Chapter 83: Attack of the Undead King(Part 10)

"Damn it, not again!" Exclaimed Aster, as the Undead King focused the forces he'd summoned onto him, Tacitus and Jules, driving them away from the area before he glanced across as Tilda came charging in towards him from the left, leaping forward and swinging her scythe across at him as she unleashed a cloud of dark mist to obscure herself from his sight.

He smirked in amusement as the scythe inflicted a deep slash across his chest, before he swung his arm across powerfully to blow away the dark mist, looking around as he lost sight of the Knight, before his head was suddenly lopped off as she snuck up behind him and whipped her scythe across at her neck, slicing right through and decapitating him.

His severed head turned to black smoke before rapidly growing back as he swung his left foot out behind him, slamming onto the middle of the handle of the scythe as she narrowly blocked the kick and got sent flying back several meters, her back slamming onto the ground painfully.

She skidded across the dirt before gritting her teeth and jamming the blade of her scythe into the ground to bring herself to a halt, before her eyes widened in alarm as the Undead King shot towards her and closed in on her in a matter of second, smirking malevolently as he met her gaze and began to drive his fist towards her.

She quickly whipped her scythe up, striking his wrist with the back of her weapon and deflecting its trajectory, his fist narrowly missing the top of her head before she spun the scythe across and slammed the bottom of the handle onto the middle of his torso, sending him stumbling back before she backed away warily.

"His offensive capabilities and speed are absolutely unreal., but defense and durability, setting aside his regeneration, are really low, lower than the average person's," She surmised, as she kept a cautious eye on him.

"I suppose I shouldn't mess around too much...yeah, I should kill you quickly, my forces won't keep the others at bay for long, so it'll be for the best that I kill you before they return," Remarked the Undead King, before he shot towards her rapidly.

She tensed up as he began to close in, before coming to an abrupt halt as a wall of earth rose up in front of him, before he turned his gaze up as a figure came swooping down towards him from the top of a nearby building, before a powerful, crushing force slammed onto the top of his head smashed it in, right as the ground below him opened up.

As the Undead King plummeted down, the ground swiftly slammed shut, crushing his body within the dirt.

"Jorel! How's the Vice-Captain!?" Called out Tilda, as she came jogging over.

"He'll be fine, he's just unconscious, that's all-...," He began to respond as he swung his axe across, before trailing off as the ground suddenly erupted open, an undead Dragon bursting out with a roar, with the Undead King on top of its head.

Jorel swiftly sprang back and raised several earth spikes from the ground around the Dragon, skewering its body and holding it in place as Tilda fired off a barrage of dark projectiles at the Undead King, who sprang off the Dragon as Jorel raced forward before extending an angled pillar of earth from below his feet, launching himself towards the Dragon as he raised his axe across, swinging it forward with immense force and slicing through the large undead creature's neck, decapitating it before his eyes widened in alarm as the Undead King leapt up straight towards him.

He quickly broke the earth pillar apart into dozens of razor sharp disks, before sending them shooting towards the Undead King while spinning rapidly, slicing him apart as they struck him.

Most of the severed pieces turned to smoke as he regenerated from his head, before Jorel extended out a rapid pillar from straight below him, slamming onto his legs and shattering them before launching him high up into the air, his body severely mangled.

As his injuries repaired themselves and he began to plummet back down, Jorel swiftly burst out another earth pillar with immense speed, slamming the Undead King straight back up into the air again.

"I think that's working, keep doing it!" Exclaimed Tilda, as she began to charge up a Spell.

"Yeah, that's the idea," Nodded Jorel, as he got ready to raise another earth pillar as the Undead King started to plummet again.

"[Piercing Darkness]!" Exclaimed Tilda, firing out a rapid beam of darkness, which struck the middle of the Undead King's torso and drilled through, tearing a hole through his body as he suddenly swung his arm across, right as Jorel rapidly raised another earth pillar, sending it barreling up towards him and striking his body with a powerful impact, launching him back up...before the Knights' eyes widened in alarm as his body suddenly turned to black smoke.

