When Iri, using the window of Self-Time Acceleration to stop time, ran behind Death Knight, what she saw emblazoned on the red, gold-trimmed cloak behind her was the symbol of Nazarick. At this, Iri was truly dumbfounded, completely unable to understand what was happening.
After seeing Death Knight's cloak, Iri finally remembered why the armor on the statues of the Six Great Gods had looked so familiar earlier.
Because... that very familiar-looking armor was on her own body: Touch Me's Champion Armor.
Although after Iri acquired the Champion Armor, its appearance did change slightly to fit Iri's figure, its overall structure and external shape largely maintained its original style.
The familiarity she felt when seeing the statues before was due to this. And after all, they were statues, so there was still a slight difference from the real thing. However, now seeing Death Knight wearing this simplified version of the Champion Armor, Iri finally understood.
But why was it a simplified version? Only gauntlets, greaves, and a right shoulder guard with a cloak? Or was Death Knight's set a replica of Touch Me's Champion Armor made by the Six Great Gods' transmigrators in the past?
But if it was a replica, why was the Nazarick symbol also printed on it? Or was one of the Six Great Gods originally one of the 41 people of Nazarick?
It's important to know that Death Knight, in her lore, inherited the bloodline of the Six Great Gods and some of their equipment. This implies that it's highly possible that among the Six Great Gods back then, the God of Life might have been one of Nazarick's people!
This was a very significant discovery! She had to pry more information out of Death Knight's mouth! And! To think that crazy woman, Death Knight, was wearing Nazarick's equipment! This absolutely could not be forgiven!
With the protection of the Champion Armor, Iri completely ignored Death Knight's blade-like attacks, which did no damage to the Champion Armor. After all, this item was a tier higher than even Divine-class equipment. Even Death Knight's twin-bladed scythe, which was Divine-class equipment, could not shake the Champion Armor's defense.
Thus, Iri, now completely immune to all physical damage, directly ignored all of Death Knight's attacks. She didn't dodge or evade, taking everything head-on, and swung the hammer in her hand directly at Death Knight.
Of course, Death Knight also had a similar Champion Armor replica for protection, and coupled with the fact that Iri's hammer was an unfinished product with no special abilities, it still couldn't cause any damage to Death Knight.
Iri's attacks were either parried by her scythe or blocked directly by her gauntlets. Basically, neither could do anything to the other; it felt like two iron turtles hammering each other, with neither being able to break the other's defense.
However, Iri still had a slight advantage. After all, the Champion Armor on Iri was the genuine full-body armor, with its only weakness being the head.
And Death Knight's was not only a replica but also a simplified version, so all she had to do was hit her in an unprotected area.
But it was easier said than done. Death Knight's close-combat skills were terrifying. Even under Iri's full-on offensive, where she abandoned defense, Death Knight parried every attack and looked for opportunities to counter-attack.
Moreover, her counter-attacks were all aimed at Iri's head. She also knew that with the armor's protection, her weapon couldn't harm Iri.
After dozens of rounds of head-on clashes, Iri noticed Death Knight's increasingly ferocious expression and her gradually upturned lips, as if she was greatly enjoying the battle.
"Nice expression!" Iri even teased Death Knight.
"Heh heh! Likewise!" Death Knight returned the remark.
Naturally, Iri was not much different from Death Knight. At some point, Iri's face also wore the wicked smile that only a Great Demon would have, something Iri herself hadn't even noticed.
After the final blow, with both their weapons colliding, both simultaneously recoiled several steps back, then almost simultaneously rushed towards each other again. Another clash of hammer and scythe, and both were once again repelled.
After these dozens of rounds, Iri had a basic understanding of Death Knight's true strength. In close-quarters combat, even under unfavorable conditions, she could fight back and forth with Iri. This already spoke volumes; Iri was indeed inferior to her in this regard, so she could only approach it from other angles.
"You're pretty good!" Iri had already started to scheme, casually throwing out a few words to distract her.
"Likewise, it's just a pity you're still a bit lacking compared to me," Death Knight stated bluntly, without hesitation.
That wasn't wrong, of course, only limited to close combat... Iri admitted this. It's important to know that Iri still had to keep her alive to question her about the armor's information, and also had to be careful not to let the Theocracy's higher-ups know.
The terrain also restricted Iri's use of wide-area annihilation magic. Overall, this duel was very unfair to Iri. However, since Iri had even brought out the Champion Armor, there was no talk of fairness or unfairness anymore.
"Is that so? Let's see if you can still say I'm lacking compared to you in a moment! Martial Arts! (It's not) ZA! WARUDO!!" Iri shamelessly activated Self-Time Acceleration.
