Chapter 213: Fight to the Death
Behind her were the Nighthawks "Red Gloves" and the troops on the airship who could recover at any time and rush here, and in front of her was only this mysterious woman.
Without hesitation, Lanevus kicked his feet and rushed towards the mysterious woman.
The opponent also rushed forward, wielding a dagger burning with black flames, and the distance between the two quickly narrowed.
Having just escaped the Red Gloves' attack, Lanevus was unarmed, but he didn't need any other weapons. Although he was only a Low-Sequence Beyonder of the "Thief" Path, after being possessed by the abominable "True Creator" for a long time and having part of his flesh and blood transformed, he had also gained many special abilities that were not typical of a "Thief" amidst the endless mumbling and curses.
Slightly avoiding the direction of the dagger's attack, he stretched out his right hand, and his palm with a foul and bloody smell was about to slap the other person's shoulder. The woman suddenly changed direction and dodged to his left. At the same time, the dagger fell, leaving a deep wound on his elbow that could be seen to the bone. The black flame on the dagger instantly ignited the skin of the elbow, and quickly spread, burning to other parts of the body.
The pain of the cursed flames penetrated his soul, causing Lanevus to break out in a cold sweat. He quickly formed his right hand into a claw, dug into the skin of his elbow, tore off the burning part and threw it away. Then he looked at the dagger swaying with black flames with fear.
"Are you a witch? Why is the 'Witch Cult' involved in this?"
The "witch" did not answer, but swung the dagger and continued to stab him.
Lanevus knew that Beyonders from the Witch Path, in addition to the cursed black flames, could also control frost and master various dark arts. However, this mysterious, silent witch seemed to favor close combat. She wielded her dagger like a Low-Sequence member who hadn't yet been promoted, leaving him with wounds from time to time. He could only quickly dig out the flesh stained with black flames to avoid continued damage from the curse.
It seems like I'm hurting myself...
And she wasn't going to kill me? Was she stalling for time, waiting for the Nighthawks to catch up, or was she simply torturing me through these injuries?
Knowing that time was limited and he couldn't delay any longer, Lanevus gritted his teeth, endured the pain from wounds all over his body, and rushed towards the opponent.
As the distance between them closed rapidly, the exposed parts of his skin, such as his chest and abdomen, his palms, and his face, began to grow densely packed with small bumps, as if stones of varying sizes were buried under his skin. They quickly connected into one, glowing an unsettling rust color, instantly covering his entire body, turning him into a suit of flesh and blood armor.
This caused Lanevus's frail body to swell up, and his aura grew considerably. The witch's dagger swiftly slashed at his left hand, but only left a shallow scratch on the rusted flesh armor. The black flames still burned the mutated flesh, but unfortunately the effect was much worse than before.
"You know, after being tormented by the gods for such a long time, even someone like me would gain a lot."
Clenching his fist, covered in mutated flesh, Lanevus swung with lightning speed, striking the witch in the face like a seasoned boxer. The witch nimbly bent her neck to avoid the blow, but the blow struck the sewer wall directly, shattering the rock and sending up dust that blinded the witch.
Good opportunity!
He suddenly accelerated, and used both hands to move forward. He opened the swollen fingers of his left hand and grasped the opponent's right hand holding the dagger, while he clenched his right fist and smashed it into the hateful round face.
All those who had been pretending to be no match for the opponent's speed and showing weakness had now paid off.
"Bang——"
The right fist with flesh and blood armor smashed into the witch's head with unstoppable force, smashing her skull flat...
wrong!
Lanevus watched as the witch before him transformed into a thin white paper figure. Its head was shattered, and its right hand, crushed by Lanevus's grip, was now floating downwards.
Then he felt a sharp pain in his left elbow. The witch who appeared beside him again swung a dagger and cut off his left hand at the elbow. The rusty armor that had been indestructible just now seemed like paper. The dagger covered in black flames cut through it like butter, followed by the muscles, blood vessels and bones underneath.
Enduring the intense pain, Lanevus dropped his left arm, whose flesh armor was gradually disappearing, and rolled away in the sewage.
He stood up from the foul-smelling sewage and took a few steps back before he could stand firmly, covering his left elbow. Several strange granulations grew out of the wound on his elbow, stopping the bleeding, as if the wound was being repaired.
However, the wounds that penetrated his chest and abdomen, the previous battle with the "Sword of the Goddess", and the demigod-level collision had exhausted his physical strength and spirituality. His recovery was now very slow, and it was impossible for his left hand to grow back completely in a short period of time.
But this witch, her target from the very beginning was my left hand?
Lanevus broke out in a cold sweat from the pain, but what frightened him even more was the opponent's method.
She aimed several attacks at my left hand, or to be more precise, my left elbow. She even pretended that she couldn't cut through my flesh and blood armor. Her ultimate goal was to find the right opportunity to chop off my left arm?
Slowly retreating, Lanevus looked at the approaching woman, a "witch" who could cast a "paper doll" like a "magician" of the Secret Order. He shook his head and said, "I'm not a witch, I'm a witch."
