The Ruined Death Knight

Few minutes after Danzel left the building, in front of the path of the door.

Blood coming out of the corpses of a headless man and another who had large cuts going through his chest and head filled the floor that was currently in the process of drying.

Usually, such an amount of blood would take approximately 60 minutes to harden up.

But because of the poisonous gas that was fused with dead mana beforehand, it spend up such processes.

The most terrifying sight though was the legering of more than twenty corpses halfway.

Worst off, among the pile of the corpses. A disfigured figure with blood covering him from top to bottom crawled to the ground. That figure held a clear resemblance among all the other corpses lying unmoving to the ground.

The only way to disguise that figure with the others was through the fact that Life Force was running through his body, if only slightly.

That man wasn´t one of the dead.

"D-Dammit...it hurts..." Gnashing his teeth while tears run through his face.

"I-I didn´t sign up for this!" Mikel screamed as he crawled out of the pile of the corpse.

Not much time had passed where he and the others were talking about picking up some nice girls. But not long after they were surprised by the powerful undead that he was assigned to look after and protect.

That´s right, Mikel applied to this job thinking that they had to make sure that none harms that undead or him escaping.

He never thought that he would be attacked by the undead, less with a horde of zombies behind him!

If it weren´t for the technique he learned of how to utilize his life force to regenerate his vitality, he would end up like the other guard thrown in the pile of corpses.

Alas, that technique only recovered his vitality and not his actually wounds.

It was more of a skill to recover one\'s stamina and hunger.

A useless skill that was mainly supposed to be used to be able to train for a prolonged time.

So the bite marks with multiple places that his body showed signs of necrosis didn´t recover.

Making the current pain he was feeling simple immeasurable for a normal man to handle.

Only a person like Mikel who was a 3rd-tier being could manage to kill all those zombies while critically wounded by the undead air blade.

"Cough~Cough!" Coughing blood out of his mouth, a wave of weakness befall him.

But while amid despair, his eyes landed on the communication crystal that Edward had dropped a few meters away from him and the feeling of hope started to appear in his heart.

"I-I got to report it..!" 

"To Hanson...!" 

"A-And call help...!"

As a trail of blood was being made to where he crawled and his tears running no stop, Mikel trapped and activated the communication crystal.

"Cough~Cough, Please...!"

The waiting for Hanson to pick up his own crystal was for Mikel torturous.

Each second felt like an eternity to him.

"Please...!"

And as if his prayers were heard, a voice came out of the crystal.

"Yes? Who am I speaking to?"

"S-Sir! The undead! He killed everyone! Only I! Only I survived! I beg you, Sir! I can\'t feel my legs anymore and I am heavily bleeding. I need help otherwise I-!"

Without being able to finish his plea, the communication crystal light faded, hinting that the other party broke off the connection.

"W-What!? No! It can\'t be! You can\'t do this!" 

Mikel saw that as his death sentence.

Different feelings flew through him.

Anger.

Despair.

But the strongest among those feelings was grieve.

"Cough~Cough! Please...someone...." 

With the poisonous gas doing his job, Mikel could only stay there with tears on his face.

Waiting slowly for his death.

***

At the same time in the training grounds.

"-The undead! He killed everyone! Only-" hearing those words alone, Hanson who imminently understood the situation.

\'So he finally decided to run...and here I thought he accept his fate.\'

Although Hanson was looking calm from the outside. That wasn\'t the same on his inside.

*Crack.

Clenching the crystal to uncontrollably cause his anger, the communication between his subordinates closed.

"You three! The training of today is canceled!"

"But-" As Kayn wanted to ask why a surge of mana came out of Hanson

\'Don\'t think you can escape me so easily.\'

Merging with the shadows, the shadows speed up with incurable speed out of the building.

Traveling among the highest building that there was nearby, Hanson looked down on the city with his sharp eyes.

"Go..."

The next moment, tens if not hundreds of different shadows spread through the capital towards every corner that there was.

From market places to inside the shops.

For Hanson.

The eyes of the shadows were no different than his own.

And not shorter than a minute, Hanson frowned.

"He isn\'t inside....did he already leave." 

