Black Stallion Duchy, Iron Hoof Town.
The walls of the town were besieged by undead creatures, the guards and Patrol Knight that had been fighting in the front lines had retreated to the safety of the walls after the amount the undead doubled. After that they shot arrows down at the snarling undead, those proficient in archery hit their vulnerable places repeatedly, but it was against beings that were already dead. So they resorted to using giant crossbows to crush them but there were only three crossbows with them, and they were running out of bolts.
But even still, they had to hold down this part of the town walls no matter what, because the undead were attacking from two sides. The ones south part of the town didn't have too much problem, sure the amount of undead outnumber the two-to-one but the ones in the north part fighting with their lives on the line.
The undead in the north part were like a tide, even though most of the powerful figures from both the Inquisitory Eye magic society and the Luminous Sword Academy were there they still couldn't get the upper hand because there were at least five Greater Undead among the hordes of undead, not to mention they also had to face the necromancers spells. A hole had been blasted through the north wall already, and the people defending were trying their best to keep the undead from breaking through their blockade so they couldn't send any help to the south part.
"We're almost out of bolts!" a Patrol Knight yelled, "If this continues we're going to have to go down there and fight them."
"Fuck that, that's suicide!" A mercenary spoke, he was one of the many mercenaries the Earl paid to help out. He was also a sorcerer but his magical energy had been emptied. Most of the sorcerers in mercenary groups were all spent, the rest that remained were archers and Swordspeople who hadn't unlocked a single Aura.
"We will all die if they manage to get over the wall!" the Patrol Knight spat back.
"We need help!" Someone screamed as they kicked down an undead that had to the top of the wall. "Just one adept sorcerer or Swordsperson would do!"
"We're out of bolts!"
"Shit!" the captain of the Patrol Knights said, he was at his wit's end. He had quickly volunteered to protect the north side of the town since he thought it would be easier. And it was easier, at first. The undead were pretty easy to kill – just disperse the flames in their chests or cut off their heads and they stop moving – especially the skeletons, one good hit could shatter their bones.
But after a while, the seemingly manageable undead started multiplying. At first, it wasn't noticeable to the knights and mercenaries who were too focused on their battle, but then suddenly they found them surrounded by dense amounts of rotten faces and their allies were either dead or too far away to help. The ones remaining quickly scaled the walls and thanked the gods the gate was situated on the south side of the town.
But the walls only offered a reprieve, the guards, knights, and mercenaries were all exhausted and too little to do anything.
"Aargh!" A man shrilled as the undead grabbed his leg and dragged him off the walls. His figure instantly disappeared after entering the horde, and soon his screams also stopped.
The man had been trying to stop the undead from climbing up the wall, now that he had gone a few skeletons quickly replaced him. Everyone there felt their hearts chill, they felt it was only a matter of time before the undead enter the town and slaughter the civilians –
But, like a ghost, a young man appeared on the wall, and the undead that managed to climb on top of the wall were sliced into different parts. The young man slashed his sword, and a sword ray appeared and erased all the undead close to the wall.
The young man was Riven, he jumped up and used [Flower Burial], raining down sword energies on the undead. He breathed out in relief after he landed, it had taken a lot of persuading and arguing before his mother allowed him to join the fight, and thank goodness he did. The people guarding the north side were finding it hard to repel the undead, but they were pretty easy to kill so he decided to stay there.
The south side on the other hand... he had gone there first, he took one look at the fight and immediately made a U-turn.
As a Warrior most of his skills were close combat or single target attacks, he only had two long-distance and multiple targets attacks – the sword ray he used was not part of them.
But they were enough!
He jumped up and used [Flower Burial] again, but this time he landed on the other side of the walls, right amid the deranged undead. He swung his sword three times in a flash and three sword rays slashed out, everything within twenty feet of him was obliterated.
He could hear the people on the wall awe at his power, which was understandable. All he had to do was swing his sword and the sword rays ejected from it would thoroughly destroy the undead lunging at him. But it wasn't because he was too strong, it was because although they were unnatural the undead were still made from normal humans, and Riven could cut down normal humans like he was cutting weeds, much less the undead that were just bones and rotting flesh.
Suddenly, a bone elongated from the ground and stabbed at him, Riven sharply dodged to the side, narrowly dodging it. Two more shot at him and he struck them with his katana, they cracked but that's all that happened.
'Urgh…' Riven swung his sword again before they broke but more soon replaced them, the undead also began surrounding him. Riven frowned but didn't fear, he had a hunch and spread his [Sense] as far as it could go. Amidst the dense undead his boosted perception caught exactly what he was looking for; magical energy.
