Genshin Impacti: This Priest is Cringe, But She's Also Unbeatable — Chapter 37

Chapter 37: The Demeanor of a Knight

However, the reaction speed and sheer ferocity of the fully berserk Giant Goblin far exceeded her expectations.

Faced with a strike aimed squarely at its neck, the creature let out a deafening, eardrum-shattering roar. It didn’t dodge. It didn’t even try to evade.

Instead, its massive hand—the one she had just slashed, still dripping with dark blood—shot upward. Fingers splayed wide, it lunged for the descending Favonius Greatsword with the suicidal madness of a cornered beast.

Schlick—!

The sickening, wet sound of tearing flesh was enough to set one’s teeth on edge.

The heavy blade sliced deep into the goblin’s palm, flesh peeling back to reveal the stark white of bone beneath. A series of sharp cracks, like twigs snapping underfoot, echoed clearly as its finger bones shattered under the immense force.

Dark green ichor erupted like a geyser. But it had succeeded.

With its now-ruined hand, the monster had clamped down on the blade of the Favonius Greatsword, holding it fast.

In its berserk state, pain was a foreign concept. Its blood-red eyes held nothing but a singular, burning desire for destruction.

“Wurulu!!!”

Its other, intact hand snatched the crude mace from the ground. It swung the weapon in a devastating arc, aimed right at Celeste, whose movements were now stalled, her weapon caught in the goblin’s death grip.

The mace howled through the air, promising to smash the detestable “little bug” and her ridiculous “demeanor” into a bloody paste.

“Sister!” Selene’s voice was a terrified cry. She wanted to rush to her aid, but she was a step too late.

In that split second, a glint of unyielding resolve hardened Celeste’s eyes.

Fancy techniques were useless. Dodging was impossible.

Before this onslaught of raw power and frenzied will, any clever maneuver felt utterly pointless.

‘If there’s no path of retreat,’she thought,’then I won’t take one.’

‘Let’s see what’s stronger—your berserk rage, or my “Deep Cleaning”?!’

In that instant, the Geo Elemental Power thrumming within her connected as never before with the core conviction of the Noelle card: the unwavering will to protect. This wasn’t just about destruction. It was a vow, a promise to shield the person behind her and obliterate any obstacle in her path.

“Hah!”

A sharp, breathy cry escaped her lips, carrying the finality of someone burning their bridges.

Instead of trying to yank her sword free, she did the opposite. She channeled every ounce of her strength, every bit of insight she’d gained from the ‘Spear Intent of Rock’ about focusing and exploding force, and poured it all into the blade trapped in the goblin’s grip.

The moment the mace was about to connect, she moved.

Using the captured blade as a pivot, she stomped down hard, her entire core tightening like a spring. Her body exploded into motion, transforming into a deadly top launched from a bowstring, spinning through the air in a stunning arc.

At the same time, she finally shouted the ultimate declaration that had been brewing in her soul—a line that formed a bizarre contrast with the magnificent, desperate counterattack, yet was perfectly, horribly in line with her “Maid Knight” identity.

“—Deep Cleaning, start!!!”

As the cry echoed across the battlefield, Celeste’s mind screamed in frantic agony, ‘What kind of cringe-ass ultimate line is this?! Ahhh!’

A torrent of Geo Elemental Power, far greater than anything she had summoned before, surged upward with the Favonius Greatsword as its epicenter and exploded with a deafening boom.

The Giant Goblin’s hand, still clamped around the blade, bore the full brunt of the blast.

Under this irresistible force, its palm was instantly obliterated, reduced to a gory spray of flesh and bone fragments. It could no longer restrain the blade in the slightest.

Now free, Celeste harnessed the explosive recoil and the powerful centrifugal force of her spin, whipping the massive Favonius Greatsword into a destructive, brownish-yellow whirlwind.

“BOOM!!!”

The spinning blade met the incoming mace head-on.

This wasn’t the clean ring of metal on metal. It was a dull, gut-wrenching thud, the sound of something solid being utterly annihilated.

The goblin’s thick, hideous mace shattered on contact, bursting into two pieces on the spot. Half of the mace head flew off with a piercing shriek, embedding itself deep into the trunk of a giant tree dozens of meters away.

“Wuru?!”

For the first time, a flicker of raw disbelief pierced through the red haze of the Giant Goblin’s berserk rage.

