I need momentum. Brant thought, disengaging and jumping back.

Chains of light shot out from the ground, while the skeleton changed his posture.

Lunge?

He needed to make a choice, he could try to avoid the chains, but he would be unable to defend himself properly, or he could defend, and get chained. These both felt like losing tactics, so he opted to attack instead.

[Seismic strike]!

Magic gathered around his sword, and he struck the skeleton’s sword with his own. The ravine shook from the strength of the blow, and three of the four chains of light instantly broke. Despite that, Pareth’s sword was barely deviated, slicing the air next to Brant’s helmet, and the fourth chain tightly wrapped itself around his entire left leg.

Brant had no time to rest. Pareth’s shield struck his helmet with devastating force, crushing his jaw, but he took the opportunity to attack one of the skeleton’s three heads, barely in his range. The blade of his sword made contact with the armor of light, which activated his blessing. His sword shone brightly with holy light, and effortlessly sliced through Pareth’s left skull. At the same time, his passives kicked-in, quickly reshaping his helmet to its prior state, and healing his crushed jaw.

The skeleton seemed completely unbothered by his one missing head. He simply took a step back and continued on the offensive, while Brant was forced on the defensive, desperately parrying one blow after the other, unable to move because of the chain.

Ultimately this inability to move cost him his head. Pareth found an opening and swung his sword, it was just short of actually hitting the Brant’s neck, but the sword carved an arc of light in its path. The light sliced through Brant’s neck armor like butter, and his head flew a few meters back.

Even without a head, the knight still parried Pareth’s next strike, and, a flash of holy light later, his head explosively grew back. Without the helmet, his long, coarse blonde hair freely flew behind him. At the same time, the last chain broke, so Pareth stepped back, wary of the attack that had managed to slice a head off. Sofia was containing her aura, so he currently had no passive healing whatsoever.

I need to bring out the big guns or I’ll die before having a chance to!

Brant took an unusual stance, as if sheathing his sword to his side. Pareth simply raised his shield.

“What, scared?” Brant taunted, but the skeleton did not react in the slightest. “Let’s see you block this!

”

[Heroic Arc]!

Brant’s sword lit up like one of Sofia’s overcharged bolts, and as he swung in an arc in front of him he gave Pareth a taste of his own medicine with a devastating slash of light.

Or so he thought. Gravity suddenly increased, as if the horrifying skeleton had become a black hole himself. Not only did brant’s attack miss, as he was instantly pulled close to Pareth, casting the arc behind him, his sword harmlessly hit the side of his armor, and Pareth counter-attacked in a similar fashion. His sword struck Brant’s side, crushing the armor and mangling his torso and spine, only stopped from fully slicing him in half by the shield that Brant still held firmly despite everything.

His right hand let go of his sword, and caught the wrist of Pareth’s right arm instead. Pareth tried to pull back his sword but he was not fast enough. Without warning, the side of Pareth’s armor violently caved in, and his spine shattered just like Brant’s.

Brant had to let of Pareth’s arm to avoid an incoming kick, and the two fighters took some distance. Pareth fixed his armor of light, his spine would stay broken but with his classless propping him up, this would not bother him much. On the opposite side, Brant’s passive skills seemed to bring his health back to full again, but fatigue was already starting to show on his face.

Pareth jumped to the side.

An opening?

Brant unleashed a [Virtuous smite], his faster ranged attacks. It accurately crashed against the neck of Pareth’s main head, but dishearteningly seemed to have not damaged him at all despite the attack’s doubled damage against the undead. He could not have predicted what was about to happen next. Pareth stepped on the air and jumped again, sending him flying in Brant’s direction.

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Brant raised his shield, prepared to block, but the skeleton shot past him, spinning around mid-air, and throwing his sword back, which flew like an arrow, at Brant’s back. Brant tried to turn but he was a bit too slow. The sword pierced through his right shoulder and sternum before being stopped by the backside of Brant’s shield.

With a sword inside of him, Brant couldn’t heal from the blow. And the skeleton, now without a weapon, was charging at him.

Christ… I have no choice.

A radiant pulse of light originating from Brant’s mana heart blew Pareth away, sending him crashing into the rocky side of the ravine.

I need to pull this damn sword out!

Brant let go of his shield, which was stuck because of the sword anyway, and tried to grab the handle of Pareth’s sword of light to pull it out. He quickly realised that it was pointless, and instead, pushed the sword up, cutting through the rest of his upper chest. He roared from the pain, but the sword was out in an instant, and he could start to heal again. At the same time, Pareth pulled himself out of the hole his crash had created. Though the shock had been violent, he had once again sustained no damage.

Brant threw him a wary glance as the sword he had just freed himself from disappeared into thin air.

This is with this him taking double damage?!

This is fucked.

Since Brant no longer held his shield, Pareth threw his away too, and grabbed his sword with both hands. The battle soon started again. A constant flurry of blows, slashes, thrusts, feints, only ever interrupted by the skills fired off from both side, Pareth unleashing his [Arclight] whenever he saw an opening, and Brant using all of his attack skills as soon as they were off cooldown.

Seeing an opportunity, Brant let Pareth behead him a second time, whilst his own sword struck Pareth’s waist. His Hero blessing activated for a second time, slicing cleanly through Pareth pelvis, spine, and left arm.

The skeleton started falling back, and in the moment of consciousness Brant had still in his falling head before his skills kicked in and grew him another one, he smiled at his winning gamble. Even if this hadn’t touched it, it would be easy to target the skeleton’s mana heart after that and end this fight, he thought.

To his horror, the skeleton activated a skill he had never used. His bones completely fixed themselves, and he seemed to grow tremendously in size just as Brant’s consciousness faded, switching from his old head to his newly-formed one.

Monster…

The newly-formed head never received Brant’s consciousness, impaled from above by Pareth’s sword. Pareth pushed down on his sword with all of his strength, slicing the knight into two clean halves only linked together by the back of the skull.

Brant’s passive healing fought back against Pareth, even like this, but it was futile. Pareth stomped on the right side of Brant’s torso, crushing his mana heart to dust.

[ROUND 4/13 - WIN]

Sofia and Bookie clapped at the performance.

I have to give it to Saria, she found a competent teammate. If any one of these instant-cut attacks had touched Pareth’s mana heart he would have died. He accurately aimed for it with his last attack, too. SSS rank

[Relocate core] is just too good for a skeleton, though, there’s no obstacle at all preventing it from moving around super fast.

Well done, Pareth, it was a beautiful fight.

Sofia shot a glance at the real Hero in the public, he seemed rather unsurprised by the result of the fight, but Saria was visibly egging him on about his imprint getting splattered.

They look quite close, huh.

Hmmm, the pile of blankets is waving at me again. What do you want?

The scenery shifted as Sofia observed the audience.

We don’t even get to hear any comment from Love this time? Oh well… Until the next round I guess.

Hey, this environment seems familiar…

Sofia looked at the walls around her, the waiting room for the fifth round was inside of some kind of tiny house, and she felt that she had already seen that style of construction somewhere, but she had a hard time pointing out where.

After half an hour, it was time for the fifth round, and when she stepped out of the tiny house and got to look outside, Sofia immediately understood what this arena was modeled after. What had thrown her off were the colors.

She observed the inverted ocean in the sky and the sprawling city around the plaza she was in.

I never thought I would come here again.

Hopefully I don’t leave as just a head, this time.

And now… She finally spared a glance at her opponent. An Avian.