Ch.1250In a War of Attrition, the One With Better Stamina Wins.

# One minute.

“Kuk…! This is more dangerous than I thought…!”

I couldn’t even approach properly, forced to circle around him and focus solely on evasion.

I was noticeably slower than usual while the enemy maintained his speed, making it terribly difficult to get within sword range.

# Three minutes.

– KWAAANG!

Perhaps because I’d grown accustomed to the situation, I finally managed to slip inside the range of the great scythe and swing my sword at him, but unfortunately, I was blocked just before I could behead him.

“Space freezing…? This bastard, you could do that too…!”

What blocked Durandal was his right hand—specifically, his five fingernails that had grown a handspan in length and the bluish something enveloping those nails.

A semi-transparent mass of power that withstood the blade imbued with the power of severance, merely cracking on the surface rather than being cut through.

Both its manifestation and effect were remarkably similar to the space freezing that Persiella had demonstrated in the past.

The fact that he hadn’t used this ability until now probably meant… he could only use it in this world of extreme cold, or something like that.

– KWADDEUDDEUK!

“Tch…!”

This was quite a troublesome ability.

Space freezing doesn’t nullify slashes but rather blocks and endures them, so if I kept hammering away at it, I’d eventually break through, but…

‘I need the luxury… of time for that…!’

The very fact that I needed to engage in such a slugfest was a headache for me. It’s not like he was offering his hand saying “here, trim my nails.”

– JJEOJEOJEOJEOJEOK!

Moreover, space freezing could be used offensively as well as defensively, depending on how it was employed.

Like freezing the space in front of me to make me faceplant at full speed, or freezing the entire surrounding area to bind my feet.

“How petty…!”

Each time, I had to unleash slashes of severance to shatter them by force. If I didn’t, there would be no way to dodge the black scythe that followed.

There seemed to be a limit to the activation range, as he wouldn’t use space freezing when I moved beyond a certain distance, but distancing myself put me at a disadvantage, so that was meaningless.

And so, five minutes passed.

‘His abilities have strengthened, but his close combat skills seem to have deteriorated… is it because the main body’s consciousness has been cut off?’

I was starting to see openings to exploit.

The death scythe, the winter’s cold, and the power of space freezing were still threatening, but gaps were beginning to appear in how those powers were wielded.

Perhaps as the price for manifesting Death’s left arm, Erzsebet was now being dragged around like a corpse by her left arm, and up close, I could see her pupils were completely vacant, without even the slightest movement.

When I swung my sword, she would counter with her nails, but it seemed more like a mechanical response than a conscious one, and her movements were grotesque, like a puppet on strings.

It was as if the main body was already dead, and the separately manifested left arm was forcibly controlling the corpse.

Perhaps because of this, unlike with the scythe, when she swung her right fingernails, occasional openings would appear.

She was forcibly covering those gaps with transcendent power, speed, cold, and abilities, but such countermeasures have their limits.

– KAGAGAGAK!

“Kuk, this much is nothing…!”

If I was willing to accept minor injuries like small puncture wounds or frostbite, I could wedge myself into those gaps.

– KWADEUK!

If I was willing to accept greater damage—like the insane act of offering my shoulder to her nails—I could achieve even better results.

“I’ll take that neck!”

I grabbed her right arm that had pierced my shoulder with Frosting, firmly fixing it in place while swinging Durandal with my other arm.

Whether her ears were still working or not, she hastily froze the space around her neck and gripped the scythe short, raising its blade near her neck to block my sword.

A remarkably swift reaction.

And predictably obvious.

– KWAJIK!

A heavy, squelching sound of flesh being torn. The blade imbued with the power of severance broke through the ice dress and dragon scale armor, cutting through flesh and bone.

Not at her neck, which was thoroughly protected, but at her right shoulder, which was extended and fixed in place, unable to move.

“You believe your enemy’s words? What an idiot.”

I cut off her right arm and immediately kicked her side to create distance, grinning.

I pulled her right arm from my shoulder and threw it away toward the swinging scythe.

– PASSSSS!

And so her right arm disintegrated. Her side, which I had kicked, was half-shattered as well.

‘So she really has lost her regenerative ability? Good.’

Erzsebet had instantly become severely disabled. The right arm cut by Durandal was gone, of course, but the damage to her side showed no signs of recovery either.

The fact that she couldn’t heal a wound from a mere kick meant she had lost her vampiric regeneration.

Thinking about it, it made sense.

A vampire’s regeneration is based on the blood and life they’ve stolen. Having consumed all her blood to summon Death’s left arm, she had no choice but to lose her regeneration.

– SSWAEEEEEK!

Well, judging by how lively she still was, having her side shattered didn’t seem to hinder her combat ability much…

‘…She defended her neck. Does that mean if she loses her head, the left arm dies with it?’

When I shouted that I would take her neck, she clearly defended the head of her main body thoroughly. As if that absolutely must not be cut.

In other words, the head is still her weakness. If she could move fine even with her neck severed, she would have taken the hit and counterattacked instead of defending.

‘With her right arm cut off, she’s weaker in close combat. If I aim for her head now…!’

I can kill her. Probably.

