Undead city-Altraud

Inner City

Blaze was having the time of his life; he had always wanted to destroy this city, and now it had become a reality. He rampaged through the city, hurling flame after flame from his mouth, attacking and destroying all the large structures around him with a manic grin on his face. As he did so, a green crystal landed near his feet and exploded. A green hue spread from it and entered his body. Immediately, he felt his body moving much slower than usual. Looking around for the cause of the annoyance, he found a tiny undead nearing him.

As Ervin neared the human, he threw a few more scrolls containing skills such as and . He hoped that with the help of all those skills, he would gain enough advantage to have a chance to beat him. However, Ervin overlooked one crucial detail: he wasn't the only one who could use skills; humans could too. With a grin, Blaze mumbled , and immediately, grey mist spread from his palms and diffused into the surroundings.

Ervin saw the mist creeping towards him. He attempted to run around and hide inside a grave, but he was too slow to achieve that. In the end, the mist engulfed him, turning his world into a shade of grey.

“What's happening!?” Ervin exclaimed in panic, his flamy eyes darting around. His eyes fell on a silhouette of a human figure approaching him from within the mist sending shivers down his spine. He involuntarily stumbled and collapsed onto the ground.

The human snickered at his plight and opened his mouth.

"Well, well, well. Look who's here, a tiny undead. Allow me to introduce myself: I am Blaze, a vice-captain of the human delegation. No, scratch that. I am Blaze, a former resident of Altruad and the son of its city chief," Ervin gulped nervously at his introduction.

"Are you Arthur's son?" he asked, trying to glean as much information as he could.

"Well, I am the son of a human named Arthur, and he used to be the chief of this city 30 years ago, but then he died, and I ran away from this place."

"Then this is our home, right!? Why are you demolishing it?" upon hearing the question, Blaze's smile slipped and he violently threw the undead towards a nearby grave. An audible crack reverberated as a few of Ervin's ribs broke due to the human's violent tantrum. He groaned in pain and looked up only to find the human staring at him with a crazy glint in his eyes and flames dancing around the corners of his mouth.

"This is MY home, not OUR home. You guys are not welcome," he snarled and punched him again, breaking a few of his jaw bones. Ervin wasn't done, however, “We were born here too; this is our home," he argued back, causing the human to chuckle mirthlessly.

"Oh, you were born here! Then who's your mother? Father? There are none! You were never born. You are just a filthy creature that stole the body of the dead and is pretending to be alive. You are a mistake of nature, and I am going to correct it, but before that, I am going to make you pay for stealing the dead bodies of my people." As he finished talking, Blaze looked straight into Ervin's eyes and mumbled .

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The grey mist surrounding Ervin rushed into his mind, and immediately a bone-chilling silence enveloped him.

He couldn't hear the loud explosions, the roar of the flying beast, or the sounds of arrows flying—nothing reached his ears. Desperate to understand what was happening, he attempted to move away from the mist, only to come to a damning realization: it wasn't just his hearing he had lost, but everything.

He couldn't feel any sensation other than sight; he couldn't sense his bones, and he had no control over his body. With only one spell, Ervin lost everything and the human gained control over his body. He was now no more than a puppet dancing to the tunes of the human.

The battle raged on and at some point, the people inside the meeting hall came out and joined the fray.

The mist also spread, engulfing the whole city. The humans used spells on other undead, using them as bone shields against long-ranged attacks.

Chaos spread everywhere, and amidst the chaos, Ervin's body moved towards an injured undead.

‘no, no, no, no no no no’ Ervin screamed internally, but his body didn't listen and stabbed the undead’s skull with a knife, killing it instantly.

He saw the undead whimper and die, its soul—a blue glowing ball—escaping from its dead body and entering the minor dungeon.

That was just the first of the many atrocities his body committed during the conflict.

Deaths piled up and just when he thought the situation couldn't worsen, Paul's weapon broke. The flying beast used the opportunity and fired a beam of light towards Maya and the others. Paul jumped in, taking the attack with his body and lost consciousness.

He saw his friends atop the wall; they were completely exposed to an attack, and he was helpless to do anything. The flying beast attacked again, but what he feared did not happen.

The Black Panther, the boss of the minor dungeon of the city, actually came out and fired a beam of light from its mouth. Both the beams clashed mid-air, and the black cat emerged victorious.

With its emergence, the dungeon beasts crawled out of the dungeon and joined the battle. The messy battlefield became messier and during midbattle, Anne sneaked up on him and hit him on the head causing him to lose consciousness.

When he regained consciousness, the battle was over. The undead had lost almost a quarter of their entire population, the undead snake-Noodles, being one of them. Among the human delegation, only the captain and vice-captain had managed to escape alive. The flying sabertooth had also perished at the paws of the black panther.

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Back in the present,

inside the minor dungeon of Altraud,

Ervin let out a sigh as he remembered everything that had happened.

Ever since that day, Ervin had dedicated all his time and worked his ass off to grow stronger, yet he was still weak against a attack. It was a bitter pill to swallow.

Looking around, he saw the black panther curl up into a ball and yawn as if its recent loss against Arya wasn't bothering it at all. He approached the feline and poked it to attract its attention.

“Want something?” it inquired while licking its paws. Ervin glanced around awkwardly and then finally asked what was on his mind. “You just lost a fight. Don't you feel frustrated?”

“Oh, I am furious. I lost to a little brat! How can I not be furious? But I didn't use any skills against her and still was this close to winning! That's more than enough for me,” the feline explained with a toothy grin and continued, “More than anything else, I am just happy that my friends didn't suffer any loss because of that fight.”

The cat glanced towards a corner of the mountain, and Ervin followed its gaze, finding the alpha wolf and Metal Crow happily playing with Arya of all people.

As he saw them play, a smile crept up his skull. ‘I will grow stronger to protect my friends’ he proclaimed internally and after thanking the big cat, ran towards Arya to train with her.

Maya, who was near him, saw his actions and shook her head in exasperation. “Why can't you just take a break and enjoy the scenery?” she complained but had a grin on her face while looking at him. Peter also saw them getting ready and rolled over to watch them train.