Chương 85: Fierce Battle

Their blades collided against each other, and streams of fire and wind erupted simultaneously from the point of contact, weaving together into a brief, blinding flash that lit up the entire clearing brighter than midday sun for an instant, casting sharp, trembling shadows across the smoldering tree trunks.

They pressed their blades against one another, each trying to overpower the other, to break through the opponent's guard, and then Lorian stepped back, realizing he was losing to the Knight in raw physical strength — his arms went numb with every clash, his shoulders throbbing from the strain, as though being struck by a blacksmith's hammer.

The ground beneath his feet sank deeper with every new blow, leaving furrows in the heat-blackened soil, and every collision of blades sent showers of sparks flying into the air, extinguishing themselves somewhere in the smoke. Suddenly he became wrapped entirely in green light, blazing brighter than before, and in that same instant he vanished, slamming into the Knight from one side at a speed almost too fast for the eye to follow, leaving behind a blurred emerald streak dissolving into the air like glowing smoke.

The Knight, in turn, managed to block the strike, swinging his blade around with flawless, practiced precision, metal meeting metal with a deafening clang, but Lorian had no intention of slowing down — he struck again and again, faster and faster, coming from the left, then the right, feinting one moment before following through with a real strike the next, aiming for the chest, the thigh, an exposed joint at the elbow.

Flashes of green flickered here and there, flaring and vanishing within fractions of a second, and the ringing of metal against metal blended into one continuous roar echoing across the area, scattering the last surviving birds that had escaped the fire. But whatever Lorian did, the Knight consistently managed to deflect every blow, steel grinding against steel, throwing off sparks that scattered as tiny embers, hissing where they touched the dew-damp grass.

The Knight, for his part, began shifting into a counterattack — his flaming blade cut through the air in wide, sweeping arcs, each one leaving behind a trail of scorching air that burned the skin even at arm's length, the path of the strike searing a brief, instantly vanishing streak of fire into the air. One such strike passed so close to Lorian that it singed a lock of his hair, filling the air with the acrid smell of burning, forcing him to flinch back involuntarily, though without losing his balance.

Lorian dodged, bending his entire body with an almost inhuman flexibility, as though his spine were made of something far more pliant than ordinary bone, and immediately answered with a series of short, rapid thrusts, aiming for the joints of the armor, the places where the black steel didn't seal quite as tightly, where the magma's glow shone through the gaps especially bright. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

But then Lorian began accelerating even further, faster and faster, until he moved with such speed that only a blurred green trail of his aura remained visible, flickering among the smoking trees, leaping from place to place faster than the eye could track, leaving behind ghostly, dissolving afterimages — and at last he managed to land his first faint cut, grazing the Knight's shoulder plate, striking off a brief flash of orange light.

Then another, slightly deeper, splitting the metal right at the elbow, from which a thin, glowing trickle immediately began to seep. Soon the Knight was covered in shallow gashes, each one leaking orange light, as though hell itself lay hidden beneath the black armor, straining to break free through every fresh wound, each cut hissing and crackling, throwing off tiny showers of sparks like miniature fireworks.

Lorian leapt back, catching his breath — his entire body drenched in sweat, patches of fresh burns visible here and there on his skin from close encounters with his opponent's blazing blade, red and stinging with every movement, announcing themselves with sharp, throbbing pain — and he himself breathed heavily, his chest heaving, his lungs burning from the strain, as though he'd inhaled superheated air straight from a furnace.

He looked at the Knight, who stood as though nothing had happened at all, as though those shallow scratches meant nothing to him whatsoever, as though pain were something entirely foreign to him — only thin streams of orange light continued seeping from the fresh wounds, trickling down the black armor in slow, glowing droplets, hissing faintly as they fell onto the charred grass.

"He's stronger than me physically, but I'm faster. If this keeps up, I can definitely win." Suddenly the Knight dropped back into a stance, the flames on his cloak flaring higher than before, blazing with a new, fiercer light, as though the wound itself only fed his rage, stoking something even more primal within him, and the hum radiating from his sword grew noticeably louder, gathering strength, vibrating through the very air.

Lorian furrowed his brow and mirrored the movement, copying his opponent's stance exactly, his legs tensing, ready for another burst of speed, the green aura around him pulsing faster, responding to the mounting tension in the air, thick and charged, ready to discharge into another burst of violence at any moment.

"What kind of monster are you, anyway?" A scorched leaf slowly began drifting down from a nearby tree, spinning through the air as though counting down the final seconds before the next collision, smoldering at its edges, releasing a thin thread of smoke that curled through the still, superheated air, sinking slowly down into the darkness between the trees.

The very instant it touched the charred ground, a loud, ringing clash of blades rang out — both opponents lunged at each other simultaneously, meeting in the center of the clearing with such force that the shockwave scattered ash and smoldering embers in every direction, kicking up a swirl of gray dust into the air, the sound of the collision rolling through the forest like a peal of thunder, echoing somewhere far beyond the horizon.