Adam's court of justice worked on the crimes of the accused, and the punishment always fit them.
For smaller crimes, it could be a debuff, a block on skills, or a block on mana for a few minutes.
But in grave cases — and Lunatic had racked up more than enough — the sentence was death.
In those cases, Adam received a one-hit kill weapon of any kind. One blow was all it took, and it was over. That was where his calm confidence always came from.
But it had a catch. He had to land that blow within a certain time limit, or the weapon would simply crumble in the air.
Against most opponents, that was no trouble. But the one in front of him was Lunatic, and just her physical ability far outstripped his. That was why his calm smile was gone, replaced by pure, hard seriousness.
"Of course. One hit is all I need," Adam said firmly.
BAM!...
He shot toward her at a blurring speed, closing the distance in the blink of an eye and swinging his dagger of light.
Lunatic stepped aside at once, dodging it by a hair's width.
Even without adam telling her anything, It was obvious that the dagger was no ordinary blade — and the way Adam had said one hit was all he needed told her everything. A single blow from it would be fatal.
Swoosh!...
One moment she was slipping to the side, the next she was behind him.
"Too fast—" Adam had no time to think.
He could only crouch and throw his hands up to block her kick.
But instinct saved him. As he went for the block, he tilted the dagger up from his palm.
And as he expected, Lunatic pulled her kick short. If it had landed, the dagger would have stabbed her, or at least scratched her.
And even a scratch would count as a hit. Instant death.
That split second gave Adam room to stand and re-engage.
Every time he went for a stab, a cut, a slice from any angle, Lunatic found a way to dodge.
"Tch. Time is running out," Adam muttered, biting his lip.
In a desperate gamble, he went for a feint to bait her.
She wasn't only dodging — she was waiting for the chance to take his head off the moment it came.
So Adam gave her exactly what she wanted. His head.
He charged, swinging the dagger like a madman, closing every gap he could, and let his right foot slip just enough to tip his head down as he fought for balance.
Lowering your head in front of an opponent stronger and taller than you meant only one thing — getting beheaded.
And Lunatic knew it.
"You're done," she said, raising her left hand, fingers flat and straight like a choke. Right now they were sharper than a dagger, sharp enough to tear Adam's neck open.
She stepped forward and brought the choke down.
Her step stopped short.
Because Adam's left foot was planted on her right, pinning it in place.
With her step caught halfway and one hand raised high, a small but crucial gap opened.
And that was more than enough.
Adam's dagger shot upward and stabbed straight into her raised left hand.
"This—" Lunatic was speechless.
Adam stepped back, putting as much distance between them as he could.
But Lunatic didn't chase. She only looked at her hand as it began to dissolve, slowly, first the hand, then spreading from her face and chest, thinning into the air.
When she was gone entirely, Adam let out a breath of relief and dropped to his knees.
"Finally. I won," he said, satisfied.
No — not fully satisfied.
He felt empty. Something was missing for sure.
"Now that I think about it — why does the battlefield seems so quiet?" Adam murmured to himself.
The moment he said it, the noise began to creep in. The chaos of the battlefield, faint at first, as if from a great distance, rising higher and higher until it was nearly deafening — screams, roars, metal ringing against metal.
He was back in the middle of the battlefield.
"It's too late for that now," Lunatic's voice came.
She stood casually in front of him, without a scratch, fine as ever.
"So it was all an illusion," Adam sighed, a tired, bitter chuckle on his lips.
As he'd expected, the whole fight had been nothing but her Perfect Dream, something that could fool all senses of the victim.
"If only I'd paid more attention to my surroundings," he sighed again.
"To your surroundings? I can fly, and yet I fought you in close combat. Wasn't that enough for you? What an idiot," she sighed in disappointment.
Her succubus tail whipped through his neck in a flash, beheading him at once.
Adam's head dropped to the ground and rolled for a few seconds before stopping, blood splattering from his neck.
Lunatic turned away without a second glance.
"Like I said, you won't get a second hit."
She spread her wings, ready to fly for the mystviel base and destroy the portal that kept pouring more and more soldiers onto the field.
But all of a sudden, a chill ran through her. Not just her — everyone on the battlefield felt it at once.
If anything, she was the least affected.
The battlefield stopped dead. Legs trembled, whole bodies shuddered for no reason at all.
