Chapter 36: The Wall Breaker

"Clang!" The axe collided with the heavy longsword, once again erupting in a shower of brilliant sparks.

"Thud!" The figure encased in heavy armor retreated a step, the weight of the plating driving that backward foot deep into the earth.

This was the first time Oka had been forced back in this battle, and it would not be the last.

The axe was knocked aside, and Wang Yu, bathed in his own blood, followed instantly. Behind his heavy visor, Oka’s eyes were grave, yet deep within them lay a hidden core of confidence.

Wang Yu was currently in a state of short-term, explosive overload.

The Baiping Boiling Blood Technique was a method modified by Avia, utilizing runes to cast spells rather than the crude, reality-warping force Wang Yu usually employed.

Thus, the consumption of Void energy was not rapid, balancing perfectly with Wang Yu’s own recovery rate.

However, a technique that forced every organ in the body to run at such extremes could never be sustained.

Blood gushing from endless wounds and the frantic over-stimulation of his viscera were draining Wang Yu’s stamina and life force.

Yet, while the cost was immense, the power gained was not to be underestimated.

A heart pumping faster delivered richer blood, and the abundance of oxygen provided his brain with unparalleled fuel.

He felt a clarity like never before; he even had the illusion that the falling rain had slowed to a crawl.

Every muscle began to ripple, driven into a frenzy by the Void power. At this moment, every fiber of Wang Yu’s being was at its absolute peak.

His iron will prevented him from being overwhelmed by this sudden surge of power or the accompanying agony and pressure.

He made a lightning-fast calculation: three minutes. That was the limit he set for himself. If he did not end this fight in three minutes, he would be the one to fall.

Then, just as he had said before unleashing the Boiling Blood, he would finish this quickly.

He stamped his foot, and under the influence of the sorcery, his own strange battle aura—which could manifest from any part of his body—began to boil as well.

The feeling of fullness was unprecedented, bordering on a painful, bloated sensation.

Since it was overflowing, he would release it. Ripples carried the excess aura from his soles—a pseudo-projection of battle aura.

"Boom!" A small air-burst erupted beneath his feet, a minor explosion that provided sufficient force.

His figure turned into a blur, leaving only a crimson trail in the darkness—the mist of blood spraying from his wounds, atomized by his sheer velocity.

Oka stared fixedly at the suddenly accelerating Wang Yu. The darkness constantly hindered him, but the physique and experience of a formal knight allowed him to track Wang Yu’s path.

The speed had more than doubled; Wang Yu’s current burst was at least 2.5 times his previous limit. Fast, yes, but not fast enough.

A linear charge? It was fast, but such a straight-line sprint, sacrificing mobility for speed, was too simple to block.

Advanced Military Swordsmanship: Charge Counter. Gripping the hilt with both hands, Oka assumed a strange posture, appearing as if he were bracing his sword against the ground.

His eyes narrowed. This was a technique for heavy infantry designed to trade wounds.

Total focus. The moment the enemy entered his range, he would trade injury for injury.

Using a thrusting technique to meet the enemy head-on, relying on the superior defense of his armor: I take a wound, but the enemy dies!

The distance was short, closed in an instant. Muscles tightened; Oka prepared to strike. The armor he wore was the source of his confidence. He might be hurt, but Wang Yu would surely die.

Just as he neared Oka’s attack range, the sprinting Wang Yu stamped the ground, the immense force launching him into the air, his longsword held high.

A leaping strike? Ridiculous. While it was true that such an attack, aided by momentum, carried great force, the price of that power was the inability to change direction in mid-air.

No rational person would choose this move when their strength was evenly matched. It seemed "berserk" had indeed taken his intelligence along with his sanity.

Maintaining his defensive stance, Oka had already fully charged his strike.

His eyes, locked onto Wang Yu’s silhouette, prepared to deliver a precise, lethal blow the moment the enemy lost the ability to maneuver.

