A rouge aura wafted off from the Lower Ogre, the ground seemingly sinking in a measure. If Leonidas didn’t know better, he would have thought that it had entered its own Berserk mode, but he knew better. This was a Fighter Blessing. The Ogre was anywhere between 10 to 20% stronger now.
Leonidas’ gaze remained unmoved. Something about his disposition seemed to have shifted when both blades entered his hands.
‘Dual wielding?’ Anabel, who had completely forgotten to act on Leonidas’ orders, looked on as though she had lost a part of her soul. She had never seen Leonidas dual wield before, and they hadn’t missed a day of training in months. How could she assume anything but the fact Leonidas was doing this on a whim?
“Why aren’t you doing what I told you to?”
Leonidas’ deep and rumbling voice snapped Anabel awake. While Leonidas could understand that Anabel felt his battle would decide her life and death, he didn’t have the patience for it. He had brought her for a reason. If she couldn’t do what he asked of her, what use did she have?
Anabel seemed to sense Leonidas’ unspoken ultimatum and could only steel herself. Leonidas, though, never took his eyes off of the Lower Ogre before him. As though both were working on an unspoken timer, they shot forward at once.
Leonidas focused on entering close range once again, but the Lower Ogre had learned from the first exchange. Allowing Leonidas to get close while wielding a single weapon was fine, but if he was wielding two, it was an unnecessary risk.
Leonidas could sense the shift in approach and reacted accordingly. His Scholar’s Eye became an even more important piece of his combat. He already couldn’t afford to be careless facing such strength, and this was even more so now. On top of this, he needed to take care of his blades.
Using his blades to enhance the action of each other, Leonidas’ movements seemed fluid and flexible. While he wasn’t a speedster, his actions were skilled and sharp.
His first blade met the saw-like sword of the Lower Ogre. However, before the brunt of the damage could be transferred, his second blade entered the fray, smashing against the flat of the enormous sword and forcing its path to diverge.
When they struck, they struck together. When they defended, they defended together. When they parried, they did so as one and when they feinted, they left streaks in the air, becoming two venomous serpents that lashed out for the enemy’s throat, head and arms.
The grin of the Lower Ogre only seemed to grow wider. Every time it was just a measure away from slicing Leonidas in two, its gaze would flash as its strikes became more ferocious. The longer the fight went on, the more excited it became because the more certain it was of the value of Leonidas' head.
It had been a very long time since the Half-Beast Goddess actually gained a Half-Beast Apostle at the Violet Water Sub-Shrine. For Leonidas to break through and manage to claim a spot under their nose, it could only mean that there was something very special about him.
The Lower Ogre had seen enough.
Dual wielding might look great, but it was draining, especially since they were two heavy sabers. The Lower Ogre felt that it had drained Leonidas enough. It was time to act.
“Power. Accelerate. Fortify.”
The rushing of the Lower Ogre’s blood became like crashing waves that resonated throughout the forest. In the blink of an eye, it had stacked three Level 2 Fighter Blessings.
The soft soil seemed to implode as the Lower Ogre accelerated forth. Its large body and heavy steps closed the distance in what felt like two leaps, bearing down on Leonidas with intent to kill.
Leonidas’ gaze flickered, but his Scholar’s Eye had already calculated that he had no chance of dodging this in a normal fashion. Without hesitation, he pushed off his right foot and tail, sending himself rolling to the left with as much burst as he could muster.
BANG!
The clearing hadn’t increased in size since the initial battle and Leonidas had already been forced to its edge. The trees paid for his retreat, half of one trunk imploding on impact and making it look as though some monstrous beast had taken a large bite out of it.
Leonidas’ pupils constricted. That wasn’t a result one would expect from a blade. There was definitely a special technique behind this.
Almost as though playing to the cue of Leonidas’ thoughts, the Lower Ogre’s saw-like sword erupted with a blaze of fire. It was quite illusory, like it was struggling to break into reality. At the same time, it was a lot more orange than it was red while also not giving off much heat at all. But, judging by the state of the tree, this was the least of Leonidas’ worries.
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‘Technique Blessing.’ Leonidas concluded.
Fighters gained their own version of a Mana Pool as well. However, rather than being called Mana, it was called Breath and it was the source of their strength. A technique capable of giving tangible form to Breath like this should have been exceptionally rare, but it was also very draining. It seemed the Lower Ogre wanted to end things now to prevent further variables.
Leonidas rolled to the side once more. Every time he did so, he would use his tail to quickly spring back to his feet, preparing to roll out of the way once more.
A sheen of sweat began to coat Leonidas, however his gaze was focused. The destruction of the surroundings was becoming catastrophic, even a tornado wouldn't be able to properly describe just what was happening.
The rampage of the Lower Ogre was fueled to a new level by its greed, but it remained controlled. As slow as Leonidas was, it was even slower, and its size didn’t help in the slightest. However, from the very beginning, it had been slowly cornering Leonidas.
