Gilmore starts the fight by dashing towards the Knight and unleashing barrage of stabs using his modified rapier.
The Knight reacted to Graham's lightning speed piercing stab and yet she recieves a minor cut on her cheek. Finally, the Knight finally get damaged that Grand Ecstasy failed to do for a very long time.
Gilmore is not done yet. He infused his rapier with potent mana and prepares to attack again.
Gilmore makes 8 consecutive slashes on a single point, all of it happened in just 1/8th of a second. Each slash leaves a trail of light, forming an asterisk symbol that disappears quickly.
Yet, each slash is blocked by the Knight using her sword.
Gilmore decides to continue his attack and steps even closer to the Knight. Abusing her absurdly long sword's lack of defensive options in close quarter combat.
Gilmore swing his sword upwards with intense speed. The Knight barely managed to dodge the attack by jumping backwards. Then she proceeds to go on offensive.
When Gilmore dashes to catch up to the Knight. The Knight makes a barrage of quick stabs with great reach. Her aim is in point but Gilmore casually dodges all of them until he reach the safe distance again.
Gilmore pays back the Knights stab attacks. Managing to stab the Knight 3 times in the abdomen before she leap backwards with great distance this time, making a huge gap between the two. Gilmore decides to not follow the Knight and just observe if the injury she recieve would affect her at some way.
And Gilmore's observation is proven wrong as there's nothing leaking on the stab wounds nor the Knight acts like injured.
The Knight do her feral posture again and leaps towards Gilmore. Making a slashing plunge attack. Gilmore just side steps, dodge the attack and prepares to counter.
But the Knight already makes a follow up and quickly swing her sword horizontally, making a 360 slash. Fortunately, Gilmore dodge the circular slash by jumping high up in the air.
But being airborne is not a good position. The Knight prepares to stab Gilmore who still in the air where theres nothing to push himself out of danger, then the Knight release her sword who could easily reach Gilmore.
Despite that. Gilmore parries the stab attack. Deflecting the sword on his side. When he landed, Gilmore instantly use the opportunity to target the Knight's two arms that holds the sword, which still pointed in the ceiling.
To Gilmore's surprise. When he already swing his rapier, the Knight release her hold on her sword. Avoiding the decapitation. Now that Gilmore is open, the Knight use her power and punch Gilmore on his side. Sending Gilmore few meters away. All of the Knight's action happened before her sword even touch the ground. She catches her sword and returns back on her feral posture.
Gilmore can feel the punch. Knowing how much strenght the Knight possessed and the fact that she gets stronger the longer the fight went makes him scared a little bit.
The Knight dashes towards Gilmore and release numerous wide arc slashes. Gilmore dodges each attack but he notices the sudden increase of speed. He can't proceed to get closer towards the Knight due to the ferocity and speed of her attacks partnered by the Knight maintaining a safe distance using elaborate steps. Despite the attacks looking brutal, the Knight manages to retain control. A deadly waltz.
And getting stranded in defensive is not a good spot so Gilmore decides to do something to stop the Knight's attack. Instead of trying to get closer, Gilmore decides to step back and when he's out of reach. He make a stabbing pose where his rapier is above his shoulder and infused it with mana. After half a second, the rapier is now surrounded by swirling gust of wind.
Gilmore unleash the magic and throws a small yet very fast pointed wind vortex to the Knight who manages to react swiftly and dodge the first vortex. Yet Gilmore already released 6 more.
The Knight dodges all the vortex while dashing towards Gilmore who remains calm.
He release another set of Piercing Vortex and the Knight dodges them but two manages to land on her shoulder and leg, yet the Knight is still unfazed.
And the Knight finally reach her striking distance again and swings her sword. Instead of running, Gilmore infuse her legs with mana while preparing to dash towards the Knight.
Gilmore uses wind magic to propell himself with a burst of speed. He manages to reach the Knight again in her attack. Gilmore didn't waste time and unleash a barrage of stabs and slashes, each slash is pushing the Knight within few centimeters.
The barrage is so fast and heavy that the Knight can't even defend herself. Not until she reaches another power spike.
Gilmore notices a punch aimed on his face so he ducks a little thus dodging the strike. Gilmore waits for a follow up and he easily spot that the Knight's attempt of kicking him off.
Before the Knight recovers and attacks him again. Gilmore uses the opportunity to strike again.
Gilmore makes 5 powerful and precise cuts. Each slash aimed to decapitate the Knight's two arms, two legs and her head.
But Gilmore sees that all of his attacks only leaves shallow cuts on the Knight who still didn't reacted on his offensive.
"She becomes stronger the longer you fight her."
