Chapter 226: How Am I Supposed to Fight This?!

The spear's afterimages formed an airtight net that descended upon the girl.

The sounds of clashing weapons rang out continuously!

Amidst this storm-like barrage of spear strikes,

Elvira displayed combat skill that could only be described as terrifying.

Or rather, the kind of monstrous talent acknowledged by the Royal Family's legendary Sword Saint.

【Talent Analysis in Progress · Instinct: Currently in an incompletely awakened state. This talent grants extraordinarily terrifying combat intuition, allowing the user to clearly perceive the most advantageous course of action within battle. Immune to all hidden traps and sneak attacks. Ignores all feints and deceptive movements from enemies.】

What a terrifying talent.

Seeing the information displayed on the panel, Lance could not help but marvel inwardly.

This meant that as long as the girl's stamina had not been exhausted, and as long as her agility could keep up with the pace of combat, then in a direct confrontation, she would never expose a single opening.

At this moment, in Elvira's eyes, all of Lance's attack trajectories had transformed into clearly visible lines.

She completely ignored all the deceptive feints hidden within Lance's spear techniques.

Every time she swung her sword, the Holy Sword in her hands precisely intercepted Lance's black spear shaft, sealing off every lethal attack route.

However, every successful defense required her to mobilize the full strength of her body.

A semi-transparent phantom of heavy armor had already begun to materialize around her.

Outside the armor phantom, a crimson Aether Energy barrier radiating scarlet light had also emerged.

【Skill Specialty Analysis · Crimson Crown Martial Armor: This specialty automatically adjusts its defensive rating according to the user's Class Rank. Current protection is equivalent to a high-quality Common-grade light armor. Grants a forced +2 bonus to torso base armor and negates all penetration damage from ordinary arrows.】

【Class Exclusive Specialty Analysis · Crimson Glory Domain: Forms a spherical Aether Deflection Field before the user's body. While the host remains in a Defensive Stance, all frontal physical and magical damage is forcibly reduced by 10%. Each successful block converts excess energy into a Covenant Mark (maximum of three stacks). Upon consuming a mark to launch a counterattack, weapon damage receives a 50% bonus.】

Watching her reveal three defensive specialties in rapid succession,

Lance's mind worked at high speed.

He quickly deduced the core structure of her combat system.

This was unquestionably a build centered around defense, counterattacks, and one-hit kills.

However, the 50% counterattack damage bonus from Crimson Glory Domain, while impressive, was not enough to serve as the absolute core of a one-hit-kill strategy.

She definitely possessed another hidden trump card capable of multiplying counterattack damage exponentially.

Considering her identity as a descendant of the Red Dragon,

Lance could make a fairly accurate guess.

That trump card was most likely her Source Trait.

People like them probably possessed methods to identify Source Traits before Class Advancement, allowing them to build their entire combat systems around them from the ordinary human stage.

As expected of someone inheriting the Red Dragon bloodline.

This combat system was practically flawless.

Especially when paired with that absurd Instinct talent and the layered defensive specialties.

Her defensive capabilities were nearly airtight.

And maintaining such a system required stamina far beyond ordinary people.

Lance was certain that among Classes between Levels 1 and 5,

very few Adventurers could forcefully break through a defense as sturdy as this turtle shell.

Including himself.

Although he currently held absolute initiative and dominance in the battle,

he genuinely could not completely break through her defenses in a short period of time.

However...

This was not an unsolvable deadlock.

Staring at the crimson barrier, Lance suddenly smiled softly.

Because at this moment, an increasingly powerful sense of panic was rising inside Elvira.

In truth, every one of Lance's tactical assessments had been correct.

The deadliest core of her defensive-counterattack system truly lay within her Source Trait.

【Source Trait Analysis · Reverse Scale Counter: During combat, Armor Penetration automatically increases by 10% for every 10% of health lost. Upon achieving a "Perfect Parry/Block," Dragon's Reverse Scale activates. The next attack is guaranteed to critically strike, and the probability of destroying the enemy's weapon increases dramatically.】

The definition of a Perfect Block was simple:

the opponent's attack must cause absolutely no negative effects whatsoever upon the defense.

