Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 561 Not Enough of Getting Beaten Up

The ground suddenly collapsed the moment the five-and-a-half-meter-tall body and the weight of the full suit of armor pressed down on the hind foot, and when the front foot stepped out and stomped down, a shockwave emanated from the training ground from the point of landing.

As the axe rises, it pushes the air to the sides, kicking up dust and debris from the ground, until the axe blade reaches its highest point.

Hilde's center of gravity had completely shifted, all her weight and power were on her front foot, her shoulder, arm and axe handle formed a line, the axe blade paused for a moment at the highest point, and then all the power poured down at the same time.

His shoulder slammed down, followed by his arm and axe handle, compressing the air into a distorted wave that slammed onto the ground. Before the axe blade even hit the ground, the pressure had already hit Geralt's head.

Geralt saw a transparent wall form beneath the axe blade, its edges pressed into an arc. The intense wind pressure slapped against his face, pulling his long, silver hair back and causing his vest to sag against his chest. He raised his sword.

With arms straight and hands gripping the hilt, the sword is held horizontally above the head, blue light emanating from the blade, and crimson patterns dancing within the blue light.

The axe blade struck the sword, and blue light exploded outward from the point of contact, as the two forces collided at that single point.

The protective will of Betelgeuse on the sword held up the structure with all its might the moment of contact, while the crimson of Betelgeuse surged outwards and collided with the giant's magic power transmitted from the axe blade.

The air was squeezed into a visible distortion, and a white shockwave spread outwards from between the two, whipping up pebbles and dust from the ground and flinging them outwards.

Geralt felt the power flow from the sword into his palm, his wrist was bent downwards, his forearm muscles trembled, and the vibrations rushed from his wrists to his shoulders and then to his back. His legs pressed down, and the soles of his boots scraped against the ground, producing a burnt smell and a wisp of white smoke.

The blue light on the blade flashed, dissipating some of the force, but the remaining force still pushed him seven or eight meters away. The soles of his boots scraped two black marks on the ground, and his arm vibrated from his wrist to his shoulder.

The sword was still in his hand. Blue and red light flickered wildly across the blade. He instantly tightened his grip, channeling power into his palm, and the light stabilized again.

We held on.

He grinned, revealing his teeth.

Hilde had already withdrawn her axe from the end of the strike, the handle twirling slightly in her hand before the blade returned to her side. She raised it again, ready for the second strike.

Before Geralt could strike down, he used the momentum of being pushed forward to push off with his feet, instantly channeling the Sprint Charm into his leg muscles. His figure stretched into a silver-white afterimage, slicing through Hilde's right side from the front.

The second blow came down, the axe blade slamming into the spot where he had just been standing. The ground of the training field exploded outwards from the point of impact, sending dirt and gravel flying more than a meter high.

He had already reached the side of the axe. The inertia-free nature of the Sprint spell allowed him to stop abruptly at the end of the side slash, bringing his body to a halt in a single step from high-speed movement.

The sword slashed upwards, a crimson light drawing a diagonal line across the blade. The tip grazed the outside of Hilde's calf armor, the sound of metal striking metal sharp and piercing. Sparks and fragments of magic flew outwards, leaving a shallow burn mark on the armor, but without breaking through her defenses.

Hilde lifted the axe out of the pit, the handle turning in mid-air, the blade changing from vertical to horizontal.

The attack range shifted from a slash overhead to a sweeping attack from the side, with the arc drawn by the axe blade covering a radius of nearly ten meters in front.

Geralt leaned back, the axe blade passing less than half a foot from his chest. The wind pressure tore a hole in the front of his vest, and the ripped strips of cloth floated in the wake of the axe blade.

He slid back two steps by pushing off the ground with the soles of his feet while leaning back. Hilde's axe had already been pulled back from the end of the sweep, the handle vertical and the blade facing upward, ready for the third strike.

With the sword held horizontally above his head, the axe blade slammed down, a burst of blue light erupted, and he was pushed back several meters, his feet dragging two shallow furrows in the ground, his arms becoming even more numb.

Before I could even get my footing, the fourth blow came crashing down, the axe blade tracing an arc from slightly to the right of my head as it fell.

