Chapter 28: Ryo, the Chance, and Certain Death by Dark Strike

The intersecting slashes of flame.
More reliable than ordinary slashes, they carved into Drake and forced it to stagger.

After passing through, the two turned their weapons to launch further follow-up attacks from behind Drake.

Sensing that presence, Drake spun around to prevent it, raising its wing fists.
Without realizing that turning toward them had been the true objective.

The two continued moving broadly, deliberately drawing its attention so that Drake would not notice Ryo.

“Take this!”

Minato slashed with her flame-wreathed sword.
Drake blocked it with a wing, then used the opposite wing like a fist to smash Minato away.

“…?!”

She avoided a direct hit, but Drake’s sheer strength still sent Minato flying hard.

In that exchange, Shiranagi had already taken aim, whip in hand.

“Right there!”

Suppressing her concern for Minato, she wrapped her flame-wreathed whip around Drake’s left ankle.

“Gwaaa…”

Drake grimaced as its ankle slowly burned, raising both wings like clenched fists.

The stance resembled a fist-based Sogajin-like technique.
Its power might be lower due to the technique’s nature, but the monster’s raw attack strength was high to begin with.

Failing to dodge would be dangerous.
As Shiranagi considered when to release the whip, Minato, having already recovered, closed in on Drake.

Blood trickled from what looked like a cut at the corner of her mouth, but Minato showed no sign of caring as she swung her sword.

Drake hastily blocked, and in doing so, the martial art it had been preparing seemed to be canceled.
Shiranagi felt a wave of relief and focused on maintaining the whip’s hold.

The left ankle was bound by the whip, while relentless attacks from a flaming sword came from the right.
If Drake tried to deal with the whip, it would be struck by the sword, preventing it from properly gathering strength.

In that situation—

“Gwaaa…”

—Drake let out a resentful growl as it glared at the two.
That was the sign that its awareness had fully locked onto them.

Ryo, watching while concealing his presence, judged that this was the moment and moved—

“Martial Art: Backstab.”

Through a sound-masking skill, Ryo’s declaration never reached Drake’s ears.

“Martial Art: Absolute Demise as One.”

Backstab layered with Absolute Demise as One.
The same combination he had used when slaying the Grass Cocco.

Back then, he had followed it with a simple slash-enhancement martial art, but that would not reach a killing blow this time.

If he attacked as-is, it would land a solid hit, but no more than that.

“Martial Art: ……”

Once revealed, there would be no second chance to use Backstab.
Therefore, the card played here had to be his most powerful martial art.

Silent Salute: Death-Calling Lament.
A high-power dagger technique, the strongest attack in Ryo’s arsenal.

That should be the choice—he thought so, but then reconsidered.

Rather than the strongest blow in raw attack power, would a technique that stacked every possible modifier to reach the highest total output be stronger?

Above all, this was the perfect opportunity.
Unnoticed, directly behind the target.

Then the technique to use should be one that shared the same properties as Backstab and Absolute Demise as One.

He had such a technique.
And its effects stacked with both Backstab and Absolute Demise as One.

(Alright—let’s do this…!)

Now, at this exact moment—!

With absolute certainty, Ryo began preparing that technique.

While Drake focused on Minato and Shiranagi, completely turning its attention away from Ryo—
Exposing its back in this fleeting instant!

With the conviction that if this failed, retreat would be the only option.
And yet, he could not let slip the moment when this technique would reach its maximum potential!

—Ryo stepped forward, taking the stance for a killing blow.

The martial art he was about to unleash not only shared the same modifiers as Backstab and Absolute Demise as One.
If conditions were met, its reach would also extend.
While concealing his killing intent, the murderous will inherent to the technique continued to grow.

He erased his presence, erased sound, stilled his breath, killed his will, and took a single step solely for the desired result.

An invisible blade, extending beyond the dagger’s natural reach, unfolded through the skill.

The technique to be unleashed now was one that, when fully prepared under perfect conditions, truly resulted in certain assassination.

“Martial Art: Kadan—Thorn Iris.”

Leaping from behind, unnoticed until the technique’s completion—

Slash.

Without sound, without presence, yet the motion was like a beautiful dance.

With resolute eyes, Ryo swung the large dagger in a silent arc.
The white blade, accompanied by an invisible edge, flashed from left to right in a single stroke.

This technique—
Did not permit being one step short.

If unleashed under perfectly fulfilled conditions, even if the target barely survived—
In game terms, if after taking the damage the enemy remained standing with single-digit HP… no, about one percent remaining—
An immediate death effect that ignored resistance would activate.

Therefore—

“G… wa…?”

The white blade and the invisible edge passed through Drake’s neck.
Without sound, without presence, even the sensation of being cut was erased.

Even so, Drake noticed something amiss with its neck.

Ryo landed silently after the slash.
He lightly flicked his blade, shaking off the blood.

With a small splatter, the blood flung from the dagger painted a ragged crescent on the ground.

Only then did Drake seem to realize the source of the discomfort.

“Gwau…”

Perhaps it remembered that there had been three enemies.
The third—Ryo.

It tried to move its neck to confirm his presence.

At that moment, Ryo was sheathing his dagger.
Fixing Drake with eyes filled with grim resolve, he slid the blade into its sheath.
As blade and sheath met, a small, clear chime rang out—

“…wa… u…”

Then, with a dull thud, Drake’s head fell to the ground.
A moment later, its tilting body collapsed.

Drake did not move again.
It was completely still.

For that instant, both the battlefield and the comments were seized by a painful silence—

“Ryo!”
“Ryo-san!”

: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
: WAAAAAAAH
: AMAAAAAZING!!!!
: OOOOOOOO
: No way!!!!!
: 888888888888888888888888
: He did it!!!
: They won!!!!
: Congrats on the named kill!!!!!!
: 888888888888888888

—And then the cheers exploded.

At that moment, the concurrent viewer count easily exceeded ten times Ryo Channel’s usual numbers.