Chapter 154: A man?!

He only glanced at it.

Still not enough.

The female Succubus suddenly burst out laughing, bending her fingers one joint at a time as if testing a new toy. “You two really make me jealous. One of you is injured and still trying to fire arrows, while the other has just been slashed and still has the mood to praise his fiancée. Are you trying to move me to death?”

She was laughing when she suddenly stopped.

“No. I’ve changed my mind.”

Ten black tentacles shot from her wrists and twisted together into a giant arm with five curved claws. She jerked her shoulder, sending it sweeping through the room like an iron trap snapping shut.

Erik raised his spear to block. The claws crashed down, cracking the ground beneath his feet. Another black strand slipped along the spear shaft and lashed his upper arm. Blood immediately seeped through his sleeve.

He gritted his teeth, released one hand from the shaft, and grabbed the black strand that had wrapped around him. An icy sensation immediately spread through his fingers, but he still yanked hard, pulling the entire mass of tentacles out of position. The spearhead swung sideways and sank deep into the connection near the woman’s wrist.

She screamed.

It was not the cry of pain from an ordinary person. The scream stretched out and overlapped with another laugh, as though two people were fighting to use the same throat.

At that moment, Erik saw tears well up in the female soldier’s eyes.

“Don’t…” A sound that was barely a voice escaped her lips. “Don’t let…”

The black veins suddenly twitched violently. Her face immediately returned to that distorted, delighted expression from before.

“Oh, this little girl still wants to talk!” The woman’s voice turned sweet in a terrifying way. “How troublesome. Be quiet!”

A chill ran down Erik’s spine.

He had guessed correctly. The female soldier before him was not entirely in control of her own actions. Another woman was looking through those eyes, using that body like a puppet. That person even seemed entertained by her host’s suffering.

“Where are you?” Erik asked, keeping the spearhead aimed at his opponent.

“I’m standing right in front of you.”

“I’m not asking about this girl.”

“So clever!” The woman laughed brightly. “But what use is being clever if you still can’t save anyone?”

The black blade suddenly split into three branches. Erik reflexively stepped back, avoiding the strike aimed at his neck, but another branch still slashed across his side. Burning pain ran through his body. He gritted his teeth and drove the butt of his spear hard into the opponent’s leg, forcing her to buckle before she could strike again.

Elowen fired two arrows in rapid succession to support him. The first blocked an attack from the left, while the second exploded into a gust of wind that pushed Erik out of the path of the giant black arm’s swing.

“Erik! Right side!”

He spun the instant she called out. A claw pierced through the fabric at his left shoulder, drawing another line of blood. Erik lowered his body and used the opponent’s pulling force to close the distance. He punched the female soldier hard in the elbow, then slammed the spear shaft into the black tendons linking the tentacles. The strike caused the claws to lose their shape and collapse into countless writhing streams of mist.

The female Succubus stepped back, genuine surprise appearing in her eyes for the first time.

“You can still fight after being injured like that?”

Erik did not answer. Blood from his shoulder and side made his clothes cling to his skin. His breath burned, and his legs were beginning to tire after so many sudden changes of direction. Yet he still stood between his opponent and Elowen.

He knew he could not hold out forever. Every time he cut down tentacles, Dark Mist from outside the door surged in to replenish them. But his blood could not return to his body.

Yet the progress bar in his mind continued to move.

[Accumulation Progress: 99%]

Just a little more.

Erik felt his heart pound. If his Emotion Energy reached the threshold, he would have a chance to attempt a Bronze breakthrough. No one could guarantee he would succeed in breaking through right in the middle of a battlefield, but it was his only chance to turn the situation around.

He did not look at the status panel again. If he showed even a moment of distraction, that woman could kill Elowen.

“What are you waiting for?” His opponent suddenly asked, narrowing her eyes. “Since the beginning, you’ve been stalling for time. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

Erik kept his expression calm.

“I’m waiting for you to get tired.”

The woman froze, then laughed so hard she had to hold her stomach.

“Ha ha! You think I can get tired? I haven’t even used up this little toy yet!”

She raised both hands. Dark Mist surged through the doorway, forming a thick black membrane in front of the exit. Tentacles stretched from the ground, the walls, and even the cracks in the ceiling, as though the guard post had become the belly of a colossal monster.