This time he didn't raise his sword. Instead, he rolled to the right, and the axe blade slammed into the spot where he had rolled before. The ground blasted open a crater two meters in diameter, and chunks of dirt flew up and hit his back with two loud thuds, but had no effect whatsoever.

He pushed off the ground as he rolled, used a sprint spell to rush back, and his sword dragged on the ground, leaving a crimson afterimage.

The sword slashed diagonally from the lower right to the upper left. Hilde blocked it with the axe handle, the sword striking the axe handle. The loud metallic clang echoed through the valley, and blue and crimson flashed simultaneously.

Geralt used the rebound force to push off the ground and charged forward again, thrusting his sword straight at the seam between Hilde's waist armor and breastplate.

Hilde sidestepped, the tip of her sword grazing her armor, while the end of the axe handle came from the side and slammed into his shoulder.

He tilted slightly, swayed, steadied himself, and pressed himself against her again.

Sword and axe clashed rapidly between the two men, flashing blue and crimson light alternately. Each collision sent out a shockwave and dust debris from the point of contact, and the cracks in the ground increased.

They fought back and forth a dozen times, swords and axes clashing, dodging, shifting to the side, then closing in again, then colliding again.

Geralt found an opening in Hilde's attack and cut in. The instantaneous acceleration provided by the Swiftness Charm allowed him to dodge to the side within the attack window. The tip of his sword grazed Hilde's breastplate for the third time, leaving a second burn mark, and grazed her arm armor for the fifth time, leaving a third.

Three glowing burn marks shone for a moment on Hilde's dark gray armor before slowly dimming.

Hilde's axe strikes were also changing in angle; they were no longer just vertical slashes, but also diagonal slashes, horizontal sweeps, and horizontal pulls with the axe handle, and the rhythm was constantly accelerating.

Geralt dodged two blows, but on the third, he was grazed by the axe handle and sent flying three or four meters. On the fourth, his sword caught the axe blade head-on, and crimson and blue bursts exploded simultaneously, the shockwave turning the ground between the two of them upside down.

He could catch Hilde's attacks, but he couldn't withstand the continuous force of the impacts; each block added strain to his arms.

The sword took another heavy blow head-on. This time, he prepared an explosive spell with his left hand and pushed it up.

The extra force was applied to the sword from his palm, pushing the sword forward sharply, causing the axe blade to deflect by two or three centimeters.

The axe blade changed from a frontal slash to a side glide, with most of the force passing by his side. His body was swayed by the remaining force, and he managed to brace himself with his feet.

Hilde had already sheathed her axe, and the next blow was imminent.

The axe blade slammed down from above, and the sword struck the axe blade, but the angle was wrong, so the force wasn't completely deflected. A burst of blue light appeared, and the person was sent flying.

At a distance of twenty or thirty meters, he twisted his waist and flipped over in mid-air, landing on his back, instantly slowing down and absorbing the shock. Then, using his waist and abdomen to push off the ground with his feet, he dragged himself back for almost ten meters before stopping.

My arms, from my wrist to my shoulder, were completely numb, as if they had been soaked in ice water and then beaten.

He glanced down at the sword in his hand; blue and red light still flowed across the blade, the rhythm was steady, the output was ample, magic power was replenishing the consumption in real time, and the supply of will and spirit was also keeping up, showing no signs of fatigue.

Geralt cracked his wrists twice, his lips parted in a wide grin, and the light in his amber pupils shone brightly.

He pushed off the ground with his feet and sprinted back, faster than before, channeling all his speed into the Sprint Spell, leaving a trail of silvery-white afterimages.

Hilde stood almost motionless, the axe already raised again.

He was indeed no match for her in terms of strength. When he swung his full power, he couldn't even leave a tremor on Hilde's axe, while the heavy blow from her was still able to send him flying far away even after being blocked by Betelgeuse.

The power gap between him and Hilde cannot be bridged by the material of the sword or by any infusion of magic; this is not a problem that can be solved by holding back.

