Heroine-Saving System: Reborn In A Third-Rate Manga As The Protagonist-Chapter 71: The 1% Chance

"What just... happened?" Hakua blinked as she looked at the screen.

The whole area had been destroyed completely, it was hard to imagine that at his level, he was attacking like a Blue liner.

"He’s using a tool of course, that’s a strong one but this is Shadow we’re talking about... it will most certainly not be enough." Mio pointed out, if she didn’t switch with Pale... then there was a high chance that she would lose.

That was just how overpowered moving in the shadows was.

Hakai was silent through all this... one of her "children" had disrespected her so of course she was angry however she was silent for a different reason.

’I want to see all your secrets laid bare... if you reach my expectations then I will save you.’ She thought as she ate some popcorn.

...

Koya took a deep breath, it genuinely felt like his arm was going to bend...

Using the ability of this Iron Terror was draining and one more use without Heal was all he needed to completely shatter his hand.

It was quite annoying considering that he was in a life or death situation and this was one of his chances... just then there was a whooshing sound mid-air and Koya’s danger sense went up as he side-stepped to the side however the shadow spear redirected, heading right in the direction of his face.

He obviously lifted his gauntlet hand to block against the strike... and it connected, breaking the gauntlet apart.

The eye of the Iron Terror snaked into Shadow’s hand and he looked at it.

"I see... so you’re able to use the Iron Terror’s psionic energy? What excellent engineering." Shadow commented as he crushed the eye, the leftover psionic energy reflecting outward in a shockwave that was supposed to do damage, however Shadow’s body rippled like it was water.

"However Psionic power will no longer work on me, I’ll just phase through it." Shadow said and took a stance, holding his weapon which was a long katana. "Bring out your weapon, Amagi."

Koya’s sword appeared... it was the Golden Arch Sword, a beautiful B-rank blade with a golden edge that curved like a crescent moon, the metal inscribed with symbols that glowed when held. He took a stance with a deep breath.

’Well, Plan B I guess.’ He thought. The two of them stayed in a stance looking at each other while he activated Sensory to the max.

With the way he was using Sensory all the time, he honestly expected it to be A-rank right now.

A bunny monster hopped in between them despite the distance, in an attempt to pick a cracked nut from the ground.

The moment it picked it up, Shadow moved with amazing speed and the bunny exploded into a red mist.

Shadow reached Koya and thrust forward. Koya reached Mana Mode in an instant and parried the strike as hard as he could, the impact sending shockwaves up his arm...

Several needles dug into his body from nowhere, paralyzing his other hand.

He barely got his sword up to defend against a downward strike that sent him skidding backward, his feet carving trenches in the ground.

His hand suddenly bulked up with Fighting Spirit as the mana receded and the needles shot out, clattering to the ground.

Shadow’s expression changed.

"You seem to have some kind of poison resistance... that’s nice, now you won’t die so easily."

Shadow charged and Koya barely raised his sword in time...

CLANG!

The first strike nearly broke his wrist. Shadow was impossibly strong for a mage-type and Koya’s arms shook from the impact.

CLANG CLANG CLANG!

Shadow’s katana came from five different angles in less than a second. Koya blocked the first two, parried the third, dodged the fourth by a hair while the fifth carved a line across his ribs and blood sprayed.

CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!

The exchanges came so fast they blurred together. Each strike threatened to disarm him completely.

Shadow’s blade was everywhere at once... overhead, from the left, sweeping low, and even thrusting high.

For someone who was supposed to be a Blue-liner focused on magic, Shadow had more raw physical strength than the head of the Thieves Band Koya had faced days ago.

Each impact sent jolts up his arms making his wrists scream in protest. His forearms went numb from blocking.

Koya activated Speed Blitz, pouring mana into it to enhance his reflexes and defensive motions.

Sensory worked overtime, tracking Shadow’s blade trajectory, his footwork, the micro-movements in his shoulders that telegraphed attacks a split-second before they came...