Elowen felt the mana shift and immediately raised her bow. But the arm that had been clawed earlier was completely exhausted, slowing her draw by only a single beat.

That single beat was enough.

The female Succubus stopped attacking Erik. A cluster of tentacles suddenly slipped beneath the rubble, wrapped tightly around Elowen’s ankle, and yanked hard, throwing her off balance. Her bow struck the edge of the wall, and the arrow she had just nocked fell to the ground.

“Elowen!”

Erik spun and rushed toward her, but his opponent had already smiled. She had been waiting precisely for the moment he abandoned his defensive position.

A black blade chopped down from above.

Erik swung his spear to block. The shaft shook violently, forcing him down onto one knee. He used all his strength to throw the blade aside, then stamped his foot and lunged toward Elowen. But the moment his hand reached hers, the tentacles around the walls all converged, weaving together into a giant claw with sharp blades protruding like teeth.

This time, Elowen was the target.

She was pinned to the ground, unable to draw her bow, with no time to create a complete wind shield. Erik saw her eyes widen and saw her lips form his name.

He stopped thinking.

Erik spun around, shoved Elowen out of the attack’s path with all his strength, then rushed to stand in front of her. He raised his spear with both hands, but the first impact made the shaft crack open. He still gritted his teeth and held tight, blood flowing from his palms along the fractures in the wood.

Crack!

The spear shaft broke in half.

The black claw swept down, its largest point aimed directly at Erik’s chest.

“ERIK!” Elowen screamed, her voice breaking through the wind.

He knew he could not dodge.

The distance was too close. His legs had just used all their strength to push Elowen away. There was nowhere to retreat behind him, and in front of him were only overlapping blades like the teeth of death.

Is this as far as I get?

The thought appeared strangely softly.

The entire world suddenly slowed.

Erik saw a drop of blood fall from his fingertip. It hung in midair, glowing red like a tiny gem beneath the faint light outside the door. Even the strands of Dark Mist rushing toward him seemed frozen, every black vein visible clearly enough for him to count.

It was not that he had grown stronger. His body still ached, and his hands no longer had enough strength to grip the broken spear shaft. It was only that, in the moment he faced death, his consciousness seemed to stretch into infinity.

Countless images flashed through Erik’s mind.

Elowen in an imagined wedding dress, blushing as she scolded him for enjoying teasing people. Meira in the kitchen, trying to look serious while he secretly tasted her food. Felyn tracing the edge of the table, delighted because she had found her chair by herself. Carmilla silently setting down another cup of tea, Runi smiling when he teased her, Laviana raising an eyebrow in front of the livestream screen. Even the nameless female soldiers who had placed hands over their chests to salute him while the outpost was in danger.

He had not yet told them that he still wanted to return.

He had not yet reached Bronze.

He had not yet understood why the translucent girl could see him, why Silver Moon’s sky had shattered, or who stood behind those black veins.

There was still too much he had not done. Too many words he had not said.

But what frightened him most was not his own death.

If I fall… what will happen to Elowen?

The claw was still closing in.

The system did not issue a breakthrough notification. The progress bar was still missing one final thin sliver, lying there as though mocking his efforts.

Erik looked directly at the blade and unconsciously thought of what he had just said to Elowen.

I will not be like other men.

He had chosen to stand here. If he could return to that moment, he would still choose the same thing.

And then, in the middle of that space that seemed to have frozen, a black figure appeared.

Not Dark Mist.

A person clad in black from neck to toe stood in the open space before Erik, as though they had stepped out from a crack that did not exist. A smooth mask covered the entire face, revealing neither eyes nor any sign of identity. In that person’s hand was a long scythe with a cold, curved blade.

Erik did not know where this person had come from. He had not even seen them approach. But for an instant, the slight angle of their stance and the way their hand gripped the weapon’s shaft felt strangely familiar.

The masked figure stepped forward half a pace.

The black scythe drew a cold, sharp arc through the air, striking directly against the giant claw descending from above.

Boom!

The claw was knocked aside, forcing the woman to stumble backward. She quickly steadied herself, her eyes full of disbelief as she stared at the black figure that had appeared.

“A man?!”