Spirit Soul

Kyle was not sure how much time had passed.

All he knew was that he was extremely exhausted and on the verge of collapsing. Forcing his eyes to stay open, he bleakly saw that Arashi had finally achieved his first task.

The Undead Giant's sword arm was finally cut off!

Only the stump of its upper arm's bone was left, while the rest fell to the ground with a loud rattle.

When Kyle noticed this, he used the Nurture ability on himself.

This quickly invigorated his exhausted and strained body while giving him the necessary energy.

After he felt a little energy seep back into his muscles, Kyle reached for the heavy longsword.

He wanted to snatch it from the ground before the Giant had an option to counterattack.

Unexpectedly, things took a turn in the worst way possible.

As such, while rushing towards the sword arm, Kyle could barely perceive a faint glint on the Undead Giant's soul flames.

This almost made him halt in his tracks.

However, seeing that the longsword was barely a meter away from both him and the Undead Giant, Kyle couldn't help but force himself to advance.

If the Undead Giant were to be able to reach the longsword, Kyle would only get killed by exhaustion, if not his opponent's attack.

This was something, Kyle didn't want to happen.

Thus, the moment he reached the longsword, he grasped it with one hand, wanting to store it inside his spatial ring.

For Kyle, it was too heavy to be used properly, and it would only be a burden.

Yet, just a moment before he accessed his spatial ring, Kyle's instincts gave him a warning.

And, he felt an attack coming the way that would severely injure or kill him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he was able to catch a glimpse of the Undead Giant that had already appeared next to him.

Its unscathed arm was curled into a fist and it was about to punch him.

Kyle's eyes widened when he noticed this, but it was already too late!

The Undead Giant's speed increased tremendously the moment it lost the heavy longsword.

Even its soul flames were flickering more vibrantly than only a moment ago.

Through this, Kyle realized that something was off.

A faint membrane of soul force around the area which the Undead Giant would hit appeared, barely a fraction of a second later.

The moment he was hit, Kyle felt as if the punch knocked the breath out of him.

He was flung against the pillar that was barely two meters away from him.

Slumping to the ground, he spit out blood before gasping for air.

His entire body was aching, but he had no time to feel the pain.

Ignoring it, Kyle used the remaining energy within the Nurture ability in order to invigorate himself.

Thankfully, all of his bones were still intact and hadn't broken.

As he had not sustained any life-threatening injury so far, it was more than enough energy to let him recuperate.

As such, Kyle was able to get up, just as the Undead Giant appeared in front of him once again.

It swung its leg backwards a little to launch a powerful kick on the side.

Jumping to the side was impossible because he would still be hit by the horizontal kick.

Gritting his teeth at the thought of not being able to evade and save his replenished energy, he unleashed the majority of stored soul force in order to use his wind affinity.

Targeting the ground, Kyle jumped, propelling himself upwards as the wind he had conjured gave him the necessary push.

Through this, he could evade the kick.

But, he failed to notice that he had hit the pillar behind him.

Yet, the moment his back touched the pillar more than three meters above the ground, Kyle didn't even think as his instincts made him move.

Pushing himself away from the pillar, he changed from acting defensively to initiating an attack.

Meanwhile, Arashi never stopped attacking the Undead Giant with wind blades.

Unfortunately, the wind element was only partially helpful against any kind of being with extremely strong defensive capabilities.

At the same time, affinities and abilities would only show their true color if more energy were to be supplied. Consequently, the wielder would receive the chance to use a wide variety of means to attack, defend or support oneself, and possibly others.

As such, Arashi, who was only at the Late Fortification stage, was unable to do much with its wind affinity.

It was also not good for the 17 centimeters tall, little fox to even consider close combat.

His chances of defeating the Undead Giant were even less.

The gigantic opponent seemed to have gained an upper hand after losing its sword arm rather than losing.

This was something Kyle had subtly perceived as he had been punched and kicked at in short successions.

That was something he didn't expect to happen.

The pressure weighing him down had only increased, instead of the desired effect of getting more room to fight.

In fact, Undead Giant's speed had accelerated after losing the heavy longsword!

This was odd and a major disadvantage for Kyle.

At the same time, its soul flames were burning more vigorously, only to reveal its true capabilities as Elite in close combat.

When Kyle had pushed himself from the pillar, he expected to reach the Undead Giant without too many difficulties.

After that, he had planned to attack it with its wind affinity from a close range.

He had hoped that even if it wouldn't eliminate the threat, shallow injuries were already a great way to start with.

Unfortunately, his plan had been destroyed before it was even implemented.

