The Paladin in the Abyss

Gradually, the number of enemies began to decline. Although these skeletons looked quite frightening, they did not pose any real threat, except to consume the physical strength of the warriors. Enjoy new adventures from empire

But Lancelot's heart rose to his throat because at that moment his Spirit Perception had clearly warned him that something extremely dangerous was approaching.

He was certain the danger did not come from the skeletons around him, but the chaos was too great for him to pinpoint the source of the threat; he did not dare to sit down and enter a state of Spiritual Sight through meditation because the hair on his neck stood on end, feeling as though a dagger was already pressed against his throat.

He still maintained a relaxed posture, appearing like a Succubus enjoying watching its servants fight, but beneath his wide robe, his right hand had already reached into the opening of his Dimensional Bag, gripping the hilt of the Giant Sword Glacier.

As the last skeleton crumbled into a pile of bones under Bruto's hammer, the crowd erupted into cheers, and everyone relaxed. Bruto was about to boast to Lancelot about how many enemies he had taken down when he turned and found that Lancelot had not joined the fight and had remained motionless at the back of the group.

Just then, a sudden change occurred.

Each pile of bones started to churn, and ten times more skeletons than before appeared before them, stretching as far as the eye could see. It was as if they were once again in a pit of corpses, only this time those bones had all come to life, ready to engulf them.

Everyone was shocked by this transformation. Bruto almost rolled and crawled back to the middle of the group, while Lancelot's mind stirred, as he felt the fluctuations of magic again, and the aura displayed by the enemies did not match their numbers.

Suddenly, his Spirit Perception started screaming like an alarm clock, and Lancelot completely instinctively lunged forward, rolling away in a very awkward posture.

He looked back and saw four javelins quivering slightly in the ground where he had just been standing. As his gaze moved upward, four steel figures appeared before his eyes.

At first glance, the enemy looked like human knights, clad in impractically heavy armor, with great swords six feet long resting on their shoulders. They were almost as tall as Lancelot, and each step they took shook the ground, looking like a group of approaching bears. Lancelot's heaviest armor weighed a full 50 pounds, but it did nothing like this.

Lancelot observed his enemies carefully. The first thing he noticed was the great swords in their hands. He recognized at a glance that those swords were also made of Cold Iron, the same material as his own weapon, a metal particularly effective against fiends from the lower planes.

Their armor was covered in dust and cobwebs. Demons, unlike Demons, do not kill things out of boredom, perhaps because they are too precious and seldom mobilized. With their armor and the Cold Iron Greatsword, one could imagine the kind of meat grinder these demons would be against the Demon Legion at the front lines of a blood battle.

The others also saw the situation on his side, but they had already been overwhelmed by the Skeleton Sea and could not spare anyone to help.

With the exception of one skeleton, his nominal 'servant' Eckmond. With its small stature and hard forehead, it burst through the skeleton crowd, circling around Lancelot.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Boss, these are Steel Demons, the elite warriors of the Demon Legion," Eckmond said rapidly, "Be careful, they are very powerful, I... I can only hold off one of them, the rest is up to you."

Lancelot glanced at his companions.

They had their backs to a corner, five Dwarves forming a tight defensive line, resisting the impact of the skeleton crowd; Kalalin had summoned a large web in front of them to slow the enemy's passage; Phil kept throwing small bombs behind the enemy, exploding in waves of bone; and Alamir watched nervously the five Dwarves, ready to perform Divine Arts of healing at any moment.

Seeing that his companions could still hold on for a while, Lancelot focused his attention on the enemies before him.

These four foes exerted tremendous pressure on him. He drew out the Giant Sword Glacier, discarded the robe wrapped around his body, and revealed his guise as a Succubus Knight.

Lancelot was no stranger to this kind of duel, having faced four knights alone before. In fact, the little knight inside his heart was cheering wildly, for what was about to unfold was a symphony played by the clash of steel, a dance performed on the blade of death.

And Lancelot was a master in this regard.

The enemies didn't try to surround him but advanced in a formation with two in front and two in back, their momentum like that of a heavy infantry phalanx.

Lancelot didn't rush to attack but adopted a defensive stance. He always remembered the fluctuations of magic when summoning skeletons. These four Demons didn't look like spellcasters at all; there must be one more enemy hiding nearby, and he needed to conserve as much strength as possible to deal with this hidden foe.

But the four Steel Demons had no intention of conserving their strength. The front two suddenly accelerated, launching a left and right overhead slash at him so fast that it caught him off guard, their previously cumbersome appearance now revealed as mere deception.

Lancelot, highly alert, didn't relax his vigilance. He flickered strangely to the side with a marvelous footwork technique, sliding horizontally away, and avoided the range of the two great swords' attacks.

Still, he swung the Glacier in his hand, intending to test his opponents' strength.

The two great swords collided, emitting a deafening boom. He and the Steel Demon on his left each took a step back, but it was worth noting that Lancelot's meridians were filled with True Qi, and yet the opponent's strength was no less impressive.

However, becoming a Spiritual Cultivator wasn't just about increased strength. The great sword in Lancelot's hand suddenly sped up, returning with a lightning-fast Upper Slash.

The Steel Demon on the right extended his great sword to block the strike for his comrade, but his own weapon was knocked high into the air.

This was all within Lancelot's calculations. He darted his right foot forward diagonally right in a lightning-like movement, then rotated his body counterclockwise, perfectly dodging the left Steel Demon's avoided Vertical Slash; simultaneously, he clasped the great sword with both hands, using the rotation's momentum to unleash a powerful Horizontal Slash from right to left.

The Steel Demon on the right's great sword was still midair, unable to return to defense in time. Lancelot's great sword, glowing with a blue light, struck his waist resolutely.

The enemy was flung away by the immense impact, knocking down his teammate to his left as well. Just as Lancelot was about to pursue, the two Steel Demons who had been standing in the back already made their move toward him, disrupting his intention to chase.

From the feel of striking the enemy, his intention to bisect the Steel Demon at the waist had failed. It seemed like the Qingyun Sword Art, as a Wood System cultivation technique, was still somewhat lacking when facing these metal-clad foes.