Chapter 72 - Practical Test [6]

My eyes locked onto the giant of man that we were fighting. His long, mane of white hair swaying in the wind as blood poured from his stomach and torso.

'I'm sorry. But I need to win first place. And, no one here can face you properly in a one on one. And, in the worst case scenario, you would team up with that darkness wielding freak. If it's the two of you, then no one would be able to content for first and second place.'

'The probability of winning this fight would be zero if I was alone.'

Conjuring two roots of the World Tree, I made them wrap Reinhardt's legs, immobilising him.

'Thankfully, that's not the case. Though, I feel a little pathetic for teaming up with a small battalion of Awakened to face someone my own age.'

Firing two arrows at Reinhardt, I saw a flash, before seeing the roots and arrows I had sent out cut into pieces on the floor. However, Reinhardt was nowhere to be seen.

Until I looked above me, that is.

I blinked, and saw that sword of his approaching my neck. However, his sword clashed with a dagger, a dagger belonging to one of my allies. I leapt to another tree, firing three arrows in quick succession, all of which were blocked by a wall of blood.

Placing my hand on the tree I was standing on, I created a set of arrows, forging them with the flesh of the World Tree itself. So long as I could touch a tree, the ground or even water, I could tap into the power of the World Tree.

Notching an arrow into my bow, which was also crafted from the World Tree, I enhanced it with Mana. Pouring as much Mana as I possibly could into it. The air around me felt heavy as an incredibly amount of Mana condesned itself into my arrow.

An Archer's greatest wish was to finish a fight in a single attack. This was because an Archer would realistically never win a close quarters encounter, and so, the moment their location was revealed there was nothing to stop a close combat fighter from getting to them.

However. An Archer can freely fire arrows of varying power when fighting in a group. So long as the other fighters buy the Archer time, firing powerful arrows in succession was possible so long as the Archer's Mana reserves were fine.

However, in this particular right, my goal wasn't to finish Reinhardt as an Archer might attempt to do so in other fights. My role here was to make sure he was constantly in a situation where he needed to use the sword. So long as he used a sword, he couldn't regenerate.

And so long as he couldn't heal, we could win.

Releasing my arrow, I watched as it flew towards Reinhardt, who was currently engaging in battle with the Spearman.

We hadn't exchanged names, so I only them as Spear and Dagger which was a bit corny if I was being totally honest. But I didn't matter.

The purpose of our alliance was to hunt this beast, names did not matter.

As Reinhardt's sword clashed with my team mate's steel, sparks flew everywhere. They were keeping him occupied as my arrow flew towards them. Reinhardt was facing the complete opposite direction to my arrow, he shouldn't have been able to see it. Even if he did know where it was coming from, there was no way he should've been able to dodge it.

Yet, there he was, dodging the attack. His body was bent in an impossible way, his spine should've been broken. No, it was definitely broken. He had shattered his own spine, and bent his body sideways, to avoid the attack.

"That attack just now, it was dangerous. And with my guts spilling out I don't think I can face you fairly."

He released his sword, and his body began to rearrange his bones and flesh as he healed himself.

"Starting now. I'm going to show you what it means to face a Knight."

***

Readying my spear, I took a step back. What did this monster mean? Was he playing around when he was fighting the rest of our forces?

'No. It has to be a bluff.'

Seeing Reinhardt pull his arm back, I prepared to block the attack and launch a counter attack. But when the attack came, I felt as though I was being crushed by pure physical power.

'When my spear and his sword clashed, it looked like he had some degree of skill. But what the hell was that punch. It was just pure strength without an ounce of technique.'

Feeling him land a blow on my liver with his knee, I coughed up blood, making it splurt out of my helmet and sending me stumbling back.

'Our strength wasn't supposed to be that far apart'

Using my spear to block another heavy blow, I grunted, and thrust my spear forward only for him to punch the tip of my spear. His arm was sliced open, cutting through flesh and bone alike yet he didn't stop. Instead, he took a step forward, and healed only his fist while the rest of his arm was a mangled mess.

All to land a blow on my armoured face.

The blow wasn't particularly powerful, but I understood what he meant by teaching us what it meant to face a Knight.

It meant that he would do anything to win. Even if that meant fighting in the most ridiculous ways possible.

'If he's going all out. I'll have to reciprocate.'