Lexa remained where she was.
Not a single unnecessary movement.
The crimson blade rested lazily at her side while her crimson eyes quietly searched the battlefield.
Silence.
Even Dante found it amusing.
"Interesting."
Elric had vanished almost ten seconds ago.
A normal opponent would have begun searching.
Would have become impatient.
Would have revealed an opening.
Lexa did none of those.
She simply waited.
Within the shadows, Elric frowned.
She's disciplined...
Most swordsmen hated fighting what they couldn't see.
She looked almost...comfortable.
His gaze drifted across the mountain range.
Towering cliffs.
Countless overlapping shadows.
It was the perfect battlefield for him.
Without another thought—
He disappeared.
A ripple spread through one shadow before another rippled twenty meters away.
Shadow Leap.
Then another.
And another.
Each movement was silent.
Invisible.
Testing.
Watching.
Searching.
Lexa's eyes followed nothing.
Instead...
She listened.
Wind.
Loose gravel.
The faint scrape of boots.
Nothing else.
"..."
Elric smiled.
Good.
She couldn't track him.
That meant he dictated the pace.
His body erupted from the shadow at her left.
Twin daggers flashed.
A killing strike aimed directly for the neck.
Lexa's reaction was almost disappointingly simple.
One step.
Nothing more.
Her body drifted backward by barely half a foot.
The blades missed by inches.
Fast.
Before his momentum died, Elric spun.
His entire body rotated with assassin precision.
Both daggers carved a silver arc toward her face.
Again—
One step.
Her feet barely shifted.
Her upper body leaned away just enough for steel to whistle past her nose.
No wasted movement.
No panic.
Only efficiency.
At the same moment—
Her sword moved.
Not toward Elric.
Past him.
Elric's instincts screamed.
He dropped.
The crimson blade carved through the space where his neck had been.
But it didn't stop.
The slash curved.
Flowing.
Changing direction midway through the swing.
Like water refusing to obey gravity.
Instead of completing a straight cut...
The blade traced a graceful sideways crescent.
Lower.
Faster.
His eyes widened.
A flowing stance...?
There wasn't a single pause between attacks.
Each miss naturally transformed into the next strike.
No reset.
No recovery.
Only continuous pressure.
His shadow exploded upward.
Shadow Forge.
A curved shield of condensed darkness intercepted the blade.
CLANG!!
The impact echoed through the valley.
Lexa's sword failed to break through.
For the first time...
She looked mildly surprised.
Elric caught it.
Good.
The shield dissolved instantly.
His body vanished before her counterattack could arrive.
Shadowmeld.
Less than half a second later—
He emerged directly behind her.
Twin daggers descended.
A perfect pincer strike.
One blade toward the throat.
The other toward the spine.
This time—
Lexa didn't even turn around.
Her grip shifted.
The sword rolled effortlessly through her fingers.
The forward grip became reverse.
She thrust backward.
Straight toward his abdomen.
Elric calculated instantly.
If I continue...
We both die.
His left foot stomped.
Shadow Forge.
A tendril erupted from beneath him.
It wrapped around the incoming sword.
His daggers never slowed.
Got you—
CLANG!
His expression froze.
Two crimson swords materialized from thin air.
Each no longer than an arming sword.
Each floating independently.
They intercepted both daggers perfectly.
"...Autonomous?"
His pupils contracted.
He hadn't even noticed them forming.
The floating blades rotated.
Dozens of crimson droplets detached from their edges.
They hovered.
Compressed.
Hardened.
Needles.
Hundreds.
Elric's heartbeat skipped.
Too close.
Shadow Leap.
His body vanished just as the storm erupted.
The needles shredded the ground where he had stood.
Rock splintered.
Dust exploded skyward.
He reappeared nearly thirty meters away beneath the mountain's shadow.
He had barely straightened—
The blood stopped falling.
Every droplet hanging in the air trembled.
Then—
They flew backward.
Reforming.
Hundreds of crimson needles stared directly at him.
"...What?"
They hadn't disappeared.
They hadn't dispersed.
They had simply...
Returned.
The second volley screamed toward him.
"Tch."
Shadow Forge.
Darkness surged upward.
This time forming an enormous dome around him.
The crimson rain hammered against it relentlessly.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
The impacts never stopped.
Lexa finally moved.
With a single thought—
Five liters of refined blood burst from spatial storage.
It condensed instantly.
Two gigantic crimson greatswords towered over her.
Amber's breathing caught.
"...Those aren't blood..."
"They're solid..."
The enormous blades descended.
BOOM!!
The shadow dome shuddered.
Again.
BOOM!!
Cracks spread across its surface.
A third impact.
Then a fourth.
Each strike heavier than the last.
Like siege hammers battering castle gates.
The fifth strike fractured the shield.
The sixth—
Shattered it entirely.