I'm sorry for the late post.
I've been busy lately and haven't been able to write as much as I'd like.
Also, I'm sorry I couldn't reply to thank those of you who reported typos and other errors.
From the bag emerged a Cyclops, a Troll, and a Wyvern.
Moreover, while a normal Wyvern would be around three to four meters in body length, this Wyvern easily exceeded five meters. Normally their body color is moss green, with variations in shade depending on the individual or a shift to a light red during mating season, but the Wyvern that emerged from the bag was a pale grayish-black.
From that, I figured this Wyvern had to be either a subspecies or a mutant strain, but I couldn't tell which.
"Namitaro, have you ever seen anything like that?"
"Before you ask me, why don't you try Appraising it yourself...? Well, it's not quite that big, but I've seen one before. That was probably a mutant strain."
I was impressed by how knowledgeable Namitaro was, but the distance between us and the Wyvern meant my Appraisal wouldn't work. When I told Namitaro about this, he looked exasperated.
"What's this, Tenma? After over ten years together, you still haven't gotten the hang of it...? Listen — while you have Appraisal active, look at the target like you're concentrating Magic Power into your eyes. Right... at first it might feel similar to focusing the lens on a telescope. Once you get used to it, you'll be able to focus just like you would with your own eyes."
Following Namitaro's advice, I tried using Appraisal. It didn't work at first, but after a few attempts, I started to get the hang of it.
Name... Wyvern
Species... Wyvern (Mutant Strain)
It was a simple Appraisal result, but it was a success nonetheless. What I learned from the Appraisal was that the Tamer didn't seem to have much affection for his Familiars. The Wyvern's name was simply "Wyvern." That meant he normally just called it by its species name.
Just to be sure, I used Appraisal on the Cyclops and Troll as well, but the result was the same — their species names were being used as their names.
"If that guy had caught me, would he have just named me 'Carp'?"
Setting aside whether "Carp" would be an acceptable name for Namitaro's species, that did seem like the type of person who thought of Familiars as mere tools.
The crowd was going wild at the appearance of the new Familiar. In a large city like the Royal Capital, you could see a Wyvern being used as a Familiar or being hunted down several times a year, and it was well known as a Monster that many aspiring Tamers dreamed of having at least once. So the chaos was nothing like what had happened during Solomon's match.
However, with this Wyvern joining the fight, the Demon Soldiers had been thrown at a severe disadvantage in one fell swoop.
Had it only been Cyclopses and Trolls, they would have stood a decent chance depending on how well Garibar and the knights coordinated. But once the enemy added aerial threats to the mix, the situation changed entirely.
After all, none of the Demon Soldiers could fight in the air. At worst, they would be subjected to one-sided attacks from above.
They were, nominally, knights of a Marquis household, so they should have learned at least some offensive magic. But a Wyvern wasn't weak enough to be brought down by ordinary attack magic, and there was no way a Wyvern would descend low enough to fall within the knights' physical reach.
From the looks of it, Garibar seemed stronger and cleverer than both the Cyclops and the Troll.
Even so, the gap probably wasn't large enough for Garibar alone to overwhelm a Cyclops and a Troll.
If this were taking place not in the Arena but on open ground with obstacles and no time limit, maybe they could have managed somehow…
Even Marquis Samons, the leader of the Demon Soldiers, had approached right up to the edge of the Fighting Stage, wearing a grim expression.
In the midst of this, the referee gave the signal to begin the match.
The moment the signal was given, the Wyvern took to the air while the Cyclops and the Troll stepped forward to form a wall.
The opposing team didn't seem to change their Formation in any fundamental way. The only difference from the Formation seen earlier was that the Wyvern now occupied the airspace above where the warriors had been standing—a lopsided 3-1-1 arrangement of sorts.
In response, the Demon Soldiers advanced with Garibar at the front and the knights arrayed in two rows just behind him.
Seeing the referee move away, the Demon Soldiers began their advance while holding Formation.
The opposing team appeared to adopt an intercepting posture, and the Wyvern let loose a fireball as a probing attack.
The fireball was roughly forty centimeters in diameter—fairly powerful by the look of it, though somewhat slow. It seemed to take several seconds before the Wyvern could spit out another.
The Demon Soldiers dodged the first and second shots by moving left and right, but the third came in at close range and nearly hit them head-on.
