The Ruined Death Knight

Not only did the ice spread aiming from his torso, but it only expanded.

Exerting strength in his leg, Danzel broke the ice and step forward, only for the ice to spread to accelerate to the ground.

Every time he manages to break through the ice, the area he damaged will grow twice as fast as before. Like a bacteria that grew more the more you hurt it.

"It's useless. This kind of ice will continue to grow stronger till the target has been fully engulfed. Unless you cut the frozen part or meet your death, they are no other ways of removing my spell."

"You!!!" Raising his sword and swinging it towards the Archmage, the 3 [Soul Reaping Wind]'s were shot.

Alas, with Nevvan's layers barrier, the result was the same as before.

"Do think that I have to deal with the likes of you stubborn people. Just wait to become an ice sculpture for me to break." He said with a hint of arrogance.

Further fueling Danzel's hatred towards him.

"Do you really think that some mere ice can stop me? Once I am out, I will raise my sword, pierce through heart, torture you mortal soul and raise your body as the lowest of the undead." Danzel said, his voice filled with spite.

Each step brought him closer to Nevvan, but at the same time strengthen the ice, making each of his movements much harder to execute.

And after a few seconds, Danzel found himself unable to move his legs as the ice in his feet broke his bones.

Looking down, Danzel stared at how the ice spread his torso and made its way towards his head.

"For someone that still hasn't reached the 4th-tier, I have to say that you did better than most people of your strength."

Stroking his long beard before caressing his throat, a frown showed up on his aged face.

"At least you were capable of reaching me and harming me. That spell of yours contained mana that I have never seen before. I notice the traits of death and life in your mana aptitude, a rare combination, but not unheard of. But this kind of magic...care to tell me what you call it before you freeze?" Nevvan said as he stopped a few meters away from Danzel.

"Heed my words, the one who is going to claim you're pathetic life, will be me." Danzel said as his hands started freezing, the ice in his chest already expanding.

"Remember my words, I will never forget what you have ever done to me"

As the ice was creeping into his helmet, a sudden wave of bloodlust was spread, so strong that surprised Nevvan and made the other nearby people peek anxious and glanced at the dark knight.

"You hear me! I will kill you! MAGIC CASTER!!!~"

He yelled before being engulfed in a block of ice.

Nevvan in turn silently stared at him.

The last shout of Danzel made Nevvan frown.

Not because he felt threatened, but because those words and this killing intent felt familiar.

"Mhm, maybe the years are catching up with me. I better go and help the others now."

Tapping his staff to the ground, the block of ice that engulfed Danzel showed some cracks which continuously began to increase, albeit slowly.

"Crumple and take that grudge with you." Nevvan said as he waited for the block of ice to grumble together with the frozen dark knight.

But at this exact moment, something unusual happend.

The ice suddenly became much darker and from all the cracks bits of dead mana came out as if the ice was preventing an explosion from going outwards.

Making Nevvan frown.

And the exact thing happend 3 seconds after, with the quality of death mana being much greater than before. Resulting in the cracks becoming much bigger.

"Is he actually..." Nevvan mumbled, his staff mana letting out mana.

And after another 3 seconds, the cracks lighten in dark light before an explosion of dead mana broke the ice into bits letting the wrathful dark knight out of its prison.

Stepping out of the ice, Danzel dashed towards Nevvan with his sword raised up.

But before Nevvan could cast his magic and Danzel swing his sword, the dark knight fell to his knees before collapsing to the ground, laying completely motionless.

Seeing that, Nevvan couldn't help but get surprised.

"It seems like I underestimated you, but even after breaking through, death decided to claim you. Quite ironic for a disgusting necromancer like you." He said while casting a spell to confirm if the dark knight was dead or not.

"Hmm, it seems like he has some kind of item that resistance information search type spells. But even then, he is undoubtedly dead."

Walking past the corpse of the dark knight, raised his staff, casting a silent spell. Which created several mirrors of ice, all of them showing a different image of this battlefield.