Remembering what Sophia said. Gilmore realized that the Knight reaches another power spike thus the sudden increase in durability.
Gilmore have no choice but to try to end the battle before it reaches the point of impossibility.
Gilmore infused huge amount of mana to the tip of his rapier while also aiming his rapier to the Knight's head.
Before even Gilmore finish his preparation. The Knight comes back to her senses and quickly unleash a kick. Gilmore have no choice but to cancel his attack and instead spread the mana on his rapier and block the impending swing kick.
Gilmore is unprepared on the impact and increase in strenght that despite blocking the kick, it still manages to sent her flying several meters away.
"Such power..." Gilmore said mid-air. He landed safely but the distance created is so great the he was unsure on what to do next?
Should he do another barrage of vortex?
Should he tries to regain the close distance by dashing towards the Knight?
Or should he wait for the Knight to attack him?
In the end, Gilmore decides to just wait for the Knight to attack. But Gilmore didn't expect the thing he watching at the moment.
The Knight didn't pursue Gilmore but instead reach her long sword she dropped earlier just to kick Gilmore away, scale it using her hand until she reach the middle and...
Casually snaps it in two.
"What?" Gilmore is perplexed on the unusual action the Knight did.
Then the Knight proceess to wield the broken sword. On one hand is the half of the sword with the handle and the other hand is the other half of the sword with no hilt and she pretty much held it without worrying that it might cut her hand.
Now, the Knight is a dual wielding swordsman which intimidates Gilmore.
"To think that I also going to fight you in your true form. This is truly an honor."
Gilmore is going to experience the fabled dual wielding that he only reads in the books and oral records passed down to his family.
He was scared, but also excited. And who can blame him. Not only that he's going to see with her own eyes signature dual wielding swordsmanship that only known by people 800 years ago, but also the fact that he going personally see it done by one of the greatest people that propagate different styles of swordsmanship, including the Vandril style.
But questions remains on Gilmore's head. Is it really the TRUE swordsmanship of the woman who literally puts the Vandril lineage on the higher echelon of the kingdom? Or just a replica done by the body of the said woman who should already be dead 800 years ago but now is still alive as a moving corpse?
Or is she's really the Vandril ancestor to begin with.
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Gilmore waits patiently while also having a sharp eye. And his wait is over when the Knight makes the offensive and dashes towards Gilmore who almost didn't react to such speed.
"Wha-" Gilmore is shocked that the Knight is already in front of him.
The Knight unleashes barrages of alternating attacks on Gilmore. Each slash are not just random either, every slash is aimed on every vulnerable spot Gilmore have and the swordsmanship is so perfected that it doesn't leave a room for the enemy to counter attack.
Gilmore have no choice but to be in defensive again. He manages to parry each slash using his sword. Numerous strike can be heared every second, signifying the speed the two swordsman have that almost invisible for the untrained eye.
As the two swordsman exchange their strikes, Sophia is in awe as the two move so fast that she can't really track them at all. The only think she can see are the sparks of metal and dust clouds forming with each quick steps. Sophia can't stop the feeling of being weak in comparison with the fighters.
"Who is that man?" Sophia asked as she's really curious about the identity of Gilmore.
And when his name pops on her mind, a memory finally starts to form in her mind.
"Gilmore..." Sophia says his name.
"Gilmore..." Sophia says the name again
!!!!!!!!
Sophia finally remembers the identity of the man. She remembers the legendary noble of their guild branch that choose to become an adventurer! And reached platinum ranked with his power and experience alone. A Platinum Ranked legend that only called by Hilgurd on high end missions.
"He's that Gilmore?!" Sophia screams.
Sophia just looked with awe as she watch what a Platinum ranked adventurer is capable off despite struggling on focusing with the two's absurd speed.
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.
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Gilmore is getting overwhelmed. Not only that he's starting getting tired but also the Knight seems doesn't feel fatigue at all.
Gilmore tries to escape but the Knight quickly follows him and he's back on blocking all the Knight's attack.
The fatigue becomes even stronger for Gilmore until...
STAB
Gilmore failed to block nor dodge a precise stab targeted on his shoulder.
Sophia notices the silence and opens her eyes only to see a disheartening scene.
"GILMORE!" Sophia screams.
The Knight stops her attacks and just stay still until Gilmore release a slash. The Knight leaps backwards while Gilmore grabs the stab wound.
The stab didn't manage to reach deeper as he manages to concentrate his mana thus strenghtening his body.
"Gilmore!" Sophia screams and almost wants to run towards him.
"I'm fine! Don't worry about me!"
"But..."
"If you come here! She just going to consider you a threat! Also, you don't have any mana left!" Gilmore shouts.
