Then, another drop splashed onto his forehead. He knit his brows together and looked up.
...
High above, the sandstorm seemed to part around a terrifying sight. Countless shards of deep-blue ice hovered in the sky, each one a jagged triangle with its sharpest point aimed directly at him. Each shard can reach up to nine inches. Floating at the center of the frozen arsenal was Lucian, his hands raised and his palms open, ready to fire.
March stood frozen, flustered by the sudden ambush. Above him, Lucian was smirking—the look of a man who knew the battle was about to end.
His eyes clicked. "You really wait for me to descend and to cancel the spell." He made a giggle but not from joy, but from horror.
…
In a completely different part of the space, General Roland hovered through the sky, riding the thick, heavy currents of the wind. He looked down toward the jagged earth below, a mocking smile spreading across his face as he spotted his target.
"Look at you down there, Everett!" he laughed, his voice booming over the gale. "You look so small!"
Everett's left eye flinched. "Was that supposed to be a compliment? Anyway, where were we?"
The General gave a booming laugh as he adjusted the brooch on his chest. "We're inside an Artifact that you thought of as a 'living labyrinth.' Which was a great guess, by the way. However, this is a 'living artifact' that requires a sacrifice to fulfill the requirements to leave this place."
Looking down, he smiled at Everett. "In short, we're inside a sub-space created by the Artifact itself."
Everett's face turned serious. He asked in his deep voice, "So to leave this sub-space, one of us has to be dead. Am I right?"
The General clicked his tongue, his tone boastful. "You got it! Actually, we're four stuck in this sub-space. You know who the others are." He gave a sigh of disappointment. "Actually, I was rooting for that young man. I felt a deep connection within him, but… sigh…"
Suddenly, he looked at Everett with a serious face. "Tell me. What's your relationship with him? What do you know about him?"
"Sorry, but I'm not the one who will disclose the information of my colleague without a proper reason," Everett said. He smiled and added in a mocking tone, "To tell you the truth, I don't even know him—"
"SWOOSH!""CRUUUMP!"
A violent gust of thick wind shrieked past him, slamming into the rock. Everett didn't dodge; he didn't even flinch as another crater was carved into the ravine wall.
"I know you're lying. Tell me, or you'll regret it," the General said aggressively.
Everett smirked. "If you really want it that badly… you can try. But you have to get through me first." He gripped his greatsword and sprinted forward. At the same time, the thick winds started to fall, targeting him.
"Cruump… Cruump… Cruump… Cruump!"
One by one, the winds tried to reach and wound him, but they couldn't. The General flew above, following Everett's path through the endless ravine. Everett kept dodging, jumping, and changing his steps from left to right, all while carefully and secretly observing the General.
This continued for a long time, but neither of them showed signs of tiring. Everett had observed long enough.
Does he have a large mana reserve? Everett thought. He's been flying for too long… no, that can't be. A conjurer has only a small mana reserve, mostly used for their swords. Don't tell me this is the Blessing of the Winds. A natural trait passed down through his family. Yes, that's possible. Additionally, since he uses that spell all the time, I haven't seen him use another. Then…
Everett's expression grew more energetic. Then… It's my turn to counterattack.
While sprinting, he noticed a large boulder ahead. It looked small from a distance, but it kept getting bigger as he approached. I can use this to jump high. The General noticed the rock but didn't mind it, focusing entirely on targeting Everett.
As they reached the boulder, Everett ran up the top and jumped. He raised his greatsword and pierced it into the side wall of the ravine, anchoring himself. He began to swing, slowly at first, then faster and faster. By the time he swung past sixty degrees, he ripped the greatsword out of the wall and flew toward the General like a projectile.
The General quickly tried to stop mid-air, halting the flying air around him. However, there was a slight delay because of his speed; he couldn't kill his momentum instantly.
In just a second he finally stopped, but he didn't notice Everett at all until it was too late. He turned and saw Everett flying toward him, hands raised high, gripping his greatsword flat to minimize air resistance.
CLANK!!!
The heavy sound of metal on metal echoed through the Artifact's sub-space.
