Chapter 692: Elion Vs Paladin Althea II

If Althea felt embarrassed about being knocked back by his attack, she certainly didn’t show it. However, she made no move to attack again immediately, instead walking calmly back towards the outer fringes of the courtyard.

“I’ll admit that you’re strong and worthy of your station, but I won’t withdraw my challenge simply because of that,” she said. “You’ll have to defeat me properly.”

Elion grinned wolfishly. “It’s not like I asked you to withdraw. I would have been disappointed if you did give up. I need the satisfaction of punching your face in first.”

Althea clenched her jaw, her nose scrunching up in mild disgust at his remark.

“Hmph! As expected, you’re nothing but a brute!”

Althea’s body flickered again, and a brilliant pillar of light descended from the heavens, engulfing the spot where Elion stood.

Vroooom!

Elion sprang aside as the radiance struck the courtyard, scorching the paving beneath it. However, Althea had already used that opening to intercept him, her figure emerging from behind the blazing pillar with both sabres sweeping towards his body.

Clang!

Both weapons struck Kurogoroshi at different points along its length. Sparks burst between them, and their gazes met through the crossed blades as the stone beneath Elion’s feet cracked under the force of their collision.

“You’re very strong,” he admitted, feeling the crushing pressure travelling through his sword. “But unfortunately, you aren’t the strongest person I’ve ever faced.”

Althea clenched her jaw, wondering what he meant by that.

‘He doesn’t know my true strength.’

She abruptly withdrew one sabre while maintaining pressure with the other, its curved edge sliding towards his hand as the freed blade swept around his guard.

Elion turned his wrist and stepped sideways.

The blade pressing against Kurogoroshi slipped past its edge, while the second swept harmlessly beside his shoulder. Before Althea could adjust, he drove his sword’s pommel into her breastplate using temporary stat conversion to boost his strength stat to unreasonable levels.

Bang!

The impact lifted her off her feet. She flew backwards, twisting in the air before landing with both heels scraping across the paving, but Elion was already following her.

Enhanced Perception had sharpened his senses, and his eyes tracked every movement with almost unsettling clarity.

The slight turn of her shoulder, the tightening of her fingers around a hilt, the shift of weight beneath her armour… nothing escaped him.

Battles were painfully easy when he was in this state, especially since his physique made it easy for his body to contain and channel his overpowering strength.

‘You’re going to come from the left.’

Althea’s foot struck the ground, and her figure blurred sideways.

Unfortunately for her, Elion was already turning.

Kurogoroshi met the sabre sweeping towards his ribs, deflecting it upward. Her second blade thrust beneath their clashing weapons, but he shifted his waist just enough to let its point pass beside him, then brought his sword down across her exposed forearm.

A thin line of crimson opened beneath the edge of her armguard.

Althea hissed, withdrawing her hand, only for his next strike to slam against her raised weapon. The force drove her arm back against her chest and sent her hurtling away once more.

This time, she struck the ground, breaking several paving stones.

“Damn you!”

Light erupted beneath her boots before she had even finished rising. Her figure shot forward like lightning through the settling dust, both sabres leaving luminous trails as she unleashed a furious succession of slashes.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The courtyard rang beneath their exchange. Steel flashed at Elion’s neck, waist, and knees, each attack flowing into the next with the practised precision of someone who had spent far longer wielding a weapon than he had.

Yet he remained maddeningly composed.

A small step carried him outside one slash. A turn of his blade redirected the next, and a slight adjustment of his shoulder allowed another to pass close enough that he felt its displaced air against his cheek.

Whenever Althea attempted to change the rhythm, Kurogoroshi was already waiting where her weapon would arrive.

She tried to force him back, but he stepped closer instead.

Her eyes widened as he moved inside the reach of her extended sabre. His free hand snapped upward, his fist striking her square across the mouth before she could bring her other weapon around.

The sharp impact jerked her head sideways.

Elion followed with a short sweep of his sword, its edge cutting across the vulnerable gap near her shoulder. Before she could recover, he struck again, driving her raised blades against her own armour and sending her tumbling through the dust.

Mayumi’s lips parted, but no words came out.

She could barely distinguish the individual movements.

For a moment, the pair would become little more than interwoven streaks of steel and light, and then Althea would come flying out of the exchange while Elion emerged behind her, entirely unscathed.

Beside her, Cole had unconsciously leaned forward, trying to follow what was happening. Maya stood with her brows drawn together, her confidence in an interesting fight turning into unfiltered astonishment.

Albert, however, followed their movements clearly.

His gaze narrowed as Althea rose and attacked again. Elion shifted his sword before her next slash had properly begun, placing its edge at precisely the angle required to turn her weapon aside. Even the foot he moved seemed to leave the ground an instant before she decided to target it.

