Eastern and Western swordsmanship are two completely different concepts. Western swordsmanship generally refers to two-handed swords and one-handed swords, while Eastern swordsmanship typically implies one-handed swords—though differences in swordsmanship naturally arise from differences between countries. For example, Chinese swordsmanship generally refers to the jian, while Japanese swordsmanship (kenjutsu) is, strictly speaking, more like saber techniques (tojutsu).
However, people in Japan don't strictly differentiate between dao (saber) and jian (sword); they refer to the tachi and katana as swords too.
Over all these years, Meruem had only learned iai (the art of drawing the blade) for a period of time through a clone—which is to say, Japanese "swordsmanship."
Asking him to pull out a weapon now and fight someone with it was indeed a bit hard on him. He was much better at unarmed combat, or pure physical brawling.
But do not underestimate Meruem's terrifying talent for learning, especially in practice. Meruem's learning ability had reached a point of qualitative transformation.
During the process of joining forces with Artoria against the enemy, Meruem's control over the two-handed greatsword became increasingly proficient. By now, he could coordinate with Artoria perfectly, to the extreme.
This gave Artoria an incredibly absurd feeling—was the opponent learning her swordsmanship? But this speed seemed almost unbelievably fast, didn't it? In just a short ten-plus minutes, his sword path was already nearly identical to hers.
No, maybe it's just a coincidence. Maybe his sword path was just similar to hers to begin with.
How could it be possible to completely learn the sword path she spent over ten years mastering in just ten-plus minutes? If such a person really existed, wouldn't that mean her ten-plus years weren't even worth the opponent's ten-plus minutes? Such a person couldn't even be called a genius anymore.
"Roar!" Two sword shadows flashed, and Berserker's body was once again riddled with wounds. Under their perfect coordination, the power they could unleash wasn't as simple as one plus one.
Facing two Artorias at the same time would make any Heroic Spirit's scalp tingle. This was the famous King of Britain from legend, the King of Knights with transcendent swordsmanship, not some random Passerby A on the street.
"I didn't expect KING to be a warrior with such superb swordsmanship as well. What a truly spectacular combination," praised the Conqueror King, who was watching from the side, looking for an opportunity to strike.
Finally, the miraculous flag planted in the ground once again emitted a wondrous light in response to Berserker's injuries.
"Conqueror King, now!" Berserker would only reveal a slight opening when being healed by the flag, and this opening was exactly what Meruem and Artoria had been waiting for.
"Leave it to me!" shouted the fully prepared Conqueror King. The Chariot of Divine Might appeared once again, and driving the divine bull chariot, the Conqueror King charged toward the flag embedded deep in the ground, trampling with divine lightning.
"Roar!" Berserker naturally wouldn't sit idly by and wait for his Noble Phantasm to be destroyed. However, two greatswords blocked Berserker's path, stopping him in his tracks.
"SABER!" Meruem glanced at the gallant girl standing beside him.
Artoria nodded at Meruem. "Let's go!"
A tactic with two identical styles, like two copies of the same person, appeared before Berserker once again. Although Berserker possessed immense strength, his previous injuries hadn't finished healing under the flag's light yet. So for a moment, even though he was frantic with anxiety, he still couldn't break through the sword net formed by Meruem and Artoria combined.
"Via Expugnatio!" The hooves of the divine bulls driven by the Chariot of Divine Might, laden with destructive lightning, slammed ruthlessly into the flag. "Trample!" That was the unique attribute inherent to the Chariot of Divine Might.
The moment the massive hooves met the flag, a crack appeared instantly on the flag's staff. However, it didn't snap immediately; it still stood upright, resisting the might of the Divine Chariot.
But if Berserker didn't come to support it in time, the flag snapping would only be a matter of time. Of course, Meruem and Artoria wouldn't easily let Berserker break through—otherwise, it would turn into an endless battle of attrition again. How could they let such a good opportunity slip by?
In the end, Berserker failed to break through.
With a crack, the flag of "Roar of Rallying Under the Holy Flag" finally couldn't withstand the attack. It was destroyed under the impact of the Chariot of Divine Might, turning into debris that filled the sky.
At the end of the day, "Roar of Rallying Under the Holy Flag" was only a BBB-rank Noble Phantasm. Being able to infinitely restore Berserker's injuries and stamina was already a heaven-defying effect. Consequently, its own defensive capability wasn't that great. Without Berserker there to defend it, it naturally couldn't withstand the Conqueror King's Chariot of Divine Might on its own.
"Roar!" The moment the flag was destroyed, Berserker let out a desperate roar. The black aura on his body exploded outward violently. Caught off guard for a moment, Meruem and Artoria were blocked by the black aura and failed to deliver the killing blow to Berserker.
And at this moment, Berserker did something completely classless—without a word, he turned around and ran. Although Berserker had no reason and was Mad Enhanced to the point where only instinct remained... precisely because only instinct remained, it would be weird if he didn't run when he sensed a threat to his life.
Dignity as a warrior? Chivalry? Sorry—he has no reason and doesn't understand that stuff.
"This guy is simply unworthy of being a hero." Seeing the opponent flee from battle, Artoria blurted out in extreme dissatisfaction.
Please, does three-on-one make us worthy of being called heroes? Of course, Meruem only said this in his heart. Otherwise, there was no guarantee Artoria wouldn't fly into a rage out of humiliation and slash him with her sword.
"KING, we can't let him go this easily, or who knows how many more civilians will be hurt!" Artoria, with her saintly aura exploding, shouted at Meruem. If you don't pull up the weeds by the roots, they'll grow back with the spring breeze—especially with a Master-Servant pair this unprincipled. If they were left alone, who knew how many more people would be victimized.
"Although I want to as well, but..." Meruem raised the greatsword in his hand toward Artoria. At this moment, the greatsword in Meruem's hand finally couldn't hold on any longer; with a mournful cry, it snapped into several pieces.
That Noble Phantasm didn't belong to Meruem in the first place. Even though Meruem had seized it from Goldie, like Goldie, he couldn't release the Noble Phantasm's True Name. He was fighting relying solely on the material of the Noble Phantasm itself. Moreover, Meruem had wrapped a layer of "Nen" around the outside of the Noble Phantasm, which only accelerated the damage during combat.
So lasting until now was already the limit.
But Meruem clearly had no intention of letting Berserker go either.
It didn't matter if he had no weapon... he didn't rely on weapons to make a living anyway.
"He won't escape! Diamond Dust *Zero Light!"
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