Volume 3 Chapter 42 Cool Technique Names Are A Man's Romance
The elevator was zooming up the tower... Inside, Randy suddenly realized something.
"How does this thing stop?"
He had no idea where they were, and he didn't even know how to stop it.
"I don't know. It'll probably stop when we reach the top."
Ellie laughed, but unlike a normal elevator, there were no brakes. So when it stopped, it would mean... As Randy thought about this, he shouted, "Luke!" At the same moment, Luke seemed to understand and hugged Cecilia to protect her, while Randy grabbed Ellie.
"Hey, stop it! What are you──."
Just as Ellie blushed and raised her voice, an unbelievable shock hit all 4 of them.
The elevator box crumpled.
Randy and Luke were slammed upwards by the force and inertia.
For normal people, it would probably be fatal, but for these two monsters, it was just a strong bruise. And of course, the two girls they were holding were safe, acting as the cushions.
"Randy!"
"Yeah!"
Even after hitting their backs hard, the two of them landed on the floor while still holding Cecilia and Ellie, and at the same time, they kicked out with all their might.
They broke through a wall, tore through some kind of flesh, and as they burst out, they saw...
"First spiders, now moths?!"
...countless strange creatures. It seemed they had passed the elevator's final stop and gone up to where the machinery was embedded above the ceiling.
Below them was a huge door and a hall-like space in front of it. They had gone too high, and the distance to the floor made things worse. They had no solid ground, and holding Ellie made them an easy target.
"Ellie!"
"Um, she got shy and pulled back."
In his arms, Liz had somehow changed and was blushing too, her voice a bit shaky.
"That girl is such a tease."
Randy smiled awkwardly, but he couldn't just stand there. Surrounded by the strange moth creatures while holding Liz, he told her to use magic to defend themselves.
Liz understood the situation, nodded, and in the feeling of free fall, created a huge tornado around them.
"It's both attack and defense."
Just as Liz said, the tornado blew away the approaching creatures and sliced their wings, sending them crashing to the ground. Luke was also surrounded by a tornado on his side.
Whether it was Luke's magic or Cecilia's, it didn't seem like it was Luke's based on the power, but it was enough to fend off the creatures' fierce attacks.
"Miss Cecilia is pretty strong."
"I heard she trains with Luke every day."
Just as Liz smiled, Randy and the others landed on the ground. The roaring tornado gradually shrank... and in the dying wind, Randy stretched his arms and glared ahead. In front of them were a bunch of spiders and mantises, waiting for the wind to die down.
"Liz, you handle the flying ones!"
"Got it!"
With their roles set, the moment the tornado disappeared, Randy dashed forward.
Using his momentum, Randy charged into the group of creatures.
In front of him, a mantis raised its scythes.
Randy caught the scythes with both hands.
At the same time, he jumped.
Pulling the scythes back, he delivered a flying knee kick.
His left knee smashed into the giant mantis's head.
The mantis wobbled... and Randy ripped the scythes from its hands.
Still in the air, he threw the scythe in his right hand.
With a whoosh, the thrown scythe sliced through several creatures and finally stabbed into a spider's belly.
As he landed, Randy threw the scythe in his left hand.
The spinning scythe flew and cut off several spider legs.
Randy then punched the face of a spider that had stumbled from the blow.
Instead of a punch, it was more like a shove that sent the spider flying, taking a few others with it.
A small opening appeared ahead.
Spider legs scattered everywhere.
Randy, running low, scooped up a spider leg... then jumped.
Spinning in the air, Randy threw the spider leg like a kunai.
Randy landed on the ground, and all the weird creatures around him fell down like they were hit in the head.
"Man... it hurts that my sword broke."
Randy smiled wryly but charged back into the group of monsters.
A little away from Randy, Luke was also rushing into the crowd of monsters with his sword in one hand.
He left the flying monsters to Cecilia and focused on the countless creatures on the ground.
Luke suddenly disappeared as he sped up.
His afterimage dashed between the monsters...
Then Luke appeared and swung his sword in the air.
As if that was a signal, blood sprayed from over ten monsters, and they collapsed right there.
But Luke was right in the middle of them.
A few spiders jumped at him from all directions...
Luke spun around.
His sword flashed like a tornado, slicing through all the attacking spiders and sending them flying.
When Luke stopped spinning, he swung his sword sideways... and in an instant, his sword cut several monsters in half.
Even with more monsters coming at him, Luke readied his sword.
"...Get lost."
As Luke muttered that, he charged forward, making all the monsters in a straight line disappear.
Behind Luke, a presence landed. It was Randy, who had dodged into the air to avoid getting caught in Luke's attack.
"That was close."
"You think I'd die from something like this?"
They both laughed back-to-back and smashed the monsters in front of them when suddenly,
"Hey, Luke. By the way, you were really into names like 'Wind Slash' and 'Fury Gust,' huh?"
Randy smiled over his shoulder, and Luke stammered,
"W-What are you talking about?!"
"Huh? Just recently, you were saying, 'Listen, Randy. I thought of a cool technique name.'"
Randy pouted as he knocked down a monster, and Luke blushed, throwing a huge fireball at a swarm of moths in the air. Even in a panic, he managed to support Cecilia with a well-timed attack, showing how relaxed they both were in this situation.
"So, Luke. Think of a cool name for my punch too. You're good at that, right?"
"I-I'm not good at that!"
Luke quickly shouted as he sliced through an enemy in an instant.
"That! Didn't you call it Dragon Tail Slash or something? Something like that."
