The Reincarnated Mercenary's Only Skill is Item Box

Chapter 13 - Entrance Exam(Part 7)

Hm, he's making a conscious effort to avoid getting too close to me, he's been circling around me across the arena, but he's kept his distance while attacking with his crossbows, and presumably setting Trap Spells all across the arena.

His Magic isn't at all suited for direct combat, honestly if some his previous opponents had been smarter and acted more cautiously, they probably could've defeated him. And if I didn't know what his Magic is capable of, there's a pretty good chance that I'd have lost this fight.

But I know what he can do, both his physical and Magical abilities, and I'm using that knowledge to ensure that I don't give him an opening. I'm more than happy to wait things out, until he has no choice but to force this fight into close range.

He's almost out of arrows, he's firing them less and less frequently now that he's only got a few left. He's also down to one blade, having flung the other one at me after I dented it with my grappling hook.

Meanwhile, I've been hiding behind my shield, rotating it across continuously as he keeps trying to race around it, but at his current distance, I have more than enough time to react and adjust the shield.

But this also means that I'm currently stuck on defense...I don't plan on using my guns, and throwing weapons would be wasted given his agility, speed and reaction time, so this has kinda devolved into a battle of attrition.

Arrows are completely ineffective against my shield, his Trap Spells are useless so long as I don't step on any of them, so his only remaining option is to force a close range fight.

And if and when that happens, I'll have the advantage.

Suddenly, he came to an abrupt halt, a grimace on his face as he paused before raising his arms up at an angle, triggering his crossbows and firing out his last two arrows up into the air...ah, I see, he's trying to get the arrows to drop down towards me.

As he began zipping in my direction, staying low while holding his blade out in front of himself, I swiftly pulled the shield out of the floor of the arena and raised it above myself, one of the arrows pinging off the shield while the other missed completely...hm, I see, I get why he didn't try this before, his accuracy is low when shooting like this.

I swiftly drew out a katana from my Item Box as I put away the shield, right as he closed in on me and slashed at my knees. I sprang back to evade his slash, being careful not to jump back too far...I don't have a whole lot of room to work with, he's almost definitely set Trap Spells all around the arena, so I have to stay within the range of the space he avoided stepping onto.

I then planted my feet and got into my stance as he shot towards me, his lips moving rapidly, before abruptly halting as he closed in on me and jumped back...

"[Manual Trigger]!" He exclaimed, my eyes widening in alarm as I quickly sprang back, an intense explosion bursting out from the spot he'd stepped onto before jumping back.

While I evaded the blast itself, the force of the explosion struck me and knocked me off-balance as I landed, causing me to stumble back as he shot through the cloud of smoke caused by the explosion, racing towards me with a determined look in his eyes.

Damn it, the more he moves around, the less room I have to work with, every single spot he's stepped onto potentially has been set with a Trap Spell...I can't let this go on for much longer, or I'm screwed.

Without bothering to regain my balance, and before he could close in on me again, I rapidly chanted and took out an object from my Item Box, dropping it onto the ground the instant I took hold of it.

A wary look appeared on his face as he quickly halted and leapt back, right as a massive burst of smoke exploded from the object I'd dropped, a smoke bomb. As the thick cloud of dark smoke spread out across the area, I quickly took out my goggles and put them on, switching to thermal vision mode, finding and locking onto his position as the visibility in the arena disappeared.