After eliminating the useless ones, he let 4 remain.

One of them, show a distorted image that didn't make any sense.

"Hmm, someone is tempering with the spell." He mumbled as he gazed at the other 3.

1 of them was an image of looking down the sky, gazing upon the whole battlefield, while the other 2 were of two powerful beings.

One of them was a white-haired woman standing in front of a burned-to-the-crisp mutant with a tail while the other was a huge troll that cleaved through the soldiers of Arcana with ease.

"The Immortal Juggernaut and the Blacken Maiden, huh? Meaning that the member of Deathfull Skulls is participating here...I guess retreat is unavoidable." He said while stroking his beard.

"Not before you die."

An ice-cold voice came from behind him.

Making the Archmage turn around while channeling mana into his staff.

The cursed sword of Danzel was swung down to his neck.

Unfortunately, a multilayered barrier appeared before the cursed blade managed to greet Nevvan's flesh.

Though the swing of his sword managed to break one of the transparent layers while cracking the last one slightly.

Using his [Shield Charge], he bashed the second layer, absorbing all the force of his attack before breaking.

Following up by thrusting his sword, piercing the layer, and stopping halfway through.

Nevvan, in turn, stepped back in, and using his free hand, he generated a huge ice spear in a blink of an eye before sending it flying and penetrating Danzel's chest, all that while he cast his teleportation spell.

Distancing himself from the revived dark knight.

"This bastard! I was sure that he died." Nevvan cursed as he looked at the spear penetrating the dark knight's chest having no effect.

'That confirms my suspicion. He neither bleeds nor feels any pain. Most likely an undead...a Wight maybe? He could also be a Bane Walker considering his unique mana aptitude.'

'Still, someone of the 3rd-tier managed to actually break through [Shards of Primary Protection]? Also, the fact that he came back after dying is worrying some.'

Danzel in turn cursed internally of missing his only winning chance.

If this surprise attack didn't manage to cut it, then nothing else would.

'If only I had an instant damaging skill just like [Grasp of the Undying], I could still cling into the hope to win, but now I am too weak to face him'

The Archmage gave him many chances to turn the fight around because he looked down on him. But he doubted that he would the same mistake twice.

Even getting close was hopeless as the barrier was too strong for him to break with the addition of his teleportation magic.

'For now, I should retreat and call it a win from the information I gained. Just knowing that the spell [Shards of Primary Protection] breaks after one attack of whoever its power scale, his dark ice, and the curse purging light is enough.'

All his reasons told him to run, but the hatred plaguing his mind tried, again and again, to convince him to fight to the death and kill the source of his hatred.

Making him lose precision seconds that Nevvan wasn't going to miss.

Teleporting to the air and generating a winter storm through the surroundings and creates several ice spears. He went and let loose the rain of ice spears upon Danzel.

Pushing his hatred to the side forcefully, he dashed away from the winter storm while blocking and slashing the ice spears and he almost succeded if it wasn't for a huge and sturdy ice wall blocking his path.

Having no other choice, he stood his ground while watching carefully to dodge any ice spears that had dark ice. He was even willing to let a few of the normal ones pierce his armor.

And his caution did income come to show its fruit as he watched how a dark ice spear was coming directly towards him.

Knowing the effects of the dark ice, Danzel dodged to the side and let the dark ice spear pierce the ground behind him.

Alas, he should have been much more cautious against someone who reached the 4th-tier.

The dark ice spear in question suddenly began growing towards Danzel in the form of a hand.

Being pressured by the rain of ice spears, Danzel, albeit noticed the growth of the dark ice, he noticed too late.

The dark ice barely touched Danzel's gauntlet, before breaking.

But even this slightest touch was enough of Danzel to act swiftly.

He stored his shield in his storage ring and swiftly cut off his own arm once the rain of spears stopped and he judged the spread was about to reach his shoulder.

*Ting!

With his whole left arm falling off to the ground, revealing how hollow it was, Nevvan came down from the air.

"A filthy undead, as expected."