Dancing through the chaos with minimal movement, he dodged the onslaught of monsters assailing him from all directions.
Dodging while swinging his sword in counterattacks.
The frequency of his strikes grew with every passing moment. Yet most of those counterattacks were pitifully feeble. Slashing open the thick hides of these tough monsters was the best he could manage—nowhere near enough to inflict a lethal wound.
And yet—
"Again?!"
"What is that?!"
"Did it just glow when he cut it?!"
"I knew it, this has gotta be some kind of skill!!"
Evading an ambush from an Invisible Death, his retaliatory strike severed its thick left foreleg clean off.
Even with a Strength stat of 500, with a damage multiplier of only 2.8x, such a feat should have been impossible. Under normal circumstances, the force would have been absorbed by the Invisible Death's HP Barrier, making it impossible to lop off a limb.
Yet a bizarre phenomenon had begun to weave its way into Takeo's slashes.
Attacks that shouldn't have been able to cut began slicing deep into the flesh of his enemies.
That mysterious strike began to manifest more and more in his blade work—first against a Road Killer, then an Invisible Death.
"Again!!"
"It definitely glowed!!"
"That's a skill effect for sure!!"
"Wait, he actually killed one!!"
Dodging the talons of an Assassin Falcon swooping down from above, his counter-slash cleaved the giant raptor's torso clean in two.
For the first time since the opening Explosive Blade, he had finally succeeded in felling a monster.
From there, the shift was dramatic.
As if he had suddenly gotten the hang of it, every single counter-slash Takeo unleashed took on terrifying sharpness.
He dodged enemy attacks like a dancer, and the instant his retaliatory blade caught a foe, a flash of light radiated between steel and flesh for a fraction of a second. Then, as if cutting through soft butter, Takeo's sword sliced cleanly and deeply through the monster's body. As though meeting no resistance at all.
Dodge, dodge, swing, dodge, swing.
He slashed deep into the neck of an Invisible Death, killing it on the spot, and dealt a fatal wound to a charging Road Killer, cleaving straight through its carapace at high speed.
One after another.
He cut down the monsters in rapid succession.
It was as if the purely defensive struggle from moments ago had been an illusion.
"Whaaaaaaaat?!!?"
"No way?!"
"Seriously, what is going on here?!"
"Were we wrong to think he was cornered?!"
"So he saw through their patterns and started countering, right?"
"Wait, is he seriously gonna wipe them all out at this rate?!"
"Go, Leveling Junkie Bro!!! Get 'emmmmmmm!!!"
With hope finally in sight, the comment section erupted.
Meanwhile, the fighting Takeo was naturally aware of the change occurring within himself.
—I can see lines of light.
It wasn't the red light warnings from Danger Sense. He could see lines traced in white light across the enemies' bodies.
Those lines of light were in constant flux, vanishing and reappearing in different spots.
The distance and posture between him and his foe, the direction of the enemy's gaze and focus—amidst the high-speed clash, every time various factors shifted at breakneck speed, the locations of those white lines changed just as fast.
At first, he hadn't known what it meant.
Yet as he fought, Takeo realized by intuition.
These lines of light showed the "easiest spots to cut." Or rather, the "spots he should cut."
It was showing him where to strike.
Catching a line of light that shifted elsewhere in an instant was an extraordinarily difficult feat. Even so, he had managed to land his counter-slashes along those gleaming seams.
And the enemies were cut.
Without the slightest resistance.
Through repeated attempts amidst the frantic exchange of blows, Takeo grasped the knack of catching those "lines of light."
He could cut them. He could cut them with ridiculous ease.
It was probably a skill. He'd surely know if he checked his Status. But even with that thought in mind, he didn't have a single spare microsecond to spare for a menu.
However, those watching the flashing light effects that erupted every time Takeo caught a "line of light" finally put the pieces together.
"Wait, I feel like I've seen this effect somewhere before."
"Looks familiar to me too."
"What was that skill again...?"
"I remember! Didn't Samuraiman from America or Ito from Yoshida's party use something like this?!"
"Ah."
"For real."
"It really is that!!"
"Wait, does that mean..."
"No way?! Is this Iron Cutter?!!"
"What?! Iron Cutter?! The Sword Saint skill?!"
"The ultimate skill is hereee!!!"
Though countless skills existed in the world, there was no definitive answer as to which one was truly the strongest.
Even so, several skills were universally hailed as contenders for the title.
The Hero title skill Brave Heart, the Great Saint title skill God Bless, the Great Sage title skill Magic Essence Collapse, the Demon King title skill Demon King Haki, the Frenzied Alchemist title skill Skill Alchemy——and among the many abilities lauded as the pinnacle of power, the Sword Saint title skill, Iron Cutter, stood proudly among them.
