Vermillion

11. Equivalent Exchange

Staggering and trembling with pain, Kei held his shoulder with his left hand as he stood up.

The wound on his shoulder was incredibly painful.

He didn’t feel any numbness or abnormalities otherwise, so he probably wasn’t poisoned.

Thankfully, there wasn’t much blood, so his life didn’t seem to be in jeopardy.

However, his right arm was heavy and wouldn’t move.

“…An ambush, huh,” Kei forced out in between ragged, painful breaths.

—He was done in spectacularly.

With his face warped in pain, Kei looked at the skinny man (Morissette) and the plump man (Rat), and groaned.

Tactically, it was rather simple.

While Morissette and the others attacked Kei, Rat went around the other side of the boulder to get behind Kei and use a surprise attack.

Originally, Morissette never thought Rat would be of much use, but Rat had just saved him.

The ‘Missing’ Ratrand.

Despite his appearance, he was agile, he could move silently, and he could use Stealth Sense to erase his presence. Rat, a so-called ‘Fast Fatty’, specialized in ambushes by using these three abilities.

He had a reputation for his talent in stealth, especially, where even wild animals couldn’t sense his surprise attacks. If he had been able to use ranged weapons like a throwing knife or a bow and arrow effectively, then he’d probably be in line with Morissette as an assassin.

“You’re slow Rat, the hell were you doing!?” berated Morissette.

He yelled at Rat, the man who just saved him from his predicament.

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Rat glanced over at Morissette with a look of sympathy and pity. “…You guys are just too fast,” Rat replied without getting agitated or disheartened. He furrowed his brow slightly at the heaps of fallen corpses around the area. “It hasn’t even been a full minute, ya know?”

Morissette scowled at his remark and held his tongue. Thinking back on it, Rat was right.

The fight with Kei was so intense that he could no longer tell just how much time had passed. In reality only an incredibly small amount of time had gone by.

“…You’re right.”

Morissette muttered a quiet ‘Sorry’ and took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and saw the faces of his dead subordinates.

Just one person.

They paid such a huge price for just one opponent.

“…This guy… He’s too strong,” Morissette whispered, annoyed.

This strange young boy that looked like a person of the grassy plains.

His bowmanship, his swordsmanship, and his strength were all on a different level. Morissette could only think of him as a monster.

—However, his shoulder was injured and he couldn’t wield his weapon properly.

For the harsh losses they took, at least this much damage should be expected, Morissette thought.

Up to this point, in their line of work, Morissette and Rat victimized countless merchants’ caravan guards with their surprise attack.

However, Rat preferred to not use poisons due to a strong fear of poisoning himself.

As far as Morissette could remember, it had been a number of years since Rat’s first strike was dodged. He probably hadn’t used any poison this time either. But, even if he hadn’t killed Kei, his dominant arm was useless. That alone was enough of an advantage.

The sad part was that even if they killed Kei and took his belongings, it wouldn’t amount to much for the hefty price they’d paid.

—Simply killing Kei wouldn’t be enough to satisfy him anymore.

For his subordinates’ revenge and to satisfy his own anger, he decided to kill Kei as painfully as possible.

After finishing his silent prayer for his subordinates, he turned to sneer at his unsightly enemy. Now for the first step.

At that moment, he noticed a sound like meat frying on metal.

“Itteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!![1]”

Japanese. Screaming.

It was a scream with all of one’s strength, strong and loud enough to shake the very air. In front of Morissette, Kei screamed as something like white vapor vigorously rose from his right shoulder.

Naturally, both Morissette’s and Rat’s jaws dropped and eyes widened at the sudden situation.

Kei was oblivious to them as he spasmed and trembled, screaming in extreme pain. But such words couldn’t even begin to describe how it felt.

It was as if salt was rubbed into his wound and each cell was popped by a needle one by one.

It felt like his flesh was being bored out by a file, ground up, and then his nerves were being pulled out by red hot tongs.

His anger, his hatred, and his impatience were all blown far, far away. He roared. It was painful enough to make his vision go white.

In Kei’s left hand was an empty glass bottle.

It was a High Potion.

It was the remaining portion of when Aileen cut her own hand to test the effects since arriving here and setting up camp.

While Morissette and Rat had been conversing, Kei reached into his pouch, pulled out the bottle and dumped it all on his shoulder.

