He appeared in front of Flora in an instant again. Flora clicked her tongue and tried to parry the hammer with her gauntlets.
It worked! Although the next moment the knight slammed the shield against her. A loud twang rang out.
"Wha!?" the knight exclaimed in surprise when he noticed that Flora was still standing even after that attack, "To think your diseased self possesses this much strength! You do not deserve it!"
He was about to swing the hammer again but Flora moved first, jumping and kicking him in the head.
He stumbled backwards. Flora then appeared behind him.
Her arms were surrounded in a white energy that twisted like two spiraling mini-tornadoes.
She punched the knight with both spirals, sending him rolling several meters until he crashed into a wall.
She quickly unsheathed her sword and charged at the knight who was still on the ground.
The knight suddenly lifted his shield and hit the floor with it. A bright beam of light was sent towards Flora, sending her flying across the room.
She crashed into two bookshelves.
"Guh!" she heard a loud crack coming from her shoulder.
A few books fell on top of Flora who crashed onto the floor. She tried moving her right shoulder but only felt pain coming from it.
'Shit, I can't pop it back into place now. That guy won't give me that leeway.' She noticed the bluish pigmentation at the top of her clavicle.
A shadow suddenly appeared over her.
"Oh shit!"
"Watch that tone, filth!" The knight's hammer came crashing down on Flora.
She could feel the power and pressure behind it.
If she doesn't move now then her upper body will get crushed. That's what her instincts told her.
Alas, the knight's attack was much too fast for her to dodge.
"!!!!" Flora applied dozens of body art techniques onto her body a split second before the hammer made contact with her.
She was sent flying through the walls and ended up in another room. The room she arrived in had light and wasn't as dark as where she was earlier.
At least she doesn't have to rely on her instincts to fight in the dark anymore. This will make the fight much easier.
A mouthful of blood fell out of Flora's mouth when she got up. The body techniques she applied to her body in that split second before being struck managed to spare her the pain from that powerful blow.
One of Flora's eyes was covered in blood, so much so that it was difficult for her to see through it. She tried to rub her eye but that resulted in it burning instead.
"Haaa…" Flora popped her shoulder back into place. She looked up ahead.
The knight was slowly walking towards her.
"Remarkable. Are all barbarians as resilient as you are?"
"Stop insulting me, you piece of shit. Your holier-than-thou attitude is pissing me off."
"Hohoho, I admit I have been rather boorish. The only ounce of respect I have for you now is because of the blows you took that would've broken a normal human's body. My ignorant self was under the impression that all humans besides the King, are weak. That is a sign that your body is a mountain, something only disciplined warriors possess. However, your strength is what interests me more. You are too strong to be a mere level 40."
'He can see my level?'
Flora only checked her level at the Mercenary Guild back when she registered herself. Back then she was still level 37. It seems that killing all those monsters on the way to the dungeon worked out in her favor.
Her master was right about one thing: the speed at which she grows stronger is incredible.
"I will have to experiment on your body once I defeat you. I must know what is your secret to the power you possess."
"You're that confident, huh? You'll only become my stepping stone to increasing my level!" Flora charged at the knight.
The knight met her sword with his greatshield. He tried to bash Flora with the shield but Flora dodged since she had already adapted to his fighting style. It wasn't that hard to adapt to.
She never met a tank that could actually take her blows until now so she didn't bother studying their fighting styles. All she knew was that their armor and shields are annoying and she needs to get rid of them.
The shield comes first.
Flora smashed her gauntlet against the knight's shield. He was pushed back slightly but charged at her again.
'No dent? What kind of shield is that that it can withstand magic gauntlets!?'
She had loaded her gauntlets with crystals before coming into the cathedral. The gauntlets' special power allows her to transfer the energy that's created from smashing her two gauntlets together, to her opponent.
In short, her gauntlets store energy, which can then be weaponized to break an enemy's equipment.
'Plan B it is.'
Flora exchanged blows with the knight, both of them not allowing the other to recover their posture or fall back.
The vibrations from them fighting each other caused cracks to form on the walls. Soon parts of the roof started collapsing.
Flora and the knight were evenly matched in both power and speed in that moment. The only issue is that he's covered in armor while she only has a chest plate, kneeguards and gauntlets.
Flora has never worn armor before because she prefers parrying blows and dodging over tanking blows. Armor would only slow her down.
The worry she has now is getting hit by that knight's huge hammer. Even with her plethora of body arts, she wouldn't survive a lot of powerful blows.
