Restrictions Lifted

Living Mercury had only three abilities.

The first was an extraordinarily powerful Magic Resistance that Alchemy City had somehow given it, so powerful that even the Paladin's Supreme Holy Slash could barely hurt it. The second was the Slime race's talent for devouring, though after becoming Living Mercury, it could only devour metal.

The last was Transformation Spell, a talent Amber Xiu had spent considerable resources and effort to grant it on a soul level.

Living Mercury was a newborn, and it hadn't yet mastered this talent. All it could do was imitate.

So Living Mercury became a humanoid made of mercury. It looked somewhat like the Paladin, but its features were blurry, like a half-melted candle.

But regardless of how crude its appearance was, it had copied the Paladin's movements remarkably well.

The Supreme Holy Slash Living Mercury swung lacked the power of Holy Light, but the heavy mercury gave it tremendous force. When the Paladin raised his sword to block, the impact drove him back two steps.

Living Mercury pressed its advantage, but it could only keep using the same move.

It raised its sword and struck, swift as lightning.

But the Paladin wouldn't be driven back by the same move twice. He turned his blade and used the flat of his sword to deflect the blow at an angle. Living Mercury's attack was completely redirected, and the Paladin used the momentum to spin his sword and slash deep into Living Mercury's head.

The blade split Living Mercury's head in two. A human would never survive such an injury, but for Living Mercury, it might have been no more than a superficial wound.

The mercury flowed and knitted itself back together, even trapping the Paladin's sword inside its head. Then Living Mercury copied him, spinning its own mercury sword and swinging it at the Paladin's head. But just as the blade was about to strike, a platinum-white light appeared on the Paladin's helmet.

Guardian Spirit Light, an ability unique to Paladins. Through devout faith, they gathered protective power that could withstand many different kinds of damage.

The mercury sword met the Guardian Spirit Light, then slid off the side of the Paladin's helmet as if it had lost its grip. Living Mercury lost its balance instead.

The Paladin seized the opening and unleashed a dazzling flurry of swordsmanship, cutting Living Mercury until it no longer resembled a person.

In a single exchange, Living Mercury had been utterly defeated, completely outclassed in swordsmanship.

Yet when the Paladin withdrew his sword and took a moment to catch his breath, Living Mercury—cut into a bizarre shape—quickly recovered and used the same move against him.

Amber Xiu was very pleased by the sight.

He had carefully crafted Living Mercury's soul. For Transformation Spell to work, it needed to be paired with a powerful capacity for imitation and learning. The fact that Living Mercury could perfectly copy the Paladin's swordsmanship after seeing it only once proved that Amber Xiu's efforts had paid off.

But despite Living Mercury's powerful ability to imitate, it couldn't possibly match the Paladin's swordsmanship.

Every Paladin's combat skills had been tempered through countless trials. The Paladin in the cell might lack experience as an adventurer, but his swordsmanship was unquestionably master-level.

Blades flashed as the two swords clashed again and again. Though they used the same moves, the Paladin always managed to avoid Living Mercury's blade and land his own strikes.

Even with the exact same sword technique, tiny differences in force, angle, and timing could turn a fight into a one-sided beatdown. If Living Mercury's body didn't have a Slime's ability to split and recombine at will, it would have been hacked to pieces by now.

The Paladin had also recognized Living Mercury's weakness. The monster could only imitate; it didn't know which movements were feints or which attacks could flow into follow-up strikes. He could suppress it without difficulty.

That meant the Paladin no longer needed to hurry. He didn't use any other Paladin abilities, treating Living Mercury simply as a target for sword practice.

It wasn't because he was arrogant. He knew his opponent wasn't just the monster in front of him, but also the Lich hiding outside the cell.

The Paladin's power wasn't limitless. If he used up all his Holy Light fighting one monster, wouldn't he be helpless against the Lich?

So, while he could still suppress Living Mercury, the Paladin remained restrained, relying on swordsmanship to wear down its strength. He refused to believe the monster could heal endlessly, or fight at high intensity without tiring.

The Paladin had undoubtedly made the right choice. Every time Living Mercury healed or changed shape, it consumed the energy stored inside it. That energy came from the metal it had devoured, and it would eventually run out.

If the fight continued like this, the newborn Living Mercury might not outlast the rigorously trained Paladin. Before the Paladin ran out of stamina, Living Mercury would be hacked apart until it lost all activity.

Amber Xiu couldn't help but marvel. The Paladins of the Lyne Empire truly lived up to their reputation. The mightiest empire on the continent wasn't just bragging.

But if he lost like this, how was Amber Xiu supposed to do business?

The Memory Crystal was recording everything. Editing the footage afterward would be a real hassle.

So Amber Xiu could no longer sit back and watch. Through the iron door, he called out, "Silly child, you don't have to stay humanoid. Why use only one sword? You have more than two hands! Use your imagination. Learning your enemy's swordsmanship doesn't mean you have to copy it exactly!"

The moment he said this, Living Mercury—whose split head had been about to heal—suddenly stopped. Instead of closing the two halves, it stretched them out into a pair of thin swords and thrust them at the Paladin.

The thrusts were no different from the Paladin's own technique, but with two blades attacking at once from opposite angles, he struggled to respond, and his smooth rhythm was instantly broken.

He managed to block both swords and counter with a pommel strike, smashing a huge dent into Living Mercury's chest.

But this was the Paladin's last stand.

Amber Xiu's words had reminded Living Mercury to break free of its restrictions.

In humanoid form, it couldn't match the Paladin's swordsmanship. But what if it wasn't humanoid?

Slimes weren't restricted to any particular shape. Why fight in a form they weren't good at?

Living Mercury's body wriggled and twisted. Numerous arms and long swords sprouted from it, whirling like the blades of a windmill as they swung at the Paladin.

The Paladin felt as if he were being surrounded by several of his comrades. The swordsmanship all had the same style, and he could tell from the direction of the blades where each attack was headed. The problem was...there were just too many swords!