Lys lay flat on the ground, cheek pressed into the cool dirt. The goblin stood ten feet away, bigger than before and wrong in every way. Its yellow eyes locked on him with that cold, personal hate. It had no hunger left in it. Just had the look of something that had decided Lys needed to die.
His legs refused to move. His ribs punished every tiny breath like a knife twisting inside his chest. His left hand was completely numb, just a dead weight at this point at his side. Mana was gone, too. He can't run, nor can he fight it like before. Every option he used to have was gone after this sudden impact.
Before he could figure out what to do, the goblin raised its fist.
It was slow and deliberate, as if it knew Lys can't retaliate now. Not the wild swing from before. This was the motion of something that already knew the fight was over and wanted to enjoy ending it.
Lys couldn't dodge. Couldn't roll. His body simply would not answer fast enough. He knew it.
Just before the hit landed on him, his right hand moved on its own, pure muscle memory, trying the last thing that was left for him to do when everything else had quit. Fingers closed around CorpseSlayer's hilt. He didn't swing. He just lifted the sword between himself and the coming fist, blade pointing straight up, arm shaking from the effort of holding it upward.
And surprisingly, the goblin's fist stopped.
Mid-air. A full, sudden stop.
Its knuckles hovered inches from the glowing blue edge, trembling like a hand held too close to fire. The creature's yellow eyes fixed on the sword. Its heavy breathing changed to short, sharp, and unsure breathing. For the first time since the fight started, the goblin looked… uncertain of what to do.
Seeing this, Lys didn't understand it yet. But somehow his body did. It used that one stolen second before his brain could catch up.
He rolled sideways, grinding his bad shoulder into the dirt. Intense pain shot through his arm, but he kept moving. He dragged himself upright on his shaking legs. The sword stayed between him and the goblin the whole time, never dropping, never wavering.
Somehow, he knew the sword was the only thing that was stopping the creature from attacking him.
They faced each other again.
The goblin did not advance.
It just stood there, chest rising and falling fast, eyes locked only on the blade. Not on Lys's face. Not on his legs. Not on the direction he might run. Just at the sword.
Lys watched it breathe. He watched the way its big shoulders tensed every time the blue rune of the sword pulsed as he released a little amount of mana into it.
'It's scared of the sword', he realized. 'Not me. Not the knife. But the sword?! But why?'
Before he could think anymore, the goblin lunged again.
Not straight at him, angled wide, trying to circle around the blade instead of going through it.
Lys also swung on pure reflex. Without any fancy technique. He just pointed the edge where the goblin was going, trying to stop it reaching him at all cost.
As the goblin was in mid-motion, it couldn't stop itself. So, the blade grazed its ankle. A shallow cut. Barely broke the skin. But the goblin reacted like it had stepped on hot coals.
It wrenched its leg back with a high, wrong sound, the same pained noise it had made earlier when the sword first made contact with it and left a deep wound on its leg. It skittered backwards three full steps, shaking its ankle hard, like it couldn't understand why something so small would hurt that much.
Lys stared at the goblin.
Then at the sword.
Then back at the goblin.
Suddenly, like a puzzle, everything clicked into place in his mind.
The knife cut on its wrist had healed perfectly. The scratches, the deep forearm gash, all of it was gone. But the knee wound from CorpseSlayer was still there, though half-healed and scarred. The goblin's body could fight back against everything else. But somehow it couldn't fight back against this blade.
This was a huge discovery. A small smile formed on his lips without him even knowing.
And with that, a new screen suddenly pinged into view in front of his eyes. Not the usual white system box. This one was darker, almost black at the edges, with faint red lines running through the text like veins.
[Cursed Object Threshold Reached]
Host has demonstrated sufficient understanding of CorpseSlayer's true nature.
{---Unlocking Growth Features…---}
Lys stared at the words, chest still heaving, blood dripping from his split lip. He didn't know what "growth features" meant. If he could, he would have waited for a little while to think about this new strange screen. But he didn't have time to think about it. A goblin was ahead of him that he had to take care of; if he stopped now, it would take care of him.
He lowered the sword slowly.
From a desperate defensive hold in front of his chest, he shifted it forward. Blade pointed straight at the goblin. His arm steadied. The blue rune flared brighter, as if feeding on the same anger he had left in him that had kept him alive this long.
Seeing the blade at it, the goblin took one step back.
For the first time since the fight between them began, the creature actually stepped away from him as if fearing him, or his sword. Whatever it feared, it backed away from Lys a little.
He felt a small, tired breath leave his lungs. His voice came out rough, barely more than a whisper, but he said it anyway.
"Yeah… that's what I thought."
The goblin's yellow eyes narrowed. Its fists clenched at its sides. But it didn't come forward.
It waited.
And Lys stood there, broken ribs screaming, left hand useless, body barely holding itself up, with CorpseSlayer pointed at the thing that had come back stronger, and for the first time since the fight began, the goblin looked like it wasn't sure it could win.