Chapter 56: Fight to the Death

"Clap!"

Stepping back onto the battlefield once more, Leon felt the relentless pull of gravity binding his flesh. The invisible shackles made every movement a grueling trial.

"Clap!"

Each step left a deep impression in the ground, and advancing even an inch demanded extraordinary effort.

Yet, the paladin wielding the sword no longer cared about the environmental constraints. His heart surged with fury toward the monster before him, and this sheer willpower manifested as silver radiance upon his blade—a protective barrier warding off malevolent curses.

Among melee classes, there were not a few transcendental professions that could forge willpower into might. But none could quite match a paladin, who could literally brute-force through curses purely through the power of will.

"Holy Sword: Evil-Sunder." The hero's blade erupted with the purest light of determination. The ancient lineage of heroic souls originated from a righteous wrath against evil and injustice.

Leon lunged forward, stepping into the gravity domain where his sense of up and down had completely inverted. The moment he crossed into the cavern was akin to leaping down from a precipice. Instead of resisting the gravitational pull, he leveraged the sudden inversion of gravity to accelerate and augment his leaping power!

At the apex of his arc, Leon gathered his strength.

"Ha!" With a thunderous roar, the sheer might of a wall-breaker shattered the restrictions of the evil curse. At his designated landing point, Leon broke free from gravity's tether.

Light gathered at the tip of the blade.

Man and sword plummeted rapidly together, carrying massive momentum.

"Boom!" The light exploded.

This time, it was a complete and flawless Sword-Break: Realm-Shatter. Starting from the sword's tip, a violent whirlwind of holy energy erupted, its direction extending along the edge.

For the very first time, Leon's attack did not injure himself.

Even so, he still failed to strike his target.

"Clang!" A grayish-black "shield" blocked the path of the sword. Leon frowned as he looked at the squirming "wall" before him. It was a woven defensive net composed of at least ten "horns."

Maria was still standing there, but from her body, numerous "gray-black tentacles" protruded. Their familiar texture and hue immediately reminded Leon of the horns worn by the Horned Cultists.

Elcena was one of the ancient beasts, referred to by the ancients as the Great Gray Stag. Deer were peaceful creatures whose only weapons were their antlers. Yet those antlers were also the most dangerous and hardest parts of their bodies—pure osseous structures. Their sharp tips could easily function as bone arrows or bone spears.

"My children seem to dislike you. Please stay away from us." The woman was still smiling.

Those horns, resembling twisted arthropods, moved slowly, wrapping around her and protecting her while simultaneously issuing a silent threat to Leon.

Leon frowned. The thought that the source of these "horns" likely came from the skulls of innocent children only fueled his burning rage.

"Hum!" The gravity field suddenly shifted again, once more successfully suppressing Leon! This time, Leon felt a gravitational pressure far greater than before, almost forcing him straight to his knees.

"Damn it." Gritting his teeth, Leon channeled strength into his lower limbs and forced himself back up to a standing position.

Maria simply stood there, watching him with a smile. Having determined that "inverting up and down" had no effect on Leon, she had channeled all her power into the far more effective doubling of gravity.

Her sneak attack had failed, but Maria did not stop; those horns were her true instruments of slaughter.

A continuous and rapid series of attacks transformed into a piercing net covering her opponent. While she might not have been skilled in formal combat, that did not mean a beast's instincts were unsuited for hunting and butchering!

"Evil-Sunder." Leon's only reply was his blazing holy sword.

"Clang!" Even though every single strike was parried by the lightning-fast array of ten horns, Leon did not take a single step back. Even as wounds continuously opened across his body, he did not hesitate for a fraction of a second.

He simply poured his heart and soul into swinging the holy sword, each strike fiercer and faster than the last. He needed no blind roars; the flame of fury burned steadily in his chest. Named after wrath, the holy sword grew even sharper in resonance with its wielder's awakening resolve.

"Clang."

