Before her opponent could move, Athena dashed straight forward to the giant Mirowsz and, without drawing her great scythe, threw a punch with her armored fist toward his face.
"Ha!"
"Head on! How interesting!"
Mirowsz stepped back and pulled his head away to dodge, then launched a powerful thrust with the large spear in his right hand toward Athena's left shoulder.
Athena dodged the strike by turning sideways, then continued spinning sideways to use the centrifugal force to whip her [Dragon Armor]'s tail toward the cube.
However, this was blocked by the smaller spear held in his left hand.
"Kah! So that moves too, does it?"
"Then how about this!"
Athena brought out her great scythe in her right hand and swung it down at the cube, but this was blocked by the large spear, and he countered by targeting her cube with the small spear.
"Mun!"
"Not happening!"
She split her great scythe and caught the small spear's thrust with the part in her left hand, deflecting it to protect the cube.
But Mirowsz swung his large spear horizontally with his right hand, sending Athena flying far away.
She regained her balance in mid-air while deflecting continuous Ki thrusts from the small spear using her three-way split scythe in both hands and tail before landing.
"What ridiculous strength. And that speed isn't normal either."
"Kah kah kah! And you move like an acrobat. However, you don't seem to be in top form. Your physical abilities are high, but your scythe technique is still amateur and lacks sharpness."
"You've got good eyes, old man."
"Since you're not denying it, you admit you're not showing your true ability. Hmm. While sowhat disappointing, we've already lost three tis, so I won't hold back in claiming victory."
"I have no intention of losing."
"Kah kah kah kah! That's the spirit. Well then — I'll get serious from here on, Athena."
"...!?"
For an instant, Athena saw Mirowsz's body appear to shrink.
Then he charged straight forward at incredible speed, thrusting both his large and small spears toward her two cubes, trying to seize victory in one go.
But since she could barely follow him with her eyes, she managed to rge the scythes in her left hand and tail, using both hand and tail to deflect the large spear by instinct.
She sohow knocked away the small spear with the single scythe in her right hand while trying to back away to create distance, but Mirowsz continued his relentless barrage of thrusts with both spears, not even letting her catch her breath.
"Here here here here! If you just keep backing up, you'll hit a dead end!!"
"Ku-, this. What is, what is, this!"
After obtaining [Scythe Technique], Athena had confidence she could hold her own even without magic.
However, she could barely manage to defend and retreat against Mirowsz's fierce attacks.
Both were heavy and fast, not allowing her to dodge with just body movent.
The large spear required both tail and left hand scythes or she would be overwheld by its power, while the small spear switched between thrusts and sweeps in quick succession, threatening to destroy her cube the mont she let her guard down.
If she could use magic there would be many ways to break through, but that was forbidden so she had to manage sohow like this.
But no matter how she thought about it, she couldn't imagine any way to win against this man with martial arts alone.
Yet as Mirowsz said, in a few more seconds she would hit the circular stage's edge.
Beyond that was the cliff below.
(This is bad, I need to do sothing)
Though she thought this, any half-asure would only make the situation worse.
She needed sothing that could reverse the situation in one go, truly a decisive strike.
(Relying on luck is uncool but losing would be even worse!)
But even if the dice rolled a 10, what got enhanced would be random.
In this situation, if magic-related stats got enhanced it would just waste a large amount for nothing.
Even if Ki's capacity or endurance got enhanced, it would be difficult to overturn the current situation.
That ant strength or speed. She had no chance of winning unless one of these got boosted.
(Co on co on co on co on. I don't care about the enhancent rate, just give either strength or speed!)
Releasing the power of the lucky ring on her right index finger, Athena activated her skill [All or Nothing Strike].
Then along with the sensation of her magical power being drained significantly, a twenty-centiter large ten-sided dice appeared before her eyes and began spinning.
She still had to fend off Mirowsz's fierce attacks during this ti, so she had no leisure to carefully confirm the result before the announcent reached her ears.
[Speed value temporarily greatly increased]
According to the information Athena had looked up in Help during her free ti, the increase rates for [All or Nothing Strike]'s dice rolls were:
1: No change
2: Tiny increase
3: Slight increase
4: Small increase
5: dium increase
6: Large increase
7: Extra-large increase
8: Super increase
9: Super large increase
10: Super extra-large increase
So.
(A large increase ans it rolled a 6. Honestly wanted 8 or higher, but I should be grateful just for getting speed)
She could feel her speed sharply increasing.
However, since it was temporary, there was no ti to waste playing around.
If she couldn't finish it here, she would lose either way.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"What-"
With a battle cry, her movent speed changed as if she was a different person, slipping past Mirowsz's spears with just body movent and destroying one cube as she passed his side.
She had planned to destroy both cubes, but that one was guarded by Mirowsz's super-fast reaction.
However, she couldn't let it end there.
She had to destroy the other one too at this mont while she temporarily had the advantage in speed.
Athena slamd her dragon armor's tail against the floor to forcibly reverse her direction, then moved to attack with her three-blade style using both hands and tail — or tried to.
But for so reason, Athena's feet stopped.
It wasn't because Mirowsz had done anything, but because her instincts were telling her to stop.
"Kah kah kah! To think that a little girl who hasn't lived even half as long as I have... And one who isn't even in peak condition... Would push this far."
"What... is that..."
The signs had been there a little while ago, but Athena had ignored them, thinking 'So what?'