However, Garibar swung his club and batted the incoming fireball away behind them. The club sent fragments scattering and appeared to have shattered on impact, but the fragments turned out to be only the outer layer—from the midpoint onward, a thick metal rod was now exposed.
It seemed that the club Garibar carried wasn't made entirely of wood. Rather, it had a metal rod running through its core, and that dark metal rod might well have been forged from demonic iron.
While this was happening, the Tamer apparently gave new orders, and the Cyclops and the Troll charged at Garibar. They likely reasoned that letting Garibar—who wielded such a sturdy weapon—close the distance would be disastrous.
Perhaps that Tamer had realized…
Garibar…
Perhaps they figured there was no way he would spend money on the weapons he used.
After all, that Tamer himself didn't even give weapons to his own Familiars.
Equipment
for
equipment
— spending money on something like that would be foolish, so they assumed his opponent wouldn't spend money either... Is that what they were thinking?
As Namiitaro said, it could be the kind of logic a second-rate Tamer or below might actually believe.
Moreover, even though they charged in, there seemed to be no concept of coordination between the two — they just raised their arms and charged straight ahead. It didn't look like proper orders were being given.
Because of this, a gap had formed between the Cyclops and the slow-footed Troll.
Depending on how you looked at it, it almost resembled the Cyclops versus the Demon Soldiers — one against five.
The moment the Cyclops closed in on Garibar, the knights behind him burst out to the left and right.
This caused the Cyclops to momentarily turn its attention toward the knights.
Garibar didn't let the Cyclops' opening go to waste and delivered a devastating body tackle. The bounced-back Cyclops crashed into the Troll positioned behind it, and both went down.
Garibar moved in to deliver a follow-up attack on the two, who were still struggling to get up, but was blocked by a Wyvern swooping in.
Garibar attacked while batting away the fireballs the Wyvern spat out with his club, but the Wyvern retreated out of attack range before Garibar's blows could land.
The knights who had moved away behind Garibar paired up, splitting into those who would launch magic attacks and those who would defend against the enemy's magic, trying to close the distance — but the attack spells launched by the Tamer and the mage made it difficult to get close.
While the knights were struggling, the Cyclops and the Troll regrouped and attempted to turn toward the knights, but the moment they turned their backs, Garibar landed a kick on the Troll.
The slow-moving Troll was too late to react to Garibar's approach and went tumbling spectacularly, but the damage was less than expected, and it got right back up.
The Cyclops, on the other hand, threw a punch at Garibar the instant the Troll was kicked.
Garibar reacted to the Cyclops' attack and blocked with his hand, but the timing of the blow happened to coincide with the moment he was standing on one leg, so Garibar was sent tumbling as well.
Garibar tumbled away, and the Cyclops tried to stomp on him over and over, but Garibar dodged while rolling, then used the momentum of his roll to get back to his feet.
However, in that opening, the Wyvern had been sent charging toward the knights, and the knights found themselves in a desperate situation.
Garibar immediately hurled the club he'd refused to let go of even while tumbling toward the Wyvern.
The Wyvern was in the middle of launching fireballs at the knights, so it had its back turned to Garibar and didn't seem to notice the incoming club.
Spinning end over end as it flew, the club slammed into the base of the Wyvern's tail with a heavy, resounding thud.
The Wyvern let out an earsplitting scream from the sudden, agonizing pain, but despite losing its balance, it managed to stabilize and avoid crashing to the ground.
However, its flanking movements had become noticeably stiff compared to before, so it had clearly taken considerable damage.
The knights had been caught in a pincer attack from the opposing team for a brief moment, but since Garibar quickly dealt with the situation, only a small number of fireballs made it through from the Wyvern. As a result, they avoided any direct hits and took no significant damage.
In the series of exchanges between the Familiars, the opponent's Familiars — the Wyvern included — had all gone after Garibar, forcing him into a three-on-one fight. However, this development worked in favor of the Demon Soldiers, so the knights deliberately did not move to support Garibar.
The Tamer, alarmed by this, called out in an attempt to summon at least the Cyclops back, but because the two were too far apart, the Cyclops didn't seem to hear the command.
The Tamer clicked his tongue in frustration, but then directed his mages to unleash offensive magic at the knights who were closing in from both flanks.
