[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
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Chapter 257: Hammerfell (2)
***
Suddenly, skeletons burst forth from the underbrush.
“Kiieeek!”
“Kyaaah!”
The skeletons that emerged screamed triumphantly and charged forward.
The battlefield froze for a moment at the horrifying sound. Humans and dwarves stared at the skeletons with shocked expressions.
“Skeletons? Who summoned them?”
Vollas, one of the Weapon Master’s apprentices, shouted in alarm.
“Wait, why are they coming towards us?”
Dozens of skeletons charged at the human camp. Watching the scene, Vollas spoke with a cold expression.
“I don’t know what they are, but they’re not allies. You three! Go smash those things!”
Three knights who had been fighting dwarves turned around and blocked the skeletons’ path.
“Whoever summoned them… do they really think they can attack us with mere skeletons?”
Vollas smirked.
It was a natural reaction. His subordinates were mostly powerful warriors of the Middle Class.
There was no way a bunch of skeletons with rusty swords are no match for them.
Considering the vast difference in skill and power between the two sides, Vollas figured that sending three men was overkill. One should have been enough. However, he decided to send three just to be safe and ensure a quick end to the skirmish.
The subordinates swung their swords at the skeletons. The skeletons tried to block the attacks with their weapons.
“What a cute attempt.”
Dark aura emanated from the subordinates’ weapons. Those old weapons couldn’t possibly block the aura.
Both the weapons and the skeletons would be cut down entirely.
At least, that’s what Vollas thought.
Suddenly, crimson-black aura erupted from the skeletons’ weapons.
The two auras clashed. The subordinates’ strikes were blocked by the skeletons.
“…What?”
Vollas’s eyes widened at the unbelievable sight.
“Skeletons with aura?”
But the real surprise was just beginning.
Every skeleton’s weapon was now imbued with aura. Dozens of weapons simultaneously glowed with a dark crimson hue.
Vollas’s eyes widened as if they would pop out.
“This, this is… this is impossible…!”
The aura emanating from the skeletons was incredibly dense.
Only knights of at least the Middle Class or higher could produce such an aura.
“……Are all those skeletons Middle Class?”
As the weapons imbued with aura struck, the three subordinates were turned into chunks of meat in the blink of an eye.
“Kiieeek!”
“Kraaah!” The skeletons didn’t stop. They began to attack the other nearby humans.
“What the hell are these things?”
“Skeletons with aura? This is impossible…”
The remaining knights panicked, their morale shattered by the sight of their comrades being mercilessly slaughtered. They desperately tried to fight back, but their attacks were futile against the skeletons’ superior strength and aura.
The battle quickly turned into a one-sided massacre. Limbs were severed, and blood splattered everywhere. The skeletons relentlessly pursued the humans, cutting them down like wheat in a field.
But the humans were not easily defeated.
Suddenly, a massive aura slash swept through the skeletons. More than ten skeletons were instantly shattered.
“Who do these bone bastards think they are messing with!”
A knight wielding an axe shouted, his ferocious energy radiating in all directions.
“Well done, Korpski!”
Vollas shouted to the man.
Unlike the other knights, Korpski was a high-class knight.
“You don’t expect me to deal with these things, do you?”
“Of course not! Leave it to me!”
Korpski shouted confidently.
Meanwhile, the shattered skeletons completely regenerated, returning to their original numbers.
“Regenerate as many times as you want. I’ll just smash you again.”
Korpski snorted.
No matter how many Middle Class opponents there were, they couldn’t handle a High Class knight.
Confidence was written all over Korpski’s face.
At that moment, something flew from the sky. Korpski was surprised and looked up.
“A… child?”
A small girl lunged at Korpski, swinging her tiny fist.
“Kyaa!”
Sensing a danger, Korpski blocked her fist with the handle of his axe.
At that moment, an immense force struck him. Korpski was pushed back.
“This strength…! Now I see, you’re undead!”
Korpski roared, charging at the girl.
Maybe because he was focused on her,
Korpski didn’t notice the shadow at his feet rippling like water.
From within the shadow, a wolf leaped out. The wolf sank its teeth into Korpski’s neck in an instant.
Crunch!
With a chilling sound, Korpski’s head was torn off. His headless body collapsed to the ground.
“……”
Vollas stared at the scene in shock. Then, veins began to bulge on his forehead.
“How dare you… how dare you kill my subordinate…!”
Vollas’s power surged. A vast amount of dark mana surged forth, blowing away everything on the ground.
“I will crush you all right now!”
At that moment, someone caught Vollas’s eye. A man was standing behind the undead.
He was wearing a wooden mask that made his face unrecognizable.
Vollas instinctively realized that this man was the necromancer leading the undead.
“So it was you!”
Vollas immediately changed his target and charged at the masked man.
“Kyaa!”
“Kiieek!”
The undead and skeletons tried to block him, but it was useless. They couldn’t even slow down a Master Class.
“I’ll cut off all your limbs and drag you back!”
Vollas swung his sword at the masked man. At that moment, the man spoke softly.
“Dominico.”
A greatsword appeared out of nowhere, blocking Vollas’s strike.
With a deafening crash, Vollas was thrown backward. He looked up and stared ahead.
A man wielding the greatsword stood in his path.
“A Death Knight? How can a mere Death Knight block an aurablade…?”
Vollas stared at the greatsword held by the Death Knight.
