Vending Machine - 193 - Definition of Strength

Chapter 193: Definition of Strength

Link: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7583de/

Author: Hirukuma

Translated by Zzonkedd

Edited by Gumihou

Gumihou: Oh my gawd, why is the descriptions here so weird and clunky!!!??

After neutralising Vice-Leader Felmina and the twins, we headed toward the two individuals engaged in a fierce battle some distance away.

The two looked to be evenly matched at first glance. However, it looked like Leader Keryoil had a slight upper hand.

While Mishael’s attacks did not even land a graze on the Leader, his own armour was covered in scratches. It was only due to the armour’s high defensive feature that Mishael was not injured.

To the untrained eye, Mishael appeared to have greater swordsmanship skills, but in reality, Leader Keryoil managed to dodge all of his attacks. In terms of stats, Mishael seemed to have the upper hand, but it looked like Leader Keryoil more than made up the difference in field experience and whatever hidden power the <Shattering Eye> gave him.

“It’s over for you, Leader!”

An arrow shot toward Leader Keryoil at the sound of a shout. With a simple tilt of his head, he dodged it cleanly. Then, frowning, he turned to see the three people Ramis had dragged over.

“Oi, oi, oi. Don’t tell me you were all taken down? Honestly, I expected us to win. Still… you’ve certainly grown quite a bit.”

“It’s all thanks to Hakkon. Without him, we wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

“Welcome”

Although modesty might have been appropriate, it would’ve come off as insincere, so I decided to affirm the compliment wholeheartedly. Truthfully, we all contributed to the win.

“Hakkon, you are certainly an enigma. If we’d met a bit sooner, well… no point dwelling on it now.”

It looked like he was speaking casually with us, but in fact, he was still skillfully dodging all of Mishael’s attacks as though they were nothing. Each swing stirred the wind, but none of the strikes connected. Even under such pressure, Leader Keryoil never lost his composure.

We had already surrounded him on all sides—Mishael in front, Ramis and myself in the rear, Hevoy on the left, and Pitee and Shui on the right. The encirclement was complete.

“Goodness, looks like I found myself in a desperate situation, eh?” he said with a self-deprecating smile.

“Leader, it’s pointless to struggle further. Lay down your weapons and surrender.”

“Sentiment for a former comrade, eh? Tempting, but… what happens to my son if I lose?”

His grinning face tightened, and this time, instead of dodging, he blocked Mishael’s great sword with his daggers.

“Let’s settle it now!”

[1] Mishael looked like he had the advantage in terms of power as he pushed down his sword. When Leader Keryoil’s knees buckled, we thought it was all over.

[1] That is… until Mishael was suddenly flung to the side.

[1] It was unclear what happened, but somehow, Leader managed to avoid Mishael’s sword and kicked him in the temple at the same time.

“Even if your armour is strong, I can just target your weak spots.”

Leader Keryoil looked grim, as though he was really going in for the kill. However, an arrow and a spiked iron ball blocked him.

I had naively believed that we would win due to our advantage in numbers, but it’s clear now that we need to take this fight seriously.

If this was a normal opponent, I could utilise <Barrier> while Ramis attacked him. However, with his <Shattering Eye> which negates all Gifts, things became quite troublesome.

Not to mention, we have three prisoners dragging us down. We thought of leaving them somewhere, but if they were taken away by the enemy, we would lose our only bargaining chip.

The best strategy was to circle the enemy and launch a simultaneous attack, but since it was Leader Keryoil, the chances of him escaping were too high.

Mishael had recovered in the meantime and was now aggressively attacking Leader Keryoil, but it was just a repeat of the previous attacks. At this rate, if it came down to a battle of attrition, we may still win, if not for the variable called Sulrim.

Occasional bursts of flames and snowstorms could be seen somewhere in the forest, indicating that the battle was still ongoing. However, we cannot place all our bets on the outcome there.

Th-that’s right, we must take action and break this stalemate somehow.

Several plans went through my head, but… well, I was a little hesitant about executing them. However, if we are to stop Leader Keryoil, I must not hesitate and play the villain.

That’s right, I shall now give you a taste of a vending machine’s intimidation technique. First. Let us start with the classic.

First, I took out a bottle of cola and a stick of that special white candy. After popping off the bottle cap, I cranked my volume to the maximum and said, “Lea-der”

“What is it, Hakkon?”

Leader Keryoil had an eye on Mishael, his left eye to be exact, while his right eye swivelled independently to look at me. It was a rather creepy skill.

Anyway, after confirming that he was watching, I dropped a piece of candy into the cola, causing it to froth and fizz up.

Ramis, apparently realising what I was about to do, set me down and took a few steps away.

“What are you trying to do?” Leader Keryoil had already seen this cola and candy trick before, [2] but had not caught on to what I was trying to do.

[2] “Ra-mis”

“Uh, I have a bad feeling about this, but okay?”

