I Can Hear the Saint’s Inner Thoughts

81 – The Unkillable Arena Fight (4)

Grakhtar was looking at me and trying to smile as he offered a handshake, but I could feel the emotion of trying to hide the sadness in his expression.

Seeing as he hadn’t even brought his usual necklace, it looked like he’d sensed his own defeat.

“…Why won’t you take my hand! Astar!”

The marks of countless battles fought over the years.

Looking at Glaktar’s calloused, scarred hand, I couldn’t help but sink into thought.

Human and Orc.

Magician and Barbarian.

We seemed to have nothing in common—not race, physique, name, origin—but the truth was, our lives were on similar paths.

“…Do we really have to fight?”

I muttered, looking down at my own hand, so like Glaktar’s.

If we hadn’t met in a place like this, we could’ve been friends instead of enemies who had to kill each other.

“Probably! Unless you kill me and don’t go to the next match, Durahan most likely won’t fight you!”

Seeing me still hesitant to fight, Glaktar punched his chest with his fist—*thump*—as if telling me not to worry.

That only made me feel more alienated.

No matter how much of a born warrior Glaktar was, there’s no way he could happily accept killing someone he knew.

“…You, don’t tell me you’re trying to meet your dead lover again? That’s why you’re planning to just kick the bucket fighting here?”

“You caught me! I think you’re a pretty good guy, Astar!”

Glaktar, having his true feelings exposed by my question, chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

That kind of feeling… I’d felt it plenty of times before.

The stupid thought that because you don’t think you’re worth living, it’s better to sacrifice yourself for others and just die.

“If my opponent is a magician from a hero’s party, what choice do I have! My lover Sharana would understand, too!”

“…Are you fucking retarded? You think saying something like that will make me go easy on you?”

Watching Glaktar, who seemed to know he was about to die, I couldn’t hold back the cursing I’d been keeping inside.

“Use everything you’ve got. Don’t say later that I held back. That’s what you should be doing for your dead lover.”

I used to write suicide notes and think like that myself, but dating Victoria, even if it was just a contract, made me realize how fucking stupid it was.

“…….”

Glaktar’s expression hardened for a moment at my irrefutable words.

He was the one who said to struggle as much as possible to survive, and he was the one who said he wanted a fight without regrets.

I was deliberately cursing, trying to shock him, all to set the stage to save him.

This is an arena run by the Dullahan himself.

If Glaktar held back, trying to let me win, and ended up losing, the audience or the referee could finish him off.

“…Seems like the people here don’t know my real moniker.”

Being called a Mad Mage, a living nightmare to monsters and demons, just fueled my stubbornness.

My original moniker was the Harmless Mage.

I didn’t want to make a lie of the name given to me because I never hurt anyone.

“Hahahahaha! Yeah, go ahead and struggle! I don’t want to just submit to that Dullahan b*stard without doing anything either!”

As if he finally understood my intentions, Glaktar bared his teeth and roared with laughter, and seeing that, I accepted his unspoken handshake.

“…I’ll show you a fight without regrets! Friend!”

“Me too. Glaktar.”

I nodded, looking at him and smiling.

A fight inside an arena where death is impossible.

Even if it meant spilling guts, or losing limbs, a place where you could keep fighting without dying.

“Grakhtar, warrior of the great Orc tribe! I challenge you to battle!”

“Astal Kaisaros, mage of harmlessness, of the hero’s party.”

Because the safest and fastest thing to do would be to fake his death, and secretly rescue him from outside.

* * *

The roar of the arena, the shouts of support, deafening, in this place where the will to fight clashed, Grakhtar and I stood facing each other.

“Our hero who dominates the arena wielding a massive axe! Can Grakhtar truly end Astal’s life! Then, let the match… BEGIN─!”

The siren’s voice, acting as commentator, boomed out, and at the same moment, we both charged towards each other.

A sharp sound slicing through the air, the flash of keen blades and magical circles clashing, sparks flying.

Instantly, I aimed a kick at Grakhtar’s legs, trying to duck the trajectory of his swung axe.

I had learned from fighting him that Barbarians had the weakness of using wide, strength-heavy attacks, so even a slight unbalance could easily break their rhythm.

“Instead of trying to use my strength against me… it’s better to focus on my fingertips, toes, my gaze, and look for an opening!”

But Grakhtar himself was aware of this, and showed no sign of easily falling for it. He even advised me, as if he had the advantage.

Just like when he practiced with me in the beginning, he was pointing out my weaknesses and flaws.

As Grakhtar said, his body showed no sign of wavering under your attacks, like hammering steel with your bare hands.

If I knew the structure of living things, muscles and bones, like he did, I could have used it, but I hadn’t reached that level yet.

“Your weakness is relying too much on your magic circles! Astal!”

With that voice, a resounding THWACK─! rang out, and a heavy blow landed on my solar plexus, where the magic circles wrapped around me like thread.

The magic circles, which were supposed to block the opponent’s attack like armor, were completely ineffective against a fist using shockwaves.

“Guh…!”

I gasped for air, my legs about to buckle, but I forced myself to regain my composure and throw another punch.

This was the arena of the Forsaken Hollow, a place where you simply couldn’t die.

I had practiced countless times to become numb to this pain, to these injuries.

Even if my limbs were severed, I had to keep fighting, because that was the only way to kill Durahan, the one who murdered my parents.

“That’s it! Mix up your footwork, and beat him like he owes you money!”

The fight grew increasingly intense, but Grakhtar and I didn’t yield an inch, blood and bits of flesh flying.

It was still too early to unleash our hidden cards.

“Astal, I salute you! I’m lucky to have met a friend like you!”

With those words, he roared into the empty air, entering a frenzy. The probing was truly over now; he was moving to kill.

“…Likewise.”

As I watched Grakhtar, I overlaid the magical circle around my body with Hellfire.

I figured my plan wouldn’t work without a scorching inferno hot enough to melt steel in an instant.

Fwoosh—!

Flames erupted around me, threatening to incinerate everything, but Grakhtar, seemingly unafraid of being burned, swung his axe.

The barbarian’s frenzy possessed the power to convert all shock and injury into rage and raw strength.

“You think you can stop Lord Grakhtar with such a paltry fire! It doesn’t even tickle!”

Even though it didn’t nullify or dull the pain, Grakhtar continued his assault as if nothing were wrong.

He was already accustomed to fighting in this arena.

An environment where you couldn’t die easily had made it possible to defy death and fight like this.

And that’s exactly what I was counting on.

To melt Glaktarr’s weapons using fire, and to fake his death with a huge explosion at the end – that was my plan.

Because channeling a magic circle like thread, it wasn’t just me who could do it anymore.

‘…It absolutely won’t go the way you think, Dullahan.’

I thought of Dullahan, who was surely watching this fight from afar with the most delight, and sent him a sneer in my mind.