The Inspector, his face cold and etched with fury, spoke.

"I’ll be especially merciful and only kill half of you."

"Oh my, how deeply merciful of you."

I pretended to be scared and gripped my sword with both hands. The Guard Captain fidgeted and reached out to me.

"You don’t need to do this for us! You’ll get hurt!"

"You guys, you fought with me, didn’t you?"

"Huh? Ah, yes."

"Then we’re comrades-in-arms. That’s enough."

Aki shook her head, trying to dissuade me.

"But this is our problem. If you get caught in the crossfire..."

There was something I wanted to say to these people. I looked at the approaching Inspector and spoke.

"Today, that Inspector will lord it over you. The next day, that Inspector’s wife or child might bully you. Will you still submit then, just like now? I don’t want to do that."

I stepped forward. I took a deep breath and steeled my resolve.

’That kind of power-abusing society is enough and should be nipped in the bud.’

Just thinking about it now made me sick. A society that condoned such things and enabled them by calling it ’reality’ also fucking sucked.

『Emergency Quest - Anti-Elf』

◆You Won’t Get Away!

-Objective: Stop the Inspector from the Lord’s Inspection Council. Failure occurs the moment you are defeated.

-Reward: 10000CP (If hidden conditions are met, your achievements will be known to all characters in Weaverpool!)

-Failure: Race transforms into ’Outsider Deity Race’

Even if just for the quest, I deliberately put strength into my eyes and glared at the Inspector. He wore a sneering smile.

"Laws exist to be obeyed. But openly breaking them and protecting such vermin is a clear defiance of the law. Defying the law is defying the Emperor!"

"Racism and indiscriminate assault are law? Bullshit. Seriously, this is why you shouldn’t give high positions to incompetent bastards. They really think they’re hot shit."

Why the hell is the Emperor even coming up, you idiotic pointy-eared bastard?

At my retort, the Inspector nodded. His sword gleamed coldly.

"You, you’re getting summary execution."

Whoosh!

The Inspector charged in an instant. His speed was faster than I expected.

His chest wasn’t even glowing intensely yet!

’If this is the case, I need to act unconventionally.’

I returned my sword to its sheath and slightly lowered my upper body. I drew my sword in the style of a quickdraw.

Srrreung, chaak! Ta-aeng!

But the sword was deflected by something. To be precise, it bounced off the Inspector the moment it touched him.

’What? What did he deflect it with? There’s no mana reaction?’

Puchi..

A chilling, terrible pain shot through my chest. The Inspector had stabbed me with his rapier.

"Ugh...!"

"Is this all you’ve got? Hero."

I barely managed to pull away, looking at the Inspector whose lips were curled up on one side. If I had been stabbed deeper, it would have been dangerous.

I immediately went on the offensive.

’This mere scratch!’

I gritted my teeth and swung my sword. The Inspector deflected it and closed the distance again.

From the Inspector closing the distance, I felt the momentum of a wild boar.

’I won’t fall for it this time.’

I took half a step back and swung my sword wide. I swung it with all my might to prevent it from being deflected.

Hwiik!

The Inspector lowered his upper body, took another step closer, and thrust his rapier. It was as fast as light.

At this rate, I’ll get hit again!

...Bullshit.

Thanks to him coming closer, I could land a front kick. The Inspector was sent stumbling back from the impact.

At the same time, I stepped forward.

[Vane Severing Sword Style - Nameless Thrust]

Just as I was about to thrust my sword, the Inspector, who seemed to have been momentarily stunned, immediately regained his senses.

Instead, he blocked me and thrust his Estoc.

It was an absurd offense-defense combination.

I raised my shield to block and then retreated.

The Inspector let out a cold smile.

"Yes... this is how it should be. A little resistance makes killing more enjoyable. Don’t you think so!"

"You crazy bastard, aren’t you an evil mf?"

"My name is Kelsas Comstrider. Amuse me more, Hero."

He continued to mock me to the end. I, too, aimed my sword at him and mocked him back.

"I prefer women, so I’ll just send you to hell. You entrenched pointy-eared bastard."

Jiiing!

His Force Heart began to glow in earnest. It meant he was going all out.

’Here he comes, this time it’s for real.’

Whoosh!

I retreated significantly. But his charging speed was even faster.

He appeared before me, still suspended in mid-air, and his eyes widened.

"Is all you can do run away? This is why humans are so primitive."

His Estoc came first. I deflected it with my shield, but my arm tingled. Damn, how strong is he?

But I wasn’t just going to take it.

"Then how about this, you pointy-eared bastard?"

I activated my aura. This was my first gambit!

Moving my body as lightly as possible, I got behind him.

[Vane Severing Sword Style - White Lightning Strike]

Kelsas blocked with his rapier without even looking back. He spun around and threw a side kick.

As I blocked with a cross guard and was pushed back, he clicked his tongue.

"You humans are truly primitive. Why do you train your bodies to fight with weapons when you could just use tools?"

"You’re more primitive. Aren’t those long ears inconvenient? Don’t they pick others?"

"You have no fear."

Whoosh..

