The Black Necromancer

Leon quickly rallied a hundred millipedes, with their ranks solely consisting of the Soldier and Royal variants. Those were his strongest summons aside from Nedra, Kaladin, and Nero. After making sure that he was ready, he immediately set out in the direction that the humans had entered the town from.

.

.

Adrian frowned as he put away his twin swords. He turned to his teammates who held similar frowns of their own on their faces.

“An Undead creature?” Bella asked doubtfully, but there was no need for her to ask, as she had seen the kill notification for herself. “This might turn out to be harder than we thought.” Her lips were drawn taut.

“We can handle it. We came here prepared for this. We can’t back out now.” Malaki placed a hand on her shoulder, and she nodded slowly. They did come prepared. In fact, with their strength, she was sure that they could handle it, but there was this nagging feeling at the back of her mind that made her doubt their strength

Adrian sighed deeply and turned around. “Let’s keep heading in deeper.” He told his teammates, and when they nodded, he began leading the way. His senses were gunning at the max, and he was ready for a Specter to pop out from beneath any of the surrounding piles of rubble, but none did for the next few minutes.

Just as he was about to crack a joke to lighten the tense atmosphere, he heard something.

Tap tap tap.

He quickly raised a hand, signaling for them to stop.

“Did you hear that?” He asked and leaned forward, pouring his concentration into his hearing as much as he could.

Tap tap tap!

This time, he heard it clearly. Dozens of footsteps rushing straight at them rapidly!

“Shit, incoming!” He quickly stepped back, pulled out his swords, and warned his teammates in one smooth motion. His sharp red eyes darted around as he narrowed down on the direction that the creatures were coming from just before they came into sight.

Tatatatata!

The incessant sound of the drumming of legs turned into a raging rush as a wave of black chitin poured around the corner of a crumbled building. Adrian sucked in a deep breath in surprise when he saw the number of the creatures. The one that they had killed earlier had been at the bottom of D rank, and most of the millipedes here were the same kind as that one, with some stranger ones mixed in that gave off an obviously stronger aura.

Adrian stopped himself from stumbling back and steeled his heart, raising his glowing twin swords. It only took moments for the incoming millipedes to reach them, as they were obviously faster. Running was a pipe dream, so he had no intention to do so. In the few seconds that the millipedes had appeared, Malaki had already stepped up beside Adrian, with his shield glowing with a dark brown color.

“Ward!” He called out, and a brown bubble that tightly hugged their bodies popped out around the three. This was one of the skills that he had as a defense oriented fighter. His <Ward> skill would deflect fifty percent of the incoming damage for as long as two minutes if it was not completely overpowered by the incoming damage. It was extremely useful to their party of three.

In the next moment, the wave of black legs and chitin clashed against Malaki’s sturdy shield, forcing him back a couple of steps. Since Adrian did not have to meet them head on like his partner, he was able to maneuver a bit more, so he was not pushed back as much. His sword glowed with a red corona of light as he activated another skill, <Flurry of Swords>!

His hands and blades blurred at a pace that the human eye was not able to follow as they tore through the wall of millipedes before him. No blood was spilt, but he could feel the millipedes that he could disintegrate into a cloud of smoke a few moments after his blade left their bodies.

His <Flurry of Swords> skill was a rare skill that was made for dual sword wielders. It increased the damage of his attacks by as much as thirty percent, while also inflicting a [Burn] status to anyone unlucky enough to be pitted against it, which meant that it dealt a continuous damage!

Bella was a couple of feet behind her two male party members. A bright, holy glow surrounded her, spreading to her party members as they fought. She was channeling Holy Energy, the bane of everything Unholy, through their bodies. This Holy Energy dealt tremendous extra damage to the undead creatures that tried to overrun them, making it much easier for Adrian and Malaki to fight at their fullest strength.

After making sure that she could sustain the flow of Holy Energy, she turned to other matters. She was also a healer, so she wanted to make sure she did her job well enough to prevent her friends from dying.

Just as she turned to look at the situation, she felt the hair on the back of her neck raise, and hurriedly raised her staff, quickly casting a Wind Barrier spell.

Bzzt! Bam!

An explosion of dust, smoke, and lightning shook the walls of the buildings around them, throwing the two fighters up ahead into a temporary state of shock, which they quickly recovered from.

“Bella!” Adrian called out, worriedly. He would have thrown away what he was doing to check up on her if he did not still feel the constant flow of Holy Energy around him, which meant that she was still alive.

“I-I’m fine.” Bella’s shaky voice reached his ears as she cleared away the cloud of dust. Luckily, she had reacted in time and set up a wind barrier, or else, she would have been gravely injured by that sudden attack. She quickly looked around, her eyes taking only a few moments to spot the being she suspected of the attack.