However, in the next instant, an invisible platform appeared beneath Wang Yu’s feet. Sorcery: Double Jump was activated.

The slightly tilted, invisible platform was shattered by the frenzied Wang Yu, the massive force propelling his speed even higher.

In a flash, before Oka could react, Wang Yu had already soared over his head.

Damn it, that strange ability of his! Oka sensed a hint of danger. He had not expected that bizarre power to be used in such a way!

He turned with all his might, but the flaw of his iron armor manifested once again. The heavy, full-coverage plating not only made him cumbersome, but the joints inevitably slowed his movements. It was too late!

The wall of steel had not yet turned when Wang Yu’s sorcery triggered again. A second invisible platform appeared in the air.

This time, Wang Yu did not use it to jump, but to accelerate downward!

His muscles unleashed a frantic surge of power, and he kicked the platform above him until it shattered. The downward recoil force made Wang Yu’s descent reach a speed that transcended his rank.

In Oka’s eyes, as he struggled to turn, Wang Yu’s figure blurred for a heartbeat, and then a violent impact struck his head.

Sorcery: Sky Walker. Wang Yu had forced his way through the air, and the force of three accelerations poured every ounce of his terrifying power onto Oka’s skull.

"Skreeee!" Wang Yu’s body skidded diagonally along the ground for a long distance, the grass and soil torn up by the sheer inertia of the blow, sending debris flying everywhere.

A red trail marked the path—the blood spraying from Wang Yu’s wounds under the extreme overload.

Fatigue began to set in; his bodily functions were already decaying under the immense pressure. Only twenty-three seconds had passed.

With such a terrifying expenditure of physical power, exhaustion came faster than expected. One minute—that was likely his limit.

He looked at his enemy. Oka had been driven to his knees by the blow, his armor sinking into the mud, even pushed backward by the impact. That strike should have at least given him a concussion...

But the next moment, in Wang Yu’s vision, Oka stood up again. There was a clear dent in his helmet.

Yet, the man seemed to have suffered no real harm... Wait, Wang Yu’s pupils contracted.

He saw a faint blue glow emanating from the dent in the helmet, and through his inner eye, he perceived a surge of magic—it was runic iron.

Wang Yu clicked his tongue. He hadn't expected this: a full suit of runic iron. This was going to be difficult. Impact-absorbing runes combined with heavy armor.

Wang Yu’s strike, which had erupted with three times the power of his rank, hadn't even broken Oka’s defense.

The figure that had been kneeling was now upright, eyes beneath the helmet staring at the struggling Wang Yu with mockery and derision.

Of course. Such a berserk state could not last. To break through his own internal limits and enter a state of frenzy would only end in his own collapse.

Looking at those wounds, it wouldn't be long before Wang Yu fell on his own.

Oka was no longer in a hurry. His goal had effectively been achieved: to bait the enemy into exhausting himself by forcing a state of extreme consumption.

He would rely on his superior defense and simply drag it out. Like a wall of steel, he would absorb every blow until the enemy spent everything and collapsed.

This was the meaning of the title "Iron-Wall Knight," and the true "deadly rhythm" that dragged enemies into the abyss.

Wang Yu realized he had been played, though perhaps not entirely. If he hadn't used the Boiling Blood, he would have died the moment Oka unleashed his own internal power.

It was simply a gap in strength—a gap in raw capability. Often, one finds that after a dozen schemes, the disparity remains insurmountable.

"Hah..." He took a deep breath and tossed aside the axe he had picked up. It was clear now that shattering that runic iron armor was impossible.

The only way to win was to drive his blade into the enemy’s sole weakness: the narrow slit in the armor used for sight. One minute—could he do it?

To be honest, it was unlikely. Even in his berserk state, Wang Yu only slightly surpassed Oka’s strength, and with Oka’s skill, he only needed to guard that one vital point to leave Wang Yu helpless.

But Wang Yu would never stop until he truly fell. Even if it were impossible, he would give it his all!

