The Ruined Death Knight

*Shiiiin!!!~

With a air shrieking sound, the two runed blades closed in Shiro's head.

Intense killing intent supporting each blade.

*Sniff~

As the swords were about to meet the crying Shiro, Danzel's eyes flared up at the last moment and shifted his grip.

*Wrooguhhh!

His swing generated a big wave of wind, pushing the snow up into the air, as well as Shiro's snow-white hair.

As the snow fell down to the ground, two large clean cuts revealed at the ground in an "X" shape just above Shiro's head.

"..."

Staring at Shiro in silence, Danzed raised the foot that was stepping on her shoulder and moved a few steps back.

Putting the Overseer's swords back into its sheath, Danzel looked at Shiro coldly.

"Although evading me was impossible in the first place, you should have attempted to distance yourself, despite how futile such an attempt it would have been. Any fighter, despite how stupid, would try to close the distance between magic casters. Where they have the advantage."

"And speaking from my own experience, circle magic isn't to be relied on as it's too obvious and takes too long to prepare. Making it unsuited for combat without a distraction. Even if the spell is more powerful, you should always consider the distance and the time that you will be sacrificing in pulling such a spell." Danzel said as Shiro started to roll up and touch her shoulder which he stepped.

"...Such distraction could be in different forms, one of them being summoning elementals or through the use of necromancy summoning undead minions. I personally would recommend the latter for their permanence and numbers. But even then, you would need at least a spell which will let you move through the battlefield."

"That's the reason why I told you to learn the "Fly" spell for starters. Staying in one place is asking yourself to be killed after all. And barriers won't help, they can be broken and are truly just a temporary measure, that chaos spell that you even used could also be used defensively, if used we'll at least..."

*Sniff~

Looking at Shiro who was kneeling with her back face at him and crying, Danzel looked at her in silence.

That lasted only a few seconds before Danzel mentally frowned at her.

Slowly raising his hand, an ethereal skeletal hand came out of his hand, invisible to everyone except him.

Staring at her with his cold ethereal eyes, he was about to use [Grasp of the Undying] on her.

But as he stared at the bone mask that he had made for her, his hand movement suddenly stopped as he noticed her tear-filled eyes behind that mask were staring not at him, but at his ethereal skeletal hand.

His ethereal dark green eyes flared up and he froze for a split of a moment.

At that same moment, Shiro turned her body, showing the hand that she was hiding under her towards Danzel.

And in almost an instant her mana gathered around her hand, turning into an exploding wave of wind at Danzel.

Alas, it was too weak to affect a death knight, it only resulted in a handful of snow to be thrown on his mouth and flaring eyes.

But the true intent of the spell wasn't to throw Danzel back.

No, it was the opposite.

It was to push the caster away.

The wave of wind aimed at the ground, resulting in pushing Shiro away from Danzel.

*Puuff! Pufff! Pufff!

Rolling to the ground from the result of her spell a few times, Shiro grits her teeth and uses the hand that she was injured to touch the ground, creating another wave of wind to hit her.

Resulting in it catapulting herself up into the air.

And despite feeling disoriented and in pain, her head swung towards the direction of the mountain, her eyes locked into where her staff was lying.

"Come!"

Opening her arm, a hand made out of mana materialized where the staff was, and picked it up before flying at high speed towards its owner. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝐞𝐥.𝐜𝗼𝗺

*Ting~!

With the metal rings of the staff ringing upon touching the staff, Shiro looked at fast approaching ground.

Pointing her hand to the ground, she swiftly gathered her mana around her.

"[Fly]!"

And she was about to crash into the ground, her mana supported her body and liberated any weight that held her done, making her float only a meter above the ground.

However, that lasted only for a moment, as the spell around broke done not a moment before it was cast, making Shiro fall to the snow.

But despite falling, her eyes were locked on where Danzel with her staff aimed at him.

Her eyes behind her bone fox mask lighten with intense mana

And Danzel stared and smiled from amusement.

"That's more like it." He said, with his death aura once again building up around his body.

Creating an invisible pressure around him.

"Now, let's try again-"

He suddenly halted what he was about to say and swung his head towards the direction of where the the 3rd-tier fox people had gone.

Staring aimlessly towards the direction, he lowered his sword.

"The link...is gone?" He mumbled while emitting an ominous yet intense aura around himself.

As for Shiro, she still kept her spell ready and aimed at him, but the sudden change of his aura filled her with a feeling of an approaching dread, while the speed that Danzel showed her with [Phantom Phase] surprised her.

In fact, it terrified her as she couldn't keep her eyes on him till the dark mist reformed the death knight.

