Chapter 867: The Comical Battle in the Babtali Valley (Part 11)

"Shishou" gradually accelerated his pace, swung the Large Metal Sword forward from his shoulder, and gripped the handle with both hands, one in front of the other. To ensure a firm grip, his left hand even held onto a section of the blade just before the crossguard.

Of course, the blade here was not sharpened, so holding it with bare hands was not a problem; in fact, the Large Metal Sword was designed and crafted this way. "Shishou's" right hand gripped behind the handle, close to the counterweight fixed at the pommel for balance.

"Haaaaa—"

He let out a loud shout, full of momentum, looking exactly like an armored rhinoceros charging at full speed.

Seeing the opponent charging, Jier gave a disdainful snort, spread his legs, and crouched slightly, preparing to jump and dodge at any moment. But he did not dodge immediately; instead, he swayed his upper body left and right, performing feints to influence the opponent.

The Dwarf was clearly keeping his wits about him in battle. Even while charging, his eyes were fixed tightly on the rapidly approaching Human Knight. He naturally held back a portion of his strength, prepared for the possibility of intercepting the opponent in mid-air should they dodge.

But the Human Knight only kept making various feints, causing him to abandon his next contingency and instead pour all his force into the charge.

Because the distance had already closed too much, it was impossible for the Human to dodge anymore—it was too late! Even if he dodged now, he would be intercepted at close range by the weapon being swung in his direction!

Here it comes!

Jier focused his mind. For the Dwarf charging head-on, this tiny distance and time were extremely short, but for Jier at this moment, they were slightly different.

Was this Dwarf's charge not as fast as it seemed?

Jier did not know; he thought the effect of the Red-eye Mushroom Sugar Pill was starting to take hold. But how could it be that fast? The thing he had just swallowed had not yet been digested or absorbed by his body, so naturally, it could not have affected his nervous system yet.

At this moment, he felt the Dwarf's movements slow down, which was entirely due to a combination of factors. After Knight Training, his body had stimulated Life Energy capable of enhancing a Human's physique. This Life Energy not only allowed for superhuman movements during battle but also permanently strengthened and improved the Human body over time based on the concentration of Life Energy.

Not only that, Humans were born with the talent to concentrate all their physical energy into battle. Although Jier was a visitor from another world, the body he was using possessed all the innate instinctive talents of a Human.

Finally, the Divine Art "Grass and Wood Source" from the Agricultural God Church, although only a short-term auxiliary Divine Art for infinite stamina and energy, produced some indescribable, unique, and subtle changes when combined with the two aforementioned talents and abilities.

Manifesting in battle, Jier not only felt he possessed inexhaustible strength at this moment, but he also felt that everything unrelated to the fight became blurred in his vision, while his enemy and the enemy's weapon became slow and clear.

It was just unknown what changes would occur in Jier once the Red-eye Mushroom Sugar Pill he had swallowed took effect and joined the mix.

"Here it comes!"

Even though Jier had no heart, he felt as if his heart were pumping large amounts of blood to every part of his body at this moment. His combat instincts judged everything before him, reaching a result entirely different from that of the Dwarf "Shishou."

Within the distance where the Dwarf felt escape was impossible, Jier moved.

He waited until the Dwarf opposite had committed all his strength into the charge before he activated his already-primed legs and jumped straight up!

But he did not dodge left, nor right, nor backward; there was a Dwarf house behind him, with no room to retreat.

In reality, Jier jumped straight up from where he stood!

He just jumped straight up, leaping several meters high. If it weren't for the need to paralyze his opponent, which prevented him from making too obvious a wind-up, Jier could have jumped over ten meters high; at this moment, several meters was already the minor result of a quick burst of power.

"Oh no..."

The Dwarf was clearly startled to see the Human Knight jump to dodge at the very last moment of the charge. It was too late to change his move now; he had committed all his force into the charge and collision, making it difficult to adjust.

He tried to drag his feet on the ground to slow down, but at this distance, it was too late. Facing the rock wall that had suddenly been revealed in front of him, he crashed into it with a "Boom—".

In an instant, a large cloud of dust was kicked up at the point of impact, and scattered Stone fragments flew out wildly as if thrown by someone. The flowers and plants originally growing on the second floor of this unlucky Dwarf's house seemed to grow legs during the impact, being flung out of their original stone pots by the force from the outer wall of the first floor. A nest of bats domesticated in a light-shielding rock crevice on the second floor didn't even make a sound; they were crushed to death in their dark crevice as the house shifted slightly from the overall impact.

