Volume 3, Chapter 45: Spinner of the Truth⑦

「Don’t escape!」

Alante was circling around Lambert, chasing after Kreuz who escaped with Elise in her wheelchair.

But Lambert kept Alante at bay. His greatsword crushed the path ahead of Alante.

Alante retreated.

Lambert unleashed another slash to follow the previous one.

Alante did a backflip to dodge Lambert’s slashes.

But the more he dodged, the greater the distance between him and Kreuz and Co.

「Out of my way, Biggest Loser in History!」

Alante quickly took out a flask from his own robe while maintaining his handstand.

The flask was filled to the brim with homunculus frog seed.

He tried to throw that flask toward Lambert, but Lambert’s greatsword was already looming above him, thus forcing him to roll to the side to dodge the downward slash.

Alante rose quickly, glaring at Lambert.

「DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH SWEAT AND BLOOD I’VE SACRIFICED FOR THAT GIRL?! I’M NOT DONE WITH HER YET!」

His gaze was focused on Kreuz as he finished his words.

historical

「Fufu.. Well, whatever. I can chase after her again after I kill you for the second time. That should be a simple matter.」

Alante stuck out his tongue, laughing as he spoke.

「Who are you? You speak as if you know me. Your movements are unmemorable, though..」

Lambert asked.

Amongst the sorcerers who lived during the Eight Countries Unification War era, thanks to his overwhelming combat experience and unique intuition, he knew that sorcerers who strengthened their flesh to the extreme with black arts and developed their own close combat technique were a rarity.

But that was the reason why they tended to develop a peculiar habit that couldn’t be mistaken for someone else.

And yet, none of Alante’s habits existed in Lambert’s memories.

Nevertheless, he deemed that as natural since it had been two hundred years, so he expected that Alante had already perfected his combat style till none of his peculiar habits remained.

「I’m different from you, Lambert. I’m not imprisoned by the past. You who donned that armor that became the proof of your loyalty to the lord will never understand me, right?」

Alante smacked his lips twice, swinging his index finger as he sent a cheap provocation to Lambert.

「Nevertheless, though your swinging speed is remarkable.. your swordcraft is surprisingly sloppy. Though you managed to catch me off guard, I’ve seen through your swordcraft. That sword won’t be able to touch me.」

Alante spoke with triumphant look on his face.

Lambert just took his stance with his greatsword. He didn’t even respond in the slightest toward Alante’s provocation.

Alante’s eyes twitched as he saw that his provocation didn’t work in the slightest on Lambert.

「I shall enjoy just how long you can keep that facade.」

Alante stooped forward and rushed toward Lambert in that posture.

Seeing Lambert unleash a horizontal slash, Alante leaned his body to the side, diving right under Lambert’s slash.

He pushed Lambert’s arms and forcefully accelerated his landing speed.

Lambert’s slash missed its target.

Alante retreated immediately, dragging his feet as he turned to Lambert who turned his body.

「O Earth, crumble!」

The earth beneath Alante’s feet made a loud sound.

The place where Lambert stood was split apart.

Although Alante stepped in as Lambert’s stance crumbled, his finger kept pointing to the ground.

「O fabrication of life, sprout!」

The place he pointed at was where the flask of homunculus frog seed that he threw a while ago broke.

Dozens of frogs appeared, swelling up till the size of a palm and forming into a crowd of homunculus frog seeds.

「Ribbit」「RiRibbit」

Every single one of them then leapt toward Lambert.

The abdomen of one of the homunculus frogs melted, and pale blue liquid came out from inside.

Even Lambert couldn’t hide his slight surprise upon seeing that.

「This is.. Acid Reghum (King of Magic Acid)!」

The homunculus frogs created by alchemists had their own set of dispositions decided before their birth.

For that reason, the created frog could be set depending on the situation.

That was the biggest advantage of the homunculus frogs.

And now, every single homunculus frog had an extremely strong acid that was incomparable to normal digestive fluid in their body.

It was possible to temporarily create the strongest acid in the world, acid reghum, with alchemy.

It was strong enough to melt even mithril.

Properly speaking, a huge amount of mana and time was needed to create acid reghum with alchemy.

The skill to shorten the complicated process by using homunculus frogs was good enough for Lambert to recognize Alante as a first-rate sorcerer.

Due to the extremely powerful acid in their stomach, the homunculus frog’s stomach melted a few seconds after the formation. It wouldn’t last for more than ten seconds.

For that reason, the homunculus frog could splash acid reghum in the surrounding area as soon as its body exploded.

「Veguu.」

The body of the homunculus distorted in midair and exploded into numerous pieces of meat.

「Melt down slowly!」

There was pale blue liquid inside the homunculus frog.. The acid reghum splashed onto Lambert.

Lambert’s armor was made from pure Organ, which was far tougher than mithril. It could repel mana, thus neutralizing acid reghum.

But then, it wouldn’t be able to prevent the acid reghum from entering the gap between the joints.

Lambert’s leg was trapped in the ground.

The super heavy Organ armor’s weakness lay in the fact that its balance easily crumbled as long as his footing was disturbed.

As expected, he couldn’t dodge the exploding homunculus frogs after he pulled his leg from the ground.

「Acid reghum is a dangerous material that has to be handled with care. O Earth, become a wall!」

An earthen wall erected in front of Alante.

He tried to reduce the risk of acid reghum as much as possible.

Although acid reghum was truly hard to dodge when used as a weapon, it was actually a double-edged sword that could backfire on him if handled incorrectly.

「HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!」

Lambert swung his greatsword quickly, repelling the scattered remnants of homunculus frogs with the wind pressure created from his swing.

Both the scattered remnants of the homunculus frogs and the acid reghum struck the earthen wall, melting it down.

「That was a close call. But what in the world was with those slashes just now.. They’re completely different from befo— Ugh!」

Alante fell to his knees.

The acid reghum grazed the area around his left ankle, greatly reducing his mobility.

「I-impossible! I should be protected by that wall..!」

Alante remembered that he raised the earthen wall before Lambert swung his sword.

The earthen wall should’ve protected him from the incoming pieces of meat.

‘N-no, first, the formation of the earthen wall is uneven.. Does that mean the acid happened to pierce the thin part of the wall? Damn, that’s quite unlu—!’

At that moment, Alante noticed something.

The matter of acid reghum happening to pierce through the thin part of the wall and hitting his ankle was no mere coincidence.

‘No way, he’s been aiming for this! Did he use the acid as a bullet to pierce through my defense with such pinpoint accuracy while seemingly slashing wildly?’

Lambert easily demolished the earthen wall with his body blow, slashing twice toward Alante.

Alante stooped forward to the right and then left to dodge the slashes.

A kick that followed the slashes sent Alante flying in an arc-shaped orbit to the back.

「..Missed, eh.」

Lambert muttered this.

Alante shifted his center of gravity and spun in midair, landing on the ground.

Alante dodged Lambert’s kick by stepping on the armored leg that came from below and used that force and his own power to jump, opening the distance between Lambert and him.

Although he landed safely, Alante’s body was slanted slightly to the side.

Alante clicked his tongue in annoyance upon seeing that one of his feet was inflamed from the edge of his field of vision.

「..Tch, that toy that I created as recreation was useless, eh. Fine, playtime is over. As expected of one of the Four Demon Generals, a half-assed method won’t work on you. But the battle is just beginning.」

Alante spread his arms.

「HEAT BALL, GATHER IN MY HAND!」

A magic circle appeared around him.

Five heat balls appeared around Alante.