Chapter 10: Let’s Challenge the Emperor of Sands , Part 3

Yunis was training alone on a training field build in one corner of the Dungeon.

「Fuu..」

As she breathed sharply, beads of sweat danced in the air in accordance to her movements, and when they were in the air, she used her rapid slashes to cut them into two, then further into four and finally into eight separated droplets.

「You’re as amazing as ever.」

An applause sounded in a seemingly empty space. And the one clapping her hands was Mari, who observed Yunis from afar.

「What’s wrong? Did something happen?」

Yunis asked Mari without stopping her training.

「Have you seen Logan recently? Sofia was asking about him.」

「I haven’t seen him, but I’m not all that interested in him either. I think you’ll have much better chances of finding him if you ask Spina.」

「Yeah.. I guess you’re right.. but you know, he’s sure been disappearing a lot lately.」

「By the way Mari, how is your swordsmanship training going? Are you studying properly?」

Mari’s body trembled a little when she heard that question.

「Good, I guess. Anyway, thanks, Yunis.」

And she turned around and quickly ran back into the labyrinth.

「Such a waste of her talent.」

Mari was very versatile both at fighting and magic. But because of that she had difficulties with concentrating purely on one thing and mastering it.

「Don’t you think so too, Logan?」

「It is exactly as you say. Every last word.」

Yunis called out to an empty space beside her, and a shadow gradually rose and took on a shape of the giant red demon.

Yunis didn’t lie to Mari. She couldn’t see Logan, but she was able to sense his presence in the room as he was hiding in the shadow of one of the pillars.

「But there’s one thing that makes me wonder: Do you become a hero because you have talent, or does having talent makes you a hero?」

Yunis didn’t know how she should answer that, because up until recently, she never had to do an actual training with her sword. All of her instincts have been polished to perfection by experiencing the reality of the battlefield from a very young age. Her father, Wolfe, dubbed the King of Heroes, said that most heroes were exactly like that.

Thinking about something like that, Yunis stepped back and put strength into her feet, and then she charged forward and slashed left and right as if she was mowing down rows of opponents, and she did it over and over again, changing the direction of her charge each time. It was a storm of slashes from all direction that was virtually impossible to avoid. It still had no name, as Yunis couldn’t find the one that would properly describe it. Before she finished the whole series of slashes, she was already breathing heavily.

「You’ve lost again.」

「Yeah.」

Responding to Logan’s comment, Yunis put the sword in its sheath.

Through a momentary gap in her defenses, a blade was aimed straight at her heart. Usually doing something as precise as that required a lot of skill and finesse, but her opponent did it so swiftly and naturally as if he was born to do it.

And it was just an illusion of Hoderi. But his movements were no different from that of the real one.

She managed to win that fight in the volcano because she used her ability as a spirit, and because Hoderi was not fighting seriously. Since then she performed numerous mock battles against an illusion based on his data, but the result was always the same.

Her blade was light. It was made specifically for her and adapted to her fighting style that favored precision of blows over their strength. And yet, in each battle, Hoderi was able to defeat her with minimal movements.

She did not managed to win against him even once.

They were even in speed and power, but the ultimate difference was the way in which they wielded their weapons.

「So Logan, why are you, of all people, trying to avoid Mari?」

「You’ll laugh at me if I tell you.」

「Maybe, maybe not.」

「At the very least you could lie that you won’t!」

Sighing deeply, Logan put one pair of his arms on his hips, and used the other one to cover his eyes.

「Lately I’ve been going through an intense identity crisis. I’ve began to think to myself: what’s going to happen when Mari would no longer be the sweet, sagacious, loving, alluring, seductive little girl she is now and turns into an old hag? And to my horror, I’ve discovered that the concept of the fourteen or seventeen years old Mari was still attractive to me!」

「AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!」

「Oh, I can’t believe you’ve actually done this!」

Logan bared his fangs at the laughing Yunis.

「But.. but that’s just.. hahahahaha, that’s just too hilarious!」

「You dare make fun of me, the great fire demon who walks this realm for a thousand years?!」

「It does not matter here.」

Yunis playfully jabbed Logan in the side with her fingers.

「It does! I may be a demon, but I do have feelings, and ones that can be easily hurt at that!」

「But isn’t that nice? Maybe there’s still hope for you, even if you’re still a hopeless lolicon. This only goes to show that you care about Mari so much that you’re willing to cast your twisted perversions aside for her!」

「Well, that might be so, but..」

To put it in human terms, Logan treated Mari like a little sister or daughter.

「Even if I wanted to be with her, there is a certain someone standing between me and her.」

It was obvious who that certain someone was. And one time, Logan even told Mari himself that involving herself with him would only bring her pain and suffering.

「Man, you’re such a spineless chicken, Logan.」

Logan could only smile wryly and look up to the heavens.

「I guess I should give you a reward for your preaching, huh?」

「What? No, you don’t have to, I’ve only told the obvious.」

「But I want to do it anyway. Besides, that training of yours is pretty much useless.」

「Useless?」

Shocked, Yunis opened her eyes and mouth widely.

「You won’t achieve anything by trying to mimic that Hoderi guy. In order to be truly effective, you need to improve on your own fighting style and perfect it to its utmost limits.」

「But Hoderi is really strong, you know?」

Logan nodded approvingly. Hoderi was indeed a strong individual, to the point where it could be said that his abilities were truly inhumane. His skills were on such a high level that that he could be even said to be the avatar of the God of Swordsmanship on earth. He was someone extraordinary like that.

But at the same time, he was only a mortal being.

「If you fight a dragon by trying to imitate his movements, it is a given that you’ll lose miserably.」

「Huh? What is that analogy for?」

Now Yunis listened to his words carefully.

「You are short, light, and your arms are thin. Even if your abilities are more or less the same, you’ll still have your own unique ways of overcoming every opponent.」

He said that while patting Yunis on the head.

Shorter body meant shorter reach and lighter blows. She’s still be at a disadvantageous position even against assassins, who were also fighting with shorter weapons, but usually used poison that guaranteed a one hit kill on contact.

「I-Is that so?」

Yunis has never even thought about it before in such a way.

「So you need to learn how to turn your shortcomings into your own deadly weapon. You are a Heroic Spirit, the pinnacle and embodiment of what it means to be a hero. It is your power, use it without holding back!」

「Yes, yes, you’re right. Thank you, Logan. You’ve really opened my eyes.」

To tell you the truth, she didn’t understand half of what he was saying, but she still felt as if she learned something important from it all.

「Don’t mention it.」

Even if he was a demon, the supposed enemy of mankind, he still cared greatly about his comrades. He really was a failure as a demon.

But helping your friends overcome a problem that gnawed away at them was quite a nice feeling, he thought to himself.