Chapter 694: Well, This Might Take a While

Two lowered his head and placed his claws on the stone ground.

One also spread his six arms apart and took his position in front of Lian.

He glanced at the two monsters.

’One, put pressure on him from the left, but don’t directly face his sword.’

The huge ant lowered his head slightly.

’Two, move from the right, first I want to see how his wings react.’

The wolf turned his ears toward the knight.

Lian turned his gaze back to the Forsaken Apostate.

The knight was still standing in the center of the plateau, holding his huge sword, and his twelve gray wings were folded behind his heavy armor.

"Do you believe these beasts can change my command?" The knight’s deep voice echoed across the field.

"No, they’re not here to change your mind."

The Apostate raised his sword slightly.

"Then?"

"Like I said, I want to pass through, if you don’t move aside, I’ll open the way myself."

There was silence for a moment.

The knight placed his sword in front of his body.

"Then this shall be the end of your path."

Lian did not smile.

He only opened his right hand slightly and then closed his fingers.

The sound of metal scraping against stone echoed across the plateau, and the Forsaken Apostate raised his huge sword and moved the blade horizontally with a short movement.

The pressure wave released along the sword moved toward Lian at a terrifying speed.

Young Vorhelm had recognized the direction of the attack from the moment the knight’s right shoulder moved.

[ Wings of God ]

The Wings of God opened behind his body.

With one powerful movement, the air around him was compressed, and his body moved several meters to the left.

These wings were not only tools for flying, Lian could also use their movements to quickly change his position and create air pressure in any direction he wanted.

The sword wave passed beside him.

A few moments later, one of the huge stone pillars farther away was split through its middle.

The upper half of the pillar slowly separated from the lower half and fell to the ground with a heavy sound.

He glanced at the pillar.

’So that’s the power of one of his normal strikes.’

Then he looked at the knight again.

The Forsaken Apostate had returned his sword to its original position.

"You avoided the strike."

"Yeah."

Young Vorhelm took one step forward.

"That’s usually what I do when someone attacks me with a sword."

The knight did not answer, but this time, his sword came down from above.

Lian moved to the right, the blade struck the stone ground and created a long crack along it.

At that moment, the knight turned his wrist, and the second slash moved from below to above.

The next strike.

Lian folded his wings and passed beside the blade’s path with a short turn, if he had jumped directly backward instead, he would have moved straight into the path of the second slash.

He landed several meters away.

But he still did not attack and only looked at the knight’s right hand.

The Apostate raised his sword.

"Why do you not strike back?"

"I’m watching." Lian tilted his head slightly.

"What?"

"How good you are with a sword."

The knight remained silent for a moment and then took another step forward, and at that moment, Lian gave his first command.

’One, now.’

The huge ant moved from the left. But instead of approaching the knight directly, he slammed one of his six hands into the ground.

[ Fault Hand ]

Fault Hand.

A long crack began beneath One’s claw and quickly moved toward the knight’s left foot.

The Apostate immediately shifted his weight onto his right foot.

The stone ground beneath his left foot split apart.

But before he could fully correct his standing position, Lian gave another command.

’Two.’

The Eight-Disaster Wolf jumped from the right and attacked directly toward the lower part of the knight’s armor.

But the Apostate did not even turn his body completely.

One of the gray wings on his right side opened, and a compressed wave of air struck Two.

The wolf changed his direction in the middle of his movement and landed on the edge of one of the broken stones, the wind passed beside him and crushed part of the stone ground.

At the same time, the knight moved another wing toward One, the air pressure struck the huge ant’s body and pushed him back several meters.

One’s claws created long marks on the stone.

But Lian had watched all these movements.

’So his wings can move independently.’

One was used to deal with One, and another to stop Two, and during all this time, the sword was still ready to fight Lian.

Interesting.

He glanced at the wing on the right.

After pushing Two away, the wing was returning to its original position, it needed a very short amount of time, but even that was enough for a fast fighter.

’Then I need to force him to move several wings at the same time.’

