Chapter 93 | The Vampire Princess Later Drew the Holy Sword

Dinoman stood up from the edge of the pit, his metallic prosthetic body still reflecting the cold morning light.

The edges of the wounds sliced open by Achilles’ foot blades began to extend and merge, the metal reshaping itself like clay under an invisible hand.

Then, his metallic armor began to move.

Yat had been on many missions with Dinoman, so she knew his armor had six distinct forms.

Pterosaur form was for flight, Mosasaur form for aquatic and naval combat, Tyrannosaurus form for pure offensive power, Stegosaurus form for balanced defense and attack, Velociraptor form for mobility and grappling, and Triceratops form for frontal defense.

This time, the metallic scales on his body began to flip upward, thicken, and stack outward from his chest in layers, as if an ancient creature were growing a full set of bone armor in seconds.

The armor plates on his shoulders, back, and head expanded rapidly. In particular, the neck frill around his skull extended forward from a few thin plates at the back of his head, forming a massive bone-shield in front of him.

Triceratops form. Of the six forms, it possessed the strongest defense, especially in absorbing impacts and dispersing pressure.

Boom—

He lowered his center of gravity, planting the shield-like bone armor—its nose-tip pointed downward—into the ground before him, and exhaled a slow, hot breath toward Yat.

He was waiting.

Waiting for Yat to make the first move.

While Triceratops form had high defense, it was the slowest. Taking the initiative would allow Achilles' mobility to bypass him.

Yat couldn't just leave him and run to support Esper either. She had seen Dinoman's Velociraptor form before; its top speed could almost rival her own when Achilles’ special ability was active.

Flanking wasn't an option either. Long ago, he had almost died from a backstab because of his poor turning radius.

Consequently, Dinoman had specifically installed a rapid-rotation device for the Triceratops shield, making it nearly impossible for an enemy to flank him in a duel.

To break through, she had to strike the Triceratops shield head-on.

She chuckled and cracked her neck.

“Then I'll just smash right through your shield.”

Hector’s sword-spear was still attached to Achilles’ foot blade.

The Apostle pseudo-engine 『Hector』 was currently distorting the surrounding air with heat waves.

It was superheating.

“You said I could hit you however I want, so I won't hold back.”

Yat lowered her center of gravity. Achilles’ hands and feet instantly switched to climbing mode upon touching the ground, five claws digging into the gaps between the stone slabs of the main road.

Then, she shot forward.

The moment she reached Dinoman, she suddenly straightened, her entire body spinning upward half a turn to slam the Hector-enhanced foot blade onto the Triceratops shield.

The first strike.

A massive ripple spread across Dinoman’s shield, neutralizing most of the kick's force.

Yat used the recoil to adjust her posture in mid-air. The moment she landed, she was already low again, delivering a second spinning kick to the exact same spot on the shield from the left.

The second strike.

It still didn't pierce through, only pushing Dinoman back slightly. Yat wasn't surprised.

Facing a kick that had most of its force neutralized, Dinoman only retreated half a step before stabilizing.

Yat didn't stop.

Third strike, fourth strike, fifth strike—every blow hit the same narrow point of impact.

Meanwhile, Hector’s spear tip continued to heat up. The sword-spear began to glow a faint dark red, the color gradually climbing.

From dark red to orange-red, from orange-red to brilliant white, until finally, the entire spear tip was so bright it was almost blinding.

While Yat was building momentum, Dinoman was doing the same.

In Triceratops form, the shield was both an absolute defense and an energy absorber. Every impact absorbed by the shield would be stored in Dinoman’s core, then triggered at a specific moment to empower a counterattack.

The longer he held out, the stronger the empowerment. But he couldn't hold out forever.

With each kick from Achilles combined with Hector, a crack appeared on the shield, leaving marks despite the kinetic energy being neutralized.

The heat applied by Hector was also spreading across the shield with each successive strike.

If he kept defending, the shield would eventually shatter. He had to counterattack.

