The Ruined Death Knight

In the frozen lands, assaulted by winter storms on a daily bases, life had found a way to sprout even on those harsh lands.

"Haah~Haah~, Shit." A girl in early 16 voice cursed

Where survival is everything, whoever strong a being is in that residences these lands.

"Why did those savages come here!? "* Bang, the sound of a wooden door violently closing

Of course, they are always exceptions to such things.

Some beings will naturally adapt to face the ways of those harsh lands. And corpses of the weak ones might rise once more with no concern for the condition of the frozen land, albeit with the mana levels of the air having been attuned to an ice/cold elemental, those that raise from the death are merely but mindless skeletons. And even their creation was a rarety on its own here.

"W-What should I do, what should I do~! What if they find me~!?" The girl whispers panicky as she pushes herself on the walls of the wooden house, trying to hide as much as possible.

It was an environment where everyone had to adapt to survive, with the weak eventually being punished by death, be it through the fight, starvation, or losing their warmth.

Alas, even the weak were able to find their own way to fight, to adapt.

"The village~Hiek~how could they eat the others." The girl said while forcing herself not to cry.

Some animals such as the wolf of those lands banded together to hunt prey stronger than their own, while more intellectual, the natives of those frozen lands banded together to yearn for the warm fire, the shelter of houses, and just like the wolfs, to prey on those stronger that they own.

Thus the creation of this village.

Alas, the strong will hunt the weak, to survive.

As in these lands, they are only 3 things.

Life.

Death.

And Hunt.

"Why~Why do savages hunt us~!?"

And sadly, the village was marked as prey by the stronger hunters. The ice trolls.

While hiding inside a house, a girl with blond short hair was pushed to one side while the other side of her hair was cut. She wore simple leather clothing stitched together though without sleeves.

She had leather armguards of shorts on both hands and a pair of boots with white fur. Something exceptionally rare for her age.

What differentiated her from a human, was a long and somewhat large fluffy tail coming behind her, slightly above the deposit hole of waste...

"Oh~god of the hunt~! Why have our village been subjected to such fate~Hiee~" She whispered while trying not to cry, albeit failing.

"Why do we have to die like that?"

She cried unwillingly, as she remembered, how her mate, who gave her the boots with the fur of a winter wolf hunted by himself as a betrothal gift, was crushed by the mace of those ice trolls.

"Why do we have to be eaten like this?"

How her father and mother cried to run away, as they were picked up and eaten alive...

She thought that today will be like any other day, her mother complaining how her haircut was too boyish and how they would fight.

Going out to learn how to swing the axe her father.

Teasing her mate and dreaming for the future...

All those little things have been snuffed out, by the very nature of those cruel frozen lands.

Hunt to survive.

Survive in order to live.

Otherwise, only death awaited.

"Wgaaaaaagh!! Stop Running!" A harsh yet loud voice traveled through the walls of the house that the girl was in.

"Oh no..." The girl's face turned pale as she heard the voice of the hunters.

'What should I do, What should I do!!!' She thought as her gaze looked around her house, finally, her eyes blue eyes landed on the axe that her father was using.

Her eyes widen as she stood up in hurry, only to fall because of her nervousness, hitting her knee.

"Kggh~" She felt the pain going through her knee and wanted to yell out of pain, but she covered her mouth with her mouth, before crawling the axe that her father had left in the house.

"Everything will be alright, keep it together Alka, they aren't going to find you." The girl, named Alka said as she hugged her axe before running back to the wall that she was.

She peeked through one of the holes that her house had to see the outside. Only for her eyes to widen up as one of the ice trolls, was hunting a couple in their mid 20's, with the woman carrying a small baby in her arms covered by leather.

"Oh no~..." She whispers in despair.

"You can't run away!!!" The ice troll hunter yelled as he was closing in on the couple.

Recognizing the danger that they were in, the husband turned around and faced the ice troll hunter.

"Dear! Run away with the young one! I will buy you some time."

