Chapter 66: Sky-Rending Blade
Inside a large underground parking lot, Su Xiao and Hero King Gilgamesh faced each other from dozens of meters apart.
"Don't spout meaningless nonsense. You came here for nothing more than to fight me."
Su Xiao slowly drew the Dragon-Slaying Flash from his waist.
"You overestimate yourself. I, the King—"
"Gilgamesh."
Su Xiao interrupted the Hero King.
"If you were truly determined to pursue the Holy Grail, you wouldn't be here. The best choice would be to find a Master who has already lost their Servant, like Kayneth from the Lancer camp. That's a decent option, at least you could continue participating in the Holy Grail War."
"Heh~ That mongrel."
The Hero King laughed, a disdainful smirk on his face.
"At the root of it, you're unwilling to accept because I cut off one of your arms, aren't you? So unwilling to accept that you'd rather abandon the Holy Grail just to kill me."
Su Xiao walked slowly toward the Hero King.
"So what if I am?"
Golden spatial ripples appeared behind the Hero King. This was his primary combat ability now, the Gate of Babylon.
"If that's the case, then that's perfect."
Su Xiao rarely conversed with an enemy for so long before a battle, and he even had a smile on his face.
"If you have the skill, kill me. Otherwise, I'll definitely cut off your head this time."
Boom.
Stone chips flew from beneath Su Xiao's feet as he gripped his longsword and charged toward the Hero King.
Whoosh~
Su Xiao used an improved version of Shave, vanishing from the Hero King's perception.
The Hero King had already suffered a loss once, so he wouldn't repeat the same mistake. Hundreds of golden spatial ripples appeared above his head, each one firing Noble Phantasms.
Boom, boom, boom...
Noble Phantasms rained down around the Hero King like a storm. The area within ten meters of him became a forbidden zone for living beings. Spears, swords, and other weapons pierced the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.
Clang, clang, clang...
Sparks flew, and a dense series of sharp sounds echoed. Su Xiao appeared five meters behind the Hero King, dozens of Counter Shields forming a large barrier above his head.
Several Noble Phantasms flew at him from the front. Su Xiao had no choice but to retreat temporarily.
The Hero King's strategy was effective. Since he couldn't track Su Xiao's movements, he used himself as bait, suppressing Su Xiao with a wide-area attack.
The rain of Noble Phantasms from above stopped. The Counter Shields, now covered in fine cracks, broke apart again into dozens of pieces, floating around Su Xiao.
The Hero King had become serious. Even without using Enuma Elish, he was still difficult to deal with.
Su Xiao glanced at the Noble Phantasms on the ground. Their ranks were not low; the worst were B-rank.
The Hero King was of the Archer class, the Knight of the Bow. Although every Archer in the Holy Grail War's history had surprisingly strong close-combat abilities—enough to make one speechless—the Hero King was an exception.
Without using Enuma Elish, the Hero King's close-combat ability was mediocre. If Su Xiao got close, he could dismember him in an instant.
Su Xiao's current problem was how to get close to the Hero King. The spatial ripples above his head were highly targeted. As soon as Su Xiao approached, those ripples would fire Noble Phantasms, with an attack density that was essentially carpet-bombing.
Moreover, the Gate of Babylon contained too many Noble Phantasms, too numerous to count.
"Berserker, state your name."
The Hero King stood with his arms crossed, chin slightly raised. The spatial ripples behind him shimmered with golden light.
Su Xiao frowned, hesitated for a moment, then spoke: "White Night."
"White Night..."
The spatial ripples around the Hero King suddenly disappeared. Su Xiao was stunned. Had the other party given up?
"I don't have much time, so..."
A spatial ripple appeared beside the Hero King's hand, and a sword hilt slowly emerged from it. That was the hilt of Enuma Elish.
Enuma Elish manifested: a golden hilt, a cylindrical blade, the blade covered in red patterns.
The cylindrical blade was clearly not meant for slashing; it was used to 'cut the world.' That claim was obviously an exaggeration, but cutting through space was no problem.
The Hero King raised Enuma Elish high. He no longer had a Master to provide magical energy, so a war of attrition was not wise.
"Mortal, tremble before my majesty and embrace your fate."
Red sword winds burst from Enuma Elish, causing the entire underground parking lot to shake.
Crack, crack.
Cracks appeared in the ceiling of the parking lot. The load-bearing structures above were destroyed, and broken concrete mixed with soil poured down.
Boom!
The red sword winds spread outward. Concrete fragments that touched the red sword winds silently disappeared, as if they had never existed.
With the Hero King as the center, the red sword winds rapidly expanded. Whether concrete or metal, anything that touched the red sword winds vanished.
The red sword winds surged toward Su Xiao. Given their speed, retreating now was clearly not a wise choice.
Su Xiao sheathed the Dragon-Slashing Flash. He gripped the hilt with his right hand and the scabbard with his left, holding the sheathed blade horizontally in front of him.
Watching the approaching red sword winds, Su Xiao let out a long breath. He converted 300 mana points into Cyan Steel Shadow energy, which enveloped the sheathed Dragon-Slashing Flash.
The longsword slowly slid out of its scabbard, emitting a blue light. This blue light had an extremely strong cutting power, and Su Xiao's aura grew sharper and sharper.
Shing.
Fine cut marks appeared on the ground beneath Su Xiao's feet. At the same time, the Counter Shields beside him, already covered in cracks, vanished, and dozens of brand-new Counter Shields appeared.
These Counter Shields had various shapes, not the hexagonal ones from before. If combined, they would form a full suit of armor—a translucent armor made of energy shields.
One by one, the Counter Shields flew toward Su Xiao. In an instant, dozens of them assembled on his body into a full suit of armor, even covering his head.
"Sky-Rending."
The muscles in Su Xiao's legs bulged slightly. With a whoosh, he charged into the red sword winds and vanished.
Zheng!
A blue light flashed through the underground parking lot in a straight line, passing directly through the red sword winds and the Hero King within them.
The Hero King felt a chill on his arm. An arm holding Enuma Elish fell before him.
Enuma Elish hit the ground. The red sword winds disappeared. A hole over a dozen meters wide appeared in the ceiling of the parking lot, letting sunlight stream in.
Veins bulged on the Hero King's forehead. He had lost another arm.
With a thud, Su Xiao collapsed not far behind the Hero King. Blood spread beneath him.
"Trying to resist Enuma Elish with a mortal body. Ignorant scum."
The Hero King turned his head to look at the fallen Su Xiao, laughing heartily.
Su Xiao's body was covered in dense, crisscrossing wounds. The arm holding the sword was missing, and the Dragon-Slashing Flash was stuck in the ground not far away.
"Cough, cough, cough~"
Su Xiao coughed up several mouthfuls of blood. He propped himself up with his remaining arm and looked up at the Hero King.
"Hope you're still this arrogant in a few seconds."
"A powerless threat..."
The Hero King's expression changed. His eyes suddenly widened.
"What... is this?!"