City of Desire

Never!

I would rather die than retreat. Retreat would leave my men at this monster's mercy, and I will not do that—not even to save my own life.

I calmed my emotions and stabilized my aura, pulling it back from the skills. I have never done this in a battle; it is too risky, and I have never truly succeeded at the level Knight wanted.

So, I shouldn't be doing this in a battle, but pushing the aura forcefully into the skill wouldn't be enough.

I need enough power that will give me a chance against the freaking monster; pushing the aura forcefully into the skill wouldn't give me that. The way the Knight showed would.

I could see the Shardmaw's head coming closer to my shield, and I wanted to force my aura into my skills, but I suppressed that urge.

I let the aura flow gently until it finally divided into smaller distributaries, each stream moving toward a different skill.

As it reached the skill, I very much wanted to push it into it. Especially since the monster's head is just inches away from my shield, but still, I did not.

I kept it flowing gently; I didn't hurry, despite wanting to do so very much.

Tributaries reached the skill and entered them. Seeing that a surprise couldn't help but appear in my heart. There was no resistance.

Even when I succeeded after so many tries, before, there was always resistance.

Now, there is none, and within a moment, a massive amount of aura filled my skills. Even the monster seemed to have noticed, but it didn't stop.

Instead, it seemed to drive its head even harder.

Finally, its head crashed against my shield, and I felt a massive force, like I had never felt before. It is at least four times as great as its strength in its claws, and that is terrifying.

I shook and felt fractures across my body before I took steps back with an Anchored Step.

Each step creates a dent in the story floor.

As I retreated, a wave hit me.

Someone awakened the aura; it made me curious, but I pushed the thoughts away and focused on my skills.

I finally stopped and turned to the monster with my bleeding eyes, which was still coming at me and looking at me with shock, seeing me, stopping its movement only after taking three steps.

I gritted at it before shooting with the power of Iron Rebuttal, while the gentle flow of aura was still entering inside my skill.

It roared and moved its teeth toward me, while I pushed my shield forward.

The shield crashed against the monster with Thunderous Bash. I felt the deeper bone fractures and the pain that came with it, but I stopped the monster while only taking two steps back.

"You're not so powerful after all!" I taunted and shot toward it.

It roared and attacked with its claws. I moved my shield forward with Thunderous Bash, feeling the pain from the broken bones in my arm.

I bore it, and my shield crashed against its claws.

This time, it only shook me, making me grin, while I swung my sword with the power of Iron Rebuttal, along with Edge Blade and Sunder Slash.

Direct offense is risky against such a monster, especially with only a few moves.

One advantage of a shield warrior is that I could take time to understand the enemy, but here, there is no time. My injured bones are worse after each clash.

If I did nothing, it would kill me, while I only just defended.

My sword clashed against its claws, barely making a scratch on them, while sending a shock through my body and damaging some of my bones.

Seeing that, the monster looked at me mockingly, but soon saw the shield coming at it.

It brought its head forward, clashing against it. It gave me a chance to free my sword, and I launched another attack, while more aura filled my skill.

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I am feeling drained, but I am drawing on my deepest reserves, which I have never done before, and directing it into my skills.

Once more, my sword clashed against its claws while it moved its head to chomp at my head.

It moved fast, faster than I had thought it could, but like the monster earlier. It seemed to forget that I have the tower shield. If it wants to do anything against me, it will have to get past it.

I changed the direction of the shield a little, and it clashed against its mouth.

"You will have to try better than that if you want to eat me!" I taunted, making it roar, while once more my sword moved at it.

I was pushing it as fast as I could, even with the power of the Iron Rebuttal. I could not move past its claws; they caught my sword.

A moment later, my shield clashed against its head hard, barely doing anything.

The monster is too powerful; my attacks aren't working!

It brought hopelessness into my heart, but I crushed it and attacked it with my sword, harnessing every speck of aura I could from deep within me.

Once more, its claws reached in front of my sword, when something happened.

It activated.

My newest skill, the one I got after I advanced to Lv. 30; the frustrating skill, which is so very hard to activate.

No Quarter.