With each head-on clash between his sword and axe, his arm numbed even more from the impact, while the rhythm of his opponent's strikes was continuous. He couldn't see Hilde panting, nor could he tell that she needed to adjust.

However, he wasn't just going through the motions. In the first few rounds, he relied on his reactions while also gathering information. The dozen or so rounds gave him enough data, and the computational model in his mind had already started working, collecting data, correcting parameters, and updating predictions.

Hilde's attack rhythm, the time it takes for the axe to go from its highest point to its lowest point, the speed and path of retracting the axe, and the range and power distribution of the sweeping attack.

Not entirely accurate, but it gives a general idea of ​​the direction, angle, and timing of the next strike.

He rushed in front of Hilde, this time not taking the hit head-on.

As the axe came down from above, he shifted his body to the left, instantly changing direction with a Swiftness spell. The axe blade slammed down on the outside of his right shoulder, the air blasting against his body and violently pulling his clothes and hair back.

He pressed his feet firmly against the ground, preventing himself from being swept away. He gripped the sword in reverse and slashed upwards, the tip of the sword grazing the outside of Hilde's thigh armor, leaving a long, crimson burn mark on the armor.

The intense exchange lasted for over twenty seconds, and Hilde's axe-wielding rhythm also changed, sometimes slashing twice in a row, and sometimes pausing in between.

Geralt's data was constantly being updated, and the accuracy of his predictions was increasing. He dodged two attacks, was grazed by the axe handle on the third, and was pushed back several meters. On the fourth, his sword and axe clashed head-on, and crimson and blue lights lit up at the same time. He managed to brace himself on the ground, neither retreating nor flying away.

He charged forward again, this time launching more counterattacks during the exchange. The tip of his sword grazed the armor three times, leaving three burn marks.

During a parry, he used his left hand to deflect the axe blade a few inches off the blade by applying an explosive spell. He used the momentum to propel himself forward, circling around to Hilde's side and rear. He thrust the sword into the gap in her waist armor, penetrating it a little and hitting something, but he didn't have time to confirm.

Hilde took a step forward, creating some distance, and in doing so, pulled his sword out of the gap.

In the ongoing clashes, Geralt spotted a flaw that wasn't exactly an opening: each time Hilde's axe blade reached its lowest point, it needed to retract to the moment of the next attack, resulting in the smallest attack range and an extremely brief interval between movements.

The battle axe's blind spot—the axe is too long to strike him at this distance, but his sword can stab him in.

Hilde's axe came down again. He neither dodged nor parried, but charged head-on into the axe blade, pushing off the ground with his feet and leaning forward to maximize his speed.

The axe blade swept past his side, the wind pressure slapped against his body, making his cheeks burn, his shoulders slumped down, and his whole body was pulled off balance.

He pressed down with his left hand to cast a shock spell, providing recoil force, instantly adjusting his direction and pressing forward.

We've entered, to the lowest point, the blind spot.

The sword tip aimed at the gap in her waist armor, but Hilde reacted extremely quickly, lifting her foot and stomping down with a heavy and powerful blow.

The moment the iron boots touched the ground, magic flowed from the soles of their feet into the training ground, causing the ground within a radius of five or six meters to tremble violently and the soil to churn. No matter how hard the ground was, it could not withstand the impact coming from below.

Geralt's Sprint Charm snapped in the tremor, his magical anchor was shattered by the force that lifted him from below, he lost his grip on the ground, and his center of gravity shifted forward.

At the same instant, Hilde's left fist followed closely behind his chest, tracing a short and swift arc as it struck his unsteady body.

Geralt faced the ground with his palms down, and the Explosion Charm exploded violently, propelling his upper body backward.

Hilde's left fist swept across his face, the area of ​​the fist larger than his entire head, and the air trembled as the fist swept through.

The force of the punch slapped his face, leaving a burning sensation.

He was thrown backward by the airflow, landed on his feet, staggered a couple of steps before regaining his footing, raised his hand to touch his left cheek, his fingertips brushing against the burning skin.

If this hits squarely, the Constant Iron Armor Curse can withstand it, but a face-to-face collision with the armor isn't a pretty sight.

Indeed, the earth itself is a weapon.