Royal Guard (1)

In the present modern times, although the Royal Rule of Imperialism have basically been phased out of existence in favor of governments, that didn't mean that noble bloodlines haven't existed to this day.

The most prominent example of this is Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom who still hadn't perished.

But if we leave the Queen's apparent immortality aside, as a member of the Royal Family they required guards to assist in their safety to prevent assassinations and the like.

In current times, the Royal Guard were mostly relegated to protecting the grounds that the royal family lived on alongside escorting them to their destinations.

The same could be said for the past of course with the only difference being the usage of Cold and Hot weapons.

I don't recall the Royal Guard in the past could conjure up windstorms just by swinging their blade really really fast though.

I also recall that if you were sick with the plague you were denied the chance to even apply for the Royal Guard.

I definitely recall that you couldn't join the guard if you were dead since you were well... dead

How the times change I guess.

Now as I faced the seven undead malaise infected monsters that could generate mystical phenomena just by moving their bodies, the wind generated from the windstorm slowly died down.

And as it did, I noted that orange eyes flashed underneath that purple cloak of theirs.

'Now how do I survive this?'

You may have realized this already but I liked keeping my life

But since the undead also liked my life, I was forced to fight for it.

Safe to say that it isn't easy when every single one of the undead that roamed around here could output abilities equal to or greater than the whirlwind just now.

Especially the big handed idiots that generated miniature earthquakes with their punches.

And the cannon men that shot out explosions roughly equal to the force generated from half a stick of dynamite

And the archers that could fire off three arrows a second

And the spear guys that could stab straight through shields like marshmallows

This place was one I didn't want to overstay my welcome.

And since I wasn't welcomed in the first place I should run right?

Wrong

'Since I've already overstayed my welcome, better make my unwelcome a memorable one.'

Besides, I couldn't find the answers I seek if I just ran away from this problem in front of me.

'I can just return from death later.'

Feeling the pull of the whirlwind weaken significantly, my mind flashed with various possibilities before letting go of my grip on the sword in my hands.

I had many spares thanks to the Golden Orders generosity.

Armor as well although it was mostly mismatched to my size and uncomfortable.

Flying through the air borrowing the momentum from the weakening air currents, I reached into my inventory and equipped all of the armor stol- *Ahem, Borrowed from their previous owners onto the armor slots.

Blue armor with golden highlights instantly covering my body, although the lack of a helmet was concerning since it contained my very important head, I'll probably survive.

'I still wonder why I couldn't pry those masks off of their heads.'

They were rather durable despite their crystalline structure but they stuck to their wearer's heads like gorilla glue

Still flying through the air, the Spear wielder who seemed to have noticed my intent pulled their spear out of the ground and was set on letting me fly straight into the tip of their blade.

And although I was curious how well their armor would bode against their weapons, I wasn't stupid enough to take it flying up.

Especially since I could test it another way

Bringing out one of their own spears while flying through the air, using an application of mana thruster technology I spun to the side and hit the flat end of the blade

Pirouetting through the air, the edge of the spear head aligned nicely with the flesh of big fist who despite their sizeable fist reacted quickly.

Gauntleted hand clasping around the spear, it let out a grating sound, like nails across a chalkboard

Letting go of the spear for the sake of my eardrums I fell to the ground and pulled out another sword dissimilar in shape to the one I had just abandoned earlier.

Heavy jagged edge slicing through the air it crashed against the broad shoulders of big fist just as the other undead began to react.

Bombardier couldn't unleash his hail mary unless he wanted to harm his own so for the time being he was just set on all fours aiming the end of the cannon at me.

The Undead Archer royal guard variant on the other hand had no such qualms due to the fast and small nature of their arrows.

If only the force behind the arrows was as light as it looked.

*TwanG!

String snapping against their forearm guard the arrow blitzed through the air in preparation of skewering my neck.

I'm happy to state that I've since learned ways to combat these gunshot like arrows

Roughly pointing my hand to my chest, my thumbs pointing to my face and my pinky pointing away, I made a grasping motion and manifested a blade into existence.

'Hello big guy.'

Using an exact one to one replica of Mister tiny tornadoes sword, the flat side of the blade was dented notably when the sword collided against its surface.

But hey, better a chunk of metal than my face amiright?

'Hmm...'

Well it was certainly better than those flimsy tank shells that could be pierced by sub-machine rounds.

Cheapening equipment for the same price was a very business like mindset.

A very looked down upon one, but what could the dead do? Complain?

(I feel like I went off on a tangent there... Back to the fight)

Ignoring those random thoughts in my head, the sword in my hand went back into the ether where it would return to its original form at a lower durability.

They did shatter like glass at lower durabilities however.

But even shattered glass had its uses.

Except now the glass are made of metal.

Like now.

Opening my inventory without a second thought, my eyes scanned the list of weapons with red bars underneath and picked out a pair of daggers that I had been using since their appearance in the sewers.

Picking them up, my fingers latched onto the hilt of the blade where I tossed it into a half spin.

All those dart throwing contests with increasingly weird objects was now paying off.

Sending the edge of the blade sinking deep into the chest of the undead archer, being undead, the hit didn't really hurt the skeleton, but it did briefly immobilize it.

Just enough time for me to reposition myself besides the other undead so that they could serve as emergency meat shields.

Undead were surprisingly good in this regard despite the lack of meat.

Turning around, a spear darted to my face causing my knees to bend as I went parallel to the ground.

Now facing a giant face heading for my solar plexus mana instantly gathered at the soles of my feet as I kicked off of the ground.

Kicking off of the air, in that state I instantly did away with my strategy of using the undead as my meat shields as I was now exposed in open air.

But hey, better be exposed to more danger than to become a pancake from immediate danger.

The miniature earthquake produced by the fist alone was terrifying, I didn't want to become the direct recipient of it.

Flames kindling on my hands as the blaze and inferno runes activated, goosebumps rose on the back of my arms as the time rune activated.

Time speeding up my mind and eyes, the light entering my eyes were instantly transmitted to my brain through synapses

'I seem to have forgotten the two black cloaked figures I was initially chasing.'

Appearing out of the ether, twin daggers raced towards my eyes as if seeing who could pick out my eyes first.

And although I was flattered to be a part of the competition, I wasn't flattered enough to give up my eyeballs.

Since I was still flying through the air I could probably avoid losing my eyeballs.

But since I had been ignoring the black cloaked undead for some time now, they had gotten to close for comfort.

Meaning I was going to have to give up something whether I liked it or not.

Good thing my shoulders were now armored.

'Time to test out the skills of the islands blacksmiths.'

Then time resumed its normal pace

Still flying through the air, a second fast boost of mana at my knees sent reverberations through my legs and feet.

It was clumsy, but it was better than nothing.

Twisting my body around in the air, the twin daggers collided with my shoulder blades causing a clear ding like a bell being struck to ring out.

Safe to say my shoulder didn't appreciated being rung like a bell.

"Ugh!"

Biting down on my teeth, the assassins who were still as dead as ever backed off the instant that their daggers laid edges against my shoulders instead of my eyeballs.

And I soon found out why.

There were seven undead in total, guess who I hadn't been mentioning?

Correct.

Its Mister explode them all because someone bolted a cannon into my spine.

And now the once empty barrel was glowing pink with energy sparking at its insides.

'Ah Hell.'

The pink orb flew through the air.

+++

Math is hell

What the hell does:

Find K = 4.5 from

(K-4)x^6 - 4x^3 + (k-1) mean

Please tell me for the love of God

There's literally no other info than this

Tree that for the life of him wishes that there was more time to take the exams.