Finally, this time, the blade was not blocked. The armor-corroding battle sword cleaved through the defense, lopping off a single horn. Yet Leon, seemingly gaining the upper hand, showed no joy.

"Clang!" The battle sword, hurriedly brought back to parry, blocked a sudden lunge extending directly from the severed horn!

In the span of a mere heartbeat, the broken horn had completely regenerated, elongating straight into a piercing spike. Had Leon not been on guard, he would have been run through. As a warrior, he had matured immensely.

"Oh my, you didn't know antlers could regenerate?"

Leon certainly knew, having kept his guard up all along. The harrowing memories left by Heike ran too deep; he would never lower his guard on a battlefield again.

Bony antlers were indeed the only large organs in mammals capable of complete regeneration, but could this rate of regeneration possibly be considered normal?

"Clang!" He blocked another flurry of piercing strikes.

"Phew." Having completed his intelligence gathering, Leon suddenly sighed and shook his head.

"You really aren't a warrior at all. Just a stupid beast."

"What do you mean..." Maria could not comprehend it. Clearly, she held an overwhelming advantage; why would he say such a thing? Was this some sort of misleading lie? Or perhaps the dying hallucination of her opponent?

How could Leon bother to reply? He merely raised his sword in silence.

His body ached, and the pressure remained immense. The rapidly writhing "antlers" were too numerous, and their bursts of speed too fast for the naked eye to track, making them difficult for his two hands to manage.

Wounds accumulated endlessly, and the blood flowing from them was beginning to numb him.

"Still... so what?"

A memory resurfaced in his mind. Facing boundless legions, towering deities, dozens of knights matching his own level, and a destined dead-end—what would a true paladin do?

"Evil-Sunder." Willpower is strength. Before death descends, a knight shall never yield.

The roaring fire within his chest finally condensed into a calm and steady blade.

*I am simply swinging my sword.*

*There is no need to worry about the distant future, no need to contemplate victory or defeat, not even life or death. I will do everything in my power, and victory will naturally favor the stronger!*

*And I am certain—at this moment, I am the stronger one!*

"Boom!"

Evil deserved to be purged!

This time, even with several bone horns attempting to parry, the heavy sword broke through unchecked! Two bones were severed as the blade punched through the defensive net and struck Maria directly on the shoulder!

For the first time, a look of shock crossed the woman's face as a massive fountain of blood erupted from her shoulder.

Leon's aim was precise; the "human head" resting on her shoulder had been smashed to pieces. Blood sprayed all the way up to the cavern ceiling.

The blade drove deep into her flesh, but the assault was far from over.

Drawing a deep breath, Leon exerted his strength once more, and the silver blade erupted into a tempest of holy energy!

"Sword-Break: Realm-Shatter!"

"Boom!"

A chain of explosions delivered a lethal wave of destructive concussive damage. Once Leon entered the zone, the transition from the "Corroding Sword" to the "Sword-Break" took a mere fraction of a second.

"Evil-Sunder." The explosions had not even cleared when the warrior's next slash was already upon her.

Leon had no habit of waiting for smoke to clear to check the results; he immediately unleashed another high-speed cleave. *Want to chat? We can talk after you're dead.*

Just as that cunning old paladin had said: against any opponent, just swing your sword.

"Clang."

This time, the blade was caught by a pair of black claws.

The woman, undergoing rapid bestialization, had a face covered in bloodstains and bulging veins, and parts of her limbs had turned inhuman.

"Tch, what brute strength."

Feeling the overwhelming force, Leon was forced back. Yet, even as he retreated, a smile broke across his face.

He saw that his previous strike had been effective, carving through not just a "head" and half a shoulder. The loss of a symbiotic entity had shattered the balance and stability of her physical form.

Blood and flesh regenerated at high speed, piling up into a grotesque, deformed mass. She was gradually losing any resemblance to a human.

"My children... my poor children." The woman wept aloud, her cries laced with wails.

Leon chuckled softly, too lazy to reply. Whose deceptive script had she copied this time?

