Chapter 197: Undead Knight

“Stay back this time,” he told Reinera. He had been allowing her opportunities to practice against the stragglers, but this time he didn’t believe that would be a good choice.

Something was up ahead and it was very powerful. This wasn’t the usual undead they had been fighting. This was different. The aura it gave off demonstrated that this was something that was something he needed to take seriously.

Luckily, she didn’t try to argue with him, she appeared to trust his directions. Which he was thankful for. He didn’t think he would have the time to argue at the moment.

They were far away, but he could already tell that the monster had sensed them. Unlike its undead brethren, this one seemed to have a pretty good perception skill.

Without saying another word, he used [Armaments of the Arcane] to summon his armor around his body. He then created several large spikes that hung over his shoulder.

He felt that familiar thumping in his heart that came from facing a strong opponent. It excited him and he used that feeling to fuel [Sage of Savagery].

It rounded the corner and Julius was finally able to observe it with his eyes. It wasn’t a wolf this time, it was a large humanoid monster. It was like a knight out of nightmares, adorned in black armor and a ragged looking cape. Its flesh was already decayed and drooping from its skeleton, and it was lazily dragging a broadsword from behind it.

However, Julius didn’t relax seeing this. In fact, he was even more focused.

It was a good thing he was too, because he almost didn’t see it move until it was already on top of him.

Its broadsword that was lazily dragging behind it was now a swift blade of death as it tore through the air at his head.

Julius stepped back with [Flash Step] and watched as the blade missed his face by mere inches. The moment the blade passed by him, he dashed in with pistons on his fists.

This undead monster was somehow able to bring that massive blade back around and use it to parry his strikes with unnervingly impressive precision. Each parry was elegant and carried such strength behind them that they blasted his arms back more than he expected.

However, he didn’t allow it to get any breathing room. He didn’t want the undead to use its massive blade’s extra reach to keep him at a distance.

He did notice that the monster was releasing some sort of black miasma that was getting absorbed through his skin, but he dealt with it by using his healing skill. It was quite insidious though, this miasma was trying to eat through his flesh and his mana at the same time.

If he didn’t have his healing skills, he would have been in a lot of trouble.

After a minute of his furious assault and not getting anywhere, he decided to change things up. He took a step back and allowed the monster to counterattack. It didn’t hesitate to do so. It immediately tried to take the momentum and put him on the back foot.

Large and annoyingly quick slashes of the broadsword had Julius dodging. Whenever it wasn’t possible to dodge, he used an armored arm to knock the blow away. However, he didn’t want to rely on that.

The strikes of the monster were infused with a Concept of its own. He couldn’t tell what exact Concept it was but it ate away at his constructs an annoying amount of effectiveness. It forced Julius to use more mana to recreate more of his armor.

He had a feeling that this was how this opponent fought. It slowly ground down its enemies with its power and Concept until they had no more mana or stamina left.

He sent a few probing spikes at the monster but the monster either dodged them or smacked them aside with its sword. The few that did manage to nick it, didn’t seem to do that much damage. The decaying aspect of its Concept weakened the construct before it could damage it too badly.

He hated to admit it, but it was impressive.

Was it weird that he kind of wanted it?

He avoided another slash with a tilt of his head and had to block the follow-up backhanded swing. He was just about to send out an attack of his own to avoid getting overwhelmed when his eyes widened like saucers.

The strike that the undead knight sent out wasn’t like its previous attacks. This time it had activated a skill on its own. The skill made the blade split into several identical blades, all coming toward him with incredible speed.

What was interesting was that these shadowy blades weren’t just illusions. He was able to feel with his [Spatial Perception] that these blades were very much real.

He had no interest in blocking all of these strong attacks. One of them was bad enough, four of them though were more than he wanted to handle.

But the miasma that had been trying to leech into him changed how it was behaving. It no longer tried to poison him, but instead, it was fully committed to preventing him from moving.

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He let loose an involuntary laugh. Just like he had been using his kinetic energy against his opponents, however, this time it seemed like it was being used against him.

Touché, he thought toward the undead monster.

Still, that didn’t mean he just sat there and allowed it to happen. He ramped up Inexorable Resolve and he felt the miasma’s hold on him struggle to keep him in place but it was no match for his ridiculously strong will. After all, fighting against someone’s will was always easier than pressing your own against another.

Unfortunately, it was so well timed and he was unprepared for it that it allowed the blades of the knight to cut into his armor. It didn’t cut him in half, but it still broke through some of his armor and left gaping wounds on his chest.

He used [Flash Step] to get a lot of space and sent some spikes to delay the monster’s charge, before taking the time to heal his wounds.