Wait... runic iron. A flickering memory suddenly surfaced in his mind amidst the battle. Was Oka’s defense truly unbreakable? It didn't seem so...

A smile touched his lips. The scales of victory began to tilt in his favor!

Without hesitation, he charged! He plunged through the curtain of rain without a moment’s pause. The power of his frenzy allowed Wang Yu to outpace Oka.

A cruel, cold sneer spread across Oka’s face beneath his helmet. Continuing the attack? Wang Yu, unable to break his defense, would only exhaust his stamina and collapse all the faster.

Not delaying for a moment, but continuing the assault? Since you are so eager to die, I shall not be polite.

Gripping his heavy longsword, Orca assumed an impeccable defensive stance.

Facing the charging Wang Yu, he needed to do nothing but defend, waiting for Wang Yu to exhaust himself; this was his greatest specialty.

A figure arrived before him, the longsword tracing a silvery arc straight toward Orca’s face. "Attacking here? Indeed, this is my only opening, but can you actually do it?"

The heavy longsword had already blocked the blade aimed at the gap in Orca’s helmet. As they clashed, Wang Yu’s terrifying force suppressed Orca this time.

His body forced backward by Wang Yu’s immense strength, Orca still maintained a cold sneer. Being pushed back meant nothing; as long as he could not be truly wounded, the end would only be death.

The force from the blade suddenly slackened. Orca was startled, only then noticing that Wang Yu had abandoned the sword-clash, switching to strike a right-handed punch toward his heart.

Is he insane? A feeling of wanting to laugh inexplicably arose in Orca’s heart. Even a heavy axe might not pierce his armor; a fist? What a joke. He didn't even bother to block!

The fist shattered the air and raindrops, the gauntlet-clad hand creating a sonic boom, its momentum appearing truly fearsome.

Driven by Wang Yu’s berserk power, this punch could indeed split mountains and shatter stones, but it was still far inferior to the strike he had aimed at Orca’s head earlier.

Trying to pierce Orca’s defense seemed like nothing more than a delusion.

Orca thought the same, but the next moment, a warning flared. Years of combat instinct gave him a sense of extreme danger: this strike would shatter his defense? But how could that be!

Under this sudden, dangerous premonition, Orca’s body moved instinctively. His arm bent, and his elbow smashed violently toward Wang Yu’s chest; he had to keep Wang Yu from touching him!

But it was already too late. Orca, having relaxed his guard, was a beat too slow, and Wang Yu’s speed, in his berserk state, had already surpassed him. The punch landed solidly on Orca’s chest!

"Boom!" A dull, heavy thud echoed, and Orca’s pupils shrank to the size of needlepoints. He felt it—a sharp, piercing impact radiating from his chest, signifying that his iron wall had been breached!

"Crack, crack, crack!" Countless fissures appeared where Wang Yu had struck, then instantly burst, revealing the lining beneath Orca’s iron armor as Wang Yu’s fist smashed deep inside!

The power of the void had been injected into Orca’s armor; this was the secret to Wang Yu’s defense-breaking, a sorcery he had created himself that nearly destroyed his own magic-patterned iron embryos: Chaos Reconstruction!

It reshaped the structure of objects, usually turning them into a chaotic, useless mess, but occasionally, a special structure would emerge!

It was completely random and chaotic, but this time, Wang Yu’s luck wasn't so bad as to trigger the one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance of making the armor even harder.

The punch, imbued with Chaos Reconstruction, shattered Orca’s iron wall in a single blow!

"Boom!" Orca’s belated elbow strike slammed into Wang Yu’s chest, sending him flying backward to crash onto the ground.

He rolled a few times, the flow of blood on his body beginning to slow; it seemed the berserk state had ended.

"Huff, huff, huff!" Orca gasped frantically, his heart feeling as if it might explode. Damn it, that defense-breaking punch had made him nervous to the point of extremity. His heart felt like it was leaping out of his chest, accompanied by a tearing, throbbing pain!