Under normal circumstances, achieving this standard within Elvira's defensive system was extremely easy.

Combined with her other Light-Attribute Aether Energy characteristic and the damage amplification from Crimson Glory Domain,

a single successful counterattack would be enough to unleash mountain-shattering destruction.

But now...

Elvira stared despairingly at the bizarre silver-and-red energy flowing along Lance's spear every time their weapons collided.

The energy resembled molten lava.

Every impact generated explosive showers of sparks.

Worse, the scattered energy clung stubbornly to her defensive barrier like a parasitic curse.

The Aether Field surrounding the outermost layer of Crimson Glory Domain was visibly weakening and disintegrating beneath the relentless bombardment.

The scorching heat had already begun reaching her face.

And it was precisely this disgusting energy characteristic—with its high-temperature burning and defense-eroding properties—

that prevented all of her defensive actions from qualifying as Perfect Blocks.

Without Perfect Blocks, her guaranteed critical counterattack became completely useless.

Meanwhile, whether it was speed, strength, or pressure,

Elvira could only despairingly admit that Lance surpassed her in every category.

What truly terrified her was...

As the defensive battle dragged on,

large beads of sweat rolled down her forehead and stung her eyes.

The Red Dragon bloodline had blessed her with stamina several times greater than ordinary people.

It had also granted astonishing recovery during combat.

Yet to her horror, she discovered that after countless heavy clashes, more than half of her stamina had already been depleted.

Every one of Lance's attacks required her full effort to defend against.

And from the beginning of the battle until now, not a single one of his strikes had weakened.

Teacher...

If I'm considered a once-in-a-century genius of the Royal Family...

Then what exactly is this monster of a man who's been suppressing me the entire time?

Lance's performance, resembling an inexhaustible perpetual-motion machine, finally tore open a crack in the confidence Elvira had built throughout her life in the Royal Capital.

A crack that would not easily heal.

CRACK!

A dull sound echoed.

The outermost layer of Crimson Glory Domain could no longer endure the relentless heat and finally shattered completely.

Without the protection of the force field, she now had to directly face the scorching Aether Energy coating the spearhead and the unbearable heat generated by the evaporating lake water.

“Huff... huff...”

Elvira gasped heavily, her chest rising and falling violently.

She could not understand why.

Under the influence of the strange heat produced by his Aether Energy, her normally active Aether Energy recovery had slowed dramatically.

Even the weakness from exhaustion seemed magnified several times over.

Could this silver-red energy possess some extremely rare healing-suppression effect as well?

How am I supposed to fight this?!

A desperate scream echoed inside her mind.

She could not continue passively enduring the assault.

She had to find an opportunity to counterattack immediately.

Looking at the tireless figure before her—raising his heavy spear yet again—

Elvira bit the tip of her tongue.

Using pain to stimulate her nerves, she instantly activated the stored Covenant Marks.

A blinding burst of light erupted from the Holy Sword.

CLANG!

Using the explosive surge of power,

she finally managed to knock aside Lance's next devastating strike.

“I'm paying you back for all of that!”

Seizing the brief opening when Lance's previous force had just been spent and his next had not yet fully formed,

【Covenant Marks】 + 【Glory Combo Slash】!

Holding the sword with both hands, the girl transformed into a dazzling streak of golden light.

With unstoppable momentum, she slashed viciously toward Lance's head!

Faced with this desperate all-or-nothing counterattack, not only did Lance show no panic, a trace of triumph actually flashed through his eyes.

Naive.

Did she really think she was the only one in this Astral Realm who possessed a defensive-counterattack specialty?

【Specialty: Reverse Thunder Counter】: When you successfully parry an attack with a weapon, Thunder Dormancy Energy is accumulated. This stored energy may be released at any time, instantly unleashing a powerful Electrical Shock. In addition to dealing damage, it forcibly inflicts Paralysis.