The Ruined Death Knight
chapter-175

Looking down on the shadows that the trees were casting, Hanson looked at Danzel.

"But if you really expected that such a minor detail would actually bring you an advantage...then I got to say that your escape plan was rather lacking to say the less." Hanson said.

In return though, he only received silence.

"..."

"..."

Though he found it rude to be so bluntly ignored, Hanson wasn´t angry the less.

`What happend to him?´ Hanson couldn´t help but as himself.

In fact, he was taking Danzel as seriously as he would against opponents with similar strength as him, if not greater.

The reason for it was because currently, Hanson was fighting something unknown.

`Can undead really change so much after a month?´

It hasn´t been a month or so where he and Danzel had their spar.

In the years he did notice Danzel getting slightly stronger and his swordsmanship more refined.

But compared to the undead of a month ago and the current undead who was facing him, it was like day and night.

From his strength to his speed and the way he was holding the sword with the shield.

In Hanson's eyes, Danzel's improved tremendously.

Which confused him and made him wary.

But that alone didn´t scare him.

He faced much scarier beings thoughts his whole carrier.

"Although your idea of staying there is pretty good, did you even think if the possibility of me just waiting for the night to come? What will you do then?" Hanson said in a mocking tone.

Although his shadows could travel without any pre-cast shadows on the ground.

Having the pre-cast shadows already there not only made his dark mana travel much faster but also passively strengthed it. Which in turn strengthens his living shadows.

If he were to follow behind Danzel until night comes to engulf the day in darkness. Then he will be at his strongest.

Und Danzel who already saw Hanson [status], well know that this came from a talent of Hanson called [One with Shadows].

Just thinking of that happening...

Danzel felt amusement.

"Hahaha~"

"What are you-?"

As Hanson got confused by him started laughing out of nowhere.

Danzel voice turned much more sinister.

"Do you actually believe that you got the privilege to wait for so long~"

Both his original dark green mana got mixed with his dead mana and wrapped around his longsword in a form of a mist.

Pointing his sword at Hanson, Danzel grinned sinisterly behind his mask.

`[Curse of Scourge]´

The next second, the dark green mist accelerated and went straight at where Hanson was.

"This..."

With a frown on his face, a shadow rose from the ground and rushed directly at the mist in an attempt to activate the spell early.

But to Hanson's surprise, the dark mist simply ignored his shadow existences and passed right through it.

"Maybe wind? Or..."

Brining out a dagger without a handle from his own storage ring, Hanson put his own mana into the dagger to enchant his strength and threw the dagger at the incoming dark green mist.

Similar to his shadow though, the dark green mist didn´t even flinch by the dagger and continued at Hanson which was less than 5 meters away from him.

"Tch"

Stepping to the side, Hanson dodge the mist that passed beside him.

But to his surprise, like a homing missile, the dark green mist turned and flew in his direction.

Hanson who saw this stopped his attempts and stayed his ground, as he finally came upon the realization of the mist identity.

"I see..."

Not a second later, the mist engulfed his whole body and entered his body.

Feeling an odd sensation while observing his body, Hanson turned and looked at Danzel with disgust.

"A curse that eats at my vitality, huh? Was that in the books that I gave you?"

"Who knows, but where there is one, there is a second..."

As Hanson's pathetic attempts to stop his first curse lost him quite a lot of time, Danzel shamelessly threw his next curse that was [Curse of Exhaustion].

Knowing full well that trying to block that mist was useless, Hanson simply accepts his fate to be hit by another curse.

"Now, are you still planning to wait until night?" Danzel said with his cold yet mocking tone.

"You..."

Releasing his dark mana together with his killing intent, Hanson's muscles were tensed.

"After I break both your legs and hand, I will force you to work for the Union for all the eternity that you undead have the privilege."

Tapping his gauntlet's wrist with his arms, his gauntlets extended until elbow while the enchantments in the gauntlet released dark mana.

His finger end became like claws, sharp enough to cut through metal with ease while the enchantment would send the dark mana to every one of his blows like aftershocks.

Seeing that Danzel went back to his stance.

"If before numbers didn´t cut it..."

The next moment that Hanso said this, two arms made out shadows came out of his body.

One arm grabbed Hanson's shoulder while the other grabbed his head directly. The shadow after pushed itself out without actually making Hanson feel the touch of his own shadow.

Seeing that, Danzel imminently understood that this shadow was much stronger than the other scrubs that he made into pieces. Even if the latter and the former looked the same in appearance.

"Then quality it shall be!"

Kicking the ground, Hanson and his shadow rushed at Danzel walking Zick-zack between each other.

Seeing that, Danzel released his own killing intent.

`Tricks won´t work on him´ Danzel knew that as fact though their spars.

He had to get serious.

"Because of you-"

He had made himself remember those last two years.

"And that damned Magic caster-"

Of how he once died and got to experience that dark place.

Danzel forced himself to remember those events.

"I won´t forgive you-!"

Like a releasing flood, his bloodlust increased to a terrifying level even for an undead who hated the living.

Among that blood loss and rage.

Power followed soon enough through him.

[Sin of Wrath]: Activated.

Forgetting all about his stance, Danzel raised his long sword above his head while mana was being guided in it.

Like an execution cutting the rope of gluten.

Danzel blade was swung down towards the ground and released a dark green wind blade towards Danzel.

Because Danzel hit the ground itself though, the wing blade pulled the smoke and small stone with it together.

"That feeling..." Mumbling to himself, Hanson and his shadow dodged to the side and hidden in the smoke that was made.

*Baaahm!

As if someone pressed the pause button, Danzel didn´t move a single bit.

Although halfway consumed by his rage, Danzel still held the conscious to remain wary of his surroundings.

