南瓜影院

"Go! Get away from here!"

The robed man\'s eyes were widened. He had just seen his life flash before his eyes and the fact that he had only barely gotten spared shocked him so much that his reaction was delayed. But then his brain became active again.

The pain from the gash the Undead Knight had cut across his chest began to ache again and, wincing at it, he nodded to Eloise while gritting his teeth as he crawled away.

The Undead Knight\'s hollow glowing eyes flashed as it saw its kill getting away. With a massive surge of sickly deathly mana, it pushed Eloise away to take a single large step toward the escaping robed man and bring its sword down to complete the kill.

The forceful push knocked Eloise back and she was forced to raise a leg off the ground which destabilized her stance but she narrowed her eyes still and with a quick spellcast, she took one hand off her sword handle and pointed it at the little space still between the Undead Knight and its target.

A magic circle appeared in front of Eloise\'s outstretched hand and out of it, a beam fired powerfully to strike against the Knight\'s sword just as it came an inch from making contact with its target.

*Whum!*

The beam struck with just enough force to change the trajectory of the sword strike so that it cut a gash into the ground an inch away from the robed man instead of through his neck.

Eloise regained her balance, clenched her outstretched hand into a fist, and recast her magical beam to strike it against the Undead Knight in hopes of knocking it even more steps away from its would-be victim.

"Rarr!!!"

It sounded close to a roar but more like a guttural grunt and it rose from the Undead Knight\'s decaying/skeletal neck as it was struck with the beam.

It moved about a step to the side in the direction the beam pushed it toward but held its ground, resisting the beam until it swung its sword through it. The sword was coated with the Knight\'s sickly deathly undead Mana but served as good enough of a counter against the beam. Shattering its continuous force and causing the spell circle to fizzle out from in front of Eloise\'s fist.

Eloise didn\'t care. By the time the beam was completely gone, she had taken a powerful leap upward and came down with a powerful cleave of her sword from above.

Despite its decaying face covered by the black Helmet it had on, it appeared the Undead Knight was still capable of showing off emotion. It looked at Eloise with surprise which only got more noticeable when Eloise\'s mana surged and her sword became coated with an energy blade that oozed an aura of serenity.

Rather than raise its weapon to intercept Eloise\'s strike, the Undead Knight leaped back and her attack struck the ground instead, cutting a long gash on the ground and erupting quite a bit of dust from the sheer force.

Eloise frowned but she was already lifting her sword off the ground and hefting it to go after the Undead Knight who was barely two feet away from her.

And then she heard a laugh.

"Hahaha. A Knightly oath, Magic, and even a connection to Divinity… Impressive."

Eloise wasn\'t even sure why she paused her planned attack. There was something about the voice that just gripped her attention. Like the words of a learned senior seeking to teach.

The fact that the voice was coming from the Undead Knight was the least important thing and the least surprising.

"Tell me, Child, why did you abandon your natural path?" The Undead Knight asked in a voice that was undoubtedly feminine.

"Natural path?" Eloise asked with a frown as she sought to return to the stance she had straightened out of, "I don\'t know what you\'re talking about."

The Undead Knight chortled,

"What were you supposed to be?" It asked, "A Witch? A Mage? A Warlock?"

Eloise\'s eyes clouded and her lips parted like she was about to speak and then suddenly, she was gone from the spot she had been standing in.

She propelled herself forward with her agility pushed to the absolute limit and with every bit of a boost she could get with her Strength and ended her move with a spin that increased the momentum of her planned strike.

*CLANG!*

The sound of a sword blade hitting a sword blade rang around them and it was followed by a slight shockwave just based on their contact.

The Undead Knight who had lifted its sword off the ground just in time to intercept Eloise\'s attack let out a laugh,

"Fine!" it said, "Don\'t tell me. Rar!"

Ending its words with a roaring yell, it struck at Eloise with its Mana surge but she unleashed hers in return and the resulting stalemate caused the Undead Knight\'s expression to go from mocking to surprise once again.

And then it grinned. It was a horrible grin made worse by the decaying flesh around the blackened teeth,

"Of course. Greater Mana reserves because you\'re a natural-born caster. But having more to waste doesn\'t make you better."

It was true.

Mana Surge scales off of Martial ability and the primary deciding factor for this is Physical stats. Or \'physical might\' for those who did not have access to observing Stat screens as Henry did.

Anyway, although Eloise had more Mana reserves than even the Undead Knight she was facing off against and could keep up her Mana surge for even longer, she could not quite overpower the enemy because hers was the weaker surge.

Eloise\'s sword blazed with the energy blade she had access to through her connection with her Divine Patron but even then, she remained on the losing end.

"Pitiful…" the Undead Knight said and it did sound genuine about its pity.

"Shut Up!" Eloise said with her face screwed up in focus.

The Undead Knight chortled,

"Struck a nerve, did I?" It asked, "Well, how about I show you how a Knight fights? A Knight with just their oath and nothing more…"

From the Undead Knight\'s body exploded a sense of conviction so powerful, that Eloise\'s entire body —all of her senses—, was getting permeated with it.

She knew what this was. It was Oath-Channeling that even she was capable. It was a Skill a Knight could use to empower themselves with the convictions of the oaths they had sworn during their induction.

The Undead Knight already had the upper hand in the current clash of weapons and with Oath-Channeling to take it further, Eloise was itching toward the end of her rope and she certainly looked like it.

Even if she included her Oath-Channeling in turn, she couldn\'t win a contest of strength. Not directly, at least.

And then, as the Undead Knight\'s decaying face gained a gloating expression, Eloise said silently,

"… Nyet."

Instantly, a Magic circle was completed underneath the Undead Knight. It had a stifling energy that reached deep into its decaying Armor-clad body and shut off all major functions. It stopped the Undead\'s Mana surge and even Oath-channeling in place.

Eloise\'s surge continued and she finally disarmed her opponent and sent the sword clattering to the ground.

"What—?" The Undead Knight said in shock trying to resist the magic of the circle.

Eloise drew her sword back, still coated with the divine energy blade of serenity.

"Trickery and Distractions. Learned those along with this spell from my Father," she said and then clicked her tongue,

"Tsk! And now you have me thinking of him… Fuck You!"

Eloise stabbed and her sword cut through the enemy\'s Armor-clad decaying body before she swung diagonally to cut it in two so that both halves hit the ground with simultaneous Thuds.