However, unlike before, the knights had split into two groups, which inevitably reduced the density of magical attacks, and the knights were advancing at a faster pace than before.
The knights, for their part, knew this was the critical moment, so they pushed forward aggressively without worrying about taking some damage.
The knights' swords were steadily drawing closer to the Tamer's party.
Meanwhile, Garibar, fighting three opponents at once, was putting on a ferocious display.
Rather than fighting all three simultaneously, Garibar concentrated his attacks on the Cyclops while keeping careful distance from the Troll — approaching it only to pull back, pulling back only to approach again — maintaining just enough distance to keep it aware of him at all times.
The Wyvern seemed to have eyes only for Garibar and showed no signs of heading toward the knights for the time being, apparently not too concerned about the distance.
Moreover, due to Garibar's earlier attack, the Wyvern's speed had dropped dramatically compared to the start of the fight, and with rage apparently clouding its judgment, its attacks had become sloppy.
It wasn't quite at the point of launching fireballs indiscriminately enough to hit its own allies yet, but that was only a matter of time.
The Cyclops, having all of Garibar's attacks focused on it, was trading blows with Garibar at close range, but in terms of technique Garibar completely outclassed it. It hadn't been able to land a single clean hit since the exchange began, and having taken blow after blow, it had accumulated considerable damage.
When the Cyclops began to stumble and the three beasts' positions nearly overlapped in a straight line, Garibar made his move.
Garibar punched the stumbling Cyclops with all his strength, sending it flying, then charged toward the Troll, leaping into the air and stomping down on it.
And from there, he jumped once more — straight into the Wyvern hovering overhead.
Garibar's fist connected squarely with the Wyvern's face, and the creature let out a shriek as it plummeted from the sky.
After landing cleanly, Garibar broke into a sprint without sparing a single glance at the three beasts tumbling on the ground, heading to provide backup for the knights.
Having lost all of his Familiars in an instant, the Tamer panicked. He left the attacks on the knights to his magic user and turned his attention to Garibar, launching an assault of his own.
Stones flew toward Garibar, but he deflected what he could and smashed the rest aside with his bare fists, taking the hits head-on — all while closing the distance to the Tamer in as straight a line as possible.
The Tamer then conjured several stone walls roughly twenty centimeters thick in Garibar's path using Stone Wall, trying to buy time, but Garibar shattered those with his fists as well.
Witnessing Garibar's relentless advance, the spectators felt something akin to fear — and yet were wrapped in an even greater thrill.
However, Garibar was far from unscathed. Having traded blows with the Cyclops, guarded against the Wyvern's attacks, and drawn the Troll's attention, his body was battered and his spirit frayed. What was more, the fists that had been punching through incoming stones and breaking walls were now spurting blood — a truly painful sight.
If Garibar had any room to spare, he would have gone out of his way to dodge the Tamer's magic. The fact that he was punching through everything was nothing other than proof that his own stamina was nearing its limit.
Garibar was panicking. And that panic had created a massive opening.
The instant Garibar shattered the last wall the Tamer had conjured, he was blown forward. His back was engulfed in flames.
The sudden turn of events threw his allied knights into confusion, their movements faltering.
Fireballs continued to rain down on the fallen Garibar.
He rolled to dodge them, but took several hits, his stamina being steadily whittled away.
While observing Garibar's plight,
the one behind the fireballs
slowly rose to its feet and began to spread its wings.
Whether it had been feigning defeat moments ago or its recovery speed was simply that fast was unclear, but either way, a troublesome enemy had revived at the worst possible moment.
The wyvern that had soared into the air glided toward Garibar and slammed into him.
Garibar managed to get back to his feet, but his knees were shaking uncontrollably, and he couldn't dodge the wyvern.
Two knights moved to rush to Garibar's aid after he was sent flying, but they were cut off by the mage's attacks.
The Tamer also began attacking the other knights, and the knights were completely pinned down.
To make matters worse, the troll that Garibar had been stomping on rose to its feet and was approaching him with earth-shaking footsteps. At least the Cyclops remained down, but the defeat of the Demon Soldiers was looking increasingly inevitable.
The knights hesitated for a split second between going to support Garibar or taking down the Tamer. That half-heartedness robbed them of their momentum, and Garibar—already battered and bloodied—was being subjected to the wyvern's relentless assault, his situation growing more dangerous by the second.
