The Raven Dark Hero 22

Chapter 22 : Phenom subjugation

TL:SummerPeanut

Author’s Note:

※The description of the battle was a bit rough, so I modified it a bit.

※In the story, there is a mention that Kurosaki was a former member of the National Defense Force, but I forgot to describe it before. I updated chapter 10. I'm very sorry about that. m(__)m

"I knew my eyes weren't wrong..."

Countless dead phenoms are lying around.

One boy is still fighting countless phenoms at this moment.

Kuroyume’s boss, Kiryu Shinichirou, who is watching over that Kouki, came to the conclusion that he was right.

Kouki himself believes that he is an amazing gift holder. This is unusual for Kouki who has a low self-esteem. However, it can be said that he is still underestimating his own value.

Kurosaki was rated highly in the NDF with just his Speed Star. Saejima became one of the strongest soldiers in the NDF with just Invisible Slash. And Kiryu is being called the demon king thanks to his Lonsdaleite.

How abnormal and how terrifying is it to have these three gifts?

This is the reason why Kiryu imposed this tough challenge on Kouki to confirm it.

The fight continued for about 30 minutes. At the beginning there were more than 100 phenoms, but there are only about 20 left.

"Hah hah hah, I’m, starting to feel tired here!"

Kouki’s body is bathed countless times in phenom blood, his equipment is torn in various places, in fact there are even gaping holes on the equipment.

"Damn it...there are only the annoying ones left..."

The phenoms on the ground had been wiped out. However, there are flying phenoms still eyeing Kouki.

The flying phenoms had barely attacked Kouki so far. Reason being, like a bald eagle, they are waiting until prey can’t lift its limbs.

"Heh, sorry but I'm not dead yet..."

Kouki felt annoyed by the flying phenoms who were just staring at him from an absolutely safe distance away.

"Don’t you think that you are actually safe there, okay!"

Invisible Slash was activated. However, the gift’s characteristics where the further the target, the lower the power didn’t make it easier for him.

Since that’s the case, Kouki decided to make a big jump. Making use of Speed Star’s ability, he could fly up to a height of about 10 meters. In addition, with the use of his cloak the distance he could fly was further increased even more.

However in order to maintain altitude in the air, he had to flap his wings himself which meant he couldn’t use his arms. As a test, he tried to fire a slash with Invisible Slash against a gargoyle, a flying phenom, who was at the same height but he failed due to the much lower accuracy. Moreover, his altitude dropped each time he used that gift.

"Attacking while flying will be today’s homework I guess... I'll just have to jump one at a time then!"

He jumped at the target and kicked down the gargoyles one by one. When he couldn’t reach high enough, he would deploy his mantle as wings and fly himself to a sufficient altitude for him to attack. Thus there are no safe spots for the flying phenoms.

After dropping all the flying phenoms one by one, Kouki finished them by stomping their heads.

"Well then, there’s only 1 left... The nastiest even."

The last phenom is a phenom with danger level 6, a Lesser Dragon.

It's a 5 meter tall phenom that can't speak, but is intelligent enough to have its own sense of reason.

The Lesser Dragon looks down at Kouki from above. There is no surprise nor fear in its eyes. It is overflowing with confidence that it wouldn’t lose to Kouki who had fell so many phenoms.

"Phew. If you are not coming, let me rest a little. As expected, I’m a little tired."

Kouki had not received any fatal damage up until now. However, the accumulated damage is nothing to sneeze at either. In addition, the fatigue from continuous use of the gift. Kouki was already in the state of exhaustion since a while ago.

(I more or less mastered the Speed Star and Invisible Slash. I knew live combat would be way more effective than training alone. The current me might even be able to snatch a win against Saejima.)

Kouki evaluated his situation. He is currently having difficulty moving, but he doesn’t feel that he would lose against Lesser Dragon at all.

(I'd like to use Lonsdaleite here since I haven't tried yet...)

As he was pondering, the Lesser Dragon came hurtling down.

"You fool! I was just pretending to be thinking and baiting you!"

He unleashed a counter punch directly to the Lesser Dragon’s face!

A dull impact was transmitted to his fist. Although barely, the Lesser Dragon guarded his attack.

“Huh?”

Lesser Dragon didn’t miss that gap he showed in his moment of confusion. He was struck in the face with a sharp claw, his helmet was blown off and he himself was thrown back three metres away.

