Lyon stared at the wound on his forearm for a while before turning to face Daru again.

The Sunblade King's lips curled into a faint smile for a second before turning into a frown in the next, pointing his longsword at the human bladeborn:

"Hmph, fine then, I shall acknowledge your skills, hu– rebel!"

Daru's eyes sparkled after hearing the words, and the grin on his face turned into a smile.

"Haha, it's my honor, king! Now, don't hold back and give me your best shot!"

"Don't regret this now, rebel!!"

In the next moment, Lyon slashed with all his strength.

The winds trembled and tore as a light-golden, diagonal crescent shot forth, aiming to split Daru's body into two.

But he easily dodged with a somersault, counterattacking with a red crescent of his own, though significantly smaller than his opponent's.

Lyon was once again caught off guard, suffering a clean strike to the chest.

The king staggered a step backward.

[-200]

Daru's attack, however, didn't end there, as he smoothly transitioned into an azure sword, descending like an apocalyptic meteor at the Sunblade King, who had just recovered from his previous attack.

"Hmm?!"

Nonetheless, Lyon was able to muster a clumsy block, though only for a moment.

Daru's thrusting descent pushed through, slipping from the king's Sunblade Longsword and piercing through the rib area.

The grievous wound activated a level 2 bleed status as tiny, red cubic particles flowed out in a rather concerning volume.

For most…

[- 950!]

To Lyon, who still had 8,860 hitpoints, this was but a trivial injury, though the spawn couldn't deny that the wound hurt.

"Argh…"

The king groaned, losing focus for a moment due to the sudden sharp pain.

A small, insignificant crater formed the moment Daru landed, but Azure Swordfall wasn't done yet.

Pivoting his foot, he turned into an azure blur, halting mid-dash and firing a moderately huge blue crescent slash mark that shot towards Lyon.

The moment the Sunblade King turned, the sword projectile was already in front of him.

Lyon was sent skidding back a few dozen meters as the blue crescent pierced through his skin, cutting fairly deep into his tough flesh.

A second later, the skill lost power and dissipated, completely stopped by nothing but the Sunblade King's raw physical prowess.

A good amount of damage has already been done by the SS-tier sword skill, though…

[-860!]

A faint grin appeared on Daru's face as he checked his opponent's remaining hitpoints:

==

[(Field Boss) Lyon, the Sunblade Lion King Lv. 32]

HP: 8,000 / 10,000

==

He still had a little over five hundred hitpoints left, which meant that over the short course of the duel, he had lost less than ten percent, while his opponent lost an exact twenty.

However, Daru's tiny celebration didn't last for long as the red sword mark that appeared at the beginning of the battle suddenly manifested above the wounded king.

And again…and then two more times, appearing a total of four times before stopping.

Daru's eyes narrowed at the sight, trying to decipher the meaning of the sword mark on high vigilance as he locked eyes with the now-indifferent Lyon.

The wounded king struck a fighting pose for a moment before exploding into a dash.

Daru's eyes momentarily widened upon realizing that it was now considerably more difficult to keep up with Lyon's movements, finally understanding a part of the sword mark manifestation.

It would enhance the Sunblade King's physical prowess every time it manifested, and so far, he had seen it five times—once when Lyon roared, and then four consecutive times after he dealt a huge burst of damage to the field boss.

It was a matter of comprehension and a bit of luck, as a theory Daru believed to be the case suddenly popped up in his mind—almost instantaneously—while his opponent rushed at him in an unpredictable zigzagging motion.

He dealt an exact total of 2,000 damage since the fight began.

Dividing that by the number of times the manifestation appeared, Daru suspected that after every five hundred damage dealt, Lyon would power up.

'Haha, that's quite tricky…' he mused, slashing his sword at the approaching king.

A metallic clang filled the air as Onimaru Kunitsuna and the Sunblade Longsword clashed, resulting in the loss of the former, as Daru was sent flying and shoulder rolling once before recovering his footing.

A rather horrifying damage value that would make almost all bladeborns despair at his situation, then floated up:

[-55]

A chunky tenth of his current health, and this was despite him managing a more-than-decent offensive block.

It seemed that even blocking was out of the picture.

If he truly needed to, then he could only do it seven more times, since he was still bleeding and was losing three hitpoints every few seconds.

He needed to reserve some for the ailment status.

Not only was he on a timer, but the number of his straightforward blocks was also limited.

To make things worse, his opponent would power up after every five hundred damage dealt, though not confirmed true yet…

Daru, for the first time in his life, found himself in what could be called an unwinnable situation.

So…why?

This was the question in Moonpiercer's mind upon seeing the expression on Okuni's face.

Why was he smiling and having so much fun? His life was on the line here, no?

'C-Crazy! This guy surely has a few screws loose!' she thought, trembling.

Soon, the battle resumed, and this time, both parties charged at each other.

"Rebel, give up and just die by my blade, there's no victory for you!" taunted the king as he turned into a blur and slashed his sword forward.

To his surprise, Daru neatly spun to dodge the blow, transitioning to a kneeling spin the next moment and following up with an immediate sweeping slash of his own that cut a minor wound on Lyon's waist.

[- 180]

He then ended up behind the Sunblade King, quickly standing up and charging once more, but Lyon also quickly turned, ignoring the new wound and rushing at him.

"Weak! Let's see how long you can keep this up…"

"Exactly what I'm thinking!"

Like so, the two engaged in a high-pace, mad intensity close-quarters battle.

Daru was more focused than he had ever been, utilizing almost every technique he knew as he moved like a knightly phantom, parrying and dodging before suddenly counterattacking, chipping away at Lyon's health, despite being physically inferior.

It was as if he had the combat instinct of a war god, unfazed even after avoiding a lethal strike that could end him in one hit by mere butt-clenching centimeters.

The question was: for how long could he keep this up?

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