Knight Bartram

“We survived!” shouted Zylna, with clear joy and relief.

I looked around and saw destruction, that made my blood boil. It was too sudden and powerful enough that it crushed layers of Grade 4 shield spells within a second.

If not for the thing in my hand, nobody would have survived, including me.

“Artifact!” exclaimed Vansgart, with shock all over his face, as he noticed the thing in my hand.

For a moment, he even forgot where he was and what he had just experienced. His eyes are seeing nothing other than halberd in my hand; there is a clear desire in them for it.

“A broken one and now with the defense; it had been spent,” I said. The fury raged in my eyes as I remembered the explosion.

I didn’t want anyone to find out about the artifact. I wanted to bring it to my order first, but I had to use it to save my life. It is going to cost me a lot; I might not be able to hold this halberd with that greedy bastard in command at Ashton Harbor.

I hope the order will help me retain it.

“It is still an artifact and as long as its core is fine. Our legacies might be able to heal it,” said Esalya.

I didn’t reply, nor did I put it back. Instead, I looked around to assess the damage. I felt the raging anger, I had never felt before, but I had controlled it and let the rational mind take over.

“How many?” I asked Lich beside me. “We had lost about 70% of our undead. We would have lost more, if not for me and others using Ulkam Funnels,” it replied.

“Good,” I said.

The spell he and others used takes the power of one group of undead and adds it to the others. It gives the undead extra immunity temporarily while fully draining the group undead from which the power is taken.

It makes them useless.

It is a steep price but needs to be paid in conditions like this. If they hadn't used that spell, we would have lost all our undead, and that would have been our end.

We are powerful, but without the horde to support us. They would have been able to kill us through the sheer numbers.

I looked at the undead, before my people.

“The enemy had taken a gamble to kill us all, but they had failed and now we will make them pay the price for that,” I said and the bloody-smiles appeared on their faces.

Even Lich is grinning.

The legacy is destroyed, and we will pay the price for that, but before that happens, I will make sure they pay such a price. That nobody would ever dare to do what they had done to us.

“Savias, you are free to take your revenge; I am giving you complete permission,” I said and the grin on the Lich’s skull face got bigger.

“Thank you, Commander, I will make the bastard pay for what he did to us,” he said. I nodded and looked around me.

“Gather the horde,” I ordered, and staffs lit up and, a second later, the horde began together behind us.

Hun!

I activated Eyes of Far, but to my surprise, I couldn’t see anything. The dense smoke is blocking the view; it had never happened before. My skill had been able to see through any smoke and dust before.

“My ocular spells aren’t working properly; the residual emotion power seemed to be interfering with it,” said Esalya.

“Which gives us a great opportunity to attack them; since they couldn’t see us too,” I replied.

“Ready yourselves,” I ordered and looked at the halberd in my hand.

Things have gone wrong; the only thing, that had gone right is this halberd. I had not thought it would work.

Its wooden haft is faded, and the blade is rusted. I had not thought it would work, since it didn’t before, when I tried, but feeling the danger, I brought it out as the last option and it came out alive, creating a protection sphere.

It is what saved us, and I will be going to use it to kill the enemies.

Its power is all spent; I could feel it, nothing had remained, but it was still better than the enchanted sword. I am going to use the halberd to kill that elder blood and the rest, till not a single one has remained standing.

I believe there is a purpose; I got this halberd. It is from the commander of Almin. It was a great surprise to me when he had taken it out to fight against me.

Artifacts, even the broken ones, aren’t something that someone like him should have.

I didn’t know where he got it; I killed him, the moment he had taken it out and put it in my bag, before anyone could see it. What matters is that I have it and I need to take it back to the headquarters of my order.

As Esalya had said, if its core is good, it could be fixed. The order had promised to help me fix it.

Second passed, and the undead gathered. Soon, there is a horde of fifty-thousand behind me. It is smaller than I had ever led, but it is all I have, and I don’t want to call back the undead, I had sent toward the population.

I want them to create destruction and despair.

“Charge!”

I roared and rode toward the pitiful army of the city. We will kill them, leaving not a single one alive.

…

“They are coming,” I said.

Stone nodded and turned to the army.

“Lord Silver had sacrificed the thing that is most precious to him for the city, and it is time for us to do the same. Kill the undead! Cleans the ground, till not a single undead had remained!” he said, with his voice booming across the whole army.

Thud Thud Thud!

There was silence for a second before the army began to hit their legs on the ground with affirmation.

Stone smiled and turned back ahead.

