The Ruined Death Knight

The flames conjured by Danzel, though weren't strong enough to burn M3-At skin with his enormous endurance, they were still enough to scorch his eyes and make the mutant blind.

"Gaaaaaghhh!" Screaming out of anger, the raised cleaver sword swung down like a guillotine, while several lights appeared at the cleaver, increasing its lethality.

The magic caster knew that now without his shield and his sword currently occupied, dodging the attack would be impossible at such close range. Bringing their focus to empowering the M3-AT attack instead of supporting him.

But Danzel planned ahead of time for this exact situation.

'Activate!' He thought internally, releasing the accumulated damage inside of himself towards the outside. Creating a shock wave from death energy all around him.

Once the shock wave made contact with M3-AT, the mutant felt as if a huge wall appeared and pushed him back. In fact, the force was so strong that it forcibly pushed the mutant back, and fall to the ground with few black spots on his body.

Such effect was only possible after withstanding the [Pyroblast] and the sea of flames outside the walls. Though thanks to his shield, he blocked most of both, the damage was enough to create a shock lethal enough to finish 2nd-tiers.

All the result of his [Armor of Vengeances] skill.

Not only did he damage his open, defended against an attack, and even created some distance. Danzel felt the pressure building up on him.

"I got to kill him now." He mumbled before dashing towards M3-AT.

He had used most of his trump cards already.

While [Armor of Vengeances] required him to take damage, [Mortal Reminder] had a certain cooldown. That was also the case with [Grasp of Undying], compared to [Mortal Reminder] though, it had a much shorter cooldown.

Making it the only skill that helped him control his enemies.

If M3-At manages to recover, the situation will quickly turn disadvantageous for him.

The magic caster in turn had to prevent him from doing exactly that.

Their win condition was M3-AT, and once he was dead, they would be forced to retreat.

As they specialized in light magic, their lethality was also limited. And since their strongest offensive tier 3 spell, [Pyroblast] didn't do much against the dark mist knight. Their options were limited.

"Quick! Halt his movements. I recover the subject!"

Pointing their staffs at Danzel, several magic circle appeared under Danzel and in front of him.

'I won't fall for the same trick.' Danzel said internally as he moved around the magic circle.

While all this was happening, his cursed sword was glowing in a dark green light.

His gaze landed on the one who commanded the magic casters, Danzel swung his sword three times while running. Releasing 3 [Soul Reaping Wind]'s at the magic caster.

Taking notice of that, he broke his focus on the healing spell and flew to the side to dodge the dark green air blades.

And at that moment, Danzel closed his hand, making an ethereal skeleton hand appear under the magic caster's foot and grabbing it.

Without being able to react, the magic caster was pulled down from the position he was in before.

A pain like any other appeared around his foot, but the magic caster didn't have the time to care for the pain.

"Tch! [Briliant Barrier]!"

Before being cut down by the air blades, a wall made of light appeared in front of him. Managing to block the first two [Soul Reaping Wind]'s. Though letting the final one break through the barrier and cutting his body.

"Aghhhh!" Screaming in pain, a large cut appeared through his chest, revealing a huge wound behind his cut robe.

But seeing that no XP notification appear in front of him, Danzel knew that this guy wasn't dead.

'It's good enough.'

Bringing out his shield and raising his sword, he started casting.

"[Innate Blood Absorbtion]."

A short crimson glow appeared in his cursed sword before disappearing once more.

Getting closer to M3-AT who was standing back and swinging his sword left and right randomly, Danzel crushed his chest by ramming him with his shield through the chest.

Even if its senses were great, while being under the influence of the [Mist Presence], he was practically invisible in front of a blind brute.

Moving behind him like an engrossing mist, Danzel raised his sword and slashed down while using [Heavy Strike].

Leaving a large cut on his back.

"Gaaah!"

The mutant swung his cleaver sword behind him, only to hit nothing but air.

Danzel next did the same, but this time swinging at his arm, completely severing it. Making the M3-AT cleaver fall to the ground.

"For someone who has a metal plate on his mouth, he screams too much." he said with a cold tone, before repeating the same thing on the other hand.