At that moment, the wyvern pulled back sharply to create distance. Then, timing itself with the troll's advance, it rocketed in at tremendous speed.
Garibar sensed the wyvern's intent and tried to twist his body out of the way on instinct, but he was just a fraction too slow.
The instant the wyvern collided with Garibar, his left arm—where the creature had clamped its jaws—was torn clean off from around the shoulder, spinning through the air in a spray of crimson.
Before Garibar could even finish screaming, the troll delivered a devastating body blow.
Seeing Garibar rolling across the ground in tatters, screams erupted from the audience seats.
The pain in his shoulder kept Garibar from passing out, and he writhed in agony. A considerable amount of blood was streaming from his body—at this rate, he would bleed to death.
The wyvern circled around and was preparing to swoop in for another attack on Garibar.
However, at that very moment, the referee rushed over.
"Match over! Winner: 'Dendrobates'!"
The referee declared the result with a booming voice louder than anything heard before.
It seemed the Marquis had conveyed his surrender to the referee.
Upon hearing this, the Tamer apparently ordered the wyvern to cease its attack. The wyvern halted its dive and began circling high in the sky.
But once again, the troll appeared to ignore the command and continued approaching Garibar.
Seeing this, the knights broke into a sprint—but it didn't look like they could reach him in time.
The instant the troll closed to within a few meters of Garibar, it suddenly began writhing in pain.
Looking closely, the troll was clutching its neck and staring toward the Tamer.
"He used it, then."
Namitarou murmured upon seeing the troll.
"Used it?"
"Yeah. Those collars work the same way as slave collars—there's a mechanism that chokes the wearer in response to the master's Magic Power. Well, unlike slave collars, you can't do fine-tuned settings with these, so you have to flow Magic Power through them each time, but the idea is that you use the resulting pain to make them obey."
With a regular slave collar, you can configure certain parameters before placing it on the wearer—
Parameters—
—such as "do not harm the master" or "obey the master's commands." When those rules are broken or about to be broken, the collar tightens. But the collars fitted onto the trolls supposedly don't have that capability. Instead, the pain caused by the flow of Magic Power is intense, constricting the neck not just physically but also with magical force, so depending on the amount of Magic Power channeled through, instant death is possible.
The Tamer, while still channeling Magic Power into the writhing troll, issued another command.
Upon hearing the command, the troll crawled away from Garibar on all fours.
As the troll retreated, Marquis Samons came running toward Garibar from the opposite direction.
The Marquis was in a state of considerable panic, clinging to Garibar.
Behind the Marquis, several attendants were pulling what looked like a large cart, trying to load Garibar onto it, but they were having great difficulty getting him on.
"I'm heading over there for a moment."
I left Namitarou in charge, pulled medicine from my bag, and headed toward the Fighting Stage.
On the way, an attendant tried to stop me, but once I said the Marquis Samons had asked for my help, he let me through without further question.
I ran straight to Garibar and, after briefly explaining my presence to the surprised Marquis, began treating his wounds.
"Will Garibar survive?!"
The Marquis was clearly agitated, so despite knowing it was improper, I half-ignored him while issuing instructions to the knights as I continued treatment.
First, I cast a spell on Garibar to dull his sense of pain, then examined the wound—and it was worse than I had expected.
Having been bitten and torn apart by the wyvern, the wound was utterly mangled, and it had gotten quite filthy from rolling around on the stage. Moreover, there was no way the mouth of the wyvern controlled by that Tamer was clean, so I also had to worry about pathogens.
So first, I rinsed the wound with clean water using water magic and removed any visible debris.
Then, as a precaution, I applied an anti-poison spell and disinfected the area with high-purity alcohol. I used high-purity alcohol to kill any bacteria, but it must have stung the wound because Garibar thrashed about a bit. However, the knights quickly restrained him, and Garibar himself realized what was happening and held still, so no harm was done.
Next, I took the severed arm—treated in the same manner—and matched it to the shoulder, carefully adjusting the position before magically reconnecting them.
I tried to reconnect from the inside as much as possible, but the wound was so mangled that it was hard to see. I had prepared for the worst-case scenario where the arm might not move again, but after reconnecting it, the fingers moved, so the nerves seemed to have been properly joined.