His height, which had been two and a half ters before fighting Athena, had shrunk to just over two ters while pursuing her fiercely.
And now, Mirowsz's height was one and a half ters, shorter than Athena's.
However, the pressure emanating from his body was so overwhelming that even Athena couldn't ignore it, and her whole body understood that he wasn't an opponent she could defeat by recklessly charging in, even in her enhanced state.
"Sorry, but this state won't last long. — Let end this, Lady Athena."
"Sa goes for . I'll settle this with the next move."
"Kah kah! That's fine..."
Athena lowered her stance ready to charge, while Mirowsz, whose body had beco too small even for the small spear, calmly held his two weapons as if they were twigs.
They stared at each other for a few monts.
But after what felt like tens of seconds to both of them.
They both sprang forward simultaneously.
And at the mont they crossed paths, Athena aid at one cube with all her might using her three scythes, while Mirowsz attempted to pierce both cubes floating around his opponent with the spears held in each hand.
"Gu-"
"What-"
— As a result.
Athena had two cubes destroyed simultaneously, while Mirowsz's remaining cube was also destroyed.
This must be a draw — such an answer seed to float into everyone's head, but only the two who fought here and the dungeon knew the winner.
[Ti's up! The match is now over. The winner is... Mirowsz! This adds the first victory point to "Fornacis"! *clap clap*, *boom boom*, *poof poof*]
"So I lost after all, huh."
"I was just a tiny bit faster. Though I didn't intend to have such a close fight... Seems I still need more training. Kah kah kah kah!"
"Hey, your height is-"
"Ah. Seems ti's up."
As Mirowsz said this, his body visibly expanded, growing to two ters, four ters, and finally stopping just past seven ters.
"Is that the secret to your strength?"
"Not just that, but well, it's part of it. This is the skill [Physical Enhancent Compression]. As the na suggests, the more you compress your body, the more your power gets compressed and enhanced."
"Is it okay to talk so freely about it when we're not even allies?"
"I don't mind if others know! If enemies co before , I'll just blow them away head-on! Kah kah kah!"
"That's quite the bold attitude."
This [Physical Enhancent Compression] that Mirowsz possessed was a skill that giant races could acquire.
However, less than one-tenth of all giant races possessed it.
The body-shrinking skill that normal giant races have is [Physical Shrinking], which almost all giant races can acquire.
Thanks to this, they can live in places where normal human-sized people dwell, but they beco weaker as they shrink.
There's also its superior skill [Physical Contraction], but while this doesn't enhance strength, it allows them to maintain their original strength no matter how much they shrink.
And then there's its even higher tier skill [Physical Compression].
A skill that increases strength value by compressing the body and upgrading muscle quality.
And beyond these three skills lies [Physical Enhancent Compression].
It not only upgrades muscle quality but also applies enhancent corrections to increase all ability values.
It's a rare skill that ranks quite high among physical enhancent skills.
Using this, he compressed his original height of seven ters down to one and a half ters, allowing Mirowsz to destroy two cubes simultaneously before Athena could destroy one.
Of course, compression with this skill isn't easy, so shrinking that much is no simple feat.
Usually, he gradually increased his compression rate as training to get his body used to it, maintaining a normal state of two and a half ters.
But this ti he ignored that and compressed all at once, resulting in him now being unable to shrink below his original height.
"However, I can't return to the original room in this body..."
"That's tough. Well, I'm heading back."
"Oh... Hmm, what should I do..."
Ignoring Mirowsz who was troubled about being unable to return to his waiting room, Athena headed toward where she needed to return.
While she appeared to not care much about losing the current battle, her inner emotions were swirling with the opposite feelings.
(I lost I lost I lost I lost I lost! I can't make la excuses like not being able to go all out. I lost with everything I could do right now. I won't make excuses. But next ti I face that guy, I'll win without using magic. Definitely, definitely, definitely!)
She clenched both fists with all her might just once, then released [Dragon Armor] and returned to [Adult Form] state, and there stood the usual Athena.
Then she opened the door to the waiting room where Tatsuro and the others waited and entered.
Tatsuro simply patted Athena's head once without saying anything as he welcod her and said nothing else.
"You did well." or "It's okay to lose." or "It couldn't be helped."
He thought such commonplace words would not be appropriate for her.
So Ai quickly changed the subject.
"Co to think of it. Didn't that huge person not use Spirit Beast Technique when destroying the cubes?"
"Eh? Ah- probably. It was just for an instant so I barely understood what he did."
"Right? I was far away too, but I think I just saw yellow Ki for a mont."
"Red for sword, yellow for spear. The color differs by spirit beast, huh."
"If you used them all it would look like a rainbow!"
"You might be able to do that, Ai."
"What's that, sounds interesting!"
And so on, as the conversation began to derail completely.
An ergency announcent ca through the glass panel from the dungeon.
[Um. Since it seems Mirowsz-san will be unable to move from the stage for a while, we'll be taking a break ti here. The Fornacis mbers asked to apologize for them. So for now, sorry! That was the ergency broadcast.]
"I wonder how long..."
"Who knows. But since it's their circumstances, if we want to extend it for our convenience, they'd probably let us. Let's take it easy."
And so Tatsuro and the others took plenty of rest during the approximately three hours until Mirowsz could use [Physical Enhancent Compression] again, spending the ti eating, sleeping, reading books, and chatting. (T/N: Like how is everyone ignoring the fact that he is probably naked or wait…? This is a fantasy world; they might have shrinking clothes)
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