Commanding a few of his shadows to scale the walls of the capital and the other still looking around.

A particular shadow that was on top of the wall halted as it stares far through the distance.

Among people, from normal to the 3rd-tier.

Staring in the same direction was nothing to see.

But the shadow.

No.

Hanson who was starting there could see a small figure with a familiar armor running at incredible speeds.

"Found you..."

Recalling all the shadows back at him, he himself became a shadow and chased after that figure he just saw through the distance.

***

"I am should be closing in the forest if I remember right"

Running a tops speed, Danzel was holding his grin back.

\'To think it was so easy...\' 

Although he somewhat expected to demolish the guards on his own.

He had to say that his early [Gale Mana Blade] was an extreme success!

He expected the guards to either dodge it or at least block the wind blade.

But them getting hit by it was never written in his plan!

"Maybe I gave them too much credit..."

Thanks to that, he managed to save valuable seconds by letting his zombie finish off the two critically wounded.

\'Now I understand why the [Rune of Force] was so popular among Hanson\'s clients... That thing is crazy good!\'

Entering the forest, Danzel wanted almost to pat himself on the shoulder.

This went really well!

"Good thing that I didn\'t use the [Rune of Skal\'Spear] to turn the corpses into ghouls. Although they are much stronger and would only target the living. The fact that I can\'t control them would have messed up the surprise attack"

Opening the door and breaking the glass of the poison-filled gas contained couldn\'t be done by the ghouls.

Danzel relying on [Raise Undead] was the correct choice.

\'Maybe I should even try the plan much sooner instead of waiting for so long.

Although he wouldn\'t have so many stats and not even the map.

Danzel guessed he could do his escape much sooner.

\'I don\'t regret it. It\'s better being safe than sorry.\'

"After I get out of this forest I can continue going much further away, beyond those two kingdoms reaches.

 Although he was quite deep into the Arcana kingdom territory.

With his speed and unlimited stamina, getting out of here wouldn\'t take him long.

"As what I do after that..." Danzel said uncertainly.

As all his time his mind was focused on escaping the Unions, grasp. Other than the plan alone he didn\'t think much of his future.

\'I got enough time anyway...taking it slow shouldn\'t be that bad.\'

Thinking of what bright future was awaiting him while running.

As he run past one of the trees, a shadowy hand reached out to grab him.

Nevertheless, although Danzel was making plans for the future.

The wariness of his surroundings was never lost.

Drawing his sword out of his sheath, he cut the hand together with the body of this shadow I to three pieces.

"Hanson..." Danzel said with his cold voice.

The shadow who was cut into pieces looked at Danzels mask.

"Weird..." 

Falling apart, many more shadows started appearing from left and right, dashing towards Danzel.

"I should even know that it wasn\'t going to be that easy..."

Branding his sword at the shadows, he started taking at the shadows.

"You... Are much faster..." Echoes of the same voice came from the shadows.

Although the shadows had created numbers, Danzel knew.

The more the less powerful they are.

"And you are much slower, Hanson," Danzel said with his cold voice.

\'I got get out of the forest...fighting here brings me only in disadvantage\'

With the trees casting shadows to the ground, even if the shadows were weak.

Their number together with their unpredictable nature of coming out of the shadows was even for Danzel annoying to deal with.

Without hesitating, Danzel brought out a sharp dagger from his storage ring.

And the next moment, he pierced his own chest plate In the middle.

"What are you-"

The next moment, an explosion of poisonous gas came out of Danzels armor, creating a practical deadly smoke screen.

Using [Swift Movements], Danzel run out of the smokescreen and went outside the forest.

Sooner after, the shadows merged to the ground and followed him after.

Just before the shadow could reach him, Danzel managed to go out of the forest.

Taking a few steps more outside of the forest, Danzel turned around and brought out his shield while taking a stance facing the forest.

"..."

And then there was silence.

With only wildlife to be heard if one paid attention.

But what Danzel was paying his attention to was a man coming out of the shadows of the forest.

"Got to applaud you, with the flat ground where you are. Concealing my shadows in wouldn\'t be possible.." Hanson who wore his dark gauntlets said yo Danzel.