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Chapter 169 Victory Achieved!
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In battle, Naruto had developed a strange habit. Whenever he thought of a specific item, his inventory would respond, equipping it straight into his hand without conscious command. So when he thought of the space-time item, the inventory responded but not with a kunai.
Naruto frowned as something cold and round materialized in his palm. He glanced down. His breath hitched. He was holding a Cracked Red Eye Orb.
"What in the—"
Before he said anything further, the Black Knight lunged with a vicious thrust of its halberd. Naruto reflexively threw the orb to intercept.
Time slowed.
The orb, mid-air, suspended itself in a crimson glow as the cracks along its surface sealed shut. The eye within the orb opened and wept tears of blood. A wave of blackness exploded outward. Darkness swallowed everything.
There was no sky. No weight. No atmosphere. Yet Naruto felt something shift deep in his gut. Maybe it was his mind trying to make sense of the void. Maybe something was in the void. When sensation returned, he was back, standing in the cave. The bonfire still burned nearby, but... it didn't feel warm.
Not to his skin. Not to his soul.
"Chirp," Oscar called, catching his attention.
Naruto turned and froze. "Oscar… why do you look like that?"
The crystal lizard's form shimmered unnaturally, like a red phantom.
Naruto looked at his hands and found that he was the same.
A red apparition.
[You have invaded the world of the Black Knight.]
The notification appeared in stark, cold text.
Naruto barely had time to process before the heavy footfalls of the Black Knight echoed from the tunnel. It emerged from the darkness, halberd gleaming.
"Tch," Naruto clicked his tongue and disappeared in a flicker.
The halberd pierced only an afterimage.
Naruto reappeared at the tunnel entrance, Oscar tucked under one arm. Oscar fired a burst of magic. The beams struck the tunnel mouth, sealing it with a thick crystal wall.
"Nice one, buddy," Naruto muttered.
He slapped an explosive tag onto the wall and bolted, sprinting up the dirt path that curved around the mountainside. He recognized this place.
Darkroot Basin.
Oscar chirped, pointing with his snout.
A shimmering white veil surrounded the entire area, sealing them inside this twisted reality.
Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Guess I've got to beat the Black Knight to leave, huh?"
Behind him, the crystal wall exploded. The Black Knight was free.
Naruto exhaled and made a quick decision. He tore off his cursed arm, gritting his teeth as pain flared, and slotted in the prosthetic.
The Black Knight stepped into view again, silent and resolute, taking a stance.
Two warriors.
A narrow dirt path.
A long drop into the abyss on one side.
A giant dirt wall on the other.
They both understood: this duel would end quickly, one way or another.
Naruto unequipped the Dragon Crest Ring, replacing it with the Blue Tearstone Ring.
The Black Knight raised his shield, halberd angled back in a classic ox guard. His armor hissed with heat and weight, each step silent but thunderous.
Naruto didn't rush.
In his left hand, he held the Zweihander—its massive frame resting against his shoulder in the high guard. In his prosthetic right hand, the red-bladed Uchigatana hummed faintly, wind-chakra-enhanced and vibrating with a bleeding aura.
And it began.
The Black Knight stepped forward first, halberd thrusting out in a lightning-quick jab. Naruto twisted his torso, pivoting off the back foot with practiced movement, batting the shaft aside with the flat of the katana.
Before the Knight could recover, Naruto lunged, bringing the Zweihander down in a masterful diagonal descending cut.
CLANG!
The Knight caught it on his shield with perfect timing, bracing it with the halberd shaft. Then he twisted and bashed forward, smashing the shield into Naruto's chest. The force sent him skidding back a foot, boots kicking gravel into the abyss.
The halberd came next, this time in a short sweeping arc. An executioner's horizontal cut designed to behead.
Naruto dropped under it into a crouch, sliding forward on one knee, Uchigatana stabbing low.
