Divine Beast Ascension

592 Where’s Hurdo?

Laughing some more, Dallad wanted to reply. But he didn’t dare to.

Now, Dallad’s escape plan was cornered and forced to change once more. Fleeing from Lambier alone was possible. Retreating with Tranton working alongside an uninjured Lambier was more than Dallad was willing to take on without exhausting other options first. But adding the Thunder Jaguar to the plan destroyed it.

Dallad’s thoughts were rampant as he conceived a new scheme for escape.

Most likely, the Thunder Jaguar was at least as fast as Dallad, despite being a low-perennial. And the jaguar was naturally resistant to Dallad’s lightning. It meant Dallad was resistant to the jaguar’s lightning, as well, but that meant nothing when Dallad wanted to flee. In a chase, the jaguar was a natural predator that Dallad wouldn’t be able to escape from without killing or greatly injuring the beast.

Both the jaguar and Tranton stood on the sidelines for now. However, even if Dallad won the duel against Lambier, a simple retreat had become impossible.

“... Why aren’t you attacking?” Dallad asked his opponent with a nod. “They’re not striking, so you’re all mine for now. Get me while you can still move. After I finish you off, I’ll have my hands full with no time to waste.”

Lambier didn’t verbally reply. But Lambier did think similarly. He needed to get this done before Hurman or someone else showed up.

Frr-whoosh, whoosh…

The wind blades flew off, starting the battle without a word.

.....

Dallad evaded with relative ease, sidestepping the attack in a flash of lightning. At the same time, Dallad’s whip lashed out toward Lambier. Electricity coursed along the steel plates surrounding the leather whip.

Zzzcrack!

A small thunderclap rang out along with the crack of the whip, whizzing past Lambier’s head as he dashed in to get even closer.

As the wind-coated scimitar streaked toward Dallad, a longsword appeared in Dallad’s free hand. Dallad accepted the charge with the same, unfazed, cocky smile.

Chting! Zzcrack! Chting, chting!

Both mid-perennials resumed their battle from back at the camp. Only, this time they had taken the time to go all out, especially since Dallad didn’t need to hide his already-revealed identity.

“Oh? I thought you’d be better with the blade at your realm,” Dallad joked, poking at Lambier’s mind and pride.

Focused on evading the whip, Lambier kept quiet and let his scimitar do the conversing.

Dallad, on the other hand, pestered his opponent more and more. “Keep this up and you’ll never know your father’s dying words! … Harder! Harder! Or you’ll never kill me fast enough… Maybe I won’t die at your hands after all. I guess vengeance was still too high of a mountain to climb…”

Zzcrack! Chting, chting! Zzcrack!

Line after line… Blow after blow… Lambier pressed against the assassin every chance he could. And Dallad continued to parry, dodge, and verbally counter everything.

“Ah… I see. Like father like son…” Dallad remarked. For but a moment, Dallad dropped his crazed grin to sigh and briefly shake his head in disappointment. “Too weak to even speak, let alone fight back.”

Ch-chting! ZZRRCH! K-reech…

Finally, Dallad’s verbal blows left a crack in Lambier’s mental armor.

Lambier rushed to unleash a barrage of small, compact wind blades with his free hand. Instead of adding more pressure with his scimitar, Lambier defended and parried the enemy longsword. He also sidestepped the whip to make sure he was free to unleash the wind blades.

At that exact moment, a spray of lightning shot out from the whip’s metallic tip, crashing into Lambier’s back.

The surprise attack left Lambier stunned for only a split second. And in that split second, Dallad’s newest plan fell into place. Storing the whip, Dallad bolted to Lambier’s side. Dallad’s longsword grazed the shoulder of Lambier’s armor before stopping against the man’s neck. Dallad also kept pumping lightning into his now free hand, Reaching for the side of Lambier’s head.

Lambier fought through the stun to break away. But lightning managed to slam into his helmet, stunning Lambier once again.

Within that second, Lambier had an electrifying sword at his throat and Dallad got a lightning-powered grip on Lambier’s scimitar-wielding arm.

Lambier was still completely awake and able to speak. However, Lambier’s wind essence armor wasn’t exactly sturdy. It focused on evasion and gave incredible boosts to agility and speed. And it couldn’t stop nonstop pulses of lightning charging through Lambier’s steel armor and into his body.

