First Time

Sir Solitar awoke the fallen saint as his blade remained pointed at the wretch, who was analysing his injury, thankfully, he had little blood to lose, less fortunately, his hand hadn't just been cut off, it was completely gone, caught in a whirlwind of slashes, utterly gone.

Unlike his offsprings, he didn't have overpowered regeneration, he would have to go through multiple of those mini-evolutions to hope to get his limb back in full.

'At least it's the left' he had gotten to save his more dominant hand, although his performances would definitely be hindered with one of them missing.

Not that it meant much, the swordsman had already demonstrated great enough speed already, if this fight were to go on, Axiolypito felt certain to lose it.

He eyed the way out but the saint's ring of flames wasn't going away, it must have gotten too large for him to traverse safely by now, he could only see himself launching away using towers but he could feel the eyes of the mysterious swordsman on him.

Not to mention, he would need more than one and to make his little stacks of seeds, he needed both of his hands! He still had his two feet that could shift into hands but still...

It was far from optimal.

"You..." the saint groaned as he looked up at the tall man clad in dark standing above him, recognising the protector of the castle hidden in the depth of the untouched lands.

He had participated in an expedition there a long time ago and clearly, the man hadn't lost even a bit of his ability with a blade, one could see simply in his posture.

He exuded utter control and power simply by standing there, no aura, no mana, no arts, no nothing, sheer blade mastery.

"Go away from here, you are in the way" he calmly stated as he rose the draconic saint to his feet and pushed him away, beginning to calmly walk over to the wretch.

One hand on the hilt of his nagamaki, the other on the blade itself, which was free of any blood even after cutting down two monsters and slashing another, impossible to tell how many more had been executed before he had gotten there.

"What is your name, apostle of Mov?" asked Solitar, his muscles compressing as he brought his other hand to the hilt and rose the blade slightly above his head.

'He is aware?' Axio made an ugly expression, Mov, he had heard it before from the ones that were currently silent in the crystal, he and them were holders of the color of Mov, he hadn't expected someone else to know this much.

This felt right however, for this man to know, one couldn't be so powerful for no reason, the wretch supposed that he must have some sort of link with another apostle.

'Slaughter Lord perhaps?'

Axio was completely wrong.

"I am Axiolypito, let's not fight, I am certain you wouldn't want to see what would happen if I were to go all in" he bluffed perfectly, looking exactly as he usually did while spouting an utter lie, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

Which was bloodied already as he clutched his new stump.

He had no useful offsprings left, had already produced a ton of seeds and spawners in little time and had lost a fair bit of blood, he could still go at full speed if he truly focused but he doubted anything good would come out of this.

His opponent wouldn't let himself be overrun, he was definitely fast enough to destroy spawners and resistant enough to not even blink if a whole tower struck him in the face, the wretch's personal attacks were already pitifully weak but they could at least move his opponents and place them where he wanted.

This wouldn't work here, he didn't have to try to know, tower guardians, dungeon monsters and his spawned creatures wouldn't even hinder him.

"Perhaps" shortly responded Sir Solitar before he suddenly moved, focused to the limit, Axio could perceive the brunt of his movements, he was cutting through the air but surprisingly, it didn't appear like he was running or walking, nor jumping, he had simply pushed off the ground without much apparent force and yet-

It was like he was sliding on the ground, he was already right in front of the wretch, his sword strike coming even faster than his own movements, this one Axio couldn't see much, only a faint blur that was of little use.

He wasn't taking any chance however, and began running as soon as the man had finished speaking.

Now that he was on the move, he shouldn't have to worry as much, or so he thought.

"The hell?!" he spoke his thought aloud from fright as the nagamaki as suddenly pressed against his neck, this time however, he was ready to receive a blow, even if he certainly hadn't expected one to come now.

He was carried alongside the blade as per usual, his bones and flesh softening, stretching to accomodate for the attack, he grew exponentially slippery and got away before he was lauched.

He hadn't taken his eyes off this guy for even a second and as it turned out, he could go even faster if needed, he had only done one blow per movements so far, as though he was testing Axio before truly going fully on the offensive.

It was simple really, Sir Solitar knew very well of the apostles of Mov, he feared their powers and scorned what they had done to his friends, so even as the wretch appeared weak and an opponent he could defeat, he exerted caution.

Heretical fire, primeval rot, frenzied flesh, perfect combat aptitude to name only a few, all of those he had seen possessed great powers or abilities that gave them an edge above the rest.

Who could know what was the deal with this seemingly innocuous apostle?

However, he wasn't going to back down, he was immensely powerful, Superstes wasn't yet, she didn't have the speed and power to match the wretch yet and thus, he couldn't let them encounter one another yet and also...

He had an enmity toward Mov, which he hadn't been able to express for a long, long time.