But despite her fears, the moment she perceived where he was, he shifted her aim toward his location.

Which in turn made Danzel refocus on her.

"...I guess something easier would be more appropriate for a lesson." He said with a cold voice.

Sheathing his sword back into its scabbard, Danzel extended his right hand.

And in the next moment, the book that Velkir had given him, the one that contained information about necromancy appeared in his hand.

Using his knowledge of magic, the wind from his surroundings was overtaken by his will. Opening the book and flipping its pages with the help of the wind.

Stopping at a specific page.

Gazing at the page with his ethereal dark green eyes, dead mana started coming out of his body and turning into miasma.

The dark mist that was the miasma started to spread.

And slowly but surely traveling towards Shiro.

"Upon my will I call thee to serve. Upon my knowledge of the arcane I create thee-"

His voice has turned into echoes that even if you had covered your ears, would still be heard clearly.

Shiro was fascinated by how his voice entered her head without the use of sound amplification magic or wind magic. However, her focus lay more towards the miasma, trying her best to understand it.

And as she observed, she suddenly felt a wave of killing intent from the miasma.

With the intent slowly growing stronger the closer Danzel cast came to its conclusion.

"As an acolyte of-"

Before Danzel finished the cast of the spell, he halted his action and his ethereal eyes flared up as he decided to change the cast lyrics on his own.

"As an entity of death, I command you!" He closed the book, thus finishing the spell.

Upon the completion of the spell, the miasma suddenly started to shrink, or rather.

Starter to get sucked in by itself in several locations within.

At each location, white bones started to manifest before turning into different types of skeleton beings.

From skeleton hounds to human skeletons with claws or spikes replacing their hand.

Despite each of them being different, each of them was built with a weapon of some kind infused with their own body.

The only thing that they had in common was the dark green ethereal flames serving as their eyes.

Looking down upon his creation of over 50 different skeletons, he opened his mouth and gave their first command.

"Kill her."

With his command, the skeletons who were aimlessly looking to the ground, all simultaneously flinched and shot up their heads towards the sky and let out a howl, spreading their intentions to the surroundings.

"Gwaaaaaghghgghh!"

"Gwsaggghgh!"

"Whaghhhht!"

*Gulp.

Seeing all those undead and the cold command of Danzel, cold sweat runs through Shiro's back.

But despite fear building up in her, she still glanced at her staff, preparing to fight against the undead for her life.

Unknowingly to her Danzel's vocal command wasn't the same as his mental command to his undead.

Which forbids them from killing her and only allows them to injure her to some extent.

Alas, Shiro couldn't possibly know that as the skeletons trashed and pulled their bodies towards her, screaming with resentment.

As for Danzel, he looked upon his creations before gazing in the direction where he started losing the mental link with other creations of his.

"..."

****

At the same time...

In a cavern where his walls and floor were made out of some kind of ice which lightened up the cavern with its magical light, a troll with a hood and several bone accessories was looking upwards with its eyes closed.

Second later, the troll opened its eyes, which for a second were completely white before regaining its pupil.

"Gghh...useless bunch." The troll grunted in annoyance.

Raising up from his kneeling position, his eyes glowed with mana.

Extending his hand, a flowless hole started to form through the floor made out of magical ice. And from that hole, an ominous staff with dark ice floated toward the troll's hand. Resulting in the ice to come back together.

Completely erasing the forming of the hole.

Walking out of the cavern, another troll who waited outside flinched upon feeling the gaze of the staff-wielding troll.

"Great Shamac! Do you have any needs that need to be fulfilled? I, Shararack, shall do my best to fulfill them." The troll boasted his chest while holding his axe with much more vigor.

The troll holding the title of Great Shamac gazed at the troll guard with a cold gaze and briefly with disdain before shifting his attention toward the path in front of him.

"Follow me."

"Yes!"

The two trolls walked in silence as they navigated through different pathways.

Before finally ending up on a pathway with a door made out of ice.

Recognizing the door, Shararack frowned.

"Great Shamac...why have we come here?"

The Great Shamac touched the ice door with his staff. Which resulted in the dark ice lighting up, making the ice door open, revealing a horrendous smell of waste and blood mixed with low cries of pain.

The source of all that was several fox people of different tribes that had each of their four limbs frozen inside the wall, letting them suffer from their own weight. Making their hands and legs bleed.

All that while suffering through the cold of the whole room.

Despite fox people being especially resistant to the cold, with only rags barely covering their private parts, it was freezing cold.

Alas, worst of all, what made each of them shutter nonstop was the dark ice that was infused in their flesh at the chest.

"Bgeh! Stink!" Shararack said while holding his nose with his hand, gazing at the fox people as if they were the ancestors of all trash.

