The Ruined Death Knight

`First I got to get close.´

With that thought in mind, Danzel dashed towards the two magic casters.

"Don´t let him get close! Stop him!" Valdenz yelled to everyone present.

Glancing towards the rushing sword-wielding necromancer, the explorers gritted their teeth and forced themself to face him while all the villagers aimed their bows at him.

Danzel didn´t think much of the latter of the group, but the second group of 2nd-tier warriors was a nuisance to him.

The first to arrive was one wielding a short sword pared with a shield.

He was the first to fall from the people rushing towards him.

Although the man used his life force to strengthen his shield, just a swing at his shield made the man almost fall to the ground from the strength of the swing, even leaving a small dent in the shield.

Unfortunately for him, he wasn´t able to stop the fast blade from cutting his throat.

"Aghh-!"

Leaving the man bleed to death, Danzel moved towards the next who was trying to get in his way.

The strength difference between 2nd-tier and a peak 3rd-tier was way too high for the men to even have a chance against Danzel.

Not only was his swing strong, but they were also terrifying fast.

Since Danzel invested lots of attribute points into his agility stat to escape Hanson. Though his strength was quite lacking, his speed was at a level where the mortals in front of him couldn´t even compare against.

Worst of all, every time Danzel killed one of them, a dark mist would escape the crystal which he was holding and enter the fallen one's body.

Once the mist entered the body, they would soon find their former allies rise up to join in the pursuit of making them join their ranks.

That sight alone made them turn tails and make a run from the current situation. Doing that though would be no better than escaping their grim reality and they knew it.

If they run back inside and let the others die, they would only delay their death. Pushing through the undead and leaving the village was also a no-go with the raging sandstorm still there. Not even counting the lack of supplies of both food and water, they would either freeze in the night or died covered in sand.

Considering all their options, the only way for them to survive was to kill the necromancer.

But...

"I-it-s Impossible..." One of the explorers shuttered as he watched his colleague becoming undead and solely increasing their enemy's numbers.

The sand soldiers although great and all weren´t much different than the explorers in the matter of strength.

And their help was further restricted by the growing number of wraiths.

"Everyone, well done." Valdenz said.

Hearing his words was like a ray of golden light reviving their spirits and hope.

"This time I will kill him." 

Valdenz using his mana created similar dark grey flames to appear."

"Begone, one who insults the wonders of magic, [Chaos Core]."

Putting his own will behind the spell, the dark grey flames grew much stronger than the ones of before.

*Wruuuagh!

Releasing the spell, the dark grey flames flew in Danzel's direction.

Moving away from the sword-wielding necromancer so that they don´t get caught up in the aftermath of Valdenz's spell, Danzel stood his ground and waited to face the dark flames.

Danzel at first tried to input his mana into the ground to cast [Stone Wall] in front of him, but was unable to, or rather the mana went with extreme difficulty inside the steps which made the process of casting the spell impossible to finish before the black grey flames reached him.

"Nersan! Do it!" Danzel said as he pointed the crystal in front of him.

The next moment the crystal shone in a dark golden light.

"[Sand´s Emperors Shield]" An ominous voice echoed as a vast amount of dark golden mana went out of the crystal and mixed with the sand.

The sands glowing in a faint dark golden light started shifting and flying towards the crystal at immense speed. 

The sand at first formed a ring and shortly after the rings started increasing and stopping at 3 rings. Filling the rings with the black golden sands and making them at least 0,5 meters thick each, the appearance of three sand shields floating in the air that were almost stacked up with each other had been formed almost imminently.

Not long after the forming of those 3 shields, the black-grey flames reached the first shield.

*Wruuuagh!!

The sound of flames increased while the grey light shone much stronger the moment the black flames made contact with the first shield.

*Brough!

Breaking the first sand shield apart like a spear penetrating a shield, the dark grey flames reached the second sand shield.

"Wruuuugh!

Similar to the first wall, there was a short moment where the wall and the black-grey flames fought with each other in who was fated to fall first.

