Edrick felt his intestines being punctured and shredded as the Red Guardian twisted his claws in the wound.
The scion dispelled the Kanabo and used both of his hands to clap down on both sides of his opponentâs head, discombobulating the Blutgar severely enough to ensure that he wouldnât be swinging his lacerating tongue for a little while.
However, driven by instincts, the crimson beast ripped out his claws from the nobleâs abdomen to step backâAlbeit with a stumble. The blow had left him with a blurry vision and ringing ears.
The sudden motion tore a huge gash across Edrick's stomach and innards, leading to partly cut-up guts spilling out.
This wasnât the first time he had been eviscerated. Back when he would train with Ku Xing, she would often do things like thisâŠ
Nonetheless, a fair amount of blood was pouring out. There was a need to put an end to this fight quickly before the blood loss weakened himâFor as good as his heart was at pumping out blood, it definitely couldnât outdo the bleeding from various sources across his body.
Likewise, the currently dazed Red Guardian wasnât going to be healing his shredded left arm any time soon, either. Now was the time for Anoteros to act.
The giant sasquatchâs chest bulked up as he inhaled profoundly... Right before unleashing a roar. This abilityâAcquired from his Cannibal Sasquatch Lord BloodlineâWas pushed to its limits here. It was to the point that Edrick nearly snapped his vocal cords on the spot while unleashing the roar at nearly point-blank range of the Blutgar.
His adversaryâs already ringing ears turned bloody as his eardrums burst, while the sheer force of the roar slammed into his body, throwing him backwards into a wall of the pale red temple. Although still disoriented greatly, the protector quickly rose, slamming his fist into the ground and cracking the stone. He opened his maw and unleashed his tongue straight at Edrick, aiming to stab right through the scionâs chest and heart in one fell swoop.
As far as this went, Anoteros had either been expecting this or a blast of ambient energy. However, he guessed that the Red Guardian was still too discombobulated to actually control energy⊠Regardless, this wasnât an unexpected attack.
As the tongue approached, Edrick summoned a sword in his giant, simian hand. His first swing slashed right through the tongue, causing it to recoil and flail like a freshly headless snake, before it was severed into several more pieces by Anoteros.
The Blutgar groaned in pain, and it seemed like the agony sobered him up, as he immediately followed with another energy-based attack. This time, he channelled the ambient energies of Eltysia into his claws, swinging them to manifest five flying blades of energy, all of which soared through the air straight at the human.
Edrick leapt upward, feeling the flying slashes displace the air beneath his feet as they passed near. He soon slammed into the ceiling of the templeâs edge, using it to launch himself down at the Red Guardian. He slammed down into his opponent, crushing him into the ground before bringing both hands together into a âdouble axe handleâ, striking down onto the crimson beastâs face once before breaking out into a flurry of punches.
With the defenderâs head resting against the ground, the attacks were especially effective, but only lasted for a few seconds before Anoteros was brutally flung backwards by a burst of ambient energy. He had known it would be coming, but he needed to commit to a series of attacks to deal some damage and have a shot at ending this fight soon.
Edrickâs back slammed into a pillar, but he landed on his feet, watching as the Red Guardian struggled to pull himself up. His monstrous face was no longer recognisable after the pummelling session he had just been put through. His balance was completely off.
His eyes were filled with blood, his face was broken, his ears were completely destroyed, his left arm was pretty much gone, and he had lost a whole lot of blood throughout it all⊠He was damaged to the point that he could barely heal anythingâEven less since Edrick was right here, ready to swoop in and strike if he dared to attempt to heal instead of fightâŠ
Blood cascaded out of his mouth as he grunted.
The Red Guardian could barely believe that he had been pushed so far by an outsider. He could only wonder why the realm had chosen the human noble over him. He was loyal to the deathâWhile EdrickâŠ? The human wasnât trustworthy in the least. The scion from beyond the confines of Eltysia was very clearly in it for his own benefits.
He would never be loyal to the realm... So what was it that she found so great about him?
The BlutgarâDirect and unique creation of Eltysia herselfâRoared at the top of his lungs, flooding his body with an excessive amount of ambient energy, so much that his skin began rupturing⊠It was to the point that every ounce of energy in the surroundings was gone in a wide area around him.
His tail bent into a spring, and his claws dug into the stone floor in front of him. Pushing and pulling himself forward, he was like a cannonball headed straight for Anoteros.
It was hard to tell, but the hairy goliath smiled as he concentrated his feral energy in his right fist, standing his ground in the face of his fast-approaching adversary.
The sudden surge of speed from the Blutgar was not unavoidable, and it would probably be best to just try to evade it rather than stand in place⊠But Edrick was currently possessed by a desire to fight. He hadnât exactly gotten many good fights since his arrival in this world, after allâŠ
Thus, he did not budge and instead focused on the incoming mass of red. One nice thing about speeding projectiles or beings was that if their speed was constant and their trajectory set in stone⊠Then it was actually very easy to intercept them. As long as the speed wasnât utterly overwhelming, it could be done. So long as you were good enough at gauging such things.
The only question that would be left was simple: Could you actually stop it? The answer to this question here was unclear, but Anoteros went for it anyway. He focused all of his strength into one single move.
Just as the Blutgar was about to collide with him, he punched downward at the Red Guardianâs head, striking him directlyâŠ
The realm protectorâs momentum was severely diminished as he slammed into the human noble. Both of them were launched through a pillar, which partly collapsed on top of themâŠ
Pale red dust filled the air as a loud creaking sound pierced through all other sounds.
The pillar wasnât content with just partly collapsing. It was dead-set on fully falling over on top of the two combatantsâŠ