The Ruined Death Knight

Seeing her pointing her staff at him, Danzel found it more ridiculous than few would consider cute.

"Rejected, I already told you that before you learn the "Fly" spell, teaching you would be pointless." Danzel said with a monotonous tone.

Hearing his response, Shiro puffed her cheeks.

"What do I need to learn the "Fly" spell just to practice combat!?" She said while swinging her staff, making the metal rings attached to the staff ring like bells.

"The magic caster's that I have seen rarely used that spell! Not even Master Velkir said anything about learning that spell! And he was a great magic caster! The greatest that I have seen!"

If it was any common magic caster, they would have considered Shiro's point as fair. As they existed great magic casters who brought down enemies by just standing in a spot and lived to be written down in history books.

Compared to them though, Danzel immediately dismissed her claims.

"Your grandfather asked Velkir to teach you the mysteries of magic, he didn't ask him to teach you how to fight as a magic caster. As there was no need to do as such. With someone as Agares protecting you, I doubt any harm would have come your way."

And that was indeed the case, Agares didn't want Shiro, his only granddaughter, to grow used to fighting. At least not at her age.

Considering her age of their race, she was practically a child.

"...My grandpa isn't here though. You said so yourself, that I need to prepare to take care of myself!" Shiro yelled with frustration.

"..."

Danzel walked towards her, towering over her and staring silently at her with his ethereal flaring eyes. And Shiro stared back to him, with a determination and fearlessness.

Which was something amazing on its own.

Even ignoring the fact that Danzel was almost twice as tall as her, the kind of existence that Danzel had become would make even war veterans too dense upon sighting him.

He was no longer the skeleton that he was once before, a pile of animated bones from the dead mana waste of the lake.

Now he was a death knight, a being constantly surrounded by a death aura caused by the immense miasma inside him and his equipment. With the power that only a few beings are able to achieve.

And while he was restraining himself, there was always the constant leak of aggression toward the living.

Despite the leak being at a minimal level, it was always there and present.

Not to forget, in Shiro's case, her eyes were able to see much more than was plain to see.

Showing such a demeanor in the face of a death knight was impressive on its own, alas, the longer the silence grew, the more Shiro was getting anxious as she stared at the ethereal eyes.

"The-ehm...the deal that we made is unfair..." Shiro said while avoiding his gaze.

"Teaching those five, teaching you, learning necromancy from you, and learning spells of my own. I don't want to sound like I am complaining, but..."

"N-Not to forget that compared to you all, I am also getting tired and hungry..." She said the last bit in a whisper of a tone.

Which of course Danzel was able to hear.

Albeit he tended to forget about the basic needs of the living, when he was indeed paying attention, Danzel could tell that Shiro was pushing herself in the form of sleep deprivation and overall stress.

And despite understanding her situation and what she was experiencing.

Danzel didn't hold any empathy towards her.

Taking a step closer to her, he opened his jaw, letting the cold voice of an undead.

"I can see your point, but it seems that you are gravely mistaken about something, granddaughter of Agares."

His words felt heavy upon Shiro as if something was pressuring or weighting her down. Enough so to feel like a lamp in front of a predator.

As she took a step back and opened her mouth to take her request back, Danzel turned his back on her.

"But...very well, I shall grant your wish. Even without the "Fly" spell, there is one thing that I can teach you." Danzel said with a harsh tone.

Shiro felt glad that her request was heard, but at the same time, she felt nervous and anxious about Danzel's words.

With Danzel opening the door, Shiro followed suit.

The only thing to be heard was their footsteps walking on snow.

It didn't take long before the house was out of sight as they were going to the mounted area that hasn't been built anything yet.

It was the same place where Danzel and Baron were practicing not long ago.

"Prepare yourself." Danzel said as his body slowly lost its shape and turned into dark mist, creating some distance between him and Shiro.

Shiro flinched at his words and clenched her staff with both her hands. Already have an idea of what is to come.

"Are we...going to spar?" she asked nervously.

Looking at her with his flaring eyes, Danzel put his left hand on his sword and slowly sheathed it out of its scabbard.

Despite how slow he seemed to draw the runing blade, the slight swing generated enough wind for Shiro to feel despite being several meters far away.

"A spar, huh?" Danzel shook his head.

