Chapter 55

Ang's current appearance is indeed very deceptive. With his grayish-white skeleton, who would have thought he was a Gold Skull?

Having a Soul Heart makes one a Gold Skull, but the process of metalizing the bones takes time. Moreover, Ang's situation is rather special. His current skeleton was found in the Palace of Rest, not through normal evolution.

Additionally, the process of forming his Soul Heart was unique. He directly formed the Soul Heart at the Ash Bone stage, skipping the Silver Bone stage. Therefore, to metalize and become a Gold Skull, he first needs to enter the Silver stage and then transform into Gold.

Of course, these terms "Silver" and "Gold" are colloquial, named based on the color of the bones. The correct academic terms should be "Lord" and "King" levels, respectively: Silver Lord and Gold Skull King.

Ang's current bones are grayish-white, showing a tendency to transform into silver, but the process is extremely slow. After several months, it's still hard to see any sign of "silver."

This is likely related to the cold aura in the Palace of Rest.

Ang hid in the pit for several months, guiding that cold aura every day, which led to the repair of the pits and dents in his bones, indicating a significant increase in bone density.

The difference in bone density between ordinary people and swordsmen is very large. Adult swordsmen can have a bone density of 1.5 grams, and Sword Saints can reach 2 grams. In contrast, most mages have only a few tenths of a gram, suffering from severe osteoporosis.

Ang's method of directly guiding the cold aura to repair his bones has likely resulted in a bone density even higher than that of a Sword Saint like Luthier. This density makes the process of metalizing his bones much more difficult compared to someone with osteoporosis.

Therefore, although Ang is still a gray skeleton, his hardness is not necessarily inferior to that of an osteoporotic Gold Skull.

Leonard soon realized this. Ang swung his large scythe, moving gracefully, cutting down heavily armored swordsmen like slicing vegetables. He ran up to Leonard with a series of "cracks" and swung the scythe at him.

Leonard smiled slightly and let the scythe hook onto him, but before it did, he shouted, "Firmness!"

A holy light shone on Leonard, and the scythe was blocked with a "clang."

"The Scythe of Death cannot hook a knight with a firm will," Leonard said, swinging his longsword.

His unicorn, Lightning, moved perfectly in sync, turning and adding its speed to Leonard's sword swing. He thought he could split Ang in two with one strike.

"Clang!" The longsword hit Ang's rib, sending him flying.

Both were taken aback. Leonard was surprised that he couldn't split Ang in two, while Ang was surprised by the sparks and sword marks on his ribs.

Leonard's sword left a deep mark, about an inch deep, and the holy light burned his bones, making them sizzle.

"Quite a hard skull, but heretics are still heretics. The power of holy flames will burn your body to ashes... ashes?" Leonard's words were cut off as he saw Ang pat his ribs, and the holy flames were extinguished.

"No... impossible! How did you do that?" Leonard blinked in disbelief.

If the holy flames were ineffective, Leonard could accept it, but the fact that they were effective and then extinguished by a few slaps was something he found hard to accept. The difficulty of these two scenarios is not on the same level.

Ang tilted his head, unsure how to respond. How did he do it? He just patted it a couple of times, and it was gone.

"Go back and ask your lord!" Luthier replied, stuffing several beetroots into his mouth.

Leonard didn't realize the significance of this action, only thinking, "Eating beetroots now? Are you hungry? Can you even eat wrinkled beetroots? Poor abyssal barbarian."

Meanwhile, the warriors from Ice City and the skeletons and zombies from Phyllis had completely surrounded the camp. They broke through the fences and flooded into the camp.

Although the equipment of the Ice City warriors and the skeletons and zombies was poor, their numbers were overwhelming, with about four to five thousand of them. The side of the Church of Light had fewer than eighty people left.

Initially, Leonard's heavily armored swordsmen were invincible, and everyone felt secure. But in a moment, the heavily armored warriors were all defeated, and the situation reversed, causing panic. Someone asked, "Lord Leonard, the situation is not good. Is there any support? Please call for reinforcements quickly."

Without turning his head, Leonard scolded, "Are the blades of God so cowardly? Even without support, you should fight to the death and show the enemy the courage of the Holy Blades!"

"???" What does he mean? Everyone's heads were filled with big question marks. Does he mean there are no reinforcements? Are we supposed to die here?

Leonard, with his unicorn as a mount, could break through and leave at any time, meaning these people were abandoned.

Yes, Leonard never intended to take these people with him. First, the heavily armored swordsmen he brought were non-existent. If everything went smoothly, the heavily armored swordsmen would turn around and deal with the people in the camp.