"Where did he...!?" Exclaimed Jorel as he looked around frantically.

"BEHIND YOU!!!" Yelled Tilda, Jorel stiffening up for a moment before quickly turning around, right as the Undead King closed in on him from behind.

He quickly swung his axe across as fast as he could, the blade striking the side of his neck and slicing through, tearing his head off before Jorel let out an agonized gasp of pain...as the Undead King's right fist slammed onto his stomach before tearing through his skin and flesh, bursting out his back as it shattered his spine.

"That was quite a clever move...but it wasn't good enough. I managed to sever a fingertip and throw it behind you right before that third pillar hit me, you should have been paying closer attention. Still, that wasn't a bad effort," Smirked the Undead King, as he violently pulled his arm back out, blood gushing out of the hole in Jorel's stomach as he collapsed onto his knees with a sharp wheeze.

The Undead King then raised his foot up high and slammed it down onto the top of the Knight's head, a loud, sickening crunch echoing out as he caved in his skull upon impact, before turning his gaze to his left as Tilda came charging towards him with an enraged look on her face.

"You'll pay for that, YOU BASTARD!!!" She snapped furiously, dark energy erupting around the blade of her scythe as she leapt forward and swung it down with all her strength.

He swiftly sidestepped to avoid it, the blade hitting the ground and getting lodged in, before he rapidly whipped his leg across towards her left side before she could pull the scythe back out.

She quickly took her left hand off the handle and unleashed a burst of dark energy, slowing down the swing of his leg before a loud crunch rang out as his leg slammed onto her arm, shattering the bones and severely fracturing her ribcage as she went flying across to her right, skidding across the ground painfully before coming to a screeching halt.

She gritted her teeth and tried to get back onto her feet, before collapsing as she coughed out blood with a sharp gasp, her vision blurring as immense pain throbbed across her left arm and side.

"By the way, in case you haven't realized it, the more injured you are, the more effective my Miasma becomes...your movements were already starting to steadily slow down, and the debilitating effects will only be compounded now. But don't worry...I'm more than happy to put you out of your misery!" Exclaimed the Undead King as he shot towards her, leaping forward as he closed in with a murderous grin on his face.

Suddenly, he lifted his gaze as an increasingly bright, fiery glow shone out, to see a massive blast of flames shooting towards him, slamming onto him and charring the front of his body black as he got blown away, hitting the ground and skidding away before getting back onto his feet with an annoyed sigh.

"You're back already, huh?" He frowned as he met Jules' gaze, an enraged look on her face as he thought to himself, "Tch, perhaps I spread my forces out too thin. A good chunk of their numbers ended up in locations that had been completely evacuated, I've summoned all the stronger ones among them here, but almost all of them have been wiped out at this point. The Homunculus has already incinerated about a quarter of the forces I brought to this city already, maybe I put too much focus on him. And to make matters worse, my forces in a few of the locations outside of this city have also been wiped out. Tch, it would appear as though I've underestimated the competency of the Mages of this era, and overestimated my own forces. I should've brought the entirely of my army to this city, what a grave miscalculation I've made."

"You bastard...you'll pay for this...," Uttered Jules venomously, as she cast a glance at Jorel's corpse and tightened her grip on the handle of her sword, trembling with rage.

"[Telekinetic Pull]!" Aster's voice suddenly rang out, before the Undead King found himself hurtling through the air to his left towards Aster.

He quickly summoned an undead Scythe Mantis a few meters in front of himself and away from the trajectory of Aster's Telekinetic Pull, before stretching out his arm as the Scythe Mantis swung one of its scythe-arms across, slicing a couple of fingers off the Undead King's hand, before his body turned to smoke as he rapidly regenerated from one of the severed fingers.

