost only while handicapped?」

Well, if I was being completely honest, he already was at a certain handicap since I had my Bear Hands and Feet on . Without them, I wouldn’t be able to even lift a sword, though, so they were a must .

「Fufufu . It’s been a while since someone made fun of me like this . Fine then . Just don’t start crying when you lose . 」

With the match rules set, we separated from each other, ready to begin .

「Yuna-chan, are you really okay with that kind of rule?」

「There would be no point to winning in an unfair way where I get to select rules that fit me . 」

「Even if you won while he’s handicapped, his influence would fall greatly as he will have to quit his job . 」

「But he would still remain quite influential, wouldn’t he?」

「You have a point, but for such a reason… 」

If I didn’t win without relying on a handicap, this person would surely try to get himself out of trouble with excuses like running out of magical energy or letting his guard down . It was better to give him a handicap myself . First, I would win using magic and then decimate him completely with my sword .

We readied our swords, and Eleanora-san signaled the start of the battle .

I shot out an Air Bullet while running towards him at an angle . Rutum easily cut down the Air Bullet with his sword, so I followed up with a barrage of them, but he cut them all down as well .

「Is that all you’ve got?!」

Well, I couldn’t use my strongest magic or the surrounding area might end up being destroyed, but I really wanted to wipe away that arrogant grin of his .

If wind magic was no good, then how about a mud balls about the size of a baseball? I shot a few of those at Rutum, but none managed to hit . He shouldn’t be able to dodge everything forever, so I shot a few more, while keeping the distance between us . Just when I thought one would hit, Rutum simply cut it down with his sword, which shone with a pale hue .

He was capable of cutting them down, huh . It seemed like I would have to try harder .

After Rutum cut down the mud ball, he counterattacked, sending the same type of mud balls towards me . Was he trying to show off by mimicking my magic? I could play the same game .

I poured magical energy into my sword and cut down the balls with ease .

Rutum didn’t wait for me, however, and used the chance to close the distance between us, swinging his sword at me .

I dodged his attack without much of an issue, but he quickly followed with fast slashes . I tried to dodge them all, but eventually he slipped one by and I had to block it .

「You’re really planning on taking these blows? I wonder how long you can hold on for」

As he said that, hot flames began to burn along his sword’s edge .

Although my Bear Hands were resistant to heat, I could clearly feel the heat on my face .

「I can’t be held responsible if you get burns on your face . 」

Rutum added and put more magical power into the flames, but I quickly engulfed my sword with water magic to counter it .

As the fire and water clashed, a huge cloud of steam was formed and blocked our vision, so we disengaged . Not wasting time, we both used wind magic to clear out the steam .

This reminded me of my magic swordsman gaming days, where I had been able to easily wield both sword and magic . Rutum might have a bad personality, but with this amount of skill, it made sense for him to be a commanding officer .

「You’re quite capable, Young Lady!」

I felt the same way about him, but I didn’t really want to say it .

We had only cut each other’s magic attacks with our swords and hadn’t used any lethal attacks . I didn’t know where Rutum stood on this, but I myself couldn’t go all out with my strongest magic as it might damage the surrounding area, potentially hurting the audience .

I could maybe make little Bears using my Bear Magic, but that was the most I dared to do . I also wanted to see if that sword of his was able to cut down my Bear Wall .

Still, I had decided against using Bear Magic in this fight . It was just too strong . Not to mention, if I put on my Bear Suit and used those skills, people might find out who I was .

Now that I had finally managed to get away from the clamors about the Bear Suit, I really didn’t want people to find out .

I had plenty of ways to win, anyway, even without my Bear Magic .

We started casting ranged magic and blocking it with our swords before Rutum got impatient and rushed towards me .

However, I was waiting for him to do that .

I began silently casting my magic without him noticing and he only realized something was going on below his feet too late . He tripped and fell flat on his face, just like characters in manga often did .

I stepped up to him and pointed my sword at his neck .

「This is my win . 」

「With such an underhanded trick?」

「You’re the one who stumbled and fell . 」

Rutum had only noticed the magic when it had been too late and by then, he had already tripped on the small earth piles I had made at his feet . He had fallen into my trap completely .

