Chapter 363: Total Suppression, On-the-Spot Breakthrough?

Blackburn guided his longsword as it wove through the air, poised to parry strikes from every direction. He could not quite fathom the true nature of the enemy before him, yet he recognized Wang Yu.

It was he who had flagged the founder of the prayer communication network as a threat, and it was he who had dragged Wang Yu—then little more than a dead dog after the elimination of three high-ranking official knights—into the prison cells.

But was it truly reasonable for someone who, barely a year ago, was merely a high-ranking official knight, to now stand toe-to-toe with a high-ranking Grand Knight such as himself?

This terrifying rate of progress, traversing in a mere blink the path that had taken him over a decade to walk—the thought was almost… no, it was exhilarating.

A bloodthirsty arc curled at the corner of his lips. He was Blackburn, and the only reason he served the royal family was to sustainably satisfy the unceasing desire for slaughter that churned within him. He cared not how monstrous Wang Yu’s talent might be; he only needed to kill him.

"Snap!"

His mental energy connected with the disposable spatial storage ring on his finger. A small vial filled with "igniter" powder, prepared for him by the royal alchemy workshop, appeared at his fingertips. With a forceful squeeze, he crushed the glass. Supported by the astonishing physical prowess of a Grand Knight, the friction generated intense heat, instantly igniting the powder.

"Bang!"

Stomping against the ground, Blackburn unleashed his internal potential: Scorched Earth. The searing flames ignited by the powder swirled around him, and under the influence of his internal power, they began to consume everything in the vicinity.

The air, the falling ice crystals—using these inherently non-combustible elements as fuel, the fire grew ever more ferocious. Enveloped in crimson flames, his figure charged with a terrifying momentum toward Wang Yu, who was rushing forward clad in blood-forged armor.

"Hiss!"

A sharp, violent intake of breath—a habit of Blackburn’s before launching an attack. He drew the scorching, superheated gas into his lungs, stimulating his entire body to enter its peak combat state.

The flames, manipulated by his internal potential, transformed into living, serpentine ribbons of fire. With temperatures rising ever higher, they struck out, faster than Blackburn’s own blade, to bite at Wang Yu.

"Slap, sizzle!"

Yet, abruptly, the moment Blackburn’s internal fire reached Wang Yu’s side and the intense heat began to char his blood-armor, the head of the fire-serpent was seized by an invisible force. Without a shred of resistance, it was torn asunder, exploding into sparks that flickered out in the air.

"!?"

A flash of horror crossed Blackburn’s heart. That was his own internal potential. The moment before the fire he controlled was shredded, he had lost all connection to it. He could not exert even the slightest influence over it; the ownership of the flames had been effortlessly usurped.

He gave himself no time to be distracted by fear. Wang Yu’s attack had arrived. A heavy sword formed of blood was held in his grip, slashing diagonally from bottom to top. Blackburn, who had intended to use his internal potential as a vanguard, was forced to receive the blow in haste.

The blood-red heavy sword collided with the enchanted longsword. Under the immense force, the hardened blood proved, as expected, slightly inferior; it shattered inch by inch at the point of impact, allowing the longsword’s edge to bite into the blade before striking something hard.

"Clang!"

The edge of the longsword, having bitten into the blade, clashed against a black, sharper, and tougher edge. Blinding sparks erupted. Hidden within the blood-red greatsword was Wang Yu’s shattered meteorite blade. The forces collided, evenly matched. Wang Yu was slightly weaker, but both of their movements stalled for a heartbeat due to the clash.

In that instant of stillness, the properties of the blood on the shattered meteorite blade shifted instantly, crawling rapidly along the interlocked blades toward Blackburn’s longsword.

Blackburn’s expression tightened. His battle qi surged, boosting his strength as he violently shoved Wang Yu and the interlocked meteorite blade away, retreating backward.

Simultaneously, his fingers brushed the hilt, activating the magic array. The longsword’s enchantment flared to life, a dazzling radiance erupting from the blade to disintegrate the blood that was creeping upward.

The Cleaving Sword—a high-level alchemical masterpiece of the royal alchemists. Supported by the high-purity magic crystal embedded within, the enchanted blade could provide the effect of a sixth-tier destruction spell, "Disintegration," for over ten minutes. The radiance it emitted was nearly capable of breaking through anything.

"Boom!"

The blood fragments exploding in mid-air proved the correctness of Blackburn’s decision. Had he not used the Cleaving Sword to burn away the blood, those high-energy fragments would have detonated directly upon his weapon.

Stabilizing his body amidst the shockwave with materialized battle qi, Blackburn pushed off the ground with a limb of solidified energy. He swung the glowing blade, charging at Wang Yu, who seemed prepared to conserve his strength in a defensive stance. He would not waste the duration of the sword’s enchantment; during this time, his destructive power, aside from his internal potential, would reach its zenith.

The sword, imbued with the Disintegration spell, slashed downward at Wang Yu. Wang Yu raised his shattered meteorite blade to parry. Blackburn’s attack came from above, his battle qi and physical strength fully unleashed. This was a strike Wang Yu would find difficult to receive.

