Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 16: Ch 2 - White 1 (2)

Now, maybe it’s because I’m distracted by emotions I don’t really understand, like pathos and admiration, or maybe it’s because I’m too focused on running away. Either way, I’m a second too late to react when the space in front of me warps abruptly.
Black leaps out from the tear in space.
Tch! He got the jump on me?!
Normally, teleporting would be a bad move.
In a battle between spatial conjuring masters, teleportation takes too much time.
Admittedly, for me, activating teleportation probably takes less than a second.
But that’s still too long.
It leaves space for your opponent to interfere.
The teleportation rune is complicated enough to begin with. Mess with it a little, and it falls apart.
Then your teleportation fails.
If you were just moving an object, that wouldn’t be such a big deal. If you’re teleporting yourself, on the other hand, then the risk is a whole lot higher.
Worst case scenario, you might even get sucked into a gap between dimensions and be gone forever, or something equally terrifying.
Of course, I have certain safeties in place to keep things from going too horribly wrong. But depending on what the other person does to mess with my spell, there’s no guarantee disaster wouldn’t still happen.
Which is why teleporting would usually be a bad move in a battle between gods…unless you use giant buildings as a distraction to get the jump on the other person.
I mean, yeah, a bullet hell with entire buildings as the bullets is definitely enough of a decoy—way too much, if you ask me!
Black’s hand is gripping a sword as it closes in.
I’m in big trouble if that thing hits me.
I dodge to the side with almost unnecessary vigor, avoiding the sword slash.
“You won’t escape!”
But another building comes careening down at me right away.
Oh, come on! Buildings aren’t supposed to rain out of the sky!
What’s happening here, a natural disaster?! So this is the power of a god?!
I gnash my teeth in frustration at the sight you would normally only find in an overblown battle manga, and use my threads to catch the building.
And yes, even I have to admit that a spiderweb strong enough to catch a falling building is pretty overpowered, too.
But I’m not just gonna catch it!
I’ll send it right down toward Black’s head!
Take this! Building Dodge-and-Drop!
Speak softly and carry a big building, like they say!
Enjoy getting crushed by your own stupid building attack!
SLAAAASH! The building gets sliced neatly in two.
…Right. Yeah.
No, I knew an attack like that wouldn’t be enough to take down Black, okay?
It’s just, watching someone cut a building in half is kinda, y’know…
Can’t you leave that stuff in the realm of battle manga?
But complaining in my inner monologue isn’t going to make Black stop, of course. His sword comes thrusting toward me.
I jump back with another exaggerated dodge, escaping the sword’s range.
That sword is bad news.
I can sense some crazy energy coming off it.
If it cuts me, I’m guessing it’ll damage the energy within me, not just my body.
A battle between gods is mainly an energy-based war of attrition.
Whoever can waste more of the other’s energy is the victor.
Getting hit with enough force to cut a building in two wouldn’t be a big deal in itself, since I could just heal the physical damage.
But the amount of energy in that blade is more destructive than just that.
Most likely, it’s not just physical destruction. It can probably erode my energy, too.
I’m already at a disadvantage here. I can’t afford that kind of hit.
…Still, that’s got to require a lot of energy for Black to use it, too. Yet he’s busting it out without hesitation.
Attacking requires energy, too.
If you use too much energy on attacks, that alone could run you out of gas if you’re not careful.
So I always figured you were only supposed to use lots of energy on an attack at a critical moment when you know it’s really gonna count.
But here’s Black throwing energy around like it grows on trees.
That sword probably uses the most, but floating buildings and even just maintaining this dimensional space have gotta cost a fair amount of energy, too.
So why does it almost seem like he’s actually gaining energy, not losing it?
…No, it’s not just my imagination. His energy is growing.
Damn it aaaall! This must be the effects of those stupid prayers!
The rule is that people can pray for one god or the other, and give them just a little bit of power.
That’s gotta be why it seems like Black’s energy has been increasing for a while now.
Just as I suspected when I first heard the rules, Black’s definitely getting more prayer power.
Oof. My lack of popularity is painfully clear…
B-but that doesn’t bother me at all!
I’m a natural-born loner, baby!
