The Ruined Death Knight

Watching from the side, the people had an astonished look carved on their faces.

*Gulp~

Forcing his saliva back to his throat, a man looked at his neighbor and pointed at the scene in front of me.

"H-Hey, am I seeing things?"

His neighbor being too stunned to react wasn´t even able to hear the man's words as he was trying to make sense of what he was staring at.

Seeing the two figures in the arena, one wearing a cloak that hid his body and another one with a dark armor both were engaged in flurries of attacks at such speed which left after-images in their eyes.

Mixed with the sound of metal clashing, the fight seemed like it would end any second if one of either party makes a mistake.

That though couldn´t be further from the truth.

Using his shield to block the whittled crimson spear with the support of his [Vanguard Defense] skill, he would send out a swing using his whole strength. Only for it to either be avoided by some quick maneuver or blocked by the whittled crimson spear.

The whole situation was for Danzel frustrating.

He might have endless stamina as a trait of being undead, but the durability of his shield wasn't finite and would sooner or later break apart.

For now, they were only a few scratches that were deep caused by the thrust of the man's whittled crimson spear.

Not only that, but he also felt that something was amiss in the whole situation.

He didn't feel anything from his [Greater Sense Danger].

After a few seconds of pondering about the cause of it and seeing that things didn´t improve, he decided to go more into the offense.

As soon as he blocked the thrust of the little crimson spear, he imminently guided his mana into his shield and making him accelerate for a split moment forward. As he did that he prepared to thrust right crashing into his opponent.

Unfortunately for Danzel, as his opponent had already seen it coming, the man stepped slightly to his sight while thrusting his wittled crimson spear directly at his face!

Forced to cancel his advantage, Danzel moved slightly to the left.

*Fooosh

Having barely avoided the wittled crimson spear making a hole through his skull, Danzel took a large step back to create some distance between.

Instead of the cloaked figure following him as he expected, the man pointed the wittled crimson spear towards his direction, while small bits of blood were gathering in the holes of the crimson spear.

"!!!"

Receiving some bad vibes from such occurrence of the crimson spear, he raised his shield in front of him.

Not a second after, the gathered blood shot out with an incredible speed right toward Danzel.

*Tuck! Tuck! Tuck~!

As he planted himself on the ground, Danzel held his ground while under the attack of the blood projectiles.

Seeing none other of those attacks coming towards him, Danzel looked at the shield which let out the smoke of where the projectiles made an impact.

He didn´t feel dishearted from having his newly acquired shield much more damaged. The shield was only there to shield his life and prevent damage.

What he felt more annoyed about was something that he realized.

`This guy...he isn´t even taking this fight seriously.´

Although he knew from the beginning that he was much more inferior than this man who reached the 4th-tier, he still held a slimmer of hope that their strength wasn´t that far apart from each other.

Seeing the man's strength and speed also reinforced those though, as he was essential on equal terms.

But he was wrong.

Once he dodge the wittled crimson spear from piercing his skull, he knew that this couldn´t be the case as the [Greater Sense Danger] didn´t activate.

A skill that always was supposed to warn him from life-threatening danger.

The fact that it didn´t activate meant that he wasn´t in danger in the first place.

In other words...the whole clash was a facade.

`I will force you to take this seriously.´ Danzel though with newfound determination.

Since the whole spar is supposed to showcase his abilities. If he ends up showing `this´ much strength, he doubted that he will pass.

Though passing the teat and meeting the necromancer to possibly sate his curiosity about necromancy has become a minor priority now.

The fact that he gets to learn first-handed the strength of a 4th-tier is useful on his own for future reference.

Other than that...the people he killed gave him tons of XP.

'I will force you to show me' Danzel thought full of determination.

Opening his status, he quickly went ahead and increased the level of his sub-class.

In the next second, a surge of power started to become one with his body.

And that all unbeknownst to everyone present.

The moment he put some strength in his legs, he disappeared from his current post and appeared right in front of the man with the cloak.

Surprised, the man blocked his sword just about it was to cut through his chest.

