The Paladin in the Abyss

Chapter 350: 364: Matriarch Appears

Chapter 350: Chapter 364: Matriarch Appears

Among those who fought with the four male Zoel warriors, there were already winners and losers.

Unlike other duels that began with mutual probing, the battle between Kamoen and his kin started with a barrage of killing moves — simultaneous stabs, leaping upper slashes, double-stage downward stabs. These were moves that Dark Elves had practiced over and over in martial techniques schools, refined through the experience accumulated over several eras for the best countermeasures.

Every Zoel Elf knew how to counter these moves and what variations could follow, but this also meant that the duel became a competition of basic skills, where any movement less than precise or reaction less than swift would be quickly exploited by the opponent. After a few exchanges, the disparity in strength was clear, with Kamoen outclassing his opponent in every aspect.

The pursued Zoel Elf once again used a double-stage downward stab, forcing his opponent to defend with crossed swords pushing downward. This was the textbook response, which, although it left the defender unable to launch any effective counterattack, would prevent the attacker from continuing their assault.

But Kamoen’s opponent no longer wished to follow the textbook methods — Kamoen’s basic skills were much more solid, and continuing this by-the-book approach would leave him without a chance of victory.

This Dark Elf feigned a motion of pushing down with both swords, but one hand was a feint. As the weapons collided, he quickly retracted that hand, instead delivering a horizontal slash in hope that this unexpected counter would turn the tide of the unfavorable situation.

He immediately paid the price for his rash action. Kamoen keenly captured the enemy’s destabilized defense; he also changed his response, not retracting his weapon as usual but stabbing out again with the same posture.

In swordsmanship training, there’s a basic common sense: once a technique is executed to a certain degree, it cannot be altered. At this moment, both their attacks were in motion, and neither could return their sword to defend.

But Kamoen’s weapon was closer to the enemy’s body, easily breaking through the weak defense and opening a deep gash on the inside of the opponent’s thigh, unprotected by armor, all the while lowering his body to avoid the enemy’s severely misshapen horizontal slash due to the intense pain.

Matriarch Belmanis had already completed a spell, and just as she showed her face outside the window, she swung her free hand. A powerful burst of negative energy erupted from her as the epicenter, spreading outward. Those engaged in battle felt as if invisible Great Swords and Battle Axes had struck them, leaving them all in a gravely injured state in an instant.

Lancelot hadn’t been unable to take action earlier, but the enemy floating outside the window was a bit too far, and he wasn’t confident in delivering a killing strike, so he told himself he had to endure a while longer.

The Human Knight and his companions, like the rest, were sent flying backward as though they too were hit by the surge of negative energy; however, the Zoel assailants flashed a gray light on their bodies, merely shaking slightly, clearly having prepared some sort of magic item in advance to defend against the Matriarch’s area attack.

Belmanis jumped into the room from the Magic Carpet, her hand already preparing another spell. The Matriarch was filled with fury; Kamoen was the greatest disgrace to her family, and after finally locating him, he had even managed to kill her own daughter, dealing another heavy blow to the family.

Now, she must kill Kamoen herself, the apostate who converted to worship Elystra; only then could she please the Spider Queen and prevent other families from daring to attack them, risking the wrath of the Goddess...

In her view, this assault had been successful and executed perfectly. The male warriors who died? They were merely expendable, just as an Archer might regret using too many arrows after victory.

But there was one variable she hadn’t accounted for, one particularly special being among Kamoen’s ‘helpers’.

An Undead.

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