The Sudden Third-Order Lord vs. Lynch's One-on-One Duel

The howling winter wind, mixed with a strong stench of blood, swept across the entire village of Buena.

The [Bloodthirsty Demonic Bear], standing five meters tall like a moving iron tower, was approaching step by step with a tread that made the earth tremble. Its thick black fur gleamed with a cold, metallic luster under the faint sunlight, as if it were a natural armor bestowed by the Creator.

Swish!

The magic sentry tower faithfully carried out its duty once again. The crystal at the top of the tower spun wildly, and a purple arcane ray, even thicker than before, shot out, accurately striking near the Demonic Bear's left eye socket.

Sizzle!

This time, the high-temperature ray finally took effect. Although it failed to pierce the skull, it scorched a large patch of fur and left a deep, bone-revealing scorch mark on the Demonic Bear's face.

"Roar!!!"

This strike completely ignited the fury of the magical beast overlord.

The Demonic Bear let out a deafening roar, its somewhat sluggish pace suddenly accelerating. Its massive body erupted with an agility that completely defied the laws of physics, charging towards Lynch, who stood in the middle of the road, like an out-of-control heavy truck carrying a world-destroying momentum.

"Mr. Lynch! Dodge, quickly!"

The old village chief shouted until his voice went hoarse.

In front of a monster of that size, a human was as insignificant as an ant that could be casually crushed to death.

However, Lynch did not retreat.

Instead, a perplexing smirk curled the corners of his mouth.

"Bring it on."

At the very moment the giant paw, capable of shattering rocks, was about to fall, Lynch moved.

It was not a panicked flee, but an extremely calm, incredibly precise sidestep glide.

He was like a fallen leaf weaving through a storm, sliding past the Demonic Bear's sharp claws by a hair's breadth. The razor-sharp tips of the claws practically brushed against the tip of his nose, and the resulting gust of wind stung his cheeks.

At the same time, the longsword in Lynch's hand moved.

"Arcane: Oscillation!"

The Tier 2 magic power within his body surged wildly, pouring down his arm into the fine steel longsword. But this was no ordinary magic enchantment; it was a unique technique Lynch had developed based on the principles of physics from his past life—High-Frequency Particle Oscillation.

Buzz!

The blade emitted an ear-piercing hum, as if it had transformed into a high-frequency cutting knife.

Slash!

Borrowing the momentum of their passing bodies, the longsword in Lynch's hand viciously slashed against the Demonic Bear's thick forelimb.

Pfft!

The tough fur, which even the arcane ray struggled to pierce, was sliced open like butter before the oscillating sword. Blackish-red blood spewed out, splashing all over Lynch.

"Roar!!!"

The Demonic Bear cried out in pain, letting out a miserable shriek. It abruptly spun around, its other paw sweeping over with even more berserk power.

This attack was too fast, too fierce.

Lynch had no time to retract his sword; relying purely on instinct, he raised his scabbard to block, his body flying backward from the force.

Bang!

A muffled thud.

Lynch was like a kite with a broken string, rolling several times in the snow before finally coming to a stop.

"Cough, cough..."

He knelt on one knee, supporting his body with his sword, and violently coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Tier 2 fighting Tier 3... is indeed a bit too much of a stretch."

Lynch wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, feeling as though his internal organs had shifted. The gap in strength was simply too vast. Although he managed to block that strike, the concussive force still caused internal injuries.

"Lynch!"

By the second-floor window, Felsy, who had always maintained an aloof demeanor, crushed her teacup into powder with a crack upon seeing this scene.

She instinctively went to raise her hand, a devastating purplish-black sphere of light already gathering at her fingertips.

If she wished it, this stupid bear would be turned to ashes in the next second.

"My Lady! Wait!"

Just then, a small hand pressed down on her wrist.

Kuma was hanging upside down from the window frame, her expression unusually serious: "Look at his eyes."

Felsy paused and followed Kuma's gaze.

In the snow.

The man who had been sent flying was standing back up.

He was covered in blood and looking somewhat disheveled, but his black eyes burned with a flame called excitement. It was the fanaticism of a hunter who had finally encountered a prey worth fighting, and the absolute resolve of a man defending his territory.

He felt no fear.

On the contrary, he was smiling.

"He is enjoying the battle."

Kuma said softly, "My Lady, this is his opportunity to break through his limits. If you intervene now, you may save him, but you will also stifle his growth."

"More importantly... this is his pride as a man."

Felsy's fingers trembled slightly.

She looked at Lynch's stubborn back, watching him grip his longsword tightly once again and charge back at the invincible behemoth.

After three seconds of silence.

Felsy dispelled the magic power at her fingertips.

"...Idiot."

She bit her lip, staring intently at the battlefield. "If you dare to die... I'll resurrect you just to kill you again."

