The Golden Knight rose, his movements now showing strain as blood dripped from multiple wounds. But determination burned in the light emanating from his helmet while the sounds of him gripping his sword rang out.

The Golden Knight extended a hand, before golden knives appeared all around. There were dozens of them floating in the air around him before he thrust out his hand. The knives launched simultaneously, becoming golden streaks.

Some rushed straight to Brunhilde, others curved through the air, others rushed up into the air before descending, each seeking Brunhilde from unexpected angles.

She spun her spear in a full circle, creating a tornado of blue flames around herself. The knives struck the tornado and melted, their light consumed by the flames.

Brunhilde emerged from the flames, spear held in both hands. She took a step and instantly appeared in front of the knight, her spear blasting out. The knight quickly raised its sword to block, but it was too late as the spear crashed into the armor and drove deep into its chest.

Brunhilde didn't stop as she lifted him off the ground with the spear, then slammed him down onto the floor. Stone cracked beneath the impact while she pulled the spear free and struck again, this time slashing at his leg.

The blade severed it cleanly despite the spiritual armor's resistance and the knight's armor. The Golden Knight tried getting up even after its leg got severed, but Brunhilde's boot came down on its chest, pinning it.

Her spear came up, then drove down through his sword arm, and she slashed up.

Blood splashed as the weapon clattered away, finally separated from its wielder. And then she smashed down with her spear, driving the knight further into the ground with his armor caving in on him. Then the Golden Knight lay motionless, blood pooling beneath him, as his golden light faded.

The others who were watching sighed before they began moving.

But then the Golden Knight's fingers twitch before roaring out.

Then the knight roared.

The sound tore through the area! Agony and determination twisted together into one terrible cry that echoed off golden columns and made the roots on the walls tremble. It was the sound of something refusing to die, refusing to yield, refusing to accept defeat.

His body erupted with renewed light that surged over his form, not the steady glow from before, but a desperate intensity.

The golden radiance consumed his broken form. Before then, his roots started to push out from his body. Roots grew out and intertwined with each other to seal off his area that was bleeding out.

Then fire erupted from his sword where it had fallen. Raging golden flames wrapped around the blade before the weapon trembled, then flew through the air, returning to his remaining hand.

His fingers closed around, and then he began pushing himself up with his one remaining arm.

Brunhilde furrowed her brows as she heard armor scraping against stone, roots wrapped around him tightening. She knew she should attack right now, and simply used more power to destroy the knight.

But the sight of him struggling so hard and unwilling to give up moved her a bit.

She saw in his body a soul that had countless cracks, and was way smaller than what it should be for a Second Class Beast Master.

Yet she could see the light at the center shining a beautiful, brilliant gold. The knight stood somehow with his remaining leg trembling under the weight.

His stump, where the other leg had been was dripping and leaking with blood. His one good arm gripped his burning sword with strength that shouldn't exist in a dying body.

And from within his helmet, light blazed with fury that transcended mortality.

He rushed forward again.

Not carefully or strategically, but with pure fury.

His burning sword swept in wild arcs. Flames trailed behind each swing, creating ribbons of fire through the air.

She met his charge head-on, no surprise in her expression, only acknowledgment.

Brunhilde's spear intercepted the blow with a deft flick of her wrist, and the weapons met in a shower of sparks that briefly illuminated both of their faces.

One impassive, one burning with a terrifying amount of fury and madness.

The force of their clash sent a rippling shockwave through the chamber. The roots in the walls shuddered, some of them snapping free to dangle in the open air.

Dust and fragments of stone rained down from the high ceiling. The knight's sword arm trembled, unable to hold steady under the strain, yet he wrenched the weapon free and followed up with a flurry of wild, graceless blows.

The blade rushed through the air, reckless in its speed. Brunhilde defended and smashed every slash, her spear a silver blur as she danced backward, always angled so as never to give him a clean target.

The knight ducked beneath a strike from Brunhilde. He pivoted on his single leg, using it as a lever to whip his sword around in wide, sweeping attacks.

His upper body twisted unnaturally with each motion, so much so that the torso armor began to split with blood leaking from the cracks and evaporating.

His burning sword thrust upward, flames licking along the blade as it sought Brunhilde's heart.

She sidestepped with minimal movement.

The blade passed inches from her face, close enough that she felt heat before her spear reversed immediately, the butt of the weapon coming down like a hammer onto his exposed back.

The impact was devastating. The knight was driven to his knees, armor cracking further under the blow with the stone beneath him cracking from the force.

But he kept fighting.

His sword swept backward without him looking, and Brunhilde blocked with her spear's shaft, the impact sending sparks flying.

The knight pushed off the ground with his remaining leg, launching himself at her again.

Brunhilde sidestepped, but the Golden Knight pivoted before swinging the flaming sword in an arc.

She brought the spear up to block, but this time the impact was so great that the force rippled down her arms.

Brunhilde hummed as she saw the knight's soul was gradually fading, but his own will seemed to be keeping it from fully dying out. All to stop anyone from passing by.

The Golden Knight brought his blade crashing down from above.

Brunhilde intercepted with her spear, deflecting the strike. The sword plunged into the stone floor, fracturing it.

Tearing his weapon free, he swept it in a horizontal arc. Brunhilde dropped low, the heat of the flaming blade singeing the air above her.

Despite his single leg, the knight executed an impossible rotation, his sword carving a complete circle through the air. Brunhilde leapt backward to avoid the reach.

As his spin concluded, his form erupted with golden radiance. Around him materialized five spectral blades, a mere fraction of his earlier display, yet all his fading life force could summon.

They launched at Brunhilde simultaneously.

She deflected three with her spear, destroyed one with blue flames, and she caught the last one aiming for her throat in her bare hand, the blade shattering beneath her grip, golden shards evaporating on her skin.

The Golden Knight was already moving before the echoes faded.

He followed the wake of his own spectral swords, hurling his body forward in a charge that was part lunge, part collapse. His burning blade thrust, chopped, hacked, and swept forward again and again.

Brunhilde stepped just out of reach, parried with the spear, or redirected the force so it spun him off balance.

On the sixth desperate attack, Brunhilde's spear shifted as she moved to end it with a flick that seemed almost negligent. She stabbed downward, the point of the spear impacting squarely on the knight's remaining knee. There was a brittle pop before the leg burst with blood splashing, and the knight collapsed forward.

The Golden Knight tried to push himself up with the sword, but fell slumping down as if his arm had given out.

Brunhilde's weapon hacked upwards towards the knight's remaining arm. The spear blade struck his elbow, and the knight's arm flew into the air before Brunhilde thrust her spear and blasted through the face of the knight, creating a hole.

Before then pulling out and raising her spear to hack down on it.

But then a light burst from the knight whose figure vanished from Brunhilde's sight.

She swiftly locked down on him before turning with her eyes slightly widened to see that the knight had launched itself towards Reinhard.

It summons light swords and holds one to one of them as they rush towards Reinhard.

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