The Sword and The Shadow

Duel (4)

As Gahrona continuously siphoned spiritual energy into Ebony, its curse ability began to grow more and more. While the higher order status effects like corrosion, blind and pain wouldn't work much on Legg, simpler ones like weaken or slow that didn't harm the enemy directly would still be effective.

When Leguna's words fell, Legg felt a sense of fatigue from within his body.

"A curse ability" Legg said with a hint of shock. "I didn't think you'd have that kind of weapon too! Both your weapons are amazing!"

"Of course," Leguna bragged. There wasn't a need to be humble. Ebony was the dagger used by Gahrona Shadowedge, and Lighteater used to be the blade Soulscarfer Wellingdon used. How could those two saints use anything subpar?

While Leguna knew the origins of Ebony well, he wasn't sure about Lighteater. It could've been given to him indirectly by Wayerliss back then. He didn't actually think he'd be so lucky to run into a saint's weapon in an icy cave. If he were that lucky, he'd try his hand in the lottery.

Alongside those two saint weapons, he was wearing Haden's high grade enchanted leather armor and his enchanted boots, Lightness. As for Legg, he had nothing but a pair of pants on aside from his gloves.

It only just occurred to him that his equipment was far better than Legg's, but that didn't change the fact that he was at a disadvantage at all. But now that the dark of night had fallen and Legg was under the curses, the situation might just change.

Leguna didn't give the barbarian any time to ponder on those abilities. He slipped through space to Legg's flank once more and performed a Voidbreak Slash near his neck.

Leguna seldom used that skill as it was more suited to hard-handed warriors like Kurdak. While it was much sharper and quick compared to Wave Blade, it used up too much energy, which was why he didn't favor it.

"Hargh!" Legg used War Cry once more to stop Leguna from moving.

Though he wasn't directly impacted by the sound waves, the impetus blast did shake him. He felt a pain in his ankle and found that Legg had his hand gripped around his left leg.

"Eat my punch!" Having managed to grasp this rare chance, he wanted to make sure to deal a healthy serving of damage to Leguna. His muscles bulged and Leguna thought it might've been his imagination.

Legg focused his impetus on his left arm and roared before punching at Leguna's chest like a sandbag.

Leguna hurriedly manifested two layers of shadow impetus armor, but they shattered like glass under the barrage of attacks. The barbarian easily punched through the defenses!

Whoosh!

The cooldown of Shadow Blink ended at the very last moment. Leguna managed to blink away the moment his sternum was shattered to Legg's back before he swung LIghteater towards his shins.

Legg wasn't slow to react either. He manipulated the ground to once more trap Leguna's legs. When the longsword hurt Legg's legs, Leguna was trapped once more.

"Aaargh!" Legg didn't groan from the pain Instead, he twisted his body and swung his arm towards Leguna's abdomen.

"Pffffft!"

It felt like a mountain just crashed into his stomach as the blood spurted into the air. He flew a good 20 meters before he crashed into the ground.

"Hehe! Hehe!" Leguna chuckled after he cleared the blood out of his mouth. His previous strike managed to hurt Legg's leg tendons. Every step would no doubt hurt him. So long as he could stop Legg from reacting to his speed, Legg would be nothing but a target!

The barbarian was also aware of this and furrowed his brow after taking two steps forward.

"About time you surrendered," Leguna said as he heaved, "You won't be able to match my speed now. And if my senses weren't playing tricks on me, more than half of your tendons should've been cut through. Continue walking and you'll be crippled for good. I look forward to seeing you in a wheelchair!"

Leguna showed a crucial assassin quality: the exploitation of enemy weaknesses. While Legg's defenses were headache-inducing, it wasn't impregnable. The weakness of Skin of Terra was that it couldn't manifest at the joints. Otherwise, Legg wouldn't be able to move!

Leguna only had a mild guess about that weakness, but it seemed his hunch was correct. Not to mention, he struck a critical point. Strikes to the ankle usually weren't fatal and people seldom attacked that location. But Leguna knew that his victory would be assured if he could make sure his opponent couldn't keep up the pace. He managed to identify the subtle weakness to net himself an obvious advantage.

"Do you think I would surrender?" Legg asked.

"Nope." He knew that there was no way a small setback would cause him to.

"Then stop talking crap! Come!" Legg charged forwards, much slower than before. The trail of blood he left behind showed how much pain he was in.

Leguna shook his head helplessly and joined the fray.

……

Half an hour later, Leguna was impressed at Legg's will to fight. Given Leguna's speed advantage, he had been gaining an edge during the past half hour. Legg wanted to react quicker, but the pain caused him to be unable to.

Leguna on the other hand patiently attacked. He managed to leave Legg's body full of small wounds. He wanted to drain him out slowly and turn the barbarian entirely red. More importantly, Skin of Terra had more or less been corroded away by the shadow impetus. His cuts might actually break skin soon.

Though, he wasn't doing too well either. He breathed heavily and his left arm was completely bent from the time it was grabbed by Legg. He could only move his right. Fortunately, his legs weren't hurt, and he didn't slow down by much.

"Hey! You should surrender already, alright? I can't promise I'll be able to control my strength any further," Leguna advised. He was trying for a bluff. He was also pushing the envelope for his stamina. Legg might actually win if he held on.

"Hurp…" Legg stumbled forward like he was about to vomit, but soon stabilized himself. Wiping the blood off his mouth, he puffed out his chest. "You want the barbarian king to yield just like that? Don't look down on me!"

Leguna lowered his stance. For some reason, he felt an impending sense of danger.

Legg stared at Leguna and solemnly said, "While you have superior equipment, it's already quite impressive for you to push me to this point at the 15th stratum."

"Is that a praise or what?" Leguna expressionlessly asked. He identified Legg to be the source of the sense of foreboding.

"Of course. But apologies. I have to resort to this move. I hope you will survive it."

Leguna narrowed his eyes and saw Legg's face contort. His skin turned red; it wasn't the kind of red from blood. The redness came from under the skin.

"Guuuuuuuaaaaah!" An inane shriek came out of the barbarian before he uttered, "Kiiiil!"

"Berserk?" His eyelids twitched. Frenda's son showed startling capability when he went berserk, so he couldn't imagine how much stronger the barbarian king would get in that state.

"Legg! Legg! Legg!" The barbarians around cheered at the sight. They knew how truly terrifying their king was in that state. Now they no longer worried about what would happen if he lost. Instead, they started considering how they would wrap up the duel.

"If that human surrenders in time, he might be spared," said a barbarian.

"I doubt so," another replied, "How would we stop our king in that state? He's a force of nature!"

Arikos looked at the moon and appeared to be in thought.

Leguna didn't notice it. He couldn't spare any attention. The aura Legg gave off in a berserk state resembled Kreighdon's!

"Hah!" Legg roared.

Bam! The next second, Legg sped towards Leguna like a cannonball. The boom was caused by his sheer speed.

That fast?! Legg's speed sent him into a spiral of despair. Before he was aware of it, Legg's fist was only inches away from him.