The Ruined Death Knight

Staring at the dark knight in front of her, Naomi\'s eyes flickered.

"I-It can´t be, Sumire, tell me! Tell me that I am the only one seeing that.

She yelled as she pointed her staff towards the corpse that had his skull crushed, one that had his hand and neck sliced up, and lastly at a corpse that had his chest withered up.

"Tell me that those aren´t Jack, Bernard, and Serras!"

"...Naomi, focus. Now it isn´t the time to-"

"Focus!? You telling me to focus when I am seeing this!?"

Biting her lips with her eyebrows bending down, Sumire stared in front of the dark knight with mana flaring in her eyes.

"Keep it together Naomi! We first got to deal with the one that did this."

Staring at them solemnly, Danzel tilted his head to the side.

"By any chance, did you guys really not think that such a situation could occur?"

"Shut up!"

Without paying a need of the blonde-haired girl, Danzel continued.

"Although you guys coming to help those guys from a fate that has already been decided could be considered brave, in my eyes you guys are fools. Idiots who were blinded by greed."

"What-!"

"You guys witnessed my power and what I was capable of and yet you two still decided to come after me."

"I admit that facing the five of you together would probably lead me to my defeat. But the moment your front line and backline have separated, the result should have been obvious by now, right?" Danzel said as the mana that he guided while talking surrounded his body.

Dashing forward, he released his killing intent.

Seeing that he was coming at, the two raised their staff and were about to cast their magic.

\'First the weaker one...\' Raising his palm, mana traveled through the ground towards Naomi\'s location.

Sumire who sensed the man widens her eyes.

\'This guy..!\'

Slamming her staff to the ground, she moved the ground between her and Naomi\'s to the opposite side.

"Sumire! What are you-" 

Suddenly, a wall made of stone raised up sideways in the exact location where Naomi stood.

Seeing that Naomi halted what she was about to say and imagined what would have happend if she was in her previous location.

\'This bastard, how does he come up with stuff like that!? Using a defense spell like that!\'

"He is too dangerous..." Sumire said, but when she saw in the direction he has a heading and the wall separating her and Naomi, her eyes widen even more in shock.

\'His aim from the beginning was Naomi!\'

"Naomi! He this targeting you!"

Guiding her mana towards the ground, she pointed her staff at Danzel.

Danzel who was waiting for the moment where a slight shift of the ground happens used his skill [Leap] and jumped forwards.

As soon as his feet left the ground, the ground itself was pulled back and the shift only stopped at the 20 meters range.

Of course, that didn\'t affect Danzel at all as he was in mid-air.

"I have already seen this trick!"

Planting his feet to the ground once again, one charged at the magic caster who started to gather flames around her staff.

"Tch, that damned wall!" Sumire cursed as the stone wall was blocking her sight.

\'I got to help Naomi!\' She thought as she sprinted in the back end of the wall.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, Danzel stared at the fireball that turned almost as big as the other one he received.

\'I am too far...\'

As he thought of how to interrupt her from casting, an idea came into his mind.

Casting internally the spell while running, two ethereal blue arms made of mana appeared in front of the magic caster.

Observing how she was holding her staff, Danzel internally commanded the two arms to push at each end of the staff.

Naomi who had her entire focus on casting as fast as she could felt a sudden pull from her staff.

With her hand twisting around while the two arms were pulling, she let her staff fall to the ground.

"No-!"

Seeing her spell going out of control without the support of her staff, in desperation she pushed her two hands near the ball of flames and continued casting.

"Mhmmmh!" 

With burn marks appearing in her delicate skin, she pushed through the pain as she knew that if stopped her spell she would be as good as dead.

\'Although a bit delayed, It\'s finished!\' Naomi celebrate internally as she saw Danzel still being 8 meters far away.

"Burn into crisp, you bastard!" Pushing her fireball forward ready to release it upon Danzel, her ears picked a wind-cutting sound that she was too familiar with.

*Fseeeeeen!

\'This sound-\'

The next moment, the fireball that she had in front of her appeared in her eye to be expanding towards her face.

Without being able to make a sense of that sudden change, out of the flames, a dagger appeared flying directly towards her face.

*Crack!

"Why do you have...Jacks... Dagger...?"

With a dagger penetrating her face, she fell to the ground before releasing her fireball above Danzel\'s head and managing to hit the corner of the stone wall.

Seeing her now dead lying to the ground, Danzel wanted to pet himself to the shoulder for managing to actually hit her.

\'Good thing that I didn\'t throw those daggers from my back before.\'

Honestly, when he saw her putting her arms on the flames he got flashbacks at his fight versus the goblin shaman.

Though he has gotten much stronger and tougher than before, if he were to face that fireball once against at his range made, even he wouldn\'t come unscathed.

Or in his case intact.

Coming around the corner of the stone wall, Sumire stared in shock at him and the now-dead Naomi.

"You!"

With anger boiling inside of her, she started casting with only one intent.

And that was to kill him.

Like an alarm warning him inside his head, Danzel moved to the side, avoiding a spike that would have impaled him.

"Too slow..." Without letting that stop him, he rushed forwards aiming for the kill.

"Die!"

With multiple earth piles floating around her, they soon turned in a form of a needle and we\'re short forwards at Danzel.

Activation his skill [Vanguards Defense], he blocked the flying needles with only one scratching his helmet before he arrived in front of Sumire.

\'Got you!\'

Swinging Veren sideways, the blade was about to cut through Sumire\'s body.

But unexpectedly, Sumire bent her body back and fell to the ground, managing to avoid Danzel\'s swing with only a small cut to be made in her collar bone.

Breathing heavily, she invited her mana to the ground and shifted her and Danzel to the opposite sides.

"Huff, Huff, you monster..."

Danzel, instead of reacting to the fact that he targeted him moved away, he stared intensely at the magic caster in front of him.

\'Did she dodge my swing by intentionally or was it luck...?\'

Although Danzel hasn\'t met many magic casters before. The few that he did had a common thing.

They were physically weak.

Although they were special cases like that arsonist Rapha who used both sword and magic. 

The magic caster currently in front of him was clearly only using magic.

\'No, it wasn\'t by luck. Since she began her spell mind fall, she must have planned this.\'

Growing more warry of her, he raised his pal and castes the curse of decay upon her.

But as he was about to finish his cast, he stepped to the side to side the spike, while interrupting his cast.

"You despicable guy, are you thinking of running away after you cursed me!"

Staying silent for the moment, open his status and looked at his remaining mana.

\'Only a bit more of 400 mana left...\'

Although it was quite enough, Danzel didn\'t decide to risk it.

With her spells being able to create distance between him while attacking him at the same time.

He became worried that a statement would occur, in which he in the end would be out of mana while she was not.

Though cursing her and just standing far away would guarantee her death.

If she used her time to run back and warn the people working in the forest about him.

Although he could probably kill most of the \'made witness\'.

He still had to calculate people with carriage and other mercenaries or soldiers nearby.

\'If I let her go warn the others I can already say goodbye to Nercana and I will be forced to move somewhere else.\'

\'But if I were to kill her here I can continue staying in Nercana have the resupply from Honor.\'

Though he came here determined to already leave Nercana.

Since none of the bounty hunters except for that mag caster in front of him are now dead. 

The hope of still staying in Nercana was there.

Although his safety was the biggest priority, he didn\'t want to needlessly was his time building a new place to stay and figure out a supply for his runesmithing.

\'If I haven\'t killed her after the use of 300 mana then I will just curse her and get out of here.

Stepping forward, he made his choice.