However, while other skills boasted flashy, self-explanatory, and overwhelming effects, the description of Iron Cutter was remarkably understated.
――――――――――――――――
[Skill]
"Iron Cutter Lv. 1" —— Increases slashing damage by 1.2x. When the blade is set correctly at the time to cut, the thing to cut, and the place to cut, it penetrates HP Barriers.
――――――――――――――――
That was all that was written in the skill window.
Naturally, it wasn't the modest damage multiplier boost that made Iron Cutter terrifying. It was that single sentence written at the very end: "it penetrates HP Barriers."
This effect was the exact reason Iron Cutter was revered as one of the strongest.
The greatest reason why explorers and monsters could not be easily killed, even with heavy firearms, was the HP Barrier. If that defense was bypassed, no amount of Constitution stat and no defensive skills mattered.
"Toughness" became entirely meaningless.
No matter how durable the enemy, they could be sliced apart with a simple sword. Without even needing to boost the attack's power with skills.
That was the true nature of this skill.
And the white lines appearing in Takeo's field of vision represented the "time to cut, thing to cut, and place to cut" described in the text. If one could catch and slash those fleeting lines of light that vanished with the slightest shift in spacing, brute force was utterly unnecessary to bring down a foe.
"Hah... whew, gasp... whew...!!"
Dodge and swing. Dodge and swing. Dodge and swing.
The brutal, relentless combat raged on without a single breath of respite, and his stamina was finally beginning to fray. His core burned. He was drenched in sweat as if caught in a torrential downpour. His throat seared with pain every time he drew a ragged breath. Lactic acid flooded his muscles, making his limbs feel dreadfully heavy, as if forged from solid lead. At times, his vision blurred at the edges.
Even so.
"——!!"
A pillar of red light erupted from the ground. The moment he recognized it, his body moved before thought could even register. He leapt backward. An instant later, a Worm Drake burst out from beneath the earth, kicking up a massive geyser of sand.
Until now, he wouldn't have dreamed of counterattacking such a beast.
The Worm Drake was colossal, and evading its massive bulk meant leaping far beyond sword reach.
Indeed, the monster was not within melee range even now. A normal swing would strike only empty air.
Yet Takeo swung his sword anyway.
Sword Aura. Expending 3 HP to activate Sword Aura, and another 3 HP to unleash a massive Flying Blade.
He had already seen the white line of light running across the Worm Drake's titanic body.
—Slash!!
The Flying Blade cleaved the thick, log-like torso of the Worm Drake clean in two.
Severed and flung into the air, the upper half of the Worm Drake crashed back down to earth with a thunderous impact that shook the dunes.
Thanks to the monster's monstrous vitality, it didn't die instantly. But it was a blow that guaranteed its demise.
"Are you serious?!!"
"He took down a Worm Drake in one hit too!!"
"From the looks of it, he didn't even use Mighty Blade just now, right?!"
"He cleaved it in two with just Sword Aura... is that what I'm seeing?!"
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa!! He can actually win this!!"
"Leveling Junkie Bro is way too strong, seriously!!"
"Fighting like this completely solo, he's a real-deal top explorer!!"
"Aight, we won!! Going to take a bath!!"
Among the swarm gathered in the desert, the Worm Drake was in a league of its own.
Seeing Takeo bisect that very beast with such effortless grace only hardened the viewers' conviction that he might actually walk away victorious.
"Gasp, whew, pant, cough... whew...!!"
Hot. His body felt like lead. His vision wavered.
Yet Takeo did not stop. He wasn't nearly as comfortable as the viewers assumed; he understood all too well that even if he could fell his enemies now, this remained a grueling battle of attrition.
Even so, Takeo felt not a shred of despair.
(—I can cut them.)
(I can cut them even cleaner.)
(I...)
(I can fight better than this.)
(That's right.) (I...) (I should be able to fight...)
(...much better than this—)
His thoughts hadn't coalesced into words. The enemies surged forward without pause. There was no luxury of time to think in full sentences. Thus, his mind operated in primal, abstract concepts beneath the threshold of language.
Even Takeo himself wasn't entirely certain what he was feeling.
Yet on pure instinct, he understood. The "ultimate skill" had awakened. And under its influence, his movements were shedding their rust, growing sharper and more refined with every heartbeat.
It wasn't Iron Cutter.
It was a skill that had never once activated until this very moment.
—Alaya-vijnana.
He could feel it awakening deep within his soul.