The distance between Nolan and the lion was only five meters.
Around the stage, blazing torches burned bright and hot, casting the two figures' blurred shadows across the ground, where they twisted and overlapped.
They were getting closer and closer.
A fierce wind, sharp as a demon's howl, rushed straight at Nolan's face. He stood where he was and merely tilted his head aside. A lion's head with twisted, sharp horns slammed into the floor behind him, shattering brick and stone as dust burst into the air.
The unstoppable gale swept up Nolan's long hair like a crashing wave. Calmly, he opened both hands, and in the next instant, endless pure white radiance burst from his entire body.
That dazzling white light spread like a vast curtain of heaven, sweeping toward the Hornsent closing in around him. Everything it touched was mercilessly swallowed and annihilated.
"It really is a little stronger than an ordinary Divine Beast Warrior," Nolan said with a slight nod. Then he suddenly grabbed the Divine Beast Dancing Lion's calf beside his face, raised his right hand, shaped his palm into a blade, and brought it down with brutal force, severing that thin leg.
A crisp crack rang out. The poor leg was cut clean through.
Scalding crimson blood instantly sprayed out like a fountain, carving shocking lines of red through the air before splattering across the ground.
A chilling, bloodcurdling roar erupted across the entire stage.
Those soft, warm hands Trina loved so much had, in Nolan's grasp, become a razor-sharp weapon of murder.
His hand blade swept past, and a pale arc of light flashed across the dim stage like a cold moon, leaving behind a glimmer that made the heart seize.
The sight was almost impossible to believe.
As Nolan swung the "blade" in his hand, it was as if he had drawn a bright moon through the air. The hazy glow around that moonlit arc was like the cold light spilling from the edge of his blade.
It was that simple. The moment the moon arc crossed the air, a scream rang out, and the lion-head's left leg was severed by force.
Yet even after suffering such a grievous wound, the lion still howled and roared in agony, its eyes filled with savage violence.
Even with only one leg left to support its massive body, it did not retreat in the slightest. Its enormous jaws opened wide, and a ferocious bolt of lightning burst forth.
Savage and swift, but judging from those reactions alone, it was clearly crude. Perhaps their civilization was simply too barbaric and backward.
Nolan opened his palm and blocked the incoming lightning with lightning of his own. Golden lightning collided with yellow lightning in a thunderous crash, twisting together and grinding each other away until light flared everywhere and the roar shook the ears.
Amid the flashing lightning, Nolan kicked the beast hard in its wide-open abdomen.
It was as if Nolan had kicked away a real beast. What sprayed from the once-majestic lion's mouth was no longer violent lightning, but streams of shocking red blood.
With the force of that kick, the lion was sent flying like a cannonball. It rolled several times across the broad stage before finally managing to stop, battered and wretched.
Nolan watched coldly and calmly as the Divine Beast Dancing Lion climbed back up from the ground.
Its movements could hardly be called intricate or refined. It had clearly never undergone systematic, professional training. Even so, it gave off a beast-like instinct and a fierce, savage air.
At the same time, it possessed physical strength far beyond that of ordinary people. Every movement carried astonishing explosive force and speed.
Nolan silently observed it and quickly formed a general assessment of the enemy before him.
Beneath that lion hide were two beasts wearing human skin. Their ferocity could not be underestimated.
Even so, killing them did not seem difficult for Nolan.
"There is a reason this race once flourished. Their spirit-invoking techniques are practically capable of producing champion-level fighters in batches. They may lack the true peak powerhouses needed to contend for the continent, but they are by no means weak. Their enemies were simply too strong."
Nolan knew the strength of Marika's descendants very well. These Hornsent clearly lacked the combat power to contend with top-tier Demigods, so it made sense that they had been crushed by Messmer and his army.
With that, this simple probing exchange came to an end.
Nolan's expression remained utterly relaxed. He felt no guilt at slaughtering lives without restraint, nor the slightest urgency at the thought of facing a powerful enemy.
To him, the only reason he had been willing to trade a few blows with this newly appeared opponent was curiosity toward something new.
The power displayed by the Divine Beast Dancing Lion was clearly stronger than that of the individual Divine Beast Warriors he had encountered in the Sacred Tower.
But that strength was still limited. At most, it stood near the peak of first-rate champions.
Now, anyone qualified to be Nolan's opponent needed at least Lord-level combat power.
Since there was no essential difference between the power of the Divine Beast Warriors and that of the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, and since the gap between them was already clear, there was little point in continuing to test it.
Seeing that the Divine Beast Dancing Lion did not seem to care whether it lived or died, Nolan naturally raised a killing intent without mercy and prepared to take its life.
Though gravely wounded, the Divine Beast Dancing Lion relied on its extraordinary constitution and stubborn vitality to stand back up.
The lion hide was completely torn, revealing the two blood-soaked figures inside. Compared with the lion-head brave warrior whose leg had been severed, the lion-tail brave warrior's body was still relatively intact.
Even so, they still maintained the posture of a "lion." They could even run, pouncing toward Nolan at astonishing speed.
Strictly speaking, after Nolan personally ended Mohg's life, he had naturally claimed that feared and worshiped power of the Aspects of the Crucible.
The enhancement this mysterious and ancient power brought to a person's body could not be underestimated. No wonder Miquella had chosen Mohg's body as the vessel for Radahn.
Now the Divine Beast Dancing Lion had only three "paws" left, but once it began running, its momentum was still majestic and powerful, racing across the great stage as if the ground were flat beneath it.
This had always been the lion's territory. This had always been its stage, where countless Hornsent bowed before it in worship.
The Divine Beast's wrath could not be stopped. A storm rose around it as it prepared to tear Nolan, the intruder in its territory, to pieces.