Chapter 27: Friend
In the old-growth forest, the trees appeared much taller than any other woods, and the whole surroundings looked denser due to numerous vines and plants.
Abium moved deep into the Baxbron Woods while cutting the vines and plants that stood in his way and suddenly stopped.
At that moment, he heard a young girl's screaming voice from afar and got startled inside.
'A girl? This place should be restricted for normal adventurers to enter, right? Then, whose voice was that?' A spark of doubt appeared in his mind, followed by a deep frown.
He knew that the possibility of this being a trap was very high. Even Abium and his friend Nicolaus used a similar method to lure Wadel Kingdom Knights to ambush them once.
'Possibly some bandits... No, this area is so close to Baxbron Woods, though.'
Abium went near a nearby sugar pine tree, climbed up to the top, looked at the surrounding areas, and inspected the situation.
A few seconds later, he noticed that a group of skeletons and a guy in his black outfit was chasing after a young girl from the eastern direction.
The black-robed guy wore a white mask, had scarlet lines from the sides, and devil-like fake horns at the forehead area. There was also a skull symbol embroidered on the black robe and looked eerier.
He suddenly sensed a familiarity as he saw that guy's black outfit and the red-lined white mask.
The next instant, his pupil contracted all of a sudden.
"He is a 'Necromancer' from the Order of the dead member! What is he doing here?" He couldn't help but mutter in a grim tone.
He knew that encountering an Order of the Dead member before the arrival of the Chaos Era was indeed a troublesome matter.
'I should avoid making any conflict with him guy for now.'
Order of the Dead was one of the dangerous organizations that killed countless children, elders, women, and even young virgins in the name of sacrifices and caused destruction everywhere.
So, he doesn't want to get into trouble with them at this moment.
As he was about to turn his gaze away from the Necromancer, he suddenly halted his movement. He soon saw the young woman running ahead of the Necromancer and was showing a panicking expression on her face.
She was a blonde-haired young woman and appeared to be around 20 years old.
'Helena? What is she doing here? Shouldn't she be working under Viscount Gauvian as an elite adventurer?' For a moment, he felt he was in some illusion.
'Wait. Helena did say that she worked for an apprentice Necromancer once and even done something terrible. When I told her to forget the past, she told me with a bitter look that her karma killed her younger sister...' He still remembered the time when they failed to save her younger sister and picked her body in an underground basement in pieces.
'Should I interfere and save her now?'
After some thought, he nodded, climbed down from the tree, and started walking towards them stealthily.
Within a few moments, he got closer towards the enemy group and saw there were a total of 20 skeleton soldiers, and a skeleton Knight appeared next to the masked Necromancer.
Necromancy was black magic or death magic used to create undead from dead bodies by enslaving the souls. Abium knew all these guys were lunatics, and they would kill whoever walked in their path.
'These guys are like the child of destruction.'
Ordinary peoples and other warriors would quiver in fear if they found that these necromancers still existed.
Practicing death magic was prohibited in the whole Mainland.
'But these necromancers weren't dead at all. They were hiding all this time from the masses and waiting for the start of the Chaos Era.'
Shaking his head, Abium took out the long sword from his spatial ring and focused his attention on how to save Helena.
'I can kill the normal skeletons with my current strength without much force.' He nodded thoughtfully and shifted his gaze towards the lone skeleton knight walking next to the masked Necromancer.
Unlike other skeletons, this one appeared as tall as 2 meters, appeared bulker, and even had reddish soul fire in its sockets. It also wore metallic armor, helmet, gauntlets, and leather shoes and even held a silver-sheathed sword in its waist. What's more shocking was that it currently rode on an undead zombie-like horse and looked terrific.
'All basic attributes are above 3.5, and it even has a unique skill called 'Nether Aura.' Moreover, a Death Knight, huh? That's troublesome.' After a quick scan, Abium shifted his gaze towards the apprentice necromancer and inspected him.
After a simple glance, he realized that this guy was just an apprentice necromancer and felt relieved.
'Still, I need to be extra careful.' While muttering, he suddenly leaped out of the bushes, ran towards them, and soon arrived before Helena in seconds.