The woman holding the baby clearly didn't expect that and turned her head in haste.

"Honey, No~!"

Before she could finish, the man dashed towards the ice troll hunter.

"Tired of running!? Hah!" The ice troll hunter laughed before swinging his mace at the man.

The man went to his knees and slide through the ice, barely dodging the mace of the ice troll.

And suddenly, vines started to show up in the man's arms, and in the next moment, his nails were extended and covered a bit of his finger like bone. But more importantly, the extended nails became incredibly sharp.

The man with his sharp bone-like fingers swiped towards the leg of the ice troll, cutting through his flesh on the ankle area, forcing the ice troll to fall on his knees.

"Run! For the young one!" The man yelled as he went and slashed at the ice trolls' backs.

"Kwaghh~ You mere food!" The ice troll yelled as he tried to swing his mace toward the man, only for the man to move away.

The wife of the man bit her lips and turned to run away.

The ice troll hunter felt particular annoying by seeing his prey running away, unleashing his rage toward the man.

The man was extremely relieved upon seeing his wife running away, before focusing in fight the ice troll.

Though not long after a few seconds, an air-piercing sound was to be heard.

The ice troll hunter reacted accordingly and looked to his side, only to see a relatively small yet shaped ice spike coming his way.

He raised his hand and let it pierce his hand instead of his face.

"Kwgh..." The ice troll groaned as she looked at the wife of the man that returned and raising both her palms on top of each other and aiming towards him.

"Get away from my husband you monster!" She yelled as she very, very slowly created another ice spear.

The man seeing her wife coming back had a look of pure despair on his face.

"What are you doing here!? Go and run with-"

"Shut up! As if I let you die and leave our girl fatherless! We will kill this thing and run. Together." The wife yelled in anger as she shot her next ice spear, which the ice troll blocked with his arm once more.

The man cursed internally.

Meanwhile, watching the two fighting the monster that eat her mate and family, made Alka grab the axe of her father much tighter.

"They are winning..." Alka mumbled as the thought of going out and helping them out grew stronger by the second.

The ice troll received many other wounds around his body, and his arm was continuously being penetrated by the small ice spears, making Alka resolve to help them to grow.

'I need to help them!' She said to herself as she stood up.

The moment she did though, a loud sound of the wound being crashed was to be heard.

*Creakkkk!!!

"What was that...?" Alka asked herself as she peaked through the hole once more, only for her whole body to start shaking.

"Oh no..." She mumbled as she fell to the ground, her eye glued to the small holes.

The man tried to use the fact that the ice troll couldn't move thanks to cutting his ankle to his advantage.

Once the ice troll swung his mace towards him, the man run towards the front of the kneeling ice troll hunter, to cut his throat.

But once he did, the ice troll stood up and used the same leg that had his ankle cut to kick the husband with enormous force through his chest, sending him flying to one of the wooden houses.

"So annoying. And hungry." The ice troll mumbled as the wound of his ankle was nowhere to be seen and the many cuts were slowly closing.

The ice troll pulled the 3 ice spikes from his arm, letting everyone see the regeneration of the ice troll.

"Tch, I broke the one." The ice troll stared at the husband who was laying dead with many broken bones.

"Ah...honey~ oh no..."

Looking at her husband dying like that, tears started to flow in the wife's eyes.

"I guess I will make do with you." The ice troll hunter said as he walked towards the frozen wife who was devasted by the death of her husband.

The ice troll raised his mace and then-

Alka closed her eyes unable to see what was to happend next.

Though the *Crack, sounds alone made her whole body flinch.

"Boring..." The ice troll said as he picked up the corpse of his wife and...started eating it.

Each chewing sound made Alka remember her father and mother being eaten alive, making her cry no stop as she pushed her hand in front of her mouth, so as not to be heard.

"Haah, such warm meat." The ice troll hunter said as he threw the remains of the wife to the side like it was some kind of trash.

