The Laughing Swordsman

Although Apollo was holding up for now, his situation was pretty bad. After all, having one hand nearly torn off, and the other mangled in pieces was not the best thing in the middle of a fight. Realistically speaking, Kylan should be able to deal with Apollo easily.

However, Kylan relentlessly continued his assault, even adding more golden spikes on top. Despite his arrogant look, he was never one to take things lightly. Perhaps it was because Kylan found fighting to be a chore. As such, instead of playing with his food, he finishes up quickly.

That meant Apollo's situation was only getting worse by the second. He wasn't even relying on his bokken, but his hand made of flesh and blood. The fact he was even able to block the golden spears in the first place was because of his instinct.

But every time he blocked, he had to pay a price.

Sometimes it would be his bone that fractured. Sometimes it would be his flesh that tore apart. Sometimes it would be both.

Frankly, there was only so much his hand could do. If he continued to try and block everything, his hand would inevitably break off.

Then he would die.

Apollo cackled as he fell from the air. It was as though he wasn't actually in a perilous situation where he was about to lose both of his hands.

It wasn't as though Apollo didn't understand his situation. In fact, he was very clearly aware of it. 

As for others, they may see their death as inevitable. Some of those with weaker hearts would directly give up. The others that were persistent would continue defending, but that was only in the hope that someone would save them.

A golden spike rushed forward towards Apollo's thigh. His hand was conveniently already in the way, meaning he wouldn't need to move to block this attack.

...Yet, he moved his hand out of the way.

The golden spear freely pierced through the side of Apollo's thigh, taking a huge chunk of flesh with it. Blood sprayed like a fountain, but rapidly died down.

Apollo knew he couldn't defend against everything. And so... he didn't try to.

A golden spike was about to hit the side of his abdomen. With just a twist, his mangled hand could knock it away. But he didn't bother.

Once again, a golden spear ripped through Apollo's body, spraying blood across the ground. Yet, Apollo simply laughed it off, almost as though he only scraped his side instead of actually losing it entirely.

Apollo twisted his neck and saw a golden spike about to pierce through his head. In just a moment, it was right in front of his eye.

A sharp bang resounded.

Apollo's eye was still intact. He had used his hand at the last moment to bat away the golden spike. By now, all of his fingers had snapped off along with his thumb.

He was only waving around a trembling stub, but it was that stub that saved his life.

Like that, Apollo let his body get ripped apart by any golden spike that went for his flesh, but acted whenever one came for his head or heart.

It did not take long for Apollo's body to distort. He had taken so many hits it was hard to classify his structure as humanoid.

Yet, Apollo was alive.

Not because someone saved him, not because he got lucky.

But because of his own efforts.

Suddenly, Apollo's back collided with the ground, knocking the air out of Apollo's lungs. But that wasn't going to stop him from laughing. His laughs were terribly weak and wheezy, but he was doing so nonetheless.

Apollo immediately focused, raising his hand in the air. He was ready for the golden spikes to continue their assault.

...But none came.

This wasn't because Kylan was being merciful towards Apollo, or that he thought the job was already finished. In reality, he didn't have the time to direct his attention to Apollo.

Because Layla was coming for him.

Layla was on all fours, crouched down on top of one of the shorter golden pillars. Then, she leaped onto the top of another one. Layla let out a small, but mischievous giggle.

"Play, play, play! Playing with friends is so fun!"

The remaining golden pillars were not in an exaggerated quantity and were quite far from each other. After all, Kylan used up most of them on creating golden spikes. Yet, Layla was able to hop from one to the other with ease, slowly making her way up to Kylan.

Kylan no longer looked at Apollo. Instead, his eyes remained on Layla as though they wanted to pierce straight through her.

Kylan furrowed his brows. The tone of his voice lowered.

"Don't think I'll let you do as you please in my domain."

Layla leaped towards another golden pillar, but right as she was about to set her foot down, there was only air.

The golden pillar dispersed to the side, rapidly falling to the ground fluidly. It was as though the pillar was not made of gold, but the water from a waterfall.

Layla's body awkwardly tilted to the side. She put her foot down on where there supposedly was ground and ended up shifting her weight improperly.

Layla opened her eyes wide with shock.

"Eh?"

She looked down curiously, only to see the ground was rapidly falling.

"Ehhhhhh?"

Layla rapidly waved her arms in the air, stirring up strong gusts of air. However, that hardly did anything. 

In reality, Layla stood a chance of flying with pure strength alone. However, when she flapped her arms, they would both lift her up and send her down. She was simply too dense to realize this fact.

And so, Layla fell with an angry frown on her face. She continued to flail her limbs as though she were a little kid throwing a tantrum.

"Waaaaaah!"

Kylan let out a sigh of relief.

....Unfortunately for him, he was celebrating just a tad bit early.