"I'll be damned if I let myself get too close to you ag-...," He began, before trailing off as his body was suddenly cut in two across his waist, along with the Scythe Mantis, as Tacitus appeared behind them and swung his blade across with immense force.

He then backed away as the Undead King regenerated and swung his fist back towards him, narrowly evading it as an intense gust of wind burst out from the swing of the Undead King's arm.

"Hold him off! I'll be back!" Called out Jules, as she lifted Tilda up in her arms and shot away.

"I'll admit, you did well to eliminate all the forces I summoned here as quickly as you did, and you appear mostly unscathed too, however...," Remarked the Undead King as Tacitus and Aster circled him while Jules retreated to tend to Tilda, before he continued as he glanced at Aster, "While you've managed to keep my Miasma at bay, you've obviously used up a lot of Magic Power by now, so even if you do manage to trap me in that Spell again, it won't last long, will it?"

"Why don't you come closer and find out?" He responded icily, while thinking to himself, "I hate to admit it, but he's right. I've had my Telekinetic Zone activate almost constantly this whole time, in order to take down his undead forces as fast as possible while also staving off the Miasma. I'm starting to get pretty low on Mana, I can't keep this up for much longer."

"Nice try, but no," He chuckled in amusement, before glancing at Tacitus and adding, "And as for you, with so much Miasma permeating the air, you've been significantly weakened. Do you really think you stand any chance of defeating me in that state? The fact that the both of you aren't rushing in to attack is all the proof I need that you're far from being at your best."

"You certainly are a cocky bastard, aren't you? Stop acting like you aren't afraid of us...you wouldn't have driven us away by summoning your undead forces if that wasn't the case," Came Jules' voice, as she leapt down from the top of a building, her feet hitting the ground with a thud, with intense flames swirling around her blade...

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city...

"Fuck, this is so annoying! Why are there so many undead shits in this area!? It's been forever since someone set off the signal flare, and we aren't even halfway through to the spot where it came from!" Exclaimed Lexia, as she stomped on the decapitated head of an undead creature with a frustrated huff.

"It's only been, like, fifteen minutes since we saw the flare...but I get what you mean," Replied Colt with a wry smile.

The two of them had begun to head in the direction the flare was set off in, intending to ignore the undead hordes in the area and rush straight to that spot, until they came across a group of civilians who hadn't managed to evacuate, cornered by a swarm of undead.

The group included children, so the pair couldn't bring themselves to ignore them, intervening and dispatching the undead...only to get swarmed by even more of them almost immediately afterwards.

They held off the undead to give the civilians an opening to escape, after which they proceeded to cut down the undead forces around them.

"This is the worst...we've wasted way too much time on the small fry, we need to hurry up and join the battle against the Undead King, or this won't end-...," Lexia continued to complain.

"Watch out!" Suddenly exclaimed Colt, as an undead Aeroraptor rapidly swooped down towards Lexia, her eyes widening in alarm as she'd let down her guard.

Colt quickly shot towards her as fast as he could, grabbing her and pulled her out of the way as the undead Monster closed in on her, one of the hooked claws on its feet slashing the top of his left shoulder before he swiftly whipped his right arm across, firing out a slashing wave of blood and slicing its head off.

"Whew, that was a close one. You okay?" He inquired as he glanced down at Lexia, nestled in his arms.

She gulped slightly as her heart skipped a beat, her face starting to heat up...

"Wh-what the hell, why...why is h-he so damn hot right now!?"

"Mm...this wound's pretty deep, it stings so good," He sighed contentedly, as he poked at the gash on his his shoulder.

"...yeah, never mind. Tch, what a waste, he's be so fucking attractive if he wasn't such a masochistic pervert," Lexia thought to herself as she let out a sigh of exasperation, before responding, "Stop messing around, hurry up and heal that already. We need to get moving, you jackass."

"As always, you're unmatched when it comes to verbal abuse," He grinned with a thumbs up.

"...please just stop talking."