My New LIfe Inside The Book

CHAPTER 7

Haruto was sweating endlessly.

"Kukaka! It doesn't really matter how many times you dodge y'know. For you, there's no escape from death."

With a black mist coming off from both his arms, the blond haired kid named Grit said with a smile.

Their battle began just a couple of minutes ago, but all Haruto could do was dodge. Everytime Grit swinged one of his arms, he could use a kind of invisible slashing attack, which could cut even the buildings behind Haruto like butter. Grit didn't even have to touch what he wanted to cut, if he swinged his arm in front of him, everything in front of him inside a certain distance, would be cut.

Haruto could not see the attack itself, only the general direction which Grit swinged his arm, so he could avoid it by a small margin. But doing that for only a couple of minutes was already exhausting enough.

"What is it what is it?? I'm not even making a effort here yet, hero-san! Kukaka!"

"Guh....!"

Swinging both his arms again and again, Grit's attacks were slowly getting more fierce. The directions were getting difficult to predict.

Not much time after this, finally some attacks reached Haruto. The right side of his right thigh and the left side of his ribs were cut, and blood started pouring out.

"Gaaah...! Damn it!"

"Now we're starting to heat up!"

"I can't just dodge him! I have to counterattack somehow! But I can't approach him carelessly, I have to find something like a distraction. What can I do?"

Trying to think about a plan, Haruto continues looking at his surroundings, trying to see something he can use.

"Ready? Round 2 now, I wonder if you'll survive! Kukaka!"

Haruto started running towards the rubble of the buildings that Grit slashed apart, while dodging most of the invisible slashes, but he wasn't entirely unscathed, some of the slashes barely hit him.

Hiding in what used to be a house, Haruto tries to escape the eyes of Grit, but the attacks coming from him did not stop. While looking around, Haruto suddenly spotted something that caught his attention.

"Is that...?!"

Grit on the other hand was getting impatient.

"I guess I ended up playing with him a lot huh. I need to finish this fast now, before uncle comes to give me an earful. Also, if reinforces come to save him, it would be a pain. Not that I would mind killing them all though. Kukaka!"

Breathing deeply, Grit started preparing an attack, probably the final blow. But, to his surprise, before he could concentrate, Haruto appeared from the middle of the rubble, holding a few sacks of something.

"Hey, shithead! Take this!!"

Before throwing those sacks, Haruto concentrated energia in his hands, and turned it into fire. The fire was small, but was enough to explode the sacks and free its contents.

"Wha...!?"

When the sacks exploded, a white dust permeated the surroundings like deep fog.

"Is this...flour? Are you kidding me?"

Noticing the real identity of the white dust, Grit was not impressed. For a moment, he was very surprised and thought the hero might do something interesting, but this was just a desperate and meaningless move.

"Trying to block my view huh? It doesn't matter that I don't see you! I just need to s***h everything!!"

Swinging his arms like crazy, Grit started launching s***h attacks throughout all directions. Slowly, the flour in the air was dissipating. Then... suddenly.

"You've got guts to approach me like this! Die!"

Sensing a presence behind him, Grit immediately turned to it and send it a big slashing attack, but instead of cutting Haruto in half... what was cut was a green wig.

"Huh...?"

While distracted, Haruto with an incredible speed, approached Grit and:

"Horaaaaaaaaah!! Taaaaaake this!!"

"Shit...!"

Being caught by surprise, Grit couldn't react, and putting all energia he could on his fists, Haruto punched Grit right in the face.

"Aaaaaaaah!!"

"Geehooo....!"

The impact of the punch was so great, that Grit was sent flying and his body destroyed the concrete wall behind him.

"I... I did it...!"

Seeing that Grit was not moving, Haruto felt a immense relief, and dropped his guard a little.

But... that was a mistake.

While thinking that he had defeated the blond haired kid, Haruto was looking at him from a little distance away, wondering what he should do now.

That's when it suddenly happened.

Haruto's left arm was sent flying.

It was so sudden, and so fast, that it took a couple of seconds to Haruto to notice that his left arm was in the ground a few meters from him, and his left shoulder was much lighter.

And much painful.

When it finally connected that Haruto lost his arm, the pain and blood came gushing forward.

"GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"

Falling in his knees while putting his remaining arm on his injury, Haruto started screaming in pain.

"Kukaka... that was a nice punch there... but you underestimated me too much."

Slowly getting up, Grit was making a mad face with a smile.

"But... that was very fun hero-san. I could have a little fun there, and when you got me with that punch, that was the best... but."

Stopping right in front of the kneeling Haruto, who couldn't move anymore, and was white as a sheet, Grit continued:

"I never said that I can only s***h something when I move my arms. Even slightly moving a finger is enough y'know? You should have known that I wasn't even fighting you seriously."

Haruto had his eyes focused on Grit, but maybe because of the shock, he couldn't even speak. Haruto just stared at him, with the expression on his eyes unreadable.

Grit just slowly raised his right arm.

"I just use my arms because it's cooler, don't you think? Okay, time to say goodbye hero-san. It's nothing personal, it's just my mission."

Raising his right arm to the limit, Grit started bringing it down, when...

He stopped it.

"What the hell?!"

For a second, Haruto body's began being enveloped by something, which made Grit hesitate, but when he did, an s***h attack came flying towards him, and being flustered because of Haruto, his reaction was late.

