Earth's SSS Pornstar to SSS Combat God in Another World-Chapter 6: A Glimpse of Sir Engine’s Prowess

Silence fell hard. Mouths hung open. No one could say how it had happened because no one had seen it clearly.

A maid dropped the silver pitcher she was holding. It clanged, the water running across the stones like spilled sweat.

Head Knight Gregorius did not gape. He stared at the floor where Joji’s boots had scraped.

Tiny flickers danced along the stone. Thunder. A rare power held only by the few.

If Joji had shaped such a combat style with nothing but his own mind, then Joji was no mere genius. He was a monster.

Murmurs started to rise. Joji raised his hands again.

"This Joji has grown quite weary of these laborious bouts." His voice remained courtly, almost mild.

Daisy, standing to the side, rushed to Joji. She had been waiting for these words, for the ask for rest.

Her mind was already running through the lines she had rehearsed by the bench.

"Sir Joji... if you have grown weary of these exchanges, then you should rest."

"No one here will call you a coward, nor say your resolve is lacking," she said, measured and clear.

As if on cue, the maids nodded in agreement, wanting to support their young heiress’s desire for Joji to gain respite.

The Sir Engine twirled Daisy as she approached. With that turn, he set her back down on the bench and placed his feet back in the arena.

"Alas, such concern cannot fall upon deaf ears. Head Knight Gregorius, my mind bears a shameless request."

"Grant me this chance, I pray you, for it is what I have long yearned for."

He went down to one knee in front of Gregorius, sincere enough that even the hard men in mail shifted uncomfortably.

The knights looked ready to agree before Gregorius lifted a hand.

"What request?"

"Grant me this, let me stand against all seventeen at once." Joji stated flatly.

The crowd gasped. Shocked at Joji’s audacious declaration.

Head Knight Gregorius studied the kneeling figure, the poise, the stillness, the wrongness in the air.

Then he spoke, loud enough to carry.

"By my authority, it is permitted." Gregorius acted at once. "Archers, come. Cavalrymen, come."

He took the initiative like a commander who hated hesitation. He assumed that was what Joji wanted.

Through his life, Head knight Gregorius had seen such things before, men who tried to drag more strength out of themselves by courting death in front of witnesses.

The Sir Engine sensed the misunderstanding, a brief flicker of surprise inside the borrowed flesh, but it did not let the face betray it.

He kept his noble calm. He pointed with an open palm toward the sword rack.

"Might I beg three more swords, in addition to the one I bear?"

Gregorius considered, then waved a hand.

"Do what you must."

The head knight looked around, then jogged a few paces to the duchess’s side, lowering his voice.

"Duchess, best we bring the healers, just in case."

The duchess nodded, tight-lipped.

Joji took two swords in hand. He set one blade straight along his back. The other stayed sheathed at his hip.

"Joji of Sins Crossroads," he announced while he took a stance.

No more delay. Head Knight Gregorius looked left, then right, making sure the lines were set, the men ready, the distance clear.

Then he dropped his hand.

"Begin."

The archers loosed the moment Gregorius’s hand fell.

Strings thrummed like angry bees. A rain of shafts hissed toward Joji.

The cavaliers lowered their lances and drove in, hooves drumming, points steadily aimed at one target.

"Come, Sir Joji, taste our lance."

He gave them ground at once, retreating fast, light on his feet, drawing them long.

The sword in his left hand went up in a lazy toss, flipping into the air.

With both hands on the blunt blade, Joji swung the practice sword like a bat.

The cavaliers saw it and did not understand what he was doing.

Then the flat of the blade struck the tossed sword’s hilt. It flew, whistling through the air.

The lance shaft could not move aside. The rider turned his head and raised a half-formed barrier to shield it.

Sword and helm collided. The cavalier was torn out of the saddle and hit the arena’s border screaming.

{Measure of Completion: 84 of 100}

Before the others could curse, Joji was gone from where he had stood.

He slipped past the line of nine riders like a gust.

"There he is, after him!"

Joji aimed for the lance and dashed in. The wooden handle bit into his palm.

He wrenched it up, spun once, and hurled it overhand toward the rear, where the archers were screened by a tight phalanx.

The thrown lance was stopped at once, deliberately wedged between shield rims.