CLINK—SSSSHHH
The blade scraped across the Black Knight's greaves. Sparks flew. Metal hissed. The Uchigatana's red aura dug deeper than it should have. The Knight staggered, slightly off balance. Naruto rose from the crouch, rotating into a wrath cut meant to intercept the next attack before it started. The Zweihander arced up with brutal force but the Knight spun, absorbing the blow with his shield. The momentum drove Naruto's blade up and away.
Then came the riposte.
The halberd slammed into Naruto's stomach.
[HP: 410 / 616]
The blade bit deep. He cried out, flipping backward, using chakra to gain some extra torque to steady himself mid-air. He landed with a grimace, blood soaking his stomach.
The Knight stalked forward. Not rushing. Not taunting. Just methodical.
Naruto entered into a stance with the point down, tip forward, hands high. An invitation to attack. A trap.
The Knight accepted.
Another thrust came with deceptive simplicity.
Naruto sidestepped, parried up with the katana, then kicked the halberd shaft with his leg, forcing the weapon aside and closing the distance.
He was inside the Knight's guard.
Now it was Naruto's game.
The Zweihander swung horizontally in a brutal mittelhau, edge aligned. It clanged against the knight's shoulder pauldron, knocking the Knight half a step back. But not off balance.
The shield came up again, smashing into Naruto's side.
[HP: 390 / 616]
Naruto hissed, tumbled into a roll, and disengaged. His breaths were getting shorter. The Uchi blade's red edge was flickering. The vibrations were weakening. The blade was dying.
He threw it.
The Knight raised the shield, catching it mid-air and Naruto was already there, grabbing the falling blade and slashing low across the Knight's leg as he passed. The Knight roared, first time he made a noise, staggering and dropping to one knee.
Naruto didn't hesitate.
Feint—strike—twist.
The Zweihander smashed down into the shield, not to break it, but to pin it. With his other hand, he drove the Uchigatana into the armpit joint, where the armor split.
It sank in deep.
A heartbeat passed.
Then the Black Knight kicked Naruto away.
His ribs screamed. His vision spun. But between every slam of the halberd, every flash of steel, Naruto moved, hands weaving in hidden one-handed seals. The entire battle had all happened in under two seconds, and now came the payoff.
Wind Style: Wind Bullet!
He fired. The compressed air screamed forward. The Knight raised his shield on instinct, bracing when suddenly a crackling blue beam shot from below. Oscar, hiding in the trees, fired a laser of raw soul-light, striking the Knight's shoulder pauldron. Crystals erupted, webbing across the armor like frostfire.
The Black Knight staggered. A second. That's all Naruto needed.
He lunged.
The Uchigatana cleaved toward the weakened pauldron.
BOOM.
The chakra and soul magic reacted violently to the crystal. The explosion swallowed them both in a pulse of white light and smoke. From it stepped the Black Knight, one arm blown off at the shoulder, armor scorched and blackened. His remaining arm raised the halberd and with a guttural roar...
SLASH.
Poof.
A clone burst into smoke. The real Naruto flashed behind, red blade raised high, aiming to shear off the other arm.
CLANG!
The Uchigatana shattered. Fragments burst like glass stars. Naruto stared, lips parted, not even finishing the curse forming on his tongue.
CRACK!
The halberd met his chest. Steel howled. Flesh tore.
Naruto flew back like a ragdoll caught in a hurricane, tumbling hard across stone and moss. He came to a stop in a heap, armor shredded, ribs cracked, blood gushing from a diagonal cut across his chest.
He couldn't breathe.
If not for the Blue Tearstone Ring, the blow would have split him from collar to hip.
[HP: 70 / 616]
Naruto coughed, spitting crimson. His hands trembled but his mind stayed clear. After so many battles, injuries and obstacles in a battle didn't give Naruto any kind of fear or panic but resolve. He yanked the blue ring off and slid on the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring. He dropped the useless hilt of his Uchigatana and equipped his rapier, chakra already flowing into the thin, gleaming blade.
Wind hummed along the steel.
He took the fencer's stance. One hand behind his back, blade angled at the heart. He let the red aura of the Red Tearstone Ring empower his next move.
Across from him, the Black Knight stood ready. One arm. Halberd raised. They both knew that the next move would end it.