"You might be strong, but you're still useless."

With a calm tone, he swung his heavy sword with full force once more, the holy light blazing fiercely along the blade's edge.

"Boom!"

Her claws caught the flat of the blade, but the holy energy storm of the Sword-Break detonated directly in her face!

Mastering a second sword technique did not merely mean adding another card to his hand. To a seasoned warrior, having an extra tactical reserve drastically expanded the playful possibilities in actual combat.

"...Die." Without pausing, Leon swung his sword down with ruthless force.

"Clang!" Stepping forward, his boot sank deep into a crater in the ground. This time, the sudden attack came from above.

Maria unleashed another wave of gravitational suppression, seemingly pinning him down.

"Evil-Sunder." Even as his body leaned dangerously and his skeleton groaned in agony, could anything truly stop him from swinging his sword?!

"Ahhhhh!" Maria let out an expression of utter incomprehension. That useless, smiling facade had completely shattered.

This time, the blade bit deep into flesh, followed by a vicious sweep!

Cutting through Maria's defenses near her waistline, the blade executed a horizontal slash, carving a massive gash across her torso.

Flames erupted from the wound! Dragonfire inflicted secondary damage!

"Die with me!" Realizing she could not block the blow, the monster made the rational choice to trade injury for injury.

The moment Leon struck her, he was directly struck by a dozen sharp bone spikes bursting forth simultaneously!

"As expected, there are more than five symbiotic entities..." Leon muttered quietly as he simply snapped the bone spikes piercing his armor.

Had he been unarmored or wearing ordinary plate, he would already be thoroughly dead. But the armor he wore was far from ordinary.

As for the exposed flesh not covered by armor? He had protected his head; sustaining minor injuries elsewhere meant nothing to a seasoned warrior.

"You don't feel pain, do you?" Leon had already suspected as much when he lopped off her first head, and now his theory was confirmed.

"Heh, mortal weaknesses do not exist within me." Half of her face and torso now distorted, the monster finally betrayed a trace of genuine emotion.

*Did it sense a threat to its life?*

Leon smiled. *Emotions are good. Didn't that just help me verify a very useful piece of intelligence?*

*Pain is a weakness? Heh.*

Drawing a deep breath, Leon raised his dual swords once more. Trading injury for injury? Unfazed by pain? It wasn't as if he had never fought such foes before. But combining those two traits—was it truly a blessing for a warrior?!

"Evil-Sunder." The holy sword struck again, this time with even greater precision and deadliness.

The two engaged in a ferocious close-quarters brawl where evasion was impossible and parrying was a luxury. Leon's dragon eyes were wide open, minimizing his losses to the utmost.

Meanwhile, Maria, her body twisted and deformed, could not afford to take a single step back if she wished to maintain her gravity manipulation.

Slash after slash, Leon hacked away with exhilarating fury. Round after round of bone spikes battered him until he grew numb to the pain.

In the span of mere minutes, Leon had lost count of how many strikes he had landed. His entire body was covered in countless wounds, and his sturdy armor bore several holes pierced by bone spikes. Yet his opponent was suffering far worse.

Limbs were continuously lopped off, and her flesh mutated in grotesque ways. Under Leon's relentless butchery, she naturally looked less and less human—not even resembling a Horned Cultist anymore!

Deformed lumps of flesh grew everywhere, completely destroying her original bodily equilibrium. From her non-human limbs, at least seven or eight heads had sprouted.

The monster had now swollen several times over, its volume large enough to brush against the cavern ceiling. Its strength had grown greater, its bone spikes thicker, and its bone whips lashed out at Leon unceasingly.

The flickering humanity within the beast seemed to have been fully reawakened.

"Why?! Why won't you die?!" She completely failed to understand. Weren't her previous targets crushed instantly?!

*Idiot, of course it's because you're too amateurish, and your wounds weren't deep enough.* Leon naturally wouldn't voice his thoughts aloud.