Randy turned back, and Luke pointed his sword at him, saying, "Look ahead! And shut up!" He cut down another monster.
"Right. Didn't you have a full-power slash called 'Mountain Break'? Give me that──."
"Shut up, Randy."
Luke glared at Randy while slicing through an approaching monster without looking. He glanced back at Cecilia and Liz. Most of the monsters were focused on Randy and him, but Cecilia and Liz were still pushing back the monsters with their own whirlwind attacks.
They weren't paying attention to them. No, the whirlwind was too loud for them to hear... After confirming that, Luke sliced through another spider without looking and moved closer to Randy.
"Listen. What you do isn't a technique. If anything, it's just a super strong, like... 'awesome punch.' Don't compare it to my artistic techniques."
"What's so artistic about it? You dork..."
Randy was also smashing monsters without looking. By the way, Luke didn't understand the term "dork." He didn't get it, but he knew he was being insulted.
"You idiot. What you do is just hitting hard."
Luke frowned and stabbed his sword behind him.
A mantis screamed right behind him.
"Yours is just slashing with brute force too."
Randy's backhand sent a spider flying that had jumped up behind him.
"Don't compare it to mine. My Mountain Break is──."
"Nope, it's the same."
"Different."
"Not different."
The two glared at each other and almost simultaneously said, "Tch," back-to-back.
"Let's settle who's right with a match for the first time in a while."
Luke smiled over his shoulder, and Randy grinned back.
"Ha, you think you can beat me?"
"You're so relaxed without even holding a sword──."
The two laughed as they vanished from sight.
At the same time, 2 monsters exploded and flew apart.
Liz and Cecilia were watching Randy and Luke from a distance. At first, they were supposed to deal with the flying enemies, but since the two guys were going all out, most of the attacks were now focused on them.
Sometimes, strange creatures would come their way, and it was an easy job for them to just hit them with magic, which gave them the chance to just watch the fight.
"Sir Luke is really strong, isn't he?"
"Yeah, he is."
Cecilia looked at Luke with pride, and Liz noticed her dreamy expression. But pointing that out would be rude, so she turned her attention back to the two guys fighting.
The strange creatures that were once everywhere were now mostly dead, and as their numbers decreased, Randy and Luke got even more fired up.
"By the way, those 2 were really crashing into each other, right?"
"Liza... those 2 don't follow the rules."
Cecilia was right; they had slammed into each other and got thrown into the air, which seemed like a tough situation, but somehow it turned into a total victory.
'The Tower of Time must not be happy about this.'
Hearing Ellie's voice in her head, Liz could only smile wryly and nod. Each of those creatures was weak enough that Liz and Cecilia's magic could hurt them, but they were still probably B-rank beasts.
It was hard to believe that such a huge group was being taken down by just 2 people, but both Liz and Cecilia accepted it as normal. Thinking about it, their standards had really changed, and Liz smiled again.
Just as Liz realized how her perception had shifted, the last creature was knocked out by Randy's punch...
"I won!"
"Are you kidding? I took down way more than you!"
...and the two of them, who had been fighting fiercely, were now playfully arguing.
"No way, I did more!"
"I did more!"
As they argued, they came back to Liz and Cecilia...
"Randy."
"Luke."
...but the two girls looked at them with annoyed expressions, seeing them covered in some strange goo. It was understandable. They had broken through the Tower of Time's defenses and fought the creatures up close. It was no surprise they were covered in blood and other stuff.
But whether they could accept those 2 getting close in that state was another story.
Liz sighed deeply, and then Ellie snapped her fingers. Suddenly, a waterfall of water poured down on Randy and Luke.
They were clean now, but Cecilia gently dried the soaked boys with warm air...
"You're so kind, just like a lady."
"Ellie, this is what I mean."
Randy pouted, and Ellie just shrugged, then turned to the direction of the elevator and raised her hand. Her hand glowed softly, and in response, a staff floated over from the big hole Randy and the others had made.
"That's handy."
"This is nothing, just a piece of cake."
Ellie laughed as she put the staff away and headed toward the big door they could see ahead. It looked like the main entrance.
"Alright, time to work. Randy!"
"Don't act so important, you know-it-all."
Even while pouting, Randy forced the tightly shut door open, and everyone stepped inside.
Inside the huge door was a room that looked like a ship's control room.
Unlike the previous walls of flesh, this room had a glass front, allowing them to see outside, which felt strangely open. Although what they saw was a dark sky covered in purple clouds...
In any case, the room was filled with countless machines, but the most eye-catching thing was the giant oval object sitting in the center. It was taller than a person and looked like a huge mirror, but unfortunately, the center reflected nothing but emptiness.
While glancing at the mysterious oval object, Ellie was exploring the area thoroughly. Even Randy, who was from the modern world, found the machines familiar, but knowing about them and being able to use them were 2 different things.
The only thing he could understand was the Japanese words 'emergency' showing up on what looked like a monitor.
(Probably, everything is locked down because of the defense system...)
Randy scratched his cheek, thinking maybe he pushed too hard to come here, when he heard Ellie say, "Found it..." as she picked up something that looked like a card key.
"Just like I heard."
Ellie smiled and slid the card key under an oval-shaped object. The loud noise the building was making suddenly stopped, and the monitor showed the words "Welcome back" before disappearing.
"What is that?"
"Oh, it's just something left behind by an old friend."
Ellie squinted her eyes a bit, looking nostalgic, and the oval-shaped object started to glow, as if to stop Randy from asking more questions.
"Alright then... let's meet this so-called wisdom──."
In front of the 4 of them, the space in the center turned white, and some letters appeared.
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