Former General Is Undead Knight

Volume 1, Chapter 29: Lord of Underground Labyrinth?

The two heavy, metal hands entangled and swung downward onto Lambert.

Lambert dodged that attack with a backstep.

The hands smashed the floor where Lambert stood just a moment ago.

Though Lambert leaped back as if flicked, he still managed to do a 360-degree somersault, landing with beautiful posture on the ground.

-I guess I’ve got to think of them as a pair of golem subspecies. But then, their power is the real deal…

The heavy lump of metal hands floated again and then went straight toward Lambert.

「Where’s your cockiness from before? One of four demon generals, or should I call you, Lambert the Betrayer?! You of all people can do nothing but focus on defending since a while ago!」

Domiliune’s unique voice taunted as she chased Lambert.

-I can’t even attack properly.

Lambert opened some distance between them as he kept his grip on the sword.

Seeing that, Domiliune launched an all-out attack with her two metal hands.

She untangled her hands, using them alternately for an all-out attack. Straightening its fingers, she fired a piercing beam and tested various other techniques.

Although Lambert dodged every attack, it wouldn’t be strange if any one of those heavy-metal hands caught him.

「Sure enough, your agility is quite abnormal. Added to that element is your courage. Any run-off-the-mill swordsman would have long since trembled in fear before me and lost their will to fight. Yes, although this is enjoyable, you also know that both of us can’t do this forever, right? Let’s see how you handle this!」

The hands then split into an upper part and bottom part.

The lower one dug into the floor while the upper one came toward Lambert, destroying the ceiling in the process.

Now, he couldn’t just focus on the two hands; he had to split his attention between the hands coming from different directions, the debris from the ceiling, and the unstable scaffolding.

「HAAAAAAAAAAAH!」

Lambert raised his greatsword, swinging it toward the hand that came from above.

The hand then stretched its fingers and pinched Lambert’s great sword.

Lambert stepped back, using his momentum to pull the great sword that got pinched by the metal hand’s fingers.

He did his best to get away from the metal hand, despite the risk of crumbling his own stance.

But, even the slight wavering of his stance could be fatal in this kind of battle.

「This is the end, Lambert-kun. Now you can’t even swing your sword properly due to my special skill『Both Hand』… Well, I mean, look at this slime armor. Your slashing attack is useless against this armor and even if you try shockwave to attack me, it will barely hurt me. Frankly speaking, you’re too reckless, charging into my nest without making any preparation.」

The two hands charging relentlessly toward Lambert whose stance had crumbled.

The right hand moved in a complex pattern, shifting its fingers bit by bit.

The left hand waited for Lambert to make an opening while clenched in a fist.

Domiliune was controlling the right hand to bait Lambert to leave himself open meanwhile preparing the left hand to strike as soon as he let his guard down. It was ready to unleash its most powerful force; Domiliune’s aim was to destroy Lambert’s lower half.

Lambert, who ran away from the right hand’s relentless assault up until now, was actually being guided toward the most suitable location for the left hand to launch its most powerful attack.

The left hand then mercilessly fired toward Lambert.

「THIS IS THE E—」

「I’ve been waiting for you to do this.」

Lambert adjusted his footwork in that instant, dropped his waist, and then fixed his stance on top of the unstable rubble.

Lambert switched directions and guided the orbit of the incoming heavy metal left fist with the flat side of his greatsword, making it crash against the right hand that was about to catch him.

It was the counter skill that he used before on the first Flesh Golem, 『Heaven and Earth Great Shift』.

The two metal hands crashed against the wall, a collision so great that it shook the entire room.

Lambert didn’t let go of that chance and struck the two hands thrice with his greatsword.

His three strikes destroyed the surface of the hands, scattering numerous metal splinters.

Lambert was, in fact, the one who was baiting Domiliune by deliberately crumbling his own stance to bait her to make a big move.