Sophia understands and walks back to her unconcious friends. She have a worried expression but what Gilmore said is true.
For Sophia, she might just become a liability for Gilmore.
Gilmore on the other hand is thinking on how he's going to deal with the Knight who starts to outmatch him due to its ability to grow.
In fact, she's slightly stronger since the moment they face each other.
The Knight just observes Gilmore looking a her with seriousness. Like they both calculating each other's potential.
After few seconds, Gilmore finalizes his battle plan. He suddenly opens his Bag of Storage and pulls two small vials with purple and blue color. He opens the vial with blue content and gulp down its content. Then he hesitantly open the vial with purple liquid, he smells it and instantly gag once the pungent smell reach his nose. Gilmore look at the vial with disgust for 2 seconds before pinching his nose and quickly drinks its content.
Gilmore caughs and almost puke but he manages to not throw up whatever he just drinked. He quickly opens his Bag of Storage, throws the empty vials and pulls his water canister which he proceeds to empty out the water.
"Fweh! Still a torture." Gilmore said to himself while putting the now empty water canister. It's been a while since he drink the cursed concoction which the last time he remember is when he was involved to subjugate a Hero class monster alongside other Hero ranked adventurers despite being Platinum ranked.
The concoction Gilmore just drink is a power boost only used by higher ranked adventurers due to its rarity, price and gruesome side effects.
The vial with the blue fluid contains ingredients to greatly enhance a person's mana potency. The ingredients includes several, of Hero and Platinum class monsters, ultra rare plants and expensive gemstones that contains mana. The mana potency increase last for 10 minutes.
The purple fluid meanwhile contains the treated blood of a Hero+ class monster called Yuriha - A deep sea monster that only surface once every 10 years. Not only it's a once in a blue moon appearance, it's also so powerful that there's a record in history as recent as 50 years ago where a Yuriha singlehandedly destroys a Grand fleet consisting of 150 warships from 10 different kingdoms.
The Yuriha blood, when consumed increases the strenght of a person multiple times for 3 minutes. Sounds great until the side effects finally sets in which includes severe body pain, skin itchyness with ring-like blisters, skull-shattering head ache and intense vomiting that last for 2 weeks. High chance of fatality if the person is not powerful enough and even the strong individuals who tried the blood compared it on being tortured nonstop. Gilmore also have the same opinion.
That's why despite its rarity and expensive price. Only few people tries to consume a Yuriha blood and when they did, it's either a do or die situation like what Gilmore is facing right now.
And for him, suffering for weeks with slight chance of death is a acceptable toll for his plan to take fruition.
"Ugh!" Gilmore feels a sudden shock. The potions are now taking effect. His heart is beating so fast, his temperature increase and he can feel the surge of power
Gilmore's plan sounds simple but close to imposibility and prone to mistake. Using the limited boost of strenght, Gilmore must deal the killing blow before the knight reach another powerspike which speaks defeat and death for everyone.
"AHHHHHHHH!!!" Gilmore screams then he enhanced his whole body with mana.
Without hesistation, Gilmore dashes forward with incredible speed. Within a blink of an eye, he already did a stab attack but the Knight manages to dodge it.
Gilmore is not done yet as he easily shifts his body and unleash another attack.
He attacks the Knight with a enhanced speed by focusing half of his mana on offense, each strikes targets her slightly vulnerable areas. For each slashes, the attack becomes even faster and stronger. At first, the Knight manages to block attacks but each strike becomes heavier and heavier that she's struggling to keep up with the tempo.
Watching the Knight struggling on blocking his attacks, Gilmore increase his speed by now using 100% of his mana on offense.
The attacks are too fast that for Sophia, it looks like that Gilmore have hundreds of arms attacking the Knight. Each strike sending a strong gust of wind the makes viewing difficult for Sophia.
The Knight also recieves several damages as he failed to keep up with the sudden speed and power increased Gilmlre have. Until...
CLANG!!!
The Knight flinched after failing to block a powerful blow. Her arms spreads out due to the force, making her completely exposed.
Gilmore sees the opportunity and instantly transfer his mana on the tip of his sword.
Gilmore unleashes a powerful stab attack with high concentration of mana that it can ignore any form of defenses the opponent have.
Within a split seconds. The Knight barely managed to dodge the devastating blow. The stab pierced her left cheek, leaving a deep cut that exposes her teeth.
Now that there's a moment to strike back. The Knight assaults Gilmore and unleash numerous strikes using her broken sword.
"She can keep up with the speed that quick?!" Gilmore said when now he's in the recieving end of the barrage comparable on what she give.
