Klaus ducked in time, and the whips went overhead. Irritated by its unsuccessful attack, the Draugr took a step forward and launched a barrage of lashes at Klaus as it let out a screeching sound.
"Ugh!" Klaus rolled out of harm's way, but the consecutive lashes managed to wear him out quickly. He sprinted and took cover behind a bookshelf. Armor, armor! Klaus imagined an iron armor covering his body—complete with breastplate, greaves, helmet, and vambraces.
The burden overwhelmed his body for a few moments, but he took no time to adapt to it. He moved his limbs slightly to comprehend the full weight of the iron armor and concluded that the entire set was roughly twenty kilograms.
"Grrrryeaaaaaaak!!"
The resurrected Draugr rushed towards Klaus's hiding spot, and its whips lashed at the bookshelf almost simultaneously. Gritting his teeth, Klaus rolled out of the way and climbed up the second staircase leading to the upper floor.
"Grrryeeeaaaaaaaaak!"
The whips smashed the staircase to stop Klaus from running away, but he had reached the upper floor in time. For a mere human, he knew how to save himself! Frustrated from this outcome, the Draugr willed its whips into lances and commanded them to extend across the path Klaus had taken.
The Draugr couldn't chase after Klaus due to its size, so it could only send his whips to end him. As it shrieked uncontrollably, the lances stabbed blindly. The lances struck the ground, bookshelves, and walls, but after a few minutes, the Draugr realized that Klaus was nowhere on the upper floor.
One of its lances should have injured Klaus at some point, but his presence had seemingly disappeared. The weapons were destroying anything but the human. It didn't make any sense.
By logic, there should be nowhere else for him to go.
"..." The Draugr retracted its lances and thought to itself for a while.
Shing!
A green light cut through the air and pierced the creature's forehead in the center. Surprised, it stood still for a moment before it shrieked from pain.
"Grrryyeaaaaak!"
The pain overcame its senses in no time, and it fell to the ground. A blinding green light enveloped the creature's head, and it shrunk in mass. In the next second, Klaus jumped from the destroyed staircase and plunged a longsword into the creature's chest, making full use of the momentum he gained from the descent.
"Huff... huff... Bet you didn't check the hidden floor, eh?" said Klaus as he watched the creature let out its last breath.
He grabbed his green sword—the loot from the first C-rank Draugr he had defeated—and swung it at thin air. A wave of light escaped the sword, and it destroyed a few bookshelves on the side.
"...I see. This sword absorbed some of the Draugr's mass and stored it as energy."
"Hmm?" Klaus crouched, looking at a silver dagger dropped by the bat Draugr. The weapon had an intricate design that resembled roots and veins.
"I'm taking this, thank you very much... Ugh..."
After Klaus had obtained his new loot, the injury from being hit by the Draugr's whip intensified, and after a few seconds, a severe headache struck him.
Klaus sat on the floor and took off his body armor to check his injury. His eyes opened wide when he saw a hideous gash that ran across his side horizontally. From first glance, it looked like a chunk of his flesh had been gouged out in a jagged line.
He gritted his teeth when he remembered the moment when that Draugr's whip caught him off guard. Enduring the excruciating pain, he tried to close his eyes in an attempt to escape from the Personal Dimension. No, he couldn't even gather a scant of focus. His body refused to obey him as he sat there, lamenting this rued outcome.
"Huh!?"
His heart sank when he felt a new presence in the library. It couldn't be, right? In his current condition, there was no way he could fight another Draugr!
"No, no, no, no, no, no..." Klaus crawled to a bookshelf, hoping that the Draugr wouldn't be able to find him. At least, he wanted to buy some time for himself to return to reality. Focus, focus, focus!
Try as he might, Klaus couldn't concentrate his mind at all. He tore a part of his shirt and wrapped it around his abdomen to seal the wound. After that, he closed his eyes again.
Crack!
A ten-feet tall humanoid stomped its right foot once, and the mere force created a hole in the floor. The Draugr's exterior was seemingly made out of plate armor, like a knight, as it searched the area. It came to this Personal Dimension because it thought its prey could put up a good fight.
Having slain a few reincarnated people in the past, the Draugr sought new challenges to sate its thirst for violence. Men, women, children, it could care less about such trivial matters. If they were strong, it would fight them without holding back.
Fight, destroy, glory.
Once the challenger had proven itself to the A-rank Draugrs, surely they would also consider promoting it to B-rank. Yes, this yearning for appreciation and respect wouldn't be dampened until its goal had been realized!
"Hu... man."
"!!!?" Klaus turned to look up and then rolled to the side in time.
Boom!
The knight Draugr lifted its gloved right hand from the floor and nodded slightly. Its prey managed to dodge its attack even though he was injured. It didn't hold back when it punched before, so if it had hit the human, he would've been crushed to death.
"Hu... man." The Draugr called out to its prey, wanting him to surrender his life at that instant. It wanted its prey to fight a bit, but then again, it would be disappointed by its poor performance nonetheless. It didn't have to see him in person to sense that he was in a bad condition from the previous fight.
The Draugr coming here could be a waste of time and energy after all.
The knight Draugr walked towards the bookshelf Klaus was using to hide from plain sight. It kicked the bookshelf in one swift motion and was surprised to see Klaus was not there. Confused, it stretched its neck and looked around.
For a while, the knight Draugr's search ultimately bore nothing with the prize nowhere within reach. Where did the human go? He couldn't have just disappeared into thin air just like that. The knight Draugr stomped its feet and screamed once it realized that Klaus had left the library and gone somewhere else.