However, in the end, Wang Yu had no intention of receiving it. Blackburn, who had planned to use his superior strength to leave Wang Yu unsteady after the impact so he could launch a relentless, storm-like barrage of fatal strikes, suddenly felt the resistance in his hand vanish.

The shattered meteorite blade, which appeared to be parrying upward, snapped under Wang Yu’s control at the point where the blades should have met. The Cleaving Sword passed through, slashing fiercely into Wang Yu’s blood-armored shoulder. The immense force broke the armor, the blade bit into flesh, and then collided with bone, stopping there.

The horror in Blackburn’s heart was nearly impossible to contain. He could understand the sword suddenly snapping in two, but the Disintegration enchantment on the Cleaving Sword had vanished at that very moment—he could not fathom why.

The blade that should have been indestructible had failed to sever Wang Yu’s body. The Disintegration spell had lost its effect before it even touched Wang Yu’s flesh. At this moment, the weapon in Blackburn’s hand was nothing more than a sharp, tough, ordinary longsword.

There was no need to guess; this was naturally the effect of Wang Yu’s Chariot Force. Having studied alchemy thoroughly at the Sky Mechanical City, Wang Yu’s academic knowledge actually surpassed that of most ordinary alchemists outside the city.

The moment Blackburn revealed his longsword was enchanted, Wang Yu had decided to play along. He spent a sliver of focus to locate the magic array inside the sword, then used his Chariot Force to unreasonably penetrate the layers of protection the alchemist had prepared to prevent damage, tearing the power-supply structure to shreds.

And then, at this very moment, Blackburn’s longsword was embedded in Wang Yu’s body, clamped by his flesh. The failure of the Cleaving Sword had truly caught him off guard; he had never expected such a situation. This momentary gap became the perfect opportunity for Wang Yu’s counterattack.

The shattered meteorite blade fell naturally from Wang Yu’s hand. In its place appeared two blades formed from blood extracted from the blood pool. He drove his knee upward, striking the base of the shattered meteorite blade with pinpoint accuracy, sending it flying toward Blackburn’s abdomen at high speed.

Simultaneously, the two blood-red swords in his hands crossed, slashing toward Blackburn’s armored neck. A fierce intent to kill burned brightly.

"Clang! Crack!"

The shattered meteorite blade, piercing toward Blackburn’s abdomen as a blur, relied on its astonishing sharpness and strength to pierce Blackburn’s enchanted armor with minimal loss of momentum. Its anti-magic properties even rendered the armor’s defensive enchantments useless.

The blade pierced the abdominal muscle, only to be intercepted by a solid barrier. It was Blackburn’s knight secret technique: Corpse Plating. The moment his body suffered trauma, it would spontaneously consume battle qi without delay to generate a sturdy barrier, repelling external attacks.

Blackburn, without hesitation, abandoned the sword embedded in Wang Yu’s shoulder and used his exceptionally sturdy gauntlets to block the blood-red blades slashing at his neck.

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow and withdrew, the shattered meteorite blade pulled back by the Chariot Force, while the two blood blades were detonated without hesitation.

Unfortunately, as expected of a veteran high-ranking Grand Knight, Blackburn’s battle qi surged across his skin, blowing the two blood blades away. The explosion failed to cause any significant damage or disruption.

The two seemed to share a tacit understanding that could hardly be called a truce, distancing themselves at the same moment—though their motives differed. Blackburn needed time to adjust his combat style now that he had lost his weapon and to analyze Wang Yu’s internal potential, while as for Wang Yu, who knew what that guy was planning?

"What exactly is this guy’s internal potential? This fellow, who was previously just an official knight, never used his internal potential in the Royal City. That’s almost impossible. And his internal potential seems to be blood manipulation, but it’s definitely not that simple..."

"The Cleaving Sword and the flames I controlled with my internal potential were both influenced by his unknown power. I must counter it with even stronger flames; he shouldn’t be able to control power that is too great."

As he pondered, his fingers reached for the spatial ring again. After pulling out a small vial, Blackburn applied force to his fingers, preparing to ignite it, only to find that the ring no longer responded to his mental energy. At the same time, the vial in his hand was twisted, and the powder inside, for some reason, failed to ignite despite his pressure.

"Damn it!"

"Bang!"

After Wang Yu disabled Blackburn’s means of ignition, his Chariot Force spread out without pause, grabbing the walls of the ice cave they were in and yanking them downward. Instantly, the ice, which was not particularly sturdy in the face of a Grand Knight, shattered.

Countless ice shards, accompanied by blinding ice dust, descended from above like a sudden blizzard, completely enveloping the environment where Blackburn and Wang Yu stood. For a time, their ability to observe the surroundings with the naked eye was severely impaired.

Blackburn looked at the ice-filled environment, his vision obscured. He understood in his heart that this was undoubtedly one of Wang Yu’s strategies. The enemy’s attack would strike from an unknown direction, taking advantage of the obscured senses.

He had been suppressed by Wang Yu throughout the battle; Wang Yu’s abilities seemed to completely counter his own.