In the end, only some flesh and fur were squeezed out from the rock crevices; an outsider would never have known a nest of bats had been kept there.

Jier swung his body in the air, changing his position, trying his best to turn around in mid-air, performing a 180-degree turn, and landing on his feet.

Therefore, when he landed, he was facing the Dwarf who had crashed heavily into the house.

He didn't waste any words. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he fiercely scraped the ground and lunged forward, his Long Sword thrusting straight into the dust-filled mist. But the next moment, the tip of the sword, thrust with force, was blocked by something.

It was as if he had stabbed into solid rock.

But Jier was certain that the Long Sword thrust from this position could not have reached the Dwarf's house.

Confused and filled with a bad premonition, Jier retracted his sword and thrust again. When it was blocked, he retracted it and swung horizontally; when that was blocked, he slashed down. The more he attacked, the more uneasy Jier felt.

Then, a strong wind blew through the Cunzi, carrying away the dust and mist rising in the center of the village, simultaneously answering Jier's question.

"Impossible!!!"

Jier's eyes widened, looking at the answer before him in disbelief. He hadn't expected that after swinging his sword several times, what blocked him wasn't some personal defense of the Dwarf, nor had he miscalculated the distance and hit the house wall.

Before him, the sturdy, glowing Dwarf was using one hand to try and pull the Large Metal Sword out from where it had smashed through the rock wall of the house, while the other hand was blocking in front of Jier, protecting his body.

It turned out that what had been blocking Jier's Long Sword just now was nothing else—it was just the Dwarf's hand, and a bare hand at that!

Jier couldn't believe it. Gritting his teeth, he quickly slashed out another sword strike. The Dwarf's eyes narrowed, and he instinctively raised his hand to block, actually using a palm emitting a bronze-colored shimmer to block Jier's Long Sword slash directly.

The sturdy blade, reinforced with Magic Material, slid across the Dwarf's palm as if sliding across a piece of refined steel, kicking up only a tiny amount of Divine Power debris.

"Huh?" Jier let out a strange interrogative sound.

"Ha!" "Shishou" chuckled with increased confidence.

Neither of them had expected this result.

At this moment, the Dwarf gave up on pulling out the Large Metal Sword that was deeply embedded in the rock wall, clapped his hands together, and pounced on Jier with empty hands. Jier quickly retreated, turned, and swung the Shield on his left hand, smashing the pouncing Dwarf back with a "Bang!".

Both were stunned by this. The Dwarf who had fallen to the ground immediately climbed up and hurriedly used both hands to pull at his Large Metal Sword, while Jier shook his head and muttered something.

The next moment, he raised his foot and kicked the sword-pulling Dwarf fiercely.

Bang, bang, bang—he kicked three times in a row. Light flickered on the Dwarf's body, and he staggered, but his hands still used immense strength to pull the Large Metal Sword out, and he turned to slash.

Jier dodged, and the Dwarf's Large Metal Sword struck empty ground.

Seemingly having gained experience from the previous exchange and knowing the Human Knight couldn't hurt him, the Dwarf "Shishou's" momentum was even greater this time, sword strike after sword strike, giving the Human Knight no gap to escape.

Jier tucked his body and rammed into the wooden door of the Dwarf house, breaking through it to hide inside.

Seeing this, "Shishou" also chased inside and shouted loudly: "'Long Tail'! This person hid in here himself; don't blame me if anything gets broken!"

Saying that, as soon as "Shishou" entered the door, he kicked a stone flower pot by the door, sending the pot along with the Cave Glowing Plant on it flying toward Jier.

Jier raised his Shield to block diagonally, deflecting the flying flower pot. Then, "courtesy demands reciprocity," he also used his sword to strike a metal wine cup utensil on a nearby Dwarf stone table. With a clatter and a jingle, Jier knocked several intricately patterned cups and wine pots onto the Dwarf Warrior.

"Shishou" didn't even block, letting these heavy metal cups and utensils strike and hit him. Seeing that the space inside the house wasn't high enough for a Human and there was no more room to jump and dodge, he turned sideways and threw the Large Metal Sword in his hand while spinning.

The entire metal two-handed sword radiated a bronze-colored shimmer, clearly also imbued with the power of a god at this moment. It flew toward Jier the Human while spinning, carrying a force as if it could whip up a typhoon inside the house.