But its shock was short-lived. The brownish-yellow whirlwind of death, its momentum unbroken, swept across the goblin’s massive torso.

A rapid succession of wet, tearing sounds—shlick, shlick, shlick, shlick—formed a gruesome display of death. A lattice of deep, crisscrossing wounds bloomed across the goblin’s chest and abdomen, so deep they exposed the bone within.

A torrent of dark green blood and mangled organs sprayed out like a grisly rainstorm, painting the forest floor in the colors of a slaughterhouse.

Its colossal body went rigid for a moment before crashing backward like a felled tree, a collapsing mountain of flesh.

The ground shuddered from the impact, sending up a cloud of dust and debris.

[Ding! Killed Giant Goblin (Lv.30 Elite). Obtained 3000 points! Host, this “Deep Cleaning” is complete. Large non-recyclable trash has been cleared. (Broom.jpg)]

The live broadcast plaza, after a brief, suffocating silence, absolutely erupted.

“HOLY SHIT! A ONE-SHOT?! SHE ONE-SHOT IT?!”

“WHAT WAS THAT?! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT SKILL?!”

“Deep Cleaning?! You call chopping a monster into pieces with a door-sized greatsword ‘cleaning’?!”

“Where did this Maid Knight come from, is she the director of a demolition company?!”

“Brutal, way too brutal! But I love it! Mom, I think I’m in love!”

…

Selene’s mouth hung open as she stared, dumbfounded, at her sister.

Celeste stood beside the Giant Goblin’s corpse, the tip of her Favonius Greatsword pointed diagonally at the ground. The brownish-yellow energy flowing along the blade slowly dissipated, but the unstoppable, destructive momentum of her attack still lingered in the air, making one’s heart pound.

“Sister… this ‘Deep Cleaning’ of yours…” Selene muttered, feeling her entire understanding of the world shatter and re-form once again. “…isn’t it a bit too clean?”

But before either of them could catch their breath, a cacophony of guttural cackles suddenly erupted from the dense forest around them. It was followed by the unmistakable clang of weapons against armor.

From the shadows of the woods, a tide of green-skinned figures poured forth. Fully armed Earth Goblin Warriors and spell-casting Earth Goblin Shamans filled their field of vision. A quick glance put their numbers at fifty, maybe more.

They had clearly been drawn by the thunderous sounds of the battle.

The goblins’ eyes darted from the massive corpse lying on the ground to the lone figure standing beside it—the dangerous-looking Celeste in her Maid Knight armor. A flicker of fear flashed in their beady eyes.

But in the next moment, that fear was swallowed by an even more intense greed and brutality.

“Gah! Kill her! Avenge the big boss!”

“Get her shiny-shinies! The armor and the big sword!”

“Wuwah! Attack!”

The Earth Goblins shrieked and clamored, swarming them from all directions like hyenas that had smelled blood. Sharp swords and bone staves crackling with elemental light were all aimed at the two sisters in the center of the clearing.

Selene’s face went pale. She instinctively rushed to her sister’s side, raising the shield, Immovable Mountain, as holy light flared to life around her without reservation.

“Sister! There are too many of them! We…”

Her voice was suddenly cut off, as if gripped by an invisible hand.

Because she saw that her sister, standing tall beside her, had not a single shred of fear in her emerald green eyes.

Not only that, but in the depths of those eyes, a strange, intense light had ignited—a look that was almost… eager.

Celeste could feel the immense power from “Deep Cleaning” still coursing through her veins. She could feel the solid, reassuring presence of the protective Geo shield shimmering around her.

Looking at the dense tide of “new trash” surging toward her, a strange sense of responsibility rose unbidden.

‘Well, since the Deep Cleaning has started, I might as well mop the floor, too.’

This inexplicable excitement, no doubt led astray by the character’s ridiculous skill lines, felt strange even to her.

She let out a hot breath, the coppery tang of blood on her tongue, and raised the Favonius Greatsword once more.

The Geo energy swirling around the blade was no longer as dazzling, but it felt denser, heavier—a restrained power that was somehow even more menacing.

Her gaze swept calmly across the roaring goblin horde. In a tone as matter-of-fact as someone announcing the evening menu, she declared, “It seems the dust hasn’t been cleaned up yet.”