Chapter 182: Unstoppable Attack Upon An Immovable Shield

’But...’

Malik paused a moment.

’How am I supposed to find the answer in the middle of this?’

Malik stood facing the Ghoul, Spine Splitter raised high, breathing hard, watching black blood from his earlier assault already beginning to knit itself back together across the creature’s gray flesh.

Yes, the wounds he’d carved so desperately in those brief unprotected seconds were vanishing before his eyes, the regenerative properties of whatever dark Rukh this thing was working in tandem with the restored shield to erase every scrap of progress he’d made.

The Follower responsible, a part of the Angel Ghoul, now laid dead beneath the feet of his commanders.

Zafar was still tending to Sinbad’s unconscious form, pressing two fingers against the owl’s chest, counting heartbeats while supplying all the healing Rukh he could muster, willing the bird to remain amongst the living.

Azeem, Duban, and Kabir, having dealt with their target, were already moving to end the one responsible.

But, of course, exhaustion had clearly caught up with every single one of them after days without proper rest.

Azeem’s rings were far too dim while Duban’s usual precision had softened into something far more labored.

Only Kabir, the ever-strong shadow, seemed whole.

’I need to depend on my infinity once more.’

His unlimited Rukh.

The one advantage none of his enemies could match, the resource that had let him burn through eight Angels in under a minute without running dry, the well that never ran empty no matter how much he drew from it.

Everyone else on this battlefield had limits.

Malik, technically, didn’t.

So while he still couldn’t damage the Ghoul.

Not in the areas protected by that reformed shield, anyway.

He’d tried already, striking twice more after the barrier snapped back, both attempts bouncing uselessly off flesh that refused to yield, the familiar jarring resistance meeting his blade exactly as it had before this entire fight began.

His arms ached from the impact, vibrations traveling up through Spine Splitter’s hilt and into his bones with every failed strike.

But what little remained of the wounds he’d already opened, the gashes carved during those brief unprotected seconds...

Perhaps he could reach those.

With his infinite Rukh, an endless attack.

Yes, his unstoppable attack upon its immovable shield.

Or no, that wasn’t entirely true.

He was truly unstoppable, and it wasn’t truly immovable.

Malik could lose his body, and the Ghoul was already injured; its injuries just patched over, held together by whatever regenerative properties the creature possessed, but still technically present beneath the surface, like scar tissue stretched thin over something that hadn’t actually finished mending.

Malik had seen enough wounds in his life, inflicted enough of them, to recognize the difference between flesh that had never been cut and flesh that was simply pretending it hadn’t been.

And thus, his eyes narrowed.

’I can cut through what’s already broken.’

It was a gamble.

He had no guarantee the logic would actually hold, no way to test the theory without committing fully to the attempt.

But standing here, trading useless strikes against an opponent that regenerated faster than he could damage it properly, wasn’t a sustainable strategy either.

Something had to give, and if he couldn’t force the shield open again through brute force alone, he needed to find the crack that already existed and widen it.

Malik surged forward, targeting the exact same wound he’d opened earlier along the creature’s arm, pouring everything he had into a concentrated strike.

Rukh flooded into Spine Splitter’s edge until the blade practically hummed with contained force.

Spine Splitter sank in.

Of course, it wasn’t easy.

The shield still fought him, still resisted, every inch of penetration costing him significantly more effort than it should have.

But the pre-existing damage gave his blade something to work with, a crack in otherwise impenetrable armor.

"GGGGRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The Ghoul screamed.

A fresh wave of sound rolled across the battlefield, all of its many mouths wailing in discordant unison once more, loud enough that even soldiers fighting their own battles elsewhere paused for half a heartbeat at the sheer volume of it.

Malik didn’t let up.

He went harder, pushing Spine Splitter deeper, feeling the blade grind against something far more solid than normal flesh should ever be, a resistance so fierce any lesser weapon would have snapped clean in half under the strain.

Spine Splitter held.

Thick black blood poured freely now, the wound widening with every passing second, and Malik felt a deep shift within the creature’s structure, some core weakness finally beginning to give way under his relentless pressure.

It wasn’t a clean victory.

It wasn’t the decisive blow he desperately wanted.

But it was proof that his theory held, that its shield, however powerful, couldn’t fully override damage that had already been dealt before its reconstruction.

The Ghoul thrashed, desperate, its massive limbs swinging wildly, one strike catching Kabir, who was trying to minimize the aftermath of their fight, sending him flying into the air.

Malik barely registered it; every ounce of his focus poured into the wound beneath his blade.

It wasn’t enough to finish the job.

But it was progress.

Real, tangible progress, carved through sheer stubbornness and the unlimited well of Rukh Malik alone could draw from, a resource none of his enemies, however numerous, however protected, could ever hope to match.

He pressed harder, refusing to relent, determined to see this through no matter how long it took or how much of himself he had to burn to get there, even as his arms trembled from the strain and sweat poured freely down his face, stinging in the dozens of small cuts already scattered across his skin from this brutal, grinding fight.

This was a clash that reminded on a fight long past.

A fight that was much the same as this one...

At least in concept.

That fight was of him, a spear.

And the Former Sultan, a shield.

Neither fell to the other.

For a while it seemed like a stalemate.

But Malik, his Will, never ceased.

An unstoppable attack...