Chapter 41: Raging Blizzard.
Leslie was almost tempted.
After all, if giving Damien what he wanted meant surviving today, then perhaps it wasn’t such a bad trade.
Then reality caught up with her, Damien would never let her leave alive.
The moment she returned to the human encampment, everything would fall apart for him. Forget being ostracised, the humans would hunt him down without hesitation. The Round Table especially would never allow someone like Damien to keep walking around freely.
It wasn’t because they particularly hated him.
It was because they would never allow Andrea to have unrestricted access to such a terrifying dormant ability. Even if Damien somehow escaped today, the Round Table would spend the rest of its existence hunting him until one of them finally succeeded.
Leslie’s grip on her daggers tightened unconsciously, she knew there was no room for negotiation, no room for compromise.
One of them was leaving this frozen forest alive, the other was becoming a corpse.
"Don’t talk to me like I’m some naive little kid. I’m not stupid. You were never planning to let me go as long as I’m still breathing... So let’s stop wasting each other’s time and finish this."
Damien stared at her for a brief moment before a faint smile crept onto his face.
He was genuinely impressed.
There weren’t many people capable of staring death in the face without their resolve crumbling.
For the briefest moment, he even felt a strange sense of kinship with her.
"Well then, I will make it quick."
Leslie snorted coldly.
"Thinking this will be easy will be your undoing."
A falling snowflake melted the instant Damien’s black axe collided with Leslie’s crossed daggers. The impact exploded through the frozen air, the force actually sending Damien’s undead body flying several meters across the snow.
"Huh."
He couldn’t hide his surprise.
Damien had never considered himself particularly strong, but he knew full well that his undead body far surpassed that of an ordinary human.
Yet Leslie’s petite frame had just sent him flying.
Fortunately, he didn’t fight alone.
Priesty charged like a raging bull, the ritual staff sweeping straight toward Leslie’s waist with enough force to shatter bone. Instead of dodging, Leslie planted both feet firmly into the snow and met the attack head on.
Her thoughts were simple.
Break the staff and strip the undead priest of its weapon, but reality was far less forgiving.
Her daggers slammed into the ancient staff with a deafening clang. Instead of breaking, the weapon remained completely intact while both blades visibly dented from the collision. The violent recoil surged through Leslie’s arms, leaving them completely numb.
That single mistake cost her dearly.
The remaining undead burst out of the blizzard and attacked from behind before she could recover. Its claws ripped across the side of her abdomen, tearing flesh apart and exposing bloodied organs beneath.
Leslie cried out in pain before instinctively throwing a vicious back kick, sending the undead skidding several meters across the snow.
Damien was already above her, the blizzard was raging, but she still managed to spot the brilliant sheen of his axe as it descended toward her head.
Leslie immediately hurled one of her daggers.
Damien twisted the axe just enough to knock it aside before releasing the weapon altogether, sending the spinning axe hurtling directly toward her.
Leslie planted both palms against the frozen ground, her body flipping sideways as both legs crashed into Priesty’s chest with a powerful roundhouse kick. Using the momentum, she sprang upright, caught Damien’s axe by its handle and immediately hurled it back at him.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Damien had no chance of catching it.
He could only throw himself aside as the axe whistled past, disappearing dozens of meters into the blizzard.
He didn’t wait for it to return.
Damien immediately closed the distance, abandoning weapons altogether as his fists crashed toward Leslie in a relentless barrage.
Leslie answered in kind with neither of them willing to give an inch to the other.
Every collision sent violent shocks racing through Damien’s body, but he ignored them completely. This much pain meant little to the dead.
Leslie wasn’t nearly as fortunate, her body was still flesh and blood.
After only a brief exchange, blood began trickling from the corner of her mouth before another punch forced blood from her nose as well.
Realizing she couldn’t continue trading blows, Leslie drove a heavy kick into Damien’s chest, forcing him backward before immediately retreating to create space.
She never got it.
The remaining undead were already upon her again.
Guided by Damien’s mental connection, the two undead moved with surprising coordination. They took turns attacking instead of charging together, constantly forcing Leslie to defend one side while exposing another.
The undead attacks began slipping through her defense, then finally, a claw raked across her shoulder, followed by the ritual staff smashing into her ribs.
Priesty was vicious, another swipe tore open her thigh.
At that exact moment, Damien’s axe came hurtling back through the blizzard.
Without even looking behind him, he caught it by the handle.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he flung it with absolute menace.
Leslie couldn’t evade nor defend herself.
Priesty’s staff crashed toward her shoulder while the remaining undead slashed at her legs, forcing her to meet their attacks head-on. She knocked the staff aside, twisted away from the claws and barely managed to raise both battered daggers in time.
Damien’s spinning axe slammed into the crossed blades, the impact tore the daggers from her hands.
They spun helplessly into the blizzard before disappearing beneath the snow.
Leslie staggered backward, her breathing ragged as blood continued pouring from the wounds across her body.
Even then, she refused to stop fighting.
With nothing left to lose, Leslie lowered her stance and charged Damien barehanded, intent on taking him down before her body finally gave out.
Damien calmly raised one hand as Leslie closed the final few meters.
At that exact moment, the black axe whistled past her fluttering hair, before landing on Damien’s waiting hand.
He took a step forward, lowered his stance and swung, the blade flashed across the snow in a clean horizontal arc, severing both of Leslie’s legs just below the knees.
Her momentum carried the upper half of her body forward before she crashed face first into the frozen ground.
Blood erupted across the untouched snow, staining it a deep crimson.