But instead of retreating, Gilmore choose to fight the Knight head on.
The two swordsman moves and exchange blows with such speed that the only thing they leave is the clanking and the sparks of metals hitting each other. The gust of winds coming from the two becomes even more stronger that Sophia is struggling to stand straight. She lies down while holding tight to her unconcious friends.
The Knight continious to increase her power while Gilmore tries her best to match the Knight's even faster growth by forcing his body and infusing all of her Mana.
Gilmore and the Knight is already damaged each other numerous times. Gilmore recieves a cut on his leg but he ignored it. The knight gets a horizontal slash, making a deep cut on her torso which she didn't mind at all.
Gilmore gets stabbed in the abdomen but he ignored the injury and proceeds to continue attacking the Knight. He's using continuous Hexaspeed barrage, waiting for another moment to end the fight.
But just having a chance is not enough. Gilmore needs to secure that chance first or else the Knight is going to dodge his finisher again.
But the Knight is slowly getting stronger and he can feel it as her attacks becomes powerful. And the remaining time is getting shorter for Gilmore as he's closer to his limits.
So he devise another plan.
Gilmore focused his mana on the tip of his sword again when he managed to parry both of the Knight's sword.
The Knight is not a fool and know that the attack is powerful and when Gilmore thrusts his sword, the Knight instinctively protects her head using her two swords.
But...
Gilmore instantly cancels the Monolithic Finale and instead gets lower and attack the Knight's shin.
The slash landed but due to the power spike, the Knight's skin becomes tougher so Gilmore uses all of his strenght to penetrates the flesh.
.
.
.
.
SLASH
The Knight's leg is completly decapitated and now she's out of balance. The Knight slowly falls to the ground and Gilmore waste no time and proceeds to dash to the Knight to deliver the killing blow.
And yet the Knight is not done yet as she manages to re-orient her fall using both of her sword and land by only using her now footless legs. She implants herself to the ground to stabalized her whole body. All of it only noticed late by Gilmore who now preparing his attack.
But Gilmore decides to risk it all and proceeds to infused his rapier's tip again for the last Monolithic Finale.
The Knight stabs Gilmore in the abdomen again but he endured it even though the sword pierced him fully and the sword reach his back. Gilmore is now ready to stab his mana concentrated rapier.
Now her left sword is stucked on Gilmore's body which is harden by the Yuriha's blood. The Knight use her right sword to slash Gilmore. It lands on Gilmore's left shoulder...
And completely decapitated his left arm.
Yet Gilmore endures all of it and proceeds to unleash his most powerful attack.
.
.
.
Gilmore thrust his rapier with all of his might. The Knight have no time to dodge the attack that already happened in close distance and she recieves the Monolithic Finale.
With all of his strenght and mana used on the attack. The rapier meet no resistance at all and easily penetrates the middle of the Knight's forehead. The rapier reaches all the way on the back.
.
.
.
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.
.
At first, the Knight slowly tries to move and raise her sword to attack Gilmore but... She stops. Gilmore can clearly see the satisfied smile of the Knight before finally closing her eyes. The Knight lost grip on her sword and drops it on the ground.
Now, the Knight is dead yet still standing with a faint smile on her face.
Sophia, watching the entire finale happened. She's speechless and not sure what to react. But when the realization hits in, tear flows into her cheeks.
It's over, it's finally over.
Gilmore carefully pulls his rapier and just stand still for a moment before completely collapsing to the floor.
"GILMORE!" Sophia also realized the injury sustained by Gilmore and quickly run towards him.
Gilmore sees Sophia crying.
"Hehe... I won." Gilmore said.
Now that the effect of Yuriha's blood is finished. Gilmore now starting to feel the side effects.
"!!!" Gilmore is in agony. The injury multiplies the pain caused by the Yuriha's blood.
"GILMORE! WHAT SHOULD I DO?!" Sophia quickly asked Gilmore.
Gilmore slowly opens his Bag of Storage and pulls a vial of powder he used earlier.
"D-d-don't worry. I refuse to die on this place. Just spray this powder on me."
"OK!!"
"I l-l-leave the rest to you Sophia. Let's finally leave this place. And don't forget to pick every important things." Gilmore softly said.
"I-I will do my best!" Sophia said with conviction.
Gilmore said before falling asleep. Sophia quickly spreads the powder in Gilmore's entire body which quickly takes effect. Sophia checks Gilmore's vitals and feel reassured as she feels a weak pulse. Gilmore is still alive but in need of intensive care like her friends.
Sophia looks at the surroundings and when she laid her eyes on the dead Knight. She contemplates for a moment before nodding on herself.