"Always on the defensive!" Shadow taunted, his blade coming down in a brutal overhead slash.

Koya barely got his sword up in time... The force drove him to one knee with the ground cracking beneath him. "Is this all the man who faced Numb can do?! Cower and block?!"

Behind him, shadows coalesced into a spear without warning... Sensory screamed the alert. Koya twisted his body, bringing his blade around in a desperate arc to block and he shadow spear shattered against the Golden Arch Sword and dissipated.

He exhaled shakily.

’Too close.’

...Then Shadow moved.

Sensory didn’t pick it up and Danger Sense didn’t trigger. One moment Shadow was in front of him... and he next, his katana carved through Koya from chest to thigh in a diagonal slash that sprayed blood across Shadow’s face and chest.

Koya’s eyes went wide... He hadn’t seen it nor had he sensed it. The blade had simply been there cutting through him.

Shadow’s foot came up and kicked him backward. Koya crashed through old glass windows, shattering them, and tumbled across the floor of an abandoned building, leaving a trail of blood.

’Copying Pale Sword’s ability takes a lot of power...’ Shadow thought with his hand trembling as he licked Koya’s blood off his lips and the side of his face.

It was tasty...

Pale Sword had the ability to bypass any sort of sensing by moving so fast that she gave the illusion of appearing behind people’s heads.

He couldn’t maintain it for long but he didn’t need to.

He couldn’t see or hear it but Mio and Pale Sword were very surprised at this development in the mansion.

"He’s taking quite a lot of time." Shadow muttered as he walked forward casually. "Is it possible that he died from that hit? But Boss said he had some higher healing factor or something."

He phased through the shadows and appeared inside the house where he had sent Koya flying. There was no sign of him but there were pods made of blood all around.

On the walls... the floor... the ceiling... It was simply dozens of them and he stepped on one.

The next instant all of them glowed crimson and each released a converging beam of blood that shot through the entire house from every angle, destroying it completely.

The structure collapsed in on itself. When the blood faded, Shadow pressed his chest. There were several holes punched through the shadow coating his body... however they healed almost immediately and he looked around, scanning the rubble.

His eyes found Koya standing in the ruins completely shirtless now with the wound of the diagonal slash completely gone.

It was like Shadow hadn’t even cut him in the first place.

"Yo." Koya gave a salute as he drew his sword out of the ground. "Keep up."

BOOM!

Koya was off, leaving the battlefield. Shadow gritted his teeth before phasing into the shadows to chase.

The scenery changed as Koya dashed through streets congested with monsters using Speed Blitz while Shadow materialized in Koya’s own shadow, moving with him.

From behind, several shadow tendrils shot up like spears. Koya made a 180-degree turn mid-sprint and skidded backward, dodging the tendrils while coming to a complete stop.

Shadow materialized meters in front of him.

"There’s no hope for you." He made a hand sign.

Shadows expanded across the ground in every direction. This wasn’t Shadow Realm... it was something far different.

From everywhere, shadows branched out like roots, killing the several monsters lining the streets and absorbing them.

The tendrils grew from his side of the battlefield, hundreds of them, writhing like living things.

Shadow pointed at Koya.

All the shadows grew hostile and shot forward to kill him.

Koya dodged the first few tendrils... he went left, right, ducking under one, jumping over another but more kept coming.

He was forced to use Speed Blitz continuously just to stay ahead and his mana was draining fast.

One shadow tendril shot straight for his face. He moved to dodge, Speed Blitz carrying him sideways but the tendril split apart into dozens of smaller threads mid-flight, so thin they were nearly invisible.

They punched through his body before he could even process what was happening. Through both shoulders, pinning his arms and through his biceps and forearms.

They also went through his thighs and calves and even his abdomen in six different places. One thread punched clean through his left hand, another through his right foot. They kept him suspended in mid-air like a puppet on strings with his feet dangling above the ground.

