The Ruined Death Knight

While Shiro was undergoing Danzel's training on the basics of fighting against others, being through the ropes of necromancy and what dead mana is capable of in more detail.

Shiro was showing astonishing learning capabilities.

However, Danzel couldn't tell if Shiro was particularly talented in fighting or not, as he never really taught anyone else before her.

He was still surprised at how easy it was for Shiro to understand and implement new knowledge. By the fourth day, she managed to form a small amount of miasma around her hands without actually harming herself with decay.

Unlike dead mana, which miasma was extremely closely related to. It was extremely difficult for someone of the living to manifest.

Essentially the life force of the living together with their 'living' mana was tempering with the miasma.

Although her miasma only lasted at best a few seconds, that alone was praiseworthy if one considers that it hasn't been long since she delved into the arts of necromancy. Proving that if given the time, Shiro could become a necromancer worthy of dread.

Alas, Danzel could only see Shiro as a brat, trying to be something that she wasn't.

Despite that, Danzel approved of her training.

***

Shiro was busily training with Danzel, studying the language of the fox people with the help of Alka, while also studying together with the five Anabast.

The village of Vashara wasn't willing to fall behind in effort compared to Shiro.

Or rather, they couldn't.

With the addition of the former slaves that Danzel bought in the village, housing was one of the smaller issues that came with so many people living in the same area.

Everyone was feeling uneasy about the future, which put them on the edge.

Disputes and disagreements among groups were a common occurrence in Vashara. Though after a certain event with Talon making an example out of those who resulted in violence, every dispute was more in the form of only barks with no biting.

Which tenses the whole situation more than it was before.

The undead walking out of the "streets" without seeming care didn't help with calming the nerves of the fox people.

And with no one willing to go and complain about what they thought was a primordial god of death, they sought the best next thing.

Namely being the priestess with the wooden mask and Shin'Yen.

However, that was only for the original villagers of Vashara and not actually the enslaved but now free fox people. As they had their own groups and respectively, their own leaders.

Alas...

Without much notice, all four of their respective leader received a divine mission from the oldest primordial to suddenly move out together with the cursed ones.

Unknown if they will ever come back or not.

And if they do, wherever they will be among the living or the walking dead.

***

At the same time where the uneasiness of the people of Vashara was growing by the day.

In a place far away from there, the marching of a group of undead was to be seen through a valley, their flickering ethereal eyes in the form of flames gazed upon the path in front of them.

But not all of their group were among the undead.

Mainly 4 fox people, exerting an invisible aura of strength walked in front of the group of undead, their strength far superior compared to the undead among them.

Of course, they were the respective leaders among the people who swore their loyalty towards the creator and master of the undead walking among them.

Suddenly, the one man with two golden tails looked to one undead who compared to the others, had a halberd with runes carved into the cold metal.

"Hey, it has been days since we departed from the village...how long till we reach our destination?" He said with a cold voice, which was returned by a cold stare of the undead.

"Speak with more respect towards the creations of the primordial, Gilgamash." The fox woman with black and white hair said, looking at the man with a golden tail with a harsh look.

"Don't mention my name so lightly, woman-"

Before Gilgamash could finish, an inch of killing intent washed toward him.

The source of it came from the man whose hands were covered by bones, making his fingers natural claws that could tear through metal easily.

"Continue and I will have your jaw ripped off." The man's eyelids stretched to that of a beast, making Gilgamash shut up.

"Tch! You think I am scared of any of you!? Kuroshi, Herlin?" He spoke, slowly flexing the muscles of his hands.

Though before the situation could turn worse, a delicate hand was placed on Gilgamash's shoulder.

Making the man turn his gaze towards the many-tailed fox who gazed at the undead beside him.

"...I know." Gilgamash said while looking to the side.

Nodding at the man, the woman stared at the clawed Herlin.

"Though the way he said it could be fixed, I agree with his worry about how far our destination is. As we speak now, the others back home will have it difficult without us present. I think it is only fair to know so that we can better "fulfill" the primordials quest." Sernatta said, ending her sentence while looking at the undead with the halberd that was observing the whole situation from the side.

"According to our master's will, our destination should be visible after that turn. There we shall meet with the mistress guards and the rest of us." The undead said with a cold voice, without further continuing.

"I see, thats great." Sernatta said with a smile on her face.

Though her eyes looked no less cold than those of the undead.

And soon enough as promised, after making a turn, they saw a huge area that looked like a settlement from far away.

Instead of feeling relief thought of finally arriving at their destination and meeting up with the two "guards" and the rest of the undead.

What they saw was nothing but a graveyard, with the snow spread through the settlement being tainted with blood and corpses of trolls and undead alike.

The settlement itself was broken down, with no undead in sight to be seen.

"This is..."

"Hunters arrived before us," Herlin said before the undead could finish, the bones extending slightly, making his claws slightly sharper.

Without saying anything else, he dashes forward, with the Sernatta, Kuroshi, and Gilgamash following right behind them

The Draugr with the halberd stared silently at the 4 and then at the many corpses before following after them with the rest of the undead.

For someone of the 3rd tier, it didn't take long for the 4 of them to arrive at the center of the settlement.

Going to the ground, Gilgamash crouched down and touched the blood of one of the ice troll corpses.

"A few hours...at best half a day since the death of those bastards." He said while eyeing a few corpses in particular with a frown.

Few had their waist separated from their body and their arms cut off.

Recognizing that each cut was made by a single swing.

While other corpses had parts where their skin blackened, and thinned.

"Let's search the area first." Kuroshi said with the others nodding.

Despite nodding though, Sernatta stayed behind and looked at the undead with the halberd.

The other undead were similar looking through the settlement.

"That was the group that we were supposed to meet with, right?" She asked, making the Draugr nod at her question.

"...Yes." The Draugr said with a cold voice of doubt.

"So our trip was pointless...do return back?"

The undead stood unmoving before shaking his head.

"No, the will of our master is still within me, unless we find the bodies of the mistress guards...we will stay here and wait till they return."

Hearing that, Sernatta frowned.

"And how do we know that the White Life's guards will return or not? For all that we know, they could have been destroyed." She said before adding.

"Would it be possible to contact the primordial, your master and confirm their continued existence?"

The draugr turned and looked at her with his flaring eyes intensely.

"The distance is too far for us to hear his will, but his will itself is everlasting. And his will towards the two mistress guards was to guard this place. Unless they have been really destroyed, they will return, without a doubt."

"And if they were really vanquished by those insignificant mortals, I will know. My master gave me a way to prove his will..."

"I see, then I guess we have to wait for them to return." She said with a smile while thinking...

'So they can't communicate without an item, those cursed must really be puppets made out of magic...'

Before she could finish her thoughts, she suddenly heard Kuroshi yelling.

"You three! Come here and see this!"

Dashing towards her location thinking of a hunter or undead to be alive.

What they met made them freeze despite being a corpse like the many others.

Alas, the corpse they saw was of a fox woman with ice covering her body.