NABC Chapter 25 I'm afraid I'll never forget you in my entire life.
Chapter 25 I'm afraid I'll never forget you in my entire life.
It stretched out a hand.
The hand was no longer in the shape of a hand as it was being raised.
Arthur reacted quickly. The shapeshifter had barely raised her hand when she leaped back fifty paces, her metal heels carving two grooves in the ground.
The shapeshifter's hand kept changing, its bones writhing beneath its skin like a snake stuffed into a sack. The boundary between flesh and skin blurred, curling outwards to reveal the chaotic gelatinous substance beneath.
From a distance, the arm looks like a flower.
A flower of flesh and blood in full bloom.
Arthur sensed no danger. But it was precisely because she sensed none that she became even more vigilant.
What the hell is this thing?
The flower of flesh and blood continued to bloom, its petals unfolding one by one.
Can't wait any longer!
Arthur drew his sword and charged straight upwards, the holy light emanating from its blade instantly tearing through the air, drawing a dazzling golden arc in mid-air!
The arc is so perfect, like the first edge of the sun peeking out from behind the mountains, like the horizon seen by sailors of a fleet on their seventeenth sunrise. It is so perfect that one would want to kneel down and worship it in reverence.
The Beowulf family's signature technique, the Law of Refraction.
The reason this curve looks so perfect is because it is not a curve at all.
It is a straight line.
As the sword's edge vibrates in the air at a specific frequency, the holy light undergoes countless tiny refractions along its propagation path, with the angle of each refraction precisely calculated.
But this kind of calculation is actually more like an instinct etched into Beowulf's blood.
The moment an enemy sees the holy light, their eyes simultaneously receive countless different light trajectories. These trajectories, superimposed, will piece together a non-existent arc in their brain.
The true point of impact of the sword's edge has always been that straight line.
When her grandfather taught her the Law of Refraction, he said that once the sword is slashed, one should not look back.
It's not because he'll be handsome, but because looking at him will make you go blind.
The shapeshifter was indeed fooled by that golden arc.
The flower of flesh and blood, which had already blossomed to the size of a sapling, moved an inch toward the point where the arc would land.
But this one inch is enough.
"bite."
With a very soft sound, like glass colliding or ice cracking, the entire sunroom was instantly plunged into darkness.
Immediately afterwards, an extremely dazzling light burst forth from the shapeshifter's body!
Arthur stood behind it, sword in hand, poised to strike downwards.
The holy light on the sword had mostly receded, leaving only a thin layer of gold that outlined her figure with a golden edge.
The shapeshifter lowered its head in disbelief; there was a line on its chest.
Starting from the right shoulder, it slopes diagonally down to the left hip. The lines are straight, overflowing with holy light, like a door that has been pushed open a crack, behind which lies an endless, radiant paradise.
"When?!"
Its voice sounded like a collection of countless men, women, and children, both shocked and angry.
Then, its upper body slid down along that glowing straight line.
It was cut in two.
Arthur sheathed his sword without expression.
The moment the sword fell back into its sheath, the light in that straight line burst forth in full!
"Hmph—Hmph—Ughh ...
The deformed monster screamed in agony as its skin melted, revealing a chaotic gelatinous substance beneath. This gelatinous substance desperately surged towards the cut, attempting to fill the straight wound.
Unfortunately, it was all in vain.
The holy light within the cut surface seemed endless, continuously pouring out from the crack and burning away all the chaotic gelatinous matter that tried to approach.
Arthur breathed a sigh of relief.
Then her vision blurred, the surrounding scenery rushed past her, and the howling wind almost tore her eardrums.
"boom!!!"
"Admirable, Imperial Knight."
Her vision blurred for a few seconds before refocusing. Looking in the direction of the sound, she saw that the shapeshifter was already lifeless.
Its body was cut in two and lay on the ground, slowly melting into two pools of black liquid, with an occasional bubble rising on the surface.
Who is speaking?
She looked up.
It was that flower of flesh and blood. It had grown into a towering tree, its thick branches stretching from the floor of the Sunlight Hall all the way to the dome, causing the entire hall to crack.
The petals are layered upon each other, each piece made up of the limbs of different creatures; some are the hand of a werewolf, and others are a section of a bent earth dragon's spine.
I'm afraid I'll never forget you in my entire life.
The sound comes from the center of its flower.
The heart of the flower of flesh and blood was a mouth, with concentric rings of sharp teeth extending deep into its throat, like the mouthparts of a desert worm. At that moment, that mouth was emitting a joyful laugh.
Have you ever heard of the carrion-eating flower of the Ash Forest?
The Flower of Flesh and Blood did not rush to attack. Several huge tendrils slowly writhed in the air, one of which was still stained with Arthur's blood, which was dripping down.
Arthur then realized that she had been knocked away by that thing, and she hadn't even seen how the attack came.
"The Carrion Flower blooms only once every hundred years," the Flesh Flower said to itself, its voice light and cheerful. "Before it blooms, it can only obtain nutrients from the corpses of living beings, for a hundred years, a full hundred years! But once it blooms, it can possess the strength of a sixth-order being."
"Sixth rank! Do you know what sixth rank means? Enough to roam freely in this land!" The vine slowly spun halfway in the air, like a menacing snake.
"But where would I find that much time?!"
The Flower of Flesh and Blood's tone changed, becoming filled with grievance and anger.
"I had to catch some cat-human babies to eat. Do you know what cat-human babies taste like? They're sour and astringent, and the meat is full of underdeveloped tendons. Every time I eat them, I feel nauseous and want to vomit!"
"Have you ever eaten a cat-human cub? You definitely haven't. People like you are born with a family; you lack nothing!"
Arthur's eyes were red, his lips were bitten through, and blood dripped down his chin onto his breastplate.
Leaning on her sword, she struggled to her feet, her voice trembling: "You..."
"Do you know how much I suffered and how much I endured to bloom?!"
The Flower of Flesh and Blood's voice suddenly rose, interrupting Arthur's words, and the entire Sunlight Hall trembled with its roar. Gravel and dust fell from the dome, and cracks spread across the walls like a spiderweb.
The mouth in that flowery mouth opened to its widest extent, its sharp teeth curling outwards like a trumpet flower: "What makes you think you can kill me?!"
Arthur stood up.
Her hair was disheveled, she swayed unsteadily, her breastplate was dented, and the armor on her left arm was broken.
But she still held the sword in her right hand, and she slowly raised the greatsword, its tip pointing straight at the heart of the flower of flesh and blood.
"you……"
Golden hair fell down, covering most of her face, and the eyes that were visible through the gaps in her hair were blood red.
"...Damn it!"
"boom!!!"
A vine was mercilessly pulled off.
Arthur didn't dodge; she was too exhausted. The vines sent her flying, her body tumbling twice in the air before crashing through the floor of the sunroom and plunging into the darkness below.