The Living Quicksilver possessed only three abilities.
The first was an incredibly strong magic resistance, the method for which was known only to the City of Alchemy, so much so that even a paladin's Divine Smite couldn't inflict much damage. The second was the devouring talent inherent to the slime race, though after becoming Living Quicksilver, it only devoured metal.
The last was the talent Ambrose had invested much cost and effort to bestow upon it at the soul level—shapeshifting.
The Living Quicksilver was a newborn child, not yet skilled in using this talent. It could only perform simple mimicry.
Thus, the Living Quicksilver transformed into a humanoid mercury figure, looking seven or eight parts similar to the paladin's form, but its details were blurry, like a half-melted candle.
But regardless of how refined its form was, its imitation of the paladin's earlier movements was incredibly lifelike.
The Divine Smite swung by the Living Quicksilver lacked holy power, but the immense weight of the quicksilver delivered a powerful impact. When the paladin raised his longsword to block, he was actually forced back two steps.
The Living Quicksilver pressed its advantage, but it only knew how to use the same move over and over.
Raise sword, slash down. Still as swift as lightning.
But the paladin wouldn't be forced back by the same move again. With a turn of his blade, he used the spine of his sword to parry at an angle, completely deflecting the force of the quicksilver's slash. Then, using the momentum, the paladin spun his longsword and sliced deep into the Living Quicksilver's head.
The blade split the creature's head in two. For a human, such an injury would be fatal. But for the Living Quicksilver, it was probably just a flesh wound.
The quicksilver solution squirmed and healed, even sealing the paladin's longsword within its mercury head. Then, the Living Quicksilver copied the move, rotating its own quicksilver longsword and aiming for the paladin's head. But just as the blade was about to strike, a layer of platinum-gold light appeared on the paladin's helmet.
Aura of Protection. A paladin's exclusive ability, using devout faith to condense protective power that could ward off various types of damage.
When the quicksilver longsword met the Aura of Protection, it slid off the paladin's helmet as if slipping on ice. The Living Quicksilver itself was thrown off balance.
The paladin seized this opportunity, unleashing a dazzling flurry of sword techniques that diced the Living Quicksilver until it was completely out of shape.
In a single exchange, the Living Quicksilver was utterly defeated, completely crushed in terms of swordsmanship.
However, as the paladin retracted his longsword to catch his breath, the Living Quicksilver, which had been cut into bizarre shapes, quickly reformed and used the same set of moves against him again.
Ambrose watched this scene with great satisfaction.
He had carefully concocted this Living Quicksilver's soul. The shapeshifting ability had to be paired with a powerful capacity for imitation and learning to be effective. The fact that the creature could perfectly mimic the paladin's sword techniques after seeing them just once proved that Ambrose's efforts had not been in vain.
But although the Living Quicksilver had a strong ability to imitate, it was no match for the paladin in swordsmanship.
Every paladin's martial skill was forged through countless trials. The paladin in the cell might have lacked adventuring experience, but his swordsmanship was definitely at a master's level.
Blades flashed, the two longswords clashing repeatedly. They were using the exact same moves, yet the paladin could always evade the Living Quicksilver's blade and land his own on its body.
Even with the same set of techniques, subtle differences in force, angle, and transition could turn the fight into a one-sided slaughter. If not for the Living Quicksilver's slime-like ability to freely split and reassemble its body, it would have been hacked to pieces long ago.
The paladin had identified the creature's weakness. This monster could only imitate; it didn't know which moves were feints or how to chain attacks into combos. He could easily suppress it.
With this realization, the paladin was no longer in a hurry. He didn't use any of his other paladin abilities, simply treating the Living Quicksilver as a sparring dummy.
It wasn't out of arrogance. He knew his opponent wasn't just this monster, but also the lich hiding outside the cell.
A paladin's power wasn't infinite. If he used up all his holy energy on one monster, what would he do when he faced the lich? He'd be a sitting duck.
So, while he could still suppress the Living Quicksilver, the paladin exercised restraint, using his swordsmanship to wear down its strength. He didn't believe the monster could heal indefinitely, nor did he believe it could fight at high intensity without any cost.
The paladin's choice was undoubtedly the correct one. Every time the Living Quicksilver healed its body or changed its form, it consumed the energy stored within, energy converted from devouring metal. It would eventually run out.
In a battle of attrition like this, the newborn Living Quicksilver might not actually outlast the rigorously trained paladin. Before its opponent's stamina was depleted, the Living Quicksilver would be hacked until it lost all activity.
Ambrose couldn't help but marvel. The Ryan Empire's paladins truly lived up to their reputation. The strongest empire on the continent wasn't just for show.
But if his creation lost, how was he supposed to do business?
The memory crystal was recording all of this. Editing it later would be a pain.
Therefore, Ambrose could no longer remain a spectator. He called out from behind the iron door, "You foolish child, you don't have to maintain a human form! Why are you using only one sword? It's not like you only have two hands! Let your imagination run wild! Just because I told you to learn from your enemy's swordplay doesn't mean you have to be an exact copy!"
At these words, the Living Quicksilver, whose head had just been split open and was about to heal, suddenly paused. The two halves of its head stopped fusing. Instead, they stretched and elongated, turning into two rapiers that lunged at the paladin.
The technique was no different from what the paladin had used before, but with two swords striking simultaneously from opposite sides of its head, the paladin found himself scrambling to respond. His smooth rhythm was instantly broken.
Though he successfully blocked the twin blades and even countered with a powerful pommel strike that left a huge dent in the Living Quicksilver's chest, it was the paladin's last struggle.
Ambrose's words had been a revelation for the Living Quicksilver, instantly lifting its self-imposed restrictions.
It was true that it couldn't match the paladin's swordsmanship in human form. But what if it wasn't human?
Slimes had no fixed form to begin with. Why fight in a form that put it at a disadvantage?
The Living Quicksilver's body writhed and twisted. Numerous arms and longswords sprouted from its form, swinging like a windmill as they descended upon the paladin.
The paladin felt as if he were being surrounded and attacked by several of his own colleagues. The sword style was the same, and he could tell where the attacks were aimed by the direction of the blades, but the problem was… there were just too many damn swords!