Kelsas moved at a speed invisible to the eye. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Honestly, even if I wanted to perceive him, I couldn’t. He was too fast.

Moreover, this guy doesn’t even use mana when he fights. If he actively used mana, there would be traces.

’Damn it, I activated my aura, but I can’t keep up at all! This is worse than when I first fought Lumina.’

I felt killing intent from somewhere. I instinctively raised my sword, and the rapier came at me, only to be blocked.

Then, from the opposite side, an Estoc came at me like a piranha and stabbed my chest.

"Ugh!"

My stance broke. The rapier wavered, then flew at me like it had split into multiple blades, going insane.

The rapier stabbed and tore at my entire body like crazy.

My chest, arms, thighs.

The rapier passed, staining me red. I gritted my teeth and endured.

’I still have my second trick up my sleeve!’

I tried to endure. Kelsas, as expected, launched a continuous assault.

Kelsas appeared directly in front of me. After watching for a moment, he swung his Estoc diagonally.

I tried to block with my shield, but he had already gotten to my flank.

’Too fast...!’

The rapier slipped into an opening. I tilted my raised sword towards my body and spun it around like a trick.

Ta-aeng!

I barely managed to stop the rapier. But the Estoc was already stabbing my side.

I punched Kelsas in the chest and then retreated.

People were slowly starting to worry.

"Hero, are you okay? Please retreat, you’ll die!"

"Damn it, someone stop him!"

"No, you’ll get dragged into it if you’re not careful!"

Voices of concern were heard from all around. Kelsas laughed as if enjoying it.

"Behold, isn’t the Hero supposed to be the one who gives hope? You only bring worry and despair."

Even as he spoke so casually, the rapier he thrust never slowed down in the slightest.

It was still so fast I couldn’t see it.

Only when he was at extremely close range could I barely feel it or block it with my shield.

As I dodged to the side, his rapier immediately followed.

I slammed my shield down with all my might. I definitely felt it. That it was parried.

’Now!’

As I knocked the rapier away and was about to thrust my sword, Kelsas was smiling arrogantly.

His stance hadn’t broken at all.

Instead, I saw him thrusting his Estoc.

"It’s over."

The Estoc came straight for my neck. Like the density of space-time had changed, only the Estoc was visible, approaching slowly but surely to deliver death.

It was too late to dodge. But I had that.

Chiiing!

Enveloped in light, I entered subspace. The background changed to a peaceful place with floating clouds.

Phew, it was a relief I could come right away. It was a good thing I had prepared to activate it beforehand.

First, I gave Lynn an order.

"Lynn, you go out first and draw his attention. Please!"

"Purrrheinnghhh."

Lynn seemed to snort haughtily. Lynn turned into light and disappeared.

She had gone outside.

I also immediately went back outside. The background changed back to Uberpool.

"Kihhihihing!"

"What is this monster?!"

Kelsas was frowning, his attention caught by Lynn.

"Lynn."

[Lightning Strike]

I ordered the lightning strike and charged. I swallowed dryly as I watched the pure white lightning strike Kelsas.

Even after being hit by that, he endured. Even as black, shimmering smoke rose from various parts of his body, he endured and turned his head to me.

"I’ll kill you, human...!"

Kelsas tried to thrust his Estoc at me. But what do I have?

"Kihhihihing!"

Kelsas collided with the charging Lynn and dropped his Estoc. In that opening, I threw my sword towards Kelsas’s escape route and tackled him.

"Let’s talk with our fists, you motherfucker!"

’I’m staking everything on this one chance!’

As an Inspector, Kelsas had zero grappling ability. Most Inspectors were like that.

However, when he held a sword, he was a tree I couldn’t possibly climb at my current level. But if I could make him drop his weapon?

I grabbed one of his legs and pushed him over. A clean single-leg takedown. As expected, he went down easily.

I quickly gained top position.

"Time for a beating?"

"You bastard...!"

Whoosh, Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah!

I rained down a shitload of punches. Even as he was getting hit, Kelsas gnashed his teeth.

"You lowly human...!"

He truly had zero grappling ability. In fact, just because one’s Force Heart was high didn’t mean a swordsman was good at hand-to-hand combat.

Kelsas, this guy had just been relying on his sword. Recalling the training I received from Aunt, I even threw an elbow.

He dodged, then tried to throw me off by putting strength into his waist.

"Damn it!"

My relatively small body was thrown to the side. Kelsas tried to get up.

I, who had fallen on my back to the ground, immediately spun half a turn and used my arms and legs to trap one of his legs.

I then attempted a leg lock.

It was a swift Imanari Roll followed by a heel hook. I wrapped around his ankle and twisted with all my might.

"Kkeu-haak!"

He fell again. I grabbed his other ankle and tried to twist it too.

A tearing pain shot through my thigh. I looked back and saw him elbowing my thigh.

It hurt enough to quickly bleed. As expected, an Expert Mid-stage was still an Expert Mid-stage.

But then I heard hoofbeats. Huh, Lynn should have returned to subspace after colliding with Kelsas, right?

I endured the pain and turned my head.