The sound of metal clashing together echoed in the throne room as vash was forced to only block the punches of leonhart.
Vash was cornered to a pillar as leonhart eliminated him again.
[The player is dead.]
[Initiating Restart.]
Vash woke up in front of the throne room entrance and took a deep breath.
"Haa~"
"That was 46th time I died in just a few minutes."
He exhaled and stretched his legs.
"That guy is fast."
"But, he still hasn't used his full potential on me."
"And I am genuinely glad that he doesn't eliminate me slowly and painfully.... It's easy to calm myself after death."
He re-entered the throne room as the black figure and leonhart respawned.
"Let's recount my steps as he showed."
The moment Leonhart dashed forward, Vash didn't block his punch.
He took it right on his shoulder and gave himself a pivoting spin, using the momentum to draw the blade towards the underside of Leonhart's helmet.
Leonhart immediately stomped his sliding foot to create a crack on the floor to stop his momentum and ducked down as Vash's blade cut through the air.
Leonhart didn't wait for Vash to gain his balance and landed a devastating punch on Vash's gut.
"GAH!"
The metal of his gauntlet sparked as he saw that Vash blocked it with the blade on his left hand.
He didn't waste any time and drew his blade on the right hand towards the slits of Leonhart's helmet.
But, Leonhart moved his head to the side just in time and grabbed Vash by his collar, slamming him hard on the floor.
The impact broke the floor and sent Vash into a pit with large spikes.
[Player is dead.]
[Initiating Restart.]
He woke up once more in front of the entrance.
He closed his eyes and collapsed on his back and took a long, deep breath.
"I can never win this with adaptation."
"It's like sending a person with raw stats against a person with every skill."
He sat up and called out his system screen.
[Level: 264
「 Strength: 867
Stamina: 889 (↓)
Agility: 893
Intelligence: 749 (shaking)
Precision: 924 (↑)
Luck: 60 (+luck effect)」]
[HP: 24560/24560
MP: 24300/24300
XP: 5.4M/ 70,000 (level up will be count after job change quest)]
"I am just risking my stats by fighting mindlessly."
Vash took another deep breath and called out his skill set screen.
[Passive skill:
Melee: level 47
Daggers: level 50
Short sword: level 70
Sword: level 20]
[Exclusive skill:
Dash: level 42
Navigation: level 49
Shadow slash: level 60
Multi strike: level 50
Shadow step: level 30 (unlocked)
Martial arts: level 30 (unlocked)
Weapon mastery: level 50 (unlocked)
Danger sense: level 40 (navigation sensory upgrade, unlocked.)
Dual wielder: level 60 (unlocked) ]
He stared at the screen for a moment before closing it again.
"Haa~"
"Not everything goes bad, I guess."
He paused.
"A change in approach?"
He closed his eyes.
"... 1" : Leonhart attacks from front and knows how to control his weight.
"... 2" : He never attacked Vash when he is down.
"... 3" : His coordination between arms and legs are expert level.
"... 4" : He uses his skills as well as his surrounding when he's fighting.
"... 5" : He always pauses before the first attack.
"... 6, yes, this is what I needed."
"He showed me all types of skills and I've only tried to avoid them."
"But."
"How about I use them?"
"Yeah, instead of trying to learn his pattern to counter them."
"I am going to copy him this time."
He stood up and stepped inside the throne room again as the black figure and Leonhart respawned.
But.
He didn't wait for Leonhart to drive his sword into the floor.
He just lunged at him and vanished.
"This time I'll go first."
[Shadow Step has been used.]
He appeared behind him and swung his blades downwards but Leonhart placed his sword to block them.
Vash vanished again.
[Shadow Step]
He appeared under him sliced up into the gap of his helmet.
"I can copy him, but using the exact method as him will be way dangerous for me than for him... So."
"I'll improvise his skill with my own!"
The blade stabbed into the gap of Leonhart's helmet and he swung his sword due to no choice left for him.
Vash, instead of stepping back.
He dematerialized his blade and materialized it again and vanished from the direction of the sword.
[Shadow Step]
He appeared again and drove his blade into the backside of his helmet.
It didn't stab right away, but vash didn't stop.
He left his other blade and pushed the one on the helmet with both of his hands.
"EEEAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"
He used all his strength but the blade couldn't pierce through the metal.
Leonhart didn't recover from the wound on his chin as the blood flowed down his vest, but he forced his strength into his body and swung the sword with both hands.
Vash barely managed to dodge it by throwing himself to the floor.
The sword sliced through the throne room's walls like paper.
"What the—!?"
Leonhart started to swing his sword non-stop at Vash.
"F-ck!"
"He finally lost it."
Vash kept dodging the slashes.
Sometimes by wide margin.
Sometimes barely.
"Dammit!... He's not as precise as I expected, but maybe that's because his head is injured."
"Well, it gives me a bit of advantage that I didn't ask for."
Vash tried to close the distance again but the sword's reach let him close the distance.
And when he threw his short sword. It was deflected by the sword swing.
"Tsk–"
"Most of my weapons are for close range."
"How am I supposed to close the distance like this?"
Vash kept dodging and blocking the attacks as Leonhart opened the pit of the floor while swinging defensively.
Vash saw the pit and smirked.
He called out his inventory and used all the luck potions he had purchased on the lower floor.
[Luck: 200 (+140 luck effect)]
He stopped running and took a deep breath before lunging forward to kick Leonhart right on his gut.
Vash barely managed to stay away from the sword slashes as Leonhart was sent flying and fell into the pit.
Vash fell to his knee as he thought it's finally over.
But.
He heard a faint sound of metal against concrete.
He immediately rushed to pit and saw that Leonhart had stopped his fall by hanging onto his sword as its blade was driven into the wall.
Vash clicked his tongue and just kicked on the floor beneath him, cracking it open and making Leonhart fall deep inside and get stabbed by hundreds of metal spikes.
Vash jumped to the side as the crack became larger.
He fell onto his arm.
But.
Instead of staying inside the throne room, he ran back to the entrance and came out.
Stumbling upon his own foot.
He fell onto his face as the system text glowed the victory light upon his face.
[Congratulations, Player.
You have eliminated–
The last Evaluator: Leonhart.
The Knight Commander of the fallen nation.]
Vash took a moment to catch his breaths and thoughts.
"Haa~"
"I barely managed to get out before the next quest triggered."
"It would be a big hassle if I died right after defeating that commander.... I don't want to fight that again."
Exhale.
"That leaves me with only one choice."
He used some healing and stamina potions from his inventory and purchased a few more for reserve.
He looked inside as the throne room reconstructed itself and the black figure kept sitting.
Almost as if waiting for him to enter.
"I have to take him down in a single try."
He pushed his hair up and took a long breath.
"I can't afford to die after I finally eliminated Leonhart."
He closed his eyes and scratched his scalp.
"I don't have the confidence to face him once more if I ended up dying and restarting."