...

In the center of the battlefield.

Lynch had no idea that he had just taken a stroll past the gates of hell (and almost had his kill stolen by his wife).

His attention was now entirely focused on the enraged Demonic Bear before him.

"The difference in strength is threefold, speed is double, and defense isn't even comparable..."

Lynch calculated rapidly in his mind while nimbly dodging the Demonic Bear's lunges. "Meeting it head-on definitely won't work. The magic sentry tower's energy is almost bottoming out, so I can't rely on that."

"I must find a weak point."

"The eyes? No, it's guarding them too closely now."

"The heart? The hide is too thick to pierce."

Just then, the Demonic Bear seemed to lose its patience. It stopped blindly swinging its claws and suddenly reared up on its hind legs. A white crescent-shaped patch of fur on its chest lit up with an eerie red glow.

That was the wind-up for the Bloodthirsty Demonic Bear's innate skill—[Earth Trample]!

Once it stomped down, the ground within a fifty-meter radius would shatter, leaving Lynch with nowhere to dodge!

"Now's the time!"

A sharp glint flashed in Lynch's eyes.

Amidst the gasps of everyone present, he made a crazy move.

Instead of retreating, he advanced. At the exact moment the giant bear paw was about to hit the ground, he shot forward like a cannonball, sliding directly underneath the Demonic Bear's defenseless belly!

This was an extremely dangerous blind spot.

If the Demonic Bear merely sat down slightly, he would be crushed into meat paste.

But this was also the only chance to reach its softest part!

"Break... for me!!!"

Lynch gripped his sword with both hands, the point facing upward, aiming right at the relatively soft skin on the Demonic Bear's belly.

The magic power within his body was squeezed to its absolute limit at this moment.

Not only that.

Under the pressure of life and death, Lynch suddenly felt as if some shackle within his body had snapped. The barrier that had always prevented him from stepping into Tier 3 showed a trace of a crack at this very moment.

The oscillating force that could originally only adhere to the surface of the blade suddenly underwent a qualitative change in this instant.

The magic power was no longer just a simple oscillation; it began to spin, compress, and collapse.

Like a miniature black hole, it converged on the tip of the sword.

This is... [Arcane Blast: Point-Blank Eruption]!

Squelch!

The longsword pierced into the demonic bear's abdomen without any resistance, sinking all the way to the hilt!

But this was not enough!

Detonate!!!

Lynch roared furiously, detonating all the arcane energy accumulated at the tip of his sword inside the demonic bear's body.

BOOM!!!

An incredibly muffled explosion burst open within the demonic bear's stomach.

It was as if someone had stuffed a grenade into its belly.

The demonic bear's impending Earth Stomp was abruptly interrupted. It let out an agonizing howl to the extreme, its massive body convulsing violently as it spewed out a mouthful of blood mixed with shattered internal organs.

Immediately after.

That mountain-like body could no longer hold up and crashed down heavily.

At the very last moment before it fell, Lynch executed a very ungraceful roll, tumbling out from under the bear's rear, narrowly escaping being crushed to death on the spot.

Thud!

Dust flew into the air.

Tier 3 Overlord, Bloodthirsty Demonic Bear, dead.

Cause of death: High-energy arcane internal explosion in the abdomen, all internal organs shattered.

...

D-Dead?

Behind the fence, Da Zhuang rubbed his eyes, looking in disbelief at the giant beast lying motionless in a pool of blood.

It's r-really dead!

Mr. Lynch won!

My God! He single-handedly killed a Tier 3 Demonic Bear!

After a brief dead silence, deafening cheers erupted at the village entrance.

The villagers rushed out like madmen, surrounding the blood-soaked man who was sitting on the ground panting heavily, and tossed him into the air.

Lynch! Lynch! Lynch!

The cheers resounded through the clouds, even drowning out the remnants of the retreating beast tide in the distance.

Being tossed in the air, Lynch felt as if all his bones were about to fall apart, but he couldn't suppress the corners of his mouth from rising.

At the very moment the demonic bear fell.

A few lines of golden system prompts popped up on his retina:

[Killed Tier 3 Demonic Beast Bloodthirsty Demonic Bear (Cross-Tier Kill), gained EXP +5000, Mana Points +500!]

[Congratulations, Host! EXP Pool overflow!]

[Broken through the tier shackles, advanced to Early Tier 3!]

[Unlocked new skill tree: Arcane Constructology.]

Phew...

Feeling the sudden surge of a warm current of mana inside his body that was frantically repairing his injuries, Lynch had only one thought in his mind:

This wave... absolute profit!

...

Second floor.

Looking at Lynch surrounded by the crowd, Felsy finally released her tightly clenched hands, her palms covered in cold sweat.

This guy...

She let out a long breath, feeling more exhausted than if she had fought a battle herself.

