Null Poison Ch426

7-8 minutes 22.07.2023

A Demonic Attack

After  guarding against almost a hundred consecutive strikes, finally Drake’s move came to a stop.

I did end up getting hit a few times but, it was mostly scratches from attacks that I failed to fully deflect, and I didn’t actually take a clean hit.

Compared to me who was only slightly bleeding from one of my shoulder, Drake who was panting heavily seemed to be in a worse condition.

…….but still, that move definitely had me panicking.

Chris had said that he was a defensive minded fighter so I wasn’t expecting him to fire this kind of an attack.

I’m gonna definitely complain about this to Chris later!

“Zhee zhee……..y-you………how are this strong even though you’re so stupid?”

“Hey, I never heard you had attacks like this under your sleeve either!”

“Normally I just don’t need to use it, but I can fight either way………but, it doesn’t look like my attacks could break past your wall.”

For a moment, Drake sounded like he was ready to give up but by his expression, it was clear he still hadn’t even considered doing something like that.

While I was still remaining cautious of what next attack he may pull, he suddenly said something surprising.

“Hey, you’re a tank as well, right? Then it doesn’t seem like we’d ever be able to end this battle. Why don’t we just sit here and waste time instead? Until the battle is decided between Chris and Klaus, we can just rest instead, not bad of an option right?”

“Hell no! I want to quickly go back and help Chris! If you don’t wanna fight, just fuck off already!”

“Why do idiots just refuse everything without even thinking? Well, I can’t just run away either……..so I guess you have to beat me to get past me.”

Saying that, Drake moved and stood in front of the entrance as if to block it. He put his sword back in its sheathe and pulled out his other shield to take a new stance.

This guy was already a giant but with two shields on both hands, he seemed even bigger.

Now this has turned into something really annoying.

This was the one thing I wanted to avoid but, I just need to break through his guard I guess.

This time, I pulled my sword, and then aimed it at Drake.

Back in the day I used to swing my sword around a lot but these days, I mostly act as the tank so it feels like it’s been a long while since I have taken a stance with my sword like this against someone.

Well, I did have a bunch of mock battles with Chris though.

This guy is definitely weaker than Chris but, it still definitely feels like I’m aiming my sword at a large piece of rock instead.

But, unless I attack, I’m not gonna know how things really are.

Having made my resolve, I launched an attack against the guarding Drake but……

Just like how I do it myself, he easily saw through the patterns of my attacks and deflected them away with almost no effort.

No matter what angle I attacked from, no matter how many feints I mixed in between, he just vry easily blocked every single attack I made.

“I guess you aren’t exactly a master at attacking either. Guess we’re both similar in that sense eh?”

“Oh shut up! I’ll definitely break past you!”

He was clearly provoking me but, I let my impatience take over me and I ended up launching a reckless large swing at him.

If he can see trough my movements, maybe a simple but seriously heavy strike may work.

But I was too simpleminded. For this attack was full of openings and built on this supposition that he was really going to stick with just defending and won’t counterattack back.

He not only saw through my attack, as soon as he deflected my sword to the side——a crushing impact hit my entire body.

For a moment, I didn’t even realize what had happened and once I had crashed into the back wall and saw Drake again, I finally realized what he had done to me.

He had used the shield on his right hand to deflect my attack to the left, and then used the shield on his left hand to strike at me who was completely defenceless.

“Now you’re being a bit too careless, you know? I didn’t say I won’t attack back just because I don’t have my sword. Now then, how will you attack next?”

Looking down on me who was sitting on his ass, Drake smiled as he provoked me.

Perhaps because of his attitude at the start, I was honestly underestimating him a bit but…….he’s strong, really strong.

As a tank myself, I know better than anyone just how tough it is to deliver strong attacks while also deflecting all the oncoming attacks as well.

If it was a sword on sword fight, it’d be one thing but to do that with just shields, it showed the difference in experience between us.

“………Why are you smiling? Did you give up after realizing that your attacks won’t work on me?”

“Smiling? Who? Me?”

“The corners of your mouth are so high up it might split your mouth open………man, you’re a creepy fucking bastard, you know.”

“My bad! You were stronger than I thought Drake, so I ended up smiling I guess!—–by the way, my name is Ralf! Might be a tad too late, but be sure to remember that name!”

“What’s the point in self introductions now? And besides, I only remember the names of people that can actually beat. I won’t remember yours.”

“That’s too bad! I only named myself because I had  feeling this’ll be a good fight but…….well, whatever! Enough talk, let’s continue!”

“You’re the one who started talking though!? Just come at me whenever you want. I’ll beat you up so bad you’ll forget your own name.”

I had a bad impression of anyone who was part of Klaus’ party but, while he’s an over talkative guy, Drake doesn’t seem too much of a bad person to me.

He’s not the type who has depended entirely on his skills to get stronger. I have a feeling I’ll get a lot stronger just from fighting him as well.

To be honest, I wanted us to both enjoy the fight to its fullest but it doesn’t seem like Drake’s in the mood unfortunately.

But that aside, I want to experience his top class technique with my own body.

I’ll find out if there’s anything I can learn from him, and while Drake might be above me in terms of ability right now…….

If I can find that certain something from fighting him, I can instantly reverse the situation as well——I had that confidence in myself.