Unloading as much warrior energy he could into his sword as he swung it, he sent a huge sword ray in the direction. Bones erupted from the ground in a desperate attempt to stop the ray after the undead in the way were cleared, the bones had been reinforced with magic so they were quite strong, but so was the sword ray. The ray shattered the bones but then disappeared, revealing a figure wearing a cloak with a hood.
The person jolted and tried to create some distance between them, Riven used [Flutter] to rapidly approach them. As he moved he created afterimage after afterimage, bones shot out from the ground to try and hinder him but they were too slow to. He reached the person in a flash, from that distance he could finally see the face under the hood. The person was a woman, she stared at him with shock and fear.
Riven's body flashed by her and appeared at her back, his sword was kept at a different angle from before. The woman's head fell before her body, and a huge amount of undead dropped like falling stones after her death.
'This…!' Riven looked around in shock, 'So that's how it works!' He narrowed his and carefully looked for another hooded figure, the rest of the undead began focusing on him alone, but Riven was too fast for them, even when they tried to overwhelm him with numbers he would just use [Flower Burial] to clear the way.
Different types of destructive spells were being tossed down from the top of the wall, and the mercenaries who had regained some of their magical energy decided to assist, from a safe distance. The other guards and Patrol Knights couldn't help even if they wanted to, Riven moved too erratically and his attacks were too fast for them to dodge, they didn't want to be taken out with the undead.
Riven jumped to another area where the undead were plentiful when bone spikes jutted out of the ground, right where he was going to land. Riven twisted mid-air to avoid the spikes but stumbled and tripped when he landed. The spikes erupted from the ground and a bone cage around him. After that a green haze began to form around him, the haze didn't do anything to the bones but the grass on the ground began decaying.
Riven hacked at the bone cage, but the bones he managed to break were replaced. 'Shit,' Riven swore, 'I miscalculated.' He was in a very bad position, he had killed a lot of undead but hadn't leveled up once, even though he was close to level 14. And even if he used his remaining warrior energy to break out of the cage he wouldn't be able to protect himself anymore.
Before he could make a decision, a part of the bone cage was ripped apart. Riven quickly jumped out of the range of the decaying smoke, there was a deep line where the bone cage had been, which showed that it had been torn apart by a particularly powerful force.
"Are you okay?" A deep voice said.
Riven turned around and was surprised by who he saw, the man standing behind him had an emblem of a white sword on his light green coat. The man before Riven could answer him, an orange Aura shrouded him and as he swung the sword he held the Aura extended and sliced the undead he attacked in half.
But that didn't kill them, the undead still squirming on the ground so Riven swung his sword and destroyed them since his sword rays were pure energy they were rougher than the Aura.
The man raised his eyebrows after his attack, he was wondering how someone who he thought was in the First Aura stage could be so strong.
[You have leveled up!]
Riven inwardly rejoiced when he saw the prompt, although his points weren't enough for him to unlock another skill at least his warrior energy had been recharged. Smiling, he charged forward and continued with the massacring.
The Swordman stood still and watched Riven fight from behind, since his Aura was in the Condensed Third Stage he was perfectly safe even amid the undead since nothing they did could pierce his Aura. He sometimes attacked nonchalantly but was mostly focused on Riven.
From the color of the rays being ejected from Riven's thin sword, he could tell that he was just in the First Stage, But he couldn't understand how his Aura could detach itself from him, nor why his Aura doesn't show on his body. When Riven jumped up and rained down sword rays in the shape of flowers his jaw dropped. Could the Aura be used that way?
'Wait, could it?' The man began to have inspiration right there and then, ignoring the undead he raised his sword and closed his eyes to concentrate. His Aura covered his sword and extended past it, he held his position for a few seconds before swinging down sharply, and the Aura at the tip of his sword broke free and blasted a few skeletons to pieces.
"Haha, I did it!" The man was elated, he continued to practice on the side while Riven fought.
Riven was elated as well, after carefully searching he had finally found another hooded figure amongst the undead. Eager not to let them escape, he decided to use his second long-range attack, [Compound Pressure]. He spun around and his sword down so fast his arm turned blurry, then an air pressure descended on the undead before him and crushed them, along with the hooded figure hiding in between them.
The man watching from behind gasped in shock, "Sword Intent?!" The surprises he was getting were making his head buzz.
Riven rubbed his arm and tried to settle it trembling, using that skill strained his arm muscles. But that was mainly because he doesn't use it often, with more practice he would be able to use it without stress. He noticed that although none of the undead around him dropped after his attack most of them had stopped moving, which meant the hooded figure was still alive. He rushed to the remains of the undead he had crushed and saw a person who was half buried under them.