He actually did it.

Breaking through in the heat of battle, a cross-tier counter-kill... This kind of plot that only appears in hero biographies actually happened to him.

Felsy's gaze became complex.

Previously, she had only regarded Lynch as an interesting, cooking-capable, ordinary human suitable for cover.

But today.

At the moment when this man, bathed in blood, stepped on the corpse of a Tier 3 demonic beast.

She admitted that she was shocked.

That palpitation originating from the depths of her soul made her, for the first time, feel an impulse to truly understand him and rely on him.

My Lady, you're smiling very happily.

Kuma said faintly from the side, It seems we won't need to string him up and beat him tonight?

...Shut up.

Felsy rolled her eyes at her, then smoothed her skirt and turned to walk downstairs.

...

Although the battle was over, cleaning up the battlefield was a massive undertaking.

The demonic bear's corpse was a treasure trove. The bear skin could be made into armor, the bear gall was a rare medicinal ingredient, and the bear paws were top-tier ingredients. Of course, the most valuable item was that Tier 3 Earth-attribute magic core.

Lynch politely declined the villagers' support, personally wielding a blade to dig out that fist-sized magic core radiating a heavy earth elemental aura.

Good stuff.

Lynch wiped the blood off it. Now I have the materials to upgrade the Mana Sentry Tower.

Just as he was about to stow the magic core into his backpack and go back to claim credit from his wife.

Clack clack clack...

A chaotic and frantic clatter of hooves came from the small path west of the village.

Help... help...

Accompanied by a few weak cries for help, a team of battered, armor-discarded, and heavily wounded personnel and horses stumbled into everyone's line of sight.

Leading them was a familiar carriage painted in bright green (now mostly scratched up).

Only one horse remained pulling the carriage, and it was limping on one leg. The carriage itself was in tatters, looking as if it had just been salvaged from a scrap heap.

And trailing behind the carriage were several mutated wild dogs in relentless pursuit.

Is that... the crest of the Norland family?

The old village chief had sharp eyes and recognized the emblem on the carriage at a glance. It's people from the Lord's Manor!

Seeing signs of human habitation ahead, the carriage driver seemed to have found his saviors, whipping frantically. You people ahead! Help, quickly! The Eldest Miss is in the carriage! There are demonic beasts behind us!

Eldest Miss?

Lynch paused for a moment.

Why did this scene look somewhat familiar?

Before he could react, the Mana Sentry Tower unleashed its power once again.

Pew! Pew! Pew!

A few purple rays flashed by, and the wild dogs chasing from behind instantly turned into corpses.

The carriage finally rushed to the village entrance, coming to a halt with an ear-piercing screech.

The carriage door was busted open from the inside.

A girl with disheveled hair, a face full of dust, and an originally exquisite puffy dress that had been torn into strips, tumbled down in an incredibly wretched state.

Wuwuwu... I was scared to death...

The girl lay on the ground, crying a river. Her signature green curly hair now looked like a bird's nest, with a few twigs still stuck in it.

Still sobbing, she looked up, wanting to see which hero had saved her.

Thank you for the rescue, brave warrior! I am from the Norland family...

Before she could finish, the girl's voice came to an abrupt halt.

She widened her red, teary eyes, staring intently at the man before her who was stepping on the massive corpse of a demonic bear, holding a huge magic core in his hand, bathed in blood yet looking like a god of war.

That face...

That face, which even covered in blood, still showed a bit of handsomeness (and punchability)...

L-Lynch?!

Aria Norland felt her worldview collapse at this very moment.

Just yesterday morning, she had arrogantly pointed at this man's nose, calling him a commoner and an amateur, and boasting that she would show him real magic in the royal capital.

But now...

Look at the demonic beast corpses scattered all over the ground.

Look at that terrifying tall tower still emitting smoke.

And look at the dead-as-a-doornail Tier 3 Bloodthirsty Demonic Bear trampled beneath his feet, a beast that even her father would fear.

Yo.

Lynch also recognized this sourpuss Eldest Miss.

He tossed the magic core in his hand, a playful smile appearing on his face as if greeting an old friend:

Isn't this the Eldest Miss who was heading to the royal capital?

How did you end up in such a sorry state? Where is your noble magic?

...

Aria opened her mouth, wanting to retort and maintain her noble dignity.

But under the massive shadow of the demonic bear's corpse, and in the face of Lynch's unreasonably formidable aura.

She felt a wave of suffocation.

Then, under the double blow of a crushing reality check and her recent fright, the haughty daughter of the lord did something no one expected.

Her eyes rolled back into her head.

Thud.

She passed out cold.

"...She passed out just like that?"

Lynch scratched his head, looking innocently at the surrounding villagers.

"I didn't even do anything. Even if she's trying to scam me, this is a bit much, isn't it?"