「AMAZING, TRULY AMAZING! That skill… Has evolved even further compared to when its own creator, Quixote, used it, right! But, that degree of damage is far from eno-」

「No, this is the end. You’re too focused on chasing me.」

「… Eh?」

The reason why Lambert went through the trouble of running away to only instantly fix his crumbled stance was not because he was looking for an opportunity to use 『Heaven and Earth Great Shift』.

He baited Domiliune to keep chasing after him, thus separating Domiliune from her metal hands.

To be exact, even Lambert’s defensive stance with his greatsword was a bait to lure Domiliune to go all out in her attacks.

The action of baiting Domiliune to attack him with her heavy metal hands, her greatest protection, was not a simple matter.

However, Lambert pretending to be gradually cornered gave an illusion to Domiliune that the next attack was enough to end him, and thus she was baited to chase after him.

「Too late. At this distance, my sword can crush your head even faster than the time you need to recall your hands.」

「Is this your aim from the very beginning? But unfortunately, your sword can’t even pierce through my slime armor.」

「Shall we try it then?!」

The next moment, Lambert had arrived right in front of Domiliune. He swung his great sword at her slime body with a series of slashes that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye.

He sent the series of eight superhuman slashes to Domiliune in a mere second.

The blade of his sword gouged into the slime body.

However, Domiliune’s real body, her black skull, was moving inside the slime’s body along the directions of Lambert’s slashes, greatly reducing their effectiveness.

「Splendid sword skill. But it’s futile. Now, it’s MY TURN!!!」

The metal hands that finished its self-repair then punched toward Lambert’s back.

After confirming the incoming metal hands with a backward glance, Lambert stabbed his greatsword into the floor.

Then, he plunged his hands into the slime’s body, catching Domiliune’s skull.

「EH…?」

His eight slashes from before greatly reduced the slime’s viscosity, thus allowing Lambert to reach his hands in.

Lambert then pulled out Domiliune’s black skull and held it in his hands.

「I-IMPOSSIBLE! THE POWER OF MERE UNDEAD LIKE YOU SHOULDN’T BE ABLE TO PENETRATE THIS SLIME BODY!!」

「UOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」

Lambert’s arm then slammed Domiliune’s black skull on the wall.

The slime body, having lost its master, crumbled down and mixed with the water below.

「I-IMPOSSIBLE?!」

Lambert continued on by pulling out his sword from the floor and using it to quickly slash at Domiliune’s defenseless skull.

Every single one of his slashes struck Domiliune’s skull, hitting their mark perfectly.

With the wall behind her, Domiliune couldn’t escape from Lambert’s relentless attacks.

Lambert’s downward slash buried Domiliune’s skull in the floor.

Naturally, Lambert increased his attack speed even further.

「Guh… S-Stop it, Lambert-kun… R-right, I’ve some useful information for you… How about that? Will you put down your sword for the time being and have a nice chat with me?」

The weight of his heavy Organ armor compounded with Lambert’s attack created a fine crack in Domiliune’s black skull.

「What’s the matter? A hundred strikes can’t even crush your skull, huh. Still ways to go, huh…」

「LAMBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERT!」

Domiliune’s black skull suddenly changed its shape; numerous thorns grew from its surface and then whipped toward Lambert.

That change happened in just a moment and had the potential to change the tide of battle as soon as it got deployed.

If her metal hands golem were her first shield, and the slime armor that could absorb shock-type attack from close range was her second shield, her real body’s extreme toughness was her third shield.

Lastly, in case the previous three shields failed to protect her, she had the final shield in the form of countless black tentacles, which were almost impossible to dodge.

Those tentacles would continuously chase after its target. They were both extremely fast and nearly impossible to avoid.

This was even more so the case in a narrow place like this labyrinth.

When Domiliune said that she had gained immortality, she didn’t mean that she gained an immortal body.She was referring to those four nearly invincible defensive mechanisms.

Even if she lost the first three defense mechanisms, her last line of defense would guarantee her safety.

But this was only the case if she were fighting against the average warrior.

「THIS IS THE END!」

Lambert swung down his great sword again.

Domiliune’s tentacles stopped moving and fell as Lambert’s last attack crushed her skull.