"Argh, damn it!! Who's there?!"

Jumping out too late to dodge the attack completely, Grit lost three fingers of his right hand.

At the same time, he looked at Haruto again, but there was nothing there with him. If it's like that 'something' never existed in the first place.

Was it my imagination? Is what Grit thought, but he soon focused on the other person that appeared there.

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"I was intending to kill you, but you got some good reflexes there."

Rein slowly walks to the battlefield of Haruto and Grit. He starts looking around, seeing all the destruction, and then focuses his eyes on Haruto.

He was pressing the injury on what used to be his left arm, and looked pretty weak. His face was pale, and his head was down.

"...Ione, help him."

"But Rein... with my current condition, that is..."

"It's fine, use this."

Taking what appeared to be a fancy bottle with a red liquid in it from his pocket, Rein gives it to Ione.

"But... this is...! From that person!"

"I said it's fine. If we need it, I'm sure he would give us another."

Without taking his eyes from Grit, Rein instructs Ione to use the mysterious potion on Haruto.

Not pursuing the issue anymore, Ione slowly pick up Haruto's left arm, and walk to him.

"Huh...? You're that person from earlier..."

Recognizing Haruto, she gently puts her hand on his forehead.

"Are you all right? Are you conscious?"

Lifting up his head, Haruto nods.

"Y-Yeah..."

"All right, I'll begin the treatment. Please lie down."

Ione helps Haruto to lie down on the ground, and then connects the severed arm back into its place. While doing that, she opens the potion, and spill it on the injury.

In just 30 seconds, the arm started to reconnect to the body.

"Amazing...! That person really managed to create such an outrageous potion!"

Impressed with the results, Ione lets out an exhasperated sigh.

"It burns... but I can feel the bones and nerves reconnecting...!"

With a better expression, Haruto also comments while impressed.

Meanwhile...

Grit and Rein are still facing each other, cautious of any movement.

"How are you here?! It's a damn uproar back home because of you!"

"Your partner already made me that question, I don't feel like answering again. Let's just make this short. But... before that, let me ask you just in case. Can you undo the miasma curse that was put on my companion?"

"Huuuh? Curse? Hah! Even if I could, as if I would do it!"

"I see. Then, please die."

Rein in an instant attacked with sword in hand, however Grit also moved by using his remaining fingers to make his slashing attacks. Sensing the danger within them, Rein started dodging a few, and sparring others with his sword, which made Grit widen his eyes.

"My miasma is supposed to cut through anything, without exceptions!! How can you block it with a mere sword??"

"I guess you haven't traveled very much. The world is pretty vast you know."

They continued with that amazing battle for a while, until it was so fast that was impossible to watch with a normal eyesight. Haruto could observe that, and understood just how much he was toyed by Grit.

And also, he could plainly see that there really was someone incredibly strong in this world. Even in that unbelievable situation, he still thought:

"I found him!! There really was an already overpowered guy here!!"

During the fight between Grit and Rein, Rein suddenly jumped high into the sky.

"Let's finish this now."

Grit was surprised at first, but then quickly started sending his attacks towards the sky.

Rein was still composed, even if it looked like he just got cornered. He calmly holds his sword with his two hands, and puts the blade slightly to his right side.

"Youkoryuu ( ***)... Tenrai no Amagumo!! ( ** の **!!)

(Dancing Tiger Style... Divine Rain Cloud!!)"

Spinning his body in an incredible speed, Rein's body with the sword's blade spinning along with it as well, looked like a circle saw. It was so powerful that it cut through all of Grit's slashes, and rapidly approached him.

"Impo---"

Before Grit could finish, Rein's sword reached him, and slashed his head off in less than a second. Once again, the battle was over in a very short time.

Haruto was speechless.

Since coming to a new world, he was living a relatively peaceful life, only training combat, never experiencing it for real. That was his first contact with a battle, with heavy injuries and a blood filled battlefield, and although in the previous world he experienced seeing death right before his eyes, the death he just saw was way more real and palpable. He literally witnessed the moment of a person's death, seeing the person dying.

In that moment he thought that he lightly underestimated this world.

But the most impressive thing of all... was the boy in front of him. A strength that completely overwhelmed the one that was overwhelming him just before. If Rein hadn't showed up, he most likely would be dead right now.

Sheating back his sword, Rein approached Haruto.

"Are you all right? You shouldn't be fighting those people. They're extremely dangerous."

Still dumbfounded, Haruto just got the last part of what Rein said. Snapping out of it, he responds:

"No err... I had some people to protect... couldn't exactly run away... technically I am still a hero after all...hahaha..."

"Oooh, so you're the hero summoned in this country huh! Nice to meet you. The name's Rein. I have no family name. You?"

"Ah... I am Tabi Haruto, the honor's mine."

Suddenly Haruto started being extremely polite for some reason.

"No need to be so formal. I'm glad I met you. Oh, this is my companion, Ione Woltress."

"I am called Ione. Nice to meet you."

"Same here... by the way, are you perhaps a beastkin?"

"That's right. I come from the Woltress family in the Souma Empire. Currently, for some reasons I am traveling with Rein."

"I see... I know this might sound weird but... I'm really happy to have met you! Finally some decent isekai development here!"

"Excuse me...?"