"Another woman…" The hood had been shredded so Riven could see the face of the person, her entire face was covered in the blood that she coughed, her nose was bent and most of her teeth had shattered, but she was still breathing.
'How tenacious.' Riven curled his lips at her before putting her out of her misery, a large number of undead dropped after that.
"What just happened?" The man said when he reached Riven's side.
"These undead are connected to the sorcerers that control them, I don't know how it works but if you take out the sorcerers the undead would… well, die," Riven explained. "With the amount of undead remaining, there should be one more sorcerer left." Riven quickly pinpointed where magical energy gathered and pointed there, "Right there."
"I see."
The undead suddenly rushed towards them, acting as a cover for a hooded figure that was trying to escape. But escaping from someone with a Stage Three Aura was a pipe dream.
Riven swung a mighty slash at the undead while the man jumped forward, reaching the hooded figure with one leap. The hooded figure stumbled in fright, then spat out a slew of incantations, bones jutted out of the ground in an attempt to slow the Swordsman down. The man's Aura extended to its limit and he swung it down, bisecting the bone wall and the hooded figure.
After that, the remaining undead all dropped to the ground. As the people on the wall cheered the Swordsman walked to Riven with a wide smile, "You, young man, are a prodigy. Would you like to study at the Luminous Sword Academy?"
Riven was nonplussed.
…
White Tiger Duchy, Rainfall Forest.
A family of three, consisting of a father and two sons was running as fast as could. The father's grip on the boy's arms was tight enough to cut off blood circulation, the children were finding it hard to keep up with their father's pace, but they couldn't stop, they had to keep running.
Their village had been destroyed, destroyed by dead people and skeletons alike. Chaos had descended on their village like a thunderstorm, and the unprepared villagers had been pelted harshly. What seemed to be a normal afternoon had been ruined by the dead, they walked the earth once more but this time they were hateful and vicious. They rushed into the village in hordes and then began killing everything in sight, the ones that carried weapons swung them, the ones that didn't either used their teeth or their bones.
At first, the villagers fought them fiercely, but the undead completely overwhelmed them with their numbers. Then they began to notice that the people who had been killed would stand up and join the undead horde, which broke their confidence thoroughly. The ones that remained ran towards the Rainfall Forest in an attempt to escape, but the undead followed them.
No matter how fast the villagers ran they couldn't outrun the undead who had infinite stamina, the ones that lagged were killed. All in all, the Rainfall village no longer exists, now the remaining residents were running for their lives.
A sharp scream pierce through the forest, and one of the boys unconsciously looked back in fear and curiosity which made him stumble, causing him and his father and brother to fall. Their father gasped and picked up both boys and they continued running, they didn't have the luxury of stopping, even for a moment, as the dead were hot on their tails.
If he wasn't for the fact that he was sure that leaving them alone would result in their deaths, the father would have hidden his sons and willingly sacrificed himself for their survival. And he still might do just that, he wasn't just running aimlessly, he was leading them somewhere.
The father was a hunter and had one day stumbled upon a small cave that house a bear, a non-magical one. Because of its injuries, the bear only scared him off with a roar but didn't chase him, the father was leading them to said cave. He was hoping that the bear would have been killed by a stronger beast, leaving the cave empty. It was a gamble, but one he had to take.
He and his sons took a sharp right, then he carried them and sped down a sloping path, basically making a covert U-turn. He quickly found the cave and ran into it, nothing was in it except for scattered bones.
The afternoon sun was low and bright, so although the inside of the cave was dark it wasn't as enshrouding as it would have been at night. With stifled breathing the father hid at the end of the cave, they moved carefully and tried not to make even the slightest of sounds.
The father found himself praying, He held his children close and stared intently at the cave's entrance but his mind was filled with anxious prayers. Since he didn't have a particular god he worshiped he prayed to the shadows, asking them to grant sufficient coverage for him and his children.
Then, astoundingly, they did. The shadows in the cave thickened and darkened, from the outside it looked like a dark veil had covered the family, the darkness looked almost tangible. The father looked at the dark shadows and wondered if there was a shadow god, with his children in his arms he dropped to his knees and vowed that if he and his family were kept safe they would devout followers of the shadow god.
Suddenly, an earth-shaking roar resounded, the boys were caught off guard and squealed in fright but their voices were overshadowed by the roar. The undead had disturbed the mighty beast's slumber, so it decided to destroy the necromancers and their foul undead.
As a terrifying massacre took place, the first followers of the God of Shadows stayed safe in the cave.