Cudia's ultimate combo from the Game was a five-step killing technique executed from the very first stage.

  The first two steps involved closing the distance with Lightning Step and restricting the opponent's movement with Shadow Stomp.

  The third step was the first critical gamble—a binary choice.

  There wasn't even time to consider whether I had won that gamble.

  The sensor sacrificed from my left arm detected it—Cudia's right palm strike, unched amidst searing pain.

  An attack wrapped in lightning, meant solely to completely paralyze the opponent.

  Lightning Palm Wave.

  If it struck my torso—or more accurately, my heart—I would be reduced to nothing more than a lifeless puppet.

  But—

  "!?"

  Magic Edge could also be used like this.

  Lightning-based attacks automatically discharge upon impact.

  Given that property, even the slightest contact would trigger a discharge, channeling it through the Magic Edge.

  Magic Edge was a non-elemental skill that formed bdes of magical energy anywhere and everywhere.

  The compatibility between lightning magic and non-elemental magic could be considered either good or bad in this case.

  If one tried to block it straightforwardly, the lightning would travel through the non-elemental magic bdes and electrocute the defender, making it impossible to defend against—a clear disadvantage.

  But if the lightning magic was instead channeled through the magic bdes as an offensive skill—

  "Nghh!?"

  —it could be repurposed as a means to counterattack.

  I used an upward block with the Magic Edge in my left hand, deflecting the palm strike upward.

  But a clean block was impossible.

  I knew that, yet I couldn’t completely evade it.

  The lightning surged across the Magic Edge, which I had formed like a pulley running from my left hand, across my back, to my right hand. A burning pain shot through my arms and back.

  I gritted my teeth, tears nearly spilling, but it was still better than taking a direct hit.

  And this was the setup for the next attack—the fourth step.

  Another binary choice.

  After the right palm strike, would the left follow with a fist or a kick?

  Normally, the third step would completely immobilize the opponent, the fourth would wear down their defenses, and the fifth would deliver the finishing blow.

  But I had blocked the Lightning Palm Strike, and now my right hand’s Magic Edge, crackling with lightning, was aimed at Cudia, who had overcommitted to her stance.

  If she didn’t block this, her combo would end here.

  That was precisely why she had to use a kick to defend.

  By guiding her movements, I had sealed her fourth step.

  The trade-off was a right kick imbued with defense-reducing effects.

  "Tch!?"

  A Colpse-Type foot technique—Colpse Kick Strike—fractured my right wrist.

  I had dismissed the Magic Edge and taken the kick with my bare flesh, so the damage was substantial.

  I had expected it, but even so, the pain—something I had never felt in the game—threatened to overwhelm my mind. I couldn’t afford even a fraction of a second’s dey. Clenching my teeth, I endured the pain and prepared for the final choice.

  My weapon had been knocked away, both arms were broken, and my legs were immobilized.

  This time, the choice was between up or forward.

  Tears blurred my vision.

  But I didn’t even have time to blink.

  Through that hazy outline, I had to predict Cudia’s next move.

  Based on her behavior up to this point, a forward attack was statistically more likely.

  An overhead strike was inherently a high-power move, but it required the Lightning Palm Wave to nd first to immobilize the target.

  To attack from above, she would have to release Shadow Stomp, so if she wanted to maintain the immobilization, that possibility was low.

  But if she went for a frontal strike—Twin Dragon Strike Palm—it would mean certain defeat.

  According to fvor text, it was a finishing move likened to the roar of a dragon.

  A high-tier martial skill where both palms, charged with immense magical energy, delivered a devastating impact.

  With both arms disabled and my legs locked, there was no way to defend against it with my current skill setup.

  If I jumped, I still had a chance to win.

  If I crouched, defeat was guaranteed.

  Which would it be!?

  A showdown with fate.

  Either way, I had to act in the direction that offered a path to victory.

  If I waited to see and react, I’d never make it in time.

  The moment my legs were freed, I had to move in sync.

  "STOOOOOP!!"

  Just as I thought that, Nell’s scream echoed from outside my blurred vision, and something came to an abrupt halt right in front of my chest.

  No—not something.

  Ah… so I lost the gamble after all.

  As my legs were freed, pain surged through my body as if remembering its purpose.

  "Liberta!!"

  Unable to withstand it, my knees buckled. Just as I was about to colpse forward, something caught me.

  Not Nell.

  This was—

  "Well fought."

  Cudia.

  And then, a comforting warmth enveloped me.

  Come to think of it, I had felt a simir warmth during the Earth Dragon incident.

  A healing spell, applied gently to avoid causing pain.

  Slowly, I was id on my back, and the warmth spread throughout my body.

  The pain faded bit by bit, my tears dried, and when I blinked, I saw Nell peering down at me with worry and Cudia casting the healing spell.

  Behind them, priests assisted in the recovery.

  Under their thorough treatment, my body gradually regenerated.

  "How do you feel?""Amazing. No pain at all."

  In less than five minutes, I had fully recovered.

  Not just scrapes and bruises—even my broken arms were fixed in an instant.

  "IDIOT!!"

  As I moved my arms to test their recovery, Nell shouted.

  "Even if you wanted to fight, you didn’t have to push yourself that hard!! Why didn’t you give up halfway!? When your spear was knocked away and one arm was useless, didn’t you realize you couldn’t win!? Why didn’t you stop then!?"

  Her face was strained, tears welling in her eyes as she gred at me.