…
"CLANK!!~"
A thin normal sword struck it. Everett saw the general holding his sword. A normal size sword, it is colored silver and with a golden handle, with the pale green colored swirling lines as the emblem of the sigil. Below Everett, the general was smirking. He said in a mocking tone. "You didn't forget that I also used a sword, right?"
Everett gritted his teeth, the muscles in his arms bulging as he tried to force his heavy blade down. He used his "Titan's Pressure" skill, putting every ounce of his weight into a crushing downward shove. But the General didn't break. Instead, the pale green lines on his sword began to glow with a bright, emerald light.
"The sky belongs to me, boy!" the General roared.
He unleashed his magic: "Gale Burst." A violent explosion of wind erupted from the point where their swords met. The force was like being hit by a speeding carriage. Everett was blasted backward, his heavy boots leaving deep gouges in the air before he was completely thrown off the edge of the floating platform.
Everett plummeted. The wind whistled in his ears as he fell toward the lower levels of the fortress.
CRASH!!
He slammed into the stone floor of the main courtyard with enough force to penetrate the thick masonry. A massive cloud of dust erupted, and stone fragments flew everywhere. For a moment, there was silence. Then, a heavy hand gripped the edge of the crater. Everett pulled himself up, standing tall in the center of the wreckage. His armor was scuffed, but he was unscated—his physical endurance was far beyond a normal human's.
The General descended from the sky like a hawk, his cape billowing. He didn't wait for Everett to breathe. He dove forward, his silver blade blurring in a skill called "Emerald Sting."
Everett swung his greatsword in a wide arc—his "Iron Sweep"—to catch the General mid-air. But the General was too fast. Using "Air Step," he literally kicked the air to jump higher, soaring over Everett's head and landing a quick slash across Everett's shoulder.
"Too slow!" the General mocked, spinning into a "Cyclone Waltz." He became a whirlwind of steel, striking Everett from four different directions in three seconds.
Everett was forced into a defensive stance. He used "Fortress Guard," holding the flat of his massive blade like a shield. Each of the General's strikes rang out like a hammer on an anvil. The wind magic made the General's sword feel five times heavier than it actually was.
Everett realized he was at a disadvantage. The howling winds in the courtyard were giving the General a constant speed boost. Everett needed to change the rhythm.
As the General lunged for a strike at Everett's throat, Everett didn't dodge. He moved forward. He used a skill called "Brute Impact," throwing his shoulder into the General's chest while taking a shallow cut to his arm.
The General gasped as the physical "thud" of Everett's armored shoulder hit him. For a split second, the wind stabilized.
"My turn," Everett growled.
Everett swung his sword upward in a "Sky-Splitter" move. The weight of the greatsword created a vacuum that pulled the General in. The General barely managed to parry, his silver sword vibrating so hard it nearly flew out of his hand.
The two traded blows for several intense minutes. The General used "Zephyr Mirage," using the winds creating afterimages of himself to confuse Everett, while Everett countered by slamming his sword into the ground—a skill called "Earthquake Pulse"—to send shockwaves through the floor, forcing the General to stay grounded.
The General was getting frustrated. He raised his sword high, summoning his ultimate wind magic: "Wind Blessing! Storm King's Judgment." A massive tornado began to form around his blade, pulling in loose rocks and debris. He swung it down, sending a vertical wave of cutting wind toward Everett.
Everett didn't run. He took a deep breath, gripped his sword with both hands, and activated "Vanguard's Will." A faint golden aura flickered around him. He swung his sword in a massive overhead strike, meeting the tornado head-on.
The collision was deafening. The wind tried to shred Everett's skin, but he pushed through the pain. With a final, guttural scream, Everett's physical strength shattered the cyclone.
The General was wide open, his mana temporarily exhausted.
Everett lunged. He performed his finishing combo: "Triple Crown Cleave." First, a horizontal slash that forced the General to jump. Second, a mid-air pommel strike that sent the General crashing to the ground. Third, Everett jumped high and brought his blade down with the force of a falling star.
CRACK!!
The General's silver sword snapped in half under the weight. The golden handle clattered away. The General lay in the center of the shattered floor, defeated and breathless, as Everett stood over him, the tip of his unbroken greatsword hovering just inches from the General's chest.