Alka thought that she reached a further level of despair, but once she heard, the innocent cry of a baby girl...she froze.

'Oh no!!!' She turned to look at the small hole again, only to see that the baby was placed only a few meters away on the ground, to start crying and be noticed by the ice troll hunter.

"Heh, what is that? A small prey." The ice troll said as he licked the blood that was on his face.

"I wonder how it tastes."

Hearing those words, Alka's eyes were filled with anger as much as despair.

'Not only did you kill my family, my friends, but you also want to eat the children too!?' She yelled internally.

"I ca-n't...mother, father. S-Sorry but I can't let this happend." She whisper as she gripped her axe, ready to step out and face the ice troll, despite knowing that she will end up just like the others.

She run towards the door with the axe dragged on the floor, but before she could go out, an ominous pressure appear that even she felt inside her house.

And with the pressure, a sound of metal was to be heard.

"Huh?" The ice troll of course turned around to see where the sound came from.

All it saw though how a dark mist gathered in one place and manifested a dark armored skeleton walking towards the ice troll with an ominous voice.

The aura of death surrounding this skeleton made the ice troll's survival instincts scream as if facing a predator way above his leagues.

Though seeing what it was, the ice troll calmed down.

"H-Hah! Just some living bones with some magic! Your magic has no use against me!" It yelled, but his body was clearly shaking.

Alka who heard that went back to see what was inside, only for her whole body to freeze.

"O-Oh god..." She whisper as she watched the flaring green eyes looking at the ice troll.

What shocked her next thought was that upon raising and pointing it at the ice troll.

The ice troll went on his knees and then a skeleton arm dragged something out of his chest, making the troll fall on his knees with the support of his hands.

And next thing that Alka knew, the skeleton with the dark armor appeared behind the ice troll, only seeing bits of smoke moving.

And even that was at a speed that her eyes couldn't keep up.

"W-Where?" The ice troll was also confused as the skeleton disappeared in front of him.

But before it could anything, his head heal to the ground.

"Huh?" The ice troll head said before the body and the head completely dying.

The area where it was cut decayed rapidly and turned black by the ominous sword.

"T-The mark of death..." Alka whispered as she watched all events happening hidden in her house.

But then...

"Waaaaah! Waaaah!" The baby seeking the attention of her mother and father made his presence clear, making the dark-armored undead take notice of this small existence.

"That is..." The voice of the undead was as cold as the winter, if not colder.

The undead walked towards the baby and seeking that made Alka react with urgency.

She opened the door of her house and run towards the undead while dragging her father's axes through the ground filled with snow.

She run as fast as she could.

Without even thinking at this point, she raised the axe of her father and swung at the undead back.

"Don't you dare touch her!!!" Alka yelled as her swing connected.

*Tinggi!!!

The sound of metal clashing.

*Creak.

And the sound of the handle of the axe breaking was to be heard.

"Huh?" Alka was stunned as her father's axe broke and the armor of the undead...had received no damage.

Though as she looked at the undamaged armor, a cold voice spoke.

"You..."

Before she could say anything her hand was grabbed and raised to the raised.

"Kyaaagh!" Alka yelled from the pain of being raised through the air, but most of the pain came from her arm quickly having its vitality sucked and her skin, slowly turning black.

She looked at her arm in shock and fear, but her eyes then gazed at the 2 flaring ethereal dark green eyes, that looked at her with no empathy to say the less.

"Ahhh~"

Frozen through fear, her life started to flash before her eyes and she was assured, that she was going to die.

But suddenly, a quiet echo of sound was to be heard.

"~kyaaaaah~"

Alka barely heard that, but the undead holding her twisted his head and looked in the direction of the scream.

In the next moment, the undead turned into mist and left Alka to fall to the ground.

"H-Huh?" Alka stared confused as the ominous pressure and the undead went away, only the scream of the baby left to be heard.

"Waaagh!Waaaagh!"

Afraid of this...being to come back, Alka took the baby and started to run away.