Time snapped.
Naruto moved. His form blurred. A fencing lunge, sharper than lightning. His foot dug, his core twisted, the wind screamed along the blade.
To the Black Knight, Naruto vanished.
CLANG!
The rapier pierced the helm through the eye slits. Despite that, the Black Knight prepared his attack. But from behind him, Oscar fired one last laser that struck the Knight's back, freezing him for the final heartbeat. Naruto's momentum carried him forward, driving the rapier in so deep that the guard of the blade cracked against the helm.
The Black Knight shuddered.
Then fell.
[Black Knight vanquished]
[Humanity +1]
[2000 Souls]
Naruto stumbled back, breathing raggedly. He dropped the rapier, his arm shaking. Oscar chirped, wide-eyed and nervous. The Red Eye Orb hovered above them, pulsing like a heartbeat.
WHUMP.
A wave of darkness crashed down, devouring the world.
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When Naruto opened his eyes, he was back in the cave. The bonfire flickered nearby, but something felt… right. He stared at it and felt its warmth.
"Chirp," Oscar whispered, drawing his gaze.
Naruto turned and saw it. The Black Knight's corpse, still slumped at the entrance of the cave.
Naruto blinked at the sight. His muscles were still trembling. His body ached. And the questions piled in his throat like stones. "...Oscar, what the heck just happened?"
Oscar chirped back, just as lost.
The duo cautiously approached the corpse.
Oscar gave it a suspicious sniff, then smacked it with his tail. Nothing.
Naruto knelt beside it, eyes gleaming. "No way…" he whispered, practically vibrating with excitement. The armor was pristine. Not a single scratch. Not a dent or burn mark to be seen. Even the halberd and shield were gleaming like they'd just been forged.
Naruto's heart jumped. "A full Black Knight set…!"
But when he pulled back the helm, there was no body inside. No bones. No ash. Nothing. Just empty, lifeless armor.
[ You have picked up the following: ]
[ Black Knight Shield ]
[ Black Knight Halberd ]
[ Broken Black Knight Helm ]
[ Broken Black Knight Armor ]
[ Broken Black Knight Gauntlets ]
[ Broken Black Knight Leggings ]
Naruto blinked. "Wait, broken…?" His smile faltered as the realization clicked. His mind whirred through the pieces, and then click. "…I think I got it."
Oscar tilted his head.
Naruto stood slowly, his brow furrowed in thought. "Remember what the Undead Merchant said? He got greedy and kept invading to get loot from Griggs and his schoolmates. That's how he died."
Oscar chirped.
"And that notification we got…" Naruto said slowly. "It didn't say we fought a Black Knight. It said we invaded the world of the Black Knight."
Oscar's eyes widened.
"I think…" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, still piecing it together. "I think the Cracked Red Eye Orb doesn't just teleport us to another place, it creates a sealed-off pocket of reality."
He glanced at the now-empty armor.
"The orb doesn't pull us to their world. It drags them into a false world. One where time doesn't exist. The user invades that pocket, kills the trapped soul and the original body, the real one, is left behind with all their gear still intact."
Oscar rose onto his hind legs and clapped his little claws together proudly.
Naruto flushed. "But that is just a theory."
Still, his eyes turned distant as the implications sank in.
"If I'm right," he murmured, "then that means every Black Knight we've fought so far… they weren't alive. They were just ghosts. Echoes, puppeting broken armor. Not their full selves."
He whistled low, brushing his bangs back. "Damn. How strong was a real Black Knight? With their body and mind intact, armor whole, and soul not shattered…"
He let the question trail off, swallowing the mix of awe and dread as deep in his heart, he wanted to fight an alive Black Knight.
"At least the weapons aren't broken," he said more cheerfully, reaching for the Black Knight Shield. The weight of it was immense but comforting. His hand curled next around the halberd.
His grin returned.
"Oscar, I got my first Black Knight weapon," Naruto said, practically bouncing as he cradled the halberd in both hands. He gave it a slow, testing spin which came out awkward, unfamiliar, but deadly all the same.
