The Ruined Death Knight

Going back to when Velkir began the ritual for transforming Skull Claw into a [Death Hound], it was at that moment when several images started to show up in his mind and form a vision.

`Let´s see if your talent comes from your mortal owner or the undead Rue Danzel.´ Velkir thought as he felt a part of his consciousness getting in the vision.

****

With a spark of dark gray light appearing in the middle of a forest, the light suddenly expanded and formed into a dark-skinned figure wearing a brown robe with some ragged bandages covering his mouth with a tattoed bold head.

Watched his surrounding with a pair of his eyes that were completely white as if the man was suffering from monocular vision.

"A forest, huh? Considering where Danzel first appeared as a runesmith...this place must be on the territory of the Kingdom of Berum..." Velkir mumbled to himself.

As he was trying to figure out where this place was, Velkir's attention was shortly after interrupted by the sound of metal clashing.

*Ting! Ting! Tign!

Being drawn towards the noise, Velkir turned around, only to see a battle against men and a horde of skeletons.

"Crush the undead!" Soldiers yelled their battle cries while destroying the Skeletons in front of them.

"For the sake of our city and our kingdom! Don´t falter against the undead![FireBolt]!" The commander yelled on top of his horse while weaving his staff and setting the Skeletons ablaze.

Watching over the whole fight as a spectator of this vision, Velkir quickly lost interest in the whole battle as none one showed great power. Except for the few 2nd-tier soldiers that barely reached that tier and the commander casting his spell on a horse, all the others were of the 1st-tier.

`So weak. Guessing by their armor design, this happend not long ago. Should be around 80 years or a century when the Arcana and Berum war escalated. Based on their strength, the soldiers should be mid their training.´ Velkir thought as he looked at the skeletons with disdain.

"It seems like they are going to subject a necromancer, a low-level one at that seeing only skeletons."

Shaking his head, Velkir increased the power of the ritual so that he perceived who out of all those soldiers was the body of Danzel.

In the next moment, Velkir´s surroundings started to shift until he can be behind a certain soldier with a shield and a sword in his respective hand.

He wore the same armor and helmet as all the other soldiers, but that soldier was one of the few who barely reached the 2nd-tier.

"So this is..." Before Velkir could finish, the yell of the soldier interrupted him.

"Die! Undead!" He yelled as he brushed off the sword of the skeleton to the side while swinging his sword right towards its head.

*Crack!

"Kghha!" Yelling with its cold voice, the skeleton fell to the ground with half of its skull cracked open and slowly turning into dust.

Right after the Skeleton, the next skeleton came toward the soldier full of bloodlust.

It swung its sword to behead the soldier, but the soldier didn´t interrupt the skeleton's swing with his sword.

The two clashed a few times before just like the undead before, the soldier found a way to defend with his shield and penetrate the skull of the Skeleton.

"Haah~ how are the others doing?" The soldier said as he looked at his surroundings.

His colleagues just like him were all trainees in a sense where they all received the minimum training to fight. They were others like him who were a bit more talented than others and progressed much faster, but the fact that they weren´t that great of fighters was the truth.

For example, in the skeleton horde, although now destroyed, they were a few casualties here and there. One could say that Skeletons were among the weakest of undead that there was. Maybe if one didn´t count the slow-moving zombies, then such a title could be justified on the Skeletons.

Albeit they were generally weak, unlike the others, they didn´t hesitate to go for the killing blow, and their scary appearance brought fear to the weak-minded people, resulting in the Skeletons killing some of his colleagues.

"Haah~and we still have the necromancer to face..." The soldier with the shield was sighted.

Before he could even take another breather, the commander riding the horse yelled out loud.

"Soldiers! We continue our march towards the dungeon! If we falter now, the undead we fought today might be one of our loved ones! Let´s teach the necromancer what the people of Nexvarres can do!"

"Ohhhhhh~!

Shouting out in unison, the soldiers strengthen their grip on their swords and spears and continued marching towards the dungeon that was once a mine for mana crystals.

The skeletons they fought were none other than the miners of that mine and guards of that dungeon.

Though rare, the cave they were heading in would create small children-sized monsters with green skin which were extremely cowardly and aggressive depending on the situation.

They weren´t particularly strong, but guards were needed to protect the miners from those small, ugly creatures.

