The Incarnate screamed.

This time, he lost himself for a few seconds, and that ended really badly for him.

It seemed the katana had actually missed its desired target on his body when it hit his side. Like the Incarnate, the sword’s master seemingly wasn’t capable of seeing through the dark. Or perhaps, it was the Incarnate’s erratic movements as he fell that prevented the enemy from aiming properly at his vitals.

Whichever was true didn’t mean much.

After all, once the sword exited from the Incarnate’s back, it turned… and started stabbing at his back brutally, and rapidly.

This successive stabbing plus the tumbling down the stairs was torture for the Incarnate and for a moment, he almost lost consciousness.

However…

“NOT YET!” the Incarnate roared, pushed his feet against the ground with as much strength as he could muster, and leaped up. The force of his jump caused him to rise and slam hard against the ceiling of the narrow corridor and then plummet to the stairs, but his momentum had died.

This had been the Incarnate’s goal, but he hadn’t truly believed it would work. He had risked being cleaved apart by the sword stabbing into him.

Thankfully, his manoeuvre also caused the cerulean katana to stop decorating his back with holes momentarily, likely because of the complexities that would have been required for it to twist and accurately puncture him when he moved unexpectedly.

The Incarnate, while barely believing he was alive, raised and struck down at the extensive, straight part of the katana before him with Bash Brain. He fuelled all his might into the hit, and just as he expected, he felt the appropriate response from way up the slope of stairs!

The sudden, blunt force did not break the sword, but it did prompt its wielder – who was obviously the figure who had hurled the Incarnate just now – to lose his hold over his weapon.

Once this occurred, the Incarnate felt the katana lose its hard will. It even started to shrink and lose its complex pivots!

And though the Incarnate felt like he had been piggybacking a porcupine; though he felt like some of his intestines had been cut with chef-like precision; though he felt as though some of his bones, in addition to the ribs he had ruined days ago, had been fractured, he maximized this opportunity!

“COME, YOU COWARD!” he barked with bloody spit flying from his mouth.

He began sprinting up the stairs, fumbling at first because he couldn’t quite gauge their placement, but two seconds later, he had gotten used to them.

Though his thigh quickly started to burn and ache, he didn’t mind it. All his attention fled to the silhouette by the exit… which rushed to meet him. The Incarnate felt the enemy’s shocking movement speed again. The stairs clapped rapidly as he advanced.

This was dangerous.

This was probably suicidal.

It was unknown whether his enemy was living or not, but the Incarnate imagined his taunt just now sparked something in them.

He gripped Bash Brain with all his might and raised the Valiant Subject’s Ward.

‘If you are anything like Tenyen, you are dying here, bastard!’ the Demonling thought to himself. He poured his very soul into the swing of his mace, blasting it across to smash the enemy from the side!

MBIIIIIING!

The Incarnate’s body shook, and he could have sworn that something fragile within him popped right then. Ruthless vibrations crossed his body through his bones. His strike with the mace was true… but whatever it met didn’t feel like flesh. It felt more like Incarnate ^8001 had slammed Bash Brain against a city wall!

‘No way…’

As horror spread within the Incarnate, it soon became clear to him that time was still moving.

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After all, his enemy hadn’t waited for him to get a reality check.

Silvery-blue Spirit Essence bellowed from him and scorched the Incarnate’s skin.

The energy gathered around the assailant’s arms, which folded in front of their chest as he crashed into the aspiring Tyrant. The pain that followed for the Incarnate was as bitter as garlic and uncomfortably searing like pepper.

His chest protested, and his body set to fly off further into the darkness, but once again, he felt a grip on his tunic which pulled him back so that he could receive an unfriendly headbutt, get his face smashed into the wall, and receive an Essence-enhanced knee into his gut that made the mess on his stabbed side even worse!

“RARRRRRR!”

But the Incarnate was persistent.

Even though every hit he took was enough to tear a regular human apart – and quite frankly, was bringing his Demonling self closer and closer to death – he soldiered on.

He swiped furiously with the Valiant Subject’s Ward to the enemy’s neck – or where he thought it was – while screaming, “COME ON!”

There was hardly any pleasing result. The sharp edge of the shield did nothing.

BAM!

