The Ruined Death Knight

Watching the humanoid figures with blacken skin walking toward him, Danzel frowned as much as a skeleton could.

He was only able to guess those things' identity only by putting together Hanson's description of where his runed chest plates were going.

Though some of them had differences between them, they all had one thing in common. A black veined body where their hands were completely black and hard as some metal. Others had claws for hands with their throat filled with red hair.

If Danzel had to describe them with one word, then that would be abominations. Beings similar to chimeras but in the form of a humanoid body.

It didn´t take a genius to figure out what the main increase in those things was.

Danzel felt relieved that those mutants didn´t have any of his runed armors.

Upon the first contact with the first one, Danzel could determine that they were of the 3rd-tier. Checking their status window, Danzel figured out that their race was called [Semi-Homonculi Varient] and had little to no skills.

What they did have were several talents of different races similar to the Devil of Azu´rah. With [Human] being one of them.

He didn´t have time to read what every single talent was capable of with the enemy in front of him, but the talents such as the races and the [Failed Specimen], [Crazed], [Tortured One] were enough of a hint of what they experienced.

But Danzel wasn´t one that would pitty his enemies. He also wasn´t afraid of them.

Killing all of them would take some time, but the job would eventually be done. What he was most worried about was the object of his mission.

Turning slightly his head to the right, he saw the 20 or so prisoners shaking in fear.

"Raise up and pick up you pickaxes...though I can deal with those things, I can´t guarantee your survival." Danzel said with his cold tone.

Hearing that, their previous pale faces turned even paler.

`We can´t even keep up with their movement! What are we supposed to do with our pickaxes!?` They thought internally.

They wanted to voice out their thoughts but were too scared of the dark knight who saved them. Something about his overall aura and voice made them fear him.

The first one out of all those miners ti pick up their pickaxe was surprisingly the woman who was the first to cry. Her hands and legs were shaking like a drenched cat, but her will alone made the others act like her.

Looking at that, Danzel directed his gaze towards the Arcane mutants in the pathway, he raised his shield and guided his mana towards his longsword.

Seeing his mana, the mutants reacted imminently with a sprint towards him. Their killing intent is clearly for all to see.

`I guess it´s time to act like a real [Black Guard]´ He thought amused before swinging his in the air.

Releasing two dark green wind blades at the mutants, Danzel prepared for his next move.

The 9 mutants were running frantically towards him. Jumped above the wind blades with incredible dexterity at both the wind blades without even losing much of their momentum and were ready to continue their dash forward.

What expected the mutant to take the lead though, was a shield coming at the speed of a train.

"Kgwahh!" Spewing out the blood of his mouth, the mutant was thrown several meters back with his chest caved in. Even after surely breaking some of the mutant's ribs, it stood up without even yelling once out of pain.

Danzel would very much hope to go after him to deliver the finishing blow, but with the other ones coming, he had to leave him with that.

Having used the same move as he did versus Agares, three [Death Blast] cathed up from behind him and aimed towards the 3 nearest mutants.

2 out of 3 mutants let the ball of dead mana hit their faces and let the decay take place whereas the last one simply swiped his hand and cut the ball of dead mana directly.

Of course, Danzel didn´t count on his mere tier 1 spell to inflict any fatal damage. He used it only because it was around his mental capabilities and it will disturb his enemies.

And sure enough, it work better than he expected.

Though those guys didn´t seem to feel any pain, the decay that was happening towards their eyes was enough of a distraction for Danzel to act.

He cut the one blinded by him with one of his swings while sending one of his wind blades toward the other, leaving a large wound in each of them.

Seeing no XP notification, Danzel knew that they were alive. And with the other mutant that blocked his [Death Blast] with his hand coming, Danzel had to raise his shield to block against the scythe-like fingers.

*Thinkk!

The clash generated sparks and left a small scratch on his shield. The blow was strong, but not strong enough for Danzel to be pushed back.

