The Paladin in the Abyss

The scene seemed to momentarily pause, but in reality, Lancelot's movements never ceased.

With a clench of his fingers, the Innate True Qi within his Dantian burst forth. An invisible Sword Aura emitted from his palm, which was pressed against Valtira's chest, piercing viciously into the Demon's body.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!"

The Demon screamed miserably, its wings flapping wildly as it rapidly retreated more than thirty feet.

A hole, as thick as a small arm, appeared in her chest, and her exquisite armor was covered with web-like cracks. A massive amount of blood spilled between her and Lancelot, like a person cut in half had crawled over it.

Lancelot was also startled by the horrific amount of bleeding from his opponent, but he had no time to examine her injuries closely. He grabbed a skull that had proved very useful off the ground, turned, and ran. His movements seemed slow, yet with each step, he covered dozens of feet, surprisingly three times faster than the Demon's pained retreat.

From the feedback from his hand, he had used his trump card, the Innate True Qi, yet it still didn't penetrate the Demon's body, whose weakness wasn't the heart. Continuing to fight could hardly guarantee even a fifty-fifty chance of victory. Moreover, considering the Teleportation Magic the Demon used in her surprise attack, she was a strong Spellcaster.

Who knew what other strange techniques she hadn't yet revealed?

He had no real reason to keep fighting. From the beginning, the goal had been to buy as much time as possible, then seize the chance to escape. Thanks to Eckmond's superb acting and a few of his own tricks, he had managed to injure his opponent. If not now, when?

"You scoundrel! Give me back my sword!"

A furious roar came from behind, and Lancelot looked down to see Eckmond slowly "swallowing" Valtira's sword into his own dimensional space, leaving only the hilt visible. Together with the sword marks on its skull, the look was indescribably bizarre.

"Why are you taking her sword?" Lancelot shouted through their mental link, "We need to run for our lives!"

"Am I taking it for myself? I'm taking it for you, boss!" Eckmond cried out in his mind, feeling wronged. "Boss, you were beaten until you spewed blood. Can't I collect some compensation for you?"

Lancelot had no time for further talk with the skull because his Spirit Perception alerted him to the fluctuations of Teleportation Magic ahead. Without thinking, he made an almost right-angled turn.

As expected, the Demon appeared at the source of the magical disturbance. She held in her hands a long rope, composed entirely of blue energy with a silver arrowhead at one end, and lashed it out at the fleeing Lancelot, yelling:

"Entangle!"

The rope seemed to come alive, striking towards Lancelot like a venomous snake. The Human Knight had no interest in testing whether he could escape this bizarre entanglement. He exerted all his True Qi, twisting his body strangely, and his speed instantly increased by threefold.

The rope reached about 30 feet before it finally caught up to Lancelot's back, but by then, it had stretched to its maximum length and couldn't even wrap around his waist. Like a rubber band pulled to its limit, it snapped back swiftly into the Demon's hand.

"Dammit!!!" Enreyes roared out in anger, followed by a long string of vile curses.

"Boss, did you hear that?" Eckmond exclaimed, "As expected of the Demon of Desire, such literary cultivation is undeniable. I even learned quite a few new words, and my mind is filled with a dictionary of curses, after all."

Lancelot had no time to wonder why a skull had such knowledge in its mind, as he was holding Eckmond's skull in one hand and grasping an Upper Grade Spirit Stone Earth Crystal in the other, rapidly absorbing the nature's spiritual energy within it without any concern for the massive waste this caused.

Almost within a single breath, Lancelot and the Demon of Desire had put nearly a hundred feet between them again, the Human Knight moving as fast as a shooting star, much to the frustration of Valtira who couldn't catch him.

Once again, Lancelot's Spirit Perception alerted him to a magical fluctuation ahead, and he sharply changed direction while his inner True Qi burst forth with full force.

This time, the Demon of Desire appeared out of nowhere, holding a longbow. She completed the actions of drawing, aiming, and releasing the arrow with incredible speed, but by the time her arrow left the bowstring, Lancelot had already sprinted another hundred feet away.
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The distance and speed gave Lancelot a chance to dodge; he slightly shifted twice, confident he could evade, but the arrow seemed to have eyes of its own, changing directions as he did. Before Lancelot could react again, the arrow had embedded itself in his back.

The sturdy plate armor was ripped open by the triangular arrowhead before it pierced into Lancelot's flesh. His inner True Qi responded immediately, fighting hard against the foreign object, but still, the arrow penetrated nearly two inches deep, causing him to violently spit out a mouthful of fresh blood.

Worse yet, he discovered that the arrow was poisoned, these fallen angels really went all out. Although he had previously taken Kalalin's Antitoxin Potion, its effect was limited against such a strong poison. Lancelot had to divert some of his True Qi to suppress the spread of the poison, which slowed him down a bit.

Feeling that one Upper Grade Spirit Stone could no longer keep up with the consumption rate of his True Qi, he lifted Eckmond towards his waistband, and mentally commanded the skull:

"Bite!"

"Ah? Isn't it inappropriate now, boss?"

"Bite the waistband!" Lancelot was speechless about the skull's thought process. He didn't care if the guy understood or not, he relaxed his grip on the skull and reached for another Earth Crystal.

Now holding an Earth Crystal in each hand, his True Qi was quickly drawn from the gemstones, and his speed dramatically increased once more. The skull, ever the mouthy one, was firmly biting his waistband, vigorously shaking up and down in the air due to the headwind.

Seeing her attack connect and the enemy's speed momentarily slow down, Valtira hadn't even started celebrating when Lancelot's speed returned to normal, and it seemed even slightly faster than before, causing her to curse like a housewife who just discovered her husband's secret.

Just then, a violent magical fluctuation arose from the direction of Oasis Fort, a blood-red column filled with a frenzied aura shot straight into the sky, turning her complexion deathly pale.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!!!" she yelled furiously at Lancelot's retreating figure, "Human, we are not done yet!!!"

With a furious stomp, she turned towards Oasis Fort, activated the Teleportation Technique again, and vanished on the spot.