Chapter 76 - Practical Test - [10]

A blinding, silver light enraptured the land as the Holy Grail, the artitact gifted to me by the planet itself. It was capable of wielding the strength of a certain few heroes of the past. However, that wasn't all it could do.

It was capable of interfering with fate itself. At the end of my first life, I used it to avoid the erasure of my memories as time was rewound. The world's will could turn back time, but that didn't mean it could select who's memories to preserve. And so, this fate defying Artifact was how I preserved my sanity and memories.

The mode I was currently using was 'Lancelot.' The Knight of the Lake. He was one of the strongest Knight's of the Round, and a man blessed and loved by the Lady of the Lake.

Once I landed on the ground, I stood up, dusting the silver, medieval, plated armour that covered my body, leaving only face visible.

Locking eyes with Reinhardt, I ran. In this form, I could gain access to the Holy Sword, Arondight. However, the condition needed to satisfy it's use was to make contact with a naturally occurring body of water. Thankfully, on my way, here I saw one.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have dared using this form. Although this form provides me with additional strength, and other physical stats it wouldn't be enough to let me keep up with Reinhardt.

Not without a lake nearby, that is.

As we approached the lake, I leapt into the air, and tapped the surface of the water, and uttered a single phrase.

"Blessing of the Lake."

Then, the water around made a small vortex as a sword slowly rose from it, and slowly, tendrils of water slowly rose and made contact with my armour and face, slowly healing the shallower wounds without depleting a single droplet of Mana.

I grabbed the brilliant sword, on its blade were runes inscribed in a language I did not know, yet I understood. They read the following words.

'Knight Of the Lake.'

The Blessing of the Lake allowed me to walk on water, have a minor regeneration, and not only that.

I took a step forward, covering an immense distance in a single step, shocking even the barely conscious Reinhardt with my speed. Though, he was faster, allowing him to drive his fist into my armour.

And so, I decided to simply endure the blow, before tightly gripping Arondight. Slowly, water leaked from the sword, before compressing and circulating around the blade's edge.

The sharpest thing on the planet was water, when compressed and moved at high speeds.

Using water to create the world's sharpest blade was an aspiration of Water Mages, but it was nearly impossible due to the need to intricate control of Mana required to make sure the water constantly orbited the same space, relative to your weapon. On top of that, the insane output required for it was another wall, though that wasn't normally the issue as one could fire water bullets of similar sharpness. It was really the control that made it a near impossible feat. However, using the Blessing of the Lake, I could more or less automate the process and not need to worry about controlling it myself.

Wiping a bead of sweat of my forehead, I sighed in relief. The Blessing of the Lake prevented the body of water granting the Blessing from dissapearing until the effects of the Blessing were over.

And so, I sliced at Reinhardt's arm off, managing to get right through that flesh and those extremely durable bones. However, he regenated almost immediately, even so, I didn't relent. I cut and cut, attempting to slice every part of his body.

Unfortunately, he wasn't making it easy. His flames naturally repelled anything that came too close, occasionally altering the trajectory of my attacks and making me use more strength than I wanted to, in an attempt to keep my blade on course.

'But that's not how you do it.'

And so, I sliced both of his arms, aiming for the parts of his body that weren't as adequately covered by the flames as if using a warm knife on butter.

In that instant that he had no arms, and was defenseless, I sliced both of his legs, once more aiming for the parts of his body that weren't properly covered by those flames of his, all before horizontally bisecting his torso.

"Good. But you can do better. Get up. I'm going to turn you into a real beast by the end of our fight."

I said, shoving my sword into mouth, slicing the inside of his cheeks as my sword came out of the other end. His regeneration meant I could play rough, and come at him with the intent to kill.

'Come on. Adapt, get stronger.'