"What's this feeling? Someone's killing intent?" Lunatic thought, redirecting her flight toward whoever was pouring out that thick bloodlust.
Meanwhile, not long ago, Reiza lay against a tree, barely sitting up with her back propped on it.
"Hehehe... Oni Slayer. What a magnificent title. I'll surely replace Thomas and become an official Holy Knight," Homer said, his voice thick with smug, triumphant glee.
He pulled his hand back to throw a punch that would crush Reiza's head in one blow.
But before he could, a voice rang out.
"Enough!" A feminine voice.
The next second, a punch landed square in his face, stumbling him back a few steps.
With his big, heavy body, he somehow kept his balance.
But his face was pure shock, because the punch had come from none other than himself.
His own fist had hit him.
He looked up and saw a beautiful black-haired woman in a strange battle stance he'd never seen before.
She looked no different from a human, but there was no doubt she was no human at all.
It was Xao Feng, in her Wing Chun stance.
"Sister Xao," Reiza said softly, coughing a little.
"Are you alright?" Xao asked, eyes forward, still on full alert.
"Do I look fine?" Reiza chuckled bitterly. "You must be disappointed in me." She sighed, more disappointed in herself than anyone else could be.
"Yes. I'm disappointed in you!" Xao scolded, angry now. "Not because you lost — but because you'd rather die than stop holding back!" she shouted.
"Hold back? I wasn't—" Reiza started, shaking her head, but Xao cut her off.
"Shut up! I've known you since you were little. Or are you trying to say you've held back so long that it have become an instinct?"
"Hold back?!" Homer's voice rang out again, snapping their attention to him.
"WHY DID YOU HOLD BACK?" he shouted, slamming both fists into the ground.
TREMBLE!...
The whole ground shook, throwing out shockwaves.
Holy Knight or not, he had his pride. Beating an opponent who was holding back only made him angrier.
"We'll talk about this later. I should focus on him for now," Xao said, her eyes narrowing, locked on Homer.
Homer was surprisingly quick for such a massive body, attacking Xao with a barrage of punches.
Xao slipped past each one, and whenever a gap opened, she used her Wing Chun to redirect his fist back into himself, making him hit his own face.
Because of it, his skill never had the chance to trigger.
"Not again," Homer gritted his teeth and pressed in even more furiously.
But this time, she let his punch land on her left hand, catching its energy and turning smoothly with it, letting the force flow into her other hand.
BAM!...
She landed the blow on him with the momentum of his own fist.
The hit carried the same raw power his fist had, and he stumbled backward.
But the next moment, his skill kicked in — BAM!...
An invisible force slammed into her, sending her flying, crashing through the trees.
"Sister Xao!" Reiza screamed in worry.
Xao tore through the trunks but caught her balance at once, landing lightly on her feet.
"Tch. Just as I expected — I shouldn't be the one landing hits," she murmured, wiping the blood from her lips.
She went at him again, dodging over and over, and every time a chance came, she turned his own fists and kicks back against him, chipping away at him.
But doing it meant Homer still landed a few hits on her.
On and on it went. More than ten minutes passed. Homer was still on his feet, and so was Xao, though she was panting harder now.
"This can't go on. The damage I'm doing is too small — it'd take a month to beat him," she bit her lip in frustration.
As for Reiza, she still lay against the tree, watching as Xao crept, little by little, toward her own defeat.
But in her mind, Xao's words kept ringing like an alarm.
Had she really been holding back? To her, the answer was definitely no. But the hesitation buried inside her said otherwise.
Homer had beaten an oni-level powerhouse. Reiza was an oni — her strength, her durability, all of it, on the level of an oni.
But since when had Reiza been an ordinary oni?
She had been the strongest person in her martial village.
Even as a kid ogre, she'd hugged another ogre so hard he never walked again. She'd torn the leader of the ogres' hand off with a handshake.
A person cursed with supernatural strength.
She had been at the level of an oni when she was just a child ogre. So how was it that, after growing up and evolving into an oni, her power was still only that of an oni?
The answer was exactly what Xao had said— Holding back.
Every time she broke something, she held back. Every time she hurt someone without meaning to, she held back. She saw the terrified faces they made when they looked at her — and she held back.
Holding back, again and again, year after year, until it became an instinct without her ever knowing.