I Aggressively Stack Steel of the Heart in the Knight Order

Before Matthias’s Ejected Sword Blade could strike, a long, spiked tail, like a steel whip, suddenly shot out from under Carnivorous Hunting Dog Carlos’s gray cloak and slammed heavily into his midsection!

Simultaneously, a cavernous maw, mutated by the evil Mighty Power of the Slaughter Death Arena, knocked aside Manon’s blocking arm and lunged viciously for his neck!

BANG—!

Matthias’s body was sent flying, skidding thirty meters in an instant before crashing through a broken pillar inside the Orbital Port, sending rubble flying!

But because of his intervention, Manon, who was already retreating, managed to narrowly avoid Carlos’s gaping maw by a matter of millimeters.

Although this 200-year veteran of the Emperor’s Shield was a Guardian Knight, his Cyan Gold Rune possessed an Extraordinary Trait type rare among most Guardian Knights—Enhancement.

This was also the core Extraordinary Trait of the Cyan Gold Rune: Cyan Gold Blood.

After activating his Knight Power, the Extraordinary Power of the Cyan Gold Rune would flow rapidly through Manon’s body, condensing beneath his skin to form a Guardian Barrier akin to an exoskeleton, composed purely of Knight Power.

In addition to providing powerful defensive capabilities, this exoskeletal Guardian Barrier also granted him mobility equivalent to that of a Destruction Knight of the same level.

Combined with the fact that Manon was an Imperial Knight skilled in Body Techniques, his combat style was very similar to Reinhardt’s: agile mobility and a defensive capability not inferior to the Morphic Armor.

His only weakness was a lack of effective killing power.

This was because, apart from Destruction Knights, the destructive power of a regular Knight’s Broadsword was far inferior to offensive techniques created directly from Knight Power.

However, after his full set of equipment was upgraded with prototype technology, the Power Hammer Agate had equipped him with perfectly solved his lack of effective offense.

As Fear Knight Carlos’s cavernous maw, carried by its own momentum, scraped past his neck and slammed into the Clay Steel Breastplate.

Manon’s expression was savage with fury. Releasing his right hand from his Shield Tower, he brought it down from above, clamping it onto Carlos’s Demon Scale Armor-encased neck like an iron vise.

As they were both sent flying, Manon clenched his left fist, triggering the hydraulic activation mechanism inside his gauntlet. Immediately after, his Power Backpack let out a massive roar!

Time seemed to crawl in that instant. As the Power Hammer on his left arm finished activating, high-pressure gas vented from his left arm as a plume of white mist.

Manon’s eyes blazed with fury as he let out a bestial roar. His left fist, empowered by the Power Hammer, became a cannon, and slammed with immense force into Carlos’s abdomen!

BAM—!

The terrifying force of the Power Hammer, striking at twice the speed of sound over a short distance, erupted in a deafening boom!

In the split second of their exchange, the Power Hammer struck Carlos’s abdomen. The immense force made its flesh ripple like the surface of water! The power didn’t stop as it pierced through its body, instead kicking up a roaring blast of wind pressure that instantly exploded behind its back in a ring of airflow!

Even though Carlos’s body had undergone Mutated Transformation in the Slaughter Death Arena, and his Anti-Magic Steel Armor had been twisted into a highly defensive Demon Scale Armor capable of withstanding a frontal assault from a One-star Earth Knight, its power was still not enough to ignore the physical laws of the Real Cosmos.

Its massive, hunched body, like that of an Abyssal Hound, shot diagonally upward as if struck by a speeding locomotive. Tearing free from Manon’s right hand, it slammed with incredible force into the ten-meter-high ceiling!

The impact was so great that even the steel-and-concrete structure of the lower-level port trembled slightly from the collision.

Manon, thrown by the immense recoil from his Power Hammer, lost control of his body in mid-air. He tumbled and bounced across the ground like an out-of-control gyroscope, skidding for several dozen meters.

But he was, after all, a 200-year veteran skilled in Body Techniques, with a wealth of combat experience.

Aided by the Knight’s Mighty Cyan Gold Rune, he flipped backward, planted his feet, and braced himself with his right hand, forcing his body to a stop.

However, as Manon raised his head to search for Carlos, whom he had just sent flying, a massive dark silhouette suddenly appeared before him. A twisted Knight’s Broadsword—seemingly composed entirely of fractured bone, as if it would shatter on impact—grew rapidly larger in the reflection of his pupils!

In the distance, Matthias roared a desperate warning.

”Watch out—!”

In that brief instant, Manon’s adrenaline surged. Although he was only a step away from the Earth Military Rank, he was still just an Official Knight. His eyes simply couldn’t track his opponent’s trajectory as they broke the sound barrier.

At that moment, he truly understood the terrifying pressure that enemies of Lord Reinhardt must have endured on past missions.

The terrifying mobility translated into an overwhelming pressure that was nearly suffocating!

In that split second between life and death, Manon instinctively twisted his head to the side and raised his arm. The next instant, a terrifying force crashed into his arm and right shoulder, threatening to crush his very bones!

His Artificial Level Power Armor shrieked with the sound of deforming metal, unable to withstand the strain.

Manon’s left knee slammed heavily to the ground, the force of the blow smashing spiderweb cracks into the steel-and-concrete floor! Debris flew everywhere!

Even though he was being crushed by the assault, his combat instincts remained sharp. ’Matthias risked his life just to remove that bone fragment from his body, even going so far as to cut out one of his own ribs.’

’In other words, the bone spikes on this traitor’s body must hide some kind of terrible, evil power.’

’If it weren’t for the protection of my Guardian Barrier, I probably would have already been afflicted.’

Noticing that his Power Armor was cracking under Carlos’s heavy blow, that the skin on his arm and shoulder had been torn open, and that his Cyan Gold Barrier had sustained a severe impact, he looked up and stared at the Fear Knight right before him, his eyes showing not a trace of fear or retreat.

Golden flames, projected by his Knight Power, flared to life across his body. His right hand shot out and grabbed Carlos’s Evil Bone Slaughter Knife. With the resolve to die, the fury in his eyes almost tangible, he threw his head back and roared, ”For the Emperor—!”

The instant his voice fell, a streak of faint blue electricity shot across the lower-level port, appearing silently behind Carlos.

Matthias’s Extraordinary Armament, the Arc Manufacturing Machine, was not the Extraordinary Power of an Elemental Knight. However, with the aid of his Special Ability, Arc Jump, his body could take on a form of Pseudo-Elementalization and leap to a chosen destination.

He had used this Special Ability years ago when he fought Reinhardt in Grillers World.

Although Reinhardt had completely dismantled this Special Ability, which Matthias once believed to be unstoppable, the experience had also made him aware of its weaknesses.

Once a destination was chosen for the jump, it could not be changed mid-transit.

This ability could overwhelm average Transcendents with its speed, but when facing a truly powerful being, it became a fatal weakness!

But having learned his lesson, Matthias had long since prepared countermeasures.

The moment he appeared behind Carlos, the latter tried the same trick again, its long, bone-spike-covered tail whipping violently toward him!