A high-pitched sound, similar to metal clashing, rang out in the space. The shockwave generated by the collision of high-density spiritual powers shattered the surrounding stained glass, scattering light.
Salamander’s attack didn’t damage the evil spirit, but it did loosen the binding technique.
Determined not to miss this moment, Rourke released all the spiritual power from his body, forcibly breaking the restraint just as Salamander had done.
“Hurricane Sword!”
As soon as he could move, Rourke activated the sword spirit enhancement through his lesser spirit.
Like the Hellfire Sword, this enhancement technique that consumed vast amounts of spiritual power manifested as a raging storm enveloping him, demonstrating its ferocity.
“Raaaaaaah!”
With a single-minded focus, Rourke raised his sword, concentrating the surrounding wind on the blade. With a fierce cry, he swung the sword down, releasing the high-density wind wrapped around the blade as a slashing attack towards the evil spirit.
“!?”
The evil spirit, having just fended off Salamander’s attack, had no way to avoid the wind slash approaching while blowing away glass shards. It took the full brunt of the attack on its body. Struck by the wind slash, the evil spirit’s body bent into an L-shape and was blown upwards.
“The binding’s broken. As expected of you, Rourke. You saved us.”
“You still have an inhuman amount of spiritual power, I see.”
“I’ll take the compliment, but let’s get out of here while we can. That thing might have taken some damage, but it’s definitely still kicking.”
Rourke spoke to Celia and Dryad, who could now move freely after the binding was broken, while keeping his gaze fixed upwards with a stern expression.
“Right, let’s go, Leia!”
“Y-Yes!”
Leia, who had been frozen in place despite the binding being broken, snapped out of it at Celia’s voice. She nodded hurriedly and started running towards the exit again. At the same time, Rourke’s earlier actions flashed back in her mind.
It was a highly advanced spiritual technique, despite not involving a contracted spirit. As before when he fought against her, he wielded advanced techniques in multiple attributes.
Typically, a spirit masters’s technical prowess tends to be biased towards the same attributes as their contracted spirits, but this wasn’t the case with him.
—Could his contracted spirit possess multiple attributes?
That would make sense. There were indeed a few spirits with multiple attributes, though rare. It made sense, but… something still didn’t sit right with Leia.
She thought about asking him after this ruin exploration was over. With that in mind, Leia grabbed the doorknob and entered the previous room. Celia followed shortly after, and just as Rourke was about to enter, the evil spirit’s technique struck him again.
“Tch! Again!?”
Sensing the approaching gravity, Rourke quickly used his sword as a shield and tried to deploy wind to reduce the technique’s power. However, perhaps angered by being blown away earlier, the spiritual power unleashed was incomparably stronger than before.
Although he managed to avoid being crushed by defending at the last second, even Salamander, who had been on guard, couldn’t resist the overwhelming force and fell rapidly towards Rourke.
“Kuh!”
Judging that Rourke would be crushed under Salamander at this rate, Leia dispelled the spirit’s manifestation, averting the worst-case scenario.
However, they had only avoided the worst outcome.
“What!?”
Rourke had been barely withstanding the intense pressure using his sword and wind as a shield, but the floor beneath him reached its limit first.
With a cracking sound, fissures appeared in the floor—and then it collapsed with a loud noise.
“Dryad!”
Celia shouted reflexively. Understanding her intent, Dryad extended wood from its arm towards the falling Rourke, but Rourke’s falling speed was overwhelmingly faster than the wood could grow, and it failed to reach his hand.
“Rourke-senpai?!?”
“! Stay back!”
As Leia was about to summon Salamander to save Rourke who had fallen slightly behind, Celia suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her back with all her might.
Before Leia could understand her Senpai’s incomprehensible action, a massive rock landed with bullet-like speed where she had been standing moments ago, pulverizing the door.
“The falling debris was accelerated by gravity, I see.”
“More importantly, Senpai Celia, Senpai Rourke is—!”
Leia frantically told Celia. The rocks blocked their view, making it impossible to see what was happening on the other side of the door, but it wasn’t hard to imagine Rourke’s fate, whom they couldn’t save.
