In an underground corridor made of carved stone blocks, with the only source of light being the fire torches that barely illuminated anything.
A man, 1.8 meters (5.9 ft) tall and around 40 years old, advanced with a large axe towards a child who was much shorter and thinner than ideal.
When the child saw the large axe appear, a frightened expression crossed his small face, and he turned to try to flee.
"What’s wrong? Have you lost your courage?”
“Do you not trust in your Darkness ability?" The dungeon guard leader, filled with fury and anger over his now-lost hand, needed only a few steps to catch up to the poor child.
The child looked back, so scared that he tripped over his own feet.
But due to the fall, the child managed to avoid being sliced in half by the powerful horizontal slash performed with the dungeon leader's left hand.
"Ah… no," the child groaned as he fell to the ground and looked at the dungeon guard leader in panic.
“No! Please! Wait!” The child begged, but the guard ignored his plea. Without his hand, he would be crippled for life, his job would be at risk, and Lady Valerie would get rid of him anyway.
The guard leader adjusted his stance and prepared to deliver a vertical slash to the child lying on the ground.
“No!” The child kicked the guard’s right leg, probably trying to knock him down, but the guard laughed at this. A child trying to topple an adult was ridiculous.
The boy’s panic excited him even more.
And then, ‘slash’, the guard felt a terrible pain in his right leg.
He staggered backward, using his left foot, and realized that his right leg had almost been severed. He could barely stay on his feet.
He looked at the boy and saw that his foot was covered with a black mist shaped like a blade.
[Dark Blade]
‘Ah, it worked, great, now I have a chance to survive.’
The difference in strength between Tristan and his enemy was too great. Even though he had rendered his enemy’s right hand useless, Tristan knew he couldn’t win.
Running away was impossible; the guard was much faster than him. Trying to attack his enemy before he materialized his weapon would also be useless; with the physical strengthening of Fire cultivation, the guard leader could keep his distance, preventing Tristan from using Dark Blade until he could summon his weapon.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
‘No.’
To balance the fight, he needed to take away one of his enemy’s advantages.
That’s why Tristan gave his enemy the time he needed to summon his weapon and then pretended to be so scared that he might trip while trying to flee. With his axe in hand, the dungeon guard leader wouldn’t fear being cut by Dark Blade. The result of his act was a total success; the guard leader felt so confident that he didn’t even use a movement ability to kill Tristan.
Tristan had already sealed a large portion of the guard’s attack abilities, and now he had also taken away his movement abilities.
The main reason Tristan had created such a dangerous strategy and was confident that the experienced guard would be deceived by his act was due to the main characteristic most abilities share.
Lack of flexibility.
Most abilities had to be performed with the same movements and with the same energy control, everything had to be done perfectly the same. The slightest inaccuracy, and the ability would fail.
Of course, there were some exceptions to this, and Dark Blade was one of them. This ability was of the flexible type, allowing Tristan to use it in any movement. Tristan could even use it on any part of his body as long as he had good enough essence control.
He relied on luck that the guard wouldn’t have an ability as versatile as his. And judging by his furious reaction, he probably didn’t.
‘Well, I did everything I could. Since he’s right-handed, he must have lost most of his attack abilities, and without his right leg, his movement abilities have also been compromised.’
Tristan smiled.
“How are you feeling, bastard?”
“Can you guess which part I’ll cut off next?”
“My nose is still sore. So I think I’ll settle that debt, but don’t worry, you won’t suffer as long as I did since you’ll die soon.”
Tristan turned to the guard and assumed his fighting stance.
‘I have no more tricks; the real battle begins now.’
[Dark Blade]
Tristan advanced.
The guard recovered from his shock.
He adjusted his stance and also advanced, limping.
[Frantic Boar Charge]
The guard concentrated his energy on his left leg and used one of his few movement abilities that didn’t require both feet. His speed surpassed what he was capable of as a mere red core.
[Red Impact Slash]
Someone as experienced as him would obviously have abilities that utilized his dominant hand. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have many of those. His talent had limits.
Tristan saw a powerful vertical slash coming his way, its power enough to slice a normal human in two like butter. Tristan dodged to the left with all his speed, but he barely escaped by a hair’s breadth.
‘One attack and one movement advance.’ Tristan didn’t want to waste time just dodging; he tried to pay as much attention to his enemy’s movements as possible because he would have to replicate exactly those movements the next time he used these abilities. The sooner Tristan learned to predict his movements, the better.
The guard, with his experience, quickly adjusted his position and advanced towards Tristan again, this time twisting his body and trying to hit Tristan with a simple diagonal slash.
Tristan dodged but didn’t escape unscathed; a cut about 20mm (25/32 in) deep appeared on his shoulder.
Enduring the pain, Tristan tried to strike the guard’s abdomen!
[Simple Axe Defense]
The guard used his axe as a shield, blocking Tristan’s blow. Tristan’s blackened hand only hit the axe blade, creating a superficial cut.
‘Damn it.’
The guard, using his axe as a shield, struck Tristan, throwing him to the ground with his enormous strength.
[Red Impact Slash]
Not wasting the opportunity, the guard advanced again, attempting to use his vertical slash on Tristan, who was lying on the ground.
Tristan saw the attack, which could easily kill him, approaching.