Following up the tip of the spears that penetrated his flesh, Jiang Feng's eyes landed on the group of figures that attacked him as they sat upon their Undead Horses, the eerie blue fire still flaming at their hollowed eye socket.
Unwilling to believe what he saw, Jiang Feng looked further behind the group, on the ground where the pile of bones that he stacked up by killing the Undead Soldiers were supposedly at.
'It's gone!'
Facing the concrete evidence, Jiang Feng gulped as he had no choice but to accept the possible truth.
"Looks like they're not called the 'Undead Soldiers' for nothing after all." Jiang Feng said with a dry laugh.
Seeing how his 'dead' opponents were standing before him again, Jiang Feng immediately knew that his attack on them earlier was not effective. At least, not effective enough to kill the undead.
Despite so, Jiang Feng wasn't willing to give up. Gripping onto his sword with both hands, he rushed forward into battle again as his sword swung against the Undead Soldier on the furthest right of the group, forcing it to defend using the pole of spear.
However, this was exactly what Jiang Feng wanted.
The Undead Soldier was able to defend against Jiang Feng's attack, but it ended up falling onto ground along with its horse since Jiang Feng exerted a lot of strength behind the simple strike.
Following up with a barrage of attacks after the Undead Soldier stood up, Jiang Feng slowly pushed it away from the rest of the group. Of course, the other Undead Soldiers did try to attack him from the back again, but Jiang Feng was constantly alerted for it so no harm was done yet.
'Just how do I defeat these things? Normal attacks wouldn't work since they'll just come back 'alive' again, but what else do I have?'
While trying to takedown the Undead Soldier in front of him, Jiang Feng didn't stop finding ways to escape from his predicament. His eyes looked all over the 'body' of the Undead Soldier, yet except for the blue flames in the eye sockets, nothing else seemed different from a human remains.
Just then, the Undead Soldier deflected Jiang Feng's attack as it took the chance to follow up with another one. Jiang Feng acted quick on the change as he jumped back to create distance with the spear's tip, but it was quickly proven doing so wasn't the best choice.
Although he managed to create distance with the single Undead Soldier, he had forgotten that there was a group of it behind him trying to attack him since the start. The group of Undead Soldiers didn't let this chance go by either as they thrust their spears, aiming to leave Jiang Feng in holes.
Realizing his mistake immediately afterwards, Jiang feng arched his back like he was doing limbo as he turned. Seeing how three spears were only a hair away of succeeding to pierce his chest, he quickly extended his arms to the ground as they supported him to do a backflip.
His legs then went off the ground as it went on a trajectory to knock off the spears, but the Undead Soldiers were not going to allow that as they pulled it back in an instant, letting Jiang Feng to create distance between them again.
Now that the world no longer upside down for him, Jiang Feng quickly swung his sword to the back with it hitting something afterwards.
'I should have a few minutes until it joins back in to the fight.' Jiang Feng thought to himself as his attention shifted back to his front.
While he was awaiting for the group of Undead Soldiers to attack him, Jiang Feng looked at the pile of bones behind his foot through the corner of his eyes. Just as he thought it couldn't be anything else but a bunch of bones, a blue glow shining from the gaps between the bones caught his eye.
'What is that?'
Fueled by the desire to find out the origins of the blue glow, Jiang Feng wanted to search the pile of bones as he prepared to get down. But before he was able to do so, the spear of the Undead Soldier arrived right in front of his chest, forcing him to take a step back to defend.
As if the bones lack calcium, they broke into pieces right after Jiang Feng's leg landed on them. However, he was too bothered to care about such thing as he immediately advanced forward to pressure the Undead Soldier.
Unbeknownst to him, right after his leg lift off from the ground, the blue glow disappeared from human's sight as charred skull pieces were presented to the world.
…
Back to the battle.
After advancing forward to pressure the Undead Soldier, the other two and their leader, who had been staying at the back after regrouping, immediately came out to surround him from all sides. The original Undead Soldier that Jiang Feng was facing move to his left as it dodged an attack, with the leader of the group of Undead Soldiers now being at his front.
Although he was being pressured by his situation, Jiang Feng didn't want to give up just yet.
The leader of the group of Undead Soldiers raised its spear as the rest imitated its movements. It then thrust forward with an incredible speed as the tip neared Jiang Feng's heart, with the other spears already touching his skin.
Gritting his teeth, Jiang Feng steeled himself as his made the decision to dodge only the attack of the leader of the group of Undead Soldiers. However, an intense pain spread throughout his body immediately afterwards as two of the spears reopened his earlier wounds with the last piercing his right wrist, forcing him to loosen the grip on the sword.
"GAHH-"
Puking out a puddle of blood onto the floor, Jiang Feng tried to resist the numbing pain as his knees threaten to yield to his powerlessness. Despite knowing that he wasn't going to win against these monsters, Jiang Feng was still unwilling to let things end so.
He didn't want to die here, not in such a terrifying place where light cannot reach, people aren't aware of, and most importantly, he didn't want to be alone while facing his death.
"At least…I'll take one of you guys…down with me…even if…just for a while…"
Ignoring the pain from his wounded limbs, Jiang Feng straighten his knees as both of his hands held the sword's handle. Raising the sword high as he stepped forward, Jiang Feng approached the Undead Soldier in front of him as he hacked it down.
Since the spear of that Undead Soldier was still stuck inside Jiang Feng's body, the Undead Soldier couldn't defend itself as the sword hacked it down into a pile of bones, bringing the horse with it.
"Looks like I…succeeded." Jiang Feng said with a hoarse voice as he smiled weakly, his blood trickling from the corner of his lips.
Falling onto the ground lifelessly, Jiang Feng stared at the remaining Undead Soldiers. The leader was also staring at him, as if in deep thought while pondering.
In the end, it shook its head as it turned around and headed back to where he came from. The other soldiers also left while following behind their leader, leaving Jiang Feng all alone as he awaited for his death.
'I guess I failed the challenge.'
Seeing the Undead Soldiers heading back to where they came from, Jiang Feng closed his eyes as darkness started to creep towards him.
'What was I thinking? Those monsters can't die no matter how much I kill them, and yet I still thought I could defeat them as long as I don't give up. What a childish thought.'
Laughing at himself in silence, a smile formed on Jiang Feng face as his determination starts to become one with the surrounding darkness.
'Well, I suppose it's time I give up now. At least I took one down with me, even if it's only for a short while.'
Raising his head, Jiang Feng struggled as he tried to lift his eyelids that were abnormally heavy at the moment. He wanted to look at the Undead Soldier that he 'killed' right before falling down, as if it could glorify his death as a mortal.
After mustering all his strength to open his eyes, the first thing he saw was the skull of the Undead Soldier. An urge to laugh rose in him when he thought of how he didn't want to die alone, yet he already no longer had the strength to laugh.
'Hmm? What's that?'
Through the hollow eye sockets of the skull, Jiang Feng saw the eerie blue flame floating mid-air within it. Its flames were like hope to the lost ones, beautiful and mesmerizing to those being embraced by the hands of death.
Mustering his last ounce of strength, Jiang Feng dragged his hand towards the skull as his fingers were raised just to touch the eerie blue flame.
'How…pretty…..'
Closing his eyes as his consciousness was consumed by death, the last ounce of strength in his fingers was expensed as they fell onto the flame.
Just then, a wave of ripples spread from the center of the room as it struck the leaving group of Undead Soldiers, knocking them off from their horses except their leader. However, the leader couldn't said to be fine as it turned around immediately, staring at Jiang Feng's dead body.