This could hardly be blamed on Blackburn. Wang Yu’s Chariot Force was only known to Rudolf—who had already died at Wang Yu’s hands—and even then, it was unclear. Before awakening the Chariot Force, Wang Yu had no internal potential at all, so naturally, he wouldn’t have used it in the Royal City.

Under these premises, Wang Yu’s Chariot Force was completely unknown to the people of Alastair. How could they have imagined that in just over a year, Wang Yu would reach a level approaching a high-ranking Grand Knight?

Moreover, Wang Yu had deliberately chosen Blackburn as his opponent. The intelligence regarding his internal potential had long been shared with Wang Yu by Shael; his abilities were thoroughly countered by Wang Yu’s power.

In front of Wang Yu, he couldn’t even manage to ignite a flame. His physical strength was slightly inferior to Wang Yu’s, and his battle qi level was far behind. But Blackburn had been stripped of his internal potential and a pile of magic items. The advantage Wang Yu held was far greater.

Raising his fists into a stance, Blackburn stopped caring about the rest. All he had to do now was use his knight secret technique to engage Wang Yu at close quarters, preventing that special power from affecting him again.

His knight secret technique could ensure he remained virtually uninjured until his battle qi was exhausted, keeping his body in its prime state. As long as he could destroy Wang Yu’s body and decide the outcome during this time, there was nothing to fear.

Blackburn had rarely been suppressed so miserably. By the time he reached the peak of the Grand Knight rank, he had become a total killing machine on the battlefield. Yet, the current predicament brought him no fear. The long-lost sense of crisis made his blood begin to boil. This feeling of being on the verge of death was just as enjoyable as killing someone else.

His senses expanded in all directions, observing the direction from which Wang Yu might suddenly attack. Suddenly, he felt it—the sound of ice and snow being swept away in the air. He turned his head in an instant, and Wang Yu’s figure charged up from behind him.

The opponent seemed to share the same intent, opting for close-quarters combat to settle the fray; the fact that the wound on his shoulder had vanished entirely made Black Burn realize that endurance was also his adversary's forte, so let them see who could outlast the other.

The two collided with a thunderous roar, fists and feet trading blows with little regard for technique, merely two beings of immense physical prowess locked in a frantic struggle of instinct and reflex, where battle-auras clashed, flesh collided, skin tore, and energies dissipated.

Black Burn’s strength, bolstered by his aura, far exceeded Wang Yu’s; his punches shattered the blood-armor with ease, rending Wang Yu’s flesh, while Wang Yu’s own aura-infused strikes struggled to breach Black Burn’s protective barrier.

As the tide turned against him, Wang Yu’s body was steadily dismantled, yet he showed no sign of falling; despite the repeated trauma, he seemed unaffected, his blood-stained armor squirming to repair itself as his muscle tissue knit back together of its own accord.

Wang Yu’s fists hammered relentlessly against Black Burn’s frame; for every blow he took, he returned one in kind, a scene of raw violence and madness that ignited the very air with manic fervor.

Was Wang Yu truly planning to wear Black Burn down? No, he would not gamble on whether his foe held a hidden trump card; if a killing blow was possible, he would take it.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Several jagged shards of meteoric iron, hidden by Wang Yu beneath the snow, suddenly erupted upward, converging on Black Burn from every direction, locking onto his eyes, ears, throat, and every vital point.

Yet Black Burn made no move to evade, trusting his aura barrier to deflect the onslaught; he, too, was waiting for Wang Yu, intending to cripple this bottomless well of endurance in one fell swoop.

Exploding with sudden force, he seized the momentary hesitation Wang Yu showed while controlling the shards, grabbed his head, and drove a knee into his face with bone-crushing intent, aiming to shatter his skull.

At that very instant, a deafening blast rang out—Wang Yu’s secondary gambit had arrived; beyond the shards, he had concealed his Conqueror alchemical revolver beneath the snow, using the power of his chariot to pre-aim at Black Burn’s heart, firing a charged shot the moment his opponent committed to the attack.

The steel projectile, laden with terrifying kinetic energy and inscribed with a shattering enchantment, tore through the air, destined to pierce Black Burn’s aura and pulverize his heart at the exact moment his knee struck Wang Yu’s skull; Wang Yu trusted in the density of his own bones, which had likely surpassed the threshold of a Grand Knight.

The premonition of death from behind made the hair on Black Burn’s neck stand on end; he sensed the lethality of the bullet, a projectile that would pierce his heart and end his life.

Yet, he felt no fear at the approach of death, only an endless, surging excitement; this boiling blood, this slaughter so close to the abyss—he hungered to taste more, for this was not the moment to die.

The fiery intensity in Black Burn’s heart seemed to awaken something dormant within his body, a hidden potential honed through countless battles that now underwent a metamorphosis; only a slaughter that brought one to the brink of death could truly set his inner flame ablaze.

The bullet from the Conqueror revolver ignited in mid-air, consumed by flames before it could touch Black Burn’s skin, as his inner potential took a definitive step toward a higher realm.