In the shadows several hundred meters away, a pair of aged eyes watched all of this through the leaves.
He was none other than the necromancer Ricks had mentioned—Elys.
The old man's face was pale and gaunt, his eyes deeply sunken, and his lips had an unhealthy grayish-purple hue.
A faint deathly energy swirled around him, making his entire being resemble a piece of withered wood crawled straight out of a coffin.
Feeling the connection with his undead rapidly severing, Elys curled his lips into a sinister smile.
“As expected, they aren't enough...”
He muttered softly to himself, as if stating an already foreseen outcome.
Without further hesitation, he pulled a piece of black parchment from his breast pocket.
The moment the parchment was brought out, a chilling, suffocating deathly energy spread in all directions, causing one's hair to stand on end just by being near it.
Elys chanted a string of obscure, sinister incantations, his voice low and rapid.
At the same time, he slit his palm with his fingernail, letting dark red blood drip onto the surface of the parchment, which eagerly absorbed it instantly.
The parchment came alive.
The writing on it began to squirm, twist, and reorganize, like countless black insects crawling across its surface.
Immediately after, a massive amount of black mist erupted from it, rapidly spreading toward the clearing before him.
Once the black mist slowly dissipated, a dense crowd of skeletal undead appeared in the clearing!
A rough glance revealed at least several hundred of them, with even the weakest skeletons possessing Bronze Rank early-stage strength.
At the very front of the skeletal army, a tall knight clad in tattered black iron armor and riding a skeletal warhorse slowly raised its skull. Within its eye sockets flickered a brilliant, eerie blue flame—Silver Rank peak, a Skeletal Cavalry!
Elys stared at this brand-new undead army, his raspy laughter echoing through the forest with a hint of unexpected ecstasy:
“Hahaha! What good luck to actually summon a Silver Rank peak Skeletal Cavalry.”
Waving his gaunt arm forward, he coldly gave the command:
“Go. Eliminate those people—all of them.”
“Clack—”
“Clack—”
Hundreds of undead took their steps simultaneously, the sound of grinding bones merging into a tooth-gritting wave in the night sky.
The leading skeletal cavalry even charged straight out of the ranks, rushing toward the firelight at high speed!
Shiruya snapped her eyes open, her crisp voice laced with solemnity:
“I sense it! A massive wave of extremely violent deathly energy is rushing toward us!”
Levinel had just fired off another round of fireballs and was about to catch his breath. Hearing Shiruya's words, he also felt the ground beneath his feet vibrating slightly.
He turned his head toward the source of the vibrations—
—and his pupils suddenly contracted.
A dense, black mass of undead was surging out of the darkness, numbering more than ten times what they had faced earlier.
And what made his scalp tingle even more was the one charging at the very front—the skeletal cavalry.
Selby also saw the wave of undead surging from the darkness. His pupils dilated at the sight of the armored skeletal knight on the bone horse at the very front, wielding a lance.
“Oh no! It's a high-tier undead!”
Before his voice could fade, the skeletal cavalry had already charged within reach.
“So fast—”
The lance thrusted straight ahead, the deathly gray light swirling around its tip dragging an afterimage in the firelight.
Selby did not block it head-on. He sidestepped, letting the lance graze past his shoulder and miss.
But the skeletal cavalry adjusted its move faster than he expected—the lance swept horizontally!
Clang—!
Selby raised his sword to parry, the resounding clash of metal exploding in the night sky.
A massive force traveled up the blade, forcing him to slide back several steps before barely stabilizing himself, the web of his hand throbbing with numbness.
“Such strength...” He grit his teeth.
The skeletal cavalry pulled back its reins, the bone horse pacing a couple of steps in place. Within its hollow eye sockets, the two clusters of eerie blue soulfire burned quietly, unhurried, like a hunter sizing up its prey.
“Uncle Selby!”
Shiruya's voice came from behind, filled with obvious worry.
Seeing this, the two young knights drew their swords to step forward without a second thought.
