Chapter 225: The Outsider Is Still Making Moves

Lance looked at her confident expression and laughed.

“Then if I win, I'll use this to give your butt a good spanking.”

He lifted the heavy spear in his hand.

Elvira's face immediately reddened, though it was impossible to tell whether it was from embarrassment or excitement.

Since a victor would ultimately have to be decided,

Lance and Elvira simultaneously began regulating their breathing.

The two slowly widened the distance between them.

At that very moment, the canyon suddenly underwent a strange transformation.

Visible ripples spread through the air.

Then several new notifications appeared before Lance.

【Heroic Spirit Leonidas has intervened in the battlefield!】

【This Conqueror is exhilarated by the duel between you two young dragons. He has decided to add fuel to the flames of this War of the Twin Dragons!】

【The trial has forcibly received a special trait: Death Duel Without Retreat (Leonidas's Carnival Blessing)】

【Rule One (Death Duel): The canyon barrier has been sealed. Any participant who leaves the canyon will immediately lose qualification for the trial.】

【Rule Two (Undying): During this duel, all fatal attacks will forcibly preserve a final thread of life. Neither side can truly kill the other.】

【Rule Three (Revival): No matter how severe the injuries sustained during this battle, after the Coronation Ceremony concludes and both parties return to the Astral Realm, all wounds will be completely healed. Both bodies will be restored to one hundred percent perfect peak condition.】

Seeing these three rules, Lance secretly applauded.

This blessing had arrived at the perfect moment.

Apparently Heroic Spirit Leonidas had realized that because of their time together, neither of them could truly attack the other without hesitation.

So at this critical moment, he had directly used the rules themselves to remove all psychological burdens.

“The rest of this battle depends entirely on you now, Lance.”

Ascalon's voice echoed in his mind.

Lance silently nodded.

He fully understood what the Spear Spirit meant.

In this fair final trial, the Noble Phantasms would not provide any additional authority or power.

If the powers of the Noble Phantasms were included, the duel would simply become a clash of artifacts.

That was clearly not what the three Heroic Spirits observing from the Hall of Valor wanted to see.

Across from him, Elvira had also finished receiving the new rules transmitted by the Astral Realm.

The girl let out a long sigh of relief.

Although she had long suspected that Lance might be the inheritor of the White Dragon, she possessed absolute confidence in the combat system she had spent years cultivating.

Previously, she had secretly worried that once she entered combat mode, she might lose control of her strength.

If she accidentally crippled or seriously injured the man she had only recently begun to like, how would she deal with the aftermath?

But now, with the Undying Rule in effect, she no longer had such concerns.

A confident smile returned to her face.

Gripping the radiant golden cross-shaped sword with both hands, Elvira pointed its tip steadily toward Lance.

“Be careful!”

The girl's crisp warning rang out amidst the roar of water.

Lance held his heavy spear in both hands and assumed a defensive stance.

However, just as the battle was about to begin, an unexpected notification appeared.

【Detected that the host's special Source Trait "Outsider" is currently active...】

Lance's heart stirred.

As expected.

Within the Astral Realm, which overflowed with higher-dimensional energy, the Outsider Source Trait could forcibly remove certain limitations and provide unexpected advantages.

“BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—”

Mist generated by the waterfall drifted throughout the canyon.

Elvira skipped all probing attacks.

She launched a fierce offensive immediately.

The pebbles beneath her feet shattered instantly.

The tremendous reaction force transformed her into a cannonball, sending her hurtling toward Lance from over twenty meters away.

Lance narrowed his eyes.

He could tell that this charge was no ordinary dash.

It was some kind of specialized charging skill.

Powerful Aether Energy seemed to propel her from beneath her feet, boosting her acceleration to a level nearly impossible for ordinary eyes to track.

However, no matter how fast she moved,

Lance's Perception Attribute, which exceeded twenty points, still allowed him to clearly capture every detail of her movement.

Against this sort of high-speed assault, retreating backward would only allow the opponent to exploit openings through endless chained attacks.

