Chapter 56: Master I've Enlightened!

Celeste became a flash of pink light, her twin swords shimmering with a crystalline brilliance as she lunged straight for the staggering Undead Warhorse.

A vicious fire burned in her heart—partly from the lingering frustration of the [Overtones] and that scam of a milk tea, and partly from the long-standing oppression she’d felt under the Death Knight’s relentless assault.

All of that pent-up anger now channeled itself into the razor-sharp edge of The Hunt.

She and her blades became one.

Bolstered by the group-wide speed buff, her figure moved so fast it left a trail of pink afterimages in its wake.

The Undead Warhorse had just wrenched itself free from Mo Chen’s entanglement and was desperately trying to return to its master’s side.

Suddenly, it felt a peerless, razor-sharp sword intent lock onto it from the flank.

Its eye sockets, burning with ghostly blue soulfire, reflected a red-and-white figure approaching with the speed of lightning.

Celeste hadn’t even reached her target yet.

A sharp chime echoed in her mind, and in that instant, countless revelations about the flaws and fundamentals of swordplay exploded deep within her consciousness.

It felt as if a stern, unyielding master had forcibly poured a lifetime of learning directly into her brain.

The Talent belonging to The Hunt’s March 7th—[Master, I’ve Enlightened!]—was fully charged.

Without a single conscious thought, her body moved, guided by the instinct this sudden empowerment had bestowed upon her.

With a fluid flick of her wrists, she swung her twin swords in a cross pattern.

“Master, I’ve enlightened!” A girlish voice, mortifyingly chipper and overflowing with the thrill of sudden understanding, once again shouted uncontrollably from her mouth.

Celeste: ‘…”Kill me now,’ she thought.’Seriously, just end it!

This goddamn performative streak is going to be the death of me!’ She was screaming internally, but her body moved with the liquid grace of a master swordsman, each motion precise and flawless.

Accompanying that cringe-inducing cry, three pink sword beams, so condensed they looked solid, shot out in a tight triangular formation.

The three soul-devouring crescents tore through the air, their target not some imagined “brow” or “heart”—where would a skeleton horse even have a brow?

Instead, their trajectory was terrifyingly precise.

All three beams slashed toward the Undead Warhorse’s already battered front leg joint.

Crack!

CRACK!

SNAP!

The first two sword beams instantly deepened the fractures Mo Chen had inflicted moments before.

The third beam slammed ruthlessly into the bone’s connection point.

The joint let out a final, sharp crack of protest before shattering completely.

Bone fragments and soulfire sprayed into the air.

The Undead Warhorse let out a silent, agonized scream, its massive skeleton jerking violently as it nearly collapsed to its knees.

The ghostly blue soulfire in its eye sockets flickered wildly, its light dimming by more than half.

With a painful stumble, the warhorse’s speed plummeted.

Every movement was now accompanied by a harsh, grinding scrape, its mobility crippled.

It wanted to run, to retreat to the protection of its master.

But the searing pain from its leg and the catastrophic structural damage had stripped it of its prideful speed and agility.

“Think you can just run off?

Ask my axe first!” the Berserker roared.

His [Recklessness] aura flared bright red as his giant axe, carrying the force to split mountains, came crashing down, aimed squarely at the horse’s other legs.

Mo Chen remained as silent as ever, but the unsealed greatsword in his hands was faster and heavier than before.

Dark red sword energy swept across the battlefield.

He was no longer aiming for a one-hit kill; instead, he became an unbreakable cage, methodically cutting off every possible path of retreat for the warhorse.

“Perfect chance!” Zhao Shihao’s eyes lit up, not even sparing a moment to question the bizarre voice line he’d just heard.

With a wave of his staff, a blazing [Solar Bomb] shot forth, smashing accurately into the Undead Warhorse’s fresh wound.

BOOM!

Flames erupted, and the already fragile bone connection was blasted apart, sending plumes of black smoke into the air.

“Focus fire on the horse!” Mo Chen commanded succinctly, his greatsword already charging as [Mountain Cleaver] came crashing down.

The Death Knight sensed its mount’s crisis and let out an anxious, guttural roar.

The runes on its ghostly blue greatsword flashed frantically as its assault suddenly grew thirty percent more violent, trying to force back Selene and Wang Lei to rush to the rescue.

“Your opponents are right here!” Selene barked, the holy light radiating from her [Immovable Mountain] shield flaring brighter than ever.