While he was in the air, jumping towards the Undead Giant with a fast pace, the Skeleton made simple and subtle movements.

He threaded backwards to avoid Kyle, forcing him to land on the ground, barely a few meters away.

Rolling on the ground, he got back on his feet and was able to avoid the worst possible outcome. Meanwhile, the ground next to him shook only a moment later.

Kyle threw a glance backward and saw that the Undead Giant had already punched out to the position he could narrowly escape.

This caused him to gulp, only to take one more step further away from the Giant.

He had grossly miscalculated the strength of his opponent. His close combat capabilities were even more terrifying than he could have ever imagined.

'His movements...are perfect!! Was he a promising close combat youngling Giant that belonged to the Elite?' Kyle wondered.

He noticed that he hit something the moment he took another step in the direction opposite to that of the Undead Giant.

His realization made Kyle feel as if he had encountered a bad joke.

Nevertheless, he tried to remain calm because the worst he could do right now was to panic.

Not knowing what to do next, Kyle summarised his current situation.

'When I use my movement technique and wind affinity, I'm barely as fast as the Undead Giant. But, it is much better at utilizing its strength, and every single movement is done precisely...I won't be able to reach this state anytime soon!' He realized grudgingly while he bit on his lower lip.

Looking down to check his foot had hit earlier, Kyle spotted the heavy longsword.

At that moment, a faint glint emerged inside his eyes.

Looking at the longsword, he told himself that it was probably his  last shot at defeating his opponent

Communicating through the bond with his Spirit Soul, Kyle tweaked his earlier plan.

After telling the Spirit Soul what he was supposed to do, Kyle picked up the longsword, using both hands.

'How was it able to wield the sword so easily?!' Kyle wondered as he eyed the weapon curiously.

He was questioning whether the Undead Giant was truly a being at the Late Fortification stage, or if he was just misinterpreting the entire situation.

Tightly grasping the longsword with both hands, he instinctively inserted a faint trace of soul force into it.

This worked properly, and afterward, Kyle exerted the Swift Steps movement technique later.

It was closely followed by his wind affinity, further accelerating his speed.

However, owing to the additional weight of the longsword, Kyle's speed was now slower than the Undead Giant. Meanwhile, it was fully prepared to initiate the next onslaught of punches and kicks.

Yet, what the Undead Giant failed to realize was that the wind attacks had ceased.

Not a single wind blade advanced towards it and shattered on its body anymore.

Owing to this, it had even forgotten about Arashi's existence, and solely focused on Kyle.

In the end, this was the biggest, but also the only mistake the Undead Giant made.

Unfortunately, this mistake was enough to cause its doom. Multiple things occurred the moment the Skeletal Giant's punch propelled through the air, hurtling towards Kyle's face.

Facing the lethal strike head-on, Kyle decided to trust Arashi, who was already initiating an attack.

Slashing the heavy longsword while utilizing the Deathly Assault technique, Kyle's muscles bulged, and even the most inconspicuous movement was visible.

At that moment, his sword slash brushed past the Undead Giant's fist. It had been an intentional movement and Kyle had purposely missed hitting it.

Through this, the blade's distance from the area Kyle was targeting decreased rapidly.

Meanwhile, the bony fist was less than half a meter away from him, giving Kyle's the chills.

Nevertheless, Kyle's path was undeviating as his eyes turned cold, determination gleaming within them.

At that moment, he felt a tremendous gust of wind brush past his face.

It brushed through his golden hair as a compressed, basketball-sized ball of wind collided with the Undead Giant's fist.

Under normal circumstances, the wind ball would have dispersed.

But somehow, it continued to advance, while rotating at a great speed.

This tremendous attack hurled the Undead Giant's arm to the side, forcefully altering the punch's trajectory.

It was a ceaseless advance and hit the Undead Giant who was caught off-guard when Kyle's sword slash collided with its rib cage.

Fine cracks spread through the rib cage like a spider's web and soon it began to crumble.

The impact had knocked off the Undead Giant as a consequence of the series of events that happened.

Just at that moment, the Undead Giant, who lost its balance owing to the rotating wind ball, lifted its head.

It looked at Kyle while staring straight into his emerald-colored eyes.

It had made the fatal mistake of underestimating the synergy of two weaker forces.

But now when it had realized the same, it was too late.

It had to forcibly acknowledge its mistake while succumbing to the inevitable fate that awaited it.

Unable to regain its balance, it fell to the ground as a clatter of bones crashing into the ground echoed through the hall.

Its fall gave Kyle the opportunity to cleave through the rib cage using the heavy longsword.

It clashed with the Undead core that emitted a sharp noise as it was cut.