Ark Undead

Little Maria gripped the shield in her left hand tightly, staring at her teacher as if she were gazing at a mountain.

A golden light suddenly shone from the longsword in his right hand.

Nourishing...

That was the miracle taught by her teacher, and it was the miracle Maria was most familiar with to date.

Because she had personally witnessed her teacher using this miracle to fight and battle in front of her.

The longsword, inlaid with lightning gems, had been imbued with the golden afterglow of lightning over a long period of time.

The Thunderstone served both as a means of concealing miracles and as a medium to familiarize Maria with the nature of miracles.

Now, as Maria uses the same miracle, her family's Originium Arts, transformed by the Lightning Gem, form pure lightning from pure light.

The golden lightning shone as brightly as the sun.

Miracle (Thunder Sword)

Maria no longer needs to struggle for ages to barely conjure electricity in front of the undead.

What used to be a miracle, barely achieved after a teacher's demonstration, is now as simple for her as eating and drinking.

She wanted her teacher to see her progress and feel the weight of her efforts.

She is Maria, the Knight of the Sun.

They are those who chase the sun, and also those whom the sun favors.

349. Elevator

The final result was, of course, no surprise at all.

Despite Maria's best efforts, she still couldn't gain any advantage over the undead.

Of course, miracles were useless against Maria.

It's not that I don't want to use it, it's that I can't use it.

Aside from the initial lightning that wrapped around the sword, Maria never had another chance to use a miracle.

Either she pushes the undead forward, or when she tries to retreat, the undead seize the opportunity and push her back.

Under these circumstances, Maria didn't even have a chance to unleash her family's Originium Arts, let alone insert miracles into the battle.

However, even so, Maria managed to withstand the immense pressure from the undead attack for nearly ten minutes.

After the battle, the Undead also pointed out Maria's weaknesses.

"Stability is a good thing."

The Undead looked at Maria's longsword.

"However, being too stable won't work."

As a sword and shield knight, all of Maria's combat skills are designed to serve the combined sword and shield combat mode.

Before leaving Kazimierz, the Undead only taught Maria how to use a longsword.

This is certainly not because the Undead are afraid that their disciples will starve their teachers, but because sword and shield knights naturally have the sword in front.

For a sword and shield knight, a sword can do many things. Whether it's offense or defense, a longsword can be a powerful weapon in his hand.

However, most of the time, a shield is simply a tool used to withstand pressure.

Even the undead, when fighting, mostly use their shields to block attacks that they can easily handle.

However, defense is not simply defense, because offense and defense are two sides of the same coin.

The essence of the shield in the hands of a sword and shield knight is to pave the way for his attack, not to defend.

Maria's longsword skills are, of course, beyond question. Under the tutelage of the Undead, she has already achieved considerable proficiency.

Even her fighting style, which primarily uses a longsword, is very similar to that of the Undead—stable and ferocious.

However, the techniques for using the shield tend to be somewhat conventional.

Is it a lack of skill in using the shield?

Maria thought for a while. She knew that her understanding of shields was rather superficial.

However, there really isn't a good way to improve it. Even if the shield isn't used as well as the Undead, it can still greatly enhance the Sword and Shield Knight's abilities.

Maria blocked the Undead's slashes two or three times, but she didn't deviate from the force or deflect the impact, which delayed her attack.

Indeed, the lack of instruction caused the use of the shield to hinder the use of the longsword.

"Okay, I'll teach you separately tomorrow."

Today is not the time to teach her; the Undead have no intention of teaching Maria how to use her shield right now.

Because, apart from the immortals, these two disciples also need to face each other.

"Melansha, come here."

The Undead waved to Melantha, beckoning her over.

Melantha obediently approached the undead and looked at Maria.

"You two, fight it out."

"The Undead said."

"Yes, bleeding is allowed. No, injury is prohibited."

The meaning is quite clear: they need to be made to unleash their full potential and fight a decisive battle.

