Grey shot forward, the Sacred Bulwark and Hallowed Endurance Guardians surging to meet him. The blades of the Swordsworn Guardian didn’t move as though it was waiting, observing.
The Divinesever and the Wrath Coronation Guardians followed behind the first two as though attached to their shadows, their enormous bodies vanishing behind their large frames.
Grey slid to a sudden stop when the guardians thought he was just another surge away from crossing blades with them. Their rhythm was thrown off, but a buzzing came from the Swordsworn Guardian that forced the rhythm to suddenly change.
Hidden behind the Hallowed Endurance Guardian, the Wrath Coronation Guardian suddenly slashed.
Grey’s pupils constricted and he swayed to one side, slashing out his sword and instantly parlaying that into a parry that sent the energy blade over his shoulder.
BANG.
It crashed into the force field behind him, shaking it to its very roots.
The Sacred Bulwark Guardian appeared behind him, slashing down. Grey could already feel the Divinesever Guardian appearing in the one direction he could dodge.
It felt like they were coordinating even better this time.
No, it wasn’t that they were coordinating better, it was that this time, the Swordsworn Ascension Guardian had interrupted his own momentum and taken control of the battlefield instantly.
Was he going to have to kill it first, then? But that felt impossible. How would he kill it while it had that many swords and the Knight’s Vigil lying in protection?
’Shit.’ Grey cursed.
He met the Sacred Bulwark Guardian head on. Its raw physical strength was amongst the weakest, and there was no way he was dodging right into a blade he almost certainly couldn’t block.
The Divinesever Guardian had built up its rhythm perfectly, and it was too ready for this attack. The last thing Grey wanted was to get in the way of that.
BANG.
Grey didn’t fight back heavily against the Sacred Bulwark Guardian, allowing his feet to be lifted off the ground. He was sent flying backward and out of their quick encirclement. But he knew immediately that it would be hard to use this tactic again as his feet slid to a stop.
They were quickly closing in on him, blocking his escape routes from all sides. And behind him was a pesky force field that had been trying to kill him since the very first battle. It had almost screwed him over several times.
’Fuck.’
Grey took a breath, holding onto his sword tightly with both hands. His crimson eyes looked ahead with a frigid cold to them.
Instead of stepping forward again, Grey actually stepped back until there was only a meter or two between his back foot and the force field.
The variables were too numerous. Sometimes when you were in the MMA cage or the boxing ring, the best thing to do was put your back against the ropes.
’The ol’ rope-a-dope.’
Blades flashed in front of Grey. It felt like the end of the world for him, and like there wasn’t a single path to make it out.
But there was.
He was such a small target and they were so huge that if he wasn’t moving too much, at best two of them could attack him at the same time if his back was against the wall.
The problem was that he didn’t have the strength to meet their blades head on.
He pivoted, dodging a thrust. His sword cut up, slashing against the spine of another blade and sending it over his shoulder.
Standing his ground, Grey exchanged blows, his eyes darting back and forth as he tried to take into account every variable.
He already felt he had grasped the secret. The rhythm, it wasn’t just a random thing designed to coordinate your steps, it was there in order to coordinate your Resonant Frame.
The reason why even the Body Abilities of the Holy Knight felt almost like Mind Abilities was because of the unique characteristics of the Resonant Frame.
But it was also because of the unique characteristic of this Neural Frame Type that it was hard to control—even harder the more talented you were.
The more talent you had, the wider your scope, and the further out your Neural Frame went.
Training your Neural Frame was hard enough without having to deal with it interacting, changing, and being influenced by the outside world. Thus, it needed something to keep it in check.
The Holy Knights used horns.
The Goblins used drums.
The Paladins used both.
One of the blades of the Swordsworn Guardian suddenly moved. It was so fast that Grey would have missed it had he not been so focused on the rhythm.
It seemed that he was wrong about only two blades being able to attack him at once, because right at that moment, a third came down straight from above.
There was nowhere to dodge.
—
Stamina: 18/111
—
Grey exhaled a steamy breath and his body moved.
His blade parried another strike from the Hallowed Endurance Guardian, his wrists trembling beneath all the pressure he constantly placed on them.
Chi.
The blade he parried cut at the spine of the Sacred Bulwark Guardian’s sword. The two crossed and then repelled one another.
Grey slipped past, appeared beyond them and slashed into the Sacred Bulwark Guardian’s ankle.
The timing was perfect. He slashed at the same time the blades of the two guardians crossed.
With its rhythm faltering, the Sacred Bulwark’s balance was thrown off.
It stumbled back, the raw power of Hallowed Endurance being beyond it, only to be tripped by Grey’s attack at its ankle.
It toppled over, its enormous body falling over Grey.
Chi.
The Swordsworn Ascension Guardian’s divine sword pierced right through its body.
’What a convenient little umbrella.’ Grey thought, but there wasn’t the slightest bit of amusement on his face. In fact, there was only bloody murder.
BANG.
The Divinesever Guardian’s attempt to attack Grey from the back was thwarted as the Swordsworn Guardian’s sword pierced into the ground. The weapon was so large it acted as a shield to Grey’s back.
The guardian stumbled back and Grey slipped out from under his umbrella.
Stepping onto the Sacred Bulwark Guardian’s dissipating corpse, he grabbed the hilt of the enormous blade that ran it through.