"Hinata-san! Keep your distance and focus on support!"
"Got it!"
I barked the order at Hinata-san and swung my sword on the spot to keep the man at bay.
I fired off a rapid barrage of Flying Blades. The man easily sliced through them with his Flame Sword, but—
"Guh!? You—! You brat! Don't you realize this trash won't work on me!?"
He was so focused on hacking away at the Flying Blades that his feet stopped moving—no, he was actually being forced back.
That gave Hinata-san the opening she needed to put some distance between them.
"Hinata-san! Use Mind Concentration and then High Heal!"
"Understood!!"
I continued firing Flying Blades while shouting instructions.
I stole a quick glance at my Status, which I still had displayed. My HP had already plummeted to 104.
When the man’s flying kick connected earlier, my HP was at 136. Even accounting for the MP/HP drain from activating Fighting Spirit, Sword Aura, and Flying Blade, it shouldn't have dropped this far.
As for why it had, the answer was simple.
When I’d lunged at him and he’d blocked with the Flame Sword, my HP had ticked down. Even without being cut directly, simply being in close proximity to the radiant heat of that Flame Sword was enough to cause damage.
Isn't that a little broken?
I felt a shiver of dread, but the thought of running didn't cross my mind.
Mainly because I knew I could win.
"—High Heal!"
Hinata-san’s High Heal reached me from behind, enveloping my body in a white light.
Her stats were likely suppressed as well, but a High Heal boosted by Mind Concentration seemed to have more than enough potency.
My HP surged back to a full 210.
"Give me a Bless too, please!!"
I kept the man pinned down with Flying Blades, calmly waiting for Hinata-san to cast her buff.
"—Bless!"
A moment later, the light of her Bless skill washed over me.
I felt power welling up from deep within. However, something about the sensation felt off. I checked my stats to be sure.
And then—
(—That’s it?)
Bless provides a Fixed-value Enhancement based on skill level. It shouldn't be affected by the suppression of my base stats.
And yet, my stats had only increased by a mere 4 points.
This meant that not only were my base stats suppressed, but my skill effects were being weakened as well.
Come to think of it, when the man ambushed me, the chill from Danger Sense had felt unusually faint... It hadn't been my imagination after all.
Still, I had other ways to boost my numbers.
While still swinging my sword, I funneled MP into the two bracelets on my wrists.
The Bracelet of Fleet-footedness and the Bracelet of Technique activated immediately, raising my Agility and Dexterity.
However, these effects were also diminished. The enhancement was a paltry 3 points.
(Are you kidding me? That’s nothing!!)
I nearly bulged my eyes at the pathetic pittance of an increase. Even so, it was enough to bring my Strength and Agility over 70, while my Constitution sat at 68.
It was a bit precarious, but it should be enough to take him down.
"G-Grrr, you're so annoying!"
The man had finally had enough of my stalling.
He shouted as he gained some distance, hacking apart the incoming Flying Blades. In that instant, flames erupted around him, expanding outward in all directions.
It was an explosion.
The Flying Blades I had fired shattered against the blast, and a curtain of fire hid the man from view.
"!?"
Suddenly, something pierced through the wall of flames.
It was a mass of fire about the size of a volleyball.
It expanded as it flew toward me. Reflexively, I swung my sword and fired a Flying Blade, slicing the fireball in mid-air.
The mass of flame detonated halfway between us before it could reach me.
"Guoh!?"
"Kyaah!"
The blast sent a wave of compressed air through the corridor, knocking us off balance.
The power was on a completely different level from Hinata-san's Fireball.
I quickly regained my footing, only to see multiple fireballs soaring toward us.
"Die, die, die! Just die already!!"
The man pointed his left hand at us, launching a rapid-fire volley.
I countered immediately with Flying Blades.
Cutting those fireballs at close range was suicide. I focused all my effort on neutralizing them as quickly as possible, aiming to detonate them as far away from us as I could.
"Guh!? You persistent brat!!"