"I even came to make use of those things. As the hunting party that I sended has perished..." The Great Shamac said, looking at the fox people with the same disdain that he gazed at Shararack a moment ago.

"W-What!? A hunting party perished!? Was it from the thousand-one!?" Shararack yelled in shock, fearing the answer to his own question.

"No, it wasn't the screaming one, but mere pretenders. Nothing but a cursed husk." The Great Shamac answered, his voice growing angrier as he continued.

"Those stupid fools, I sent them to clean up the mess, but they only turned out to make more mess for me to clean up!" The Great Shamac halted his outrage, calming himself down as he looked at the fox people who looked at him with fear.

"I would have gone and cleaned up the mess myself if it weren't for the orders of the chief. Alas, preparations of the great hunt are underway..."

The Great Shamac went silent as he stared at Shararack ominously.

"Shararack, would you be interested in clearing the mess that you brothers failed to achieve? A deed worth mentioning to the chief."

Hearing those words, Shararack eyes lightened up and he smiled, revealing his sharp teeth while at it.

"I! Shararack! am willing!" He boasted with confidence.

Knowing that this mission will remove him from the hunt against the thousand screaming ones while also adding to his contributions.

Seeing that sight, the Great Shamac nodded.

"Good, I will send a few other of you brothers to participate in clearing those cursed husks out of those lands. And with them...I will give you those hunting wolves to you." The Great Shamac said while pointing his staff towards the fox people.

"Them?" Shararack tilted his head in confusion, gazing at them with disgust.

Answering his question with actions, the dark ice of the Great Shamac's staff glowed in an ominous light.

Which triggered a similar response to all the dark ice infused on the fox people.

With an ominous glow appearing, the ice started spreading into their flesh.

Both internally and externally, resulting in a constant mind-boggling pain. Alas, that wasn't the end of it.

As within pain came change.

The fox people's nails started becoming longer, slowly turning into sharp enough to challenge a steel blade. All the while fur started to appear around their body.

The females of the fox people had their muscles become sturdier and more flexible, with few even growing another tail while the males had their muscles develop similarly, only gaining more additional muscle mass compared to the female, with their hair growing much more than the female.

Though most had a similar transformation, with few having a bit more or less in some areas of development, the only thing that matched with all of them was their eye and overall aura becoming feral like that of a starving beast.

Not only that, but the mana inside their bodies steered, giving them an incredible amount of strength, making them slowly start cracking the ice that they were trapped in.

"Yes, them." The Great Shamac said as he tapped his dark ice staff into the ground, making the ice trapping each of them drawn back, making them fall to the ground.

But before they could hit the ground, despite all the pain their legs and hands were.

They caught themselves before meeting the ground in a posture similar to that of cats

"Follow him and my guidance, beasts. And destroy the enemies of "My" tribe." He said while making the dark ice in their chest glow and grow.

Resulting in everyone howling with their aura weighting the air around them.

*Kwaaaaogghhhh!!!!

*Wragggggghhh!!!

*Kreeeghhhhahhhh!!!!

Shararack gulped nervously from their aura before grinning to himself.

"Follow me, you scums!!! We depart immediately!" He said in excitement before leaving the Great Shamac behind and running off to fulfill the mission.

All in one motion, the fox people shot their heads up toward the running troll and dashed with incredible speed, clawing and cracking the ice floor beneath them depending on who walked in their fours or just their two legs.

The Great Shamac simply observed the whole thing with a cold gaze and was about to walk off the room before he heard a clawing sound from behind him.

Turning around, there was a lone fox woman laying on the floor, one hand digging inside the ice while the other at the dark ice in their chest, grinding her teeth in pain.

"Weird..." The Great Shamac with a frown on his face.

Pointing slightly his staff at her, the glow on the dark ice intensified, making her yelp in pain.

Alas, she still stayed on the floor.

"Arise." The Great Shamac said, taking a step forward, making the dark ice to spread further.

"Follow my command." and further.

"Follow my will." and much further.

To the point, the dark ice slowly started to penetrate her lungs.

Which made her grind her teeth to the pain they started cracking and bleeding.

Stopping right in front of the kneeling fox woman, the Great Shamac looked at her with disgust.

"You..."

But the woman, despite in pain and fear, she raised her head at him.

And smiled.

"Eat shit and died! You oversized piece of meatball bastard!"

"..."

In response to her words, the Great Shamac raised his staff on top of her head.

"I don't need an insubordinate beast in my tribe."

Grabbing his staff with great strength, he pushed it down at her head.

*Crack-!

Resulting in a cracking sound to echo through the ice paths.