Chapter 196 - 196. Undead
The greatsword cut Abel's torso diagonally, leaving a deep wound on his body, but he also managed to hit his attacker, stabbing his arm right above the wrist.
The two cultivators separated briefly and stared at each other in the middle of the battlefield.
The representative of the Royal family looked at the bloody wound on Abel's chest.
Blood flowed from it but, in a few seconds, signs of healing manifested.
In about a minute, that large cut that almost divided Abel's body in two disappeared and only a faint white mark remained.
"Impressive."
The representative judged.
The wound that he had suffered was deep but small, even if it was still bleeding it wouldn't hinder his battle capabilities.
"It seems that you have a rank 4 body too, the Royals didn't spare resources to kill a rank 1 cultivator."
Abel said, pointing his knife at him.
That weapon was an inscribed item, with its sharp edges shining in a pale light.
Also, an invisible air current enveloped it, it seemed that Abel was boosting its power with a rank 0 spell of some sort.
The representative's eyes sharpened hearing his remark and opened his mouth to speak from behind the clothes that covered his face.
"That is a rank 4 body? But its power seems only to reach the peak of the third rank."
Abel nodded and showed a smug smile.
"You are indeed right. My body-nourishment method sacrifices the physical empowerment to obtain the best regenerative abilities among rank 4 bodies. Sadly, it can only give me as much, my other qualities are similar to a rank 3 body."
"So, it's quite weak."
The representative spoke.
He didn't mind spending time speaking with him.
The others in his group were generally stronger than the soldiers of a noble family and the surprise attack had tilted the scales in their favor.
They were gradually gaining the advantage, suffering fewer losses than their enemies and pushing the battle toward the center of the group.
Instead of engaging in a dangerous battle immediately, he would rather wait for his allies to arrive.
"Yes, it's weak but that's the best that my family could give me. I'm just a soldier after all. However, it doesn't seem that yours is that strong either, I can't see the so-called advantage in joining the Elbas family from you."
Abel could not move either, his priority was to protect the noble heir right behind him so he had to stay still and believe in his men.
Even though guards of noble families were generally suppressed and could only obtain second-rate techniques, the men appointed for that escort mission were among the best cultivators in the mansion of the Muwlos family.
They all had a rank 3 martial art and some spells, they had lost the initiative due to the initial ambush but they were slowly managing to recover their positions.
The biggest advantage that they had was their ability to fight as a group while their assailants were lone fighters.
Even if they continued to be pushed back, some traces of a counterattack began to appear on the battlefield.
In conclusion, the two groups had actually a similar strength.
The representative believed that his allies could maintain the advantage initially created while Abel trusted that his men would recover their positions and win through their cooperation.
The leaders of the two groups knew that the battle would be decided once one of them defeated the other so they took their time to inspect their opponent.
Abel was right in his judgment.
The representative of the Royal family only had a common body-nourishing method.
It brought his body in the fourth rank but it gave him no special qualities whatsoever.
It didn't have a transformation like Kevin's one nor was it specialized in defense like Kurt's one, it was a simple empowerment of its basic capabilities.
Humans already had a far weaker body compared to magical beasts, when it was coupled with an average nourishing method with no special abilities, the result was quite disappointing.
It couldn't be helped though, they had three centers of power after all and not everyone could have access to stronger techniques.
Also, choosing to wait for a more powerful nourishing method would halt their improvements in the other fields.
Reaching the third rank of the dantian was impossible if you only had a rank 3 body, that's why most common soldiers chose to train in weaker but accessible techniques.
A cultivator in the heroic ranks was still a valuable resource, even large-size families didn't have too many of them.
Especially considering those without a noble lineage, there weren't many of them that could be granted access to powerful techniques.
Only the Royal family was laxer in their control over precious techniques since they had the power to handle unexpected situations.
The wound on the arm of the representative finally stopped bleeding so he decided to resume in his assault.
His greatsword was swung many times, managing to wound Abel every time.
However, the leader of the group from the Muwlos family only dodged the attacks that aimed for his vital points and counterattacked promptly every time the greatsword was busy cutting his flesh.
It was a reckless fighting style, possible only thanks to the insane regenerative abilities of his body.
After more than ten exchanges, Abel's body was covered in bloody cuts while the representative had only a few stab wounds on his arms.
It became clear to the latter that Abel was purposely relying on the ability of his body to slowly wear out his opponent.
Nevertheless, there wasn't much that the representative could do.
No matter how many times he hit him, his body would keep on regenerating and the knife would find his way on his flesh.
What was worse was that the regeneration didn't seem to slow down even after all those wounds, the representative felt that he was fighting some kind of undead creature.
'However, he seems wary of his vital organs.'
Those were his thoughts when he resumed in his assault.
The greatsword slashed the soldier's body many times obtaining no apparent results while the inscribed knife continuously found breaches in the representative's guard and stabbed his arms.
At some point though, the representative released the grip of one of his hands from the weapon and grabbed Abel's arm as soon as the knife stabbed him.
He was using the same tactic of his opponent!
Being momentarily immobilized, Abel could not dodge the incoming attack and the greatsword pierced his chest, dividing his heart in two.