Making the mutant armless and rageful kicking around him.

Having enough of that nuisance, he finally drove the cursed sword into his Skull, making M3-AT freeze.

Danzel though quickly moved back and observed the mutant who froze in doubt.

And as expected, M3-At jumped in the direction where he was a moment ago with incredible force.

"I have dealt with enough of you to understand that even after death, you don't completely stop moving." Danzel said as he looked at the 4 magic casters who started fleeing the scene.

"So they decided to retreat, huh?" He mumbled as he forcefully deactivated [Sin of Wrath].

Before starting at his surroundings.

Though much further away than before, he could still see soldiers running to the back, something that surprised him.

'Have they decided to risk passing through Sartan that to stay and fight me?'

Having still hundred of people to kill, Danzel felt pressured.

But as he was about to dash forward, he suddenly heard voices coming from behind.

Taking a look back, he saw the army of Ioratal entering through the hole that Sartan created. And most who came first were of the 3rd-tier.

Seeing that, Danzel lowered his sword in regret.

'If this brute hadn't appeared, I might even reach the mission's requirement, but now it seems hopeless.'

"Disappointed, my discipline?" Velkir said after creeping through the shadows and raising up behind Danzel.

"..."

Moving in front of Danzel, Velkir looked at the twitching M3-AT.

"Hmm, that sure is something new coming from the arcana kingdom, but an abomination is still an abomination. A mix of failures put together in order to achieve success. I still fail to understand why they continue supporting this kind of magic branch." Velkir said while shaking his head.

"Though letting such corpse rot here seems like a waste. Do you mind if I take the corpse, my discipline?"

"I don't mind...in the first place, I didn't plan on taking it with me. At best I can create a slightly bigger Draugr with my current skills" Danzel said while shrugging his shoulders.

His gaze is full of regret as he watched his "allies" killing the enemy.

"I understand your point, but such a mindset with being like us is quite wrong. We are beings that don't say "we don't have the skills", but instead "we will have the skills". Not being able to use the corpse now doesn't mean that you can't use it in the future." Velkir said while walking towards M3-AT.

Gripping his head with his hand, the mutant froze and then fell to the ground motionless. And in a flash, the corpse together with his cut-off arms disappeared.

"Although I said that I still hold your words in keeping the corpse. No, takebacks."

"..."

Resisting the urge to call the damn Lich shameless. A sudden wave of cold air passed towards their side. Taking the attention of both undead towards the battlefield in front of them.

What they saw were 4 huge ice pillars several meters wide.

Inside the pillars were frozen soldiers of Ioratal, most of them being nobles young who managed to reach the 3rd-tier while the others were the common soldiers mixed in their army.

Though Danzel couldn't tell, the temperature around the battlefield started the decrease by a large amount and it still continued to drop.

And suddenly, the ice pillars started to show signs of breaking.

Danzel watched the ice pillars as if he was mesmerized by a spell.

It was as if the world started to slow down, allowing him to observe how the cracks started to spread through the ice.

"T-This is..." Danzel said, his grip on his sword becoming much greater.

And in the next moment, the ice pillars are broken into thousands pieces in an instance. Spreading a cold wave through their surrounding, generating snow all around the place.

"It seems like they decided to send an Archmage this time around." Velkir said as he stared at the middle of where the 4 ice pillars were.

Following his gaze, Danzel saw a lone figure floating through the air.

When he saw who the lone figure was, his ethereal eyes flared up with intense light.

Though he wore another robe.

Wielded another staff

Danzel could never forget the face and beard of that lone figure

Unconsciously, [Sin of Wrath] was activated, his hate of the living reaching his peak. Making Danzel generate a killing intent that shocked even Velkir himself.

"Hey, what`s the matter-"

"YOU!!!"

Screaming with a voice that brought chills down the nearby soldiers of Ioratal. Danzel kicked the ground and movent at extremely high speed, leaving the surprised Velkir behind.

As he marched towards the who was responsible for his first death and opening the beginning of unfortunate events.

Danzel only thought in mind was to kill that very person.