“Let me go or he dies!”

Dallad’s threat and bargain were immediately cast upon the two perennials on stand-by. His arrogant smile was plastered all over his face, brimming with confidence now that Dallad’s plan was put in motion.

Tranton hesitated. He kept his sword and shield ready to fight, but Tranton failed to come up with a quick answer.

“Then get it over with.”

Tranton was somewhat startled by that fast comment. And Dallad was furious to hear the jaguar’s undeterred, casual tone.

Shrugging, Sarpo said, “It’s a duel. That means Lambier was prepared to die.”

Lambier would’ve nodded along with the jaguar’s statement, but the sword at Lambier’s neck kept that from happening. All at once, Lambier poured every drop of essence he had into the wind armor.

Suddenly, Dallad felt little cuts against the hand holding Lambier’s arm at bay. Like Lambier, Dallad’s essence armor was all about offense and evasion. Defense was one of the last things an assassin would extensively train for. Because if an assignment ended in a straight fight, then the assassin would have been considered a failure in the first place.

It became painfully clear to Dallad that his new plan was still a dead end. And that using Lambier as a bargaining chip was only a hassle with no benefits. So, Dallad moved on to his next impromptu plan. Kill Lambier and deal with the other two as fast as possible.

In that same moment, Sarpo had continued to speak telepathically with Lambier and Tranton. The jaguar asked a question that left both men stumped and Sarpo without an answer.

‘Where’s Hurdo?’

Crr-RUNCH! CRACK!!

While Lambier forced his head backward with a gust of wind, narrowly delaying the sword at his neck, a huge hand reached out of the ground. That hand, clad in earth essence, snatched Dallad’s ankle and yanked it down into the ground.

“Wh-AAahh!!” Dallad cried out as his foot was crushed and his leg sank into the dirt below.

Lambier rushed out of Dallad’s shaky grasp as the assassin pumped all of his lightning toward that hand gripping and crushing his ankle. Dallad even abandoned all focus he had previously placed on the other three enemies. He didn’t care whether Lambier lived or died. He didn’t care about the jaguar or the territory leader waiting for their turn to join the fray.

Dallad now only had a single focus. Survive! Survive against the worst possible opponent he could ever have.

“You ended the duel!” Hurdo’s booming voice declared from the opening in the ground, greedily laughing. “So now I can end you!”

C-crunch! Chtuuung…

In a bid to get free, Dallad thrusted his lightning-clad sword through the ground. It was a perfect thrust with pinpoint accuracy, despite the target being undercover.

Yet, the blade bounced off.

Not only had it failed to pierce the gorilla’s hide and draw blood, but the impact also left Dallad’s hand a little numb.

“Weak and foolish!” Hurdo roared, furious that the mid-perennial had grown so frantic.

Another hand ripped out of the ground about two krin in front of Dallad. The rest of Hurdo was unearthed as the gorilla pulled himself up, keeping a hold on the broken ankle as he did so.

Instantly, Dallad realized what had gone wrong with his attack. Dallad had struck the metal plate on the gorilla’s back, along with the heavily compacted earth essence armor.

The assassin rushed to strike again. He hurriedly retrieved his whip and lashed out.

“I don’t give second chances,” Hurdo stated with a disappointed grunt.

Crack, C-CRACK!!

Before Dallad could properly swing his sword or crack his whip against the new, huge, bestial target, his body was ripped away from where Dallad had been standing.

With one hand, Hurdo crushed the ankle some more while pulling the assassin’s body closer. With his other hand, Hurdo punched through the incoming, electrifying whip and drilled the fist straight down into the assassin’s abdomen. The lightning made the gorilla’s hair stand up but failed to deter the beast and the beast’s ironclad determination.

THUD!! C-crunch!

Hurdo’s fist didn’t stop. It bore into the assassin’s flesh, compacted the internal organs, and drove Dallad straight into the ground. Instead of forming a crater, Hurdo’s punch continued to drive Dallad’s lower back into the ground like a tent stake, stopping only when Dallad’s head was all that remained above ground.

Then, to add insult to injury, Hurdo compacted the ground around Dallad. The dirt was compressed to the point that Dallad’s armor had concaved in parts, further hurting and restraining the assassin.