At least, that was my judgment.

– HWAAAAK!

“Kehe, you’re much more violent than before. Afraid you might actually die now!”

The fact that her attacks had become rougher and more intense since losing her right arm further supported my theory.

—-

Anyway, after fighting for a few more minutes.

‘This is dangerous. I’m starting to… run out of breath…!’

As the extreme breathless battle where I countered the cold with flames approached its limit on both fronts—flames and breath—

– PAJIK.

With a small bursting sound that seemed to echo softly from the distant sky, the deep blue sun fixed in the void cracked like breaking glass.

And in the next moment, starting from that sun, everything from the sky to the edge of the earth shattered and collapsed into pieces.

And once again, the familiar stench of the battlefield brushed against my nose.

“HUAAAA…!”

I finally took a deep breath, filling my cooled lungs with air as rich in oxygen as it was in stench.

Looking up at the sky, I was greeted by the now-familiar ceiling of Naraka, and beneath my feet remained only piles of stones from the completely destroyed fortress.

About ten minutes had passed?

From the situation, it seemed Caljarat, Turangkai, Jahan, and Nigel had fought well in my absence.

They hadn’t completely annihilated the vampire bastards yet, but the battle appeared to be in its final stages.

All that remained was for me to take down this monster woman…

“Haa, haa… won’t you just die already?”

Honestly, I hadn’t expected this fight to last nearly twenty minutes, combining the time before and after she brought out her left arm.

Of course, the end was finally in sight.

“Your right arm’s gone, your waist is shattered, and both legs have been cut off. You should be dead by now. You’re disgustingly tenacious.”

During our ten-minute struggle in the frozen world, we had inflicted considerable injuries on each other.

Most of Erzsebet’s body had been cut and shattered, with only her head and part of her upper body remaining, her severed spine dangling below like a tail.

Even Death’s left arm seemed to have consumed much of its power, as the black tattoos that had covered the entire forearm had completely disappeared.

Anyone could see she was on the verge of death—or rather, it was strange that she was still moving at all.

However, I wasn’t in great shape either.

My left shoulder had been pierced through, two fingers on my right hand had frozen and fallen off, and one eye had completely lost vision.

On top of that, my left leg had been caught in a snowstorm she had cast, stripping away much of the skin and muscle.

Of course, these were minor injuries compared to Erzsebet’s, but I’d still sustained more damage than expected.

Honestly, I hadn’t expected to get hurt this badly. While Erzsebet herself was quite strong, she was clearly weaker than me.

She just happened to possess an unimaginable variable—Death’s left arm.

But that variable would no longer be a threat. I had roughly figured out how to defeat it.

“Caljarat! Attack over here when you can! From multiple directions if possible!”

I circled rapidly outside the range of the black scythe and called out loudly to Caljarat, who was busy slaughtering below.

“Pathetic as it may be, I doubt my attacks will work against that thing…”

“Just do it! This bastard tries to block everything anyway!”

I ignored his answer that it wouldn’t work and shouted the order again.

As Caljarat said, his attacks would hardly be enough to defeat Erzsebet, let alone wound her, but that wasn’t what I wanted right now.

“Tch…!”

Caljarat frowned as if he couldn’t understand, but eventually he leapt up from the ground and wildly swung his light greatsword that had extended like a whip.

– CHWARALARAK!

Four streams of light whips tore through the air in a frenzy.

Almost simultaneously, I activated the flame seal, creating several flame spears in the air and shooting them toward Erzsebet.

– KWAOOOO!

– SSWAEEEK!

Flame spears and light whips flew from all directions, surrounding her. The death scythe slashed through the air like a storm, intercepting and nullifying each attack.

“As expected…!”

To nullify our attacks, she needed to block them with the blade of that scythe.

If we unleashed numerous attacks from multiple directions simultaneously, she would be extremely busy. She only had one arm, and ultimately only one scythe.

In other words…

“Will you block me, or those attacks? Think hard until your head bursts! Which will hurt less!”

Just by increasing the directions and number of attacks beyond what she could handle, her absolute defense would immediately reveal its limits.

Flame spears, Caljarat’s greatsword, Durandal’s slashes.

Early in the battle, when she was at full strength, she might have been able to deflect them all, but now she was considerably weakened and would have to take at least one hit, and having lost her regeneration, any hit would definitely damage her.

And so, several more minutes passed.

– SEOGEK!

“Kheok…!”

Caljarat, unable to completely dodge, had his arm slashed by the scythe and was blown away by the aftershock, crashing into the ground.

– SSWAEEEK!

“KYAAAAAT!”

I swung Durandal as if to parry the scythe flying toward me next, but just before contact, I threw it into the air, letting the scythe pass through the gap.

– HUUUUNG…!

Ducking my upper body and charging forward to get right in front of her—

“Got you.”

I grabbed her head and left arm with both hands.

And in the next moment, I crushed her skull with my grip and ripped out her left arm.

– PEODEUDDEUK!

Crushed brain and burst eyeballs spurted between my fingers, and the left arm, torn out at the shoulder, convulsed like a dying insect before going limp.

It was the moment when both the Empress of Blood Erzsebet and Death’s left arm met their end.