Mahoraga's movements were agile and nimble, he danced around the battlefield, skirting through the most fierce battles while making his way to the stone commander.
Oddly enough, the commander was making his job easier. Wherever Mahoraga moved, the stone legion shifted aside, creating a clear path between them as though acknowledging him as the commander of the Freehold and deliberately guiding him towards their master for their eventual battle.
Finally after a few brief seconds, Mahoraga reached the Stone Knight.
His entourage gave him a long look as he arrived before gradually clearing out an arena for them, ensuring that their duel would remain uninterrupted.
Mahoraga tilted his head up and spoke mockingly:
"You are the challenger here…"
The Knight squinted.
For a few moments, neither of them moved. The giant stone warrior merely stared down at Mahoraga, his expression utterly unreadable. Then, slowly, he lifted the massive hammer resting on his shoulder and pointed it directly at him.
Mahoraga's grin widened.
"Fantastic."
The moment the word left his mouth, the Knight moved.
The sand exploded beneath his feet.
A beat later, they were upon each other.
The two pounced at the same time. One might have compared them to a lion chasing an antelope, but that comparison quickly fell apart when neither seemed willing to be hunted.
Mahoraga found it difficult to place the creature. One moment it felt like a Fallen monster, the next like a Corrupted one. It was as though the thing existed somewhere between the two.
Is it undergoing an evolution?
The thought flashed through Mahoraga's mind and vanished just as quickly.
There wasn't enough time to dwell on it.
The Knight's hammer descended and with it came his unbearable fury.
Mahoraga barely managed to evade.
The colossal weapon crashed into the ground where he had been standing a fraction of a second earlier, sending a violent shockwave racing across the battlefield.
Mahoraga landed several meters away and immediately pushed off the ground.
A moment later, the hammer swept through the space he had just occupied.
The Knight didn't give him a second to breathe.
One strike flowed into the next with frightening precision. Despite the giant's enormous frame, there was no sluggishness to his movements. Every swing was fast. Every attack was calculated. Every blow carried enough force to turn Mahoraga into a red stain on the battlefield.
Fighting a war hammer with a sword had already put Mahoraga at a disadvantage. Fighting a cunning monster wielding one was even worse.
Dying Oath was merely an Awakened weapon. Every clash against the Knight's hammer pushed it beyond what it had been made to endure, and the fact that it hadn't broken apart was admirable in and of itself.
But Mahoraga still had a few tricks left up his sleeve.
Their innumerable clashes weren't fruitless. Instead, they were slowly feeding into Mahoraga's adaption. Sooner or later, he would be able to devise a style to counteract the Knight and force him into a corner.
Until then, Mahoraga would have to remain content with being on the receiving end of the beating.
The Knight pressed forward relentlessly, giving him no opportunity to seize the initiative. Every attempt to retaliate was met with another crushing swing of the war hammer, forcing Mahoraga back onto the defensive.
Several times Mahoraga thought he had found an opening, only for the Knight to seamlessly adjust his stance and force him to abandon the attack altogether.
Catching the haft with the blade of his gladius, Mahoraga finally understood the meaning of being pushed back into the ground.
He strained his legs in an effort to stabilise himself but the sheer force behind the monster's strength prevented him from doing so.
Growling, Mahoraga used his legs to kick the Knight's poleyn. The blow landed at an awkward angle, causing the Knight's knee to buckle inward for the briefest of moments.
Against most opponents, it wouldn't have mattered at all. Against a warrior who was using the ground to leverage himself and drive force behind his attacks, it absolutely did.
The Knight's stance shifted.
Mahoraga immediately twisted Dying Oath against the haft and pushed himself away before the monster could recover.
The two did not immediately clash.
They circled each other. Their weapons drawing a line on the sand behind them as they observed their respective armies.
Locked in a brutal stalemate, the two armies crashed against each other time and time again, constantly losing ground only to reclaim it moments later.
Despite the deadlock, Mahoraga could see the battle gradually tilting in Nether's favor. The Freehold was still reclaiming lost ground, but with each exchange, it recovered a little less than before.
Can't expect reinforcements then…
Mahoraga thought bitterly.
Originally, he had intended to stall the Knight while his army overwhelmed Nether's forces. Once the battlefield was secured, they would regroup and bring down the enemy commander together. Unfortunately, that plan was beginning to fall apart.
Well it was expected.
The disparity between the two armies had been obvious from the very beginning.
The Freehold relied primarily on Awakened and Ascended soldiers in this side of the war. Nether's legion was an entirely different beast. The weakest stone warriors on the battlefield were already Fallen creatures, and many were far stronger than that.
The fact that the Freehold had managed to hold them back for this long was already impressive.
Mahoraga's gaze swept across the battlefield.
A section of the Freehold line collapsed beneath a concentrated assault from several stone abominations. Before nearby soldiers could reinforce the gap, another formation of stone warriors surged forward and widened the breach.
Mahoraga furtively glanced at the Knight and immediately felt a headache coming on.
Damnation…
This bastard was using the same strategy as him!
The realization left a sour taste in Mahoraga's mouth. Unfortunately, the Knight's plan was working far better than his own.
The Stone Legion had broken through first!
Now all that remained was to widen the breach and seperate the army into two sides.
Worst of all, nobody seemed to realize just how disastrous the situation had become. The breach continued to widen, yet the Freehold merely reacted to it instead of addressing the problem directly.
At this rate, the army would be split in two before anyone thought of a solution much less implement one.
Mahoraga cast a hopeful look toward the Stone Knight. Surely the wretch wouldn't mind waiting ten minutes while he fixed the battlefield?
The giant immediately started advancing.
Apparently not.
Mahoraga quietly cursed himself.
But such was life.
The world had never been fair. Cursing it wouldn't change a thing. All one could do was endure and continue forward.
Unfortunately, enduring the Knight's attacks was rapidly becoming impossible.