“Get back!” Selby barked sharply. “This undead is not something you can handle!”
Levinel's expression was already quite grim by now.
He squinted at the skeletal cavalry, his scalp tingling more and more the longer he looked. “Silver Rank peak...?”
He himself was only at Silver Rank early-stage, and he was absolutely no match for it in a duel, but they might stand a chance if he teamed up with Selby.
With this in mind, Levinel turned to Phelin and hissed, “Phelin, guard the flanks! I'm going to help Selby!”
Before his voice even faded, Levinel raised his hand to conjure a massive magic circle. His mana surged wildly, and over a dozen scorching fireballs whistled out one after another, blasting precisely toward the skeletal cavalry!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A chain of explosions went off, and the soaring firelight instantly swallowed the skeletal cavalry's figure, billowing thick smoke that obscured their vision.
“A direct hit!” Levinel said excitedly.
But in the next instant—
—a figure riding a bone horse violently burst through the smoke!
The lance was raised high, thrusting straight toward Levinel's chest at a speed so fast that even an afterimage could barely be caught!
Levinel's pupils shrank.
“Mana Barrier—!”
In his haste, he instantly conjured a pale blue magic barrier.
Bang—!
The lance slammed brutally against the barrier, and the resilient magic shield shattered on impact!
Shards of broken mana scattered through the air. The looming shadow of the lance instantly filled Levinel's entire field of vision, the shadow of death enveloping his whole body!
“Uncle Levinel!!!”
At the critical moment, Shiruya barely thought. She snatched a magic scroll from her waist and tore it open on the spot!
A Tier 2 Ice Spike whistled out from the scroll. The sharp ice spike crashed precisely into the skeletal cavalry's chest, the massive impact forcing both rider and horse back several steps. The tip of the lance perilously veered off by half an inch, grazing past Levinel's cheek.
It felt freezing cold.
Levinel's back was instantly drenched in cold sweat.
“...That was close.” He gasped. Seizing this fleeting window of opportunity, he rolled backward to pull some distance away, his heart pounding wildly. He had almost lost his life right then and there.
Turning around, he shouted to Shiruya, “Shiruya! Beautifully done!”
Selby rushed forward at that exact moment, holding his longsword horizontally in front of everyone. He stared intently at the skeletal cavalry ahead, shielding the others behind him.
But before they could even catch their breath, a dense swarm of skeletal undead had already surrounded them from all directions.
The clattering sounds of grinding bones rose from all around, trapping the six of them in the center of the camp, leaving no room to escape.
Seeing this, everyone warily formed a circular defensive formation. The two young knights held their swords high, guarding the flanks. Phelin's hand trembled as he gripped his staff, while Shiruya stood in the center, still holding a magic scroll in her hand.
After prolonged combat combined with a long journey, most of their physical strength and mana had already been depleted.
“Selby—” Levinel lowered his voice. “If you still have any trump cards, don't hold them back.”
Selby remained silent for a moment.
He knew Levinel was right.
With their current physical state, let alone breaking out of the encirclement, even holding on for another minute would be a struggle.
And he did indeed have a trump card on him—the holy feather bestowed by Her Goddess—the Feather of Protection.
He hadn't wanted to use it.
That divine artifact was a symbol of Her Goddess's trust in him. He had always felt it should be saved for an even more critical occasion.
But now... there would be no other occasion more critical than this.
“...Prepare to cover me.”
As Selby spoke, he reached his right hand into his shirt.
...
Meanwhile, in the Divine Kingdom of Light.
Iluvia was sitting on her Divine Seat when she suddenly sensed a familiar, faint fluctuation.
Her brow furrowed slightly. “...Are Selby and the others in danger?”
That fluctuation came from the holy feather she had previously bestowed upon Selby.
It was a defensive divine artifact she had crafted with her own hands. Now that it was being triggered, it meant Selby was on the verge of using it.
Rate on N.U.