At the most critical moment, Jier quickly lay backward. He hadn't practiced any "Iron Plate Bridge" techniques, and facing a non-human race of the Dwarf's height, the conventional Human "Iron Plate Bridge" was still too high. Therefore, Jier simply lay flat on the ground, letting the Large Metal Sword, carrying immense force, whistle and roll past him.

It then caused a loud noise and impact in the inner room pointed to by the ceiling, enough to shake the house.

"Tsk!"

The Dwarf spat, lunged forward, but Jier, having fallen to the ground, had long anticipated the Dwarf's move at this moment; he retracted his legs first, and then, as the Dwarf pounced from the air, he exerted force and kicked, sending the Dwarf flying out in mid-air.

Whoosh—

The Dwarf had just entered from the doorway, and then, after no more than a few breaths, he was sent flying back out of the house's doorway, bounced a few times on the plaza outside, and only then scrambled up from the ground in a sorry state.

And when he stood up to look, peering inside from the ruined house gate, he happened to see the Human Knight also scrambling to his feet and running toward the inside of the house.

"Damn it! Trying to snatch my Large Metal Sword? Where is your Warrior spirit! Despicable Human!"

Shishou asked back in a rage, but Jier could not understand the questioning the other party had blurted out in the Dwarven Language in their haste.

Ignoring the Dwarf outside, Jier scrambled to his feet in one motion and hurried toward the Bedroom in the inner room of the house that had been smashed. He avoided the collapsed Bedroom partition wall, and without needing to push open the Bedroom door, he looked directly inside from the vanished doorway, seeing at a glance the 'culprit' within the messy Bedroom—the Dwarf's Large Metal Sword.

This thing was currently atop a pile of Bedroom wooden bed fragments that looked like trash, 'stepping' on a large amount of destroyed Bedroom items like a proud Warrior, 'triumphant'.

Jier put away his Hunting Sword and Elven Metal Shield, and just as he was about to grip the hilt of the Large Metal Sword, the Hunting Sword at his waist vibrated violently, seemingly extremely dissatisfied with its master's behavior of abandoning it to use an enemy's weapon.

"Quiet! Behave! If you were of any use, would I need to do this!"

Scolded by Jier like this, the Hunting Sword quieted down, but then immediately vibrated intensely again.

Jier ignored the dissatisfaction of the Hunting Sword and lifted the Large Metal Sword, whose bronze-colored shimmer had faded. This thing was not light in weight, weighing at least forty or fifty kilograms, far exceeding the weight of normal Human weapons; even for a Dwarf, whose strength was several times that of a Human, this was a weapon that deserved the title of heavy.

But this Large Metal Sword clearly did not have a massive volume to match this weight; it was heavy, and over a meter long, suitable for creatures including Dwarves and Humans to hold with both hands, but its volume was only slightly wider than the Human Long Sword Jier had seen.

The blade was as wide as an adult male's palm; this width and the thickness of the blade were reasonably not small, even exaggeratedly large, but compared to the weight of the Large Metal Sword in Jier's hand at this moment, it appeared exceptionally different.

Jier turned his head to look at the Dwarf Warrior who was running over from outside the house in a huff, and specifically asked: "Is this weapon of yours made with Magic Material? What kind of Magic Material? It probably wasn't cheap, right?"

Shishou glared at the Human Knight, fists clenched tight, but his footsteps stopped at the hall of this house: "Despicable fellow, I refuse to answer!"

He looked left and right, trying to find something to counter his own weapon. The Divine Power blessing on his body could withstand the slashing of the other party's Long Sword, but he dared not use his own weapon to test whether it could withstand it.

It would be fine if it could withstand it, but if it couldn't, then his own death would be a small matter, while letting everyone in the Treasure Mine laugh at him for hundreds of years would be a big matter.

Jier laughed out loud and raised the Large Metal Sword to fight, but the Large Metal Sword could not be raised, awkwardly getting stuck above Jier's head.

It turned out that this Dwarf Residence was already a bit low for a Human; normal sitting and lying down were fine, just slightly cramped, but if one raised their hands, a normal adult's height plus raised hands would reach the first-floor ceiling of the Dwarf Residence.

As for jumping, if one didn't want to bump their head full of lumps, it was best not to jump.

"Uh, this..."

He immediately realized something was wrong, and sure enough, looking at the Dwarf opposite, he directly discovered that the glowing Dwarf opposite had directly hugged the thick wooden table in the hall, holding the low, thick wooden table made of large pieces of wood in his arms, and smashed into the already broken Bedroom wall like a battering ram.