Immediately, I felt the world growing clear, my senses sharpening, strength filling my veins, pain dulling into the background.

The claw caught my sword, but the monster's eyes widened as my sword reached past them and crashed against its face.

I don't have much time!

No Quarter is a skill of an unrelenting combo of shield and sword in tight timing. It's a powerful skill, but it only remains active for a short time.

I only have seven seconds, six and a half.

I unlocked my sword from its claws and attacked. It is faster, stronger.

Once more, the claws lashed out to catch me, but this time my sword scraped past them and bit deep. The creature roared and tried to recoil, only for my shield to crash into its face with bone-shaking force.

A moment later, my sword slashed across its neck.

There was resistance, but a great power lay behind my attack. It tore through the crystal, leaving a large cut across its neck.

It roared angrily in pain, but once more, my shield bashed against its face, while my sword thrust into the wound I had made.

I didn't push it inside; that would be bad, given how it is moving.

Instead, I pulled back and bashed my shield against it.

If I had been using only a small shield or sword, I wouldn't be able to do this. Still, it is not without cost: crashing, spreading of damage across my bones, and blood coming out of me.

The monster is powerful, and every clash with it is making my injuries worse.

I have to finish it soon, or my condition becomes such that I won't be able to keep going.

So, I bash its head against my shield once more. It tried to avoid, but it's a huge shield. Using the chance, I slashed across its neck once more.

Opening up the wound, which released large amounts of blood on the ground, but that is far from enough.

It is not enough! I told myself.

For a person, it's a death sentence, but for a monster like this. It's a serious injury, but with enough time, it could fight and recover.

It didn't even reduce its power that much. It could still fight with near-peak strength.

I moved my shield toward it, and it tried to retreat, but I pushed anchored Stride as I never did and slammed my shield against its head before slashing my sword at its neck, widening the cut further, but not enough to kill it.

One second more!

I only have one more second before No Quarter wears off.

Once it did, I would lose all chance to kill this monster, and it would kill me and then my men. I cannot let that happen; I have to kill it with this attack.

So, I moved toward the monster; it roared at me while it retreated.

If it had known my true condition, it wouldn't have. It is a monster; if it had been a person, it would have been able to see it and stood its ground until I spent all my energy.

Seeing me coming, it lowered its head.

The shield bash might not injure it, but it will affect it. So, now it is lowering its head, so that my shield would clash against thicker crystals.

It will also help to protect its injuries.

Seeing that I smiled, the shield left my hand and gripped my sword, thrusting it forward with even greater speed and power.

The monster realized what was happening and moved its head up to chomp me, but it was too late. My sword reached it and pierced through the large cut I had already made.

It entered inside, and I pushed it forward until more than half of it pierced into the body of the monster.

There was still movement and power, but the monster roared and reacted. I let go and retreated. The monster glared at me and came toward me with a sword lodged in its neck.

It lodged its neck at a weird angle. There is a large amount of blood coming through it, but it didn't kill it.

I retreated, but it's fast.

The boost of No Quarter disappeared, and I could barely keep my aura.

Thankfully, the defensive shield appeared in front of it to block its path. It roared strangely with a sword lodged inside and blasted through the shields, but not at the speed it used to.

It roared in rage and followed, breaking one shield after another.

It continued before finally slowing down, even with its massive vitality. It couldn't continue for long, given the amount of blood it is losing.

Still, it followed me, and I retreated until it slowed down enough, when I unsheathed the short sword from my waist and moved toward the monster.

It roared and moved to chomp my head at a weird angle, but I dodged it and thrust my sword into its eyes.

It roared in pain, but didn't die.

Though the moment allowed me to remove my long sword from its neck, creating a shower of blood, most of which covered me.

I didn't care and swung my sword with every bit of strength.

I made a large cut, but not enough to decapitate it. The crystals covering its neck made it hard, and I also couldn't use enchantments on the blade, which would have made this much easier.

It took me, hacking at it three more tries before I could finally decapitate the monster.

I watched as I took long, painful, labored breaths.

I wanted to collapse, but the battle is far from over; there are still a lot of monsters, and until all of them die, I cannot stop, no matter how much I just want to stop.