The enemies didn’t take long to appear, a few seconds later. The horde came charging out of the dust with Knight Bartram riding the bone horse and rusted halberd in his hand.

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‘That is the thing, that had saved them,’ I thought, looking at the artifact in his hand. I had already informed Stone about it.

The explosion had been more powerful than I had expected, and I hoped that it would kill at least a few level 30s and it would have. I had felt, how the explosion had destroyed their shield, but at the last moment, the bastard had taken out the artifact.

A broken artifact. If what, he said is true. It had spewed out a protective dome, that protected them from the explosion.

Of course, I heard what he had said. He was standing in the range of my establishment. Not the outer range, but the real territory of the establishment; I heard everything he had said.

I looked at Knight charging toward us and I wanted to hit the bastard with spells, but I know, he will survive.

I have to conserve the emotion essence. This is not the only horde in the city. There is a horde of twenty-five thousand undead that Caena and others have to deal with.

The more there is, the more it will be helpful for her.

“Attack!” Stone ordered, and we attacked begin. The cannons that were already aimed begin to shoot at them.

The spells followed after with the arrows.

The shields appeared in front of them to defend against the attacks, while they launched their own attacks.

Here, we have the advantage. The explosion was not successful in killing the powerhouses, but it killed a lot of pillars.

We now have more general mages than them, and we are using that advantage to our fullest. Stone had ordered them a minute ago to throw everything they had at the undead.

Within seconds, our advantage begins to show.

The enemy mages stopped with the offensive attacks and began to focus on the defense while we bombarded them with everything we had. Only the powerful ones continued with the offensive.

I could see the Knight's face turning bad and he increased the speed of his charge.

Soon, there was less than a hundred meters distance between us and them when Stone moved forward. With each step, his body would grow bigger and denser the bronze on his skin would become.

Hun!

By the time he reached the Knight, the transformation was finished. Seeing him, my expressions turned serious.

I had suspected it, but now, I have become sure.

The awakening had likely begun. Since he woke up, I had been sensing a faint unstable feeling from him, which had been slowly getting stronger.

Now, he had intentionally brought out his elder-blood strength and it became clear. He is slightly taller than before and the bronze color on him is deeper. Even Knight Bartram seemed to notice it, seeing surprise in his eyes.

It is not good. The awakening should be done in quite a place, without any tension, but here it is happening in battle.

It is extremely dangerous and most nearly all fail.

I wish I could do something, but I can’t, not when I need him to hold the Knight back, who now has an artifact in his hands.

I turned to the undead tide and the eight Lv. 30’s hiding inside. Three new ones had come with the new horde. I was able to sense them earlier, and it didn’t make me feel good.

We hoped, there would be only two of them, but there are three.

Two were already more than we could handle, and three were huge threats. To handle, each Lv. 30, we need to have three pre-Lv. 30. If this was all, we would have been confident, but they have also brought a lot of pre-Lv. 30.

There are at least eight, I had sensed, but there could be more.

CLANNNG!

I was watching the tide coming closer when I heard a deafening clash. I didn’t have to look to know where it came from.

There is only one battle that could produce such noise.

Three seconds later, the tide crashed against us. It was powerful, filled with a large number of abominable zombies. The bastard's transference spell took the energies from one group of zombies and inserted them into another.

Almost all abominable zombies and powerful skeletons have been saved.

Raaa!

I had just thought that when two appeared in front of me. They were no common zombies, but abominable ones.

They attacked, and their attack was fast and filled with power. This undead may not have the skills or the grace, but they have the muscle memories, retained by the undead magic, which also lets them use their physical power at limit.

It is dangerous enough to kill me for a single attack.

I moved forward, before taking a step left, avoiding the sword of the right zombie and then a sharp right attack of the left one, before attacking.

Pachack!

My rapier cut through the neck of the zombie on the left, before cutting into the neck of the one on the right.

Seeing the heads falling, a small surprise appeared on my face. I had killed the abominable zombies before, but not at such ease.

Gymnasts Control had made things very easy for me, far easier than I thought. With this skill, I could control, my every movement with precision, and that a lot of difference.

When I got it, I was slightly disappointed with the skill. I wanted an offensive one, but it seemed like, it would probably provide me greater benefits than the offensive could.

I glanced at their bodies and turned to look for other undead when I saw someone familiar coming toward me.

The fencer woman I had fought a few hours ago. Even now, her eyes are burning with fury toward me.

Hun!

I moved toward her, before suddenly stopping, when I felt it. ‘She had begun,’ I thought and looked west for a moment, before moving forward toward the woman to finish, the unfinished battle.