He sighed a little, brushing his thumb over the haft. "Still… kinda wish it was a sword. You know I'm a blade guy. But hey... Tenten's gonna be shocked when she sees my Black Blade."
Oscar chirped, half in amusement, half in agreement.
Naruto gave the halberd another short thrust, just to feel the weight in his limbs, then turned and stepped out of the cave. Moonlight poured across the Darkroot Basin, silvering the water and glinting off the moss-slick stone. He paused, taking it in for just a moment before falling into step again.
As they walked, Naruto began forming a mental checklist.
"Alright," he muttered. "First things first, we take the broken Black Knight armor to Andre. He's gotta be able to fix it. Especially now that we've got… whatever this is made of. Should give him some good raw material from two broken armour sets."
Oscar gave a soft, agreeable chirp, hopping beside him through the damp grass.
"Then…" Naruto's voice turned mischievous. A crooked grin formed across his lips. "We grab your girlfriend."
Oscar froze mid-step. The crystal lizard turned his head, blinking once with that slow, confused expression he always wore when Naruto was being Naruto.
"You know," Naruto said, snickering, "the female crystal lizard? The one living near the cliffside? Little sparkly one? C'mon, man, don't pretend you haven't noticed."
Oscar gave a slow, deeply offended huff through his nostrils.
"I'm thinking," Naruto continued, clearly enjoying himself, "we bring her back to Anastacia. She could use a new pet. Might cheer her up. You two can share a bonfire date or whatever lizards do."
Oscar smacked his tail against the ground once, sharply.
Naruto burst out laughing. "Okay, okay! I'm kidding. Mostly. But seriously, we'll figure something out. Maybe we'll let her name you. How about 'Sir Sparkle?'"
Oscar looked ready to leave him behind.
"After that," Naruto muttered, "we kill the Hydra. That big idiot's gotta be sitting on enough souls to give us at least two more levels."
His gaze darkened.
"Then we go back home… and confront Kakashi-sensei."
Oscar chirped low in his throat; a thoughtful, almost somber sound, before suddenly veering off down the narrow ledge.
"Huh? What've you found now?"
Oscar was already pawing at the earth, digging into a knot of overgrown roots and tangled ivy. As the soil gave way, a faint green glow began to pulse from beneath. Naruto crouched beside him, brushing away the loose dirt with his gauntlet. A corpse. Long-dead, mostly skeletal, the bones tangled in what remained of rusted armor and rotted leather. Whoever they'd been, they'd died with their arm wrapped tight around a shield.
Naruto touched the edge of the relic and felt it immediately.
A shiver passed through him, subtle but profound. His chakra, which normally moved with a steady pulse, suddenly surged like blood rushing through unclogged arteries after years of stagnation.
He lifted the shield.
It was beautiful in a quiet, noble way. The surface was bisected vertically. One half a pale ivory, the other a weathered, gunmetal gray. Delicate, intertwining vines curled up and around the face of the metal, like silver ivy reaching for the sun.
[ Item Acquired: Grass Crest Shield ]
[ Description: Old medium metal shield of unknown origin. The grass crest is lightly imbued with magic, which slightly speeds stamina recovery. ]
"You know," Naruto said, glancing at Oscar with a grin, "next time we go anywhere in Lordran? I don't care how dangerous it is. I'm checking every nook and cranny. There's way too much awesome stuff hidden around here."
Oscar gave a cheerful chirp, but Naruto's attention returned to the corpse. His smile faded. The body had been cut down. Deep, deliberate slashes across the chest and shoulder like a beast hadn't done this, but a warrior. Clean, lethal strikes.
His thoughts flickered.
The Black Knight's halberd.
The Hydra guarding the basin.
The sealed tower.
The corpses.
"This wasn't just random," he murmured, stepping back. "Whoever locked that hero in the tower… they didn't leave it unguarded. They left them. The Black Knight. The Hydra. This guy tried to get past them and failed."
He crouched again, resting a hand gently over the warrior's broken armor.
"Thanks for the shield," Naruto said softly. "In return, I'll do what you couldn't. I'll free the hero."
