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Todd's longsword radiated a faint crimson glow as he sidestepped the direct thrust of Natasha's "Slaughterer" lance and slashed straight for her neck. No matter how much more powerful she became as her injuries worsened, until she became a Sky Knight—until she achieved complete Luminarization, Elemental Incarnation, or Undeath—losing her head meant death. That was not something even extraordinary vitality and regeneration could compensate for by blocking spear thrusts with her abdomen.
Moreover, his longsword carried a special ability: anyone struck by it would suffer continuous, heavy bleeding and life-force drain. Even those with powerful self-healing could not avoid it, unless they were liquid-based, elemental, or spiritual entities.
At the same time, the skin beneath Todd's transparent metal mask rapidly turned silver-white, gleaming with a cold, razor-sharp metallic sheen—like a true steel golem!
This not only blunted a significant portion of slashing and Arcane Magic or Divine Arts damage, but also amplified his own strength even further.
Natasha's cold, emotionless silver-gray eyes did not spare Todd so much as a glance. Reflected in her pupils was only Verdi's figure. Gripping the "Slaughterer" lance, she charged straight ahead toward him.
After pulling the spear from her abdomen with her left hand, she re-gripped the "Thunderclap" longsword—its blade crackling with silver-white electric serpents—completely ignoring the blood streaming from her wound, ready to swing it upward and block Todd's attack at any moment.
But Natasha did not actually swing the sword, for doing so would diminish the force of her charge. She had absolute faith in the knights charging alongside her.
Wayne erupted with milky-white radiance, and behind him four pairs of pristine, luminous wings unfurled. His body surged to twice its size in an instant—like a giant, he brought his greatsword crashing down with devastating force. With a deafening clang, it met Todd's blood-glowing longsword head-on.
The Virtue Angel bloodline!
Had it not been that only Sky Knights could deploy angelic quasi-Divine Arts, Wayne's strength would have rivaled that of Natasha, Verdi, and the other Great Knights approaching the sixth rank.
The two greatswords collided, sending violent shockwaves and gale-force winds ripping through the air. The iron gauntlets gripping the hilts trembled violently, hairline fractures spiderwebbing across their surfaces.
Many luminous feathers shed from the angelic wings behind Wayne, yet Todd's face—rigid and unyielding as a steel golem's—showed not the slightest change. Clearly, he held the upper hand.
But Wayne refused to retreat. Clamping his legs around his dragon-scale horse to keep pace with Natasha's charge, he swung and hammered his greatsword relentlessly, deflecting every attempt Todd made to stop Natasha's advance.
His iron gauntlets shattered. His hands split open. Blood poured freely. The angelic wings grew sparser and dimmer with each passing moment. Gritting his teeth, Wayne could only hold on—guarding Natasha's flank with no strength left to defend against other knights.
"Avy…" A brief, strangled cry of pain was followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the ground. Under the combined assault from behind and from the left, Boshit had not lasted long.
However, once he fell, the remaining knights were too busy intercepting Natasha and her group to bother with whether he lived or died. There would be time to mop up the battlefield after Natasha was taken down!
While his horse thundered forward, Lucian—relying on his formidable sense of balance, his calm focus, the intuition granted by his "Vigilance" enhancement, and the willpower bestowed by the "Ice Avenger"—refused to be shaken by the frenzy of the charge and the brutal close-quarters combat. He twisted at the waist and swung his sword repeatedly to help Akasha fend off attacks he could not otherwise cover.
The clash of steel rang out in rapid succession—clang, clang, clang—until Lucian's arms went numb from palms to elbows. He had to grip with both hands just to keep his sword from flying out of his grasp.
In terms of raw strength, a prospective knight like Lucian was far behind a fully invested knight, even when the enemy knight was not particularly renowned for power.
And Lucian's agility and speed were essentially useless in this kind of combat. If not for the Starlight Shield blocking a slash from the left, he would likely have been thrown from his horse grievously wounded or dead, just like Boshit and the others.
Another devastating blow crashed into him from behind. The Starlight Shield could endure no more and shattered into a cascade of fading light motes.
With a surge of mental energy, a brilliant circular shield materialized once more. But the moment it coalesced, another hammering strike landed from behind.
With a sharp crack, the Starlight Shield dimmed by nearly half. Had Lucian not been hurtling forward at tremendous speed—canceling out a portion of the impact—the shield would almost certainly have been on the verge of collapse. And still trapped in his spell-recovery window, he could not recast that quickly!
"This is definitely a Second-level Knight!"
Against an ordinary knight, even if Lucian stood perfectly still, the Starlight Shield could withstand three or four blows. As long as his mental energy held out, he could maintain the shield indefinitely—unless the knight's bloodline powers possessed some unique property.
This was one of the ways an Arcane Mage outshone a same-rank knight.
At that moment, Verdi saw that Natasha had already charged to within a few meters of him. The long, black lance tip gleamed with a bloodthirsty, merciless light.
On either side of him, a small contingent of knight retainers protected Sylvia. Behind him lay only the barren wilderness and the ever-nearing edge of the Melzer Black Forest. If he was broken through, Natasha would break free!
"If Natasha escapes into the Black Forest, hunting her down in that complicated terrain will be exceedingly difficult."
"If Natasha survives, I will most certainly be executed by the Church!"
"If I can hold Natasha for just three or four seconds, my knights will close in around her completely—she will not escape!"
"My dear cousin, let me see whether you can overwhelm me in mere seconds—whether you can shatter the Shield of Truth!"
Though Verdi's magnanimity left something to be desired, that did nothing to diminish his iron will and fierce courage. Having lost his iron-black shield, he sheathed his sword, crossed both arms before his chest, and braced himself.
The earth heaved violently. Black soil surged upward, raising several thick layers of walls before Verdi. At the same time, the few stars visible in the sky blazed with blinding brilliance, wreathing Verdi in a pale white glow as a translucent, solid force-field shield coalesced before him!