The Lord Of Blood Hill

Morris moves faster this time, dodging Henwell’s charging strike and raising his claws to grab Henwell’s back.

But Henwell seems ready. He flips his left hand’s Dawn Greatsword and swings it horizontally, aiming at Morris’s arm.

Morris blocks the blow with his arm blades, but under Henwell’s immense strength, he steps back.

Henwell spins around and, with his right hand’s Dusk Greatsword, takes advantage of Morris’s open guard to slash upward toward his chest.

The blade cuts deeply through the armor.

Still pressing the attack, the sword arcs upward.

At the last moment, Morris lifts his head as much as he can to avoid the blade, but he’s just a fraction too slow.

The Dusk Greatsword slices open a cut on his chin.

Morris, now sporting a split lip, unleashes an explosion of abyssal demon aura, forcing Henwell to retreat.

By the time the aura returns to his body, the wounds on Morris’s chest and chin have already started healing.

But that doesn’t mean he’s immune to Henwell’s damage.

In fact, those injuries have already drained some of his abyssal demon aura.

Once that aura runs out, his physical strength and defenses will drop sharply.

Morris himself will suffer a massive backlash.

Simply put, the abyssal demon aura acts like Morris’s health bar.

Alarmed, Morris suspects something’s wrong with Henwell’s weapons.

That’s the only reason he could hurt him.

He knows abyssal creatures well, ordinary weapons barely withstand their corruption, let alone harm them.

With this in mind, Morris immediately changes tactics.

First, he silently summons two abyssal magic orbs to push back the pursuing Henwell.

Then, he quickly traces runes to prepare a new spell.

Moments later, a ghostly light shoots from him straight at Henwell.

Henwell has no time to dodge and crosses his swords in front of him to defend.

But Morris’s real target is Henwell’s weapons.

The spell, called Abyssal Exile, used to be hard for Morris to cast.

Now, after his abyssal transformation, he wields it with ease.

This near-instant spell strips Henwell’s twin swords away.

Henwell senses his weapons aren’t truly lost in the Abyss but trapped in a space rift, and they should return soon.

Seeing Henwell empty-handed, Morris grins, curls his claws, and strides forward.

His giant claws slam down toward Henwell’s head, aiming to tear off his arms.

But Henwell seems to anticipate this move.

He charges both fists early, catching Morris’s claws.

Before Morris can react, Henwell kicks his opponent’s knee, forcing him down onto one knee.

As Morris’s body sinks, Henwell’s right leg bends and lifts sharply, smashing hard into Morris’s chin.

The sheer force drives Morris back to his feet.

Taking advantage of Morris’s dazed state from the blow to his chin, Henwell transforms his fists into open palms and thrusts upward beneath Morris’s chin.

Morris’s body lifts off the ground.

Henwell straightens his bent right leg and delivers a powerful kick to Morris’s stomach.

Morris crashes into a nearby pillar.

When his body bounces back, Henwell steps forward, jumps, and spins with a backward kick that slams into Morris’s chest again.

Morris hits the stone pillar once more.

As he rebounds, Henwell meets him with a sideways upward kick.

Morris slams diagonally into the pillar again.

The repeated heavy impacts send chunks of stone flying from the thick pillar.

This time, Morris forcibly uses his abyssal demon aura to control his body.

When he hits the pillar, he digs his claws into it and doesn’t bounce back.

With a fierce push from his feet against the pillar, Morris launches himself like a cannonball toward Henwell.

Henwell ducks low to avoid the charge and precisely grabs Morris’s feet with both hands.

Planting his feet firmly, he channels power through his waist and suddenly straightens up.

Like a shot put throw, he hurls Morris hard onto the floor in front of him.

The cracked ground, slight tremors, and flying debris show just how heavy the impact is.

Seizing the moment while Morris’s head is still spinning, Henwell grips his opponent’s ankle tightly with his right hand, lifts him up, and slams him onto the floor on the other side.

And so, the brutal beatdown begins.

Unfortunately, after being slammed down three times, Morris figures out a way to counter.

The last time he’s about to hit the ground, he plants his claws and bounces up before Henwell can grab him.

But he feels a sudden looseness in his ankle, and while still airborne, Henwell lands a horizontal kick that sends him flying again.

Realizing this isn’t working, Morris silently casts a few spells to push Henwell back.

Taking the chance to recover, Morris plans to seize the initiative in the fight.

Two minutes later, Morris watches Henwell tearing apart an Abyss Phantom with his hands while he uses his abyssal demon aura to heal his wounds.

Those two minutes make one thing clear to him: he shouldn’t fight Henwell barehanded.

Henwell has slammed his fists onto the twin horns on Morris’s head more than once.

Now, Morris manifests a weapon in his hands, a battle spear radiating strong abyssal energy.

Henwell clenches his fists. “You’ve come to your senses? You’re done using that half-baked martial arts against me? Now you’re bringing out weapons? Are you really sure about this?”

With that, Henwell raises his hand, summoning Dawn and Dusk into his grasp.

Morris spent a lot of abyssal demon aura in their last clash.

Now, manifesting that abyssal spear drains even more from him.

The Abyssal Exile spell that bound Henwell’s weapons is wearing off, and Henwell calls back his twin swords.

After crossing and rubbing the blades together, the flames of Blood Will burst into fierce fire.

Without wasting words, the two charge at each other.

Morris has the edge in strength and speed, but Henwell’s combat skills and awareness are superior.

For a moment, neither can gain the upper hand, and the fight reaches a brief stalemate.

The overwhelming energy from their battle scares off everyone nearby.

Whether soldiers from Veil or the Western Federation, no one dares come close, let alone peek inside.

Both sides know Morris has met a formidable opponent.

No one wants to get caught in the crossfire of two powerful warriors fighting.

For them, such a battle means injury if they’re near and death if they get hit.