Fortunately, looking at Wang Yu, who had been lying on the ground for ten seconds without moving, he thought: finally, after that explosive punch that shattered his armor, the guy had burned out. It was Wang Yu who had fallen, not him!

However, after Wang Yu collapsed, his face, turned toward the ground, wore a smile. The berserk state had ended, but although his body was near its limit, that wasn't the reason for the cessation.

The moment his fist touched Orca’s body, his task had been completed.

Ripples carried something into Orca’s body.

"Ugh!" Orca, just beginning to savor his victory as he raised his sword to deliver the finishing blow, suddenly groaned, caught off guard by a sudden, sharp agony.

"What... is happening? My heart..." The pained words came out in fragments from Orca’s mouth. That agony in his heart was no illusion born of tension; it was real!

His heartbeat accelerated incessantly, his blood beginning to surge at high speed. This initially brought a boost in strength, but once it crossed the limit, it became a burden and a source of damage.

His face flushed red, his blood pressure and the strain on his heart climbing continuously. His breathing grew ragged; the sensation of suffocation set in.

He breathed frantically, but could not make the agonizing feeling fade. His heart continued to race, the tearing sensation intensifying bit by bit.

The pain grew heavier; even breathing with all his might could not dispel the suffocation!

"What... did... you... do?!" The pained roar was torn from Orca’s throat in broken gasps. His rampaging body made it difficult for him to speak or think.

Fear and fury drove him to question the figure lying on the ground!

No one answered him. To reiterate, Wang Yu did not have the habit of conversing during battle.

When the heart’s frenzy reached a limit, in an instant, it was as if a taut string had snapped. Everything stopped at that moment: the heart ceased its beating, breathing halted, and his brain suddenly constricted.

The body, once like an iron fortress, collapsed with a crash. His eyes were wide open, filled with burst blood vessels. His heavy frame splashed into the rain and mud, accompanied by blood gushing from his seven orifices.

The iron fortress had been breached.

"What I did was simply let you use my sorcery," the belated answer arrived after the battle had ended.

Wang Yu had done something simple: using the moment of contact, he had transmitted the Baiping Blood-Boiling Technique to Orca via ripples, using this "buff" sorcery on him.

But the essence of the Baiping Blood-Boiling Technique was to force the entire body into an unlimited frenzy. The prerequisite for Wang Yu to use it was his ability, as a sorcerer, to control that boundary amidst the chaos, preventing the frenzy from exceeding the limit.

But the sorcery he gave Orca had no one to help him maintain that balance!

Thus, the endless frenzy eventually caused Orca’s aged heart to exceed its limit, snapping under the strain and ceasing to beat!

Tonight, Wang Yu was the Wall-Breaker!

However, it was not over yet. Wang Yu dragged his exhausted body, beginning to crawl across the ground. Blood flowed continuously from his wounds, and his limbs began to fail him after the berserk state.

A powerful will forced this broken body to crawl, leaving a trail of blood on the ground.

After about ten meters, Wang Yu’s hand groped in the soil. A hard object appeared at his fingertips: a handle.

He gripped it and pulled. A trapdoor buried by mud appeared beneath the grass, leading to a steep, narrow staircase.

Lacking the strength to walk, Wang Yu simply rolled his body down. "Bang, bang, bang!" His body collided repeatedly with the stairs, falling rapidly downward.

"Squelch." Reaching the bottom, Wang Yu’s body dragged a streak of blood across the flat wooden floor, crashing into a wooden bed with a thud.

Mira Swain stared in horror at the blood-soaked man who had suddenly rolled in, her thoughts momentarily frozen.

But the blood-soaked man spoke first, a familiar voice reaching the ears of Aivia’s mother:

"Cough... any buff sorceries or spells you have, give them all to me. I’ve come to save you, and next... cough... I still have to go help your daughter..."

(Wang Yu is about to be beaten to death again...)