Restriction Lifted

Chapter 37: Restrictions Lifted

Living Mercury possessed only three abilities.

The first was an incredibly powerful Magic Resistance that the Alchemy City had somehow acquired, making it so that even a Paladin's Supreme Holy Slash couldn't inflict much damage. The second was the devouring talent from the Slime species, though after becoming Living Mercury, it only consumed metal.

The last ability was Transformation Spell, a talent that Amber Xiu had invested significant cost and effort into imbuing it with from a spiritual level.

Living Mercury was like a newborn child, not yet skilled in its talents, merely capable of simple imitation.

Thus, Living Mercury transformed into a humanoid mercury form, resembling the Paladin's appearance by about seventy to eighty percent. However, the details were blurred, like a half-melted candle.

But regardless of the form's refinement, it had mimicked the Paladin's previous movements with uncanny accuracy.

The Supreme Holy Slash unleashed by Living Mercury lacked holy power, but the heavy mercury brought immense impact. When the Paladin raised his longsword to block, he was actually forced back two steps by the shock.

Living Mercury pressed its advantage, but it could only use the same move repeatedly.

Raising the sword, slashing – it was still as swift as lightning.

However, the Paladin wouldn't be repelled by the same move again. His sword tip shifted, deflecting the blow diagonally with the flat of the blade. The force of Living Mercury's slash was completely nullified. The Paladin then used the momentum to spin his longsword, deeply embedding it into Living Mercury's head.

The blade split Living Mercury's head in two. For a human, such an injury would be fatal, but for Living Mercury, it was likely just a superficial wound.

The mercury solution wriggled and healed, even trapping the Paladin's longsword within its head. Then, Living Mercury, mimicking its opponent, spun its own mercury longsword and swung it towards the Paladin's head. But just as the blade was about to strike, a layer of golden-white spiritual light appeared on the Paladin's helmet.

Guardian Spirit Light, a Paladin's exclusive ability, condensed protective power through devout faith, capable of resisting various forms of damage.

The mercury longsword met the Guardian Spirit Light and, like slipping on ice, slid past the Paladin's helmet. Living Mercury, in turn, lost its balance.

The Paladin seized this opportunity, unleashing a dazzling display of swordsmanship that sliced Living Mercury into a formless mass.

In one exchange, Living Mercury was utterly defeated, completely outmatched in swordsmanship.

Yet, as the Paladin retracted his sword to catch his breath, the strangely shaped Living Mercury quickly reformed and used the same move against the Paladin.

Seeing this, Amber Xiu was extremely satisfied.

He had meticulously crafted Living Mercury's soul. The Transformation Spell needed to be paired with a powerful imitation and learning ability to be effective. The fact that Living Mercury could perfectly mimic the Paladin's swordsmanship after seeing it just once proved Amber Xiu's efforts were not in vain.

However, despite Living Mercury's formidable imitation skills, it couldn't compare to the Paladin in swordsmanship.

Every Paladin's martial skills were honed through countless trials. While this Paladin in the cell might lack adventuring experience, his swordsmanship was undoubtedly master-level.

Sword light flashed as the two longswords clashed incessantly. Despite using the same moves, the Paladin always managed to evade Living Mercury's blade and land his own sword strikes on the mercury creature.

Even with the same set of sword techniques, subtle differences in force, angle, and transitions could turn the tide of battle. If not for Living Mercury's slime-like ability to freely split and recombine, it would have been dismembered long ago.

The Paladin also recognized Living Mercury's weakness: it could only imitate, but it didn't understand which moves were feints or which attacks could be chained into combos. This allowed him to suppress it with ease.

With this realization, the Paladin became unhurried. He didn't use any other Paladin skills, treating Living Mercury as a mere practice dummy.

This wasn't out of arrogance, but because he knew his true opponent was not the monster before him, but the Lich lurking outside the cell.

A Paladin's strength was not infinite. If he used up all his holy power fighting this monster, how could he possibly face the Lich?

Therefore, while he could still suppress Living Mercury, the Paladin acted with restraint, focusing on using swordsmanship to deplete the mercury creature's energy. He didn't believe the monster could heal infinitely or sustain high-intensity combat without cost.

The Paladin's choice was undoubtedly correct. Each time Living Mercury healed its body or changed its form, it consumed energy stored within. This energy, converted from devoured metal, would eventually run out.

If the battle continued in this manner, this nascent Living Mercury might not be able to outlast the rigorously trained Paladin. Before the Paladin's stamina ran out, Living Mercury would be cut down and rendered completely inert.

Amber Xiu couldn't help but sigh, "The Paladins of the Lyne Empire live up to their reputation. The Continent's strongest empire is truly not just for show."

But if he lost like this, how would he conduct his business?

The Memory Crystal was recording the fight. Editing it later would be a hassle.

Therefore, Amber Xiu could no longer remain a spectator. He called out through the iron bars, "Foolish child, you don't have to maintain a human form. Why are you only using one sword? You have more than two hands! Let your imagination run wild. Learning your enemy's swordsmanship doesn't mean you have to copy it exactly!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Living Mercury, which had just been decapitated and was about to heal, suddenly paused. The two halves of its head stopped healing and instead stretched and elongated, transforming into two thin swords that lunged towards the Paladin.

The thrusting technique was no different from what the Paladin had used, but with two swords attacking simultaneously from the front of the head, the Paladin found himself scrambling. His fluid rhythm was instantly broken.

Although he managed to block both swords and counter with a pommel strike to Living Mercury's chest, creating a massive indentation.

This was the Paladin's last struggle.

With Amber Xiu's reminder, Living Mercury had directly lifted its restrictions.

Its humanoid form was indeed no match for the Paladin in swordsmanship, but what if it wasn't in humanoid form?

Slimes had no inherent form limitations. Why fight in a disadvantageous posture?

Living Mercury's body writhed and contorted, sprouting numerous arms and longswords that whipped around like a windmill, swinging towards the Paladin.

The Paladin felt as if he were being surrounded and attacked by several comrades. Their swordsmanship was identical, and he could tell where the attacks were coming from by the direction of the blades. The problem was... there were simply too many swords!