Amazingly, a black aurablade surrounded the greatsword.
“A Master Class Death Knight?”
Dozens of skeletons with Middle Class strength.
Two undead who instantly killed a High Class knight.
And now a Master Class Death Knight.
“Who… who are you? Why is a necromancer of your caliber attacking me?”
Vollas glared at the masked man and asked.
“This is the territory of the Weapon Master. Attacking me is tantamount to opposing my master.”
Vollas warned the masked man. But the masked man paid no attention.
“Dominico, what are you waiting for?”
He spoke briefly instead.
“Make him kneel before me.”
At that moment, a killing intent radiated from the Death Knight. Vollas’s face hardened.
“Are you really going to do this? You will regret it!”
Vollas charged at the Death Knight.
Two master-class warriors swung their weapons, aiming to kill each other.
Invisible slashes collided in midair, each clash producing a thunderous boom.
The ground beneath them shattered from the sheer impact of their blows.
It was a duel of superhumans. Neither gave an inch as they swung their swords.
“…Damn it!”
Vollas’s expression grew more distorted with each exchange.
“A mere Death Knight blocking the master’s swordsmanship? Do you have any idea how insolent you are?”
While Vollas raged, the Death Knight remained calm.
Suddenly, the Death Knight’s movements changed. His forearm swelled as he swung his greatsword upward.
With a dull sound, Vollas’s sword was knocked away.
Gritting his teeth, Vollas gripped the hilt tightly.
He barely managed to keep hold of his sword, but his defense was wide open.
Seizing the opportunity, the Death Knight sprang forward and brought his greatsword down.
The Death Knight’s greatsword severed Vollas’s forearm. The hand holding the sword fell to the ground.
The Death Knight’s attack didn’t stop there. He slashed diagonally across Vollas’s torso.
The greatsword cut through Vollas’s body, blood spurting from the wound.
“Ugh!”
Vollas collapsed to the ground. The Death Knight hooked his greatsword onto his back.
– Master, it is finished.
The masked man approached Vollas. Vollas stared at him with a pale face.
“Apprentice of the Weapon Master. I have some questions for you.”
“Go to the fucking hell.”
Vollas swore. But the masked man remained unfazed.
“Answer me willingly, and I’ll grant you a quick death.”
“You idiot… you’ll kill me anyway… why pretend to be merciful…”
The masked man opened a subspace and pulled out a travel bag.
“Watch closely. If you don’t answer properly, this will be your fate.”
An undead emerged from the travel bag.
Vollas’s eyes widened in shock as he saw it.
“…Jeremy?”
He couldn’t fail to recognize his fellow apprentice.
“H-how… how is this possible…”
Vollas was horrified as he examined Jeremy.
“You… you resurrected Jeremy as an undead?”
“Exactly.”
The masked man said, gripping Jeremy’s head and shaking it.
“This guy, being an apprentice of the Weapon Master, seemed like he might know something. But since he mainly operated outside, he didn’t know much. But you should be different.”
Unlike Vollas, Jeremy was the favored apprentice, receiving the Weapon Master’s full affection.
Seeing someone he had always envied turned into an undead right before his eyes, Vollas was in shock beyond words.
“If you don’t want to end up like this, you’d better spill the information willingly.”
“…You’re wasting your time. I will never speak about my master.”
“You’d better not hold out too long. If it comes to that, I’ll kill you and extract the memories from your soul.”
At the masked man’s words, Vollas burst into laughter.
“Do as you wish. You won’t get any information from me! My soul is bound by a restriction that prevents me from speaking anything against my master!”
For the first time, the masked man reacted to Vollas’s shout.
The masked man placed his hand on Vollas’s head and closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them.
“…It’s true. There is a restriction.”
“See? You won’t get anything from me, you fool!”
“Considering he is using the corpse of a Duke-level Demon to create a Demonic sword, he had to impose this level of security.”
At these words, Vollas was struck with a shocking realization.
“What? How… how do you know that…”
“If the restriction is in place, there’s no point in keeping you alive. Time to die.”
The masked man stepped back, and the Death Knight raised his greatsword again.
Even with death looming, Vollas couldn’t focus on it.
“Tell me! How do you… how do you know about that!”
Finding out how this person knew about his master was more important than his impending death.
“I said, tell me—!”
The Death Knight’s greatsword came down.
Vollas’s head hit the ground.
***
“Master, it is done.”
Dominico wiped the blood off his greatsword as he spoke.
The skeletons, Miya, and Munchi had finished dealing with the remaining enemies and were awaiting Damian’s orders.
“You’ve all grown incredibly strong since I last saw you. Dominico, your progress is especially remarkable.”
“You’re too kind.”
When Damian first met Dominico, he was only High Class.
But he had the exceptional talent that made it no surprise he would reach Master Class soon.
“Now that everything seems to be sorted…”
Damian turned to the dwarves and asked,
“I’m going to ask you some questions. It’s in your best interest to answer honestly.”
At Damian’s warning, the dwarves’ faces filled with fear.
“…Who, who are you?”
One of the dwarves asked in a trembling voice.
Normally, he would have ignored such a question. There was no need to reveal his identity.
But now, Damian needed to spread his false identity widely.
“My name is Victor.”
Damian said, staring at the dwarves.
“There’s a debt owed, a life to be taken. The Weapon Master’s the one paying.”
***
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
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