Chapter 133: Necromancer
Raven and Marcellus entered the ruined town as the battle on the outskirts of the town concluded.
The cobblestone road was broken into debris, and some houses had collapsed entirely, while a few were barely standing, their rooftops missing.
"Bell tents?" Marcellus noticed many tents pitched in the town square and furrowed his brow.
"It seems they have been staying here for quite a while," Raven muttered, gazing toward the center of the ruined town where the mansion was.
"What were they doing in this place for decades?" Marcellus asked.
"No idea." Saying so, Raven first took out two potion vials and put them into his coat pocket.
Then, he took the spear from the inventory and started practicing spearmanship. Sometimes he would run ahead and thrust the spear; sometimes he moved to the side before executing a whirling stance, and so on. Every action of his seemed strange and funny, leaving Marcellus puzzled.
"What are you doing, my lord?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Preparation." Raven suddenly thought of something and added, "If I shout 'Nightfall,' run in a different direction."
Marcellus nodded.
"But will the enemy come here? Should we go meet them?" he asked while looking at the mansion.
"Don't worry. He will come here soon," Raven said as he continued to practice spearmanship.
Just as he had expected, Marcellus noticed someone walking from the direction of the mansion.
No, it felt like he was moving toward them like a flash of lightning.
'No good! He's moving twice as fast.' He barely kept up with his speed.
"He is here, my lord," Marcellus said solemnly.
Raven stopped his movement and turned to look at the enemy.
A middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache stood twenty meters away and looked at them coldly.
"Ha, they couldn't even do a single job properly." A deep sigh escaped the man's mouth.
'I didn't even sense his presence!'
Raven frowned deeply and asked, "Are you Jared Duskbane?"
His question surprised Jared.
"Oh? How did you know my name?" Jared gave Raven a surprised look and soon shook his head. "Forget it." He wasn't bothered by Raven's question.
At that moment, Marcellus had already unsheathed his sword, coating it in a reddish aura.
"An Expert Rank Swordsman? This is indeed a surprise." Jared's gaze grew sharper.
"Arise!"
As soon as he spoke, multiple magic circles appeared on the broken cobblestone road and shone red.
A moment later, over a dozen skeletons armed with weapons, iron armor, helms, and boots appeared before them. They slowly stood up and started emitting fierce reddish light from their eye sockets.
'Skeletons? As I thought, he is a necromancer.' Raven's face turned grim.
Among them, two skeletons appeared to be around 2 meters tall, and even their bones looked reddish.
Raven adjusted his monocle and soon squinted his eyes.
"Expert Rank undead?" Although those two undead skeletons only had the strength of around beginner-level Expert Rank, Raven felt threatened by their cold stares.
As for the rest of the undead skeletons, they all had strength around the Radiant rank.
Marcellus instinctively stepped forward and unsheathed his sword. A cold glint flashed in his eyes as he studied the group of undead.
"Leave the Expert Rank ones to me," he said calmly. "You deal with the Radiant ones, My Lord."
Raven nodded without hesitation.
The moment the two experts surged forward, Jared lifted his hand.
"Grave Fog."
A wave of dark mist oozed from the cracked earth, spreading rapidly and swallowing the town square in seconds. Vision blurred, but Raven's eyes adjusted to the fog, filtering the density. At that moment, his [Mind Eye] skill could accurately observe over a 20-meter radius.
Shapes moved in the fog—unnatural, jerky movements.
A skeletal knight lunged from the side, its rusted axe swinging toward his neck.
Raven ducked before sidestepping.
The next second, Ice Breath shot out in a sharp arc from his mouth, freezing three skeletons mid-charge into statues of brittle frost. Then, he gripped the silver spear, made a whirling stance, and shattered them while covering its edge with a yellowish aura.
"Elapsed Illusion."
An illusionary double of Raven dashed to the right, mimicking his past movement from earlier. Half the skeletons turned toward it, mistaking it for the real Raven.
Meanwhile, Marcellus met the first Expert Undead head-on.
The towering skeleton slammed its blackened greatsword down, sending a shockwave through the broken cobblestones. But Marcellus vanished in a flicker of red.
"Step Slash."
With a blur, he appeared behind it, his blade tracing a crimson arc across the skeleton's back. Sparks and bone fragments flew. The second undead charged, but Marcellus spun mid-air and clashed blades—Iron Guard flickered over his body, deflecting the blow.
Marcellus quickly landed on the ground and started moving again.
