Science Shall Prevail Over Magic Chapter 8

Helium, 8th Chapter | The Unarmed Style User

An orange light source, whether it was an embedded light or else, overhead was illuminating a beaten flat path when he advanced slightly down the grotto.

“Hey, taking a break, eh! If the shipment isn’t on time, I’ll see how you get the food!”

Inside the grotto, bellows were echoing and metals clanging. Upon drawing closer to the noise, what entered Shin’s line of sight were worn out people clutching pickaxes.
Someone was striking a mud wall with the pickaxe. Someone was loading something onto an old wheelbarrow.
Lastly, seemingly monitoring such people clad in rags were imposingly strong men clad in proper outfits.
Amongst those men, who seemed to be monitoring, was someone who he had seen yesterday at the bar. The man who was carrying a sword on his waist and had the airs of a knight.

“Tch… Monitoring such a place. I’ll go outside to that Adventurer sc.u.m and blow a smoke――――”

While grumbling, the man who was carrying a sword on his waist turned around. When he did, he caught sight of Shin on the other side.

“Y-You f.u.c.ker!?”

Upon his words, everyone turned their heads toward his direction, too. However, the people who were most likely being forced to labour turned their heads back as if they had lost interest.

“Hey, hey… How is he here? Isn’t he that guy from yesterday!?”
“Where’s Stan!? Don’t tell me he has been done in… This guy is a Mana user… Call the vice leader.”
“Petra has already left for the vice leader’s place. Before that… How about giving him a painful experience right here?”

“Fuu, that will be fine, too. I had gotten tired of monitoring this place anyway.”

Upon seeing the barefoot Shin, a faint smile floated on the faces of four of those men as they pointed their daggers, which they had taken out of who knows where, at him.
Shin laughed in his heart at the bandits right out of a fairytale. Drawing his full power out, he locked his view on the four men.

“Too scared to let your voice out, eh?”

“Daraaaa!”

One of the men rushed out and lunged his fist at Shin.
Looking at that ungainly attack with contempt, Shin dodged it with half of his body and dug his knee in the man’s abdomen.
The man lost his stand and prostrated on the ground.

“Y-You f.u.c.ker!”

Triggered by the proceeding, two of the men seriously thrusted their daggers out.
One of them charged head on while the other quickly moved to Shin’s flank and stabbed his dagger in the side of Shin’s chest.

A coordinated move. The head on attack would be a feint while the attack from the flank on the wide open body would be a surekill.
Even if they missed the vitals, they would be able to dull the target’s movement.
However, a knife of that level couldn’t amaze Shin.

The natural fear of getting injured by the knife would lead to ousting a serious injury that could dull the movement of the body.
Speaking alternatively, a weapon was but a toy in the hands of an incompetent user. Shin calmly perceived the movement of both the men and dealt with them appropriately.

While shuffling half a step back and dodging the surekill stab from the flank, then crouching and evading the head on thrust, he swept the leg of the man at his flank.
When the man – who had the operational part of his ankle trapped – flipped his other leg, he pitched forward and fell over.
While the man was trying to get up using arm strength and weight movement, he [Shin] capitalized on the opportunity and drove his right leg in his [the man] abdomen.

The man hurled back into the mud wall and tumbled down where the people with the pickaxes were being forced to labour.
Surprise floated up on the faces of the labourers who had been feigning apathy till now.

“Really, though… Back to back… Public order here is the worst; Even more so than the Earth.”

Shin could only wryly smile at the fact that nothing changed even after he leapt to an unknown place. He had constantly been battling just like in j.a.pan.
Whether the level of civilization was low or high, the level of human thinking would remain the same.
Nevertheless, one thing he understood very clearly: now that he was feeling light without the alloy boots, the impulse seething inside him couldn’t be suppressed.

(In the end, they and I are one and the same kind, huh…)

While entertaining such a self deprecating thought, he looked at the man who was carrying a sword on his waist.
The man could be seen fl.u.s.tered for an instant. In the next instant, however, as if he recalled something, he drew the sword and a.s.sumed an offensive stance.

“…Y-You… A mere Adventurer!”

The length of the sword blade was approximately 1 meter. Its length was about same as the one he composed through the convergence of an element.
However, the sword the man was wielding seemed to be heavier than he could wield; hence, it was of no use.

The moment the man held the sword aloft in a large swing and kicked the ground, an angry voice resounded from inside the pa.s.sage.

“Hey! So, it was true that the Adventurer sc.u.m from yesterday was raiding… I want to see.”