On the other hand, Celia, her classmate, seemed much calmer compared to Leia. She spoke to calm down her panicking junior.
“Calm down, Leia. Rourke will be fine. You’ve fought him before, right? You should know he’s not the type to go down easily.”
“But—!”
Leia certainly understood that Rourke was strong. However, they were dealing with that evil spirit. It would be strange not to worry.
“Unexpected things like this are par for the course in ancient ruin exploration. That’s why I chose reliable members, and Rourke should be able to manage on his own.”
“………..”
That must be due to her trust in Rourke’s abilities. Leia, starting to regain her composure at Celia’s words, quietly listened.
“Besides, we’re in an equally precarious situation. There are probably still Guardians left. Always stay calm and don’t panic in ruins.”
“…Understood.”
Finally calming down and nodding, Leia received a smile from Celia.
Dryad, Celia’s contracted spirit, quietly observed this exchange.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.PAGES.DEV
“Damn it, doesn’t that bastard know how to hold back?”
I couldn’t help but curse as I fell through the darkness.
That evil spirit must have been really upset about taking that hit earlier. It had focused its technique on me, narrowing the range to boost its power.
It’s a good thing I had Hurricane Sword activated; without the enhancement, I might have ended up flattened like those Guardians. This is no joke.
“Oh, there’s the ground.”
After falling for who knows how long, I finally saw the ground approaching. I used wind to reduce my falling speed and landed.
I managed to touch down safely, but I had fallen quite a distance.
The place where I was before was so far up that I couldn’t see the ceiling even with my spiritually enhanced eyesight.
I mean, to think there was such a large cavity under the floor… What kind of structure does this ruin have, seriously…
“Wait, what is this place?”
“Eerie” was my first impression.
Is that stone altar and black box that looks like a coffin in the back some kind of shrine?
The ominous atmosphere oozing from the box is already unsettling, but what catches my eye more are the walls adorned with faintly glowing geometric patterns.
It’s probably some kind of magical formula, but the geometric patterns had spiritual power flowing through them equivalent to at least ten high-rank spirits.
Whether this room is the center of the ruin or serves some other purpose, I don’t know, but I don’t want to stay here long. It clearly smells of danger that shouldn’t be touched.
“Anyway, I should head up—!”
As I was about to wrap myself in wind and leave this place quickly, I sensed the presence of the evil spirit descending at high speed from above. It seems I’ve become its target.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…”
The activation time of Hurricane Sword isn’t very long. I need to settle this quickly, but even if I engage in a short-term battle with that evil spirit, can I win…?
“Well, I have no choice but to try…”
I let out a small sigh and readjusted my grip on the sword, still wrapped in high-density wind.
At the same time, I wrapped my entire body in wind using spirit techniques. I stomped hard on the ground and leaped with all my might, glaring towards where the evil spirit likely was in the darkness.
As the barely visible surroundings changed in the darkness, I gripped my sword tighter. Since we were both rushing towards each other, the distance between us and the evil spirit was closing rapidly.
Within seconds, I saw the evil spirit falling towards me from above. A high-density barrier that had blocked Salamander’s attack was deployed in front of the evil spirit. It seemed the bastard intended to charge and knock me away.
Fine by me. I’ll be the one to deflect and send it flying instead.
“Die, you damn fish!!!”
“Wooooooooo! “
I shouted, filled with killing intent, though the evil spirit probably couldn’t understand me. I swung my sword with all my might and released a wind blade aimed at the evil spirit’s face.
“Uooooh!!”
The wind wrapped around my sword was blocked by the evil spirit’s barrier, raging around us.
As I had suspected when it blocked Salamander’s attack, it was indeed tough. I tried to push my sword through while channeling spirit power into my arm, but it was as hard as a giant rock. I couldn’t push through at all.
In fact, as I tried to force my sword into the barrier, it was slightly pushed back instead. The spirit technique’s power was higher than I had expected, probably manipulating gravity and spirit power to deploy the barrier.
“Tch!”
I would have preferred to push it back, but it couldn’t be helped.
I slightly loosened my arm’s strength, and as the evil spirit pushed in, I shifted my body to let it pass to the rear.
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