Still, Joji charged. Spears thrust out from the phalanx’s gaps. Wind aura threw out beams, elemental bursts.

Joji angled his body sideways and set aura on his palm, then pressed it to the protruding lance hilt, still wedged.

A golden ring of aura ran down the lance’s shaft in a blink, racing to the buried tip. Air exploded on the lances tip.

"Argh! My shield!"

"What sorcery is this?"

The phalanx buckled as if struck by an invisible ram from within.

Shield bearers were blown back, legs tangling, helmets clanging off stone. Six men rolled clear, unscathed.

{Measure of Completion: 98 of 100}

Joji surged into the gap, snatched up two fallen shields, and wrapped them in aura until they hummed in his hands.

He charged the archers like a battering beast, head down, shoulders set.

A shielded knight tried to slip behind him. Joji had already heard him from afar.

The shielded knight threw his spear in into Joji’s back.

Joji’s aura flared. The sword behind his back angled right.

He lifted both feet and let the spears’ momentum do the work, driving him forward to where the archers stood.

The bowmen did not let themselves be caught easily. They scattered in all directions.

Their volley tightened, arrows flying in a constant line toward Joji.

Joji snapped his wrists and sent both shields sailing toward them.

They missed by a wide margin on purpose, arcing high, vanishing into the dark sky above the yard.

Joji’s hand went to the sword at his waist.

He began to bat arrows aside one after another, so quick his arm made wind.

Shafts splintered, blunt tips skittered off the sword, feathers spun away like torn leaves.

Each parry stole breath, stole strength. His grip stayed sure anyway.

The cavaliers regrouped while he worked. They formed again and charged as one.

"We have you now, Joji."

He only smiled. The crowd watching the battle held its breath.

If you paused the scene right then, he was beyond surrounded. Cornered.

Nine lances pointed at his front. Arrow volleys came from ten directions, archers even jumping as they shot.

One archer squinted at the air as if he could see a thread in it.

"Look sharp, cavaliers!"

Their guards were already up, eyes fixed on Joji’s hands.

There was nothing left for him to throw.

"What are you prating of?"

"Behind you!" the archer roared again.

Too late. The two shields came down out of the inky night sky.

They caught two cavaliers at the back of the head with a sickening thud and dumped them from their saddles like sacks.

Horses screamed and veered. Formation shattered. The archers drew again.

Joji stood with both hands raised, palms open, swords dropping on the ground.

{Measure of Completion: 100 of 100}

"I yield."

Boos rolled in from the watching knights at the edges of the yard. Sir Engine did not mind their attitude.

The System did not pump out free stamina potions. This was willpower, systemized like a machine.

Sir Engine knew Joji was watching. He wanted to show him that if he followed the mission mindlessly, he would end up with nothing.

"Why yield now, Sir Joji?" 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Come, don’t spoil it. I’ve coin riding on this."

Joji did not answer the jeers. He walked to the two fallen cavaliers first, offered each a hand, and hauled them up with a grunt of effort.

Then he bowed to one, then the other.

"I thank you all for the aid you have lent my progress. What you have seen is but a small piece of the art I am shaping."

"It is gravely flawed, fit only for desperate hours, and for nothing else."

That, the knights understood. Strength bought with a price you could not afford twice.

Something you used when the field was already lost and you meant to fight to the death.

The yard began to loosen. Men laughed and jostled and talked of drink.

"Come, let us find a cup and wet our throats."

"Ho, where is Sir Joji?"

"Aye, where’s he gone?"

They looked about and found no sign of him. A few exchanged glances, knowing without saying.

The body had paid its due and gone to sleep where it stood, leaving the yard to chatter.

Joji’s room lay to the left down the corridor. His feet took him right.

He pushed a familiar door and slipped inside.

Floral scent met him first, then the sweeter warmth of a young woman’s space, clean pink linen and crushed petals.

Joji did not wash. He did not even sit straight.

He crossed the room and collapsed onto the bed in his boots. Mud, blood, and fine steel dust smearing the sheets.

Daisy’s room. He had slept here before.

Back when he would climb onto her bed filthy on purpose, just to watch Daisy face crumple and hear her cry, because now she could not use it.

Joji slept soundly. Daisy entered the room behind him, hesitated, then lay down on the cleaner side, tired too from worrying for the stubborn man beside her.