Pensburg’s Cemetery.
In the thick darkness, a battle was raging at the witching hour!
“Goddess Nixia… how can this holy place be defiled by the undead!!”
“Instead of complaining, purify at least one more!!”
Clang, clang.
Kreeek, kreeek.
Corpses were bursting from their graves all around, and the scene of the dead rushing towards the living was like something from a horror movie.
Of course, they weren’t that threatening.
“Haaa!!”
“Huff…!!”
Every time Leje and Kurt swung their weapons, the undead fell like autumn leaves.
An overwhelming sight indeed.
Undead not controlled by the necromancer were just a bit better than goblins.
But…
“Why do they keep crawling out!? How much longer do we have to fight!?”
“So annoying…”
The sheer numbers were the problem.
Their attacks were nothing but bites, scratches, or randomly swinging buried weapons.
However, the undead’s emotionless persistence was enough to irk the two.
“Wait a moment! I’m checking right now!!”
While shouting that, Rudell waved his hand into the air.
From Rudell’s shadow, spikes of shadow pierced through the undead, shattering them to bits, yet the undead still stubbornly charged at Rudell and his party.
“Eleor! What’s happening!?”
“It seems purification is possible. Just that it might take a bit of time…”
“We’ll buy you time!”
As she replied, Rudell knocked down the rushing undead.
The spheres buried in the ground.
Those were things he had seen before, and even for her, it would take considerable time to deal with.
Meanwhile, as the undead kept pouring in, Rudell’s party continued the fight when…
“Huh?”
Suddenly, a black shadow loomed over their heads.
What appeared when they looked up was…
“-GoooOOO!!”
“A Skull Golem!?”
Numerous white bones and corpses formed a large humanoid figure.
It was the Skull Golem.
“-GoooOOO…!!”
“Why is this thing here!?”
Leje exclaimed, looking at the roaring Skull Golem in disbelief.
And it made sense; Skull Golems weren’t something you encounter every day.
They typically emerged from battlefields where hundreds of warriors had fallen, their corpses left unattended, giving rise to this terrible monster over time.
“Father Priest! Can you purify that!?”
“I… I think I need a bit of time!!”
In response to Leje’s question, Krell shook his head apologetically.
Due to the complicated conditions of its creation, the Skull Golem was a dangerous monster that differed from ordinary undead like skeletons or zombies.
Thus, even a powerful priest with divine power would struggle to purify it quickly.
However, if it was someone like a saint, it wouldn’t be too hard…
“O great goddess, I beseech your aid. Please smite this evil and save the wronged souls…”
The saint was too busy addressing the root cause of the situation to deal with the golem.
In other words, to defeat the Skull Golem, Krell had to weaken it to a point where he could purify it, or Rudell needed to step in directly.
“Leje! Can you handle it alone!?”
“I’m going to try something!!”
Responding to Rudell’s shout, Leje rushed at the Skull Golem.
She cleaved through the undead, leapt toward the golem…
“HAAAAAAAA!!”
With a resounding battle cry, her sword gleamed, carving a blue arc that sliced through the golem’s body.
Though the split golem body seemed to collapse, shedding debris…
“Turns out, this isn’t enough.”
“-GoooOOO!!”
The corpses that constituted the Skull Golem re-tangled and stuck together as if nothing had happened, and the golem roared, throwing a massive punch.
Leje jumped back to avoid the attack, which smashed down on other undead.
Naturally, this didn’t incapacitate the undead, instead, they simply became part of the golem.
“Rudell! This is getting tough!”
“I’m busy too!!”
Watching the scene, Leje shouted, while Rudell shattered a skeleton rushing from the shadows in reply.
He was hardly in a relaxed situation either, defending Eleor who was in the purification ritual from the undead.
And Kurt was in the same boat…
“I can’t handle this alone!”
“Geez…!!”
Rudell clicked his tongue at Leje’s desperate shout.
The undead’s weakness was divine power or magic.
For fighters like Leje who fought with swords, battling the undead was truly a nightmare matchup.
“Krell Priest! Can you hold them off for a moment!?”
“I’ll… give it a try!!”
“Kurt! Hang in there as long as you can!”
“Got it.”
Even if Krell couldn’t purify the undead, it meant more burden for Kurt, but there was no other choice right now.
Krell recited a prayer, emitting divine power, and a dark blue light spread from him like the night sky.
The undead touched by the veil were flung away, and taking this opportunity, Rudell charged towards Leje.
“Been waiting a while, huh?”
“You’re late! How am I supposed to deal with that alone!”
As she slashed through the approaching undead, Leje shouted.
With a faint smile, Rudell began to cast a spell.
The air around him began to heat, igniting embers…
“Ready?”
“Of course.”
At Rudell’s question, Leje nodded and leaped toward the Skull Golem.
“-GoooOOO!!”
“Yahhh!!”
As the Skull Golem roared and swung its fists, Leje ducked underneath, embedding her sword in its arm, and without losing momentum, charged forward.
Having sliced the golem’s arm in half, she leaped up from below, swinging her sword again.
The enchanted sword left a blue streak as the golem’s body split in two.
Once more, the undead that made up the golem tried to stick together…
“This time, that’s not gonna work.”
With Rudell’s voice echoing, blazing orbs of fire shot towards the golem.
With an explosive sound, flames erupted; the engulfed golem stumbled and scattered the flaming debris.
“Alright! It’s taking damage!”
While it might not be as effective as divine power, magic was still a valid offensive method against the undead.
In fact, the golem’s body, which had shown no reaction to Leje’s attacks, was severely damaged.
“Keep it up!”
“Leave it to me!!”
At Rudell’s shout, Leje charged the golem, hacking into it, and every time the golem attempted to regenerate, Rudell’s magic exploded upon it.
It wasn’t long before the golem’s body began to ignite…
“This is… the final blow!!”
Seizing the chance, Leje rushed at the golem and swung her sword.
With her attack, one of the golem’s legs was severed, and losing its balance, it staggered before collapsing to the ground.
“Rudell!”
“I know without you saying! If you don’t want to get caught up in it, get out of the way now!”
At Leje’s shout, Rudell raised his magical power.
The atmosphere reacted to his power, starting to warm up, and a ring of flames began to ignite around the golem.
Right after Leje leaped away from the golem’s head, Rudell chanted his spell.
“Flame Strike!”
At that moment…
Fwoosh!!!
A massive column of flame engulfed the Skull Golem.
Within the fire, a massive shadow thrashed about, and as the flame column dissipated, only the charred ground and leftover ashes remained.
“I guess I should have learned some magic too.”
As Leje beheld the sight, she muttered, but that moment…
Keeying!!
Clutter, clatter…
Gurgle, gurgle…
As the sharp sounds echoed through the air once more, the movement of the undead began to freeze.
Before long, the undead fell to the ground, returning to normal corpses…
“Luckily, it ended safely.”
Soaked in sweat, Eleor stood up from her spot.