Melantha and Maria looked at the other person standing opposite them, and both saw a powerful fighting spirit in each other's eyes.

This is a duel between disciples, and also a battle to test their strength.

Maria loosened her arms; she had almost fully recovered from her conversation with the undead.

Melantha also drew the straight sword from her waist. Her breathing calmed down, and she regained the strength to fight.

The Undead returned to his campfire and plunged his spiral sword into it.

"start."

So the two of them brandished their weapons and charged at each other, engaging in a fierce battle.

The Undead sat by the campfire, observing the battle between the two while picking up pieces of firewood, breaking them apart, and throwing them into the fire.

Melantha and Maria have different fighting techniques, and the difference between them is quite obvious.

This is actually related to the key points the Undead taught the two when they first started fighting.

Maria's goal is to become a knight, so the undead naturally use his own fighting style as teaching material.

For sword and shield knights, the most basic skill is to withstand pressure; only by withstanding pressure can they find opportunities to attack.

Having just been taught a lesson by the Undead, Maria played very steadily.

However, being steady does not mean being passive.

In the initial exchange, Maria astutely noticed that Melantha's slashes weren't very powerful. So she aggressively advanced, preparing to counter with her longsword.

This choice is undoubtedly the right one.

Melantha's straight blades couldn't break through her offensive path for the time being. Therefore, Maria would definitely seize this opportunity to gain a greater advantage.

But what she didn't expect was that even though she was indeed attacking, and even though her attack was already close to Melantha's side, Melantha didn't have the awareness to defend.

Faced with Maria's progress, Melantha resolutely chose to stay close to her.

The longsword blade grazed Melantha's hair as it flew past, while Melantha's straight sword had already bypassed Maria's shield and arrived at her side and rear.

Ding!

Fortunately, Maria was quite combat-savvy and immediately turned back to defend.

Otherwise, Melantha's encirclement would have been enough to render Maria incapable of fighting, thus determining the victor.

Therefore, Maria dared not be complacent any longer and focused on building a defense with her sword and shield.

Facing Melantha, Maria could actually smell the scent of the undead during their battle.

Her effort wasn't great; in fact, Maria could easily defend against it. But with each attack, she managed to force Maria's blade back.

Melantha, on the other hand, seemed to have seen through Maria's attack patterns. She didn't need to pay any attention to Maria's attacks at all, and could bypass them with just one step each time.

The final result did not deviate from the general trend.

Six or seven minutes later, the frenzied attack, like a giant net, gradually sealed off Maria.

The straight blade bypassed the shield and pressed against Maria's forearm.

A sword-and-shield knight, with his longsword pressed against his forearm holding the shield by the enemy, whose hand could be severed with the slightest force, was undoubtedly defeated.

"I lost!"

Maria readily admitted defeat. Melantha sheathed her straight sword, and just as she did so, she saw Maria close behind her.

"Huh?"

Before the purple kitten could react, Maria hugged it tightly.

"Waaaah, Melantha, you're so amazing!"

Perhaps because Melantha was less guarded around someone close to her, Maria hugged her tightly.

For Maria, Melantha, who rarely spoke and had a gentle, delicate voice, was completely taken aback by her frenzied fighting style.

For Maria, the exquisitely beautiful Melantha was like a doll, lovable to her.

Especially the feeling of placing your hands on Melansa's back and waist, it's so soft that you could squeeze water out of it with just a gentle pinch.

"It itches... Maria, don't touch it... Waaah..."

This was the first time Melanie had ever been in contact with Maria like this, and Maria's enthusiasm overwhelmed her.

In particular, although Maria is a few years younger than her, the physical advantage brought by her Kuranta bloodline makes Maria appear slightly taller.

Maria giggled, and Melantha blushed slightly as the two playfully wrestled together, creating a beautiful scene in front of the undead.

But the Undead just stared at them mechanically.