The Ruined Death Knight

Seeing the crimson sky and the one who caused it from afar, Danzel couldn't help but remember the nickname of Azrael and how he is the strongest on the battlefield, or rather second to Velkir.

'Angel of Riverblood my underbone!' He cursed internally.

Thanks to his attributes, he was able to see how Azrael changed into a winged being while wearing the armor he carved runes on, though even that changed shape just like his spear.

He wasn't that surprised by the powerlessness of the blood rain as he compared his spell with Nevvan's ice mountain. Danzel guessed that he could survive the onslaught of the rain with his shield. But what surprised him the most were the other 8 copies of Azrael.

He wasn't sure how strong they were, but their auras were of the 4th-tier, making a single dark elve have the combat ability of nine total 4th-tiers!

'And Velkir is supposed to be stronger than him!?'" He thought as he slashed down his sword and cut down the soldiers.

Stepping forward, leaving a trail of corpses behind, the human soldier surrounded him and pointed their magic spears toward him.

"Fire!"

Reacting to one's order or panicked shout, the magic spear charged with its meager mana amount before shooting the mana towards Danzel.

"Hmpf." Danzel scoffed as a wave of mana shots washed from all directions toward him.

But as if being an impenetrable fortress, the mana shots hit his armor before bursting into small mana particles, leaving no hint of damage on his armor, only barely scratching his dark plattings.

It helped him store a large amount of mana inside of him thanks to his [Armor of Undying Protection]. Though the skill was only level 1, the protection it offered was an ability of a 4th-tier being.

Once they were unable to continue shooting, the human soldier stared at the dark knight with shock.

"W-Why won't he fall!"

"Monster!"

"Where are the magic caster!"

Seeing them panicking, he raised his sword which glowed in a dark green light.

"My turn." He said with an ice-cold voice while activating the rune in his helmet.

Spreading fear in everyone that was in front of him.

"Ahhhh!"

A total of 4 stumbled back to their feet as they started crying, Danzel guessed that those few triggered the [Terror] effect, while the others stepped back.

'The amount is quite low." Danzel shook his head internally before swinging his sword towards the human soldiers, releasing 3 [Soul Reaping Wind].

The dark green wind blades cut through the ranks of the soldiers as if they were wheat before continue traveling further than a line. And with how little they had to move, they couldn't escape having their bodies cleaved though together with their soul essence.

They let a cry of pain before falling down dead, leaving only a path for Danzel to continue going deeper into their ranks.

With Velkir's undead being killing machines by themself, if he didn't dig deeper then all those undead would steal his kills.

Gazing to his side, he looked at the floating window.

[Currently achieved: 9358/10 000].

...

[Currently achieved: 9437/10 000].

'Not enough...' He complained as he sensed the undead army getting closer.

Hesitating no more, he dashed with speed far superior to the human soldier like a speeding train towards the path he created with his shield in front of him.

"Hiiiek! S-Stay away!" The soldier standing directly in front of him shouted with a shaking voice, his legs trremling in fear.

He could only have his spear in front of him and hope the dark knight impale himself with his momentum.

Once Danzel came close to that one soldier, the latter closed his eyes and waited to be crushed. But to his luck, Danzel's whole body turned into a dark mist and passed right through the soldier.

Being turned into mist, Danzel could feel weird but not hard to move. The speed of his mist traveled through the soldier at an incredible amount of speed.

That was when the mana cost of [Undying Preservation] helped him a lot with the insane mana cost of this skill.

He even went overboard and wasted 5000 mana to travel till he stopped in front of a soldier.

Once the mist gathered once more into one location, making Danzel physical again, he thrusted the spear to the heart of the stunned soldier, who was probably confused.

"Ah~"

The other soldiers beside him tried to shout, but Danzel gathered mana and started to push out, creating a strong shock wave of death energy, sweeping all nearby soldiers in the air with incredible force.

It was as if dynamite exploded, killing many from the initial shockwave and others from the fall or being injured by the weapons of their allies.

[Currently achieved: 9532/10 000].

Without stopping, Danzel dashed at the nearby soldier and started swinging his sword, killing each of them with a clean swing.

[Siphoning Soul Blade] would guarantee their death even if they managed to somehow survive and his [Innate Blood Absorbtion] restored bits of his mana by the blood that the runes of his sword drawn.

Some of the soldiers tried to injure him with their magic spears, only further helping him recover while the more brave ones tried to thrust those spears at him. The latter was the first to die.

His shield would always stand and block their attack before they were cut down. And even if they hit his armor, the result was the same as the magic shots.

With none being able to damage him, he was left loose to massacre everyone on his path.

As the count of his mission was increasing, the faster his blade moved toward reaching his goal.

Any attempt the human soldier did only hasten their death.

But it didn't take long before the elite forces came to him.

A flash of light appeared behind Danzel, the light revealing to be a man with a faceless mask and a much stronger magic spear than the other common soldiers.

The man's mana gathered into the tip of his spear and thrust it towards the dark knight, aiming for his head.

But before it could even reach him, Danzel turned around and blocked the spear with his shield.

"A melee magic caster, huh?" Danzel mumbled before he closed the distance and began his offense toward the spear user.