"Alright, I really can't beat you. I surrender," he muttered, his eyes glancing at the passage to the side. His brain raced, trying to figure out how to escape. "Are you from the Witch Cult or the Secret Order? Or are you planning to hand me over to the Nighthawks behind you and let them judge me for my crimes in Tingen City?"
“Neither.”
The woman who had only spoken a few words when they met finally spoke again.
"I just said I wanted you to remember the innocent people you killed." She stopped about seven or eight meters away and rekindled the dagger in her hand. The rising black flames rekindled the pain in Lanevus's wounds. "Look, after cutting off your left hand, are you a little more sober now? Are you able to remember what happened in Tingen City?"
"The next one is in the chest. Don't die early."
As soon as she finished speaking, she swung out the black flame dagger, and a bright yellow light flashed on her body. She instantly crossed the distance between the two of them, and appeared before Lanevus on the flames. She reached out and caught the dagger flying from behind her, and slashed at him with the blade.
————
Klein, dressed as a dock worker and wearing a clown mask with a raised mouth and a red ball adorning the tip of his nose, ran swiftly through the sewer passages. He was agile and moved at an extremely fast speed through the complex sewers, as if receiving some kind of guidance, running towards the place where the sounds of battle could be faintly heard.
After lying in ambush at the location confirmed by divination for several minutes, Klein, realizing that Lanevus had "broken his promise," conducted another dream divination and learned that the other party had changed his escape route and appeared in a sewer location closer to East Balam Dockyard. He then hurriedly moved in that direction.
Following his spiritual prompting, he passed through one bend after another, quickly approaching his target location. But after turning another right-angle bend, Klein stopped, holding the tarot cards that could be used as throwing knives in his hands, and looked forward.
In the pitch-black passage in front of him, a ray of crimson moonlight penetrated through the gap in the manhole cover above his head and fell on the water. In the moonlight, a tall figure wearing a cloak was close behind another slightly shorter but more sturdy figure, and a slender arm pierced the latter's chest, flashing with the color of blood in the moonlight.
This scene caused Klein to subconsciously feel pain in his chest, as if he had returned to the last day in Tingen City, the day when Ince Zangwill pierced his chest, shattered his heart, and he died in front of Angel.
“Swish——”
The tall figure pulled back his arm and casually pushed the other person who had stopped moving.
The deceased fell chest down to the ground, with his left arm, severed at the elbow, stretched forward as if trying to crawl away from the murderer behind him.
The figure with bloody hands moved his neck and looked towards Klein. The next second, bright yellow flames burst out from all parts of his body, and with a "pop", he disappeared into the sewer.
Subconsciously looking around, Klein did not see the mysterious man.
The other party has left?
He walked slowly towards the fallen dead man with caution and vigilance, pulled the lifeless body out of the sewage, turned it over, and recognized the man's identity with the moonlight above his head.
This broken body belonged to Lanevus, who had escaped the Red Gloves' pursuit tonight and inexplicably changed his route to appear here after hiding in the dock area.
The face that had for some reason turned bronze no longer had the sneer that mocked everything in the world that he had seen yesterday at the dock union or in the portrait on the wanted poster. Instead, it was filled with doubt and confusion.
"How could I die here?"
His wide eyes seemed to be questioning Klein who was looking at him.
From the head downwards, the right shoulder of Lanevus's shirt was stained dark red, as if a huge wound beneath it was constantly bleeding, but the clothes were not damaged. On the chest, the piece of thorax that was about to heal pierced through the wound above. In the wound that had just been pierced by the mysterious man's punch, the broken heart still oozes blood.
He stretched out his left arm, and only the smooth cut surface remained at the elbow. His forearm had fallen somewhere in the sewer, and Klein, who had no dark vision, did not try to find it.
He just stared blankly at this symbolic death. His face under the clown mask kept twisting, and then he bent over and held his stomach, making an inhuman laugh.
“Haha, hahaha, hahahaha!”
Amidst his breathless laughter, he spoke breathlessly and incoherently:
"Haha, you guy, how, haha, how did you get ahead of me...hahaha."
After laughing for a few seconds, he suddenly stopped laughing, which was worse than crying. He pulled out the ceremonial knife he carried with him and plunged it into Lanevus's chest. The knife went in just above the fist-sized wound, leaving only the handle.
"Still so reckless, charging forward like you're risking your life." After finishing the strike, Klein looked around and pulled out the tarot cards he had prepared for battle. "If the Nighthawks saw Lanevus like this, wouldn't they immediately know it was you who did it?"
He pinched the tarot cards between his thumb and middle finger, bent them hard, and pushed forward with his index finger. Like a dealer shuffling cards, he flicked out the entire deck one by one, scattering them all over Lanevus and into the sewer beside him.
After finishing all this, Klein looked at the tarot cards scattered on the floor and the corpses that bore the mortal wounds of the Nighthawks who had died in Tingen City. He sniffed and said softly:
"Although I don't know why you came to Backlund, how you found Lanevus, and how you killed him before I could..."
The corners of his mouth curled up under the mask, as if he had become the smiling clown he was playing.
"...but it's good to know you're still alive..."
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