Chapter 987: Just For A Moment

On top of it all, Liliazin was also keeping his distances as well as always making sure to put obstacles in between himself and the skeletal warrior, on several occasions, Ourlon made use of battle arts to launch slashes flying through the air, but although a few attacks managed to graze the herald, he would just heal himself immediately, even going as far as to tear out a chunk of flesh decisively when Ourlon attempted to use a toxic slash.

The sheer speed Liliazin was demonstrating was impressive, this made Ourlon wish that he could just go wild to force the herald to also go all-out and show the true limits of sun worship, as this most definitely wasn’t the best that could be achieved, the herald was still trying to conserve energy here, he was merely going as fast as he needed to be, knowing that he simply needed to hold out for a few hours to win this confrontation.

And indeed, the herald’s sense for danger was refined, as he seemed particularly wary of Ourlon’s pale katana, curved, pale blade with its chipped edge might look like a piece of junk at a glance as it seemed doubtful that a weapon with such a jagged edge could be much of a threat, it looked like it had been torn down by the strikes of other weapons.

But the pale alloy making it up not only looked strange, but in Ourlon’s hand, the katana was indeed a most deadly weapon, being the minor lord’s trusty blade since the moment he had become an undead, the unique battle art that could be considered his magnum opus was directly linked to the usage of that particular blade.

And indeed, Ourlon would just need to land a single strike using its edge to slay Liliazin, or at least, he would have very high chances of doing so even if the strike was a mere paper cut, the herald could not know the specifics, but his instincts screamed for him to keep as much distance from the skeleton as was possible.

Bolting out of the way whenever, Ourlon used a battle art to launch himself forward, carving through projectiles of emerald light and trees alike in an attempt to get to the herald, but indeed, catching or striking someone who was fully intent on just running around and do nothing else was rather difficult, usually, the enemy would have no choice but to fight back if they couldn’t just completely leave their opponent in the dust, but since there was a time limit here, it was a perfectly viable strategy.

‘Let’s try something else…’ retrieving what looked like a completely black plum-like fruit from one of his pockets, Ourlon crushed it in between his teeth, causing a dark sludge to spew forth and onto his sword, the fruit seemed to dissipate immediately after as the minor lord ran his blade against one finger, causing a spark to manifest, igniting the sword with an utterly black flame.

This was not Loimosfire however… As Ourlon got into a stance, his attacks launched fiery slashes of this dark fire forth, which caused the herald to scowl as he saw and felt light bend around it, being pulled into it to be consumed.

The skeleton had just coated his blade with flames hailing from King Nitok’s sun of darkness, and it proved to very efficient even against emerald light, as Liliazin picked up the pace, knowing very well that his opponent’s intent was not merely to hit with those attacks, but to trap him, the flames would eventually end their courses and stick to whatever it was that they landed upon, Ourlon was clearly attempting to block off areas from the herald this way, so Liliazin swiftly willed himself to appear on the opposite side, using his link the sunlight before the light-swallowing flames could potentially sever that connection with their presence.

Somehow however, the instant he appeared, the undead was already rushing at him, as though he had known in advance the exact place he would choose to appear at, which made no sense, there were areas illuminated by sunlight everywhere, but Ourlon had definitely started moving before Liliazin had even begun to use this trick.

The flames sticking to Ourlon’s blade dissipated as he approached, his sword lashing out into a single, magnificently precise strike.

Liliazin hastily manifested several light spells, whilst attempting to move out of the way, but his ear was still cleanly chopped off, and the instant that occurred, the herald’s eyes turned glassy, and his heart stopped beating- Only for the quarter of a second that is, but Ourlon had already followed-up with another strike, thrusting his blade straight for the living’s heart, but as his weapon neared the chest, no blood was drawn, and no flesh was torn open, Ourlon watched as his target was suddenly flung back, a burst of emerald light crashing into the undead at the same time.

Just after that, Liliazin suddenly returned to his senses, eyes lively once more, and heart resuming beating like nothing happened.

‘Did he cast that in advance, or was that an automatic protection of some sorts? Why would either of those still function when he was functionally dead? They should have dispelled unless he was expected to be knocked out or something similar…’ Ourlon wasn’t quite certain how that had occurred, but Liliazin had survived being slashed by his pale blade.

The minor lord’s best battle art when facing off against livings was one he liked to call ‘Pseudo-Death Blade’, its conditions were a bit steep even if simple, but the effect was incredible.

It basically caused the target to momentarily die, which generally left them wide open for another strike, if one was strong of will and was able to pull themselves out of it and managed to put up a fight, the more they were slashed by it, the longer their pseudo death would be, and past a certain point, their heart would simply not start beating again.

And if Ourlon managed to stab or otherwise get his sword to stay stuck inside of his adversary’s body, the effect of the battle art would simply not dissipate at all unless the target was powerful enough to combat it.

Liliazin put his hand up to where his ear had been moments ago, channelling some light to mend the wound and stop it from bleeding, his pupils and irises turned into triangles as his expression turned ugly, he had just had an out-of-body experience.

It was a good thing that he was an Emerald Herald, a Divine Dancing Priestess might have been killed right there and then.

The special connection between light and spirit life had saved him just now…