“……Ji, Jin Yuha!? How did you get here!?”

Lee Yoo-ri’s eyes widened in shock, as if she had seen a ghost.

Whoosh.

A club swung towards the dazed Lee Yoo-ri.

I pushed off from the tree I was standing on and lunged towards her.

At the same time, I twisted my body and swung Moonlight.

The blade left an afterimage.

Screech!

“Kieek!!!”

Puff!

The goblin attacking Lee Yoo-ri met its end with a short death cry, and its blood splattered on Lee Yoo-ri’s face.

I landed in front of her.

“Oops, sorry.”

I reached out and wiped the bloodstain from her cheek.

Lee Yoo-ri stared at me, still unable to believe that I was here.

“Why are you looking at me like that, Soup?”

I grinned and spoke casually, and Lee Yoo-ri’s face contorted strangely.

“So, Soup…?”

“Ah, right. I haven’t called you that yet.”

“……”

Lee Yoo-ri bit her lip.

This girl was really fun to tease.

“Ah, no! What are you trying to do now!? How did you even get here!?”

Lee Yoo-ri finally snapped, unable to contain her frustration. I frowned. She had made a foolish decision, and now she was scolding me?

“A last-minute stand-in is still a party member, right? The team leader made a foolish choice, so a party member came to rescue her.”

Whoosh.

As we spoke, a goblin’s club swung towards us.

I swung my sword to its arm.

Screech!

The goblin’s arm was sliced in two by the force of its own swing.

“Kieeek!!!”

‘Legendary, indeed.’

Lee Yoo-ri’s eyes widened for a moment, and then she sighed.

“Now I see. You do have some skill in killing goblins… but I never cared about these goblins in the first place!?”

Lee Yoo-ri pointed at the red-skinned goblin approaching us from a distance.

“That’s the boss, the Blood Goblin! It’s a C-grade monster! Are you going to take it on!?”

“……Hmm, it was quite a challenge to get here, to be honest.”

I continued to swing my sword mechanically.

It had been challenging.

There seemed to be a goblin maternity ward here, with an absurd number of them.

Of course, my swordsmanship specialization was S-rank.

It was an embarrassingly high grade for an E-grade gate.

“Kieeek!”

“Kkeek!”

In fact, I was just lazily swinging my sword, and the goblins’ limbs were being sliced off.

However, sword-using characters in Velvet School Life had a common limitation.

They were designed for 1:1 combat, focusing on dealing explosive damage to bosses in a short time.

In other words, they had strong single-target damage but lacked area-of-effect attacks.

Even if I tried to use area-of-effect skills, the goblins were so weak that it was faster to just slice them with my sword.

So, I had decided to slice through them one by one, hide in the trees, and repeat the process to get here.

It had been a good swordsmanship practice session.

“But it was only challenging to get here. That red-skinned guy is nothing.”

“Nothing…?”

Lee Yoo-ri trailed off, unconvinced.

The Blood Goblin stood before us, and the surrounding goblins slowly backed away, forming a large circle.

“Haa, what a show-off. It thinks it’s a boss, huh? But isn’t it a little disrespectful to do this after sending seven groups of people at us so far?”

Thud, thud.

The Blood Goblin took its place in front of us.

Red eyes, bulging veins on its reddish skin, and horns on its head.

It held a rusty sword with a sickle-like tip.

“Keh-he.”

The goblin stuck out its green tongue.

Drip, drip.

Its tongue dripped saliva.

” What are you doing looking at us like a tasty meal?”

I assessed the difference between us as I faced the goblin.

If I hadn’t gotten used to swinging my sword, I might not have noticed.

Yes, now I knew for sure.

There was no way I could lose to this thing.

‘Hmm, but this would be a good experience for Lee Yoo-ri…’

Before we met, I would have done everything in my power to save Lee Yoo-ri .

Now that I’m by her side, there’s nothing particularly dangerous.

From the beginning, the essence of this game is to nurture the characters selected through gacha.

Of course, I hadn’t gacha-ed Lee Yoo-ri, and I wasn’t a ‘User’ of the Velvet School Life game…

“Team Leader. Let’s fight together.”

I turned to Lee Yoo-ri and spoke.

“……Huh?”

“You were going to let me fight on the way back anyway, right? It’s just us, not the usual three. Can’t you handle it?”

Lee Yoo-ri looked at me with an incredulous expression.

“……Are you sane?”

“If you’re too tired, you can just watch a man fight alone. It’s fine with me.”

Pzzzt.

A vein popped out on Lee Yoo-ri’s forehead.

“Jin Yuha……”

She tightened her grip on her shield and spoke in a chilling voice.

“I was going to fight this thing on my own anyway.”

And she charged towards the Blood Goblin with her shield raised.

.

.

.

Swish!

