"..."
"..."
I stood there watching the Queen just as she was silently watching me.
In a mixture of purple gold clothes of the royal family the Queen stared at me.
The only difference between the garb that the king's corpse wore and the one that she wore was the fact that the predominantly purple color was replaced with a shadowy grey.
And through the slits of her black helmet emanating a darkness not disimilar to the one that burnt from my head, orange light could be seen through the slits of the helmet.
And unlike the king's corpse, a large silver pendant adorned with a large purple jewel the size of one's fist, I stared at the Queen and noted her incredibly unbearable silence.
Wielding a long rapier in her hands, the silvery halo like structure floating above her like a crown hung there as she stood above me.
Standing at an impressive height the Queen was the first one to break the silence.
"Oh Inheritor of my husbands will, since you are my adopted child you will inherit my will as well as the will of the Great kingdom of Sevallia's"
Staring at the mask that betrayed no hint of emotion, the Queen held her blade up as an orange light flowed through the blade.
Emanating a heat not unlike the blades that a majority of the creatures on the island had used, the Queen held it up to her face while straightening her posture and keeping her free hand behind her back.
"So I will test you, fight me Inheritor, prove your worth in inheriting the will of the descendant of the Holy Paladin that fought God and lived."
Dark flames suddenly burnt in the sky as they surrounded her with a great fury.
"Show me what my husband saw in you inheritor."
'What the hell!?'
Quickly manifesting all of my gear, instantly combat scenario's ran through my mind, a series of long paths extending from the ground to the air where the Queen floated.
'What does she mean by the last descendant of the Holy Paladin that killed God?'
Chaos reigning in my mind, I held the [Seismic Strike] in my hands, the cracked metal surface of the blade pulsing with lava.
But since I really didn't know much about the queen except for the fact that she was on par of the King, the only benchmark I had so far was the fact that the Queen was definitely stronger than the Servants.
And since I was confident in beating the servants if I exploited my non fear of death, it really wasn't a good comparison.
Or those were at least my thoughts before the Queen suddenly slashed downwards.
Manifesting a large tornado of flame, my eyes widened in surprise as all the paths which were heading towards her were broken apart and instead suggested I do various other actions.
One of them were the ones I quickly took.
Running along the paved stone wall of the walls, I ran forwards.
Slamming [Seismic Strike] down, the edge of the blade enhanced by my mana when used in conjunction with my Air cutter quite literally sliced the tornado of fire in half.
It was honestly terrifying how much mana I could output since I was regenerating it at terrifying speeds.
"It seems you do have some strength."
Staring at me with a strange glint shining through her helmet, the Queen continued.
"But it doesn't show why my husband chose you Inheritor, NOW!" She raised her blade to the air before slashing it downwards, manifesting something reminiscent to the air cutter.
Except for the key difference being it was much larger and was wreathed in burning flames.
Moving forwards, I blocked the attack with an air cutter of my own and felt the incredible resistance I faced when doing so.
'Yeah, not a good idea.'
Abandoning the idea of forcefully breaking through whatever attacks would come my way, I continued to run towards the Queen.
Raising her free hand, she brought it downwards and manifested flames from the ground.
Rushing towards me like a tidal wave of devouring destruction, I jumped upwards to dodge the fatal flames.
But this was a mistake to the Queen's eyes as I seemingly had no way to dodge the following attacks.
Little did she know.
Manifesting several broadswords of fire behind her, I widened my eyes and jumped once more into the air to dodge two of them.
Shield of Cthulhu charging away due to the following attack, I quickly ram runed downwards and felt the weight on my body increase.
Slamming to the ground with great force, a shockwave burst out from my position, causing the event where I both dodged the third and fourth fire swords and blocked the final fifth one.
Eyeing the floating blades with both wariness and inspiration, the Queen ignored the look on my face and moved her hands again.
This time as if grasping something in her heart, she acted as if she ripped it out and created a large aura of flame to come out of her.
Bursting outwards, I back stepped several times and rolled backwards to dodge the flames.
However, in the moment that I began the action of rolling backwards to dodge the flames, the Queen followed it with a quick rise and fall of the hand.
Creating flames which trailed along the ground with a vengeance to consume me, I widened my eyes and threw down various turrets to offset the flames.
Watching the barely deployed turrets get consumed by the flames, the last dying embers propelled by some unseen forces came out and licked my face.
I don't know what type of expression was on my face, but it probably wasn't a good one.
Feeling my heart leap into my throat at the close brush of death, despite knowing I would revive, it really didn't take away the thrill of the fight and its ensuing dangers albeit the danger was significantly lowered.
The pain I also had to endure didn't disappear as well however.
Having those random thoughts appear in my head, I spun the Seismic Strike and slammed it into the ground.
Sending a shockwave billowing outwards, I changed my weapons mid swing and shifted my body weight.
Spreading my legs, I brought out the Right Scythe Claw and sliced upwards to create a large air cutter.
Using the following momentum to carry me forwards, the Left Scythe Claw appeared in my other hand and struck outwards with another mana enhanced Air cutter.
Light's bane swung outwards in my grasp creating a dark slash of blackness in the air flying towards the Queen.
Following that, my footsteps twisted as I both equipped the blood sword the broken inferno fragment and created a torrent of crimson flames.
Continuing the ensuing flow of Comboes, instead of continuing my spin, I forcibly ended it by using the Flint and slammed into the ground, creating a trail of flame not disimilar to the one that the Concierge had once used.
Using the Impaler, the large spear twisted the air it passed through to create another blade of wind to strike at the air.
And finally stopping with the Balanced blade for the combo of melee weapons, the balanced blade's green edge sliced through the air and twisted towards the Queen.
Finishing the combo of attacks with [Hokuto's Bow] and the long forgotten Ice shards.
The burning and sparking orange arrow flew through the air and whistled towards the Queen that stared at the chain of attacks that occurred within a time frame.
With a mixture of air cutters created by a myriad of weapons and thus had various thickness and strengths, the crimson blood eating flames, dark light arcs, flaming trails, sparking arrow and ice shards flew towards the Queen.
With an indiscernible look hidden behind the helmet, I couldn't help but be reminded by a piece of information that Amanda once told me.
---
'A combo is about connecting attacks together in a seamless flow, if you can do that, unless your enemies interrupts you or you stop because you don't have the energy to do so'
'The combo will land on the enemy and they will have to be on the backfoot for the rest of the battle, defending every single attack that you launch.'
'And after the ombo is the best time to attack, and unless your opponent has a card up their sleeve, they will usually be on the defensive due to the pressure your combo laid on them.'
---
Recalling those words which seemed to have been said such a long time ago, I couldn't help but be slightly nostalgic.
But that didn't mean I disregarded the information, holding Valmont's whip, I ran forwards and winded it up to crack against the Queen.
But what she did in return surprised me to no end.
+++
Tree