A scorching left hook left the Incarnate seeing stars, and feeling the throbbing of his fractured skull.

“COME ON!” he cried again.

He tried to push the enemy away with his shield, but they simply pushed back and slammed him back against the wall.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

A blow to the sternum, another to the jaw, and the last to the side, caused the Incarnate to vomit blood and cease drawing breath for several moments. These were all jabs, but the Spirit Essence infused in them turned them all into vengefully lethal attacks.

Yet…

“C-COME…. OOOOOON!”

The Incarnate swung his shield again, and at the same time, his enemy pushed both his fists against it, likely to smugly overpower him even when he had something to block the attack with.

This turned out to work in the Incarnate’s favour. After all, the Valiant Subject’s Ward wasn’t so cruel as to leave its wielder hanging in the time he needed it most. Its second Enchantment was activated, and the mysterious enemy had the force from his fists rebound against him, pushing him back toward the wall!

The Incarnate’s eyes sparkled with hope.

He was saved.

But he didn’t go on the offensive.

Instead, he used all the strength he had left to sprint limply towards the exit and soon, he was in the brightly lit, ovular space again. He tumbled as he reached it, but quickly stood up while heaving.

He had a goal.

Just as he reached for said goal, however, a cerulean katan whistled through the air, bending this way and that before stabbing into the Incarnate’s calf!

The Demonling staggered and fell.

He looked behind him.

‘Again with this!’ he screamed in his mind while gritting his teeth from the immense pain.

His enemy was back to using the sword.

This was bad!

The Incarnate’s taunt had probably expired in the head of his enemy. While the bastard was clearly strong enough to kill him with his bare hands, he had turned back to his weapon now for no other reason than probably to bring variety to the torture.

‘Come on, just a little more…’

The Incarnate leaped towards what he desired, ignoring the katana ripping through his flesh.

Unfortunately, the katana extended, pivoted, and stabbed towards his head, but the Incarnate narrowly dodged with the help of his sensitive skin. His eyes glanced for an instant toward his goal before returning to the winding katana.

The column of light was what he wanted to reach.

A lot of consideration had gone into why he had chosen to head for it instead, but for now, it didn’t matter at all. The enemy was against him getting anywhere near it.

The Incarnate rolled away and propped up his shield without blocking his vision.

He was roughly two meters away from the column, but the katana’s edge was daring him to try and approach while it was in striking range like so.

As the Demonling huffed with strain, he heard the footsteps of the katana’s master. Soon, the monster of a combatant he hadn’t been able to see all this time showed himself.

Strangely, the enemy wore the same brand of armor Tenyen had on with a similar level of rust and erosion to it. It was extravagant in its old days, but now, it was just disgusting to look at. The helm the bastard wore was also unsightly, looking to flake at the slightest touch.

This made the Demonling’s spirits plummet.

‘Then that toughness…’ he thought while growing pale. Then the hardness he felt when he hit this armored figure with his mace, was not a property of his armor, but his body?

But then… that meant this bastard was tougher than Tenyen!

The Incarnate ground his teeth.

Many thoughts were juggled in his mind. Many deliberations.

Things were really looking bad.

The enemy had his sword snap back to its original state as a regular katana with a slightly appealing hue, and then he slowly walked towards the Incarnate, his Spirit Essence blazing around him.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

The Incarnate’s hearts beat rapidly.

What was he to do now?

What was he to do… but go all out?

Without thinking, he mobilized all his strength and dived toward the column of light!

At the same time, his enemy sped towards him, intent on dealing a finishing blow before he could…but the Incarnate had considered that.

While airborne, he flung his mace towards where he estimated the feet of the blurred figure to be by the time he took action. Naturally, this didn’t hinder the armored enemy by much, but it did afford the Incarnate a split-second advantage.

Sadly, the enemy still caught up in the end and rammed into him at full force while slashing down with the katana.

This was the end.

…

Well, it would have been… if the Incarnate’s finger hadn’t managed to touch the column of light.

In that instant…

[You have paid the necessary price – 10 Incarnate Points]

[You have acquired the Legendary Far Ji, ‘Hermetic Vault’]

Right then, the vast torrents of Spirit Essence pooling around the atrophied corpse on the ceiling barrelled down towards the Incarnate!