Looking down to confirm the damage to his ribs, Robin found that his ribs had been cracked with four long, narrow wounds that were deep enough to see the bones, and such wounds could only be inflicted by a sharp weapon like a knife.

Forcibly stopping the bleeding with 'subtlety', Robin confronted Arnold with a solemn gaze, and asked tentatively, "Is this ...... Special abilities? ”

"Hmph...... That's right. Boy, you're not the only one with special abilities! ～”

Arnold casually threw away the tactical knife he had drawn from his chest and took on a boxing-like stance. However, something surprising happened suddenly, and at the joints of Arnold's fists, four sharp bone blades about ten kilometers long suddenly drilled out of the flesh. Moreover, sharp bone spurs as slender as sweat hairs suddenly drilled out densely from under the skin, and gradually spread on the surface of the skin, instantly combining into a pair of gray-white bone armor covering most of the vital parts of the body.

"Bone mutation! ～”

Seeing Arnold's inhuman change at the moment, Robin immediately recalled the list of Raymond Federation's special abilities that he had hastily browsed, and the bone mutation that Arnold was showing at the moment was the inferior ability 'bone armor' in the list of Raymond Federation's twenty-three special abilities.

In the list of Raymond Federation's special abilities, the basic criterion for evaluating the level of special abilities is whether the ability is suitable for armored warfare, rather than judging the ability itself in terms of combat effectiveness. Just like Armstrong, the Knights of the Twin Stars that Robin once fought against, Armstrong's 'Steel Body' is also inferior to the Federation's list of twenty-three special abilities. However, when it comes to the power of foot combat, the 'steel body' as an inferior ability is far superior to the 'King Kong' that is evaluated as a medium ability. It was only because he could not exert the power of his special ability with heavy infantry armor that he was demoted to an inferior ability that was not valued. In the Twin Star Knights of the Federation, inferior special abilities such as 'bone armor' and 'steel body' are usually called subordinate abilities, and the owner of such abilities usually exists as the chief of powerful knights.

"That's right...... I forgot to tell you that I served in the Knights of the Twin Stars before joining the police system, and was the chief servant of the Edgar Knights. It was only because of the death of Knight Edgar in the Battle of Salas that I chose to retire from the police force. Covered in gray-white bone armor, Arnold looked at Martina, who was huddled in the corner with a frightened face, with a grim smile: "Little girl, this man you are looking forward to can't protect you, I will tear him to pieces in front of you, I swear, I will let you see it!" ～”

"Nope! ~You can't do that! ~" Perhaps the scarlet blood on Robin's ribs irritated Martina, and she suddenly forgot her fear and opened her hands in front of Robin.

Looking at Martina, who was biting her lips and pale, and then looking at Robin with a gloomy face behind Martina, Arnold sneered disdainfully: "Boy, are you a bastard who only hides behind women?" ”

"Get out of the way, Martina." Robin reached out and swept Martina behind him, stared at Arnold and shouted, "I haven't finished fighting him yet, just watch quietly from the side." ”

"......"

"Don't worry, I've killed a guy who's about the same as him." Smiling at Martina, Robin threw the 'Razer' in his hand to Martina and instructed, "Guard the door and shoot someone when you see it." ”

"Good...... Okay......" Holding the heavy 'Razer' in both hands, Martina nodded nervously.

"Now, it's time for the second round between us!" Pulling the three-edged thorn from the scabbard of his calf, Robin unfolded the folding shield attached to his left wrist, arching his back like an ancient samurai and slowly approaching Arnold.

The murderous aura of the two sides converged in midair, and the air in the room seemed to freeze suddenly. At the moment when the eyes of the two sides met, the two people who were standing still against each other suddenly disappeared in place and turned into invisible black shadows. The next moment, with the roar of fierce collision, they slammed together like two angry bulls.

The tremendous force caused a large area to appear in the center of the impact of the two people, and the radiating air wave blew down the equipment in the room like a hurricane. At the same time, Robin, who had taken a half-step back from the impact, suddenly lowered his center of gravity, took his waist as the axis, and shoveled Arnold's ankle wrapped in the gray bone armor with a razor-like flying shovel.

'Bang! ～’

A dull skeletal crash sounded, and Arnold, whose center of gravity and feet were attacked, unexpectedly did not move. Robin, on the other hand, resisted the numbness of his leg bones, deftly turned over and jumped up, and stabbed Arnold into Arnold's head with the triangular thorn in his hand.