And once Danzel felt a presence among the smokescreen, all that conscious that he had faded with him swing towards that direction.

*Thikkkk!

The ground cracked while the longsword clashed with Hanson gauntlets.

But even with the increase that attributes that [Sin of Wrath] gave, Hanson although pressured, didn´t feel much threatened.

"That aura, that bloodlust...it´s the same as two years." Mumbling to himself, Hanson pushed the sword to the way while releasing one of his punches at Danzel.

Only to be blocked with Danzel's shield and having the blade to chase after Hanson's neck.

Exchange after exchange, they both clashed on equal grounds.

When Hanson finally managed to find an opening to Danzel's attacks, the latter would spend his mana on his shield and block his strikes.

Making a vicious cycle where both lost.

One spends his mana while the other spends his vitality.

But soon enough, that cycle was broken with the interference of Hanson's shadows.

Running at the right moment, the shadow jumped and attempted to kick at Danzels's mask.

Knowing full well that against Skeletor type undead, hitting them anywhere else was a waste of time.

Unbeknownst to Hanson though, that very undead had a very kin sense for danger.

Turning his body, Hanson activate his [Vanguards Defence] and blocked the attack successfully. Leaving him wide open for Hanson to hit him directly at the side of his ribs.

With the sheer power supported by his gauntlets, Danzel was thrown to the side while his armor was pushed inside.

*Crack

Though it did manage to crack two of Danzel's ribs, that was what Hanson's attack did.

Guiding the mana in his body to the longsword, he released a wind blade in their direction, blowing the smokescreen that he created a minute ago away.

"Tch, that armors of yous..." Hanson who dodged the wind blade with ease cursed to himself.

He was unsatisfied with his attack.

Bus since he was more of the speed type and Danzel armor having runes of the [Well-done] quality that medicate blunt damage, not to forget his sturdy bones added with his [Armor Mana Plating]

Such amount of damage was expected.

"This will take much longer than expected."

Running together with his shadow, Hanson decided to switch his fighting style to one that he dislike the most.

Head on fights.

As cheap attacks like the previous did almost to nothing damage, teaming with his shadow to overwhelmed him.

"Gwhehh-!" Grinding his teeth, Danzel realized.

But found himself in a pinch.

Once Hanson attacked, his shadow would soon after the following suite.

Making Danzel go in the defense, which while influenced by rage was quite hard to not make mistakes.

He would so often try to swing his sword in an attempt to hurt either Hanson or the shadow.

Only to be rewarded by a quick jab by either two of them.

And once Danzel's patience run out, he pushed his shield forward while guiding his mana all over his body.

Activating his [Shield Charge] together with [Swift Movements], he rammed at Hanson with his shield and swung his longsword at the much slower target which was the shadow.

"Fool." Hanson muttered to himself.

While he was blocking the shield with both of his arms, another shadow was coming out of his body and circling around Danzel´s shield.

The newly created shadow, without any hesitation, formed his hand straight as it was a blade, and pierced Danzel´s armor where his ribs were.

What surprised Danzel though was that this shadow wasn´t done yet!

The hand that was still inside of Danzel, as creepy as it sounded.

Grabbed his ribs directly and dragged him to the side making him stumble.

"You lost..."

With mana helping him flex his muscles, Hanson let out a punch directly at Danzels's mask with a much faster speed than his usual attacks.

*Crack!

Breaking the mask and feeling that he broke Danzel's skulls altogether, he sighed internally.

`Though I wanted to still keep him, he became too dangerous to keep him anymore.´

"He served his purpose..." Sensing the intimating and hateful aura goes away, Hanson didn´t grieve much of the undead that served him for two whole years stabilizing his position in the Union.

As Hanson wanted to recall his shadow though, the undead who was supposed to fall to the ground managed to stay standing with the longsword swinging in his direction.

With widen eyes, Hanson reacted quickly and take a few steps back while his dark mana turned him as part of the shadow, which made his escape that much quicker.

"Huff...you sure are sturdy. I was sure that I blew your skull up with the attack of my." Hanson said, with sweat running on his cheek.

`If I was even a second too late to react I would have been done for.´ Hanson thought as he observed the small cut through his chest.

It wasn´t of arrogance that he dismissed Danzel as dead.

He knew quite much about the nature of many undead and how to kill them.

And for Skeletor type Undead, with the only exception being the Lich.

Breaking the skull would always kill, or rather grand the undead in question a true death.

Seeing the undead who was staring at him with two ethereal dark green eyes though but his knowledge in question.

`Did I misjudge the mask as the skull? Maybe I got too soft with training those kids...´

As Hanson was in his mind, the next action that Danzel did made him frown.

"What are you doing?"

Danzel, who threw his shield to the ground, held his longsword with both arms in an offensive stance while the [Cursed Blade] skill was active.

"I will finish this with the next attack..." Danzel, who regained his sanity said to Hanson.

"I see..."

Flexing the muscle in his leg while changing with mana to fulfill an action much faster.

Hanson the ground and rushed towards Danzel.

"I am not sure what you did, but it's time for you to perish!"

As he got closer at around 4 meters.

Hanson was about to summon his shadow to continue his previews assault.

Danzel who saw this grinned ominously.

And at the next moment, it happend.

It was sudden.

Undetectable.

And extremely painful.

Out of the blue without Hanson knowing, a blade similar to the one Danzel was holding with a faint dark green glow pierced his heart from behind.

"Gah!" Throwing up blood from his mouth to his hands, Hanson looked confused at his chest.

"I-Impossible..."

Turning his head slowly around, what he saw shocked him.

Holding that very blade that was thrust to his chest.

Was a second Danzel who look ethereal with a faint dark green glow.

Once Hanson made eye contact with the 'second' undead, it started laughing frantically.

"Gahahaha!!!"