None of them punctured vital organs... Shadow was too precise for that but having a thread pressing directly against the side of your beating heart, feeling it pulse against the foreign object inside your chest, was genuinely terrifying in a primal way that bypassed all logic.

For a moment, pure animal panic flooded Koya’s brain. He couldn’t move and couldn’t breathe properly. The threads were inside him but Calm Mind kicked in like cold water.

The panic disappeared and he activated Pain Suppression.

Several more tendrils exploded into thread-form, targeting the areas he could still move. They went through his hands, piercing between the bones in his fingers, through his wrists, through the meat of his palms. His feet, his ankles, his neck... not deep enough to kill but deep enough to pin. It should have hurt like nothing he’d ever experienced.

Pain Suppression made it feel like distant pressure. His mind stayed clear even as his blood dripped steadily to form a growing pool beneath him.

Shadow walked forward slowly, savoring it. The rest of the shadows receded as the threads connected directly to his hand.

"I’ve used these threads to kill 847 people." Shadow said conversationally as more of Koya’s blood leaked to the ground, dripping steadily. "I could end you now by puncturing your heart but I want you to have a slow death. Let you feel it happening. Should I puncture one of your lungs for good measure? Let you drown in your own blood?"

Koya gave him a bloody grin.

He swallowed two pills he’d been keeping at the top of his mouth. The Mana Surge pills from the batch he’d made.

Shadow was still talking when Koya’s mana spiked violently.

"What are you—"

Koya reached Mana Mode then he let out blue flames.

He didn’t release them from a singular point. He released them from inside his body. Each thread puncturing him burst aflame from the inside out. Shadow tried to detach... but Koya grabbed the threads with his free hand and pulled , dragging Shadow forward. The flames snaked along the threads into Shadow’s hand, consuming the shadow coating... then burning through to flesh. Shadow let out a shout as the flames ate through his hand.

This was beyond his calculations...

"A du... dual wielder?!" Shadow gritted his teeth, trying to will shadows to absorb the flames but Koya’s other hand which was already healing had reeled back.

Fighting Spirit coated his fist like armor and he threw the punch downward.

It hit Shadow’s face first, knocking all the air from his lungs, before the sheer force slammed his head into the ground.

Web-like cracks spread across the pavement in a ten-meter radius.

Koya staggered back and fell to one knee.

’I broke my hand.’ He thought. He’d been training Fighting Spirit and discovered something... it grew more powerful the more injured he was.

If he was on the brink of death, he could unleash devastating amounts. That strike had been very strong and maybe too strong.

His wounds slowly began healing and the dust cleared... Shadow was gone. Of course he was. He’d phased away at the last second.

’Just stay down...’ Koya thought while breathing hard.

A Blue-liner wasn’t built for physical endurance but they had absolutely massive mana reserves... pools that could dwarf what Koya had even with Mana Surge pills.

And crucially, one had to spend significant time as a four-liner before the body automatically committed to Blue or Red specialization.

There was no way to speed-run through the ranking process. ’I’m glad I can somehow keep up with powerful opponents through all these skills and tricks, but what does that actually mean if I can’t finish the kill? What’s the point of surviving if I can’t win?’

If he didn’t kill Shadow here and now, the Order would come for his sister. For Nami, who wasn’t even supposed to be dragged into this mess in the first place.

Maybe even for the girls too... Victoria, Yuna, Akemi. Who said there wasn’t an Order operative watching over them right this second, waiting for Shadow’s signal?

’This damn world.’ His chest finished healing and the flesh knitted back together.

Everything came back to bite him in the ass eventually. Every choice led to new consequences. ’I guess that just means I have to get even stronger... faster than they can adapt.’

But even that was easier said than done... This wasn’t a game where you could grind levels or respawn after death. Life didn’t have save points.

If you died here, you died for real. Your sister died. Everyone you cared about died. Game over with no continues.

’So I should give my all or die trying.’

The shadows ahead shook. Shadow emerged, his ninja mask broken in half, revealing the bottom portion of his face. It was...

