Grey had no idea what was going on outside, but honestly he had his own problems, and he was running from them with his tail between his legs.
’What the fuck! What the fuck! What the FUCK!’
Grey jumped into the air as a blade swept under him, the kicked up wind alone sending him spinning like a top through the air. He landed on the ground, palming it with a hand and then flipping back to his feet, only to immediately do a back flip to dodge another slashing cut that came for him from above.
He had been stuck in this battle for the last two minutes already and his body would have normally already been getting hints of fatigue from the heavy battle.
The good news was that his Stamina was ridiculous now. It ticked down so slowly that for a second Grey had thought it was permanently locked at 111. He wasn’t sure exactly why that was, but he had a feeling that it was probably related to the fat his body had converted. It had fundamentally changed his foundation somehow.
The bad news was that he had already tried to fight this behemoth up front and personal, and for that trouble he got himself a heavily bruised pair of wrists. He had only swung his sword at it once and he almost lost the use of both his hands.
’Fuck me! Fuck the old man! Fuck this!’
Grey knew exactly who to blame for this nonsense. Who else’s fault could it possibly be other than Edmun’s? He had 1300 Free Stats burning a hole in his status screen and his old bastard of a master had never taught him how best to maximize that.
Now was that because he had disappeared for two days to get rid of his Soul Burn and all that fat? Maybe. But right now he just wanted to complain.
This was all just too ridiculous. To make matters worse, his chat was having way too much fun.
[EggyDominion: Hey, try kicking it in the crotch]
[SpellSeeker: It’s a construct, Eggy. Use your head]
[EpicPelvis: I just want to see those nuns again. Did you see the ass on that one pink-haired one? Too bad she wasn’t as stripped down as the others.]
Grey ignored them again. He had only taken a look to see if he could get himself another sponsored item, but then he remembered that he couldn’t use treasures in this place. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be struggling so much in the first place.
As for EggyDominion’s suggestion, it was trash. That slash that nearly broke his wrists was perfectly timed and perfectly placed. It had gone right for the joints, and split the hole in the armor perfectly. It was like the damn thing was invulnerable.
’Wait... no way...’ Grey was left speechless. He suddenly recalled the High Tier Ability Edmun talked about before. ’... what the hell was that thing called again? Sacred Bulwark? Fuck me, didn’t the old man say you needed to build up a rhythm first and time it to an attack. This thing barely moved. I just dodged once, slashed, and nearly lost my hands.’
There was no way that this was the work of Sacred Bulwark, at least not the High Tier Sacred Bulwark. It was beyond that. It was damn near automatic.
’Paladin...’
That was when it hit Grey.
High Tier Holy Knights were very much feared, and their strength was ridiculous. Just the gap between Low Tier and Mid Tier was enormous. Grey had killed someone like Sir Pebble with relative ease. But it had taken so much to kill Terran, and that after Grey had advanced to the Established Class.
The gap to High Tier was probably even more ridiculous. And then Paladins were in a tier all their own, above them all.
If this was really just the Paladin Trial, or whatever weird fusion, mesh nonsense that was triggered by being both a Paladin and a Buddha, then it was definitely an unfathomable amount of strength.
Meaning, the gap between the Godly Abilities that Edmun explained to him and these ones was like night and day.
But if an enemy was invulnerable, how the hell was he supposed to deal with them?
’Rhythm... rhythm... rhythm...’
Grey’s eyes narrowed.
He had only exchanged with the giant once. The rest of the time he spent running, but all things considered, dodging wasn’t too bad.
The knight was powerful, but it wasn’t unmanageable. Otherwise, Grey would have been nicked at least once or twice by now, if not having lost a limb or two instead.
He hadn’t paid much attention to Edmun before, but his memory had become exceptional recently. Well, it had always been decent, but now it felt like he had near perfect recall.
However, the explanations Edmun gave him alone weren’t enough. The old man didn’t know much as he was no Paladin or even Mid Tier Holy Knight himself. The crux of those explanations, though... they were undoubtedly important.
Grey skidded to a stop, his toes gliding across the ground in semi-circles as he turned to face the knight. He stopped just before the barrier that blocked him from escaping the platform, exhaling a slow breath.
During his battle with Terran, the latter had interrupted Paladin Spirit several times. Clearly, Terran knew more about being a Holy Knight than he did by far. The ugly bastard didn’t even have a Paladin Frame, but he knew exactly how to stop Grey from entering a rhythm.
It was clear that this was something they trained at stronger Churches, and if Terran of all people was that good at it at the Mid Tier, then this construct, projection, puppet, or whatever the fuck it was, was definitely far better.
If it could enter a rhythm so easily, then breaking Grey’s own rhythm would be as easy as breathing.
In that case, there was only one way out of this place.
Grey took a deep breath and exhaled, activating his Paladin Frame and tapping into Paladin Spirit as the giant appeared in front of him.
He was going to need to train his rhythm right here.
"Come at m—."
A blade appeared before Grey’s forehead.