Stretching his hand, Danzel pierced the mutant's chest right through the heart.

"Kgwah!" With a yell of anger, the mutant wanted to once attack Danzel, but his whole body came to a sudden halt.

Danzel who activated his [Mortal Reminder], pulled his sword back.

Using [Swift Movements] and [Shield Charge], he dashed to the side and rammed another mutant towards the wall with his shield.

With the mutant's arm broken and pimped to the wall, Danzel managed to decapitate the mutant with a lighting speed swing.

[You received 45 000 XP]

With 1 dead and another 3 soon to follow, Danzel cursed instead of celebrating.

`Dammit! I let some though!´

Watching 2 of the mutants aiming for the miners and the other 3 surrounding him, Danzel knew that the fate of the miners would soon become grim.

He soon received another XP notification from the one that had his heart pierced, but the other 2 heavily wounded didn´t seem to have given up on wasting his time.

He thought of using [Stone Wall] to barricade the miners, but after thinking that he was inside of a cave, he gave up on that option.

After all, the chance of burying everyone here alive was extremely high. In the worst-case scenario, he would accidentally break a mana crystal and result in the whole mine exploding.

Maybe he would survive the former result, but the latter would definitely be the end of him.

All he could do was kill does 5 as fast as possible and then go eliminate the other two.

Releasing his bloodlust on the surroundings, Danzel moved much faster with each of his swings being heavier than the one before.

Soon enough, the group of 5 mutants started to be cut down without even being able to realize against him. Their fearless nature made the mutants extremely aggressive, mostly relying on exchanging blows with their opponent no matter the case.

It was a ruthless fighting style where they performed a lethal suicide attack on their opponent.

Against such an opponent who was willing to trade their life for yours required utmost caution.

At least that should have been the case if it weren´t for the difference of strength between the two parties.

With Danzel using [Sin of Wrath], his attributes reached a new peak. A peak that the mutants could never hope to achieve.

Each swing fatally wounded them if not right off killed them while Danzel's shield together with his skill [Vanguards Defense ] blocked each attack with ease.

With 5 other XP notifications appearing in front of him, Danzel canceled his [Sin of Wrath] and imminently dashed towards the remaining 2 mutants who were slaughtering the miners.

As to why he canceled [Sin of Wrath], it was because he was worried that his hate towards the living would be too much for him to fight against the influence of this talent.

But even after shutting down his talent, his arrival was only a second too late without it.

Once he appeared, Danzel made quick work out of those mutants.

The mutants imminently changed their target towards him the moment he came close, making the miner who was about to be impaled by the sharp finger sigh in relief.

They were indeed of the 3rd-tier those mutants.

Not only were their reflexes much better than those who were around the same level as them, but their body itself was a weapon.

Their claws were though enough to not be cut from one of his swings and sharp enough to scratch his shield.

Alas, once one saw through their weakness of disregarding their lives, a strong blow was the end of them. They also didn´t have any mid-long ranged attacks which made the whole fight much easier for Danzel.

Swinging his sword to throw most of the black blood to the wall, Danzel put two of the corpses of the mutants inside his storage ring before turning to see the miserable state that the miners were in.

Out of the 20 miners that were previously alive, only 8 remained with severe cuts on their bodies. Some even bleed worrying about some amount of blood from their back.

He also found the woman who was the first to pick the pickaxe dead to the ground on top of the corpse she was holding previously.

Danzel did everything that he could to fulfill his mission.

Or at least that´s what he made himself believe.

In truth, if he forced himself out of 5 mutants and went straight towards the 2 that slipped by and fought there, he could possibly save more of the miners.

Of course, that would have resulted in him getting possibly damaged by doing that and even facing those mutants as 1 versus 7.

Because of that and the hate that felt towards the miners from him being undead, he decided on the safest method.

The only glance that he spare to give towards the miners who were grieving at their now-dead comrades was one of indifference.