77 — Chapter 77

Mapping the layout in my head, I pressed deeper into the maze.

It was incredibly intricate, but there were no traps to speak of. It was just a continuous series of complex passageways. Apparently, that part of it had been built fairly.

I pondered as I searched for Mihana. The attitudes of the Sage and the Assassin King were weighing on my mind. Even though they claimed they didn’t want her killed, neither of them had resisted the idea of a duel.

There was only one reason for that. They believed Mihana would be the one to win the duel. That was likely why they were willing to temporarily grant me the right to kill her.

It was quite the vote of confidence. They knew my background and history, yet they still believed Mihana could outlast me. If it was just overconfidence, that would be fine, but I doubted it was that simple.

I was curious about what kind of abilities Mihana possessed. Being a trainee under the Sage meant there was a possibility she could use magic. Since she was a subordinate of the Assassin King, she might also have stealth capabilities. And as a summoned individual, she would possess a powerful skill.

All of these were points of concern. The other summoned individuals I’d met mostly relied on their unique skills as their mainstay. It would be best not to assume it would be the same this time. At the very least, she was likely more versatile than I was.

However, I wasn’t that worried. Judging by Mihana’s state when we reunited, she was still barely more than an amateur. She had the eyes of someone who hadn’t experienced killing yet. She didn’t even harbor a desire for revenge against me; she was just terrified. She wasn’t used to combat, and she wasn’t even keen on the duel itself.

She must have some degree of resourcefulness to have survived the destruction of the Imperial Capital, but even so, it was hard to imagine her as someone capable of killing me. She had probably been coddled by the Representatives of Eurea. From a mental standpoint, she was the weakest of all the summoned individuals so far. I didn’t feel like I could lose in a fight to the death.

‘Still… isn’t this place a bit too large?’

I came to a halt and looked around. I hadn’t run into Mihana at all. The maze itself clearly exceeded the dimensions of the original room. I was measuring by my strides, so there was no mistake. Perhaps the space itself was distorted. That Sage was certainly capable of it. I knew the versatility of magic all too well. With enough transcendent power, such a thing would be possible.

About two minutes had already passed since we started. The sand in the hourglass was just about to cross the halfway mark. I needed to hurry a bit.

Then, a sudden spark of inspiration hit me. I wasn’t under any obligation to wander through this maze in good faith. I could just take whatever shortcuts I pleased.

Having made up my mind, I delivered a kick to the wall. Cracks spiderwebbed across the surface, and it crumbled with a loud crash. It was surprisingly brittle. At this rate, I could break through hundreds of them without breaking a sweat.

I stepped through to the other side of the wall in high spirits. There was no rule stating I couldn’t destroy the maze. I planned to keep searching non-stop like this. If I tracked her presence, I would surely find Mihana.

By introducing wall-smashing into the mix, my search pace improved exponentially. I moved according to the intuition I’d cultivated through years of combat experience.

“Hah!”

I burst through yet another wall with a shoulder tackle. I brushed the rubble off my shoulder and stepped into the corridor on the other side.

“Eek!?”

A thin scream rose from beside me. Looking over, I saw Mihana standing there. Her face was pale, and she was trying to slowly back away. I had been sensing her presence for a short while now. My instincts hadn’t been wrong.

I approached her with a smirk.

“Bingo. You managed to run for quite a while, didn’t you?”

“D-don’t come any closer…”

Mihana stumbled backward. I felt no hostility from her. With my pistol in one hand, I shrugged my shoulders.

“Hahaha, you sure don’t like me, do you? But unfortunately, your death is a settled matter. You should confess your sins to God. I’ll at least give you enough time for that.”

With those words, I opened fire.

“Wa—waah!”

Almost simultaneously, Mihana abruptly tilted her head. The bullet zipped past her ear and embedded itself into the wall behind her. I raised an eyebrow at the result.

“Oops. Lucky you. Your lifespan just got extended by two seconds.”

“H-hiieee…!”

When I fired again, Mihana ducked while clutching her head. The bullet was evaded by a hair’s breadth.

“………”

I wordlessly prepared to fire the pistol again.

“D-danger…ous…!”

At that exact timing, Mihana leaned against the wall. With minimal movement, she had slipped out of the line of fire. I aimed for her torso—a harder target to miss—and pulled the trigger.

Mihana deployed defensive magic. The bullet pierced the glass-like shield, but its trajectory shifted ever so slightly. Because of that deviation, the bullet grazed past Mihana’s side. If it had been an inch to the left, it would have been a hit.

I fired a rapid succession of shots. Despite her pathetic, clumsy movements, Mihana avoided every single bullet by a paper-thin margin. It was like a bad joke; I couldn’t land a hit. Attacks I was certain would connect were being bypassed again and again.

‘—She’s reading my movements perfectly.’

I lowered my pistol. This was clearly abnormal. Some of those dodges would have been impossible without calculating the bullet’s trajectory itself. It wasn’t mere coincidence. Mihana was evading based on some sort of grounded logic.

However, her movements were those of an amateur. She seemed to have trained a little, but ultimately, she was below the level of a raw recruit. It was within the margin of error. No matter how much I overvalued her, she wasn’t at a level that should interfere with my marksmanship.

And yet, Mihana continued to dodge the bullets. It was an incomprehensible phenomenon.

That said, I didn’t have time to ponder it. In the end, as long as I killed her, that was all that mattered. Even if she was using some kind of trick, there had to be a limit.

Just as I tried to take aim once more, the floor surged upward. A wall was generated as if to block the path between me and Mihana. It expanded like a balloon and then burst. A cloud of dust billowed up, obscuring my vision.

“Magic, huh? Quite the cheeky little trick.”

Scoffing, I fired several shots through the dust toward where she had been. None of them felt like they hit home. I charged through the dust cloud.

No one was there. A hole had been opened in the wall, with traces left behind as if it had been dissolved by some kind of liquid. This, too, was likely magic.

I heard footsteps from the other side of the hole. She was moving away, stumbling several times as she went. She had apparently used that brief distraction to make her escape. She was handling herself well for someone in a corner. I couldn’t believe she was a total amateur.

“Good grief, what a troublesome lady.”

I sighed as I reloaded my pistol. For some reason, Mihana seemed to possess a transcendent evasion ability. That had to be her skill as a summoned person. To avoid every shot with movements that looked like an amateur’s was anything but normal.

Judging from our exchange so far, long-range attacks weren’t the best match. Dragging her into a melee was the optimal choice. I’d drive my fist into her at a distance where evasion was impossible. With my level corrections, I could crush her head like a pudding.

All I needed was one hit. I didn’t know the true nature of her ability, but I’d show her a level of violence that simply overwhelmed it. Using the frustration of missing my shots as fuel, I chased after Mihana.