Flora tried to strike the gap in the knight's shoulder plate, aiming for his flesh. The knight lifted his shield at that moment, which her sword hit instead. She was knocked back by the recoil of that blow and left wide open.
"Take this, vermin!" the knight used that chance to charge at her and swing his hammer down, trying to crush Flora's head from the top down.
Flora applied more body arts in top of those that were active. She disappeared the next moment.
"Hm!?" the knight hurriedly looked around the room.
Flora had applied a body art that increases her speed and another art that makes her invisible.
She jumped to the right side of the knight, waiting for her moment to strike. It seems the dumb oaf can't even sense his opponent despite screeching about what it means to be a knight.
Flora noticed something about his shield. There were strange glowing shape around the inside of his shield, particularly the area around where he was gripping the shield.
Flora's eyes widened.
The two runes!
Both the "Volm" and "Urilikili" runes were on the inside of the shield, both possessing the respective color she saw on the rectangular runestone above the gate.
'Why does he have both runes on his shield? No, that's not important right now. I need to destroy his shield.'
She didn't notice the runes on the shield at first since she only ever saw the front of it.
He must be the trial.
Flora wondered to herself, 'What'll happen once I break the shield?'
"—There you are, scum!" the knight charged at the still invisible Flora.
'Shit, I was still for too long.'
The body art she's been using is very ineffective for drawn-out battles. Once using the art, you only have a few minutes to decide what action you want to take.
The body art can only hide you so long as your presence doesn't leak.
Flora parried the knight's hammer strike, causing it to crash into the floor. She then hit his wrist which made him drop the hammer.
"Ugh!" the knight managed to grab her by the neck with his free hand.
'This fucker is strong! But can you withstand a kick to the head from me at full power!?' he was trying to break her neck but Flora managed to grab two of his fingers before he could squeeze down.
"ARGH!!!" Flora managed to break those two fingers. At the same time the knight let her go.
She kicked his head with all her might. He dropped on his knees and wobbled.
Did she manage to stun him?
Flora grabbed him by the helmet with her left hand and held out her right hand freely.
She then closed her eyes and envisioned herself pulling off a seal keeping something contained within her body: her inner essence.
A gas-like energy seeped out of her right hand. The atmosphere within the room became several times heavier due to the pressure being emitted by the essence.
The technique she's planning on using is known as [Essence Transfer] body art. What it basically does is let out a small amount of essence from her body and send that energy through her body at the speed of sound. Warriors can freely choose which body part they want their essence to come out of before sending it through their body and which part they want to release all that essence. A capable weapon is usually recommended by masters to use this technique since you cannot use it without some injuries to your body.
Warriors that don't possess aura or Ki use this technique as a sort of projectile with similar function to an aura or Ki blast, just much weaker.
Flora's current sword would shatter the minute she tried sending her essence through it.
In this case, Flora was using her right hand to gather her essence and her left hand to release it all.
This is one of her most deadly techniques. It basically sends her inner essence through her opponent's body at rapid speeds. This can break through flesh, muscle, bone and even armor.
Flora closed her right hand. A sound similar to suction resounded as the energy was being pulled into her body again. The energy was manageable in this state for her so there were no dangers in using it for this technique. An issue would arise if she used too much, which can cause her to lose control.
Flora's body glowed as the energy moved through her body.
At that moment the knight snapped out of his daze. He grabbed Flora's arm and tried to pry it off. However, Flora was prepared to lose that arm just to stop him so she held on firmly.
"Hjkkk…. Lkkkgsgggv…!" he gargled incoherently.
She smirked at him.
"It seems your head is your weak spot, huh? You can barely mutter a word now. Thank god I don't have to hear those annoying speeches of yours."
'I should've aimed for your head right from the start.'
If she did then she wouldn't have had to suffer so many injuries just to stop this one guy.
'I need to do better.'
At that moment, a beam of pure light was shot from Flora's left hand, completely obliterating the knight's upper body. The energy didn't stop there. It continued travelling through multiple rooms, with not a sign of it stopping.
The knight's body collapsed, as did his shield. His upper body was nowhere to be seen.
"This guy wasn't human… I guess I shouldn't be surprised in a place like this." Flora looked at the wiggling worms that came out of his burnt flesh.
Most of his armor was also destroyed in that blast so she could also see his tar black skin, which didn't belong to a human.
Flora looked at her left forearm. It was in a pitiful state. Her fingers were black and blue, oozing blood with each motion.
"I want my damn sword back.."