Since she had decided to make a move, Artoria naturally wouldn't remain in such an awkward position, being a target for Chiron.
Her waist is slightly bent, and she exerted sudden force with her left arm gripping the long sword, swinging her body upwards. Though it was done hastily, her agility surpassed that of a professional gymnast.
This movement didn't escape Chiron's eyes. In the realm of calculating the future, he easily read Artoria's intentions.
"Oh, planning to continue the assault, are you? In that case—"
He shot two arrows, each along a different trajectory, one aiming for Artoria's face and the other at her left hand, her only support point.
As her body moved upwards, Artoria knew Chiron would attack. Her "Intuition" skill was already at its maximum, and the magic generated by her dragon factor spread throughout her body, reaching every nerve ending.
Success or failure hinged on this moment.
The intensely focused Knight King cleared her mind, seeing the approaching arrows and mentally mapping their trajectories, impact points, and force—her "A++" level intuition from her lifetime was pushed to its limit.
"Ha!"
With the activation of her dragon factor, Artoria's voice even carried a hint of a dragon's roar.
Her previously closed legs suddenly split apart. She kicked away the arrow aimed at her left hand with her raised left leg. Simultaneously, her right hand wielded the holy lance in a simple arc, deflecting the arrow aimed at her face. She perfectly countered Chiron's twin arrows, earning his admiration.
But admiration wouldn't make Chiron show mercy. The more skilled Artoria appeared the more he wanted to defeat her.
His bow is fully drawn, magic-filled to the brim—let's see how you block this full-powered arrow!
How to block it?
No need to block it!
Chiron's arrow missed and did not hit its mark.
In the instant the arrow was released, Artoria pulled out the long sword embedded in the wall, and then—the silver armor that wrapped around her body and provided tight protection suddenly disintegrated.
This wasn't due to Chiron's attack but because the armor's owner actively removed it. This explained why Artoria could perform gymnastics while wearing heavy armor; she had been gradually removing the armor all along.
Artoria's armor, the spiritual garment of a Heroic Spirit, was woven from magic. The more complex and heavy the equipment, the more magic it consumed. For Artoria, who possessed the dragon factor and could generate magic just by breathing, this was not a heavy burden, but in critical moments like this, it could be a decisive factor.
Without the armor's constraints, the Knight King's body felt significantly lighter, making her movements nearly twice as agile as when she wore the armor. Not only that, the magic used to maintain the armor was now freed—
This time, it was a true full-power magical release!
Artoria's A-rank magic, which was on par with all magus, was fully converted into propulsion, turning her body into a rocket, charging at Chiron with unprecedented speed.
Chiron's expression finally changed, his previous ease replaced by grave seriousness—the Black Lancer had bet everything on this strike. In other words, if he successfully countered this strike, victory would be his.
At this moment, Chiron no longer relied solely on experience to predict the future. He activated his god-given "Wisdom of Divine Gift," a bug-level skill. Not only "Clairvoyance" and "Mind's Eye (True)" but also many other predictive skills like "Mind's Eye (Fake)" came into play. Chiron could acquire all skills except for those that were innate or exclusive.
In that instant, Chiron's calculation ability was enhanced to its peak. The charging Artoria turned into streams of data in his eyes, inputted into his brain, producing new answers.
Speed capture.
Variable introduction.
Trajectory correction.
...
Prediction complete!
Plan selected!
All these calculations were done in an extreme moment, so brief that Chiron finished his analysis before Artoria completed a single step.
Now.
Chiron's left hand held the bow steady, while his right hand nocked three arrows. But this wasn't his usual multi-arrow divine skill; it was another technique to make up for the lack of shooting frequency—rapid-fire arrows.
The three arrows followed one another closely, covering all possible landing points for Artoria's next step. If she dared to set foot, the arrows would pierce through her feet.
As the rapid-fire arrows were released, Chiron nocked another three arrows, performing a true three-arrow shot with a single bow. If Artoria used her sword and spear to block the first three arrows, these would hit her body—without her armor, although she could use all her magic for speed, it also meant she had abandoned defense. Arrows that normally couldn't harm her could now inflict significant damage.
However, Artoria neither landed her feet nor swung her sword and spear to block the arrows. She merely raised her spear, aiming it at Chiron on the city wall.
In the next instant, a thunderous roar shattered the atmosphere, and the brilliance of the holy lance became especially dazzling due to the atmospheric change.
It turned out that while Artoria was hanging on the city wall, the Invisible Air that had been wrapped around her legs had already been transferred to her holy spear. At this moment, the Invisible Air was completely unleashed.
"Strike Air!"
At the moment the barrier was released, the air bound by magic turned into a gale, blasting towards the enemy like an invisible cannonball. This was a long-distance attack that could only be used once in a short period.
The highly pressurized compressed air mass was released from the invisible barrier, erupting with a roar like a dragon god soaring into the sky, transforming into a hurricane hammer, sweeping away everything in its path.
Under the divine might of "Strike Air," the city wall, weathered by centuries, became pitted and groaned under the strain, with fragments of stone crumbling away. It was as if an invisible giant hand had swept across, carving a straight path and shattering Chiron's arrows in the process.
And the final target of this "hand" was Chiron!
In such a situation, Chiron couldn't release the three arrows he had nocked. This is the only shortcoming of calculation-based skills: if the pre-collected data is insufficient, the results can be inaccurate.
Fortunately, the cautious Chiron had already considered the possibility of miscalculation. Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, he immediately abandoned the shot, rolling to the side to evade the path of "Strike Air."
This evasion finally gave Artoria the space to move freely. She covered the distance of several dozen meters in a flash. By the time Chiron prepared to draw his bow again, Artoria was already in front of him, thrusting her spear straight at him.
Having suffered greatly under Chiron's attacks, the Knight King wouldn't give this world-class archer another chance to shoot!
The spear thrust!