Former General Is Undead Knight

Volume 2, Chapter 20: Deadman Walking’s Parade⑤

The members of 『Silver’s Will』 who had been turned into undead were slaughtering people left and right at the center of Barreira City.

Even their white uniforms were now smeared by blood and dirt. They no longer retained their former glory.

Their skin was as pale as paper. There was no warmth left in their bodies.

Naturally, their eyes had long since lost their shine.

「KIHA, KIHAHAHAHAHA… HAHAHAHA!」

The one laughing maniacally beside a mountain of corpses was none other than the guild master of 『Silver’s Will』, Mikaela.

Her eyes had long since looked like the eyes of a dead fish. Her skin became pale, to the point that one could see blood veins beneath it.

Her head had long since twisted to an extremely crooked angle. The blood of her victims was dripping down slowly from the tip of the sword in her hand.

The vestiges of someone who was hailed as a goddess couldn’t be seen from her sinister figure.

But all of those demerits didn’t affect her swordcraft. It was obvious from the mountain of corpses around her.

A bloody hole was drilled on the chests of those corpses.

「What a… great disaster has befallen here.」

Glasco unsheathed his long sword, readjusting his breath that was raspy from the running.

「LET’S GO! THERE’S ONLY THIRTY OF THEM! WE OUTNUMBER THEM BY THREE TO ONE! SHOW NO MERCY!」

The number of undead from 『Silver’s Will』 was thirty.

Against them was Earl Mondo’s private soldiers, whose numbers approached one hundred.

No matter how powerful the members of 『Silver’s Will』 were when they were alive, the difference in numbers put them at a distinct disadvantage.

The adventurers of 『Silver’s Will』 who attacked the living indiscriminately suddenly turned around and started charging toward Glasco and Co. who just arrived on the scene.

The battle began.

The one who stood before Glasco was a dual sword user.

His name was Balthet of the twin blade, a famous swordsman when he was alive.

He was so famous that even Glasco recognized the other party’s face.

Balthet’s figure then swayed.

Left, right. And then, he suddenly closed in on Glasco, attacking the latter with a barrage of slashes from his two swords.

Glasco received those swords’ strikes with his own sword, pushing the other back after receiving dozens of attacks.

Although Glasco’s swordcraft was far inferior to that of Balthet, the former’s pure strength and frame far surpassed the latter.

Balthet reacted nicely upon receiving Glasco’s brute force.

He quickly regained his stance before Glasco could finish him off.

「ANANDA, NOW!」

「HAH!」

Glasco’s subordinate who hid himself behind Glasco’s figure, Ananda, leaped from behind his superior, brandishing his sword at Balthet’s flank.

Balthet barely reacted to that surprise attack by twisting his arm, but his balance crumbled even further after receiving that attack from his already crumbled posture.

「UORAAAA!」

At that moment, Glasco sent in his most powerful strike to finish Balthet.

Balthet jumped back, raising his left arm to guard himself from Glasco’s attack. He was sent flying as a result.

That attack just now had smashed Balthet’s bone. With his left arm dangling loosely, Balthet raised his sunken and pale face up.

「Yep, let’s use our numbers to slowly trim down their numbers…」

The moment Glasco muttered so, his ears caught the sound of a piercing laugh.

「KIHA, KIHAHAHAHA.」

The guild master of 『Silver’s WIll』, MIkaela made her entrance.

Her existence stood out, even amongst the most powerful adventurers in the city.

Although her gait was unsteady, once she set her target on Ananda, she ran straight toward the latter with her back bent at a strange angle.

「ANANDA, DON’T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!」

Ananda gripped the sword in his hand, preparing to endure the fast approaching Mikaela’s attack.

Or so it was supposed to be. But Mikaela’s sword slipped through Ananda like a slippery snake. Its extremely sharp tip easily pierced through Ananda’s chest.

Mikaela’s sword was specially made to impale her enemy to death right in their heart.

Thrusting was her main attack. Therefore, it was almost impossible to defend oneself against her attack. In addition, she could send a barrage of thrusts at a terrifying speed.

Thus, Mikaela’s most deadly attack was her thrust.

Her thrust that had been tempered to the extreme was really difficult to catch with the naked eye.

「A-Ananda…」

Glasco muttered with a dumbfounded look on his face.

Suddenly, a man stood up slowly behind Mikaela.

It was the man who should have received a cirital wound a few moments ago, Balthet of the twin swords.

The wound from Glasco’s strike a while ago had already stopped bleeding. One could see the bloody entrails from that grievous wound.

But Balthet stood up calmly despite suffering from such critical wounds.

The opponent—whose combat prowess should have been reduced drastically after losing his left arm and so much blood—stood up like nothing happened. It could only be described as a nightmare.

This situation didn’t just happen to Glasco.

The soldiers who suppressed their opponent with their numbers at first were now slowly being pushed back by the undead army, who could stand again and again—even after receiving grevious wounds.

A scream rose from behind Glasco.

Upon looking with a sidelong glance, he found out that the subordinate who protected his back had already crumbled on the ground after his head was stabbed by another undead.

Even though they should have had the advantage because of their numbers, before he realized it, Glasco was already surrounded by undead from three directions.

「Dammit, this is the end for me, huh… Heck, doing this kind of thing isn’t my style at all. Maybe I should’ve just escaped that time.」

Glasco heaved a sigh, surveying his surroundings.

When they arrived, he couldn’t spot the figures of the civilians anymore.

「And yet, I don’t think it’s bad to die in this way!」

Glasco raised his sword, charging straight at Mikaela.

Mikaela leaning forward, rushing as she pointed the tip of her sword toward Glasco.

「DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!」

Glasco swung down his sword from outside of Mikaela’s range.

Moreover, his hand moved quickly, restraining Mikaela’s swordhand.

If they attacked at the same time, it was only natural for Glasco to become another one of Mikaela’s victims first.

But someone at Mikaela’s caliber could quickly stab someone like Glasco to death, and then retreat before the latter’s slash reached her.

The tip of Mikaela’s sword touched Glasco’s body.

Glasco’s sword was right above Mikaela’s head.

Mikaela’s biggest weakness was her posture during the attack.

Even if, for example, she could kill her opponent faster than the other party finished his swing, it didn’t mean that she could kill the force behind her opponent’s swing.

For example, before Glasco could die from Mikaela’s attack, his swing would crush Mikaela’s skull first.

MIkaela changed her grip; she slashed at Glasco’s abdomen.

Glasco’s sword missed its target and struck the ground. And just like that, Glasco also fell on his knees due to the residual force of his own swing.

「Ugh… dam… mit…」

Mikaela avoided instant death since she changed her thrust to a slash at the last moment.

But it didn’t change the situation. Rather, Glasco became more and more cornered since his last suicide attack didn’t even graze Mikaela’s clothes.

Behind him was Balthet, who pointed his sword toward Glasco with his still functional right arm.

Glasco sent a sidelong glance at Balthet, closing his eyes as if preparing for the worst outcome.

There was the sound of a sword cutting through the air.

That sound was accompanied by the sound of breaking meat and bone. At first, he thought it was the sound of his own meat and bone being cleaved by the other party’s sword, but the pain that should have accompanied it didn’t come.

When he opened his eyes slowly, he turned around and realized he was still alive.

He saw a straight red line drawn from Balthet’s head to his crot*ch.

Balthet fell to his knees, crumbling down where he stood. Each half of Balthet’s body fell to a different side.

Standing behind Balthet was a tall man clad in full-plate armor.