  Her hands clutched the hem of her clothes so tightly they wrinkled.

  She must have imagined a much calmer fight.

  She never expected it would turn into a life-or-death struggle.

  "Sorry."

  To Nell, my defeat had been certain the moment my left arm was broken.

  Who would’ve thought I’d keep fighting after that?

  "But I thought I still had a chance, so I kept going.""There was no chance!! You were barely holding on just blocking Cudia-sama’s attacks!!"

  She was emotional, but her words weren’t wrong.

  After my left arm was broken, the final exchange was just me desperately weathering Cudia’s onsught. In the end, I lost the gamble—and the match.

  "That’s not true.""Huh!? Cudia-sama, you could’ve stopped earlier, right!? You knew Liberta couldn’t win!""That’s where you’re mistaken, Nell. He absolutely could have won in that final exchange—had I made the wrong decision."

  To an outside observer, Nell’s argument was perfectly reasonable.

  "…Eh?"

  But the momentum of her anger stalled when Cudia—the one who had dominated the fight—spoke those words.

  The overwhelming victor had just admitted I might have won.

  Confused, Nell looked at Cudia as if demanding an expnation.

  "Liberta, answer me honestly. You knew what my next moves would be, didn’t you?""…Yes."

  Of course she’d ask me to clear up the confusion.

  If I had perfectly predicted and countered everything, it was only natural she’d suspect I knew her fighting style beforehand.

  "Normally, I would have knocked you out in the first strike and ended it there. But you adapted to my movements. At first, I thought it was luck. But when you distanced yourself, dodged my energy bullets, and then closed in again with that throw—it was timed perfectly with my breathing. That’s not something you can pull off without precise anticipation."

  If a weaker opponent kept countering like this, anyone would grow suspicious.

  In truth, I had predicted her patterns based on my experience fighting her in the Game Era.

  "It was as if you could see the future."

  Had my actions really seemed like future sight to her?

  "So, at the end, I used that technique to confirm. My ultimate move—one that had never failed to defeat those who witnessed it. Yet you countered even that. From the first step to Shadow Stomp, you reacted as if you already knew. You even used your injured arm to deflect the third strike and turned it against me."

  Well, if you thought about it normally, a kid countering everything on their first try would make anyone suspicious.

  "And then you blocked the fourth move. By then, both your arms were useless, and I thought you’d give up. But even through tears, your eyes hadn’t surrendered."

  I understood she was just recounting the fight, but it felt like I was being cornered.

  "Liberta, answer me. How were you pnning to win at that moment?"

  When she asked with such certainty, I had no choice but to relent.

  "If Cudia-san had used Shining Shadow Meteor instead of Twin Dragon Strike Palm, I would’ve formed a Magic Edge on my leg and countered with a skewering thrust."

  Shining Shadow Meteor was one of Cudia’s skills, a single strike combining the opposing attributes of light and darkness.

  The motion involved leaping into the air and delivering a flying kick accelerated by gravity to devastating effect.

  The damage hitbox was the foot and the spiraling bands of light and darkness around it.

  The gaps between the bands were narrow—one misstep, and my leg could’ve been severed—but after experiencing it thousands of times, I had the timing memorized.

  "So you even knew my trump card. I had originally pnned to finish with Twin Dragon Strike Palm, but Shining Shadow Meteor was an option until the st moment. Yet, I had a bad feeling."

  Had she used it, I was confident I could’ve countered.

  A full split, a kick upward, forming a Magic Edge at the tip of my foot for the counter.

  "This intuition has saved my life countless times. It seems it was right again."

  A final gamble—sniping Cudia as she descended at high speed.

  I had succeeded before, but this time, the NPC’s behavior defied game logic. Her instincts had foiled my pn.

  "It was a slim chance to begin with."

  If she had ignored her intuition and chosen the skill herself, there might’ve been hope. But the fact that I couldn’t force her into that position meant it was over.

  "But you still didn’t have to go that far!!""Indeed. Though it’s odd for me, the one who fought and wounded you, to say this—why did you challenge me? At first, I thought you were like any other challenger drawn by my reputation. But you’re different."

  Battered and broken, I had lost in the end because skill alone couldn’t bridge the gap in stats.

  "Answer me, Child of the Gods.""…Eh?"

  After a crushing defeat, I was about to expin why I had challenged Cudia—when suddenly, I was given a strange title.

  "Why the confusion? You as well, Nell. Wisdom, action, experience—no ordinary child could possess these."

  Child of the Gods.

  Huh? Was that a title from the Game Era?

  No, I didn’t remember anything like that.

  "You don’t seem to be an elder of the Dwarf race, so that leaves only one possibility: you are a blessed child, gifted by the gods. Surely you were aware?""I’ve never met any gods.""Naturally. The gods do not appear before mortals. They only give. That is all.""Ehh—"

  I was self-aware as a reincarnated individual.

  But as someone familiar with tropes, I had no memory of receiving anything from a god during my near-starvation orphan start.

  "Hmm.""Most likely, the one who granted you power was Kefri, the God of Wisdom.""God of Wisdom… Hmm, did I get some special knowledge?"

  So being suddenly called divinely blessed left me at a loss.

  "Nell, why do you look so convinced…?"

  But while I was still confused, Cudia tilted her head in thought, Nell nodded in understanding, and the surrounding priests gaped in shock.

  …Uh-oh.

  Did I just get hit with a bombshell at the worst possible time?