As the undead lord and Brad talked casually, indignation filled the death knight. He couldn't believe that he was being treated so lightly, but he wasn't stupid enough to rush into a battle he wasn't confident in winning.
The death knight was confident he would hold a slight edge over the undead lord even while it was empowered by Charisma, and so as its servants were killed by the minute his advantage would grow stronger. However, Brad's appearance altered that plot.
'Who is he?'
The death knight had only thought that the undead lord had forgotten what side it belonged to, but after Brad appeared it had to wonder if it had truly switched sides. Brad had a strange aura that didn't match humans but wasn't close to a normal demon's aura either. Still, such cases were plenty in Lambda so it couldn't draw anything from that. However, as the two of them stood side by side, it finally realised a distinct change in the undead lord.
'They're the same. But how? How could an undead be the same as a living person?'
More questions popped but the death knight knew it wouldn't get the answers easily.
Once they finished their light chat, Brad and Bony focused their sights on the death knight. However, Brad was the only one to step forward.
"You should take care of the rest. It's best that we don't lose any more of our forces if possible."
"Understood. Good fortunes to you in battle."
While the two could be considered equal, the undead lord wasn't particularly reluctant to accepting Brad's suggestions since it would end in a better result for their master.
As Bony went to the door, the death knight roared in anger and attacked it with an arc of dark light.
"How dare you turn your back to me!"
The arc of sword light easily drew a messy line into the polished floor, but a single hand destroyed it before it could reach Bony who had left without pausing for the incoming arc.
"You'll have to allow me to take over as your host. Don't worry, I promise you'll be satisfied by my impeccable service."
With a fearless expression, Brad faced the death knight without a hint of caution. Once more, this infuriated the death knight, but this time as well, it forced its anger back inside.
"You'll regret making light of me."
"No, I'm sure it'll be you who will regret making us your enemy."
Then, at the feeling of a small tremor from downstairs, they began their fierce exchange. Brad met the death knight's sword head-on with his fists wrapped in a translucent layer of golden mana.
During his time in the Cursed Territory, his mana had somehow gained a curse-resisting attribute so he planned on using it to its fullest.
The death knight was secretly surprised by the vibrant colour of his mana, but that only pushed him more. The more he learnt about this man, the more he was sure that he had to be eliminated.
After about a hundred exchanges, the two drew back from each other. The death knight unleashed all of its mentally oppressive skills such as Intimidate, but Brad's heart remained as firm as a boulder as the the golden mana on his hands stretched to his elbows and covered him like a golden layer of skin.
"Don't tell me that's your best."
When Brad ran up to the death knight at a suddenly fast speed, the first punch knocked him off-balance while the second one rammed into his jaw and sent him flying through the ceiling.
Without the arrogant thought that he had won already, Brad jumped after the death knight. But the death knight had predicted that he would do so and waited for him with his sword covered in soul-chilling black flame.
Death knights were mainly known for their outstanding physical abilities and technique, however for foes that could threaten there was something else that made them worthy of fear.
The flames of the underworld, hazz. These flames couldn't kill, but a single ember was enough to engulf someone in eternal pain. Even an undead without a sense of pain would suffer under its effects as it directly targeted the soul.
Brad couldn't identity the flames in one glance, but he knew that he definitely couldn't let them touch him. Brad hurriedly crossed his arms to block the black flames with his golden mana, but even as he flipped through the air and slid back on top of the castle's roof, they remained.
"Ha! Taste the horror of my hazz!"
Brad was fine for now, but the black flames continuously ate at his mana. Even so, it wasn't as if he had no way of getting out of this.
Brad sucked in air through his mouth, and then at the same time as he sharply exhaled, golden mana burst out from within him, simultaneously distancing the black flames from his body. Due to this outburst of his, the black flames flew to land on the roof but they were ineffective against solid objects.
"Hoho, well done. But how many times will you be able to use a technique like that?"
Brad still kept on his confident smile, but the death knight knew it was just a bluff. Though Brad was strong, it was obvious that his magic capacity wasn't very high so if he was forced to keep wasting his energy then his loss would be inevitable. Nonetheless, Brad was still confident in his victory, in fact, this turn of events made him even more excited than before.
'I need to finish him off so that I can go after Tyrion.'
The death knight dropped to the roof and approached Brad with his flaming sword. But after three steps, he was stuck in place with horror in his hollow eyes for Brad's transformation struck fear in him. The golden mana that had covered him, condensed into strange letters that were spread throughout his body's surface.
'Sigils?! To think I would face an ascetic here...'
In its long life, the death knight had only heard of the ascetics who were masters of the combat arts, so he never expected to face one. The moment he realised that Brad was an ascetic, the death knight tightened his grip on his sword and stood firm with it.
"Shall we begin round two?" Brad asked in a casual tone.
"As a knight, it would be my honour."
Brad raised an eyebrow at how suddenly the death knight changed to a humble tone, but he didn't put too much time into thinking about it.
'I can't maintain this state for too long, so I need to be quick.'
Brad pushed his left foot forward and dragged his right hand back. While in his fighting stance, Brad tightly clenched his right fist and softly exhaled. If it was before then the death knight would just mindlessly throw hazz at him, but now he chose to carefully engage him.
Once he was four feet away from Brad, the death knight felt that he shouldn't take another step further so he poured in his power into the blade and shot a powerful arc of black flames at Brad through an overhead slash. Previously, Brad was forced to waste his mana in order to escape from it, but this time he simply punched with his right fist. His punch alone brushed away the black flames and knocked away the death knight along with a portion of the roof.
"Kuh!"
Even though it didn't need to breath, the death knight felt suffocated after the force of that blow. The death knight blew through a few more structures before sliding to a stop in the wasteland around the castle. His armour that had been in perfect condition since he first wore it, now had a massive crack that exposed his sleek sternum. The death knight thought it was already prepared to face Brad, but now it knew that it had grossly underestimated the power of an ascetic.
'So this is the strength of one who has approached the level of a hero.'
He recalled several legends of the battles between heroes, demon kings and other transcendent figures, but he always thought that these stories were exaggerated.
'But they weren't.'