*You try controlling a dozen gimmicky weapons simultaneously while maintaining their power and precision. What are you, a superweapon master or a multi-tasking supercomputer?*

Most of those bone spikes were driven by instinct; only a handful were consciously controlled and genuinely threatening.

*So, use dragon eyes to observe, dodge, or parry them.*

For a truly exceptional warrior, a single strike was more than enough!

"A waste of divine power, turning a stellar hand into an absolute mess."

Maria's bewilderment as to why he wouldn't die was answered only by Leon's ever-heavy sword strikes.

Her gravity-controlling ability was terrifyingly powerful, yet ultimately she had only ever developed it into stationary casting. This reduced a versatile trait into something suited exclusively for bullying weaklings. Anyone weaker than her would be instantly crushed, but against someone capable of withstanding the pressure, she had to stand completely still and slug it out to the death!

To abandon mobility for stationary output in a death match against a professional heavy armor fighter was absolute suicide.

At that moment, Leon felt a tinge of pity for the transcendent beings she had previously slaughtered. To think they had actually been killed by such an amateurish "beast of talent."

"Fool." Guided by his dragon eyes, Leon's holy sword consistently maintained an efficient output of damage.

He steadily and efficiently targeted her weak points—the locations of those "heads."

Resurrection was not without a cost. Every time a head was destroyed, the corresponding batch of bone spikes would stall before regenerating. Even upon resurrection, the newly regenerated bone spikes grew duller and more sluggish.

More fatally, shattering her internal balance pushed her further into a state of chaotic loss of control and inhumanity.

Covered in wounds, Leon kept his bloodshot eyes locked firmly onto his opponent, while Maria...

"She hasn't even noticed the four vulnerable armor plates on my back. All the injuries I've taken so far are frontal, and because she discarded pain, she hasn't even realized the trap I set."

Leon was certain: the creature before him was a thoroughly unqualified warrior. Such a being had no business killing him.

Perhaps her talent was peerless, and her abilities invincible, but her over-reliance on those abilities made her all the more foolish... She was utterly devoid of experience in life-or-death combat!

"Die!" This time, Leon's holy sword finally smashed through her defenses and severed her head!

Bestial nature did not mean a lack of fear of death; in fact, a beast's primary instinct was survival and self-continuation.

After completing another regeneration, she hesitated. She stalled.

She began to doubt whether the man before her was truly unkillable, whether that silver armor was truly impervious, and whether those wounds genuinely failed to cause him agony.

"It hurts like hell... but so what?!"

When had a warrior ever not bled? With an even calmer expression, Leon swung his sword.

Against a beast, never show cowardice! If you don't show fear, the one who panics first will be—

"Clap!"

The monster took a step back.

At that exact moment, Leon felt his body grow remarkably light.

"Evil-Sunder!" Disregarding defense entirely, Leon's next sword strike came with redoubled ferocity!

*Want to run? In your dreams!*

Leon did not let up. The moment the gravitational bind lifted, all his accumulated wrath erupted into a chain of furious slashes.

Activating his boots of acceleration, the fully unleashed knight closed the distance to the monster.

Slash after slash, clad in heavy armor and trading blow for blow, Leon's sword grew increasingly fierce, and his expression turned increasingly ferocious.

"Die."

The beast was terrified.

"No!" Finally, the monster was cleaved cleanly in two, and one half even attempted to flee for its life!

It had lost all confidence in its ability to kill Leon, activating its primal instinct to survive.

Yet, by then, it was already too late.

Leon did not pursue. He merely stared silently upward.

"Boom!" Heavenly fire rained down, directly consuming him.

He had laid his trap long ago, and now the moment of harvest had finally arrived. Leon did not charge forward, nor did he let down his guard; he knew the end was not yet here.

"You forced me into this..."

The flames did not dissipate, but rising from within them was a full-fledged, monstrous horned stag.

A multi-headed gray great stag stood silently amidst the inferno.

And Leon simply raised his longsword once more.

"How truly pathetic, Sister Maria. Let me grant you release."