Came a man who had a silver breastplate put on. The same man who had recommended the inn to Shin yesterday at the bar. From behind him came tens of robust men, who looked like a gang of brigands, wearing leather breastplates and holding daggers.

(…Not again)

Although Shin cursed in his heart at the troublesome number of scoundrels, he was actually feeling relieved that it wasn’t a troop of Android Killrers.

Suddenly, he grasped the location of the Device through the reception of electromagnetic waves inside his brain.
Apparently, the man who had a silver breastplate put on – the leading figure – was carrying Shin’s Portable Terminal (Device).

“…I thought you would return to some other town, but here you are pushing us nice people around… Don’t think you can get away without consequences, Adventurer-san.”

“…I came here to get my belongings back… I had no intention to fight.”

Shin, the urge to battle of whom had spurred upon receiving a surprise attack, decided to lay low on this occasion.

“Seize him!”

The man who was holding the sword aloft and the men who accompanied the leader jumped at Shin all at once.

Honestly, who could expect he would be dragged into such a mess?
He just visited an ordinary town, paid the money and stayed at an inn.
Although he was negligent, he was illegally dispossessed of his possessions. He came here to take his stuff back, yet he had the knives pointed at him.
If it were anyone other than Shin, they would be killed by now. Such was the situation.

(So, what do I do…)

Thought Shin while carefully exchanging the attacks of the men one by one and neutralizing the approaching men through mixed martial arts one by one.
That leader was carrying the Device. The sensation in his brain was telling him so.
In addition to manual operation, the Device also had a voice print authentication functionality. If he spoke from here and created something for use as a weapon, he would be able to slay this group in an instant.
However, he wasn’t conversant with the culture of this world. He was hesitant of turning into a criminal right at the start.
After deliberation, Shin decided to settle this oppression by himself.

The robust men swooped one after another.
While deftly tackling their moves, he fractured their joints with flowing moves. Or probably unfastened. Thus, Shin reduced their numbers.

“Raaaaaa!”

The man from before, who had brought his sword down without minding his companions, entered Shin’s line of sight.
On one hand, the sword speed of the man couldn’t be called quick by any standard. On the other hand, the sword blade itself was so broad that it lacked practicality.

Moving half of his body, Shin casually dodged it. He then drove the heel of his palm into the sword fuller from the flank.
He put the power only when he touched it. The strongest and the fastest palm heel, unnecessary muscle tension had been eliminated from which, interrupted the man’s sword midway through and flicked it away into the air.

“!!?”

Next, he merely delivered a sidekick to the man’s midsection. In no more than 1 minute, Shin had completely incapacitated tens of men.
The leader and two of the men, who had stayed behind, were standing still with a shocked face.

“How the f.u.c.k… You… An unarmed style user?”
“Vice Leader, the unarmed style…”

The two men looked at the leader fl.u.s.tered.
Although Shin didn’t know as to what an unarmed style was, he was convinced it was a kind of bare handed martial arts.
It was quite a simple way of putting it. Although the military martial arts Shin was using at the moment was an unarmed kind, it was diverse.
Aikido: uses the opponent’s moves as is to either parry or return; called joint lock in the foreign martial arts system.
Krav Maga: comprises a wide range of techniques specialized in combat. Silat: neutralizes the opponent via throws.
Shaolin Kung Fu: the forte of which are kicks. Every single hand to hand combat technique, which had been endlessly developed, was present inside Shin’s brain in the form of data. Therefore, unconditionally calling it the unarmed style was not appropriate.

“An Adventurer from the south, huh… From the type of weapon you were carrying, I thought you were a magic power (Mana) user. However, that strange Mana machine is in my hand… Die, f.u.c.ker!”

Muttered one of the men. While clenching something in his hand, he uttered mysterious words.

“Haaa………… Lightball of Flame (Flame Bolt)!”

Shouted the man. ‘Was his fist shining red just now?’ while Shin was wondering, an instantaneous Fireball was shot toward him.
Although Shin avoided it by moving reflexively, the instantaneity of the event had broken his stance.

“Naa!?”

With his hands clinging onto the ground, his eyes subconsciously drifted off in the direction the Fireball was flying off to.
The Fireball scorched the mud wall and dissipated.

“I didn’t tell you, but I can use Mana Calculus (Manamite)… So, you use the unarmed style, huh… Show me!

Shin woke up to reality. With his brain in full revolution, he a.n.a.lyzed the situation.