After that, I immobilized the shoulder with clean cloth, and just like when setting a fracture, I used cloth to support the arm from the neck.
For the final touch, I had Garibar drink a blood booster, a medicine to increase resistance to disease, an anti-inflammatory, and a painkiller.
The medicines were all naturally derived, and I had tested them on myself multiple times, so there should have been no issues with using them simultaneously.
"For now, I don't think there's any immediate danger to his life. However, this was essentially emergency treatment, and I prioritized saving his life above all else, so please be prepared for the possibility that he may not be able to move his arm like before, and although I disinfected the wound, there is still a risk of infection."
As I finished the treatment and explained this while turning toward the Marquis, I was startled to see him crying his eyes out.
"Thank you! Thank you so much! I will absolutely repay this kindness!"
The Marquis gripped my hand tightly and shook it up and down vigorously while pouring out words of gratitude.
After shaking my hand more than a dozen times, he hurried back to Garibar's side.
Garibar also seemed to be in considerably less pain and was able to move somewhat on his own. With the knights' help, he climbed onto the handcart.
The Marquis tried to lead the way pulling the cart, but the knights stopped him. In the end, the knights and the staff pulled the cart away.
I followed behind the Marquis and the others toward the exit, when one of the referees approached me with an apologetic look on his face.
"I'm sorry, but Tenma, you have your next match immediately after this, so please wait here."
Apparently, treating Garibar had been entirely on my own initiative, and they couldn't afford to let me take any extra rest time. So they were asking me to wait here until Namiataro and the others arrived.
As far as I was concerned, I wasn't particularly tired, so I had no complaints about the referee's decision. But the referees themselves seemed to feel bad about it.
So I told the referee that it was a natural decision and I wasn't bothered by it, then handed over my magic bag.
While waiting for Namiataro and the others, the opposing team arrived first and stepped onto the stage, and shortly after, Namiataro and the others showed up as well.
"Tenma, good work out there. I'm glad Garibar made it. We've got to win this one for Garibar's sake too!"
With an eager Namiataro at the front, we faced off against the opposing team and waited for the referee's signal.
I've been getting questions about the recovery system in this world, so let me write it down.
In this world, there are recovery magic and recovery potions.
For recovery magic, I've established spells for healing wounds, detoxification, and sterilization, but I haven't created magic that restores stamina.
However, when wounds or poison are healed, one can sometimes experience the illusion that their stamina has been restored.
For example, it's like when you put down a heavy load (heal a wound) and your body feels lighter (more comfortable), but your stamina hasn't actually recovered.
Detoxification and sterilization magic work by magically removing or eliminating toxins and bacteria.
Recovery potions come in all sorts of varieties with widely varying effects.
I use real-world medicines as reference for them.
Some of these can slightly restore stamina or magic power, or promote recovery. Strictly speaking, it's less recovery and more replenishment, but...
In my mind, I divide it roughly as: magic is like surgical treatment, and potions are like internal medicine.
But as is obvious, both are heavily dependent on the skill and knowledge of their users and creators.
Also, regarding the tournament's medical team — their skills in recovery magic and treatment are above average, but still below Tenma's.
The medical knowledge in this world is behind compared to modern times (due to heavy reliance on magic), and Tenma possesses knowledge from his previous life through television and books (including manga), as well as knowledge of this
world,
so having both means that, more than he himself realizes (without even knowing it), he's a highly skilled
doctor.
(someone you could even call a 'healer of last resort')
Among the medical staff, the doctor who appears in the story is the most skilled, though he's more adept at compounding medicine than using magic. I plan to bring him back again after this chapter concludes.
For treatments during the tournament, losers will receive whatever care is possible. For winners, treatment will be limited to emergency first aid unless their lives are in danger.
However, in cases where treatment is impossible, financial compensation will be provided (with the exception that injuries sustained through rule violations may not be covered).
For now, that's the general setup. I intend to stick with this framework going forward, though I may make additions or changes.
Lastly, regarding the book adaptation of "Isekai Tensei no Boukensha," discussions are progressing.
While no formal meetings or work on the adaptation have begun yet, so I can't reveal the publisher...
It's thanks to all of you who have been reading "Isekai Tensei no Boukensha" that we received this offer in the first place.
Thank you so much for your support. And I look forward to your continued readership going forward.