"Guh... That fucking hurts. If not for the helmet, it might have been very bad."

Although the helmet did save Kouki from fatal injury, he still received enough impact that left him in a dizzy state.

At that moment, the Lesser Dragon continued its attack. Kouki who had the advantage in terms of speed skilfully dodged the attacks by swaying and ducking but unable to find the gap to counterattack.

(This asshole is too strong! How is this a danger level 6 phenom...)

Kouki tries to think of a plan as he dodges the attacks.

(Since I won’t die even if I eat a hit. Then, I can just try using that!)

The sharp claws of the Lesser Dragon assaulted him again. And Kouki received that with a single hand guard.

A metal sound was produced from the impact. The Lesser Dragon’s claws were blocked with his left arm hardened with Lonsdaleite.

"If my fist is not enough....try eating this!!"

And then, with his right hand, hardened by the Lonsdaleite, he stabbed the Lesser Dragon in the stomach! As if mocking the suffering Lesser Dragon, he squeezed and crushed its internal organs.

After pulling out his hand, Kouki ended the barely alive Lesser Dragon by cutting down the neck with Invisible Slash.

"Experiment successful!"

The Lesser Dragon collapsed helplessly, completely dead.

(It's not possible for me to harden my whole body like the boss or generate Lonsdaleite outside of my body yet, but I can use it like this with Speed Star as a powerful weapon! They really have scarily good synergy.

Now I just need to improve the accuracy of my Invisible Slash, which is only good at close range now...)

Kiryu came from the distance, applauding.

"You surpassed my expectation. I didn't think you’d actually wipe them out."

"...Haah! I'm really exhausted here! Please spare me from this again!"

He shouted in a big voice as he collapsed down. Contrary to his words, he is filled with a sense of fulfillment from finishing the battle.

"Although you've done better than I expected, just praising you won’t help you improve. There are some points you need to reflect on."

Looking at Kiryu’s serious gaze, Kouki fixed his posture and sat upright.

"I understand the feeling of wanting to go toe-on-toe since Speed Star allows you to attack much faster than your opponent. Even when you are a little late with the first move, your attack will still reach first. But if you had moved more and attacked from your opponent blindspot, you wouldn’t have all those countless scratches.

The Invisible Slash needs to be more precise. Aim for the vital points and create the situation where counterattacks from opponents that didn’t go down in a single blow are minimized.

Your usage of Lonsdaleite is decent at this stage. In the future, you should try to improve its proficiency. Try to activate this gift the whole time even in your day-to-day activities otherwise you will never reach my degree of mastery even after 100 years."

"......Yes! I've learned a lot!"

Kouki’s impression on Kiryu has clearly changed from before the mission. This is because he could clearly feel himself leveling up from this live combat and the points he was told to reflect on is spot on.

"And after that, let me tell you something about gifts. Do you know what awakening is?"[1]

"Awakening...?"

"You don't seem to know about it. Well, a gifted can suddenly experience an awakening one day. There are various benefits it comes with, but for a gifted, it’s mainly about how the gift may evolve provided the holder has enough mastery over the gift."

There are higher or lower ranked versions of one’s gift. Evolution is the process by which an existing gift evolves into the higher ranked version.

"The requirement for that is different for each person. Though in the case where your gift has no higher rank, your proficiency over your gift will increase drastically.

In your case, with the exception of Speed Star, all the other gifts are at the highest rank of its type. So if you do experience awakening, only your Speed Star would evolve while your mastery over your other gifts greatly improve.

Now then, it's unlikely that I'll be accompanying you on any more missions from now on, so don't forget what I just said."

"Eh? Why?"

"I'm your boss, you know. I'm busy and if I get too involved with one of you, the others will get annoyed."

Although unfortunate, since he’s the boss there’s nothing he can do about it.

"But either way! After I completed this mission, half my debt will be gone now, won't it!?"

"Indeed. However, you also fought too recklessly so there’s also the repair fee. Why don't you go to Sid's place when you get back?"

"Yes, sir! Boss!"

But when he was told that it would cost 60 million yen to repair his equipment, he shed a little tear…

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TL’s note:

1. I guess this is my fault for mixing awakening and manifestation at the start. Awakening here is more like evolution of gift to higher rank, not the usual awakening from a common man to a gifted. I’ll be using manifestation for first awakening and awakening for evolution/2nd awakening from now. Might fix the previous chapters if I have spare time.