"A face only a mother could love." The words escaped Koya involuntarily.

How did the guy’s upper face look completely smooth and his lower face look like melted hell? That was quite a look. He wasn’t even ugly like this in the past, a few fans had called him a cute fat boy after all.

Shadow gritted his teeth.

"Damn you! Y-you did this... If Numb hadn’t died, he would have given me the cure dammit!"

"Is that what he’s mad about?" Koya muttered. The four girls in the mansion had the same thought.

If he was that angry, shouldn’t he be attacking Pale Sword?

...

’Once again... it’s the same thing over and over.’ Hakai thought as she drank juice. These men were more comfortable bullying someone weaker rather than challenging the strong. Koya could have run away but he was still fighting.

Sure they’d used his sister as leverage but at the end of the day, he was standing his ground.

’Very good... With a double affinity too... I have decided to keep you alive Amagi Koya, be grateful.’

...

"You know there’s no point in living if you can’t be beautiful." Koya said, channeling things he’d learned in his past life about people and society and the unfairness of it all.

"Beautiful people are naturally treated better than average people... that’s just how the world works. I don’t mean to brag though but I have several women willing to do what I want, and it’s not only because I have power but because I’m genuinely handsome as well. You on the other hand?"

He gestured at Shadow’s ruined face. "I can see why someone like you could have a girlfriend who would probably cheat on you. Who would stay loyal to that?"

Silence fell... Complete, absolute silence. In both the battlefield and the living room where four women sat frozen with their mouths open, unable to believe he’d actually said it.

Then Koya took a handful of pills from his storage ring and gobbled them down without hesitation.

The remaining Mana Surge Pills... all of them at once. Taking so many simultaneously would cause minor brain damage according to the System’s warning, but did that actually matter? He could heal from brain damage.

Heal could fix anything except torn limbs given enough time.

The whole point was using his skills at maximum output so he could live!

Shadow gritted his teeth and took a step forward to finish this... suddenly his whole world trembled violently. His vision blurred at the edges.

He was poisoned. But how? When did he get poisoned?

’When...?’ Shadow asked himself as he dropped hard to one knee, his katana clattering from nerveless fingers. It was strong poison too... a concentrated and lethal one.

He could feel it burning through his veins like acid. ’How did this happen?’

He could only remember one moment of contact... tasting Koya’s blood when it sprayed across his face during that diagonal slash...

’So he poisoned his own blood?’ Shadow’s eyes widened in horrified realization. ’Meaning he’s poisoned too... this guy was genuinely planning to kill himself just to take me down with him.’

Shadow staggered, trying to stand. Then why was he the one falling while Koya remained standing upright?

Koya grinned.

The poison he drank was taking hold.

Shadow tried to spring forward however hackles surrounded his heart.

’Boss has made her decision...’ The shackles would kill him if he disobeyed. ’She’s willing to sacrifice my life because of this... weak thing?’

His power was rapidly fading. The Order force-awakened children when they were young and the ones who grew powerful entered the Top Ten.

As the Order made you, they had the power to break you. His power was being taken away... He gritted his teeth and focused every last bit of mana into killing Koya.

Koya raised his hands to the sky. There was a small rumble and Shadow’s eyes widened.

’No... no... no...’ The rumbling continued.

Koya reached Mana Mode. ’Triple... Triple affinity?!’

A bolt of lightning descended from the sky.

Koya was sure it wouldn’t kill him then he looked at Shadow’s face. The blue crest had turned into four lines... then three lines and then two lines.

The lightning was right above him. Koya’s eyes widened as the last crest drained, leaving Shadow as a mundane.

The lightning collided.

Shadow was blasted into ash, creating a deeper crater in the ground. Koya staggered back as his head rang... but something escaped from the ground.

A final shadow tendril and it tore a hole right below his chest.

Koya felt his life fading as he collapsed unconscious.

’But hey... at least I won.’