I had only been tricking him with all the other stuff: this had been my trump card . I often used such tricks during my gaming days to have my opponents focus on other things and then launched a surprise attack that demolished their flow and brought me to victory .

I honestly hadn’t believed such a simple trick would have worked here, though .

Well, the trick might have looked simple, but it was still rather difficult to pull off . As magic came from our bodies, it had been quite difficult to silently shapeshift the earth so far from me, not to mention the amount of energy it had consumed .

Eleanora-san seemed a bit troubled as she looked between the fallen Rutum and me before finally declaring my victory .

Unlike my match with the knight, nobody cheered this time . Instead, I could hear snickers and laughter . Rutum stood up and glared at the crowd, causing it to stop . Some of the people watching the match must have thought that Rutum had fallen on his own . Rutum then directed his glare at me, clearly mad that I had turned him into a laughing stock .

It had been his own fault for not watching where he was going .

A win was a win, no matter how underhanded .

「Alright, magic is prohibited in the next match . 」

「I may have lost to some underhanded magic, but I will say this: if you can win against me with your sword alone, I will acknowledge all female knights and even let you marry my son . 」

Eh?! Didn’t that mean that even if I won, I would still end up doing the punishment game?

Usually, when one won, good things happened, not the other way around…

I had to find a way out of this .

「I don’t want to marry him, though . 」

「I’m allowing you, a commoner, to marry a noble . You should feel honored!」

I didn’t feel honored at all . Hadn’t he been saying his sons would be marrying Shia and Noa?

While I tried to find my verbal rebuke, the bell for the second match rang .

Compared to our magic match, this one wasn’t so back and forth . Instead, we just directly exchanged blows with our swords .

Relying on the power of my Bear-san Puppets and Bear Shoes, I handled Rutum’s attacks quite well . I warded off his attacks by adjusting my body and dodging the strikes instead of frontaly blocking them . This was my old, usual tactic of trying to waste my opponent’s energy while saving my own .

As a magic swordsman, I had learned that it was hard to win against a physically-attributed character in a head-on fight . It was much more efficient to dodge and ward off their attacks to wear them down first .

「How about this, then?!」

I hadn’t practiced the tactic in my match against the knight earlier, so perhaps my flow wasn’t good enough, because as I dodged his sword, this time Rutum stuck out his leg out, surprising me completely .

Still, thanks to his warning, I had managed to block it with my left hand and even ended up knocking him off balance .

「I already realized this in our previous match, but I really couldn’t ever imagine that such a small girl like you could be this strong . 」

Rutum said with a smile . Was he going crazy from the heat of battle?

We continued our dance of attacking, dodging, and blocking . Any time we found the chance, we used our legs or even bare hands to help us .

Since I couldn’t use magic, I decided to pick up the pace as I didn’t know how long this battle would go for .

Everybody, including Eleanora-san, just watched us in silence .

This match continued for a while longer before finally ending in a disappointing fashion, with Rutum’s legs getting entangled . He walked around swaying for a while then fell to the ground .

I didn’t know what was happening for that moment, so I just stared at him .

「What’s wrong? Why aren’t you getting up?」

After all that fighting back and forth, I didn’t think we would come to such a conclusion .

「We aren’t done yet, are we?」

「This is my loss… I can’t even stand anymore . 」

When I looked closely, I noticed Rutum’s legs were cramping up .

「I cannot win against my age . This is your win… 」

When Rutum declared his loss, the plaza erupted in cheers .

「Yuna-chan . 」

Eleanora-san approached us, seeing it really was over .

「I must say, it was quite difficult to beat you without using magic . 」

「Of course . Just who do you think I am? I am the commanding officer of a chivalric order . Oh, that’s actually incorrect . I am a former commanding officer . Did you really think you could take someone like me down that easily?」

For some reason, Rutum looked like he was feeling refreshed instead of defeated .

Just what was with that satisfied expression of his?

「Alright, now that I won, you better keep your promise . 」

「Yeah, letting you marry my son, right?」

「Not THAT!」

I yelled and sent a Bear Punch into his face, not caring about the fact that he was still on the ground .