Jier did not want to be hit squarely by this thing; Life Energy had given him a great boost in stamina, strength, and agility, but it did not include physical defense; defense on the body mainly relied on the Metal Armor.

And the Metal Armor was most afraid of impacts and collisions similar to blunt weapons; although that thick, low wooden table was not a proper weapon, it looked like getting hit by it would still not be very pleasant.

With no time to swing the newly obtained weapon in this cramped space, Jier seized the moment, jumped slightly, held the sword with his right hand to brace against the ceiling, and used his left hand to support the tabletop of the incoming wooden table.

Screech—Boom!

Jier's left Gauntlet made a harsh friction sound on the tabletop, and then this sound was drowned out by the loud noise of the wooden table hitting the other side of the Bedroom wall.

Not only that, neither Jier nor Shishou had expected that this collision would actually make the entire house shake and become unstable.

The collapse started from the place where the Bedroom was hit, and the second-floor garden, along with everything on it, smashed down like a cave-in.

At this scene, both of them were stunned.

But unlike the Dwarf, who was uneasy and panicked, standing blankly on the spot as if he had done something bad, Jier truly perceived time slowing down at this moment.

Everything around him slowed down by more than double; the collapsing second floor was smashing down from the air at a speed visible to the naked eye. Jier pressed his body against the floor of the second floor, the ceiling of the first floor, kicked his legs with all his might, and his arms grabbed at everything he could grab to 'crawl' forward in mid-air.

The collapsing second-floor rock floor slabs became stepping points for Jier in the air, making it convenient for him to escape forward. His left hand grabbed the surface of the wooden table that had originally smashed in, as well as the stunned Dwarf Warrior at the end of the wooden table, and his right hand swung the newly acquired Large Metal Sword, stabbing it into the rock ceiling ahead that had not yet collapsed, using it to leverage his forward movement.

Just like this, with near-impossible speed and agility, in the process of the house's collapse, Jier tumbled and crawled out of the doorway of this Dwarf Residence one step ahead of the house's collapse.

Rolling twice on the ground, Jier hadn't even scrambled up before he was helped to roll twice more by the collapse shockwave blowing from behind.

The ground was full of stirred-up dust; Jier couldn't see at all how large an area had been shielded by the dust from this house collapse, making things unclear.

But fortunately, the strong wind that had blown through the Cunzi earlier had not yet ceased, which was at least a bit of good news.

"I actually didn't need to push myself this hard, sigh, I was just thinking about saving my life."

Jier shook his head, scrambled up from the ground, raised his hand to cover the gap between the nose and mouth of his Faceplate, revealing only a pair of squinted eyes, and turned to look at the collapsed Dwarf Residence behind him.

That glowing Dwarf Warrior was buried underneath, still carrying the other party's weapon he hadn't even gotten warm yet.

But Jier still dared not say he had won, or rather, the state of this battle up to this point had little to do with his own actions; it was entirely the consequence of the other party wantonly using the powerful power bestowed by the gods without the corresponding experience and constraints in using that power.

Before Jier could say anything, Jier twitched his eyebrows sharply.

His keen perception sensed something.

The ground was shaking, coming from the collapsed Dwarf Residence ahead.

It became more intense.

"No way? Indestructible? The great power of the gods is truly extraordinary, and quite biased too."

Jier mocked himself, then saw a few rocks at a corner of the ruins in front of him being pushed up from below, and then, as if they had been struck, just like siege stones thrown by a catapult, they flew up from the ground and landed in other parts of the Cunzi.

And in a new cloud of smoke and dust, the one who stood up again was naturally that Dwarf Warrior with the bronze-colored shimmer all over his body.

Although the other party claimed to be just a Miner.

However, Jier squinted his eyes and keenly discovered that the bronze-colored shimmer all over the other party's body had dimmed a lot.

This discovery made the corners of his mouth curl up.

"How about it? Miner, shall we go again?"

Hearing the Human Knight's flippant inquiry, Shishou, who was unharmed but still covered in dust, gritted his teeth in anger, kicked away a Stone brick in front of him, and pulled the Large Metal Sword that had been pinned down from underneath.

"Be careful, you won't have that kind of good luck this time..."

The Dwarf snorted a breath from his nose, leaped out of the ruins violently, and at the same time, raised the sword with both hands and slashed!