" 75 Xp for only one knight! "
Leo was surprised. Sure the fight was hard, but the Xp gain was huge as well. Grinning Leo turned his head and saw some more armored knights appear in-between the houses. They eyed Leo and started approaching him.
Quickly appraising his body's condition, Leo used [ Dragon's Mana ] to enhance his leg's healing and got ready to engage in close combat yet again. Leo noticed that not all knights held frail weapons. Some of the weapons knights wielded looked to be in good condition.
The first knight ran up to Leo and performed a horizontal slash aimed at his waist. Seeing that he would not be able to deflect the strike, Leo took a step back, making the skeleton miss his waist by a hair's breadth.
Channeling Mana in his arm, Leo slashed the dagger with intent to divide the skeleton's head from its body.
Clank...
A hand deflected Leo's strike.
Leo was flabbergasted.
' These undead care about their defense '
Leo's plan was to capitalize on their lack of self defense and slowly eliminate them one by one. Unfortunately if they have common sense it will be a few times harder.
Clank... Clank... Crack... Boom...
Other knights joined the fight putting a lot of pressure on Leo. Even though the situation was hard, Leo was smiling, he was completely immersed in fighting and didn't even notice a system message.
[ Lower Dagger Technique Grasped! ]
[ Reward: Skill {Lightning Slash} ]
Fighting against all the monsters helped Leo gain a better understanding of daggers and become more proficient in using them. Leo's dagger movements improved by a large margin even if he didn't notice it.
Deflecting another strike from a knight Leo dodged a mace which was aimed from behind him. He distanced himself from the 3 knights that were attacking him. Two of the held swords, one of weapons was shattered, hence didn't posses a huge threat, but the other one was in top condition. The remaining knight held a mace which would probably send Leo flying in the distance if hit.
Wanting to avoid the free flight Leo put extra care in dodging the attacks from the heavy weapon. Dashing towards the knight without a weapon Leo evaded another mace hit and struck the weaponless skeleton in the face.
[ Undead { Skeletal Knight } Defeated...]
[ Reward +75Xp ]
Quickly retreating, Leo was forced to leave one of his daggers stuck in the knight's skull or else he would've been split in half by another sword.
Gazing at the other two opponents Leo chose to firstly take care of the swordsman. Enhancing his legs Leo pretended to dash towards the knight with mace. When the sword wielder saw Leo's movements it tried to sneak up behind Leo, but didn't think that its opponent would throw his only weapon when it was clearly dashing towards another target.
[ Undead { Skeletal Knight } Defeated...]
[ Reward +75Xp ]
[ Level 5 Reached ! ]
[ Magical Beast Rank { High } Stage Reached ! ]
Leo's eyes were shining in the darkness. He felt his body improve and opening the Status window he put every single additional stat point into strength.
_______________
Level 5; [ 45/500Xp ]
Strength 33 +
Agility 31 +
Defense 30 +
Mana 31 +
Stamina 31 +
Additional Stat Points: 0
_______________
Backing away and retrieving one of his daggers Leo turned to face the only knight left.
The skeleton didn't care that its allies died, it had no feelings. Holding the mace undead swung it at Leo.
Jumping backwards Leo felt shockwaves spread through air when mace hit the ground. Another dust cloud was raised obstructing everyone's vision. Leo tried to leave the cloud, but stopped in his tracks and thought about a better option. Circulating Mana in his eyes Leo looked around and caught sight of a dark Mana flow in the form of a knight.
Lowering his body Leo approached the knight from behind as quietly as possible. Leo specifically used only a minimal amount of Mana in case the skeleton could detect it. Unfortunately Mana wasn't the only thing undead could detect, they could also detect Life Force.
Every Living being on the planet has a Life Force. As alive beings feel repulsion and death stench coming from undead it's the same other way around. Undead can sense Life force.
Not expecting the skeleton to strike Leo was about to stab his dagger in its head, but knight suddenly turned its body and threw a punch at Leo's chest sending him flying 10 meters.
Vomiting blood Leo left a trail of red liquid while flying in the distance. He felt that his chest caved in and one of his lungs was pierced by a bone.
Cursing the skeleton Leo started channeling Mana in his body trying to at least suppress his inner injuries to an extent that he can defend himself.
' How can he detect me ? '
Leo cursed while slowly raising up his fatigued body. Leo was greatly injured and had thoughts to retreat to one of the abandoned houses and take cover. At first he needed to eliminate all the witnesses.
Raising his only weapon Leo used [ Superior Envelopment ] on his whole body, lowered his stance and bolted towards the undead. While approaching the knight, lightning particles were dancing on Leo's body making him look like a lightning bolt leaving trails of dust and white Mana behind him.
Clash...
Two weapons met, producing a loud sound which echoed in an empty vicinity. Leo's suppressed inner wound once again opened and he vomited a few mouths of blood. He didn't pull out of a clash and kept on pushing the mace away while spitting buckets of blood.
Clank...
Finally mace was moved out of the way and the knight's lower body was defenseless.
Quickly kicking the skeleton's legs Leo made it lose balance. While undead was stumbling backwards Leo threw his dagger at its right hand, immobilizing it and leapt on the top of the knight.
What awaited the poor skeleton was a harsh profession of a punching bag. It tried to strike Leo, but with only one hand left and close distance between them it couldn't swing the mace at him.
[ Undead { Skeletal Knight } Defeated...]
[ Reward +75Xp ]
Another system message appeared in Leo's sight. He felt dizzy. He needed to take cover. Quickly sealing his wounds with Mana, he applied medical herbs to outer wounds and made sure to change his bloody clothes, to not to leave any clues for other enemies. Pulling out the second dagger from the knight's skull Leo turned towards the houses.
Running through the streets he found a 2 floor house with a barricaded door and windows covered with planks. Jumping on the second floor balcony Leo tried to open the door, but they were locked. As quietly as possible he removed the wooden door from their hinges and fell face first on the floor losing consciousness.