Ch.282Chapter 282: Give It Back!! (2)

I stagger. Despite my preparations, Adorator’s body staggers as my unexpected strike lands squarely on her jaw.

Even with my limited hand-to-hand combat experience, I can tell it was a perfectly executed clean hit.

[Clean hit!]

Even Fafnir is cheering at the sight of Adorator stumbling after taking a hit from me.

Ignoring this, I wrap fighting energy around my left hand instead of my right that had already struck once, preparing for my next attack.

Whoosh-!

I extend my left arm straight toward the opposite side of Adorator’s jaw.

My fist flies in a clean, efficient arc and strikes Adorator’s jaw once more while she’s still disoriented and defenseless from the previous hit.

Before I can fully appreciate the satisfying weight of impact as my left hand connects with her jaw—

Crack-!!

A resounding impact echoes, accompanied by—

“Kuhak!!”

Adorator’s brief cry of pain rings out again as agony shoots through her jaw.

It was a signal that my surprise attack had been perfectly successful.

Both attacks in this momentary ambush landed cleanly on Adorator’s jaw, but—

“Kugh…!! You insolent fool!! Resorting to sneak attacks because you know you can’t win!!”

As if she hadn’t been staggering at all, Adorator instantly regains her composure and fiercely rebukes me, her eyes churning like a stormy sea, almost bloodred in their intensity.

It would be fair to say my surprise attack had failed, given that my opponent was staring at me perfectly fine after taking two of my best shots.

“Hmph.”

Paying no mind to Adorator’s ferocity, I let out a light snort before—

“Hey.”

I utter a single word with even more ferocity than her outburst, turning my right palm upward and—

“If you’re smart, put that down and get lost. I’ll let it end here.”

I wiggle my four fingers, excluding my thumb, telling her to put down the dragon sword and leave. This further provoked Adorator, who was already displeased about allowing me to land a hit.

In truth, striking her jaw during the surprise attack was all intentional.

I chose this approach knowing full well that a quasi-deity who could withstand cuts from holy swords wouldn’t be knocked unconscious by a few punches to the jaw, even with fighting energy infused into them.

Since subduing her and recovering the dragon sword by knocking her out wasn’t possible, I needed to overpower her through skill—this was my attempt to set up favorable conditions.

My taunt was a blatantly low-grade provocation, openly revealing my intention to reclaim the dragon sword still in her hand.

Whether she falls for it or not, it’s more than enough to disturb the composure of someone whose pride has already been wounded.

And as if playing right into my hands—

“You! Really!! Are so insolent!!”

Seeing Adorator respond perfectly to my provocation, I could feel the corners of my mouth rising involuntarily.

“Perhaps in that fortress, but here my strength has the advantage!!”

Even in her anger, Adorator’s voice, having calmly assessed the difference in our abilities, made my rising smile fade.

Whoosh-!!

The dragon sword, still in its scabbard, rushes toward me wielded by Adorator’s brute strength.

It was almost laughable to see her using a sword comparable to a holy weapon as a blunt instrument without even drawing it from its scabbard.

Yet the trajectory of that dragon sword, flying toward me with enough force to split my skull in two, would have paralyzed ordinary people with fear, preventing them from reacting properly.

Knowing this was actually a controlled strike from someone who recognized she shouldn’t kill me outright would make it even more terrifying.

“The price for striking my jaw not once but twice is steep!!”

As I carefully observed the trajectory, toward Adorator who was already celebrating her victory thinking I had given up—

“How simple.”

“What?!”

With that comment crushing her expectations, I simply twisted my right ankle slightly and dodged.

CRASH-!!

The dragon sword in its scabbard struck the obsidian floor where I had been standing, creating a thunderous noise.

Lowering my gaze slightly to focus on where the dragon sword had made contact, I could see that while not comparable to Imperfectio’s strike, it had created small cracks in the obsidian floor.

Seeing such marks easily made on obsidian that wouldn’t even scratch when I had desperately hacked, slashed, and struck it with demon swords before my regression, I couldn’t help but acknowledge Adorator’s monstrous strength.

“Whew- That was close.”

I expressed my genuine appreciation for the threatening nature of her strike without any mockery.

But rather than accepting this, my calm assessment seemed to irritate her further.

“Eeee…!!!”

Adorator let out a long hiss of extreme anger, her blood-red eyes churning more violently.

“Even if you are necessary for my lord’s great work, I can no longer tolerate this!!”

With this bold declaration that she would no longer control her strength against me—

CRASH-!!

