“Haa… Haa…”
It was a single strike that temporarily drew all the magic power from his entire body.
‘It hurts…!’
The golem, whose legs had been completely crushed by the previous strike, was collapsing in place.
Since the core wasn’t broken, it was only due to collapsing to the ground, and it was still able to move perfectly fine.
If left like this, it would regenerate its legs and render the previous strike meaningless.
‘I can’t let that happen…!’
Evan held his breath and looked up at the golem with eyes filled with determination.
The remaining light of Divine Power illuminated the flailing arm of the golem.
Whoosh!
He slightly twisted his body to dodge the attack.
The arm barely missed and crashed against the wall of the dungeon, creating an earth-shattering noise that was almost mistaken for a massive explosion, and thick smoke engulfed the area.
Taking a hit from something like that would leave him in pieces.
Evan watched the golem in front of him while sweating cold.
He had hoped that breaking its legs would slow its movements, but it boldly betrayed that expectation.
Evan was at his wits’ end.
He had heard that ancient heroes faced such trials alone, but no matter how much of a trial this was, how could one possibly take down something so huge on their own?
The golem wasn’t slow in its movements; it was easily several dozen meters tall…
Evan grumbled internally as he dodged the swinging arm while glancing at the golem’s legs.
As expected, the regeneration speed of the legs was noticeably slower, likely due to the size difference.
It was so slow that it was hard to believe it was the same kind of golem he had seen until now.
However, no matter how slow its regeneration was, if he kept stalling, it would eventually regenerate its legs again.
If that happened, there would be no hope.
‘I need to wait for an opportunity…’
Attacks from above were meaningless.
To accurately and forcefully strike the core at close range, he needed to get closer.
He could no longer use that powerful blow capable of destroying the golem’s massive legs from afar.
Most importantly, gathering power took too long, and with the golem continually swinging its arms, using that now would be akin to a suicide mission.
In that case, the best position that would be difficult to attack from while still buying him a little time… and close to the core as much as possible…
‘The arm…!’
He decided to climb up the arm.
Evan redirected his magic power, not to the Sacred Sword, but to reinforce his entire body.
This was a fundamental physical enhancement any knight wielding a sword should be able to use.
With his body further strengthened by Divine Power and enhanced reflexes, he observed the angle of the swinging hand and waited for his chance to jump while avoiding the blows.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Crash! Crash! Boom!
“Ugh…”
As he barely avoided the incoming fingers, which were at least several meters in length, he scrutinized the golem’s attacks with keen eyes.
He confirmed that the golem’s body, which had been continuously attacking with its fingers while keeping its elbow fixed to the ground, was taking on an unusual posture.
Because it was a golem, being an inanimate object, it could afford to exhibit such an irrational stance.
That was it.
Evan instinctively grasped this attack.
Eventually, as the arm lifted, he simultaneously anticipated the return of the body and, like a spring, swung the arm horizontally at incredible speed right before his eyes.
Evan smiled.
‘Got it.’
By the timing of the attack, he jumped to evade, barely escaping with an incredibly slight margin… and landed precisely on the arm.
As soon as he landed, he allowed his weight to settle onto the arm, gripping it firmly with his enhanced body, and was sent crashing against the wall.
Boom!
“Ugh…!”
By lying flat on the arm after climbing aboard, he was able to withstand its rapid movement, which was strong enough to destroy the dungeon wall.
Not wasting the brief moment when he was stuck against the wall, Evan kicked off and charged toward the golem.
Zing!
The golem, spotting the intruder running across its arm, revealed its blue eyes.
It appeared surprised that the intruder, who had previously been on the ground, was now on its arm.
With the legs still not regenerated, Evan judged that it was a perfect opportunity and ran without looking back.
However, the golem was not a human but a machine.
A machine had no reason to feel surprise.
It was merely stuttering due to something outside of its calculations; the golem then swung its opposing arm towards Evan’s running direction to eliminate the intruder.
Evan looked up in horror at the hand that was swinging down as if falling from the sky.
If he had just a little more time, he could have swung his prepared sword energy to slice the core, but before he could even reach the effective range, it had already launched a counterattack.
Its reaction speed came from the fact that it didn’t appear human at all; it was a machine.
‘This is…!’
He couldn’t block it.
Evan realized this instinctively.
Despite running as fast as he could, the golem’s massive size allowed it to spot him and retaliate before he could reach it.
If this continued, he would be crushed under that heavy hand…!
Evan gritted his teeth.
‘I can’t die…!’
He didn’t know about anything else, but he absolutely couldn’t afford to die.
He might end up getting hurt, but if he died here, everything he had done until now would be meaningless.
If he had to retreat temporarily, that was one thing, but he could never let Aria suffer the pain of losing him again by dying pointless here.
In that case, the only thing he could do right now was block that swinging hand coming towards him.
“Ugh…!!”
Evan gathered all his remaining strength and slammed it into the Sacred Sword.
‘Just a little more… if only I had a bit more strength…’
He had only recently awakened as a Hero.
The only technique he could use was mindlessly pouring magic power into the Sacred Sword to unleash a sword wave, and that alone was only possible because the Sacred Sword was so powerful that it produced that level of force; his own sword wave was insignificant.
Even being able to emit such a powerful sword wave was mainly because the efficiency of converting his full power was greatly enhanced by the Sacred Sword itself.
In fact, it was only demonstrating a force powerful enough to amplify his strength.
But it was pathetic that even with such a powerful Sacred Sword, he could barely manage this much.
The Divine Power, which had been emitting light in the air, was slowly losing strength and weakening.
However…
But he couldn’t give up on that.
“This much…!!”
This was a chance created by Aria’s sacrifice.
Even if he were to return to the moment when he nearly died with nothing left to do, it was a chance born from squeezing out life itself, filled with pain.
If he couldn’t even block this level of attack, there would be no meaning to his coming here!
“…”
He wasn’t sure if he would have enough strength to move after blocking that hand.
To be honest, it was already unusual that he had the leeway to smash the golem’s huge core after launching that powerful sword wave twice.
That’s why he had to take a gamble.
He would launch the sword wave as wide as possible, at an angle just safe enough not to hurt himself, while calculating the optimal angle to strike the core located at the center of his body.
And the sensations from the hand he had been swinging for a long time told him.
The current angle was accurate.
‘I’ll swing it like this…!’
At that moment,
Whoosh!
A flash exploded before his eyes.
“…?!”
Evan, startled by the sudden light, turned to where the brilliance was emanating from.
There, he saw…
“D-Dannes…?!”
A massive shield made of Divine Power was blocking the golem’s hand.
“Ugh…!”
Dannes was beginning to be crushed downwards slowly.
But he held firm, desperately gritting his teeth and looking up at the enormous hand that was pressing down on him.
“The Saint… managed to block this…!!”
There was no room for leisure.
Barely three seconds had passed since the attack had been blocked, and already it was on the verge of breaking.
It was nowhere near the sturdy barrier created by the Saint, who had held out until both he and Dannes could escape.
There was no time left to panic.
In fact, even panicking was wrong.
How many sacrifices had he made during the time he spent panicking until now?
This time, he absolutely couldn’t afford to fail.
He couldn’t let go of the opportunity that Dannes had created for him.
“Haah…”
Evan exhaled.
Thinking was a luxury.
With his eyes closed, trusting the sensations from earlier.
Evan raised the Sacred Sword.
In that instant,
“…”
He swung the Sacred Sword surrounded by holy starlight.
Then,
Boom!
The waves of stars engulfed the golem.
