Chapter 54 - 2 Vs 1 II

The Great Swordsman stepped forward again, and Raul immediately sent the Panther toward its side.

Raul expected another attack when the it turned its sword, but instead, the Swordsman simply stepped backward, allowing the Panther missed. That small movement however placed it directly in front of the Stone Golem.

"Stop!" Dustin shouted, his eyes widening.

The Golem had already started its attack, and because of its uniqueness, it was difficult to stop in a moment after starting.

Its fist came down hard, and the Panther barely managed to get out of the way before being hit, though it was grazed.

The Great Swordsman moved at that same time.

It stepped past the Golem’s arm and struck twice, once at the wrist and again at the shoulder. Neither attack was strong enough to seriously damage the summon, but that didn’t seem to be the point.

The Golem lost its balance, though barely because it didn’t have fleshly anatomy.

Immediately, the Great Swordsman backed away.

"It did that on purpose." Dustin said, staring at it.

"Yeah." Raul replied, breathing a little harder now.

It had deliberately placed the Panther in the Golem’s path.

They tried again, but this time, Raul kept the Panther moving without immediately attacking while Dustin held the Golem back.

They waited for an opening.

The Great Swordsman waited too.

"It’s not coming." Raul said with a frown after several seconds.

"It doesn’t have to." Dustin replied after realising the problem.

They were the ones trying to test themselves.

The Great Swordsman had no reason to rush toward them.

"Fine." Raul said, clicking his tongue.

The Panther moved first, while the Golem followed shortly after.

Their timing was much better this time.

The Panther attacked high while the Golem came in lower, and for the first time since the fight started, the Great Swordsman actually gave ground.

One step... Then another.

"Keep going." Dustin said, his expression brightening a little.

The Golem continued pushing forward while the Panther circled around, and for a moment, it actually looked like they had started forcing the undead back.

Then its stance changed, not anything dramatic.

The Great Swordsman only shifted its feet slightly and lowered the sword, but Raul noticed immediately that something felt wrong.

"Wait." Raul said.

It was already too late.

The Great Swordsman stepped inside the Golem’s reach and struck the side of its knee with the sword before kicking the same leg from the opposite direction.m, causing the Golem to drop slightly.

The Panther attacked immediately, but the Great Swordsman ducked, allowing it to pass over its shoulder before one armoured hand suddenly grabbed the Panther by the back leg.

"No—" Raul said, his expression changing.

The Great Swordsman turned and threw it directly into the Golem.

Dustin stared at them for a moment, as did Raul. Luckily it hadn’t been a powerful throw.

"Still going?" Leon asked, glancing up from his phone.

"Shut up." Dustin replied while looking at him.

Leon shrugged and went back to whatever he was doing.

Neither Dustin nor Raul had been hit directly, but the confrontation was already starting to tire them, and the death energy around the Great Swordsman wasn’t exactly helping either.

It still didn’t hurt, but while they expected to have gotten used to it after a while, that wasn’t the case, the cold feeling had simply remained the entire time, and Dustin was starting to notice it more now that he had something else to compare it against.

"How long?" Dustin asked, looking toward Leon.

"A little over a minute." Leon replied after checking his phone.

Dustin’s expression dropped.

"That’s terrible." Raul said with a short laugh that had almost no humour in it.

They had actually thought they were doing decently.

They hadn’t even reached halfway.

"One more." Raul said after taking a slow breath.

"One proper attack." Dustin agreed.

This time, they stopped trying to create separate openings and coordinated everything together.

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Eventually, they found themselves in a position where the Great Swordsman had its sword placed just above the Panther’s neck while one foot rested against the fallen Golem’s shoulder.

Neither summon could move without putting itself in an even worse position.

Both Raul and Dustin froze, unable to think of anything else that could be done.

"Two minutes and twelve seconds." Leon said after checking the time.

Dustin slowly lowered his hand, while Raul cancelled whatever command he had been about to give.

The Great Swordsman stepped away and returned its sword to the scabbard after that.

The fight was over.

Leon hadn’t given it a single command from beginning to end either.

"You didn’t control it at all." Dustin said, looking from the undead toward Leon.

"I told it to go easy." Leon replied, putting his phone away.

"Huh???"

Raul was still looking at the Great Swordsman as it walked towards Leon.

There were too many things he had noticed during the fight to ignore now. It didn’t fall for feints easily, changed its distance when needed, deliberately placed them in bad positions and attacked joints instead of simply swinging its sword around for damage.

It hadn’t fought like some monster that was simply stronger than them.

It fought like someone who knew exactly what they were doing.

"How intelligent is that thing?" Raul asked, looking toward Leon.

"I don’t know." Leon replied after glancing at the Great Swordsman.

"You don’t know?" Dustin asked with a high brow.

"It understands combat better than I do. That much is for sure."

Neither of them had much to say after that. Leon wasn’t joking either, which somehow made it worse.

There was something else the fight had made very clear... Grade mattered.

Both Dustin and Raul had improved visibly, though they had only been very serious for only close to two weeks. The Stone Golem was now stronger than before, while the Panther was faster and Raul had gotten much better at using Shadow Cloaking. Even their coordination had been very decent, and while none of that was useless, it simply wasn’t enough.

The difference between Grades wasn’t only a bigger number attached to a summon. Strength, speed, durability, abilities, instinct and even intelligence could all be different, and when enough of those advantages existed at the same time, the gap became very obvious.

Against something like the Great Swordsman, those differences added up quickly, and the worst part was that neither Dustin nor Raul believed the undead had actually gone all out... Not even close.

"You said Grade 3." Dustin said after looking at the Great Swordsman one more time.

Leon nodded.

"This is just normal for Grade 3?" Dustin asked after hesitating a little.

"I guess?" Leon replied after thinking about it. He hadn’t really thought too deeply about it.

"Of course you don’t know." Raul said with a groan.

Leon dismissed the Great Swordsman, and almost immediately, the cold pressure around them disappeared.

"That thing is horrible to stand near." Dustin said while rubbing his arms.

"That’s why I said three minutes." Leon replied.

"You’re not even affected ted?" Raul said, looking at him. Of course he knew why that was.

"One or two works, you know?" Leon said with a shrug as the others sat.

They had wanted to know how much they had improved, and now they knew... For certain.

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"Grade 3..."