For a moment, the cloaked man seemed to struggle, but as soon as a faint crimson light escape his cloak, the situation started to slowly drag back to where it was from the beginning.

Knowing that he had to react now before his opponent stabilized the flow of their fight, Danzel imminently dumped all his free attribute points that he still had left into his agility stat.

Feeling the change instantly, though still in an awkward way.

He swung his sword right after blocking the crimson spear at a speed that took the man by surprise.

With the blade nearing the sideways aiming to cut the man in half from his chest area, dead mana engulfed his sword.

Using his shield to make it awkward to move the crimson spear, the swing would be fatal.

*Tuck!

A metal-like sound appeared in the surroundings.

The sword that was going the man in half has now revealed his other hand which was also the one holding his sword from moving.

Similar to the wittled crimson spear material, the man's hand was covered in a crystal red metal, making holding the edge and resisting the decay effect possible.

"Nice tr-" Before ending his compliment, the cloaked man frowned behind the hood as he felt a slight bit of pain coming from his hand before opening his eyes wide open upon the realization of what just happened.

'The control upon my blood has been dominated'

Raising his foot, showing similar crimson armor leggings, the man sends out a kick towards Danzel's chest, who the latter blocked with his shield.

The impact of it was so strong, that he was pushed back a few meters.

Looking at his shield slightly caved in, he cursed internally before looking at the drips of blood that were dropping off the man's palm.

Though the wound was none existed and killed in less than a few seconds, the damage alone borough him a sense of achievement.

'I only have one chance'

Taking a stance that held his shield forward and placing the sword on top of his shield, he prepared to dash forward.

Using the rune of his sword to move away the blood of the man's weapon or armor was indeed effective.

He expected that since the rune from quite a low grade. He doubted it would work twice if one prepare for it.

Having injured him now, Danzel could start his plan.

Letting himself be influenced by the hatred of the living being around him and looking at him as if he was a lab rat.

He achieved a state in which his sanity and rage coexist with one another.

Letting [Sin of Wrath] activate and spread his killing intent to all others.

***

A minute later Danzel [Sin of Wrath] activation.

"That's quite the aura," the female loaded figure said as she whistled upon such killing Intent.

Coming from another tent, was a much taller cloaked figure that had a halberd resting on his shoulder.

"Vanessa, who is that?" The figure had a harsh and loud voice of a man.

Looking at the giant behind her, she shrugged her shoulders.

"Who knows, he might be the next member." As soon as she said that, she felt an incredible amount of killing intent that she was too familiar with her.

"That idiot! What did I tell him!"

Once she turned around to see the fight, it was already over...

***

Present...

Guiding his mana around his body and shield, Danzel used both his movement skills to increase his charge as much as possible.

With the additional stat increase from the talent [Sin of Wrath] Danzel, his speed reached the next level to the point that other participants had their eyes wide open in surprise.

The few who surrendered against Danzel felt like they just escaped death's scythe.

The cloaked figure in comparison had an indifferent look on his face that was hidden.

Taking his own stance to prepare to confront the dark knight.

Once they were 4 meters apart and he was about to thrust, he felt his chest become cold before a piercing pain replaced the coldness.

To his surprise, a sword glowing slightly with a dark green light moved even further through his chest, in the same position where his heart was supposed to be.

'!!!'

Alarmed, his crimson-colored eyes light up like two bloody suns as an immense killing intent spread to the surroundings.

Before Danzel's swing reached his head, the cloak hiring his body suddenly expanded before it got ripped off by a mass of blood.

The mass of blood was pushed out words while hardening just like he did with his wittled crimson spear.

Resulting in creating an area of spikes as long as 10 meters around him.

In the middle of the spikes, was now a rather young looking man with gray hair, paired with two crimson eyes who glowed currently like two bloody suns, skin being that of a dark gray with two pointy ears.

Touching his chest to find the sword that pierced his heart, the man frowned upon finding nothing.

"An illusion?" He mumbled as he stared at the dark knight whose barrier and dark armor got pierced by the blood spears.

"Ah..."