A one-minute cooldown, nine seconds of time stop. How could she lose? In a situation more secure than a dragon riding on her face, you tell me how to lose?
Iri, using the window of time stop, once again darted behind Death Knight. Although in the Self-Time Acceleration state, she couldn't directly attack Death Knight herself.
But she could set things up, just like Ainz Ooal Gown used genuine time stop, combined with True Death, to instantly kill Gazef.
However, Iri didn't have any delayed-effect magic, but she could do this.
Iri activated Ice Aura and generated countless ice fragments similar in size to daggers, folderin her finger gaps like throwing knives, then projected them towards Death Knight in the almost-still space.
Of course... she was still relying on her brute strength. However, any movement in this space would put an immense burden on the body, let alone projecting ice fragments, which required strength.
Only Iri, with her special physique, and Shalltear, with her True Ancestor physique, could endure it. After Iri threw two rounds, she saw that the ice fragments hadn't flown out but remained suspended in mid-air.
After all, only Iri herself was accelerated; other objects were not. So, in this space, Iri couldn't directly damage the stopped Death Knight.
After only two rounds, Iri's hands were already aching terribly... the burden was too great. For now, this would have to do! She still needed to save some stamina to deal with Death Knight's follow-up attacks. Time was almost up; Self-Time Acceleration release!
Iri stood behind Death Knight and released Self-Time Acceleration. From Death Knight's perspective, Iri suddenly disappeared and then teleported behind her. This time, not only did she teleport behind her, but many ice fragments also appeared out of thin air directly in front of her and flew towards her.
"Immovable Fortress! Magic Shield!" Death Knight immediately used a martial art to enhance defense and a magic spell to reduce magical damage.
However... what Iri threw were physical objects, so the magic resistance skill was completely ineffective. Moreover, Iri was still standing behind her, swinging her hammer. After Death Knight finished activating her defensive skills, she directly jumped into the array of ice fragments in front of her.
This countermeasure was indeed effective. Before Iri could even pursue, Death Knight had already passed through the ice fragment array and put distance between herself and Iri.
"Hmm! To actually break my self-created martial art, I'm a little impressed with you," Iri said. Of course, calling it a martial art was just a bluff to deceive her.
"Heh... well done," Death Knight said, pulling out a few ice fragments embedded in her legs and arms.
Death Knight, who had risked jumping into the array of ice fragments just now, hadn't completely blocked so many ice fragments and was injured. However, she had almost entirely avoided vital areas. To avoid vital areas under such circumstances was already quite remarkable.
Then, after pulling out the ice fragments, her wounds didn't bleed and began to heal slowly.
Hmm? Does this guy also have self-healing abilities?
Although it wasn't as powerful as Iri's own super self-healing ability, which could heal minor injuries instantly, it was still quite troublesome. Iri's original plan was to use Self-Time Acceleration to accumulate damage on Death Knight, then unleash a big move to finish her off in one blow.
This was the same idea as Ainz Ooal Gown using Skyfall to kill Shalltear. But this scoundrel having self-healing abilities was a bit tricky. Logically, could a hybrid of God-kin and Elf produce self-healing abilities? This isn't a hybrid; it's a mutation, isn't it?
Thinking that way would be a bit rude. It seems it must be the effect of some Divine-class equipment, right? She did have several pieces of Divine-class equipment left by players on her. The self-healing ability is probably an equipment effect, right?
This is actually a bit troublesome!
If she could use that move, there would be no need for the troublesome grinding down of health. With that move's attack power... it should be able to take down a full-health Death Knight in one hit.
After all, that move was Insect Lord Cocytus's ultimate skill! She had also studied it for a long time before learning it. However, after learning it, when she practiced using it, she discovered the fatal flaw of that ultimate skill. It was this flaw that led to Iri never having used it in any battle to this day.
Not to mention that this move was exclusively for one-on-one combat, Iri could have used it against the Big Cat, Lion King, but the conditions didn't allow it. If the conditions weren't met, it couldn't be activated. So, even after transmigrating to another world, the game skill rules from Yggdrasil still applied.
Just like Ainz Ooal Gown couldn't use magic after Perfect Warrior, and couldn't use heavy weapons without activating Perfect Warrior, there were various restrictions.
Although Iri had no restrictions on the number of skill uses, she still had quite strict restrictions on activation conditions. Many skills couldn't be released if they didn't meet the restriction requirements, otherwise Iri wouldn't be troubled right now.
This was all Warrior Takemikazuchi's fault! The skills used by the NPC Cocytus that he created had such restrictive conditions, yet the final product he made couldn't activate Cocytus's skills... This was simply ironic.
Iri thought, looking at the hammer in her hand.
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