The Ruined Death Knight

It was hard to miss the over 20 people flying right towards their destination.

The knights which were for the most part of the 2nd-tier couldn´t even tell if those figures were either birds or an illusion created in their minds.

But that wasn´t the case for the mercenaries.

Those who had their senses enchanted could clearly see that those figures were wearing blue robes with a white mask that had a horizontal blue line. One could wonder how those people were capable to see with a mask like that.

The fact that they were capable of using flying magic hinted at them being magic casters. The only thing that was unusual compared to your normal magic caster was that instead of holding a staff in their hands, they instead carried metal spikes in their hands.

Seeing them coming, Danzel sheathed his sword while feeling awkward.

`Although my long-ranged skills did improve by upgrading them and became faster than before, I doubt I will be able to threaten those magic casters guessing by their flight speed.´ Danzel thought to himself.

Even if he was a powerhouse that could usually dominate others of the same tier as him, at the end of it his main weakness was the fact that he was helpless against magic.

Sure, he could tank some of the spells directly thanks to the barriers created by his 2 [Rune of Force] together with the new skills [Armor of Vengeances] and [Undying Guard].

Though that was the case, he would rather not face spells head-on like a meatshield.

While he was thinking about how to deal with the incoming magic casters, he suddenly heard something beside him.

*Krrgg~

Turning to see the source of that sound, Danzel saw the elve archers drawing her bow and aiming at the incoming enemies.

`Don´t tell me she is going-´ Before he could even finish his thoughts, Sarah released the string of her bow and shot the arrow directly at the magic caster's reaction.

*Boooh!

The nearby dust was raised and the arrow pierced and traveled at the speed of sound, if not faster.

The arrow easily closed the distance of 7 kilometers and reached the front of the magic caster who tried to dodge the arrow but failed in the end.

Seeing that, Sarah couldn´t help but show a proud grin on her face, it was as if she was saying "You see how good I am? Now praise me!".

"See that? Feel free to praise my skills!" She was even shameless enough to say those exact words, making the druid and rogue cringe internally.

The next moment though when she changed her gaze towards the incoming mages, she expected one of them to be falling with an arrow pierced through his skull.

What she saw though was a barrier surrounding the magic caster that was s strong enough to stop the arrow.

"Tch, a barrier spell." Sarah groaned before preparing the next shot.

There she was gloating when in actual fact her enemy managed to block her arrow. That alone made her feel temperament and angry.

Danzel knew better though immediately saw something wrong with the magic caster.

The way the magic caster reacted and the lack of mana around him indicated that the magic caster tried to dodge instead of casting his spells.

And seeing how quickly the barrier manifested around the magic caster, Danzel understood what just happend.

`Those guys seem to enjoy my products, huh?´

Of course, Danzel was talking about the products that he made in his time in the Arcana kingdom when he was working with the shadow merchant Hanson.

Back then he mainly carved runes into various chest plates which Hanson traded into the army of the Arcana kingdom. Of course, he also supplied some other runes, but for the most part, the [Rune of Force] was the most popular one.

When Danzel saw the barrier, he was almost certain that it was his runes effect.

`They probably hide the armor under their robes...´

And as Danzel guessed, it was exactly as he thought.

The magic caster flying towards them did indeed hide their runed chest plates under the robes

Wherever Sarah destroyed one of the magic caster barriers, then the magic caster in question will move right behind someone who didn´t use his barrier yet. Making things extremely annoying for Sarah.

Using this exact method, the magic caster didn´t take them long to arrive above them with not a single casualty.

And being in complete Syncro, they all raised their palms towards them and created a magic circle.

Observing their aura the others realized that the enemy was only of the 2nd-tier.

And yet the threat was still there.

In a split second, several large fireballs were shot at all the knights and mercenaries.

Wilhelm in turn had enough time to finish one of his spells.

"[Arcane dome of Protection]!" With the magic circle under his feet expanding and covering all the knights, the mana formed a huge barrier protecting everyone from their side.

Once the fireballs hit the barrier, several explosions accurate outside the barrier.

Such a feat for a single man to accomplice was worth enough praise, but alas such a feat didn´t come without a cost. Not only did the spell spend 60% of all his mana but also made the magic caster feel mentally strained as he forcibly expanded the spell to protect the knights under his command.

Once the barrier was down, Danzel didn´t stay idle for long.

Casting a total of 3 [Greater Death Blast] and guiding his mana into the longsword. Danzel send a total of 3 [Soul Reaping Wind] and 3 balls of dead mana towards the magic casters.

Sarah also reacted accordingly and aimed toward the ones that had already their barrier broken.

Albeit some of them managed to dodge the incoming attacks, some magic casters found themself either having a large hole through their chest from Sarah's arrow or screaming in pain from having their flesh melt by the assault of the dead mana balls. Although for the latter there was only one unlucky guy who was hit but still managed to survive because of the spell's lack of power.

The most lethal of such assaults were the dark green wind blades.

Even though the arrows were much faster, the length of the wind blade was much greater and more lethal.

The two who were hit by such wind had a large chunk of their body removed while a dark green. The weirdest thing about this was that for a split moment, the missing chunk of flesh appeared with a dark green light.

Then the dark green light was pushed backward, out of the magic caster's body before disappearing in an instant.

The magic caster didn´t pay for such detail and considered their allies as dead men. A total of 6 men were eliminated by Danzel and Sarah before the magic caster started to prepare their next spell.

Originally there were a total of 22 magic casters, but now only 16 remained.

Half of them seemed too prepared for another assault of fire magic while the other half dived straight to the ground in a circle formation, but the dive wasn´t targeted towards them but several meters away from them.

Seeing such a weird action, Danzel felt suspicious and dashed toward them.

But before he could reach them, a barrier appeared in front of him, forcing him to halt his steps.

Just like before, Wilhelm used a smaller version of [Arcane dome of Protection] around himself and some of the knights. With only 2 thirds of the fireballs coming their way, most of the knights were protected, but since the fireballs were cast to cover the whole area, some knights found themself being engulfed in flames.

`Wasting his mana for such a thing...´ Danzel thought before turning to see the other half of the magic caster who dived to the ground.

Without being able to stop them from landing, they eventually reached the ground and stabbed their metal spikes to the ground in a circle like their formation.

In the next second the metal spikes were engulfed in lighting and chained with the other spikes. After that, the magic caster went to their knee and touched the ground with their palms and released their own mana.

Once metal spikes received the nearby mana, they explode and the metal parts circled around in a loop in the spot where the spikes were pierced. Not short after the ground in the circle was filled with a dark blue liquid.

"Summon!" The magic caster yelled.

And as if responding to their call, several humanoid figures started to surfcasting from the dark liquid with some having overgrown limbs while others had fingers of metal.

At first 10 appeared, then 20 and the number of them started to rise by the second.

Seeing such an abomination, the knights felt as if a cold wind brushed their necks, but their training made them channel their fear into strengthening the grip of their swords.

Among those monsters, there were people wearing the same clothes as the magic caster who summoned all those monsters.

`To think they would bring forth those arcana mutants by using teleportation magic...´ Danzel analyzed what just happend and took a step forwards.

`Skull Claw, show me how much you grew.´ Danzel said telepathically to the Death Hound.