Yunli quickly snapped out of it and shouted at Lone Cloud, "Don't think you can bewitch me with those words!"
With that, the girl charged forward with Old Iron again, swinging the sword horizontally, but Argenti still evaded her with measured ease.
Once again, the knight used the flat of his sword to strike Old Iron along the direction of its swing, dissipating Yunli's force.
At this clash, Yunli heard that aged voice again.
"Then you should also know perfectly well that I cannot bewitch anyone merely by doing this.
"Everything I tell you during this duel is, to you, nothing more than listening to a story..."
Yunli gritted her teeth and charged forward again, swinging Old Iron.
Argenti maintained his earlier approach, dodging, striking, and deflecting her strength, rarely taking the offensive.
As the two figures clashed, Lone Cloud gradually conveyed what it wished to express. During their duel, a tale of the past slowly unfolded before Yunli like an unrolled painting...
I could no longer... contact the main force of the Cloud Knights.
What followed would be a long and lonely battle.
In a frozen snowfield, the slopes rose on either side, enclosing the mountain road like city walls. Barren, withered trees stood there, their gray bark resembling wrinkled skin. Beneath the dim daylight, snowflakes drifted slowly down onto cold armor and stiff corpses.
Slain abominations lay everywhere. A Cloud Knight bent forward on one knee amid the mountain of corpses and pools of blood, struggling to prop himself up with his weapon. His ragged breaths melted the frost clinging to his armor.
"It's so cold... I didn't notice it while I was fighting, but now it's freezing me to the bone."
The Cloud Knight seemed to be talking to himself, yet also to someone else. Warm