In that instant, Leonidas suddenly found that there was nowhere else to dodge. He had been avoiding the region where Anabel was and had essentially put up an invisible wall for himself. As the craters and destruction increased, he was pushed toward the forest. Finding himself unable to dodge left or right, the only way was back.
The Lower Ogre’s blade cleaved down from above, a sinister expression warping its face. A toothy, foul grin spread across its lips.
As expected, Leonidas could only drive himself backward, but with his tail’s current position, it wasn’t convenient to push off in that direction without first jumping. There was no doubt that this slowed him by several measures.
Leonidas’ Scholar’s Eye followed the slow trajectory of the swinging blade, his body leaning and jumping back all at once.
‘It missed.’ Leonidas concluded.
Unfortunately, that didn’t matter.
A searing pain tore into Leonidas’ chest, tearing his tunic in two and blasting a deep gap down his fair skin. The air was forcefully ejected from his mouth, taking with it a measure of blood. The sheer destruction of the Ogre’s Breath ripped Leonidas’ skin to shreds, nearly hitting bone.
The momentum sent Leonidas flying, his back crashing heavily into the thick trunk of a tree and sheering off a layer of bark from it.
A snarl left Leonidas’ lips, an inhuman growl echoing through as he fell to a knee. When his gaze met the Lower Ogre’s this time, there was something decidedly different about it. It was no longer deadpan, filled with an endless depth of coldness and drenched in schemes and calculation. There was only an irrational rage and a will to tear the opponent before him to shreds.
Leonidas’ canines lengthened, his coarse hair expanding in volume by a measure.
“Berserk?” The Lower Ogre erupted into a boisterous laughter that boomed across the forest’s canopy and sent birds sprawling away. “This really is my lucky day!”
Leonidas sprung forward like a wild animal, his sabers becoming like extensions of his arms and his upper body leaning forward as though he might topple over at any moment.
His long tail hovered behind him, looming in the air like a halo and swishing back and forth madly. The whistling wind that followed it told a tale of its own, the kind that painted the image of its heft, speed and lethality.
The Lower Ogre continued to laugh as the roles seemed to reverse. It took a step back, sidestepping Leonidas and swinging down for his back.
At that moment, Leonidas’ hovering tail flicked to a side, slamming the flat of the Lower Ogre’s blade before it could cut him.
A pained roar left Leonidas as a portion of his tail erupted into a blood mist.
“Oh? That’s some tough fur you got there. I thought it would have taken the whole thing.” The Lower Ogre laughed. “Tell me, if a Half-Beast loses his tail, does that make you a eunuch?”
Leonidas’ leg planted as he pivoted toward the direction of the Lower Ogre. His calf increased a fold in size, the muscle fibers snapping and threatening to come off the bone clean. But, he didn’t seem to notice as he accelerated forward, showing an agility that caught the Lower Ogre off guard.
After its saw blade was knocked off course by Leonidas’ tail, it had expected to have time to pull back and prepare for the next onslaught. But, this time, it couldn’t. He was just about to retrieve his blade and pull back, but Leonidas was already upon him.
Leonidas’ right blade swung down, aiming for the largest and most accessible target before him: the Lower Ogre’s arm.
It no longer laughed, its gaze narrowing as its forearms bulged, pulling back its long blade with as much speed as it could muster. Unfortunately, Leonidas’ saber had already made it.
DING!
The sound was sharp and resonating. Even in Berserk, Leonidas felt his ears ringing as his wrist and arm snapped back, his blade rebounding as though he had just hit a steel wall.
The faded smile of the Lower Ogre returned, a deathly scent permeating with its breath as though in signal of Leonidas’ end.
A Level 2 Defensive Blessing, Fortify, against blades that weren’t even Level 1. The result was as obvious as it got. Leonidas’ strike left behind nothing more than a white mark. And, by now, the Lower Ogre was almost recovered.
Any wizened battle veteran would retreat right this moment. After a single failed attack, a second was unlikely to succeed, especially after losing the momentum the first had. However, Leonidas had entered Berserk. Rationality was maybe the furthest thing from his mind.
The Lower Ogre’s sneer deepened as it realized Leonidas didn’t retreat. It looked toward the latter’s left blade swing as though it was child’s play. Leonidas would be able to land this second strike, but his doing so would cost him his life.
What the Lower Ogre didn’t notice as it followed the trajectory of the second blade, though, was the fact that the madness in Leonidas’ gaze had faded to its previous deadpan coldness.
‘Mana Blade.’
Leonidas’ irises flashed with a hidden magic circle, his Mana Pool completing its circuit in the blink of an eye. The subtle stream of Mana was so perfectly controlled that the Lower Ogre didn’t even notice the change… Until it suddenly found its vision spinning, the corner of its eye catching a three-meter-tall headless corpse.
BANG!
Leonidas was sent flying once more. His tail had protected him from the brunt of it all, and his thick head of hair softened the blow to his back as well, but he still couldn’t help but hack up another mouthful of blood.
This time, however, his gaze was placid as he watched the Lower Ogre slump to the ground.
Victory was his.