Side Story 4: The Isolated Island 06

The mock battles continued, and after three days, Fran had sparred with everyone from Rank 50 to 11.

None of them were strong enough to give her much trouble though. A few managed to surprise her with their unusual fighting styles, but that was about it.

To be fair, Rank 25 and above were equivalent to high Rank B adventurers. That would normally be pretty impressive, if not compared to Fran’s current strength. Either way, Fran was satisfied sparring with them as it allowed her to get a little serious.

After we got past Rank 13, we started seeing challengers on the level of Rank A adventurers. They were strong enough to fight Fran head-on.

But despite their strength, they seemed to have trouble dealing with ranged magic attacks. Fran repeatedly swapped between close and long range, ultimately wearing them down until she won.

And now, starting today, she was finally up against the top ten, the strongest people on the island.

「Let’s have a good fight, Black Lightning Princess-dono!」

「Nn.」

First up was Rank 10, an ogrekin woman in light armor, wielding an orichalcum staff. The martial artist acting as referee announced her name.

「Challenger! Rank 10! Menoa-Meano of the Savage Strength!」

Incidentally, everyone we fought had an alias, but most of them were just self-proclaimed. Apparently, they thought it was cool to have their titles announced during matches and the like, so they decided to come up with their own.

I’m sure some of them had actual aliases, but as far as I could tell, almost everyone here chose their own.

「Rank S adventurer, Fran.」

「Oraaah! Here I come!」

Like most of the islanders, Menoa-Meano charged straight in instead of bothering with minor exchanges. She seemed to be going for a powerful blow to get a rough estimate of our strength.

Menoa-Meano channeled the force generated by her acceleration into her staff, unleashing an incredibly fast horizontal swipe aimed at Fran’s torso.

Her orichalcum staff closed in on Fran with a booming sound that reverberated through the air.

In response, Fran took a step forward and lowered her head, slipping just beneath the staff. This wasn’t difficult because Fran was used to dodging Amanda’s whip.

「You make it look so easy…!」

「Heh.」

Fran promptly delivered a kick to Menoa-Meano’s unprotected stomach.

「Gwah! Damn, you’re good!」

Menoa-Meano retreated with a grimace, spraying stomach acid from her mouth. That said, she was an ogrekin, known for their toughness. Even a serious kick from Fran wasn’t enough to make her drop the staff, let alone defeat her.

The next moment, the ogrekin’s eyes gleamed with the ferocity of a raging beast.

「Just like I thought! Your strength and technique are on another level! This is no time for games! From here on, I’m going all out! Awaken, the Savage Ogre within me!」

Whoa! We should have expected as much from a high-level ogrekin, but she was capable of mutation!

As Menoa-Meano roared, the two horns on her forehead suddenly grew longer, and the muscles all over her body swelled with a series of cracking sounds. The blue mana enveloping her entire body became so dense that it looked like armor.

Savage Ogre seemed to be a mutation for enhancing her physical stats. This might be the most straightforward type of mutation we’ve seen so far.

「You won’t die on me, right? Try this!」

I noticed that many spectators gasped when they saw her activating her mutation, which caught my attention. Perhaps she didn’t normally use it during mock battles due to the risk of accidentally killing her opponents.

However, she judged that this was no problem against Fran. In response, Fran also decided to finally unleash her true power.

「Awakening.」

「Oh? So this is the Awakening of a Black Cat I’ve heard so much about! T-That’s same insane pressure!」

「Come at me.」

「Hahahaha! Let’s do this!」

Fran performed a gesture beckoning Menoa-Meano forward, provoking her opponent to attack first. Menoa-Meano unleashed a surge of mana, showing that she was happy to oblige.

「Oraaaaaaaah!」

Menoa-Meano charged at us, or rather, rocketed forward so fast that I almost lost track of her. Yet despite her speed, she wasn’t moving in a straight line.

I had expected her to come straight at Fran, but she actually circled around behind her.

This was possible due to the sheer power of her Savage Ogre transformation. She repeatedly stomped the ground to change direction while maintaining her speed, leaving a series of foot-shaped holes in her wake.

「Raaaah!!!」

Carrying all that momentum, Menoa-Meano swung her staff in a motion resembling a shoulder throw.

The tremendous force made her orichalcum staff bend into the shape of a crescent moon.

This blow was backed with enough speed and power to kill almost anything. A direct hit would probably even bring down a dragon.

However…

「Ha!」

「No way…!」

She swung my blade in what looked like an effortless motion, easily deflecting the trajectory of the staff. Rather than blocking or dodging, Fran chose to redirect it.

Even this took an alarming amount of my durability though! The shock wave alone would probably deal massive damage if we tried to block it instead.

The staff grazed Fran’s side and slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash. The resulting explosion launched Fran into the air, or rather, she jumped back utilizing the force of her opponent’s attack.

Meanwhile, Menoa-Meano was unable to move after having her all-out attack redirected into the ground.

However, I’m pretty sure her intent was to deliver a second swing in succession. If we had blocked her instead, she could use the flexibility of her staff to make it bounce upward, then carry that momentum into another hit.

The second hit wouldn’t have as much power, but backed by her strength, that’s still enough to defeat most opponents. But her two-stage ultimate attack was ruined when Fran redirected the first strike. Now, she was thrown off balance and completely defenseless.

「Interesting technique. Not bad.」

「Thanks.」

Fran delivered a slash diagonally across Menoa-Meano’s torso. And not just any ordinary slash. A perfect strike that could only be performed by a Sword King, similar to Heavenly Judgment.

Of course, we held back since we didn’t want to kill her. But even so, my blade cleaved through Menoa-Meano’s mana and flesh, carving a deep wound into her body.

「Heh… a beautiful… swing…」

Blood gushed into the air, and the ogrekin collapsed to the ground. And yet, her face bore a smile of thorough satisfaction.

「Winner! Fran-dono!」

「「「Wooooooooh!!!」」」

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