Lancelot this time wasn't the first one to advance. Instead, he was surprised by Tobey who stomped the ground and used all his strength to run toward him. He was far from being as fast as the paladin or his brother, but his speed was enough to cover the few meters separating them in no time.
With a roar, he pierced forward with his falchion, aiming toward Lancelot's chest. He was aiming there due to the damage already inflicted on that place. He knew very well that he could not break the armor of the paladin. If he tried to do so, the only thing that would happen was his falchion getting deflected. However, the exposed skin of that shattered part would not be a problem at all!
Lancelot had already read through his intentions and leaped to the side, avoiding his thrust. His footwork was swift and precise, his steps were very far from clumsy. It was probably at the level of a world champion boxer.
His spear came piercing the air towards Tobey, aiming at his head. He was going to impale him without hesitation. The thrust of his spear was fast as a flying bullet, and its pressure and power were the same as a cannonball. Tobey could feel the wind wavering beside him as the leaf-shaped blade came on his way.
However, the attack got stopped in the final moments by a deep red, curved blade: Lamia's blade. The sound of metal colliding against metal echoed inside Tobey's ears, causing him to get deaf for a couple of seconds as if a grenade had just exploded right beside him.
Mark had arrived at the right time to protect his brother. His defense was perfect and he could lock blades with Lancelot.
Meanwhile, Lamia was still absorbing the blood of the paladin, even Tobey's blood. The paladin knew very well what was the meaning of that blood absorption, but Tobey didn't.
With a flick of his wrist and a quick rotation of his hips, Mark brushed Caelum's blade to the side, opening Lancelot's guard.
He delivered another slash there, also in his chest, but on the opposite side of his previous one. Now, Lancelot had an X-shaped wound on his trunk.
Lancelot was able to leap back as the slash reached his chest, so he could avoid getting a deeper wound.
Another slash of Mark came, this time aiming at his throat. Nonetheless, Lancelot had anticipated it and, without losing his balance, he put the shaft of his spear on the way.
It was tricky to defend against the attacks of curved weapons like that. Nobody could ever be accurate enough to hit the very tip of the blade to parry or defend it. Most people who tried to defend it would be caught by the tip before reaching the shaft or the base of the scythe's blade.
However, Lancelot was an exception. He had sharp reactions and an attentive mind. He knew very well how to measure space and time during a battle. It was a must when fighting against demons such as Mark, after all.
That's why he could calculate the right timing to defend and also the angle. Hence, the tip of the scythe's blade only scratched him on the side of his throat.
"You will need more than that to kill me!" Lancelot shouted as he parried Mark's blade with Caelum's shaft and thrust its leaf-shaped blade towards him.
By instinct, Mark moved his head to the side and only got scratched on his cheek. However, Lancelot was not aiming to hit his head, it was just a decoy. His real intention was to get him when he pulled the spear backward again!
Caelum's blade came back with two times more speed, slashing his shoulder and taking a huge chunk of flesh from there.
Mark grunted in pain and tried to react by swinging his scythe again. His attack had way too much precision for a person who just got wounded, but even so wasn't able to catch Lancelot, who waved his body, just getting scratched on his forehead.
As the paladin's body leaned forward again, he drew a bow with his spear, aiming to behead Mark.
The paladin was not able to perceive Tobey approaching them. His body was hidden behind Mark. He was just waiting for the perfect moment to enter, and he found it!
Caelum's blade was parried violently with Tobey's falchion. Its serrated blade took a considerable chunk of Caelum's blade, also increasing the cracks that were spread around it.
The man widened his eyes once he remembered Tobey's Curse.
'That damn Curse again! Sh*t'
Tobey used the momentum of the dash he used to get between the attack and Mark, instead of stopping there. He knew that he needed to continue that relentless sequence of attacks. If the paladin was able to prepare his Blessing another time, the battle would be immensely more difficult than before.
Tobey stomped the ground two times to cover the way towards the paladin. He swung his falchion in a vertical attack that caught him on the tip of his nose, then reached his chest. The falchion carved deep into his flesh, the serrated blade made that experience way more painful.
The slash caught him from the upper part of his right chest and went all the way to the middle of his abdomen.
Lancelot yelled in pain as he closed his fist with all his strength. Suddenly he seemed to have double his size and wrath was stamped on his face. Before Tobey could realize it, Lancelot's fist went down like a lightning bolt piercing the night sky and hit him squarely on the face.
The punch was so powerful that Tobey fell to the ground headfirst. His feet were not able to standstill after such a strong impact.
Lancelot shot his spear downward but got interrupted when the air left his lungs after Mark kicked him on the stomach, breaking thoroughly the armor plate covering it.
Although gasping for air, Lancelot did not lose his concentration. Instead, the feeling of upcoming death was driving his mind to reach further levels of focus.
'I am not letting him end with it so soon!' he shouted in his mind as he slashed with Caelum.
He caught Mark on his right arm, the leaf-shaped blade entered deeply into it. Meanwhile, Mark lost the previous course of his weapon due to the surprise, so when he swung Lamia it ended up reaching Lancelot's leg.
Both decided to pull their weapons and attack once again at the same time, reaching each other's bodies alternately. Then again, and again, until they locked blades fiercely with a roar.
Soon, Tobey caught up with them.
"I am returning it, bastard!" he shouted as he launched his fist forward. His fingers and wrist snapped as he struck the paladin right on his belly. His arm seemed to pierce through his body for a moment as it sunk there. The feet of the paladin went up by some centimeters.
Mark didn't wait any further and followed with a kick while Lancelot was still in middle-air, launching him several meters away.
When the latter fell to the ground, he began to cough desperately, firstly because he was running out of oxygen already, secondly because blood began to wet his throat.
Mark and Tobey didn't stop there and rushed towards him.
"You guys... Don't think I am a one-trick pony!" Lancelot struggled to get up before they reached him. Divine Flames began to come out of his body as the tattoos on his face glowed with a faint yellow light. Soon, they became lightning tendrils wrapping around his body and spear.
"My Blessing isn't resumed to such a cheap trick!" he waited for the right moment, believing that Tobey and Mark would rush even faster towards him as they thought that he would need the usual delay to use his Blessing, but they were dead wrong.
This time, instead of Lancelot's body shooting forward like a lightning bolt, his spear was the only thing that seemed to accelerate at an absurd speed, from 0 to 100 as if there was no gap between these two numbers.
Mark could read through his intentions in the last second and dashed further than Tobey, swinging Lamia with all his might and hitting the Caelum's shaft, deviating its course by inches.
The problem with that was the speed of the attack. Even though Mark could divert its way so it would not be lethal for neither him nor Tobey, it was so fast that he didn't have time to do it efficiently enough not to get caught anyways.
An attack of such magnitude couldn't be parried by a person that hadn't the same speed or superior whatsoever.
This way, Mark's parrying was just effective enough for him to get hit on his sides instead of getting impaled.
After the blade struck him, a burst of electricity sent him flying to the side, making him lose his balance and fall to the ground rolling.
Tobey was the only one on the front line now.
'I will get him now that the paralysis of the attack will kick in! That's his disadvantage, after all!' he thought, stomping the ground decidedly, prepared to attack him with his weapon.
However, after Lancelot pulled his attack... His shoulder and elbow moved, indicating that he was going to attack again.
'A-Another one!?' Tobey thought, the world freezing around him for a moment.