I don’t need approval from the masses to win this whole damn thing!
Or at least, that’s what I’m telling myself…but this is looking pretty grim, isn’t it?
We’re fighting in a dimension of Black’s creation.
This futuristic city, not quite like anything on Earth, is probably based on what this planet looked like before the system was made.
It might even be the city where Black and Ariel met.
…Though if that’s the case, it’d be kinda tasteless to chuck buildings at me from such a precious place, don’t you think?
Well, either way, we’re on Black’s turf.
He created it, so he has the advantage here.
It was a mistake to let him drag me into his home field when the battle first started, or at least a miscalculation.
Except really, it’s all D’s fault for announcing that stupid world quest from out of nowhere!
I bet the reason I didn’t hear that first announcement initially was to delay my reaction, too!
That’s the only explanation I can think of for why I was able to hear the rest of the announcements, but not the very first one.
Damn that evil god! Always finding ways to put me at a disadvantage!
Now he’s got a serious head start on me.
I glance around.
Countless white spiders are still eating away at the space, trying to consume the city itself.
It’s like this three-dimensional space is in a two-dimensional picture spotted with holes.
As odd as it looks, the spider-eaten sections make up less than 10 percent of the whole scene.
It’s basically a power map of mine against Black’s.
I’ve got less than 10 percent, and the other 90-plus percent is all his.
Should I say my side has got nearly 10 percent, or not even 10 percent yet?
Either way, as long as Black’s field has the advantage, I can’t go on the offensive.
I can’t afford to attack.
I’ve gotta stay on the defensive and hold out, or I’ll drain all my energy and go down without ever getting in a proper counterattack.
Right now, I just need to endure his attacks, keep eroding away at his field, and overwrite it with my own field.
Once the power distribution on the map reaches fifty-fifty, then I should finally be able to fight back.
But as hard as my little clones are working to spread my influence over the field, the results aren’t much to write home about.
That’s mostly because the resistance against them has gotten even stronger since Black started getting more energy from the outside.
It’s not enough to push them back entirely, but it’s certainly slowing their progress almost to a halt.
At this rate, I’ve gotta be ready for this to take a very, very long time.
I have to withstand Black’s barrage of attacks until the balance of the field evens out.
Ughhh, this suuucks…
But it’s not like Black has it easy, either.
Since I’m still managing to encroach on his field, that means my spatial conjuring is stronger.
He’s got control over the battlefield for now, but if the power distribution map shifts in my favor, I’ll be the one with the big advantage.
Then he’d be forced to go on the defensive instead, while I’d swap onto offense.
And since my spatial conjuring is superior, Black will have no way of getting the advantage back if I manage to pull off the switch.
He knows that, too, which is why he’s pulling out all the stops to try to pull off a win before I can overwrite the field in my favor.
Otherwise, I can’t imagine why he would use such an obviously energy-sucking weapon like that sword, even if he is getting extra energy from the outside.
I bet that thing uses up energy as fast as he can receive it.
Except it still looks like his energy is increasing slightly…which means he must be getting a whole hell of a lot at once.
Still, there has to be a limit to how much energy he can receive.
Since it’s limited to the total population of mankind, that means there’s a ceiling on the amount of energy they can provide, too.
Hopefully, the amount of energy he’s receiving will decrease over time.
In that respect, the longer things drag on, the more Black is at a disadvantage.
Time is on my side.
With each minute that passes, the situation will slowly turn in my favor.
Of course, that’s only if I can keep fighting in tip-top shape the whole time, though.
I mean, think about it.
As impressive as my endurance might be, if I get injured, obviously I won’t be able to fight at full strength anymore.
In the case of a battle between gods, physical wounds can be healed instantly. It’s the energy you lose that can’t be recovered.
Even if I appear completely unharmed, I won’t be able to pull off a comeback if I start running low on energy.
One major hit could drain tons of my energy, and then I’d be in big trouble.
I don’t think a single slash from that sword would be a fatal wound…at least, I sure hope not.
But just ’cause it won’t kill me doesn’t mean it’d be no big deal.
I don’t know how much energy I’d lose if that sword hits me; ergo, it’s better not to let it touch me at all.