Besides...

When it came to pure contests of strength,

Lance had never feared anyone of the same rank.

His hands tightened around the heavy spear.

The muscles in his waist and back instantly tensed.

【Specialty: Frostland Cheval de Frise】: When remaining stationary and assuming a "Braced Spear Counter" stance, your Strength Check temporarily gains +3. Fifteen percent of an enemy's charging impact force is negated.

“CLANG!!!”

The radiant golden cross sword and the black spear shaft collided violently in midair!

A tremendous shockwave erupted between them.

A visible ring of turbulent air exploded outward from the point of impact, instantly blasting away the surrounding white mist and creating a massive vacuum zone.

Immediately afterward, a peculiar combat assessment appeared before Lance's eyes.

【Strength Contest Assessment: Your current Strength Value is 28.65 (+3), greatly exceeding the opponent's 23 points. Contest successful!】

This additional assessment perspective was clearly granted by Outsider.

Being able to directly see an opponent's statistics was basically the equivalent of playing cards with complete vision.

The Source Furnace within Lance roared into operation.

Silver and dark crimson Ember Dragon Breath immediately surged across the spear like a tidal wave.

Silver-red Aether Energy erupted with terrifying heat.

In the moisture-saturated environment surrounding the waterfall, huge quantities of water instantly evaporated, producing thick clouds of scorching white steam.

Meanwhile, Elvira, who was currently on the offensive, wore an expression of complete disbelief.

The moment their weapons connected, she felt an overwhelming force surge through her cross sword.

The power was absurdly immense.

It even carried the domineering intent of completely overturning the momentum she had painstakingly built during her charge.

【Opponent's passive specialty "Kingship Barrier" activated. This specialty grants immunity against knockback and forced launch effects from all enemies whose Strength Attribute is not at least 1.5 times greater than hers.】

Thanks to this powerful specialty, the girl's feet rooted themselves to the ground.

She firmly planted herself against the shoreline and entered a deadlock against Lance.

Immense pressure descended from above.

The pebbles beneath her feet shattered under the strain as water splashed in every direction.

Elvira gritted her teeth.

Never before had she encountered someone of her generation possessing strength capable of surpassing even the Red Dragon bloodline.

After all, her base attributes were already astonishing.

Combined with the royal family's Legendary-rank Breathing Technique,nshe had always possessed overwhelming physical superiority.

Yet now, in the very contest she prided herself on most, she had been completely overpowered.

Elvira could feel Lance using the spear to force her downward.

Not only that.

She could clearly feel the scorching temperature radiating from the silver-red Aether Energy coating his weapon.

Continuing this direct clash was impossible.

The girl made an immediate decision.

Her wrists twisted sharply as she forcefully altered her attack.

Using both hands, she rotated the cross sword and scraped it violently upward along the spear shaft.

A shower of sparks exploded into the air.

With a shrill metallic screech, the blade slashed toward the artery on the side of Lance's neck from a vicious angle.

At the instant she changed techniques—

【One of the opponent's energy characteristics, "Radiant Wind," has activated.】

【Under normal conditions, high-pressure airflow wraps around the weapon and refracts light, preventing enemies from accurately judging the weapon's true length and attack trajectory through vision. Additionally increases weapon sharpness.】

Facing this strike aimed at his neck,

Lance discovered that he could no longer accurately judge the sword's true position with his eyes alone.

Without hesitation, he abandoned the power struggle.

His body rapidly withdrew backward.

He narrowly escaped the blade's cutting range.

However, before Elvira could even catch her breath after forcing him back,

Lance had already stabilized his footing through the retreat.

Without the slightest pause, he unleashed every bit of spearmanship he had spent dozens of days honing day and night within the Astral Realm.

There was no need for him to worry about conserving stamina.

The heavy spear seemed to come alive in his hands.

It transformed into a furious black dragon.

Chop.

Smash.

Sweep.

Thrust.

There were no fancy feints or cautious probes.

Every attack Lance launched contained the entirety of his strength.

Every strike was delivered at full power.