Eni felt his body lighten, as if something had flown out of him. He gasped for air like a dehydrated fish, with a pain so explosive emanating from his left side that it almost turned numb.
With his eyes blurred with tears, he constantly told himself to maintain his composure and to endure it.
In his ceaseless prayers, the strike finally ended.
Eni heard a dull thud as it hit the ground.
His vision blurry, he breathed in and with a somewhat stagnant gaze, turned to look at his body.
—He looked at where his left arm used to be.
His gaze suddenly sharpened, as though he could hear a wail spreading from the depths of his own heart.
"Eni, Eni... It's okay, we can reattach it after the world ends, pull yourself together..." Qiao Liya's voice rose beside him, cruelly reminding him—he really had lost an arm.
In the comments, there were reactions like "Did Eni just cry?" "He looks so weak." "I remember when Su Ming'an lost his arm, he handled it much better." "Is he really in that much pain?"
Eni took a deep breath, ignoring these comments and raised his head to look across to the other side. Enduring the still severe pain, he suddenly felt some admiration for his opponent.
...He had heard about that amputation video.
But he had heard that the man's expression barely changed, he even stared at his bloody, mangled arm and applied a Hemostatic Bandage to it.
It made him once think that it actually didn't hurt at all.
Su Ming'an was a madman. Eni finally concluded.
Many madmen see a different world; perhaps Su Ming'an really couldn't feel the pain.
Facing the expectant gaze of Su Ming'an, the sword in Eni's hand slightly rose.
"Tower..." Eni, without even time to wipe the tears from his face, just wanted to end this extremely agonizing battle quickly.
"Attack... hiss. Attack the enemy kingdom..." Before he could finish, the pain brought tears to his eyes again.
The wind blew harshly against his empty left arm, bringing a piercing, icy chill.
The gemstone on the blade of the sword glinted in the light.
...
Just when the Cloning had not completely killed Eni, a bad premonition slowly rose in the heart of Su Ming'an.
The opponent wasn't dead, and their Tower was still standing.
And... their Queen was still there.
The Tower couldn't move past the Queen to attack the King, which meant if Eni wanted to kill himself, he must first kill Yuanyuan.
Although Eni's condition was unlikely to survive the next strike of the Cloning, once Yuanyuan was killed by the Tower, on his turn, he could order the Cloning to attack Eni and achieve the final victory.
But… that was predicated on the unimaginable event of [Yuanyuan being killed].
An insurmountable barrier.
If he used the Cloning to strike the opponent; but if on the opponent's turn, the Tower's attack would kill Yuanyuan first. The Tower always prioritizes attacking the Queen.
No matter what, the fact that the [Queen] would die couldn't be circumvented.
She seemed to be standing on a solitary island before him, the island surrounded by lurking sharks, completely sealed off, with him standing on the ship, unable to find any way to pull her up.
The comments were both excited and sorrowful:
[Why do I sense something ominous…]
[This way, even if the host wins, Yuanyuan will end up...]
[No! No! I like Yuanyuan, I don't want her to die!! Can't we pause this instance, I don't want anyone to die here!]
[Dream on, it's either do or die, what else do you expect...]
[Su Ming'an actually pushed Eni to this extent...]
[Who on earth is Su Ming'an!!?]
[What is the rating for Su Ming'an's tutorial level... is it A, S, or... SS??]
[I just want to save Yuanyuan; she's nice and shouldn't die.]
[This is the first time I regret being just a viewer...]
[...]
Eni's gaze trembled; he too had realized this point.
Indeed, he had no certainty that after killing the opponent's Queen, he could withstand the terrifying blow from the Cloning.
The situation for both was the same.
If Eni ordered the next strike, Yuanyuan would die without exception, and Eni himself... would most likely not escape the fate of being beheaded by the next sword strike.
This whole confrontation had been incredibly dangerous from start to finish, every step as if treading on a blade's edge.
For a moment, the air seemed to solidify.
"...Who are you really?" Eni suddenly asked.