Empowered by the complete speed boost from [Master, Please Have Some Tea], her parries and deflections became even more fluid, allowing her to stubbornly withstand the ferocious onslaught.

Wang Lei also gritted his teeth, the earthy yellow light on his shield as heavy as a mountain.

He channeled the Death Knight’s immense strength into the ground beneath his feet, refusing to yield a single inch.

The two of them were like a pair of immovable anchors, driven firmly between the Death Knight and its warhorse.

The tactic had formed in an instant.

With Celeste’s precision strike as the signal and Wang Lei and Selene as the unbreachable bulwark, every other damage dealer on the field unleashed their strongest single-target attacks on the heavily damaged Undead Warhorse without reservation.

In the backline, Jiang Xue’s Frost Domain was fully active, while the Order Mage’s Command Auras stacked one on top of the other.

The two assassins dissolved into phantoms, their daggers striking with surgical precision at the warhorse’s joint gaps and its soulfire core.

And then there was Celeste, a whirlwind of twin swords, her energy sweeping across the battlefield as she focused her entire output on the horse’s legs.

Under the terrifying attack speed buff of “Master, Please Have Some Tea,” skills that normally required chanting or charging became nearly instantaneous.

Countless beams of physical and magical energy formed an inescapable web of destruction, completely submerging the Undead Warhorse.

No matter how sentient or agile the creature was, it was now a cornered beast, its power useless.

The frost encasing its body grew thicker, its movements became slower, and the wounds on its legs multiplied.

The soulfire in its eyes dimmed at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Finally, after a crushing vertical slash from Mo Chen, a sweeping blow from the Berserker, and three perfectly timed follow-up sword beams from Celeste… CRACK—BOOM!

The Undead Warhorse’s battered front leg snapped completely.

The massive skeleton lost its balance and crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris.

It struggled, trying to rise, but the team’s attacks fell like a torrential downpour.

The giant axe shattered its skull.

The greatsword severed its spine.

And the daggers finally crushed the last flicker of its soulfire.

[Undead Warhorse · Elite · Lv.30 — Defeated!] The moment the notification sounded, the incredibly troublesome Undead Warhorse fell apart, collapsing into a pile of lifeless, shattered bones.

“We did it!” Selene shouted, a wave of relief in her voice.

But before anyone could celebrate, a new sound ripped through the air.

“AWOOOOO—!!!” A soul-shattering roar, raw with boundless wrath, agony, and madness, exploded from the Death Knight’s chest.

The pale soulfire in its eye sockets instantly blazed into a blood-red inferno.

From the gaps in its hideous black armor, dark red energy began to seep out like blood.

The temperature in the entire cathedral plummeted once more, and the air grew thick with the nauseating stench of blood and decay.

Its attack power was skyrocketing.

But at the same time, the protective luster of its armor dimmed noticeably.

“Careful!

It’s gone berserk!” Wang Lei yelled a warning.

His arms went numb from the sheer force of the Death Knight’s next blow, which sent him stumbling back three steps uncontrollably.

Selene let out a muffled groan, feeling as if she’d been hit head-on by a battering ram.

Her [Immovable Mountain] shield hummed, strained to its absolute limit.

Having lost its beloved mount, the Death Knight had descended into pure insanity.

Its attacks no longer held any technique or finesse, only the purest, most savage hacking and sweeping.

Every strike carried a destructive will to tear everything apart.

As the ghostly blue greatsword swung, the resulting wind pressure carved deep gouges into the cathedral’s stone pillars and walls.

But in its pursuit of extreme offense, the thick layer of death energy armoring its body had thinned, and its anti-magic shield now fluctuated even more violently.

A chance.

Danger and opportunity coexisted.

“It can’t defend!

Full output!” Zhao Shihao’s eyes flashed with a sharp light as he dredged up the last dregs of his mana.

The incandescent fire of his [Phoenix Cry · Solar Impact] became even more solid, scorching the anti-magic shield until it sizzled and cracks began to spread.

Mo Chen said nothing.

The dark red patterns on his greatsword glowed like hot iron as he closed in again, his blade targeting the weak points where the Death Knight’s armor plates connected.

Celeste gave her twin swords a shake, feeling the power of [Master, I’ve Enlightened!] beginning to slowly charge within her again.

Her gaze was fixed firmly on the gaps in the Death Knight’s armor.

The time to slay the dragon had arrived.

[Elysian’s Note: Having a good time with the story?

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