F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 219: Relic Hunt: The Thorn (3)

Near the center of a lobby of a gray ruin, a human and a bony abomination fought fiercely, lost in a clangor of steel.

"Hahahaha!" La Filosa laughed evilly, "Die, die, ratito."

Daru, on the other hand, remained silent, though his silence was now different from his earlier, grim one.

The bony abomination also noticed the sudden shift.

She stopped attacking for a moment, tilting her neck and twitching every half a second.

"Are you despairing? You should be," the liar asked.

"Not really," Daru responded impassively, taking the chance to assume an L-stance.

He then slashed twice in succession, firing a Crescent Dicer the abominable liar’s way.

She hissed in displeasure.

As if to prove to Daru that she was impervious to blades and push him to the pits of despair, she stood still, taking the Sword Skill.

The gray, spinning cross-slash struck true, cutting moderately into her skin and flesh before dissipating.

[-3,550!]

"Why are you still resisting? Can’t you see that there’s no victory for you, ratito? See?" Her tone was rather weird.

But Daru only snorted.

"Stop talking and just fight me."

The bony horror hissed, louder this time, before exploding into action once more.

She attacked fiercer, harder...and more desperately.

La Filosa wanted to see the despair on Daru’s face for some twisted reason.

She wanted to see him crumble under the feeling of dread, the sheer vileness of her existence, and the hopeless task of attempting to kill her.

After all, she was impervious to swords.

But no matter how hard she swung her sword arms, whatever words came out of her mouth, and how badly her opponent was losing.

The bastard somehow still hadn’t given up.

On the contrary, he fought more fiercely, too, seemingly unbothered even though his strongest abilities were ineffective.

The red crescent, the barreling aerial slash, the spinning cross-slash, and even the falling azure sword...she had taken everything he threw without being damaged!

So why hasn’t he given up yet?

Does he know?

What does he know?

"Hey, these exchanges are becoming boring." Daru suddenly spoke.

His words didn’t sound convincing, especially since one of the abominable liar’s sword arms was only a few dozen centimeters away from his neck, barely stopped by his tenacious defense.

Yet, La Filosa seemed to be affected more than she should’ve, hissing in utter malice.

"Then just die and save us both the boredom!"

Daru, however, only smiled coldly in response.

"Kill me, then, since you’re so inevitable. By the way, why haven’t you used a single Sword Skill since the beginning? Could it be that you have none?" he asked with mysterious confidence.

She hissed again, seemingly growing less assured.

"Dumb ratito! Stupid ratito!! How could I, La Filosa, have none?!"

As if to prove her point, she slashed forward, the numerous wounds in her bony body — especially the bloody hole in her abdomen she suffered from Azure Swordfall — spurting out ghastly amounts of blood as ten profane slashes each impossible to avoid and survive, shot forth.

But Daru didn’t move, sneering: "Really? I don’t believe your words, liar."

In the next moment, the bony horror shrieked like a furious banshee...then her profane slashes dissipated into mere black smoke before they could touch him.

His smile widened in utter satisfaction.

He...was getting the hang of using his wits in combat more, balancing brains and brawn successfully for the first time.

Daru had always fought with his sharp focus and sheer confidence in his abilities, believing that he was the better swordsman and that he could deal with everything thrown his way.

But why can’t he be the one throwing something somebody else’s way?

Well, he could, it was just that he hadn’t incorporated that factor in his limited combat style yet.

He was now a bladeborn, not just a swordsman.

Wits were now part of one’s combat prowess.

In truth, although it remained a gamble for the most part, Daru had already deciphered the abominable liar’s abilities.

He had never stopped thinking...never stopped trying to defeat the seemingly invincible enemy before him. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Only, she wasn’t an invincible enemy at all and was, in fact, The Disappointment 2.0.

Everything inside the gray ruins was a lie.

At least that’s what Daru believed, and he had more or less confirmed it after successfully calling out La Filosa’s lies about her having a Sword Skill.

She probably had nothing except her vile lies that could twist the world to her whims as long as they were believed.

Perhaps that was also why she seemed so unsettled, twitching and convulsing in insecurity, always in a rush to end a battle before the truth surfaced.

The truth that she was weak.

’What a pitiful existence.’ Daru sighed inwardly.

A dozen meters in front of him, the abominable liar seemed confused yet also furious...and scared.

It seemed that she had already lost all the will to fight.

Unfortunately, she must be slain for Egress and for himself.

Daru glanced at the entrance.

He could probably call out her lie about his comrades being unable to enter, but he decided not to.

Unlike him, they didn’t have Sword Skills to rely on, plus he didn’t need their help.

Not after unveiling that his opponent was nothing but a filthy fraudster.

’What did my classmates say back then? Uhh...something about F for Fraud?’ He shook his head, shifting his focus back to the deeply shaken liar.

It was time to end the Relic Hunt for The Thorn.

Daru sighed once more, checking out every injury in La Filosa’s body. It wasn’t too difficult to understand why she was so scared.

In all her desperation to make him believe her lies and despair — which would twist the world and solidify them as truths — she willingly received more than a hundred shallow cuts, a dozen Somersault Slashes, Tornado Slashes, and Crescent Dicers, and two Azure Swordfalls.

In short, her life was quite literally hanging on a single, fragile lie.

"Say." Daru began, making La Filosa shudder. "You’re impervious to blades?"

She hissed, then cackled, though clearly forced.

"Hahaha! Yes! Yes!! Don’t you see? You have struck me with your blade hundreds of times, both shallow and deep, yet I still stand! Just give up!! GIVE UP!!!"

With a final shriek, she burst into a charge and swung her sword arms to cut Daru’s head off.

But he simply sneered.

"I don’t believe you, liar."

[You have slain La Filosa, Whisperer of Lies Lv. 62]

[You have obtained 150,210 experience points.]

[Congratulations! You’ve leveled up to 62!]

[You have obtained (1) Circlet of Thorns.]

[You have obtained (1) Shard of Falsehoods.]