Chapter 368: Honorable

The Death Knight moved, bringing its sword down once more. Kael watched the attack and realized the creature had become considerably slower. The difference no longer came solely from the Tower’s adjustment. Half its ribs were gone, several skeletal joints had been knocked out of alignment, and one shoulder sat lower than the other while the flames inside its torso continued burning whatever remained.

Kael stepped aside, allowing the sword to strike empty ground with an ease that would have been unimaginable earlier. He moved inside the creature’s reach and attacked with his left arm, driving a hook into the Death Knight’s jaw.

The dried jawbone tore completely away from its skull and spun several meters through the air. Such a strike would have left any living opponent unconscious on the ground, but the Death Knight immediately swung its sword again.

"Right. Undead."

There was no pain response, no blackout, and no concern over half its face being missing. The Death Knight possessed only the intention to kill, and its sword descended with enough force to cut through Kael’s left arm and continue into his shoulder.

Kael turned his gauntlet sideways instead of trying to catch the blade directly. Sparks exploded when the sword struck the reinforced outer plate and slid along it. Kael angled his arm, guiding the weapon away until it buried itself in the earth beside him.

He stepped forward and smashed the forehead of his Spartan-style helmet into the Death Knight’s armored skull. The metallic collision knocked the creature backward, but it staggered only briefly before stabilizing.

Kael grinned beneath his helmet. "Presence."

His existence slipped from the undead’s perception again.

[Presence is waning.]

Kael ignored the notification because he already understood. Presence had never been designed for repeated use during a direct confrontation, especially when the enemy stood several feet away and knew exactly where he had been. The rune could not convince the Death Knight forever that the man actively punching holes through it did not exist.

Kael only needed half a second. Presence released, and he appeared behind the Death Knight before driving his left fist into the side of its body near where a liver would have been on something alive. The blow bent the damaged frame sideways.

The Death Knight answered with a wide sword swing. Kael ducked beneath it, rose into the opening, and punched the center of its chest hard enough to break the sternum. The creature slid backward, but Kael followed with another strike and then another.

He fought with the left hand alone while his fractured right arm hung uselessly at his side, throbbing with every movement. The Death Knight attacked, and Kael weaved through the pattern he had spent an hour learning. He ducked beneath the sword, stepped aside from the broken shield stump, leaned away from the next swing, and answered with another punch that sent the undead staggering.

Kael began enjoying himself, if only a little. He had spent an hour being humiliated by this creature. Five climbers had attacked it from every direction, yet the Lesser Death Knight had made them look like amateurs trying to overwhelm someone who actually knew how to fight.

Its shield was ruined now, its bones were breaking, and its sword had slowed enough for Kael to study every movement. More importantly, Kael was learning. Rock could not survive being punched forever, steel eventually failed, and apparently Death Knights did as well.

The undead raised its sword, and Kael watched the wrist. Most sane people would have attacked the weapon or simply dodged, but Kael struck the hand instead. His left fist smashed into the exposed bones around the creature’s fingers and shattered them.

The enormous sword fell, burying part of its edge in the dirt.

"There."

Kael looked from the weapon to the undead and smiled.

"Now you don’t have a sword."

The Death Knight lunged, but Kael caught its remaining arm and twisted. The weakened bones gave far more easily than before. He stepped forward, turned his hips, and used the creature’s momentum to lift it from the ground before slamming it down.

The first impact cracked the earth. Kael hauled the undead upright and slammed it down again, breaking armor, then repeated the motion as bones scattered across the ground. By the fourth impact, the Death Knight’s body had begun coming apart.

Kael lifted it once more, but the arm tore free and left the undead flying away from him. He remained standing with the severed limb in his left hand for a moment before tossing it aside.

The Death Knight rolled across the ground, stopped, and rose again. It had one arm, no shield, no sword, no jaw, a burning chest, and a rib cage that had been broken almost beyond recognition. It still advanced without hesitation, its remaining hand opening into a claw while red light burned inside its eyes.

Kael’s amusement faded into respect. The Fist King’s lessons, the undead Kael had encountered, and every story he had heard all agreed upon the same truth: undead did not stop. Taking their legs made them crawl. Taking their arms forced them to drag themselves forward. Breaking their spines left them trying to bite, and even a severed skull would close its jaws if someone brought a hand too near.

The Lesser Death Knight had challenged him to an honorable duel, and it intended to finish that duel with whatever remained. Kael respected its determination, though that did not mean he intended to let it claw his face off.

The Death Knight charged. Kael shifted his weight and allowed the Wonderlusting Demons footwork to guide his step. He rotated, turned his back for a fraction of a second, and delivered a brutal backward horse kick without using a rune or dumping internal energy through several different effects.

His heel struck the Death Knight directly in the sternum. The chest collapsed, the remaining ribs broke apart, and Kael’s leg drove completely through the damaged torso before launching the undead backward.

He pulled his leg free as the creature hit the ground. It moved immediately, digging its remaining hand into the dirt and dragging its ruined body forward.

Kael walked toward it. The Death Knight raised its head, and the red flames inside its skull continued burning as he stopped above it.

"Yeah."

The undead reached toward him. Kael lifted one boot.

"Was a good fight."

He brought it down. The skull shattered beneath his heel, extinguishing the red flames and leaving the body motionless.

Kael remained standing over it for several seconds. Experience had taught him better than to trust an undead corpse immediately, but nothing moved.

[You have defeated the Lesser Death Knight.]

[Honorable Duel completed.]

[Final Wave cleared.]

Kael exhaled as another window appeared.

[Floor 11 has been successfully defended.]

Another followed.

[Unique Solo Clear condition has been fulfilled.]

Kael’s eyebrows rose as the messages began multiplying.

[Calculating Causality Compensation...]

[Calculating transferred Contribution...]

[Calculating enhanced Floor Rewards...]

[Calculating Unique Rewards...]

Kael slowly looked from the shattered remains beneath his boot to the fortress and then back toward the flood of notifications. His right arm throbbed, his left gauntlet had been scratched to hell, and one of his strongest punches had nearly destroyed his own arm. Some higher being apparently wanted him dead, and Kael had somehow turned a five-person Floor into a solo deathmatch against a monster that belonged twenty floors higher.

Kael smiled. "Well..."

One final notification appeared.

[Reward calculation complete.]

His smile widened.

"Let’s see how much that asshole paid me."