But both Arin himself and the elder insect got something wrong about the young man. He wasn't a pathetic excuse for a swordsman, fighter, Campaigner, or human bei- Well... maybe he was. But he at least wasn't a pathetic swordsman. In fact, if the burning oil dripping from his sword hadn't burned his hand right then, he would've been successful in severing the scythed arm.
Arin did not possess much innate talent for swordsmanship, but that could not change the fact that he had been receiving top-tier education ever since he could wield a blade. Of course, he's beyond pathetic when compared to the likes of his family, but when compared to the average swordsman, Arin is nothing short of a skilled and formidable wielder of the blade. Unfortunately, his first ever fight to the death was not only fought against four immensely powerful blades, but it had also started off with him making an incredibly unlucky blunder.
'Why must I be such a weakling...'
The insect allowed Arin to catch what was left of his breath and recover his stance. After all, it didn't want to kill such an entertaining plaything.
Not yet, at least.
Negative thoughts continued to endlessly form in Arin's mind, destroying the small amount of confidence he possessed. He wanted nothing else than to just extinguish the already flames on his katana and run away into the night, away from all of this danger. But, strangely, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't bring himself to leave Renota to die.
'Why not?! That damn Ishog deserves nothing more than death!'
After realizing his odd inability to leave behind his greatest enemy, his thoughts suddenly became volatile, filled with confusion as to why he couldn't leave and hatred towards Renota. There was no reason as to why a man like Arin wouldn't want to let Renota die. Every single thing that he believed in, and even Arin himself, were pushing him to just run away.
But no matter how much he wished to, an inexplicable mental blockade stopped him from doing so. Was he really feeling companionship with a man he had not only just met, but one who had only brought him trouble? Was he really feeling companionship towards an Ishogian?
'No, no... This is merely my mind telling me that the Ishog is my best path to survival. It would be beneficial to let the bastard die at a more convenient time.'
Before this, Arin had effectively given up on fighting the creature. But now, he had a reason to stand up and fight. He wanted to be present for and survive whatever event will cause the death of Renota Ishogi.
He made sure to not show any of the joy he gained from his newfound goal, in case it causes the insect before him to heighten its defenses. Instead, he tried to make himself appear as weak and feeble as possible as he pulled his sword out of the ground and shakily held it towards the creature. Arin was still scared of the creature, of course, so feigning fear within his eyes was not difficult. Instead, it was difficult to hide to determination to defeat the creature that he suddenly gained.
Once the insect became comfortable and relaxed, Arin sheathed his blade. Convinced its opponent had finally given up, the scythed beast dashed at Arin in an absolute offensive assault. Although the creature was hard to see with only Renota's distant yellow flames illuminating the world, he could still clearly make out the bloodlust filling its nine eyes.
All four of the beast's scythes rapidly sliced at where it had last seen Arin before he was bathed in the darkness of night. The giant insect couldn't wait to hear the sound of Arin's flesh being torn to shreds.
[17]
It didn't hear that satisfying noise. All it heard instead was the obnoxious sound of its sharp bones tearing through bark. In the next moment, it was able to see the two X's that were now carved into the tree's surface bathed in blue light. After a brief moment of confusion, the insect finally realized what had happened.
Looking down, it saw its own blood dripping down from a burning-blue obsidian blade puncturing its chest. The beast desperately sliced its scythes behind it hoping to kill the wielder of the curved sword, but the blade had already been withdrawn by then.
Quickly turning around, it saw a short and young man drenched with azure blood. His pitch-black katana was covered in the same fluid, but it was quickly being burned away by the similarly colored flames engulfing it. The man's similarly colored eyes were burning with their own flame of determination, momentarily striking fear into the giant beast.
Rapidly converting that fear into rage, the towering insect dashed at Arin, aiming to kill him as soon as possible. However, the creature was still bound to the same rules as Arin was. So naturally, now that the giant insect was finally taking Arin seriously, a marble figure rolled in the deep recesses of its simple mind.
[5]
Arin nimbly parried the sloppy and rushed attacks, quickly finding himself too close to the monster for its attacks to hit. He sliced his sword down so fast that the blue flame was nearly extinguished.
[12]
The sword was met with significant resistance as it attempted to cut through all five of its left crab legs, but the thick, hairy chitin was not strong enough to withstand all of the black katana's immense slicing power. Two of the putrid legs holding the towering creature upright dropped to the ground completely severed, while a third was heavily weakened by the slash, leaving the powerful insect's left side supported only by two legs. This second sudden injury served to shock the insect even further. How could such a small, weak, and damaged creature inflict such immense damage on it so quickly?
Despite the heavy damages sustained, its scythed arms remained prepared for Arin's next assault. Since the insect had suffered intense damages, it was going to need time before it could go on an assault of its own. All it could do was defend against Arin and hope to catch him making another blunder- but that was unnecessary. That was because Arin, too, was heavily damaged. He had a deep gash on his chest continuously leaking blood, a few broken ribs, and some kind of internal organ damage causing him to spit up blood. Heavily exerting himself in this fight wasn't doing any favors for his condition.
The two battered combatants stared each other down in the blue light, with an intense tension forming in the air. Just when Arin and the insect looked as though they were about to suddenly explode towards their enemy with a flurry of slashes, Arin heard a voice.
"Sheath the sword, plan's ready!" Arin was reluctant to do so, but when he saw what was behind Renota, his hesitations disappeared.
Just beyond the reach of Renota's yellow flames was a collection of countless sets of ten eyes. All of them were chasing Renota, who was sprinting towards the nearby tree. Arin and the nine-eyed insect happened to be within the path of Renota's pursuers.
Now possessing a somewhat good idea of what Renota's plan was, he quickly sheathed his blade and followed Renota to the tree, where he suddenly extinguished the flames on his hands.
To Arin's horror, he heard Renota nimbly climbing up the great oak's surface, leaving Arin—who never learned how to climb—at the bottom of the tree to die. He saw his entire life flash before his eyes before Renota suddenly shouted, "Climb!" Arin slapped himself across the face in order to regain his composure, and placed his foot into the convenient X-shaped foothold created by the slowly approaching nine-eyed insect.
Arin was happy to find that climbing was not all too difficult, scaling the great oak's bark with admirable speed, especially for someone who was not only inexperienced in climbing, but was also as injured as him. Possibly climbing was an undiscovered talent of his, or maybe it was a side effect of the urgency of his situation. Finally placing his bloody boot onto the highest foothold, he pushed himself upwards.
But the blood covering his boots eventually grew to cover the soles, causing him to lose traction on the final foothold. Arin then began to fall down to the scythed insects beneath him.