Undead Wyvern

Everything the fire touched burned and became ash, even the Death Knight that was nearby William was no exception. The pillar of green flames soon stopped, and William was seen in the middle of the scorched area.

"Phew... that's a spicy breath you got there." William looked at the zombie wyvern.

William strapped his shield to his back. With one hand free took out another sword from the magic pouch tied to his waist. William took a stance as he gripped the handles of the two swords.

Bevok saw William starting to dual wield. He panicked and started to speed up the activation of the orb.

William wielded both swords as his figure blurred. He suddenly reappeared underneath the wyvern. He slashed twice, creating a crosscut in the belly of the undead beast.

Undeads are known to not have a sense of pain. This trait is what makes necromancers fearful in most parts of the continent. Just the thought about fighting against an army unafraid of pain with no regard for anything makes most people shudder in fear. The zombie wyvern is no exception in this aspect. William's attack didn't faze it one bit as it retaliated, trying to stomp the knight flat.

Naturally, William avoided it effortlessly as he attacked again. However, this time the attack didn't go through. The hard scales of the wyvern deflected his swords as a few sparks flew.

"Tch," William clicked his tongue as he avoided the wyvern's big maw from biting him.

William started to focus on attacking the soft underbelly of the zombie wyvern. More slash wounds appeared on the wyvern. William was creating bigger and bigger slashes, aiming to slice the wyvern's body in half as he dodges and deflects the wyvern's attacks, and when it attacks with its breath, William quickly blocks it with his shield.

Suddenly, something shot towards William along with a hissing sound. The sudden sneak attack almost caught William off guard, but he successfully rolled away to safety.

He glanced at the perpetrator. His eyes went wide. It was a big snake, black venom was dripping down its fangs as it hissed at him. It was a Black Naga, a 6-star monster. Its scales, eyes, and venom were pitch black, thus earning its name. However, that wasn't what made William surprised. It was because the Black Naga was attached to the rear of the zombie wyvern as if it was its tail. No, it WAS its tail.

'An undead chimera?', William identified the monstrosity immediately.

Chimeras, another study of magic that is considered taboo. Some even consider it more repulsive than necromancy, as it toys with life itself. Chimeras go against the religious belief of the majority of the inhabitants of the continent—that the act of mixing different creatures that don't match goes against the will of the Goddess of Creation, Alumeria. If one is caught practicing the forbidden art, immediate execution is the punishment. Some groups even torture the sinner first before killing them.

William clicked his tongue in disgust, "Bevok, you've gone too far!"

"Kuhahahaha!!! I'll anything to get rid of you!"

William brought his two swords together and took a stance.

"First Form of the Crimson Devil: Guillotine."

William's figure flickered and disappeared, instantly reappearing on the other side of the undead chimera. A split second later, the area where the Black Naga was attached to the zombie wyvern was cut, but not all the way through.

The Black Naga shot out its venom towards William. He dodged it easily but the wyvern used another breath towards William's trajectory.

'I won't be able to dodge this one..."

William grit his teeth as he constructed a shield made of Aura to protect him from the green flames. Any Aura user that's reached the Chromatic stage can shape their Aura and form simple constructs. As a Third Stage Aura user, William can naturally do this.

However, using this ability used up 40% of William's Aura reserves. The desperate situation caused William to clumsily make the shield construct. Coupled with the fact that he's a knight that is specialized in offense rather than defense, the situation caused him to overuse too much of his Aura.

"Damn... can't believe I made such a sloppy mistake. A zombie wyvern actually made me waste so much Aura. I'm definitely going to experience hell after this."

William dashed towards the Black Naga again, aiming to detach the 'tail' from the main body successfully this time.

"First Form of the Crimson Devil: Guillotine."

*WHOOSH*

William performed the same technique, and this time it completely sliced off and separated the Black Naga from the zombie wyvern. The Black Naga's body fell to the ground and started squirming around until it eventually died.

The zombie wyvern didn't seem to care as it opened its massive jaw. It was going to use its fire breath again, trying to burn William alive.

"Not this time."

William held one of his swords in a reverse-grip as he threw it towards the wyvern's mouth. The flying sword was still imbued with Aura despite leaving William's hand. The special characteristic of a 3rd stage Aura user allowed the sword to contain Aura, increasing its sharpness and strength as it pierced through the zombie wyvern's rotting but hard flesh.

The sword reached and shattered the zombie wyvern's mana core which served as its heart. With the mana stone gone, the zombie wyvern limped and eventually stopped moving. Its rotting corpse fell, causing the surrounding dust to rise from the impact.

"Kekekeke... it's too late William. That chimera has already bought me the time that I need!"

The inscriptions and runes on the surface of Bevok's orb suddenly stopped glowing. The orb rapidly turned from purple to black. It lost its shape and turned into a goopy liquid akin to tar.

"What the...?!", The black goop, as if it was alive, jumped towards Bevok's mouth trying to enter inside.

"GRaaAAaaahHH!!", Bevok gagged as he tried to scoop out the black liquid, but to no avail. The entirety of the black liquid successfully entered his mouth as it permeated throughout his undead body.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHH!!", Immense pain washed over Bevok as he fell to his knees.

'W-what is this!?! I'm already a lich. I shouldn't be feeling pain!!'

Bevok quickly lost his strength as he squirmed on the ground, the pain becoming more intense by the second. He felt as if every cell in his body was being pricked by hot needles countless times.

William noticed the strange scene. He couldn't help but be curious. However, before he could even get a chance to check what's happening

"...!!"

He suddenly felt an oppressive aura cover the battlefield like a wave. All of the undead stopped moving. Every zombie, skeleton, ghouls, wraiths, etc. all stopped. The sudden pause in the fight made everyone defending the city confused. They didn't have time to question what was happening though, as the oppressive aura reached them right after William felt it.

Similar to how the undead stopped in their tracks, the defending forces couldn't move as well. The oppressive aura struck fear in their hearts.

The undead horde started moving, this time however, they all went back to their master—Bevok—who stopped squirming on the ground. It seemed that the pain that befell him was gone.

Bevok would've been relieved to have been free from the pain, but he wasn't. That's because he's dead. Or at least his consciousness is, as an undead such as a lich is technically already dead.

His body started to transform into the black goopy liquid that entered his body before. His rotting flesh all the way to his bones. Everything turned into the black substance.

The undead that returned to where Bevok was dived into the black goop. The horde of thousands of undead assimilated into the black goop. The black goop started expanding in size with each undead that was devoured.

William freed himself from his stunned state. Warning signals kept going off in William's subconscious. Whatever that black goopy substance was, it definitely wasn't anything good. With his remaining sword, he immediately projected a blade of Aura towards the black goop.