Second, if a minor abyssal operation resulted in the death of a Level 7 Holy Knight and his deputy, the report would be unreasonable. To make it reasonable, the people in the camp had to be sacrificed.

Now that the situation was out of control, no one could be allowed to return alive.

"Let me see the courage of the Holy Blades." Luthier, feeling a surge of power after swallowing the beetroots, swung his sword and unleashed a sword beam.

"Hey? How did you become so strong? Did you hide your true strength?" Leonard blocked the sword beam but was shocked by the impact.

Luthier said nothing, swinging his sword in silence. The beetroots could only temporarily boost his strength, and he couldn't afford to waste time.

Clang, clang, clang, clang! The sound of metal clashing was continuous. Luthier's sword moved like mercury, delivering over thirty strikes in a few breaths.

Leonard, though somewhat flustered, managed to block them. Then, with a "crack," both their swords could not withstand the intensity of the clash and broke into two pieces.

Luthier threw away the broken sword and lunged forward with his right fist, which glowed with auras, striking his opponent.

Leonard summoned a holy shield to block.

Luthier's shoulder twitched, and he struck with his left fist.

Leonard blocked.

Luthier alternated his punches, delivering over thirty more in a few breaths.

At this point, the strength of the unicorn, Lightning, became evident. It took small, nimble steps, carrying Leonard as he blocked and retreated, evading about 40% of Luthier's attacks and even kicking back with a hoof.

This was no longer just a mount; it was a master of footwork.

However, the hoof didn't do much damage. Luthier channeled his aura into his arm, blocking the hoof and pushing it back.

Taking advantage of the unicorn's slight hesitation, Luthier leaped up, formed a qi sword with his hands, and swung it down.

Leonard, shocked, shouted, "Aura to sword? High-level Sword Saint!"

The previous clash had already made Leonard realize that the enemy's strength was far beyond that of a low-level Sword Saint, capable of suppressing him and Lightning. Indeed, a high-level Sword Saint was the true strength of the opponent.

Leonard, with Lightning, could match a low-level Sword Saint but not a high-level one. Without hesitation, Leonard slapped his chest and shouted, "Holy Protection!"

A transparent holy light enveloped him, and he stiffened, turning into a statue of holy light.

Luthier's qi sword struck Leonard, creating a powerful energy shockwave that sent Luthier flying.

Holy Protection, a high-level divine spell, grants immunity to all damage for a short time, a last resort for survival.

Luthier leaped back and punched Leonard, but the impact was severe, and Leonard remained unharmed.

Realizing he might not be able to break through this defense, Luthier said angrily, "You can't move. I'll kill you when the defense is gone."

Leonard, though unable to move, could still speak. "Foolish barbarian, I hope you understand the concept of联动 (linkage)."

As Leonard spoke, a teleportation wave appeared around him and quickly intensified. It turned out that activating Holy Protection also activated a teleportation scroll or something similar.

Is this annoying guy really going to escape? Luthier, enraged, punched him twice more, but Leonard remained immobile. Luthier kicked the unicorn, Lightning, "You don't care about your horse?"

Lightning crouched, wriggling out from under Leonard, evading Luthier's attack and muttering, "You're the horse, your whole family is horses." However, the voice was so low that only it could hear.

Since the holy protection didn't cover it, it would be foolish to be so aggressive.

Leonard indeed remained in place. Even as Lightning dodged, he still maintained his original posture, "riding" in the air, looking somewhat ridiculous.

"Lightning, hold on, I'll come back to save you," Leonard said, his tone as insincere as a scoundrel.

But at that moment, he felt someone poke his leg, making him pale. Holy Protection grants immunity to all damage, yet someone could touch his leg?

Leonard tried to look down but couldn't move. Only his eyes could move, and he barely saw a grayish-white hand bone pierce through the holy light and grab his calf.

From Luthier's perspective, he saw Ang extend his left hand, which was missing from the elbow down, into the Palace of Rest.

Then, Ang's missing left hand approached the holy light, and when it reappeared, the wrist was inside the holy light.

Gripping Leonard's calf, Ang pushed down, and Leonard was pressed into the Palace of Rest.

"Where am I!" The scene changed before his eyes, and Leonard screamed in fear. Looking down, he saw a lone hand bone holding his calf, suspending him in the air.

Before he could react, the hand bone pulled him back to the original place, but he was no longer in the holy light.

Leonard watched helplessly as the empty holy light was swallowed by a white teleportation light and disappeared from his sight.

Luthier formed a qi sword, grinned wickedly, and plunged it into Leonard's chest.