With the second strike, the enemy’s blade shook again with even more force and even cracked.
Only one more strike and this Cindari’s blade would definitely break! But before the third strike, the Cindari Mage sent another wave.
Seris was forced to retreat, and for a moment she only breathed.
Fifteen seconds.
Maybe less, and that was all she had, then she heard a rough sound from behind.
She thought one of the other Undead had appeared behind her, she turned around and what she saw surprised her.
One.
It had attacked two of the Cindari!
It raised the front half of its body, one of its legs was not working properly and its stomach was losing more blood with every movement.
Lian had told it to stay alive, not fight, just stay alive, but apparently One also had a very strange understanding of simple orders, just like its owner.
’This creature is stupid just like its owner.’ Seris said in her mind.
At the moment she was distracted, the Cindari that could control the Roots suddenly separated from the Formation and moved directly toward the Cocoon.
Seris moved, but the Swordmaster appeared in front of her.
The blades collided and she was trapped.
The Cindari moved a few more meters forward and then a heavy impact was heard, One slammed directly into the Undead’s body.
Its speed was nothing compared to before, its strength had also decreased, but it was enough to change the Undead’s path and both of them were dragged several meters across the ground.
Seris was truly surprised for a moment, then the Ancient Swordmaster brought its Blade down again.
The young Pendragon blocked, kicked with her healthy leg, created some distance and then her eyes stayed on One for a moment.
"Hey, don’t die." She herself had never thought she would say something like this to an ant.
One made a short, rough sound and weakly moved its antennae.
Seris turned back and held her Blade in front of the Swordmaster.
"He’s going to kill me if we both die." She whispered, but one second later she realized what she had said and that it made no sense at all.
"No."
[King’s Breaker.]
Her sword struck the enemy’s defense.
"The first ones to die will be us."
The second strike and then the third strike broke the Swordmaster’s temporary Barrier.
One charged again, this time the Undead with the largest body blocked its path.
The two huge bodies crashed into each other.
Seris jumped over One’s broken armor, her boot touched her Companion’s back for a moment.
One moved its body and threw her higher, and she spun in the air, her target was the Cindari Mage.
[King’s Execution.]
The blade moved toward the Undead’s neck with terrible speed.
The Mage pulled its head back, but it was too late, the Blade cut from the side of its neck down to its shoulder.
A deep cut appeared, the dry flesh opened but there was almost no blood, only a few very dark drops came out.
Seris landed and the Mage raised its hand at the same moment.
It was as if the deep Slash on its neck did not exist at all.
"Really? You don’t even die?" The young Pendragon looked at it in disbelief.
They did not fight like living creatures, bleeding did not matter, they did not feel pain.
They did not go into Shock, to stop them, she had to destroy their bodies in a way that made them unable to move anymore.
And doing that against Levels 34 to 38, in Seris’s current condition, was impossible, the only reason she was still alive and had been able to last this long was because of her Holy Rank Skill.
Otherwise, how could an Awakener like her, who had already been injured almost to death before this battle, fight five Level 35 creatures?
Did that even make sense?
But there was still one person who had almost not entered the battle, Cindar Vael and at that moment the Founder slowly started to come down.
Not toward Seris but toward the Cocoon and the young girl immediately blocked his path.
[Moonless Severance.]
The Attack Line appeared.
But Cindar did not even have a sword, he only moved his head a few centimeters to the side, the Slash passed beside his dry face.
A thin line appeared on his cheek and for the first time Seris managed to get his attention.
Cindar took his eyes away from the Cocoon, his golden eyes fixed directly on the girl.
There was no emotion, no surprise, no anger in them and only a cold evaluation.
Then he raised his hand, he did not seem to plan to use any Skill but all of Seris’s senses screamed at her to move.
She threw her body to the right, one moment later the place where she had been standing sank.
The ground and stones in an area of several meters were suddenly pressed several meters down, as if an invisible hand from the sky had crushed that place.
She looked at the hole with one eye and then at Cindar.
"So you are the real trouble."
Cindar moved his hand again, Seris immediately gathered all the strength she had.
But suddenly her Mana Channels burned like hot strings inside her body, and terrible pain spread through her body.
And the System gave a warning.
[Safe Duration Exceeded.]
[Muscle Fiber Damage Increasing.]
[Mana Channel Stress: Severe.]
Seris closed it, she did not have time to read the warning, if she retreated because of the pain, all of them would die.
She took two steps and jumped, then the invisible pressure behind her crushed the ground.
She landed on a huge Root, but suddenly the Swordmaster came from above and the girl blocked.
The next moment another Cindari appeared from below and she was forced to kick it away and create distance.
[Thousand Petal Swordstorm.]
Dozens of Slashes cleared the path, but her body was no longer responding like before, the muscles of her right leg had started shaking and her left hand hurt when holding the hilt.
Her one-eyed vision had also made her Depth Perception worse.
And finally, for the first time, she miscalculated one of the Swordmaster’s Slashes.
The edge of the Blade struck her shoulder, a new wound opened and blood ran down her arm.
Seris stepped back and almost fell, her only Holy Skill was still active but because its safe usage time had ended, it had itself become a problem.
She felt heavy physical and mental pressure and could collapse at any moment, but at the same time she could not turn the Skill off or she would be slaughtered immediately.
Then her healthy eye fell on the Cocoon.
Lian was there, she did not know exactly what he was doing, she did not know if his plan would work or not, but this was the last thing that mattered.
If she surrendered now, all their efforts would become meaningless.
She took a black, sphere-like object out of her Storage Space.
[Sovereign’s Last Stand.]
[Rank: S]
This was her 18th birthday gift, one of the most powerful Artifacts of her family, and her biggest trump card.
It was not a one-time-use item but each time she used it, its energy had to be filled again and filling its energy could require the cores of at least ten thousand Monsters.
Then she activated it.
The power did not enter her body like an explosion, and no huge aura appeared, instead only a very thin line of silver and golden light appeared around her body.
But Seris felt the difference immediately, the World became slower, not really, but she had become faster.
The power returned to the muscles that had been falling apart only a few seconds ago.
Her mind became sharper, the pain moved back, as if she could no longer feel the pain and all her focus was placed on the battle, it was working like a drug.
The Ancient Swordmaster attacked.
This time Seris saw the Blade, not only did she see it, she also guessed its next path!
Block.
The metals collided and she slid her Blade along it, the Counter strike hit the Undead’s face and a line opened from its forehead to its cheek.
Another Cindari came from the left and Seris moved one step aside, the fist passed beside her and her sword went under its arm.
Slash.
Another one of them sent a Root Spear from behind and the young Pendragon turned her body without looking and the spear passed beside her.
[King’s Breaker.]
The Barrier of the Cindari that had sent the spear broke.
On the other side, the Mage prepared a Fire Spell to send at her but—
[Moonless Severance.]
The Attack Line appeared directly on its arm, the Undead’s arm was cut off from the elbow.