Lian sent a new command through Hive Dominion.

’Keep going, just force him to defend.’

One and Two immediately changed their positions, but the Forsaken Apostate did not remain still either.

The knight moved his gaze from One to Two, then held his huge sword with both hands and moved directly toward Lian.

’He figured out that I’m the one giving the commands.’ Young Vorhelm narrowed his eyes.

Not a bad choice.

The sword came down from above, and he opened the Wings of God and moved his body to the left, but this time, the Apostate corrected the angle of the blade in the middle of the strike.

The sword’s edge turned toward his new position.

Hmm?

The distance was not enough to completely dodge.

Even so, Lian did not panic for even a moment, and black armor plates with silver lines formed over his body.

[ World-Devourer Bastion ]

Lian fixed his feet on the undamaged part of the stone ground.

[ Mountain Anchor ]

This armor feature increased resistance against being pushed backward by improving the body’s stability and transferring pressure into the ground.

The sword struck the upper guard of his armor.

Clang!

A heavy sound echoed across the plateau, and the force of the strike was transferred into Lian’s upper body.

[ Mountain Frame ]

The armor’s structure distributed the force of the impact between different plates so that all the pressure would not be focused on one point.

The stone ground beneath Lian’s feet cracked, the cracks spread in several directions from where his feet touched the ground, but contrary to the knight’s expectations, young Vorhelm was not thrown backward.

Only his right knee bent slightly, and then he raised his head, his gaze fell on the blade that was still touching his shoulder guard.

Is that all?

Lian raised his left hand and pushed against the wide part of the sword with his armored palm.

At the same time, he gave another command.

’One, second hand.’

The huge ant slammed one of his hands into the ground several meters away.

[ Collapse Hand ]

The cracked stone ground beneath the knight’s feet collapsed, and the Apostate was forced to reduce the pressure on his sword and correct his balance.

And Lian used that very moment.

[ Giant’s Momentum ]

He took one step forward, and his right fist struck the upper part of the knight’s chest.

The sound of metal striking metal echoed across the field, and the Forsaken Apostate took two steps backward, his right foot leaving a short mark on the stone ground.

But Lian did not continue the attack, he stood there and looked at the knight, the armor plates on his shoulder had been slightly deformed because of the strike.

But the lines lit up for a moment, and the damaged part slowly began returning to its original shape.

[ Structural Memory ]

He knew very well that taking all the knight’s strikes directly would be a foolish decision.

If the ground beneath his feet broke apart or the Apostate delivered several strikes in a row, even Mountain Anchor would not be able to handle all the pressure.

’Then I’d better not keep doing this.’

Young Vorhelm looked at the knight’s sword.

"But at least now I know I can stop one of his normal strikes." Considering his physical structure and all the defensive layers he had, this was natural.

Farther away, Rindo and his companions were examining the eastern part of the plateau.

Alicia passed beside one of the broken stone statues and looked down at the cliff.

"This is a dead end."

Rindo thought about the simple map he had made in his mind of the path they had traveled.

"Then we need to check the northeast."

"What if that’s a dead end too?" Noah said from behind them.

Rindo looked toward the center of the field for a moment.

The sounds of the sword striking Lian’s armored fist could still be heard across the plateau.

"Then we’ll find another path."

The young Frenchman looked at him.

"Are you really that confident?"

"No."

Rindo tightened his grip on his spear.

"But Lian asked us to find a way, as long as there’s something we can do, we shouldn’t just stand around."

Alicia also nodded, she was still upset by Lian’s direct words, but now she understood better why he had said them.

If she entered the battlefield, even one normal attack from the knight could take her life, and in that case, Lian would be forced to try to save her instead of focusing on the enemy.

’I need to trust his decision.’

The girl moved toward the northeastern path.

"Come on, maybe there’s a way behind those statues."

The three continued moving.

At the same time, in the center of the plateau, Lian was standing before the Forsaken Apostate again, the knight looked at the place where the fist had struck his armor for a moment.

Then he raised his head.

"You possess power worthy of attention."