Chapter 363: Attrition

Kael intercepted before the Death Knight could reach the mage. Fire exploded across his right gauntlet as he planted one foot and threw everything he possessed into the punch.

The Death Knight stopped instantly, bringing its tower shield forward as green light erupted across the surface. Kael’s fist struck the barrier with a thunderous explosion, and fire rolled around its spherical edge while the impact forced the undead backward. Its armored boots carved two trenches through the dirt before it finally stopped.

Kael’s eyes widened as he realized he had moved it. The distance had not been considerable, but forcing the creature backward at all meant its defense was not absolute.

Then the sword came down. It moved too quickly for Kael to escape, even though he saw the blade and understood exactly where it was going.

A massive sword appeared from behind him and struck the Death Knight’s weapon from the side with a deafening clang. The collision exploded between them, forcing both of the burly climber’s arms backward and making the Death Knight retreat one step.

The undead lunged immediately, driving its shield forward like a battering ram. The burly man attempted to sidestep while Kael attacked from the flank, striking the side of the barrier and disrupting the charge just enough for the other climber to avoid taking the blow directly.

The Leonard arrived next and brought his axe down toward the Death Knight’s head. The undead ducked beneath the weapon as the spear wielder attacked from behind, thrusting her weapon toward a gap beneath its shoulder armor.

The Death Knight twisted, allowing the spear to pass beside its ribs before sweeping its sword horizontally. Kael shouted for everyone to get down as he ducked beneath the blade, The Leonard leaned backward, and the spear wielder threw herself flat against the ground.

The burly man was the only one who could not escape in time. He raised his sword and blocked, but the collision produced a metallic crack powerful enough to hurt Kael’s ears.

The impact lifted the burly climber from the ground and sent him flying dozens of meters. His body struck the earth once, rolled several times, and disappeared through a pile of goblin corpses.

Kael had no time to determine whether the man was alive because the Death Knight’s sword was already returning. He stepped inside its reach, ignited the Fire Rune, and drove his fist toward the undead’s face.

The Death Knight jumped backward, forcing Kael to miss, then immediately brought its sword down. No one stood close enough to intercept it this time.

Kael saw the blade descending and, for one terrible instant, knew precisely what would happen. It would enter his shoulder, pass through his chest, emerge somewhere near the opposite hip, and divide his body into two pieces.

An axe struck the sword with another violent clang. The Leonard grunted as the impact nearly ripped the weapon from his hands, but he managed to alter the sword’s direction by the smallest possible amount.

It was barely anything, but it was enough. Kael threw himself sideways as the massive blade passed beside him and buried itself in the ground.

Kael rolled, rose, and watched the Death Knight wrench its weapon free. He glanced toward The Leonard and said, "Thanks."

"Don’t make me regret it," The Leonard answered as he recovered his stance.

Kael raised his fists and replied, "No promises."

The Death Knight moved again, and Kael prepared to meet it before another possibility stopped him. His thoughts turned toward the weights still restricting his body.

For the smallest moment, he considered removing them. His master had forced him to train beneath their burden for so long that Kael had almost forgotten what unrestricted movement felt like, but taking them off would make him far faster and perhaps allow him to match the Death Knight.

His fingers nearly moved toward the release before the Fist King’s warning returned to him. He had been ordered not to remove the weights until the training was finished, and that training remained incomplete.

Kael hesitated because removing them might solve the immediate problem while creating another he did not understand. Before he could decide, the mage shouted from behind them, "I’m done! Move!"

Kael jumped away as purple light erupted from her staff. Dozens of translucent chains shot across the battlefield, though they did not wrap physically around the Lesser Death Knight.

Instead, the chains passed through different parts of its body before piercing the ground around it. One crossed through the knight’s shoulder without touching its armor and anchored itself behind the creature, while others passed through its legs and sword arm.

The chains were not physical restraints, but their effect became obvious when the Death Knight attempted to step forward. Its movement slowed as every action began dragging against an invisible resistance.

The mage released an exhausted breath and shouted, "Got it!" Kael watched the knight raise its sword and realized he could finally follow the movement.

He could not see it perfectly, but he could see enough. "Good," Kael said as the Death Knight swung.

Kael ducked beneath the blade, stepped forward, and ignited the Fire Rune as his fist drove toward the knight’s face. The shield appeared in front of him, and his punch struck it with another explosive impact.

Flame spread across the green barrier while the Death Knight slid backward. Kael followed, switched to Frost, and struck the shield again, sending ice racing across the aura until the green surface pulsed and shattered the frozen layer.

Kael attacked again, but the shield intercepted his fist. He threw another punch and found the same barrier waiting for him, making his irritation toward the damned shield grow with every failed attempt.

The spear wielder attacked from the side and thrust her weapon toward the Death Knight’s exposed ribs. Without even looking at her, the undead rotated its shield, struck the spear with its edge, and knocked the weapon upward before kicking toward her chest.

She escaped the kick by the smallest margin. The Leonard attacked from behind at the same moment, but the Death Knight ducked beneath his axe.