With them around, the dungeon could be hardly described as dangerous.

At least that was the case until a necromancer made his base in the dungeon.

The reason why a necromancer appeared there and made the cave its base was unknown to them.

Even if there was a reason behind the necromancer's decision, that didn´t matter.

As they were here to subject him.

"Hear me! Soldiers of Nexvarres!" The commander yelled as he stepped down from his horse and pointed his staff towards the cave entrance.

"Whatever abomination we see in there, we will not falter! We won´t falter against someone who plays with the dead! Brace yourself and follow me!" The commander yelled as he entered the cave with all the other soldiers following him right behind him.

They expected to see another horde of Skeletons or similar undead, but all they saw were bones laying on the ground and walls splatted with blood as if it was a painting.

The soldier with the shield and sword who was the owner of Danzel's body looked at this sight with a frown.

"Something feels off, why would a magic caster waste his time in doing something like that..." He mumbled to himself.

Velkir who was staring at the soldier, couldn´t help but chuckle to himself.

"Heh, that guy is sharp. But that still doesn´t explain Danzel's talent. Maybe I was wrong and he is..." Velkir said as he continued following right beside the soldier with the shield.

They walked a few minutes seeing nothing more than bone laying on the ground and blood splashed on the walls.

But as they reached near the stairway that would guide them to the second floor, the commander who was in the very front halted his steps.

"Every soldier! Halt your step! The enemy in front of us!"

The soldiers who heard that imminently became stiff and stared at the dark path in front of them, unable to see through the darkness.

Previously, the undeveloped mana crystals would lighten up the dungeon enough for others to navigate without needing a light source.

But now that all the mana crystals have been harvested, they had to use torches that didn´t provide that much light.

The commander could use his mana in his eyes to some extent to see through the darkness, but the others couldn´t.

"Tch- [Light Flare]!" Finishing his spells, a ball made out of light was shot to the ceiling of the room, illuminating the surroundings and enabling the soldiers to see the enemy in front of them.

"Huh? Those are the enemies?" One nearby soldier asked while looking at the lone two figures standing far away from them.

The other soldiers held a similar confusion, as it wasn´t what they expected.

They expected to see several other skeleton hordes before meeting the necromancer.

So seeing a figure wearing a dark robe that even covered his face who held a wooden staff with a black mana crystal with a lone skeleton beside him wearing armor, they couldn´t help but doubt that this was the necromancer.

His outfit screamed that he was an evil magic caster and the "undead knight" beside him also strengthened that idea.

But the idea of those two figures facing them with all their numbers seemed ridiculous.

The commander was also slightly confused by the enemy's decision.

"Evil magic caster! If you are surrounded now, I promise you a swift and painless death! If you don´t, then we from-"

"Be quiet, Human."

The Necromancer's voice echoed through the surroundings in echoes.

Watching from the sidelines, Velkir couldn´t help but grin to himself.

"I see, so that was the cause of your death, huh?"

While the soldiers and the commander alike were stunned by the deep and cold echoing voice of the necromancer.

The dark-robed figure raised his staff to the air and release a huge amount of dead mana to the ground.

In the next moment, the hidden bones that were covered with dirt connected with it each other and started to form into skeletons that were a bit smaller than humans but bigger than goblins, wielding respectively a sword.

Seeing that in a matter of a second, the enemy had created double their numbers, the soldiers couldn´t help but freak out.

"[Mass Enchant Undead]"

In another wave of dead mana being spread to all the undead, including the "undead knight", the aura of each undead changed together with their strength.

As soon as he finished and tapped his staff to the ground, two pairs of purple ethereal flames lighten up from the necromancer's face and showed his skull face.

Seeing that, the commander couldn´t help but take a step back and mumbled to himself terrified.

"...3rd-tier Undead, Lesser Lich."

The Lesser Lich in question with his pair of ethereal purple eyes looked at the humans disdainfully before turning towards the "undead knight" beside him.

"Use those soldiers to defeat those humans. Achieve that and as I promised, I will bring you into the 3rd-tier."

The "undead knight" nodded his head and pulled his sword slowly as he stepped in front of all the newly created undead.

"As you command."

Pointing his sword towards the human soldiers, with the same cold voice as before he continued.

"Magic caster." The "undead knight" said while revealing the pair of two ethereal blue eyes and shrouding his armor with dark mist.