Ian's sword was already before Viscount Avak's eyes. The blade, shrouded in frost and Netherworld aura, closed in with the icy breath of death.
Viscount Avak himself seemed not to have reacted to that swift strike, but his body—or rather, the Dead River Armament covering his surface—raised its hand of its own accord and used the blood blade on its armguard to block the sword.
Amid an explosive boom and shockwaves surging back and forth, Ian's strike, carrying the force that had shattered the strategic shield, was knocked away. He hovered in midair, while the Dead River Armament merely took half a step back, stamping a deep crater into the rooftop of the laboratory's upper level.
—So fast.
Watching his body automatically block the enemy's attack, Viscount Avak had that thought flash through his mind, followed immediately by a burst of shame and fury.
Without question, this was the Undead Monarch's power... and it should have been his power!
"Thief, robber!"
With that furious roar, the crimson blood armor clenched at empty air, and a halberd appeared in its hand. Viscount Avak moved, and the walls and ceiling of the fortress's top floor were all shattered by the force he unleashed. His entire body was like a streak of blood ink splashed across the air, the halberd's point piercing the air as it drove straight for Ian's heart.
This blood-red halberd clearly looked only five or six meters long, not long at all compared to the Dead River Armament, yet it suddenly extended midway through its thrust, about to pierce Ian's body in an instant.
But Ian seemed to have anticipated it. He simply raised his sword and held it crosswise, effortlessly blocking Viscount Avak's thrust.
But that would put him in danger.
In the distance, Adalbert saw the shield