Oscar tilted his head, confused but quiet, watching Naruto sit cross-legged and take out his smoking pipe.
"Now," Naruto added, pulling out a green blossom, "let's test a little theory…"
He lit the blossom. The smoke was a swirling emerald. As it flowed into his lungs, Naruto felt everything begin to hum. The shield on his lap responded instantly, drawing the green smoke's magic deeper into his system. His chakra pulsed like a storm rhythm, dancing through his body faster than ever before. Euphoria washed over him in a dizzying wave. The weight of fatigue vanished. His senses sharpened. It was like someone had peeled the limits off his mind and body.
Naruto giggled softly, eyes half-lidded. "Oh yeah… that's the stuff."
He passed the pipe to Oscar, who sniffed it, blinked… then took a small, cautious puff.
"Relax," Naruto said, leaning back against a moss-covered rock, his fingers still tingling with energy. "We've got a big fight ahead of us."
Above them, the moon loomed full and clear and somewhere beyond the trees, the Hydra stirred.
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A flicker of movement cut through the quiet of Darkroot Basin.
Up the moss-slick slope toward the Garden strode a clone, his gait steady, his arms full. Cradled carefully in his grasp was a female crystal lizard, still glowing with soft bioluminescence from an interrupted moonbath. She twitched once but made no real attempt to escape, likely too stunned by the sudden kidnapping to resist. Not that it mattered.
The clone had a mission.
He stepped into the broken church-turned-forge where heat and iron sang in chorus. The air smelled of ember ash, sweat, and old wood. Andre stood behind his anvil, taking a long pull from a battered clay jug filled with murky homemade sake.
"Well, I'll be… Naruto," Andre said, his mustache twitching as he wiped his mouth with the back of his glove. "Looks like you finally came back to your senses."
"I just needed to let off some steam," the clone said. "Clear my head."
"Next time, talk to me first. I'll hand you a hammer and let you do it right."
The clone gave a thoughtful hum. Naruto would probably chew on that later. Maybe.
Andre's eyes dropped to the lizard. "Now what've we got here?"
"She's Oscar's girlfriend."
The lizard immediately tried to nip at his finger.
Andre jerked back, laughing. "Well, she's got spirit."
"She's going to Firelink," the clone explained. "Thought Anastacia could use a friend. Or a weird glowing pet."
Andre gave a deep belly laugh. "You've got a bloody strange way of cheering people up, Naruto."
"If it works, it works. I'll bring you one next time."
"I've already got a hammer to keep me company. Don't need no lizard love triangles clutterin' my forge."
The clone chuckled, then reached into his inventory with a practiced flick and pulled out two sets of battered armor. They clattered to the ground with a heavy thud.
Andre's eyebrows arched. "Well, I'll be. You took down another Black Knight?"
"Fought him in his world," the clone said with a small grin.
Andre whistled low. He bent over the damaged chestplate, fingers tracing the blackened rents in the metal. "Tough bastard, then. You're lucky you walked away."
"Barely did," the clone muttered. Then added, "Think you can fix the set?"
"Aye. Between these two sets, I've got enough material to rebuild one full suit. Might not be perfect, but it'll hold. And it'll look damn good."
"Thanks. Oh and I need a patch job on my Elite Knight set. And this." The clone produced the shattered uchigatana and dropped it on the floor with a metallic clink.
"You know, I didn't teach you the basics of blacksmithing just so you could keep dumping broken gear on my doorstep."
"You want me to use your workshop?"
Andre raised a brow. "I'd rather let the Abyss take me than let you near my tools again. You bent a divine ember last time. Bent it. How do you bend fire?"
"Guess I'll head to Firelink, then."
"Yeah, yeah. And don't get yourself killed out there."
"Dattebayo!" the clone called back with a wave, crystal lizard still squirming slightly in his arms.
Andre shook his head and took another swig from the jug. "That boy's either gonna save the world or set it on fire," he muttered.