The Blood Goblin swung its attack.

A straightforward attack.

Lee Yoo-ri blocked it with her shield.

Boom!!!!

“Kwiik—”

It was heavy.

The impact of the block reverberated through her bones, and the ground beneath her feet caved in.

‘This is really… a whole different level…’

Its strength and speed were far superior to the regular goblins.

To dodge its attacks, one had to predict its movements in advance, but its speed was too fast, making it difficult.

The best option was to anticipate its movements and bring the shield to the right spot.

And this guy was nothing?

What the hell was that man talking about?

Boom!

Lee Yoo-ri blocked a sword swing from the right, tilting her center of gravity…

Screech!

She was dragged back for a while.

“……So, what the hell is that man doing!?”

She was fighting the Blood Goblin alone, and the man who had suggested fighting together was nowhere to be seen.

‘Did he run away because he thought it was too much for him…?’

Lee Yoo-ri subconsciously looked for Jin Yuha, and her cheeks burned with embarrassment.

Originally, she had intended to fight this thing alone.

But now that she was facing it, it was more challenging than she had expected, and it felt ridiculous to look for him now.

But it was unfair.

‘He gave me hope, said we should fight together, and then he just disappeared!?’

She had already given up on living when she lured the goblins deep into the forest.

That man had suddenly appeared and given her hope, unasked.

And now, he had disappeared again. It was truly infuriating.

‘He should’ve just stayed away in the first place…’

Boom!!!

“Kwiik—”

Lee Yoo-ri braced herself and blocked another heavy blow, her eyes searching for Jin Yuha.

And as she glanced away…

Suddenly, a surge of joy filled her.

He.

Was here.

He hadn’t abandoned her.

‘He didn’t run away……!?’

But her joy was short-lived.

Something felt off.

Jin Yuha stood a short distance away, his sword sheathed, his face serious as he gripped the hilt.

He didn’t seem ready to jump in at any moment.

It felt like he was waiting for something, for the right moment.

‘……’

Goosebumps rose on Lee Yoo-ri’s skin.

Could it be…?

She remembered what he had said at lunchtime.

—There’s a moment when the tanker hits the goblin and passes it to the dealer.

Lee Yoo-ri bit her lip.

“……You crazy bastard. You’re really crazy.”

There’s a time and place for everything, and practicing wasn’t always a good idea.

‘We’ve never even practiced our combo, and he wants to do it now, against this Blood Goblin…?!’

If I blocked its attacks, could he somehow land a single blow and win?

But Jin Yuha seemed determined to stick to that combo, standing still like a statue.

Whoosh.

A little earlier, she had thought positively of him, and now she regretted it.

He was just a crazy bastard.

Crack.

Lee Yoo-ri clenched her teeth.

She focused her eyes on the Blood Goblin, who seemed to be underestimating her as an opponent.

“Yeah, you crazy bastard. Let’s do it. If you want to try that combo so badly, let’s make it work.”

Lee Yoo-ri gathered the remaining mana in her shield-wielding hand.

She bent her knees, ready to dash forward.

As the goblin slowly raised its sword above its head…

Thud!

Lee Yoo-ri charged forward.

Sssshh!

A fierce sword strike sliced through the air, threatening to split her skull.

The closer you are to the eye of the storm, the safer you are.

She got closer to the goblin, tilting her shield slightly.

The key to deflecting all attacks was to misalign the point of impact.

The sword and shield clashed.

Screech!

The shield and sword crossed, creating a harsh, grating sound, and the intense force caused sparks to fly as the shield began to push back the attack.

Her hand on the hilt trembled as if it would fall off at any moment.

“Hwuu—”

Lee Yoo-ri bit her lip and fixed her feet firmly on the ground.

She flexibly controlled her wrist, channeling the force away.

And…

Suddenly, the Blood Goblin’s stance faltered slightly.

‘Now!’

Lee Yoo-ri immediately dodged the sword and…

She pushed the shield like a lever, attacking and pushing the goblin over its waist.

“Kieeek—”

The Blood Goblin stumbled to the side, caught off guard by its opponent’s sudden move.

At that moment, Lee Yoo-ri turned to Jin Yoha.

And she could see.

As if he had been waiting for that moment.

He drew his sword and charged forward.

“Lampo.”

It was an instant.

A chill ran down her spine as a slender beam of light flashed before her eyes.

Before she knew it, the man was standing in front of her.

A red line was drawn across the Blood Goblin’s neck.

The goblin didn’t seem to realize its head had been severed.

“Kiee…”

Swish.

Jin Yuha sheathed his drawn sword.

At the same time.

Thud.

The Blood Goblin’s head rolled on the ground.

Jin Yuha turned towards her with a bright smile.

“Our combo worked quite well.”

She smiled back, and…

She raised her middle finger.