As I suspected, as long as I kept them at a distance, I could avoid being knocked off balance by the shockwaves.
I gave Hinata-san her next command while keeping the fireballs at bay.
"Hinata-san, use Energy Protection!!"
"—Right! Understood!!"
The corridor wasn't exactly narrow, but it was a straight line. It would be nearly impossible to close the distance while perfectly evading fireballs that he could likely detonate at will.
That meant I had to charge in and be prepared to take some hits.
By this point in the fight, I had a pretty good handle on both the man’s abilities and the man himself.
His stats were high and his magic was powerful, but the way he'd panicked at Hinata-san’s Fireball and the ease with which my Flying Blades pinned him down proved he wasn't a seasoned fighter.
Besides, his cry of shock when his projectiles were sliced out of the air really gave him away.
His raw power and magical output didn't match his actual combat proficiency at all.
For an explorer, that was incredibly unnatural, but it made his previous behavior click into place.
At first, the man had been trying to confirm that our stats were weakened.
Only after he was sure did he resume the fight.
More importantly, there was what happened back in the hall with the Dungeon Gate. Back then, I had used a Great Flying Blade imbued with Mighty Blade to slice through his Flame Tsunami. Up until that point, he’d been acting smug while facing several other explorers, but the moment I did that, he decided to retreat.
Simply put, he lacked combat experience and was terrified of me because I possessed an attack capable of killing him.
He fled that hall to wait for us to weaken. He probably knew that our stats would drop as time passed.
Everything pointed to one conclusion: he had immense power but zero combat experience to back it up, and at his core, he was a coward.
When it came to actual fighting, he was a total amateur.
And once I understood the nature of his Flame Magic, I didn't need to fear it more than necessary.
"—Energy Protection!!"
A pale light enveloped my body as Hinata-san’s magic took hold.
I immediately broke into a sprint.
Fireballs streaked toward me, but I swung my sword on the move, firing off Flying Blades to intercept them. I continued to detonate them as far away as possible.
Still, I couldn't neutralize them entirely.
The explosions filled the corridor from wall to wall, blocking the path with fire.
Trusting in the Energy Protection, I plunged straight through the shockwaves and the heat.
The first and second explosions easily stripped away the protection.
By the third, my HP was being rapidly whittled down.
This was the sheer power of the aftereffects. Compared to a Goblin Archmage’s Flame Magic, it was in a different league.
However, the damage wasn't nearly as severe as when I’d been near the radiant heat of his Flame Sword.
That sword was special.
In exchange for lacking range, it possessed absurd attack power and the hardness of solid metal. It seemed he couldn't imbue his long-range attacks with that same level of lethality.
If he could, he would have done it from the start. There was likely some kind of restriction.
Regardless.
"Whoa!?"
"————"
Diving through three explosions had worked. I was back within striking distance.
Both my stats and skills were currently weakened. It was a toss-up whether a strike imbued with Mighty Blade could cut through the man and his Flame Sword together, and I didn't want to gamble on a do-or-die move if I could avoid it.
But defeating an amateur who was just acting giddy with his newfound power? That was easy.
"K-Kid!! Don't you see it's useless!?"
"HRAAAAAH!!"
Using the momentum of my sprint, I swung my sword upward from a low-right stance.
I poured everything into that single strike—Sword Aura and Mighty Blade.
The man thrust his Flame Sword out like a shield, trying to block my path.
Even with Mighty Blade, I couldn't slice through his sword.
However, the attack power granted by the skill easily overwhelmed the man’s physical strength.
Gyariiin!! A metallic screech, entirely wrong for a blade of fire, echoed as the Flame Sword was deflected.
"Whoa—!?"
The force of the blow sent his right arm and the Flame Sword flying upward, dragging the rest of him off balance.
That was all I needed.
I took one more step forward and brought my raised sword down, aiming right for the base of his shoulder.
The blade passed through with almost no resistance. The man's right arm spun into the air.
"—G-GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!?"
Blood sprayed from the stump where his upper arm had been, and his scream tore through the corridor.