Her blonde hair was covered in dust, and her tears had already blocked those two oceanic blue eyes. She was like a broken piece of a doll abandoned by the maker and held a small curved dagger in her soft hand.
She wore a regular adventurer linen brown shirt and pants and looked like a frightened kitten.
She had fair skin, curved thin eyebrows, and a round face, almost like a brightened moon.
"Ah!"
She let out a surprised yelp as she saw Abium's sudden arrival and got startled deeply.
She turned her face pale and showed a panicked look on her face. She then took two steps backward and looked at Abium fearfully.
"W-Who a-are you? P-Please don't kill me!" She stuttered and begged with terrified eyes. Tears flew from her eyes as she froze on the spot without even knowing what to do.
Upon seeing this, an amusing smile appeared on Abium's face.
'She is indeed acting to lure me in. So, this Apprentice Necromancer knew of my arrival, huh. A magic spell?' His gaze swept past her messy hair and soon landed on the masked Apprentice Necromancer.
After a simple glance, he turned his face into a solemn one and said in a comforting tone.
"I'm here to help you, Young Miss. Please don't panic. Follow me." He decided to play along.
Abium then grabbed her right hand and sped towards the northern direction without waiting for her reply.
Meanwhile, Helena wiped her tears away and stealthily took out a small potion bottle for pocket and splashed it towards Abium's long sword.
Abium did notice her action, but he couldn't care less about the already chipped sword.
In truth, he was eyeing the silvery sword in the Death Knight's waist!
Meanwhile, the Apprentice Necromancer watched Abium and Helena running away from his sight and smiled wickedly.
"Hehe, the mouse took its bait." He muttered coldly and followed them while maintaining some distance.
Although he couldn't guess this half elf's strength, he knew this half-elf was an abnormal one.
He couldn't even find much mana inside his body but did notice that Half-elf had the strength of a second-tier warrior.
'He has an interesting body. He could kill my Death Knight in one on one.'
Still, Apprentice Necromancer knew that the final result would always be the same and scoffed it off.
'I should check his soul first!' While muttering, he made a unique hand signature and cast a zero-tier death magic spell.
'Soul Eye!'
That apprentice's brown eyes color changed and turned into pitch black in a blink. He peered into the gloomy woods the next instant and saw two souls running away like mad dogs.
But among those two, one appeared more like a corrupted one with blackish green dots, while the other seemed to be pure crystalline white color!
'He has such a pure soul!' His black eyes soon became normal, and the face was hidden under that devil mask brightened.
"I finally caught something good." He spoke calmly and hastened his footsteps.
On the other hand, Abium moved slowly and started to ponder.
'The sun has already set, and the surroundings will become completely dark in a few minutes. I need to finish everything sooner.'
'But before that, I need to know more about the current situation,' He thought inwardly and shifted his gaze towards Helena.
"Why is an Order of Dead member chasing after you?" He asked coldly.
Abium's sudden question made the blonde-haired girl feel something was off, but she hid her emotions and introduced herself.
"I-I'm Helena. My party members and I came here on a mission to investigate goblins' ambush. But this Necromancer captured all our party members and killed them."
While saying those words, she stopped running, turned around, and pointed her finger at the apprentice necromancer.
At that moment, two fake crystal tears appeared from the corner of her eyes and rolled down on her cheeks.
Meanwhile, Abium also stopped his footsteps, glanced around, and noticed that both were now standing in an open area.
'She indeed chose the best place for battle.'
He glanced at her fake teary face, snorted coldly, and spoke.
"If that Apprentice Necromancer captured you earlier, how did you manage to escape? Although your strength may be higher than other 2nd tier warriors, still you are no match against that Apprentice Necromancer's strength." He acted like he was suspicious of her but didn't let her hand go.
On the other hand, Helena started sobbing and began to talk,
"He intentionally released us and started hunting using those skeleton monsters. My party members sacrificed their lives so that I could escape from him and warn Viscount about this incident."
As she finished her words, Abium's ears suddenly perked up.
He heard a crashing sound from the front and soon saw that the Death Knight was riding the horse towards them.
Within five seconds, the undead horse almost reached less than 10 meters away from them, and the Death Knight had already unsheathed the silvery sword from his waist.