Crimson fighting energy swirled around her body with the ferocity of a wild horse set loose on the plains.

I could even sense a faint trace of twisted divinity, something I hadn’t detected at all from her incomplete split spirit in Eastern Geumwol days ago.

Hmm. As the second-in-command of this obsidian palace finally decided to show her true ability, I tilted my head side to side, loosening up my body.

“Before I take you to my lord, I’ll have to teach you some manners!!”

As Adorator, now at full power, spoke with a rough tone that didn’t match her otherwise elegant appearance—

[Looks like she’s getting serious now.]

Just as Fafnir made this assessment—

Swoosh-!!

She rushed at me with movement so fast it made her previous actions seem motionless in comparison.

It was a simple trajectory, moving in a straight line toward her target without any technique.

But I knew well. I knew about the countless noble lives that had ended as bloody pulps, their bodies unrecoverable after carelessly encountering the path of this movement technique, which was meant to close the distance with an opponent.

It was also the ultimate weapon for pressuring prey while closing the gap.

Even as Adorator’s body became blurry with speed, I could see her eyes narrowing.

Most likely, it was the same expression she made when smiling with satisfaction, believing she had won with this movement.

With that expression, she was probably thinking about grabbing my collar after I took a direct hit from her body charge and tumbled across the obsidian floor.

But why would I? I’m not foolish enough to directly confront an opponent’s strength when there’s no reason to.

Though Adorator’s body still appeared blurry to me—

Her movements toward me seemed infinitely slow to my eyes.

Due to my body and mind strengthened through relentless training—

My senses were stimulated to the extreme, causing me to perceive time flowing extremely slowly.

Even in this slow-flowing time, Adorator’s movements were still quite fast, and I would have expressed formal admiration if circumstances allowed, but now wasn’t the time.

“Hup!”

With a light shout, I moved my body by twisting just my ankle, using the same technique I had used earlier to avoid her strike.

It was the optimal movement to avoid an opponent’s attack with minimal motion and enable a quick counterattack.

But there was one subtle difference from before:

This footwork wasn’t purely for evasion.

While moving my body to an area where Adorator’s body charge couldn’t reach, I extended just the tip of one foot to touch Adorator’s leg as she charged toward me.

To topple a body rushing forward focused only on speed and collision, what’s needed isn’t great strength but just the tip of my foot—something less significant than a pebble one might trip over while walking.

Thud-!

“…Urk?!”

Crash-!!

Just like that.

I turned my head casually toward the source of the sound.

“Ugh…uuugh…”

The same groans I had heard from the three horned demons who had fallen after taking a severe blow to the crown of their heads when they mentioned slacking off were now coming from her.

It was a far more efficient strike against Adorator than the two straight punches to her jaw had been.

And I hadn’t even used all my strength—

Just extending my foot at the right moment produced this result, which was quite satisfying.

But seeing that Adorator’s hand still firmly gripped the dragon sword, her subjugation wasn’t yet complete.

“So the self-proclaimed mistress of this palace can’t even see a simple foot trip and falls flat on her face. Is this your level?”

I delivered another cheap provocation, loud enough for her to hear clearly even in her fallen state.

“KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!”

As Adorator’s temper, which had been gradually building, erupted like an active volcano—

“I’ll kill… No, I’ll make you suffer so much you’ll beg for death!!!”

Having already risen to her feet, Adorator made a savage declaration that showed her rationality had evaporated by half compared to before.

It was somewhat tame compared to openly threatening to kill me in defiance of her lord’s orders, but—

[Isn’t that provocation a bit excessive for just trying to create an opening?]

Hearing Fafnir’s voice, concerned rather than his usual slyness—

‘No. It’s perfect.’

This was exactly the state of Adorator I needed to subdue her without complications.

To properly wound a quasi-deity with an invincible body that couldn’t be injured by holy swords or grand magic capable of tearing the sky and lifting the earth—

I needed Adorator in this state: blinded by rage, having lost her reason, and committing everything to attack with no thought of defense.

Before fighting, I turned my head to look at Imperfectio, just in case.

With arms crossed and saying nothing, Imperfectio seemed content to merely observe this fight.

Nod-

As soon as our eyes met, she simply nodded lightly, as if encouraging me to do as I pleased.

At least I wouldn’t have to worry about being backstabbed by her during this fight.

With a lightened heart, I stepped forward, closing the distance needed to engage Adorator in fierce combat.

Into the storm of fighting energy that Adorator was generating.