Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 357: Paragon of Combat.

Pulling out the oddly shaped, pitch-black sword from his [Void Storage], Lucius held it tightly with his left hand to calm its trembling. 

Opening his mouth, he softly spoke, "Work with me to kill these ghosts," with a perfectly neutral tone.

The sword in Lucius' hands was obviously Thorn, Olivia's Living Weapon. He had caught the sword during Olivia's final trial and had stored it within his [Void Storage] with the intent of returning it to her after she completes her ascension. However, due to the recent stream of unexpected and complicated situations, he had naturally forgotten to do so.

Thorn, upon hearing Lucius' words, hesitated for a second before letting out a sword cry in agreement. It then adjusted its body to better fit into Lucius' palms and then released all of its suppressed Sword Energy.

Previously, due to Olivia's lacking cultivation, Thorn wasn't able to shine to the best of its abilities and was being restrained by her. However, in Lucius' hands, this restraint disappeared. In his hands, Thorn sensed that it would be able to shine to the best of its abilities.

As such, with its innate desire to showcase its abilities shining through, coupled with its naturally favorable alignment towards Lucius due to its mistress' influence, Thorn submitted in obedience. 

Feeling the weapon submit and realign itself within his hands, Lucius inwardly nodded and then closed his eyes, retracting his soul power sense. His breaths came to a halt and the rapidly flowing soul power within his body's channels also came to a pause.

At this instant, Lucius radiated a feeling of absolute calmness. Or rather, the feeling of lull that came before an intense storm.

Just as the first Rule Guardian and the first couple illusory chains entered the five-meter boundary around him, Lucius' eyes snapped wide open.

His left eye socket had pitch-black irises with the whites around it replaced by scarlet. His right eye socket was the exact opposite, with crimson-colored irises and pitch-black sclera.

[Flaw Detection] had activated, time had slowed down to a grinding halt, and the world in Lucius' vision changed.

Gone were the translucent, golden bodies of the Rule Guardians. Gone were the snaking branches of the illusory chains. Gone were the infinite clouds of red around him and the golden steps underneath him.

In his vision were colorful strings. 

Bundles of intertwining, bifurcating, spiraling, looping, and messy mass of multi-colored strings. Millions and millions of strings were all strung against a dark and static background.

For most people, having her perspectives suddenly changed into such a confusing mess of a scene would throw them off and scare them. This was not the case for Lucius though. The instant he snapped open his eyes and saw this scene

he knew exactly what to do and how to move.

Stepping back with his right foot, Lucius created just enough space to swing his scythe upwards. His timing had been so perfect that the very instant that the weapon was swung upwards the tip of its blade pierced through the chin of the foremost Rule Guardian, hooked onto his jaw, and tore his head off.

While having made this move, Lucius' left hand did not remain stationary as he diagonally swung Thorn with all his strength, the muscles on his left arm bulging. As he swung the blade, the illusory chain which was intended to latch onto his left shoulder met the sword in its path and crashed against it.

Being hit by an overwhelming amount of force was barely sufficient to nudge the path of the illusory chain by a few centimeters causing it to veer off its original path. 

Of course, as the laws of motion state, 'every action has an equal and opposite reaction', it would only be natural for the sword to recoil due to the tremendous opposing force. A force, so overwhelming, that if Lucius failed to adequately deal with it, his arm might just be torn off.

And deal with it, he did.

Just as the sword recoiled and the force was about to transfer onto his hand, Lucius suddenly let go of the weapon just as it was swinging backward. He then instantly rotated his left arm, pulled back his left shoulder, pushed out his chest, and swung the scythe in his right hand.

While that action was quite wordy to describe, what Lucius had effectively done was cancel the majority of the force from being transferred onto himself by abandoning the weapon and using whatever amount of force that managed to get transferred into his left arm towards his attacking arm.

In short, he used the counterforce from the sword attack to fuel his scythe attack. 

The edge of the scythe, having gained an extra boost of momentum tore into the mass of Rule Guardians before it. Heads were lopped off, bodies were torn, and weapons were destroyed. Lucius was utterly ruthless and perfectly precise with his attacks as he systematically tore through the horde of enemies.

Each attack used an absolute minimum amount of energy due to excellent positioning, perfect pathing, clever use of rebound forces, and impeccable deflecting. 

Each attack, when placed under the review of even the most nitpicking and scrutinizing of eyes, was faultless and perfect. 

Even Thorn did not miss out on its glory as Lucius used the nimble, flexible weapons in the most creative of ways to primarily deflect the illusory chain and secondarily to assist his main attacking weapon in maximizing its efficiency.

The renown of the Undying Killer in Lucius' previous life did not come from the strength of his soul. [Killer] was a rather ordinary soul type, to be honest. His renown came solely from his godly combat skills.

Lucius was the paragon of combat ability and fighting skills. 

And under this relentless assault from hordes of opponents, his skill only continued to grow more and more perfect.

The movements of the secondary weapon, Thorn, grew increasingly refined and Lucius started to use less and less of his soul power and energy to claim greater results. 

Exactly seventy-three seconds passed since the start of this showdown and the sounds of battle finally came to a stop.

With terrifying cuts and blood pouring out from all over his body, Lucius stood alone with his left arm missing, his right arm broken but still holding onto his scythe, and his mouth clutching onto Thorn.

The suit of armor that he wore over him had been shredded beyond its ability to repair and remained hanging onto him by a thread, in tatters. 

'Enemies destroyed. Time is running out. Must immediately move.' 

Fighting with every ounce of strength and skill had resulted in enormous depletions in not only his physical energy and soul power but also his mental strength.

Currently, Lucius' mind had automatically entered a low power state which resulted in his thoughts being incredibly linear and curt, similar to a robot.

Regenerating his left arm first, he then used it to set the bones in his right hands. After a series of cracking noises, the bones in his right hand were more or less set in place, and somewhat remotely functional. 

He then grabbed the sword in his mouth using the newly regenerated hand, and wordlessly leaped up, narrowly escaping an illusory chain, towards the next golden step.