Creator God Tima's Overlord Journey — Chapter 48

The duration of [Sanctuary of Strength] ended, and Shalltear, deprived of its strength boost, instantly fell into an unbalanced state of discomfort.

"An opening!" Realizing the opportunity had arrived, the knight stepped forward. In that instant, a powerful surge of mana burst from her body.

[Mana Burst]

It released mana to instantly reinforce the user's body and weapon, allowing them to unleash explosive power far beyond their limits.

"Damn it!" Trying to block it, Shalltear roared and thrust the Pipette Lance in her hand forward with all her strength.

The tip of her lance pressed against the shaft of the silver spear. Shalltear's tricky angle prevented her opponent from exerting force.

I did it! Now I can counterattack! Delight flashed through Shalltear's heart, but unfortunately, that joy lasted only an instant.

The next moment, the knight released the spear's shaft.

The silver spear flew away to the side, and the immense force Shalltear had found so difficult to retract suddenly met nothing. She lost her balance as a result.

No matter how great one's strength was, if they attacked with full force—combined with the power of speed—it would be extremely difficult to stop their weapon midway. The larger the weapon, the more true that was.

Shalltear had poured tremendous power into that strike, so the imbalance caused by missing was equally severe.

"How is that possible? How could someone throw away their own weapon?!" Shalltear's crimson pupils trembled. This was something she had never anticipated.

And at that moment, Arthur had already stepped in front of Shalltear, whose arm had gone slack.

In the span of a few seconds, Shalltear made two enormous mistakes.

The first was failing to notice the remaining duration of the buff skill, causing her strength to suddenly fall into a disadvantage. That was an error of detail.

The other was an error of perception.

Because Arthur's primary weapon was a spear, Shalltear had defined her as a spearman and focused too much of her attention on the opponent's weapon.

This was an easy way to think. In most people's minds, when facing a swordsman, one had to watch their sword; when facing an archer, one had to watch their bow; when facing a mage, one had to constantly pay attention to their chanting.

Shalltear had fallen into that kind of habitual thinking—or rather, a logical trap.

No matter the situation, she focused too much on her opponent's weapon, while stubbornly insisting on using the Pipette Lance to deal damage herself.

Fundamentally, Shalltear had failed to understand one very simple truth—there had never been any rule stating that a spearman had to fight with a spear.

Or rather, there had never been any rule stating that someone holding a spear was necessarily a spearman.

What defined you was not the weapon itself, but your fighting style.

Arthur had understood this principle long ago. Being bound by one's weapon was childish; what combat required was efficiency and effectiveness.

A spear had its combat advantages: its length and fighting range surpassed those of cold weapons like swords. But it also had a corresponding drawback—in close quarters, it was difficult for a spear to be effective.

If both sides used the same weapon, then once they entered close combat, both would equally fall into the disadvantage of being unable to use their weapons conveniently. In essence, the balance would remain unchanged.

Even if Arthur could fight barehanded, she was not a martial monk. The damage she could inflict without a weapon was limited.

But if one side changed weapons, the situation would become entirely different.

Assuming that the opponent would not change weapons was another mistake in Shalltear's thinking.

Arthur closed in before Shalltear. This was already a distance at which spears could hardly display their combat power—but correspondingly, the most suitable weapon at this range was a sword.