One hit might even drain enough of my energy to make a turnaround totally impossible.
So I really wanna avoid all of Black’s attacks until I can overwrite the field.
On the flip side, he wants to damage me before that happens and nip my attempted comeback in the bud.
Can I withstand the onslaught, or will Black manage to land enough hits to stop me?
That’s about the shape of things right now.
I’ve got a long haul ahead of me if I want to win, and if I get distracted for even a second, I could lose the whole damn thing.
So Black has the home field advantage, and I can’t even afford to take a single hit—how is that fair, huh?!
No waaay.
How come he gets the upper hand, yet I’m the one starting with a major handicap?
Seriously, no waaay…
I dodge Black’s sword as it swoops toward me.
Then his mouth opens, and a breath attack blasts out.
Don’t use Dragon Breath while you’re in human form!
I mean, I know he can do stuff like that ’cause he’s really a dragon, but still!
And sure, I could do it, too, if I wanted to, but come on!
Using a breath attack in human form just plain looks weird, okay?!
Although it’s certainly effective at catching me by surprise!
And yes, it did hit me, if you must know!
My human upper half gets blown to smithereens just like that.
But I’ve still got my spider lower half, and I can grow back the human half easily.
Yeah, I’ll have to spend some energy to do so, but it’s a tiny amount in the grand scheme of things.
In terms of damage, ’tis but a scratch.
Well…a scratch that destroyed my whole upper body.
The way visible damage doesn’t equate to actual damage is one of the annoying, or at least confusing, parts about a fight between gods.
It makes it hard to tell who’s got the upper hand at a glance.
Take that last attack, for example—we probably both used about the same amount of energy, even though my body is the one that got wrecked by that breath attack.
While I used energy to restore my destroyed upper body, Black used energy to attack in the first place.
In a battle of gods, whoever uses up their energy first loses.
It takes energy both to attack and to defend, so the person who’s on the offensive isn’t necessarily the one who’s winning.
Either way, you’ve got to carefully calculate how much energy each move is going to take.
In my case, it didn’t make a huge difference whether I took a hit from that breath attack or not. So rather than dodging it in a panic, I chose to let the attack hit so I could stay on my toes in case he followed up with an attack from that sword.
And sure enough, here it comes!
I evade Black’s sword slash easily.
Black must have known as well as I did that his breath attack wouldn’t damage me, which clearly meant that he was really after making an opening to attack with his sword, duh!
Ah-ha-ha-haaa!
You’ll have to try harder than that obvious strategy to pull one over on me!
See, I’ve figured something out in our battle so far.
Black isn’t used to fighting!
Sure, he is strong, there’s no arguing that.
His movements are very precise, not unpolished in the least.
But if I had to describe it, I’d say it seems like he’s done a lot of training but not much actual combat.
His fighting style is, I dunno…very clean.
It lacks that rough-and-tumble “I’m-gonna-take-you-down-no-matter-what!” quality.
When you think about it, it makes sense: Black’s been the unrivaled manager of this world for a long time, which means combat is only a distant memory… In fact, did he ever even have a life-or-death battle before the system was created?
Meanwhile, I’ve been fighting to survive from the second I was born. It’s only natural that there’d be a stark difference in our levels of real-world combat experience.
Thanks to that, I’ve managed to make it without taking a single serious hit so far.
That doesn’t mean it’s been easy, though—this situation still totally sucks, obviously!
Black is a super-high-spec fighter, even if he isn’t really used to actually fighting!
His swordsmanship is very by-the-book, and he’s not very good at feints.
So it’s relatively easy to tell what he’s going to do next, but let me tell you, predicting attacks and actually dodging them are two very different things!
This time, it’s another artless overhead swing.
Except for the fact that it’s unbelievably fast.
Only after I dodge the attack does the whooshing sound reach my ears.
If it left a sound behind, that means it must’ve been easily moving faster than the speed of sound, huh…?
His attacks are faster than the eye can follow.
That makes it really hard to dodge, even if he’s easy to read in theory.
If I let my guard down for even a second, I’ll be sliced in two before you can blink.
Dammit!
If only I had my go-to weapon on hand, at the very least…!