Meanwhile, Jared frowned while looking at Raven.
"You're fast," he muttered. "But speed alone isn't enough."
He raised a hand, and a red rune circle glowed beneath Raven from the cracked earth.
"Corpse Beacon."
Three skeletons burst out from beneath Raven's feet.
Raven smirked as he took a step back and vanished.
It was the Shadow Teleport spell!
The next second, Raven reappeared behind Jared.
At the same time, his face started to twist and form into the appearance of Raven's true face!
Then, a slit-like eyelid opened vertically on his forehead, revealing a golden eye filled with reddish lightning sparks.
A spiraling lightning ray, aimed directly at the necromancer's head, blasted forward.
Jared's smile faded as he cast a spell in a panic.
"Grave Shield."
From the mist, dozens of skeletal arms rose and formed a shield wall of cursed bone.
The Eye's beam pierced three layers—shattering the outer shields—but stopped short of Jared.
"F*ck," Jared cursed, retreating into the fog.
"I'm gonna kill you," he cursed.
"Wail of the Damned."
Raven's heart skipped a beat, and an echoing, ghostly shriek erupted from the undead skeletons. His lungs seized, and his limbs slowed.
Even Marcellus faltered briefly as he heard a strange screech from the two Expert Rank undead skeletons.
But the swordsman gritted his teeth. Blood flowed down from his bitten lip.
"You'll have to scream louder than that."
His sword lit up in a glowing red arc.
He bisected one of the Expert skeletons with a full-body rotation—its bones flew apart, clattering across the fog.
But Raven wasn't in good shape due to the screech and staggered.
At that moment, a skeleton came behind Raven and exploded.
It was the Necromancer's Corpse Explosion spell!
The death energy rocked the area. Raven slid back across the debris, coughing blood.
More explosions followed as Jared laughed.
"I can make them all explode, you know."
"And I can end you with this." As he spoke, more skeletons came from the fog and encircled Raven.
There were a total of seven Radiant Skeletons!
Raven stood, blood dripping from his chin, and thrust his spear forward. Intermediate Spear Aura enveloped the spear edges.
The air around his weapon cracked as ice and a yellowish aura merged, forming a condensed aura point.
The Radiant skeletons charged at him, but Raven grinned.
At that moment, he took two potions from his coat and gulped them in one go.
Raven felt his muscles and bones harden the next second. What shocked him more was that his blood flow started to rise higher. What shocked him more was how his blood surged with intensity.
Simultaneously, his Mind Eye spell activated on its own, enhancing his thinking process multiple-fold.
His strength and agility rose from Intermediate Rank to Peak Radiant Rank in a blink!
He slowly opened his mouth and cast the [Ice Breath] spell, freezing all the skeletons marching toward him.
Then, he made a sweeping stance and slashed at the skeletons.
All the skeletons turned into broken bones covered in ice.
But Raven had no time to relax as he saw Jared start moving toward him at an incredible speed.
'I'll die if I get caught.' A thought crossed his mind.
But instead of running away, he made a deep wound using the spear and let a few drops of blood fall.
"Poison Mist." He spoke coldly as the invisible bloody mist came from the blood and started mingling with the greyish fog.
Then, he looked in the direction where Marcellus was and shouted.
"Nightfall."
Marcellus, meanwhile, finished off the second Expert skeleton with a Piercing Thrust through its skull and nodded.
Then, he started running away toward the fogless area.
On the other hand, Raven also turned into a streak of shadow and vanished.
A moment later, he reappeared more than 100 meters away from where he was before and looked at the fog-covered area with wariness.
"You good?" Marcellus asked as he ran from the right side while holding the sword.
"Still breathing," Raven rasped, gripping his spear.
The fog began to recede. Jared stood with one hand clutching his chest.
"You… pest. What did you do?" His eyes were reddish, and blood was oozing out of his nose and ears.
"We're not done," Raven said, slowly raising his right hand.
"And we're not alone." As he spoke, he pointed his hand at him, made it look like he was holding a gun, and muttered.
"Bang."
As soon as he spoke, an ear-piercing bang came from the town wall, followed by a rippling shockwave.
Before Raven and Marcellus could even blink, a powerful bullet directly landed on Jared's forehead and shattered his head like a watermelon.
Even the headless body was flung backward due to the sheer force of the bullet and crashed onto the nearby house wall.
"That was a perfect shot," Raven muttered as he lowered his hand and sat on the ground.
…