The Paladin in the Abyss

"The position of the Lord of Withering doesn't really matter to anyone," the human knight shrugged, "but since you can barely speak articulately, perhaps let's not bother."

"Ah! Dom! I'll kill you!"

Despite its limited linguistic abilities, the huge Maizeros Demon could still detect the mockery in Lancelot's words. It let out a furious roar and charged at Lancelot, swinging its flail.

The saw-like hammer head spun rapidly, tracing unpredictable, eerie arcs in the air. A dangerous cold light flickered on the hammer head, obviously extremely sharp; if it hit, even the sturdy plate armor would likely be breached.

"It is said that his flail is a replica of the weapon of the Werewolf Lord Yenogu. Who knows what power it might reach?"

The murmuring from the crowd had colored Kalalin's expression slightly tense. As a scholar studying the Abyss, he was naturally aware of Yenogu and its infamous triple-headed flail. Legend had it that the flail was imbued with an evil magic unimaginable to mortals; if struck by all three heads simultaneously, even deities would turn into idiots, standing foolishly in place.

Kalalin was equally confident in Lancelot's abilities, but unlike dwarves, he was very familiar with the power of magic. The weapon in the Maizeros Demon's hands indeed resembled the legendary weapon of the Werewolf Lord; if it even had a third of the power of the artifact it mimicked, it would be enough to cause major trouble for their mercenary group leader.

However, Lancelot, unaware of these nuances, lacked neither experience in combating flails. Flails, just like meteor hammers and segmented whips, could bypass the weapons and shields used for defense, exceedingly effective against knights in full heavy armor moving sluggishly.

Yet, this rule evidently didn't apply to Lancelot who also wore a suit of mithril-made, heavy full-body armor, but to him, post-Foundation Establishment, it felt almost like running naked. He leaped backward; although the movement looked minor, he sprung back seven or eight feet, completely dodging Dom's attack.

The crowd let out a massive jeer; the current Governor, when faced with a challenger, had chosen to dodge and hadn't even drawn his weapon. This was not the show they wanted to see!

Even the Maizeros Demons lining the arena cast peculiar glances at Lancelot. Although the fiends, serving for money, still kept their weapons lowered, should either dueler get too close, they would not hesitate to 'persuade' them with the sharper end of their tridents to return inside the sacred duel circle.

But Lancelot himself was an old hand in the field of combat, the noise from the audience not affecting him in the slightest. In fact, he was now thinking more about how to convincingly defeat his opponent without excessively disclosing his own strength.

He monitored the Maizeros Demon's weapon closely. There was definitely something wrong with the three saw wheels at the end of the flail. After Lancelot had jumped backward, those saw wheels somehow managed to forcefully change direction and chase after him, resembling the heads of three venomous snakes.

Lancelot silently drew the Giant Sword Glacier from his dimensional bag. Against such an erratic weapon, a relatively flexible hand half sword might not be advantageous, especially since the opponent's size was somewhat too large—compared to that, the dimensions of Frostslash felt somewhat inadequate.

The seven-foot-long Glacier still brought a considerable shock when it made its appearance. Merely dragging slightly, the sword blade scraped bright sparks off the stone ground, causing many of the audience members who had just been loudly jeering to shut their mouths, then begin murmuring quietly among themselves.

"That Great Sword is way too exaggerated, can this human actually swing it?"

"I heard that he had shown this weapon before at the Hall of Contention, but he only took it out to intimidate the people around him and didn't really use it..."

"Could it be that this Great Sword is just a prop to scare people?"

"We'll know soon enough..."

The whispers from the sidelines reached Lancelot's ears, leaving him feeling quite helpless. Because there were seldom suitable enemies, Giant Sword Glacier had few opportunities to be shown, but he never thought it would be treated as a fake.

His opponent, furious for having missed a full-power strike, now had blood-red eyes, clearly in a berserk state. To many of the less bright demons, any enemy should simply stand still and let themselves be beaten, and any act of resistance would only make them angrier.

The huge Maizeros demon let out a roar and charged at Lancelot again, wildly swinging his flail in an attempt to tear Lancelot to shreds.

The Human Knight still did not engage directly; his figure twisted strangely again, leaping to the side. But unlike before, this time he dragged the Great Sword behind him, and after moving a safe distance, he gently lifted the Great Sword to meet the flail coming down from above.

The sawtooth-shaped hammer head was repelled the moment it touched the blade, but it quickly spun back, flying toward him again in an attempt to get around the blocking weapon, as if it had a mind of its own. If the defender were using an ordinary longsword, even if he had accurately knocked away three hammer heads, it would be difficult to deal with such uncanny transformations afterward.

But Giant Sword Glacier was not just any longsword; it was a Great Sword more than seven feet long and over an inch at its thickest part, making it impossible for the flail to get around it and strike Lancelot's body. The hammer heads struck the sword blade several times in rapid succession, quickly exhausting all their kinetic energy, and Lancelot with a sudden twist of his wrist, the chainsaw wheel's connected chain wrapped around the sword blade.

The Maizeros demon subconsciously tried to pull his weapon back, but Lancelot, firmly rooted like an iron tower, did not budge at all, causing Dom himself to falter and stumble.

The crowd of observers erupted in amazement; if the Human Knight's first two dodges were somewhat opportunistic, this clash was a straight confrontation of strength, and from the looks of it, their new Governor had decidedly defeated an opponent several times his own weight, making the scene almost magical.

Unable to pull his weapon free, Lancelot did not hold back as he suddenly pressed down with the Great Sword, then forcefully lifted it upward, immediately disarming the Maizeros demon. Explore more stories at My Virtual Library Empire

Lancelot twisted his wrist again, and the flail, previously tightly wound around Glacier, unfurled and flew into midair, hanging over a nearby statue of the Barlow Flame Demon.

"You've already lost," Lancelot shook his head at his opponent, "Give up, at least you can climb up later and retrieve your weapon."