Chương 103: Chapter 102. Necro killing (2)

Rayne's head hurt just thinking about the position he was in. Behind him stood a massive swarm of undead, pressing forward relentlessly even as the shield line tried to contain them. The groans and clashing steel echoed through the chamber like a storm that refused to settle. On his left, he could hear the heavy growls of the two undead orcs. Each swing of their axes sent shockwaves through the stone as Captain Edran clashed with one while Varrick held the other back with his shields and greatsword.

And right in front of him stood the necromancer apprentice. That alone would have been enough trouble. But the ground around the man was a carefully laid trap field, and Rayne had already seen what happened when something landed on them. The crushed shield still lay buried beneath the spikes not far away. He had no idea where to step. Worst of all, he didn't even know how strong his opponent actually was. At first, Rayne had assumed the fight wouldn't be that difficult.

The man was only an apprentice after all, and he would be as strong as the female necromancer they had fought. But after almost getting dragged by the chains, he wasn't sure anymore. Still, he couldn't show any hesitation as the one tasked to kill him. So he projected confidence as he moved. Bolts of death mana shot through the air toward him. Rayne twisted his body and stepped across the stone carefully, dodging the attacks while Kesh kept close behind him. One of the bolts struck the ground right in front of him.

The explosion forced Rayne to jump sideways instantly, his boots scraping across the stone as he barely avoided the blast. The moment he landed, he pushed mana into his blade and swung. A sharp arc of [Death Strike] shot toward the necromancer, but the apprentice didn't even move. A dark shield appeared instantly in front of him and the arc slammed into it and shattered harmlessly. The necromancer grinned.

"You might be a spellsword," he said lazily, "but there's no way you're piercing this shield." He paused then, his eyes narrowing slightly as he studied Rayne.

"You know," he continued thoughtfully, "I've never killed a spellsword properly before." His grin widened.

"But I have the chance to do it today." He tilted his head slightly.

"What's your name?" Rayne didn't answer. He simply glared at the man, his sword raised as he poured more death mana into it. The necromancer frowned slightly.

"Not the conversational type, huh? It's not a big deal." He straightened slightly and said casually, "My name's Valtheris. Remember it when I blast your head off." As he spoke, the spell matrix on his palm shifted slightly and Rayne felt more mana gathering into it. The air trembled as a massive bolt appeared in front of Valtheris' palm, its dark energy crackling violently as it formed. Then he flicked his hand forward, and the bolt tore through the air toward Rayne. Rayne reacted instantly.

More mana surged through his arm as he unleashed another [Death Strike]. The two attacks collided in mid-air. The explosion that followed shook the chamber. Dark energy burst outward in a violent wave that rattled the stone walls and scattered loose corpses nearby. Rayne and Kesh were unfortunately too close to it. The shockwave slammed into them and threw them backward across the floor. He crashed straight to the side of an undead.

The creature immediately raised its rusted sword and brought it down toward his head. Rayne rolled. The blade slammed into the stone where he had been a second earlier. Rayne twisted onto one knee, pushed himself up, and kicked the undead square in the chest, sending it stumbling backward into the swarm behind it. Rayne frowned as he felt the slight sting of the bruises all over his body. For a second, he scanned the battlefield quickly.

Kesh was already getting up a few steps away, shaking his head as if trying to clear the dizziness. Apart from a few scratches, he seemed mostly fine. Rayne didn't move to help him up and didn't waste another second. He turned and moved back toward his party. Several undead had already broken away from the swarm and were attacking them. Bran and Nate were at the forefront of dealing with them.

Bran fought with a short sword in close quarters, moving quickly through the air, cutting down a common undead that tried to lunge at him. The moment he noticed Rayne approaching, he stepped back from the corpse and looked straight at him.

"What's the plan?" Bran asked sharply as he blocked another strike and shoved the undead back.

"Like this, we're going to die sooner or later." Beside him, Nate rammed his blade into an undead's leg, forcing the corpse down before finishing it with a stab to the throat.

"Yeah!" he yelled.

"There are just too many undead here!" He pulled his blade free and glanced toward the throne where Valtheris stood.

"And we can't even get close to that bastard. We're better off not trying!" Rayne didn't respond immediately. Instead, he lifted his eyes toward the necromancer. Valtheris was already in the middle of forming another spell matrix on his palm. Dark mana swirled around his fingers as the complex pattern began to take shape again. Rayne knew he could contend against the man's spells and shield. His [Death Strike] had already proven that much. But the shield protecting Valtheris wasn't the only problem. The traps were.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Rayne's eyes flicked down toward the stone slabs surrounding the necromancer. He had already seen what happened when something landed on them. One wrong step and the spikes would come down instantly. They were almost certainly pressure plates. And simply throwing rocks onto them to find them out might not even work until they were weighty enough to activate them.

Rayne tightened his grip on his sword as he kept staring at the ground between them and the necromancer. If that was the case… then how exactly was he supposed to reach him? Moving forward and relying purely on his [Danger Sense] wasn't reliable either. Rayne had very little experience with the skill, and he already knew it didn't have a perfect success rate. If he stepped wrong even once, those spikes would come down and skewer him before he even realized the mistake. He also couldn't use too many [Death Strikes].

He needed something else. His mind raced as he watched more undead break away from the swarm and attack his party. Then Rayne's gaze shifted slightly and landed on Fredrick, an idea immediately coming to his mind. The man stood a few steps away, cutting down an undead that charged at him with a spear. His blade sank into the corpse's neck and he kicked it aside before turning just in time to see Rayne looking at him. Rayne didn't waste a second.