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A few minutes later, the clone stepped off the Firelink elevator. The sky had deepened into a rich lavender. Petrus sat near one of the pillars, hunched over an orange soapstone, muttering to himself as he read a glowing message aloud. "…Rhea to arrive soon… prepare an expedition… gods watch over us…"
Naruto glanced at him; didn't say a word, just passed. He had more important things to do.
Making his way down the spiral path, toward Anastacia's cage.
"Hey, Anastacia," Naruto called, kneeling beside the iron bars. "I brought someone to meet you."
He gently placed a tiny collar and leash in her hand.
But to his surprise, she hesitated. And then, slowly, let go of the leash.
Naruto blinked. "Wait, what?"
The crystal lizard scurried off toward the ground, digging.
He reached forward to go after her but Anastacia gently grabbed his sleeve.
She shook her head, then signed with slow, careful motions.
No more cages. Not for her.
Naruto stared for a second, then smiled.
"You're incredible, you know that?" he said. "Even trapped down here, you're… freer than most people I know."
She gave the smallest smile in return.
Naruto leaned in close, chin resting on his arms through the bars. "Want to hear what I've been doing the last few hours?"
Anastacia nodded, leaning close to the bars, as if drawn to the sound of his voice like she could listen to this boy speak for the rest of her days, and still not get enough.
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Meanwhile, real Naruto and Oscar walked toward the lake of the Darkroot Basin, where mist rose like steam from the water's edge. The air stank of wet moss and ancient blood, and the crashing waterfall in the distance roared like a warning drum. Naruto rolled his prosthetic arm as he was taking this seriously from the start. The quiet between them was broken only by the lapping water and Oscar's low, expectant chirp.
Then came the screech.
Seven serpent-like heads lunged from the depths, each one lined with barnacle-crusted teeth.
"Here we go."
The Hydra's heads reared back then spat volleys of high-pressure water, each blast carving through the earth like cannonballs. Oscar responded instantly, bracing himself and firing three rapid crystal beams. The lasers struck the lake's surface and burst upward, forming a crystalline wall just in time to deflect the incoming torrent. The water blasts slammed into it and detonated behind the pair in a concussive explosion.
Naruto flashed a single hand seal. Dozens of shadow clones formed into existence with synchronized precision.
The clones raised their greatbows in perfect unison, the strings humming with tension. In the next breath, a volley of arrows erupted into the sky. Each one laced with concentrated Wind Chakra, the air around them warping from the sheer velocity. They tore through the sky at Mach speeds, screaming like missiles, leaving behind sharp shockwaves and ghostly trails of green as they descended in a rain of destruction.
The moment the arrows struck the Hydra's heads, the Wind Chakra began to hum, drilling into the soft tissue beneath the barnacles. One head recoiled in agony, half of its jaw hanging limp.
But the beast didn't go down.
It roared and thrashed, disappearing into the lake only to rise again like a serpent of Leviathan myth, creating a tidal wave. The clones leapt, scattering in the air like a flock of ravens. One head broke through, snapping five clones in a single bite.
The real Naruto parried with the Black Knight Shield, catching a head's charge head-on. The impact launched him into the air. In that second of freefall, he locked eyes with another mouth opening below ready to blast him midair.
A sudden beam of crystal energy shot upward, straight into the Hydra's eye from Oscar who had just popped out of the muddy ground. The monster screeched in confusion, snapping its head away and Naruto didn't hesitate. He twisted midair, grabbed the hilt of his Zweihander, and poured Wind Chakra into the blade. It hummed with invisible energy as he spun and brought it down like a guillotine.
The head severed in one clean strike, a geyser of black blood gushing like a fountain.
But the fight was far from over.
The ground exploded beneath him as the Hydra surged, grabbing Naruto and dragging him to the water's surface. Only, it had miscalculated. Unlike the warriors of Lordran, Naruto could walk on water.
He skated across the surface with Wind Chakra reinforcing his soles, zig-zagging with silver streaks and deflecting water blasts with his shield. The next moment, he swapped to the Drake Sword, now pulsing with dragon essence. As all the heads fired in unison, he slashed downward with all his might.
The lake split.