Using potions to recover during odd moments was common among some of the top players. However, the already scarce potions in the game were even scarcer in this world. The fact that Morissette and Rat’s attitudes became so confident after his shoulder was wounded proved it.

“Guuooooooaaahhhh!”

The refreshing sound of fizzing played like background music as Kei stood wailing dauntingly without even wiping at the tears welling in his eyes.

Morissette and Rat had no clue just what the vapor that rose from Kei’s shoulder was. Perhaps if they had better night vision they could have seen the wound on Kei’s shoulder cover itself with brand new white skin.

Kei’s breathing was ragged.

“…You fucking assholes.” His shoulders moved greatly with his heavy breathing as he glared at the bandits in front of him. Their forms reflected in the pupils of his bloodshot, tear-soaked eyes. Turning all his pain into anger, he shouted, “—I’ll fucking kill you both!”

He kicked off the ground.

The fight had abruptly begun once again.

Kei’s target was Rat, the short sword wielder. Rat had a better grasp of using stealth than Morissette and leaving him to move freely after his recent attack would make him a difficult enemy. Therefore, Kei decided to crush him straightforwardly.

The silhouette of Kei’s cloak hovered as the clear, shrill sound of the transparent glass bottle flying straight for Rat’s face whistled through the air. He hadn’t even thrown the bottle; he’d merely flicked it with a finger. The speed, the bloodlust, and power were all half-hearted, but it was that half-heartedness that attracted their attention to the bottle.

“!”

In the faint light of the dying campfire, Rat reflexively defended with his short sword, hitting the bottle in the air.

It exploded into fragments, several of which hit Rat in the face. They didn’t get in his eyes, but they were sharp enough to cut his face. Rat flinched and let out a, “Ooh?”

“Rat!”

Kei was closing the distance between himself and Rat, so Morissette raised his sword at Kei to try and cover for Rat.

Kei grabbed a handful of arrows from his quiver with his right hand and whipped them at Morissette with an underhand throw.

“Hah!?” Morissette shouted in shock.

The attack had no aim whatsoever, it merely relied on his strength. It was so direct, dodging them all would be difficult to do. With the wood, iron, and fletching as the raw materials that composed the arrows, they were more than heavy enough. In addition, with the good quality of his arrows, simply pushing the arrowheads against flesh would be enough to pierce it. And, they were thrown with Kei’s strength.

Morissette barely managed to cut one arrow down, but there were way too many, so he twisted out of the way to avoid the rest. However, the pain from the cut in his ankle caused him to lose balance for a moment and he almost fell.

That one moment was lethal.

In that gap, Kei twisted as he rushed through the distance and reached Rat. “Guuoooraaaa!”

He roared so aggressively that it couldn’t be for intimidation, and he made a show of raising his right fist over his head.

Rat trembled because Kei was closer to a wild animal than a battle-enthusiast. Despite that, he raised his short sword out of habit, and moved into a stance ready to counter Kei’s straight punch. While Rat’s attention was focused solely on his right fist, Kei slowly moved his left fist and struck Rat in the chest.

Taken by surprise from the impact, Rat’s right hand lightly jumped up. This caused the sword in his right hand to interfere with the one in his left. With both of Rat’s swords out of the way, his torso was unmistakably defenseless.

Whoosh, the wind coiled along Kei’s leg as he drove an utterly merciless kick into Rat’s crotch.

A sickening sound that would make all of a person’s hair stand on end, rang out. Kei’s foot lifted Rat clear off the ground for a moment. It was a critical hit. Rat let out a pig-like squeal and his eyes almost popped out of his head.

Then Rat groaned, the straight punch was coming.

His cheek muscle enveloped Kei’s fist, the bones warped, the joints jarred; Rat’s jaw and teeth were shattered. Furthermore, to finish Rat off, Kei put all of his weight into a heavy elbow right into Rat’s face. Kei had no intention of holding back his pain, anger, and adrenaline; he went full throttle. It was Kei’s full strength in every sense. Rat’s flesh was ripped to pieces and his face was destroyed in an instant. It genuinely looked like the impact of a monster, and Rat, who took the hit, was blown away like a rubber ball. Even after the ground tore him up on impact, he continued to roll. When he finally came to a stop, he didn’t so much as twitch.