"How many more of those explosive potions do you have? I need them," he said. Fredrick blinked in surprise, clearly not expecting the question in the middle of the chaos.

"I only have two left," he said quickly.

"Why do you want them?" Rayne frowned.

"Just give them to me," he said flatly.

"I don't even know why you're here when you should be with Axel and the others at the shield line." Fredrick looked nervous at the words, and Rayne's expression hardened.

"If you don't want me to leave you here to die at the hands of undead," he added coldly, "then give me the potions." The noble clearly didn't like his tone, but he still reached to his belt and pulled the vials free and handed them over. Rayne immediately glanced down at them. Both glass vials were filled with an orange liquid that shimmered faintly with small particles drifting inside it. Rayne had no idea what the exact mixture was, and he honestly didn't care.

The only thing that mattered was how big the explosion they created. He hooked both potions onto his belt and turned his attention back toward the necromancer. Valtheris had already completed his next spell. The moment Rayne looked up, the necromancer flicked his wrist and released it. Dark mana surged outward and rapidly shaped itself into the form of a large panther made entirely out of writhing energy. The creature snarled silently before leaping straight toward Rayne. Panic crawled up his spine instantly.

Rayne braced himself, raising his sword to take on the attack— Then the panther disappeared. His eyes widened. A split second later, his [Danger Sense] erupted inside his mind with a sharp ringing. Rayne twisted sideways on instinct. The panther reappeared mid-air beside him, claws slashing down toward his head. But he immediately took a few steps forward and missed getting his head torn off.

The claws slammed into the hard ground, taking out chunks of it, and Rayne moved forward the next second, not wanting to give the construct any time. Mana surged through his sword as he swung toward the creature's neck, and it was too slow to get back. The mana panther growled as the strike tore through part of its form, causing some of the dark mana around its neck to dissipate. But before Rayne could follow up, the creature vanished again.

He frowned, having no idea how to deal with something like that without a tracking skill to help him. And he couldn't just stand still trying to figure it out. Because Valtheris was already building another spell. He took a deep breath, thought through his plan, and then moved. Rayne pulled one of the explosive potions from his belt and hurled it forward. But he didn't aim at the necromancer. He threw it directly at the stone slabs between them. The glass vial shattered on impact.

A violent explosion erupted a heartbeat later, flames and force blasting outward as several slabs cracked under the pressure. At once, the traps activated. A dozen spikes shot down from the ceiling with terrifying speed, but all of them stopped midway. Instead of slamming down into solid stone, the spikes simply hung there awkwardly, their mechanisms unable to complete the strike because the tiles themselves had shifted out of place. Rayne saw it and immediately smiled. His strategy had worked.

Even Valtheris looked stunned for a moment as he stared at the ruined trap field between them. But Rayne didn't give him time to react. He pulled the second explosive potion from his belt and hurled it forward. This time, he aimed a little farther. The vial struck the ground barely a step away from the necromancer's shield. The glass shattered, and the next second another explosion roared through the chamber. Stone cracked violently as several more slabs broke apart under the force.

Out of them, only two had traps as spikes slammed down and got stuck in the air above them. The blast also struck Valtheris's dark mana shield directly. It flickered violently as the shockwave slammed into it, cracks spreading across its surface. The necromancer himself was thrown backward. He crashed into the throne behind him with a heavy thud, and the spell matrix forming on his palm immediately broke down. Rayne immediately took charge.

"Everyone follow me!" he shouted. His voice cut through the chaos instantly.

"Only step on the cracked slabs. Bran! Heins! Handle the rear! Kill any undead that come close!" Then his voice hardened, and he raised his sword.

"The rest of us will circle the necromancer. We will end him today!" Rayne rushed forward the next second, jumping from one broken slab to the next, carefully avoiding the intact tiles. Behind him, his party followed without hesitation. As he ran, Rayne pushed more death mana into his blade. The weapon trembled in his grip as the dark energy built inside it. The metal vibrated faintly, almost as if the sword itself was struggling to contain the power. But Rayne ignored it. He had no other replacement right now.

Ahead of him, Valtheris had already pushed himself back to his feet. The necromancer's eyes burned with fury as he shoved mana back into his cracked shield. Rayne didn't let him fix it. The moment he landed on the final broken slab, he swung. A massive arc of [Death Strike] tore through the air. The attack slammed directly into the cracks already spreading across the shield, and the barrier shattered further.

Large sections of it broke apart under the impact, leaving only fragments of dark mana flickering weakly around the necromancer. Rayne closed the remaining distance instantly and thrust forward. His sword pierced straight through the cracked barrier and drove toward Valtheris' chest. The necromancer's eyes widened. He gritted his teeth and stepped backward at the last moment, twisting his body slightly to avoid the worst of the strike. Then one of the rings on his fingers flared brightly.

Lightning exploded from it, and a bolt shot directly toward Rayne. He barely managed to sidestep. The lightning grazed across his waist as he twisted away, and the contact broke armor and sent a violent jolt through his body. Pain flared through his side as his muscles seized for a split second. But he didn't fall. Rayne forced himself to stay upright. Valtheris grinned wildly, seeing blood leak out of his side.

"I'm going to blast your head off," he said. Rayne didn't answer. He simply pushed more death mana into his blade, preparing to tear through the rest of the shield and finish the fight. But because his entire focus was on the necromancer, he never saw the mana panther reappear behind him.

Read 50 chapters ahead Join the discord server HERE.