The crescent of Wind Chakra tore the water apart in a wave of force, eviscerating two of the heads midstream. The impact formed a trench in the water deep enough to see the Hydra's full form... massive, turtle-like body, rotting tentacles beneath its shell, all pulsing with unnatural vitality.
"Ugly bastard," Naruto muttered as he landed hard on the muddy bank, boots skidding across the wet ground. Just ahead, Oscar was crouched low, limbs braced, as a half-formed wall of jagged crystal bloomed up like a bed of spears behind him: dozens of needle-like spires jutting outward in every direction.
The Hydra surged, its body a dark blur rising from the lake's depths.
One of its heads lunged at them with terrifying speed, jaws wide but it met the wall.
The impact was thunderous.
The head collided with the crystal barrier, and the sheer force shattered the wall but not before the sharpened spears tore through flesh and scale. The beast's momentum carried it through, but the damage was done. Shards of crystal lodged deep into its eyes, jaw, and throat, sticking out like glass knives driven into raw meat.
It didn't even scream. The head twitched once then collapsed, sliding limp across the ground like a skinned snake, steam rising from the blood pooling beneath it.
Naruto didn't have time to rest. Way of Focality surged in his mind like a warning bell as lines of crimson light spiderwebbed across the mist as a head lunged from behind, low and fast like a snake.
Naruto didn't turn.
Instead, he slid one foot back, anchoring his stance. His fingers tightened around the grip of the Black Knight Shield. The Bellowing Dragon Crest Ring amplifying his chakra enhancement.
The Hydra's head crashed into him with the weight of a boulder and Naruto didn't budge. The shield held while the impact rang out like a gong, a deafening clang that echoed across the basin. The shield didn't even groan. The Hydra's snout, however, did... bone crunched, cartilage flattened. Its teeth split against the face of the shield like porcelain striking stone.
Naruto shifted his hips, and surged forward with all his strength, shield bash enhanced with chakra reinforcement.
The air around the strike exploded.
The shield slammed into the Hydra's wounded snout with a thunderous boom. The force pulsed forward, vibrating the air as the reinforced edge cracked the skull inwards and then shattered it. The head burst like a ruptured fruit, chunks of bone and viscous brain matter flying in every direction as the neck flopped and thrashed, dying on impact.
A ripple of displaced water fanned out from his stance, lifting a misty spray across the lakebank.
Oscar chirped in delight.
Naruto's senses flared. The final head was arcing toward Oscar. In an instant, he used the Black Knight Halberd... his movements tearing the very air as he accelerated past sound. Afterimages danced behind him like spirits.
In a single moment, he had cut the last head over a thousand times. Lines of red split across its length before the entire head simply peeled apart in the air... flesh unraveling like paper as it collapsed, twitching, into the lake.
Naruto landed with a skid, panting.
The Hydra's corpse sank into the depths, dark water turning black with blood.
Naruto looked down at his blood-slicked armor. His heartbeat slowed. The lake calmed.
"That was disappointingly easy," Naruto muttered, half-pouting as he lowered his shield. "Should've used one hand. Might've made it a little fairer…"
The basin was silent now, save for the fading ripples across the lake where the Hydra's carcass slowly sank beneath the surface. The only sound left was Oscar's proud little chirp as the lizard strutted in a circle beside the cratered remains of the monster's last head.
[ Victory Achieved! ]
[ You have gained ]
[ Black Dragon Scale ]
[ Dusk Crown Ring ]
[ 5000 Souls ]
[ Knight Helm ]
[ Knight Armor ]
[ Knight Gauntlets ]
[ Knight Leggings ]
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[ Personal Note: First off, thanks a ton to all of you for sticking with this story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. Now, if you're interested in supporting me on P@treon, let me just say that over there, I post these massive 5k-word chapters. But heads up, if you're jumping to P@treon, you'll need to start from Chapter 82, since that's where this chapter lines up with the content there.
To everyone here just reading along, please don't forget to leave a comment! Honestly, your comments make my day, and they let me know you're as invested in this story as I am. So yeah, thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day!