The moment his feet planted firmly on the ground, he ceased his defense.

The Triceratops shield and bone plates retracted. All the armor merged back into his body as metallic components reorganized rapidly within his abdominal cavity. His tailbone extended, his hind limbs swelled, and in an instant, his body restructured from a squat, defensive heavy-type into a massive predator.

Tyrannosaurus form.

The metallic teeth of his lower jaw spread open. Simultaneously, the armor on his shoulders and ribs thinned, with the vast majority of the metallic mass being reallocated to the dragon head—specifically to the biting force and the power of the teeth.

Offensive power was maximized, while defense dropped.

Then, all the previously accumulated energy surged into the dragon head.

He opened his massive maw and charged forward, snapping at Yat.

This was the moment Yat had been waiting for.

Hector had reached its critical temperature. The heat accumulated to its limit exploded from the spear tip in an instant.

The sword-spear launched from her foot blade, shooting toward Dinoman at an almost imperceptible speed, aiming straight for the throat inside his mouth.

That was where his true skull was located—a spot not covered by the impact force absorbed and then released by the Triceratops form.

The continuous heating from before erupted all at once, and the spear tip splintered during flight, transforming into a heavy artillery shell.

The heavy cannon was no longer on her foot.

“『Godspeed Cavalry』.”

Achilles’ entire body was enveloped in a rust-colored wind.

At this moment, Achilles’ speed would reach its peak under the blessing of the wind summoned by the Primordial Power, initiating a charge like a raging tide or a meteor.

The downside was the inability to turn, but she didn't need to.

Her knees bent slightly, the curved blades on her feet dug into the ground, and she shot forward like an arrow from a fully drawn bow.

Dinoman had already snapped his jaws shut.

If that bite landed solidly, given Achilles’ physical defense, the outcome would be obvious. But he wasn't as fast as Achilles.

Hector’s trajectory was a straight line, and Achilles’ charge was equally linear.

Just as his jaws were about to close, the spear tip arrived at the top of his head, and Achilles caught up to Hector’s afterimage at the exact same time.

A dull, heavy thud echoed the moment Hector struck Dinoman’s head.

The high-temperature spear tip gouged into the iron hide—which had been extremely reinforced in Tyrannosaurus form—melting through the outermost armor plate before being wedged by the layers of reinforced bone inside.

Even though it was a weak point, it was a weak point that benefited from the Tyrannosaurus form's enhancements.

The spear tip was embedded in Dinoman’s jawbone, drilling inward inch by inch, but it hadn't killed him.

The thrown Hector alone wasn't enough.

So Yat raised her right foot.

The curved, hook-like blade on Achilles’ foot emitted a piercing hum from air friction during the high-speed charge, accurately kicking the end of Hector’s hilt.

That kick slammed into the back of Hector’s handle, driving the spear—which had only smashed into the skull—deep into the massive metallic head like a nail being hammered home.

Bang!

The entire sword-spear became embedded in Dinoman’s skull.

The residual heat stored within Hector erupted once more, and just before the spear tip’s structure crumbled, Achilles’ Godspeed Cavalry charge momentum was funneled into it.

Two completely different impacts exploded at the same point simultaneously.

The surface armor of the Tyrannosaurus skull remained intact after withstanding the first wave of impact, but the subsequent piercing force followed the metallic patterns already softened by the high temperature, penetrating straight through and tearing the skull apart from the inside out.

Hector’s spear tip broke through the final layer of resistance in the Tyrannosaurus jawbone, exiting through the back of Dinoman’s head, with Yat herself landing behind him.

From the jawbone to the back of the head, a through-hole remained, its edges still glowing with a dark red molten light.

Clatter. The first fragment fell from the massive Tyrannosaurus jaw.

Then, starting from the head, cracks began to appear across his entire shell.

The cracks spread rapidly along the armor seams. Wherever they passed, metallic plates peeled off like withered leaves, turning into black mist before they even hit the ground.