"The...End."
With those words, Arthur jumped up from behind it and sliced its head clean off.
Landing on the ground, he placed his sword on his shoulder and spoke.
"That was quite the workout."
"Yeah, I wanna take a shower now."
Layla replied as she walked towards the corpse and stood a few feet from Arthur.
She was about to speak again when she suddenly felt cold sweat.
Turning to her left, she saw Arthur grinning mischievously and couldn't help but click her tongue in anger.
"Tsk...Not now Ar-!"
Unfortunately, she could not complete her words as Arthur suddenly slashed towards her.
She backstepped and raised her gun to fire, only to remember she emptied out the magazine against the basilisk earlier and still hadn't reloaded.
Unfortunately, she did not have the time to do so as Arthur's sword was already thundering down towards her head.
She used the sword attached to her gun to block his strike, before sending a kick to his side.
He blocked the kick with his hands and moved to grab her legs, but the few moments it took him to do so were all she needed to pull out the pistol from the holsters on her thighs.
**BANG! BANG!! BANG!!!
She fired three shots at point-blank range, causing Arthur to have no time to dodge.
He hurriedly conjured up a single-layered aura barrier to block the bullets and jumped backwards immediately.
The barrier, shattered after a few seconds, nevertheless, he had already dodged to the side by then.
However, Layla was not going to let him catch his breath. She fired more shots, emptying the magazine and discarding the gun before pulling out another from its holster.
Arthur rolled on the ground to dodge but even so, he couldn't dodge them all, a bullet grazed his shoulder and another hit his forearm.
"Argh!"
He threw his sword towards Layla and used his now free hand to pull out the bullet from his forearm, gritting his teeth to bear the pain.
Layla, who suddenly had a sword thrown at her, had no choice but to dodge so as not to get hit.
"Return!"
The moment she heard that word, she ducked instantly as the sword that Arthur threw, returned to him.
Naturally, her head was in its path as such she had to duck in order to not have a sword sticking out of it.
"Are you trying to kill me?!"
"Worry not, Lute is around, he'd heal you before you can die."
"A sword to the head would kill me instantly you know?!"
Layla retorted loudly as she kicked off the ground and dashed towards Arthur whose left hand was out of commission at the moment.
She detached the blade from the rifle and discarded the rifle. Gripping the blade tightly, she slashed towards Arthur.
Grabbing the returning blade with his right hand, he clashed with Layla as the two began exchanging sword strikes, with the occasional gunshot to the head from Layla.
"Now you're trying to kill me!!"
"You were the one who started this!!"
The two screamed at each other as Arthur forcefully used his still-injured left arm to grab Layla's gun and pull it from her grip.
"Have it, the magazine was empty anyway."
Layla spoke as she sent a kick towards Arthur, one he had to block with his injured arm after dropping the gun he grabbed.
"Tsk... just what did you put in that bullet, it's delaying my healing."
He remarked as he took a few steps back and looked at his arm which still had a bullet hole in it.
[Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to inform your highness and Lady Layla that I am unable to heal you if you're already dead.]
Arthur who was about to dash towards Layla stopped in his tracks and asked back to the voice that suddenly spoke.
"Don't you have an authority over life?"
"I do, however, it is not highly ranked enough to perform a complete resurrection."
"I see."
Layla was looking around for the source of the voice when she heard Arthur's next very ominous words.
"Then I'd just not aim for the head or the heart, she won't die instantly then.
Oh...my arm's all healed up.
Time for round two then."
She turned to Arthur and saw him dashing towards her with a smile on his face.
"Tsk..."
She clicked her tongue and pulled out her third gun and fired towards him.
Arthur's left eye, flashed blue for a moment as he moved his sword....to rebound her bullets!
"How the fuck do you keep doing that?!"
Layla screamed out loud as she dodged to the side hurriedly. She knew better than anyone, what the effect of the bullets she just fired was as such she did not dare risk getting hit.
Arthur changed his direction and moved towards Layla who was still trying to regain her footing.
She saw him closing in on her from her peripheral vision and she threw her sword towards him to slow him down.
He was already very close as such, he was barely able to dodge the sword that was suddenly thrown at him.
Layla raised her gun to fire but Arthur wasn't going to let her, even in his unbalanced state, He was able to create a small orb of pure non-attributed magic, one that knocked her gun out of her hand, into the air.
She was stunned, but only for a moment, the next, she delivered a whip-like high kick to his right hand, causing his sword to fly out of his hand into the air.
With both of them disarmed, they wasted no time in switching to bare-handed combat.
'Lightning punch.'
Seven strikes with the speed of a lightning bolt moved towards Layla's body.
She instantaneously moved out of the range of his fists as even just one of those strikes would be dangerous in her current state.
Arthur was quite surprised as he didn't expect not even one of his punches to connect.
Without a moment's delay, Layla rushed forward again, this time she unleashed a series of punches.
Although they weren't at fast as Arthur's lightning punches, they were still deadly nonetheless.
**KAAABBBOOOMM!!!!
Arthur responded to Layla's punches with punches of his own. The collision of their fists raised a thunderous roar that shook the air.
Shockwaves spread out every time their fists collided and the earth under their feet cracked and shattered.