If it were an ordinary person, it would have been panicked to encounter continuous attacks like Robin. But Arnold, who has studied the way of gathering qi, has long been accustomed to the life-fighting style of exchanging injuries for life, relying on the protection of his bone armor, Arnold completely ignored Robin's sharp three-edged military thorn, and flew up with a straight kick and kicked Robin's head.

In desperation, Robin could only twist in the air, and while dodging Arnold's flying kick sideways, the three-edged military thorn in his hand also deviated slightly from the bearing, thus stabbing Arnold's extremely hard skull.

The spurs and skulls sparkled with a dazzling spark, and Robin, who was staggering past him, slammed his shield on the head with a backhand, and to his surprise, Arno turned his head and hit it with a head cone to fight Robin's folding shield that could resist the energy projectile.

With a loud bang, Robin, who lost his center of gravity, took several steps back in the slide. Arnold, on the other hand, only shook his dizzy head vigorously and then returned to normal, slowly approaching Robin.

"How can there be such great power! There is no way that the strength between me and him is so much worse......"

In both direct collisions, Robin was completely at the bottom of the game, which made him feel very incredible. Because judging from the strength of Arnold's attack, Arnold's strength is roughly at the level of the fifth order. And although Robin's strength is only of the fourth order, relying on the bonus brought by the subtle control of the 'subtle' body, Robin's actual strength should be comparable to the fifth order. Therefore, in the confrontation between the two sides, it should be evenly matched, how can there be such a one-sided situation.

Observing Arnold's pace while stepping back, Robin finally figured out why Arnold was able to suppress himself in strength after careful observation.

It turned out that Arnold actually had several bone spurs extending from the soles of his feet, which allowed him to take root in the ground like a big tree. And with this incomparably solid center of gravity, Arnold can fully exert his fifth-order strength to the extreme in ground combat, which makes Arnold's strength level even stronger than Armstrong, whom Robin once fought.

"It's a nasty special ability."

Carefully observing Arnold's bone armor structure, Robin reluctantly found that Arnold's bone armor with a hardness comparable to steel completely protected all vital points in his body, and then thought that Arnold's heart shot with a large-caliber pistol at close range did not kill him before, I am afraid that he has changed the bone form in his body, making the protection of bones for internal organs more perfect.

Protected by two layers of bone armor, Arnold could withstand almost any form of attack, and his mastery of Qi Gathering was very good at using his strengths, combined with the rich combat experience he had honed from the battlefield many years ago, which made Robin suddenly helpless.

"Damn, if Lee had Lee by his side, his Gauss sniper might have been able to blast through this damn bone armor." Anxiously flicking the communicator in his ear, Robin noticed that the Tower Guards were swarming into the room. Looking at Martina, who was trembling with a gun in the corner, Robin couldn't really expect her to play a role in the battle. Now, time was running out for him, but he was at a stalemate because he couldn't find a way to defeat the enemy with one blow.

"It's not a good habit to be distracted during battle." Arnold steadily forced Robin into the corner: "This is my home field, you dare to break in single-handedly." Sometimes, overconfidence can kill people, like the knight Edgar I once guarded, who died in the Battle of Salas because he was too confident in his own strength. I, on the other hand, survived because I knew better than him when to fight and when to run. ”

Arnold stopped five steps in front of Robin, moved his neck joint, and sneered, "If I were you, I would give up Martina's little girl and choose to escape by myself." If it's just you, maybe you'll have a chance to get out alive......"

"Give up on her own and run for your life? I can't do that. Under Martina's tearful gaze, Robin interrupted Arnold's temptation in a cold tone. He retracted the folding shield on his wrist, and the tense muscles in his body were suddenly relaxed.

"Oh? Are you going to bury this little girl? Ha ha...... What a ridiculous stubbornness! ”

"No, I'm going to kill you!"

Robin, who seemed to have given up resistance, suddenly threw the triangular thorn in his hand like lightning at the same time as the words fell, shooting at Arnold's right eye.

Eyes, this is the only fatal point exposed to Arnold's body. Due to the special structure of the eyes, Arno was unable to use the bones to add any protection in the eye area, and only in this position did he not distinguish himself from ordinary people.

But Arnold, who has experienced countless life-and-death struggles, knows his weaknesses better than anyone else, so when his eyes are threatened, he does not use the Gathering Air Path to exchange injuries for life as before, but quickly raises his palms to protect his eyes and quickly retreats, trying to distance himself from Robin.

But even though his reaction was so fast, it was still half a beat slower. Just as he covered his right eye with the palm of his hand and swept away the flying three-edged stabs, Robin suddenly approached like a shadow close to the ground, and struck Arnold below the knee on the outside of his tibia with a ferocious drill punch.

(To be continued)