“Br-ing Re-d”

[3] Poor Red is being volunteered because he is the first one I think of when I think of the Red and White twins.

Ramis, perceptive as ever, grabbed Red by the back of his shirt and dragged him forward until he was within my range.

“Hey, wait, why am I, uh, ulp!”

I shoved an opened bottle of cola into Red’s mouth.

“Ulp, ulp, ugh, hey, I don’t mind this drink, but can’t you feed it to me more gently!?”

While I shoved the bottle back into Red’s mouth, a piece of white candy floated close to him via <Telekinesis>.

“Hold it! That’s not cool, Hakkon!”

Leader Keryoil’s panicked voice rings out. He finally understood what I was trying to do. I had already given him a visual example of what would happen earlier.

“Huh, what?”

Red did not seem to understand the situation at all.

While the rest of my companions were giving me shocked looks, I could not care less. I’m doing all of this to rattle the other party. Honestly, I don’t want to do this either but…

I popped open another bottle of cola and dropped the candy inside. This time, Red’s face turned pale as the blood drained from his face.

“O-oi, don’t tell me you’re going to do that to me- blub blub blub- gahh-!!”

This time, when I tried to shove cola into his mouth, Red began to resist.

“Now, now, open wide. You can’t be fussy, you know?” Hevoy said as he forced Red to open his mouth.

“Good boy~ now, drink up lots and lots-su~” Shui said with glee, having taken charge of the bottle of cola.

What’s going on? Those two looked like they were having a blast. They must have realised I was just threatening the Whimsical Fools and were now taking the opportunity to mess with them.

I think, they also took the opportunity to take out their resentment against the people who had lied and hidden things from them.

“H-helpff-bleh-glugggg-helf—!”

Woah, being forced to swallow cola looks really painful from this side.

When they finally let Red go, the man slumped to the ground, let out a loud belch and groaned. However, that was not the end of his torture. With the white candies in hand, Hevoy and Shui turned to Leader with devilish smirks.

“Leader… as a former member of your party, I cannot overlook your foolish actions. If you surrender now, I shall speak with the Directors and beg for their leniency,” said Hevoy with a fist over his chest, his expression perfectly sincere.

[4] I should mention that clutched within that fist was a white candy.

“That’s right! Geez, I don’t want to see my comrades fight each other anymore-su!” Shui screamed, her hair in disarray [4] as she shook a fistful of white candies at Leader.

“You… drop those damned candies first!” Leader Keryoil shouted back.

[4a] Ah, well, I can’t blame Leader Keryoil for being so anxious with those two still shoving candies at Red’s face.

[4a] “Eh, what are you saying?”

[4a] “Goodness, what a curious thing to say to us-su.”

This was beginning to look like some kind of bad comedy skit. It looked like the two of them were playing around, but if one of those candies managed to get into Red, well…

[3] Speaking of which, even as Leader Keryoil quarrelled with the two, he was still fending off attacks from Mishael. However, from the increasing rips on his clothes, it was clear that he was being pushed closer to the edge.

“Is that so? Looks like our feelings haven’t reached them. Hmm, since these two are still unconscious, I believe I should take their shoes off. I have heard that taking off the shoes of people who have fainted will help them in this situation. Do allow me to-”

“Oi, stop it!”

That was the most emotional cry from Leader Keryoil yet as Hevoy reached for the Vice-Leader’s feet.

“Damnit! You guys make the most troublesome enemy!”

I had to agree with that.

“Well, the feeling is mutual.”

I had to agree with that, too.

I had thought that a fight between former comrades would be a bitter, desperate conflict filled with angst and anguish, but… it was more absurd than anything else. I had more or less given up on any serious development. However, since I had a strange feeling that I may have been the catalyst for their odd behaviour…

Let’s not think about it any more.

By the way, now that his concentration has been disrupted, Leader Keryoil’s movements have become erratic, and while he still managed to defend himself from Mishael, if Hevoy were to join in the battle, we could capture him easily. Just when it looked like this was the end of the Whimsical Fool’s party, the trees next to us were suddenly blown away by the clash of a blizzard and explosive flames.

[Gumihou: A lot of movements in this chapter. Ugh…]

[1] Revised the description, because this is just too clunky:

It seems like Michel is winning in terms of strength and is trying to push with all his might. The moment Chief Kerioil’s knee buckled, confirming victory, Michel’s body swayed greatly sideways.

Using the large sword as a fulcrum, did he rotate his body halfway and deliver a kick to the side of the head?

Dude, like, what?

[2] All random action-related revision

[3] The reason per ‘canon’, why Red was chosen was because Hakkon doesn’t have ‘ro’ as in ‘Shiro’ in his range of sounds. However, that line doesn’t translate to English, so changed the reason why Red was chosen

[4] Added some comedic moments that were just too good to miss

[4a] Adjusted the ‘funny moments’ to make it appear less forced

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