‘He’s reading her movements.’

But as another exchange unfolded, Albert’s expression grew more intent. It was almost as though Elion knew what she intended to do before she acted upon it.

Althea suddenly broke away and swept one sabre across the air. A broad crescent of light tore towards Elion, followed almost immediately by a second crossing its path.

He slipped through the narrowing space between them.

The luminous blades thundered into the courtyard behind him, carving long furrows through the stone. Althea barely had time to register that he had passed through before Kurogoroshi flashed towards her thigh.

She lowered a sabre to intercept it.

Elion’s wrist turned.

His sword slid along hers instead, changing direction with such smoothness that she realised the danger only when its edge cut across her side. Pain flared beneath her armour, and her breath caught as he planted his foot and struck again.

Boom!

She was thrown backwards through a billowing cloud of pale dust.

By now, blood stained several sections of her armour. Narrow wounds marked her shoulder, forearm, and thigh, while a darker patch spread beneath the damaged plating at her side. When she coughed, blood spilled between her lips.

Elion lowered Kurogoroshi slightly, watching her rise.

She should have understood by now.

However, the glare she directed at him had only become more furious.

‘Why am I losing?’

Her fingers clenched around her sabres until her knuckles ached. Every time she thought she had found an opening, he turned it against her. Every attempt to overwhelm him ended with another wound, another humiliating collision with the ground.

She had barely been able to put her skills to use.

The moment she began preparing an attack that required more than a brief movement, he closed the distance.

When she tried to retreat and create room, he followed. Even the spells she managed to release had failed to make him surrender control of the fight.

‘Why can’t I hit him?’

She charged again.

Their weapons collided with a shrill, grating screech. Althea forced mana through her arms, pushing against his blade while her other sabre swept low, but Elion stepped across her line of attack and struck her wrist with the flat of his sword.

Her grip faltered.

Before she could recover it, his blade cut across her upper arm. A sharp kick followed, crashing into her breastplate and sending her skidding across the courtyard on her back.

For a moment, only the scrape of armour and the patter of falling stone disturbed the silence.

Althea pushed herself upright.

Her breathing had become harsh and uneven. Blood ran down her chin, dripping onto the front of her armour, but the humiliation burning inside her had long since overwhelmed the pain.

‘I can still win!’

A fierce radiance gathered around her body.

She brought both sabres upright, and the light crawling along their edges brightened until the weapons were difficult to look at. Mana churned above the courtyard, drawing the drifting dust upward as an immense spell began taking shape.

Elion’s smile faded.

He adjusted his grip on Kurogoroshi, watching the gathering light with narrowed eyes. She had finally decided to use something considerably powerful.

“That’s enough, Althea.”

Solara’s calm voice carried through the haze of dust.

Althea froze. The radiance around her weapons wavered, and the unfinished spell flickered before dissolving into scattered motes of light.

“I can win!” she protested, turning towards the Holy Daughter.

“No.”

The simple answer left her staring in disbelief.

“Can’t you see?” Solara continued. “You lost this fight during the first exchange. You cannot defeat him as you are now.”

She lifted a hand towards Elion.

“Look at him.”

Althea’s gaze reluctantly followed.

There wasn’t a scratch on him.

A few specks of dust had settled upon his shoulders and sleeves, and he was now brushing them away with his free hand.

His breathing remained steady, his posture relaxed, as though their entire battle had demanded little more than a modest effort.

More blood slipped down Althea’s chin as she gritted her teeth.

For a while, she remained standing with her weapons raised. Then, under Solara’s unblinking gaze, her arms slowly descended.

She lowered both sabres and pushed them into their sheaths with stiff, trembling movements. Her hands clenched into fists afterwards, and the expression on her face made it seem as though she was struggling to hold back tears.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“I told you Big Bro Elion would win!” Yaana shouted excitedly, a beaming smile making its way onto her face.

She was the only one who sounded particularly excited.

The others were still trying to make sense of what they had witnessed.

Even now, with both combatants standing still, it was difficult to reconcile Althea’s battered appearance with Elion casually brushing dust from his clothes.

“Shouldn’t that fight have been… a little closer?” Cole commented with a wry smile, glancing towards the others.

No one answered him.

They had barely been able to perceive those lightning-fast exchanges, but one thing had been painfully clear.

Elion hadn’t needed any flashy or overwhelmingly powerful moves. Each time their weapons met, Althea had been driven back, wounded, or sent flying.

Whatever she attempted, she simply couldn’t touch him.

‘He’s… too talented,’ Princess Isla thought, looking at him with undisguised astonishment.

Judging by the expressions on her escorts’ faces, they were thinking much the same.