Kael attempted to capitalize upon the opening by striking at the undead’s head. The shield returned before his fist could land, as though the Death Knight possessed eyes across its entire body.

Every attack was noticed, every angle was covered, and every opening disappeared before they could exploit it. The group moved chaotically around the creature while it remained perfectly controlled at the center.

Kael attacked from the front as the spear wielder searched for weaknesses around its joints. The Leonard used heavier swings whenever the Death Knight’s shield was occupied, and the burly man finally returned with blood running from his forehead to rejoin the battle from the opposite side.

Four fighters surrounded a single target, yet somehow, they looked like the ones being surrounded. The Death Knight stood at the center and moved with a rhythm of shield, sword, step, turn, block, parry, and strike.

Every movement was clean, and nothing was wasted. Kael began to understand why the Fist King had supposedly told climbers to abandon the floor.

The comparison was humiliating because they looked like a group of ruffians attempting to overwhelm a master swordsman in an alley. The only difference was that these particular ruffians were experienced climbers.

Kael struck the shield again and sent Frost spreading across its surface. The Death Knight countered, but Kael ducked beneath the sword and punched low, only for the shield to intercept him once more.

"Annoying bastard," Kael muttered as he retreated from another strike. The Death Knight offered no response and continued advancing.

Kael refused to believe the creature was unbeatable. It was extraordinarily difficult and completely ridiculous for Floor Eleven, but difficulty and impossibility were not the same.

He had trained beneath the man who had supposedly fought this creature. The Fist King had survived the floor, though Kael did not know whether he had failed before succeeding or whether the stories had distorted what truly happened.

What Kael did know was his master. That bastard would never have stood before a Lesser Death Knight and quietly accepted defeat.

If the Fist King had beaten one, Kael could do the same eventually. He was reasonably certain of that, though "probably" might have been the more honest word.

For now, he needed more force. Kael attacked with Fire, but the shield absorbed the blow, and Frost achieved nothing more when he followed with another punch.

The green barrier remained firm when he struck with Fire again. Kael changed his rune arrangement, using Anchor to stabilize the flow while Fire remained active and Frost waited to be invoked.

Then he added Heft. His internal energy consumption increased so sharply that Kael felt it immediately and muttered, "Expensive."

The Death Knight attacked before he could reconsider. Kael dodged beneath the slowed sword and drove his fist forward with Fire and Heft layered together.

The impact produced an enormous explosion that drove the Lesser Death Knight backward. It did not merely slide this time, as the force carried its entire body away while the green shield flared violently.

A fracture appeared across the aura. Kael’s eyes widened when he saw it and said, "There you are."

The crack vanished a moment later, but Kael had seen it. Everyone else had seen it as well, and The Leonard immediately shouted for him to do it again.

Kael was already moving when the Death Knight raised its shield. He layered Frost with Heft and struck, producing a sharp crack as the green aura fractured farther and forced the undead to retreat three steps.

The burly man attacked next and smashed his sword against the shield. The Leonard’s axe followed from the side while the spear wielder struck at a gap near the knight’s knee.

The Death Knight twisted, but too many attacks were arriving while Kael continued forcing its shield backward. Pressure was the answer, though none of them possessed enough skill or strength to accomplish it alone.

Kael punched again and sent Fire erupting across the shield. The aura cracked as the Death Knight swung, but Kael ducked beneath the sword and allowed the spear wielder to attack.

The shield intercepted her thrust while the burly man attacked from the opposite side. The Death Knight parried his sword, but that left its shoulder exposed long enough for The Leonard’s axe to strike.

The armor dented beneath the blow. They had finally caused actual damage, and the red lights within the Death Knight’s eyes immediately turned toward The Leonard.

"Oh, fuck," The Leonard said as the shield struck him in the chest and sent him flying backward. The Death Knight attempted to pursue him, but Kael intercepted it with another Heft-enhanced punch.

The battle continued for several minutes, then dozens more.

The Death Knight did not become worse as time passed, but the climbers did.

The mage’s spell remained active, though sweat poured down her face and empty mana potions accumulated around her position. Every few minutes, she drank another potion, discarded the container, and reached for the next.

The purple chains remained in place, but their glow slowly weakened. The spear wielder’s breathing became heavier, the burly man’s movements slowed, and The Leonard began using less ambitious swings.

Kael felt his internal energy draining continuously.

The Death Knight showed no comparable signs of deterioration.

Its posture and sword speed remained unchanged because it had no breath to become ragged. The shield continued moving with the same merciless precision it had possessed at the beginning.

Nearly an hour passed, yet the Death Knight remained standing. The green aura around its shield had cracked dozens of times, but it had never broken.

Kael retreated from another swing with his breathing heavier than before. The burly man leaned against his sword for half a second too long, and the Death Knight immediately noticed the lapse.

The undead attacked him, forcing Kael to intercept with another fiery punch against the shield. Pushing each side back away from each other in another stalemate.

So far, the clear victor was the Lesser Death Knight.