Arkhan vs Melusine (II)

On the ground, Ritsuka and Mash watched as Arkhan was besieged from all directions, their faces filled with visible concern.

"Just a moment ago there was only one, how did so many suddenly appear? Is that her Noble Phantasm?" Ritsuka remarked, her expression grave.

"Unfortunately, no..."

Romani responded as he watched the screen filled with almost flickering red dots, his expression turning somewhat bitter.

"If I'm not mistaken, those should be afterimages left behind by her high-speed movement, meant to confuse her opponents."

Ritsuka's breath caught, her eyes widening like copper bells.

"Doctor, you're not kidding, are you? How could someone be that fast with body movement alone?"

"I wish I were..." Romani replied, lowering his head.

Ritsuka and Mash exchanged a glance, both clearly showing their astonishment.

They couldn't imagine what kind of speed could achieve such an effect. If that were true, then the girl's body was too terrifying.

But what was even more frustrating for Ritsuka and Mash was that they couldn't offer any help to Arkhan in this situation. Not to mention whether they could even reach the sky, based on the speed displayed by the girl, they probably couldn't even touch a single hair on her head.

It was just too frightening.

They never expected that Camelot would have such a powerful figure aside from the Lion King.

Ritsuka, who was initially confident in Arkhan, now couldn't help but feel uneasy.

She couldn't bear to imagine what would happen if even he were defeated, how would they challenge the Lion King?

"Please don't give up hope, Senpai!" Mash looked at her senior earnestly. "Mr. Arkhan is a Grand Servant, I believe he can definitely defeat her!"

"...You're right, Mash."

Ritsuka shook her head, throwing away all the scattered thoughts, and her face quickly regained its determination.

"Arkhan is a Grand Servant and won't lose! I believe in him!"

*Clang!* *Cling!* *Clang!* *Cling!*

The sound of relentless metal clashing echoed like never-ending waves, one after another crashing toward Arkhan as if it would never cease.

Every second, he faced dozens of attacks from all directions.

At first, Arkhan tried to identify the real Melusine, but soon he realized it was futile. After all, these dozen figures of her weren't illusions; they were residual afterimages left behind by her fast movements.

In a way, each afterimage was herself.

Every attack he endured landed directly on him.

Almost every few seconds, Arkhan had to change his armor as Melusine's attacks were too dense, even with his skills, he couldn't fully defend himself. Due to her speed advantage, she always managed to evade his attacks, leaving him no chance to retaliate.

Apart from Scathach, it was the first time Arkhan had been rendered helpless in such close combat. It wasn't that he lacked ability, but simply that his speed couldn't match Melusine's.

He couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness.

This kind of battle was the most frustrating for him. She could freely attack him, while he couldn't even touch her shadow.

But he knew this relentless attack was a huge drain on both physical and magical energy. She couldn't keep it up forever, and there would come a time when she couldn't keep going.

However, he wasn't the type to passively take a beating.

Arkhan flipped his palm, a small red sphere appeared in his hand.

"Star of Eden - Maximum Output!"

A visible radiance spread out from the Star of Eden at its center, instantly covering a radius of ten meters, enveloping all afterimages of Melusine.

All of them froze for a moment, and soon, their forms gradually turned ethereal, like ink paintings submerged in water, quickly disappearing without a trace.

In just a few breaths of time, her afterimages vanished, leaving only one Melusine.

Undoubtedly, this was the real Melusine.

"What did you do..."

Feeling the terrifying power pressing down on her body, making her unable to move, Melusine spoke with clenched teeth, staring at Arkhan with wide eyes.

"Nothing much, I just applied a thousand times gravity on you, so you can't run around anymore." Arkhan replied, smiling faintly.

Since her advantage lay in speed, all he needed to do was neutralize that advantage, since the gravity control of Star of Eden was precisely the bane of speed-based opponents.

No matter how fast they were, with the gravity suddenly increasing thousands of times, they would be firmly pinned in place, unable to move.

"Since you've slashed me so many times earlier, you won't mind if I stab you with just one spear thrust, will you?"

Watching Melusine's face full of unwillingness, Arkhan's eyes remained indifferent as he mercilessly aimed Black Abyss's spear tip at her head.

"Goodbye."

===

Camelot.

"Ugh..."

Tristan slowly woke up from her slumber, propping herself up on her elbows, rubbing her slightly swollen brow with confusion in her eyes.

She felt like she had been through an incredibly long dream.

In that dream, she was on a mission but encountered a terrifying black-haired man.

That man was so powerful that she felt hopeless as if facing the Lion King. No matter what she did, she couldn't harm him in the slightest.

In the end, she was forced to meet her end with him, but at the last moment, the preceptor saved her.

"Feeling better now?"

A calm voice suddenly echoed beside Tristan's ears, startling her.

Subconsciously, Tristan created a few black bone spurs behind her back, but she quickly realized and stopped herself from any further action.

"Looks like your emotions aren't quite stable yet..."

Merlin remarked with a calm and indifferent expression as she sat on the edge of the bed, completely ignoring Tristan's black bone spurs.

"Preceptor Merlin..." Tristan's face briefly showed confusion and subconsciously looked around and found herself in her own room.

"Getting all worked up right after waking up... Seems like that outsider left quite a deep trauma on you, huh..." Merlin said lightly.

At the mention of the 'outsider', Tristan's body shuddered all over, memories flooding her mind, fear vivid in her eyes. She quickly lowered her head, finding no trace of injury on her body.

All those dreadful wounds from before had disappeared without a trace.

"No need to look, I've already healed all your wounds." Merlin said calmly. "You were severely injured this time. It took the blood of five people to finally heal you."

"Thank you, Preceptor!" Tristan breathed a sigh of relief, feeling grateful. 

"Don't rush to thank me; this all comes at a price." Merlin continued. "The blood of five people requires ten chosen ones as compensation. Do you have any objections?"

'Ten chosen ones...' Tristan's face showed a hint of difficulty.

Chosen ones were hard enough to find, especially now when everyone was avoiding them. The difficulty of successfully collecting ten was no small matter.

Tristan was about to negotiate, but when she lifted her head and met those calm, serene violet eyes, her body quickly trembled slightly, and without delay, she lowered her head with respect.

"I understand..."

Hearing Tristan's answer, Merlin just nodded silently, preparing to leave.

As Tristan watched Merlin's retreating figure, her gaze flickered slightly, repeatedly opening her mouth as if she wanted to say something but only to close it again.

In the next moment, Tristan gritted her teeth and called out.

"Wait, Preceptor!"

Merlin stopped in her tracks, turning around.

"Is there something else?"

Tristan swallowed hard before mustering up the courage to ask.

"I wanted to ask... about that... outsider, how is he now?"