Unfortunately, though, the flames were too strong for the shield to hold on.

*Brough!

Passing through the falling sand of the shield, the dark grey flames reached the last of the three shields.

*Wruagh!

Upon making contact with the last sand shield, the flames form changed.

If before it was like a spear that sought to penetrate the shield, now instead it tried to engulf the whole shield at once.

The flames spread through the shield to the point where Danzel from the other side could see a glimpse of those very flames burning in the grey light.

"Well done." Danzel said without showing any signs of concern.

As he said that the sand shield started to show signs of cracking.

*Brhh.

Through the cracks, Danzel could see the grey light from the other side.

When the cracks started to grow, they reached the point where the shield could no longer hold on.

Bursting apart, the sand started to fall to the ground.

Fortunately for Danzel, the flames also reached his limits.

Without having any more strength to push forward, the dark grey flames that we're mixed with the sand started to fall to the ground, reducing to only bits of the flame continuing to burn on.

Danzel of course fourteen such development as his greater sense danger skill hadn't been activated.

"Finish it now." Nersan said in a whisper-like tone.

"Of course."

Guiding his mana around his body, Danzel dashed forward.

The people who looked at the sword-wielding necromancer accelerating toward the top were surprised.

They thought that the spell of Valdenz would finish Danzel.

Since they run to the sides to avoid the black flames, now there was none to halt Danzel even if they wanted to.

Those who tries to rush back were left behind as they were slower than him.

And the only 2 sand soldiers who tried to stop him were destroyed to bits by Danzel.

Leaving none behind except the villagers to guard the most important people, the spell casters.

Alas, the moment the village people saw the sword-wielding necromancer rushing at them, most of them run back to the sacred top, leaving only a handful of people to guard Valdenz und Sasha.

"Those guys..! Sasha! Use the wave!" Valdez's anger quickly faded as he had to worry for his life.

"What!? If I do that, everyone will..." Sasha said hesitantly to listen to Valdenz's order.

"Sasha! Do it!"

Hearing his desperate voice and the marching sword-wielding necromancer, she released their situation.

"Forgive me." Biting her lips, she raised her staff.

Like a gathering storm, a vast amount of sand started to gather around her staff.

Sensing out mana in the air where the sand was, she brought down her staff to the ground

*Tick

With the blue crystal in her staff growing up, the vast amount of sand was pushed forward.

"[Sand Wave]!

As the spells name suggests, a wave made out of sand rose and fell towards the steps wide enough to cover the whole steps.

The explorers who saw that paled as the sudden realization that the wave was also coming towards them.

"Sasha! Why!?"

"Run down!"

"We can't! The undead is blocking our way."

With a wave of sand threatening to bury them alive in front of them, while behind them the undead was waiting to slice them apart, their fate looked grim.

"Push through! If we all run down, some of us might survive!" One of the explorers yelled.

With no further option left, they all turned left to face the undead.

Danzel though didn't do that.

While running at top speed towards the incoming sand wave, he guided his mana into the sword that he held.

Glowing in a dark green light, he swung at the incoming wave twice in the same direction

*Fsheeeeen!

*Fsheeeeen!

Releasing two dark green wind blades, the part where it hit the sand wave, although cut a large amount of sand by both wind blades.

It wasn't quite enough to create a path.

And yet Danzel still didn't halt his steps, instead, he accelerated.

"Something like this..." Before being able to finish his sentence, he slammed in the wave and disappeared in it.

While on the other side.

"I...killed th-"

"Sasha! If you are going to blame someone, blame me, I told you to do it." Valdenz said with a heavy yet firm tone as if he was suppressiong his guilty within him.

"Moreover, while it might have washed up that necromancer, the undead should still have survived. Until then let-"

*Baaaagm!

Without any notice, the wave of sand exploded.

And in the middle of this explosion a dark armored figure wielding a sword and holding a crystal in hand appeared.

"-Isn't going to stop me.." Danzel said with a sinister tone as he reached the top of the treasury.