I’m pretty sure my giant scythe could hold up to Black’s sword.
It kinda seems to have a mind of its own despite the fact that I created it, and it’s got high enough specs to qualify as a legendary-class weapon, I’d say.
If we went blade-to-blade, I don’t think it would go down that easily.
In fact, if I attacked him with that scythe, I bet I could deal Black some real damage.
And it even has its own energy stores separate from mine.
An external battery pack?
Come on, having that scythe would open up tons of strategic options!
So why don’t I have it, you ask? Because Black is blocking me from summoning the scythe for all he’s worth.
I’m certainly trying my best to get it into my hands, and it seems like the scythe is even trying to teleport here itself, too.
Buuut, Black is apparently very wary of that scythe and the huge amount of energy it clearly holds, and is doing everything in his power to prevent me from summoning it.
Like I said before, interfering with teleportation is easy.
So there’s not much else I can do.
If my opponent was trying to summon an obviously dangerous weapon like that, you can bet I’d be stopping them, too.
Now, if I’d been able to go into this battle fully prepared, of course I would’ve had my scythe, and this would all be waaay easier…
Dammit, it’s all D’s fault!
I know I’ve been complaining about her a lot, but that’s her fault, too!
If I come out of this alive, I’m gonna give her a piece of my mind, I swear!
Otherwise it wouldn’t even be worth it.
That’s only if I survive, though.
For now, I better focus on my present predicament.
If I can buy enough time and survive Black’s onslaught of attacks, I win.
If I go down before then, Black wins.
Honestly, I’m so busy trying to stay alive that I can’t worry about anything else.
So I’m just gonna have to let the Demon Lord and the others handle it.
Which does worry me, of course.
On the rare occasions I’ve ever entrusted things to others, I always keep an eye on them via my clones so that I can intervene if I need to.
But this time, I can’t even do that much.
Which means I’m fully counting on them, and I can’t even try to help.
And of course it’s at the most important stage of the game.
Yeah, I’m worried.
But since we’ve made it this far, I’m just gonna have to put my trust in the Demon Lord and the others.
The Demon Lord has handled all kinds of ordeals, and at this point, so have the likes of Vampy and Mr. Oni.
I’ve gotta have faith that they’ll get through this one, too.
Besides, we’re, like, uh…you know. F-fr-friends! Or whatever!
Aaaargh! God, trusting and depending on others is, like, sooo embarrassing!
What the hell?! Whose idea was this?!
I feel crazy awkward about it, but my thoughts on the matter don’t change the fact that I just have to leave it to them, regardless.
It’s not so much that I’m trusting them as that I have no other choice…
If anything happens to the Demon Lord or any of the others, I can’t come running to help.
…Dammit, I’m worried!
The tide will turn in my favor if I buy enough time?
I don’t have time to be so blasé about it.
Gotta give it all I’ve got and put an end to this battle ASAP!
Not that I haven’t been giving it all I’ve got this whole time already!
That means I’ll just have to surpass my limits!
Unleash your full power, me! Yeahhhh!
I make a move forward, and Black’s sword grazes my face.
Yeahhhh…
Um, turns out randomly attacking is still a bad plan!
I can’t lose my head just ’cause I’m worried about the Demon Lord and company.
This isn’t the kind of opponent I can defeat in a panic, after all.
Play it cool, girl.
I’m already fighting to the best of my ability, so if I try to push myself past my limits, I’m just gonna end up making a mistake and leaving myself open to attack.
The shortest route to success is to keep calm and carry on.
As much as I’m worried about the others, I’ve gotta put them out of my mind for now.
The Demon Lord and all the rest will be fine.
That’s all part of putting your trust in someone, I think.
And I bet the Demon Lord and the others are putting their trust in me, too.
So I’ve gotta make sure I don’t let them down.
My opponent is Black, an administrator who’s protected this world for ages.
Not to mention that he’s got most of mankind backing him up.
I couldn’t ask for a better foe!
Now I’ve just gotta win this thing, and live up to the trust of my…those guys!
…Even if all I’m doing right now is running around dodging things!
My fervor thus renewed, I dodge Black’s next sword slash with a magnificent backstep.