Chapter 37: Limit Break
This blob of living mercury possessed three abilities.
The first was an extraordinarily high resistance to magic, an alchemical miracle born from the labs of Alkhemia. It was absurd enough that even a paladin's Sacred Slash barely left a mark. The second was its instinct to devour what it saw, inherited from its slime ancestry, though now limited only to metals rather than flesh.
And the third, the most valuable ability, granted by Ambrose himself at great cost, was its new soulbound talent: Shapeshifting.
The living mercury was all but an infant, new to the world and unskilled in wielding its gifts. All it could do was imitate what it saw.
As such, by mimicking the paladin's form, it transformed into a vaguely humanoid figure of gleaming mercury, roughly similar in outline but with indistinct details. It looked like a half-melted wax statue version of the paladin.
Still, crude or not, its imitation of the paladin's movements was unnervingly precise.
The living mercury swung its sword in a mirrored Sacred Slash. There was no holy light, only sheer mass and momentum—but the blow was powerful enough to make the armored paladin stagger two steps back.
Pressing the advantage, the mercury repeated the same strike again and again, fast as lightning.
But the paladin had already adapted. Twisting his wrist, he caught the next blow along the blade of his sword, deftly dissipating the force. Then, with a sharp turn, he countered. The blade cut deep into the living mercury's head, splitting it cleanly in two.