After a few clashes, the magic caster started to take steps back.

'For a 3rd-tier, he is quite strong, but still too weak.'

Pushing the spear to the side, Danzel used his to slam towards the man's chest like a charging track.

Once he was struck by the shield, an ethereal image of his body came slightly out of his body before entering once more.

"Agggh!"

Rolling to the ground, Danzel moved to finish him.

With his whole body shaking and his faceless masked now broken, revealing an aged man, he picked his spear to activate the enchantment.

Suddenly, two magic circles appeared on top and bottom of Danzel, halting his move for a brief second.

"Now!" The aged man shouted.

Once he did, 2 other figures came rushing towards Danzel, one woman with a sheated sword and another man with some gauntlets wearing no chestplate or clothing on the top.

Looking at the two wearing two talismans with B+ carved into a plate.

'Where have I seen those things before?' Danzel thought puzzled as by his seer strength he broke the magic holding him in place.

But the brief moment alone allowed for the two other people to close their distance at him.

The woman touched the handle of her sword and draw it with incredible speed out while the man's fist was burning by intense flames created by the life force.

"Ah, now I remember." Danzel said as the woman behind him stopped moving altogether for a brief seconds before falling down to her knees coughing, barely her sword out of the sheath.

The man's fist was interrupted by an ethereal dark green skeleton hand grabbing his wrist and turning it around, essentially ruining his posture.

Stepping to the side, Danzel quickly at the man's chest with his sword, leaving a large wound on his shoulder and torso.

The man jumped regardless to create some distance but felt strength being drained from his body.

"Though body, but such a wound is lethal. Mercenaries."

"You~agh..." The man fell to the ground.

In the next moment, [Existential Sense Danger] activated, making Danzel turn around only to see the woman swinging her sword at him, aiming to decapitate him.

'Fast..." Danzel would have frowned if he could.

Sadly for her, her sword only passed through his body.

Turning into mist, Danzel appeared behind her and pierced his sword in her heart. Making her experience once again having her heart pierced, the first one being the [Soul Ender] he used.

"You guys might have been my match if it were a year or two ago." Danzel said as he pulled his sword out of her chest. Though fallen to the ground, her eyes still glared at him, weakly.

"Now rest, into your endless darkness." He said with a cold voice, the runes in his helmet spreading fear in her just before she died.

Danzel turned around and faced the magic spear man, pointing his spear towards him.

"[Ball of Explosion]!" He yelled out loud, creating what seemed like a fireball in Danzel's eyes.

'Not worth risking with that kind of spell name.' He thought as he raised a wall of stone between the man's spell and him, he even made the wall much higher just to be safe.

Once the [Ball of Explosion] made contact with his wall, like a granate that was filled with tiny [Fireball]'s, several explosions occurred in front of the wall.

The wall crumbled into pieces just as the spell ended. Behind the wall, was Danzel with his sword raised up.

"Die." Swinging it down, 1 [Soul Reaping Wind] came out, unable to react, the old man was cleaved in two while the wind blade continue killing other soldiers.

[Currently achieved: 9774/10 000]

Seeing that they were still a few more to kill, Danzel crumpled internally.

'Just a bit more before I can remove the limit of my body. It's a good thing that every one of them is so cramped together. A few more [Soul Reaping Wind] and I-'

Before he could finish his thoughts, out of blue, the stomach area of his armor was penetrated by a spear, taking his attention away.

He looked behind him and made eye contact with one shaking soldier, who flinched.

"I-I...why won't you die~!" He screamed as he tried to pull his spear back, with little success.

Seeing the strength of the soldier being bare of the 2nd-tier, Danzel cursed at himself.

"Tch, I got too careless..."

Swinging his shield at the soldier, breaking his neck, Danzel's mood grew worse.

'No matter how weak those guys are, I am still on the battlefield. I can't believe I let myself get distracted to let such a guy near me'

Pulling the spear out of his armor, the only spot that was filled with pure dark plating and not actually, he spread his dead mana on the nearby corpses around him and raised them as undead to continue fighting.

Following Velkir's advice, Danzel stored the corpses of the woman and the pugilist mercenaries in his storage ring before walking on top of the remains of the stone wall to get to the high ground.

Being in a position that made him vulnerable and allowed him to see the rest of the human army, Danzel's long sword glowed in dark green light.

"I should have done this from the start."

Swinging his sword and sending [Soul Reaping Wind]'s at the army, screams of pain began appearing.

Each time he would release 3 waves before taking a small break before doing that once more, each wave another wave of pain.

And soon enough, he finally reached the milestone

[Currently achieved: 10 000/10 000]

"Haha~"

Making his shield disappear, he brought out his status screen.

And under a red sky.

Crimson blood stained the ground so much that it formed a pond.

Based on the crimson color that oozed from the corpses that were the source of such blood, one could guess that those corpses were slain recently.

And the corpses weren't a few to say the less.

One could count thousands of mortals laying dead on the ground.

And watching from the top of all those corpses, a figure wearing dark-plated armor and releasing an aura of death to his surroundings.

That figure pressed the upgrade button [Soul of Death Essence].

Achieving all the requirements to become a being that wields death itself in his very hands.