Just after Peshurian finished his big talk, fine beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead. Noticing that everyone around him was looking at him with a peculiar gaze, the smile on his face became slightly stiff. Although he had uttered such boastful words about competing with the Sword Saint, in reality, Peshurian had never intended to actually fight her.
He was just deliberately performing like a clown so the Sword Saint wouldn't focus on a minor character like him. Moreover, in those words just now, Peshurian had also made a small, clever calculation.
He said to let this match decide who was the authentic user of Spatial Slash. If the Sword Saint accepted his provocation, even if he lost, others would mistakenly believe that he, Peshurian, was a powerhouse capable of vying for the title with the Sword Saint. Surely a figure like the Sword Saint would see through this and wouldn't feel the need to personally strike a minor character like him, not wanting to be disgusted by a buffoon like himself. And as long as the Sword Saint didn't act, although the others looked quite extraordinary, the difficulty would surely be lower than facing the Sword Saint directly.
This was the wisdom of a minor character.
Peshurian looked at the Sword Saint with a fake smile. Seeing that the Sword Saint seemed not to take his provocation seriously, he didn't have any unpleasant thoughts; he even couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and laughed loudly in his heart.
At this moment, in
his heart, he who was laughing triumphantly forgot how nervous he had been when he first thought of this idea, and he didn't even notice how hideous he looked now. He gripped his sword hilt and looked warily at those two men dressed as butlers, and that one Magic Caster traveling with a beautiful woman by his side.
These few fellows were the truly dangerous ones. One must know that the Sword Saint had accepted a cadre's surrender, but this hateful Magic Caster had cut off their chance to surrender. His personality was incredibly vile!
Ainz looked back at the Sword Saint.
"He is challenging Your Excellency."
Although Ainz didn't think this human with a weak aura truly knew an ultimate technique like Spatial Slash—and although the Sword Saint could also hide her own aura—this was different. He could be certain that these people before them didn't possess skills to hide their aura like the Sword Saint did.
But even being one hundred percent sure of this in his heart, if the Sword Saint was willing to accept the opponent's provocation and go up to test the opponent, he was very happy to see such a thing happen. After all, one must always be prepared for the unexpected.
"I know."
Tsukasa was originally considering whether to pay attention to that one clown, but after hearing Ainz Ooal Gown's words, she raised her head to look at Peshurian, and one of her eyes turned purple.
Peshurian saw the change in the Sword Saint's eyes and felt something was wrong, but he couldn't react in time. By the time he wanted to dodge, his feet and arms had already turned to stone, and the petrification quickly spread to his chest. Only then did he realize the Sword Saint possessed the Magic Eye ability, and a high-level one capable of petrification!
In just a few breaths, Peshurian turned into a stone statue, his lifelike expression clearly showing his fear at the time. The so-called Spatial Slash was nothing more; the Sword Saint hadn't even accepted Peshurian's challenge, solving this overconfident bug with just a glance.
Whose Spatial Slash was more authentic? Testing such a thing was utterly meaningless. The Sword Saint had never said her ultimate technique was Spatial Slash. Rather, it was just a minor skill she used out of convenience. She couldn't understand why everyone, even Ainz Ooal Gown, cared so much about this skill.
Evil Eye of Petrification—this was one of the two major Evil Eye skills Tsukasa had learned in the previous world.
Although this skill was merely a weak crowd-control ability for the strong and couldn't help Tsukasa deal much damage in battles of the same level, it didn't mean the Evil Eye of Petrification couldn't kill.
In fact, the reason same-level characters were immune to petrification was mostly that the opponents they faced either had strong undeath and regeneration skills or various immunity resistances. This was a major reason why Evil Eyes became somewhat useless. However, the Evil Eye of Petrification was offensive among Evil Eye skills. Unlike the Evil Eye of Paralysis that Tsukasa mastered, the Evil Eye of Petrification could turn enemies without sufficient resistance into stone, easily killing them.
Peshurian clearly lacked the resistance to withstand the Evil Eye of Petrification and had no items to immune Evil Eye attacks, nor did he possess other escape methods. If he had undeath, the Evil Eye of Petrification could only seal him, not kill an Undead enemy. If he had regeneration skills, he might have abandoned the petrified parts like a lizard shedding its tail to avoid complete petrification. Unfortunately, Peshurian met none of these conditions.
Thus, Peshurian was petrified, losing his life the moment he became a stone statue.
After all, the Evil Eye of Petrification was not a sealing-type skill. Without Tsukasa showing mercy or the target having undeath, petrification meant only death.
"To possess such an evil Magic Eye!"
Seeing Peshurian's end, even Geno, known as the 'Battle Demon,' couldn't help but feel his heart skip a beat. The Sword Saint's Magic Eye exceeded his expectations. Though confident in his physical abilities, he truly had no way to deal with such an unpredictable attack. If it were ordinary magic, he'd be confident in shattering it with his fists, but this petrification... unless he discarded the petrified parts before it completed, there was no other way to dodge. Moreover, the activation condition for the Magic Eye was simple: just 'looking.' Facing such a bizarre attack, he had neither defensive means nor the confidence to seal his opponent's abilities.
"Isn't this bad? That guy Peshurian didn't even last a single exchange! What Spatial Slash? He's just a useless piece of trash!" Edström cried out in terror. Although she had appeared at Geno's call earlier, her mood was now filled with despair because she never thought she would one day offend a major figure of the Sword Saint's caliber.
Demiurge smiled at the members of the Six Arms and said, "It seems you've understood the gap between us. If you surrender now, our Great Supreme One will mercifully grant you a swift end. Don't be ungrateful and refuse this lord's mercy."
Succulent asked with a face full of cold sweat, "Calling yourselves Supreme Ones... who exactly are you, and why does the Sword Saint listen to you?"
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/SolyuraMT
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"