"The bare minimum for us two to spar would be for you to gain any short-of-movement spells. What were are going to do is something much simpler." He said in his cold voice

"The lesson that we are going to have is simple...While I will try to approach you, all that you will have to do is prevent me from approaching you, by any means necessary." As he was speaking, his usual death aura that was invisible to the common naked eyes began to resurface around his body.

"Even with means aimed to kill."

"Huh?" Shiro said confused by Danzel's words.

"S-Such sort of thing...Rue, what is this supposed to teach-"

Before Shiro could even finish her sentence, an ethereal dark green hand pierced her chest.

"Ahh-!"

Despite its ethereal form, she felt as if someone has punched her right in the chest, she was pushed back and was barely able to catch herself from falling with her feet.

Alas, the ethereal that seemingly was piercing her chest rose Shiro up in the air for a short amount of time before an ethereal dark green light from Shiro's body mixed with the hand.

Changing its shape and traveling towards Danzel. Albeit Shiro wasn't able to grasp a glimpse of it as before she knew, a wave of strong wind mixed with snow hit her like a wall. And as she was already mid-air, she was sent flying back and rolling through the snow of the mountain.

"Cough-Cough-Gahhh..."

Coughing and growing in pain, her whole body suddenly flinched as she felt an immense killing intent washing on top of her.

"What are you doing Shiro!? Stand up!"

Danzel.

No.

The cold voice of the undead of the 4th-tier yelled at Shiro, admonishing her actions.

Shiro gazed at the undead, the dark-colored mana in her eyes blending her view with reality and an unbroken ether world.

Surrounded by an ominous dark green light and his skull has cracks. His armor sounded to her like several chains hitting each other by being dragged per step of his.

His killing intent, the death aura with the dark green light surrounding froze Shiro in dread and she was almost not able to recognize Danzel.

Almost.

"...Rue?" She said with a scared tone.

Which made Danzel's eyes flare up brightening with much denser killing intent.

"You are a magic caster! What are you doing sitting around and letting your enemy close the distance! Stand up and fight!"

"..."

Biting her own lips, Shiro clenched her staff and supported herself up with it while trying to ignore the pain in her chest. Her head still lowered down.

Slowly raising her free hand aimed at Danzel, she created several mana-reinforced ice spikes that floated around her with her mana alone and not any incarnation. Which for a magic caster of the 3rd-tier was impressive.

Once the mana-reinforced ice spikes went sent flying aiming at Danzel.

In response, Danzel simply raised his sword and swung in the air with the flat side of the sword with enough strength to create a wind wave, much strong that the one that hit Shiro.

The wind wave crashed against the flying ice spikes and slightly altered their flight, making them as they came closer miss their original target.

*Crouackkk!~Crouackkk!

Hitting the ground behind him, carving the stone itself, and raising up the snow as if an explosion happend, Danzel continued walking leisurely towards Shiro.

The wind wave itself though hasn't weakened at all, crashing towards Shiro just like before.

But this time despite the wind wave being strong, she had placed her staff on the ground to support herself from being thrown off.

In the end, the wind only barely pushed her back and made her long, white hair came out of the hood.

"Weak. You wouldn't even survive on your own." the cold voice said, making Shiro flinch.

She remembered how she saw constantly being protected by everyone and how she was a burden to everyone who was near her.

Being chased out of cities because of her illness. Forced her grandpa to move from place to place and do sketchy jobs till ending up as a mercenary despite clearly disliking it, just to earn enough for food, treatment, and magical education.

Which resulted in being separated from as far as she knew her last family member still left.

Ending in a place foreign to her and being the burden of someone else once more.

"N-No more..." Shiro whispered as she slowly raised her staff with both her hands.

The white fur of her armor started to raise up as Shiro was guiding her mana on her staff. Before second later using that mana to form her spell.

"Oh element of dawn~"

As she began casting, the mana that she was gathering in her staff turned into the form of a mana circle, which slowly was being filled with arcanic letters.

"Oh element of scourge~"

As the arcanic letters started to fill the circle, the wind started to sucken in the magic circle like a vortex.

'Rune magic, huh?' Danzel thought as he halted his step to observe the spell.

"Circle magic, huh? And this amount of mana..." Danzel mumbled as the magic circle turned into a triangle, with each corner having a smaller magic circle.

And as Danzel was observing her spell, Shiro continued her spell.

"~Show you might in front of me~, Show you might in front of my enemies~"

And as the magic circles were beginning to gain color~

"~Let your strength show my might! And let my enemies be scourged by your endless might! Element of scourging dawn!"

A blinding light appeared