The Undead King of the Palace of Darkness

The tip of the blade that was meant to exorcise darkness was pointed towards us. His subordinates also held their swords and spears ready. Selzard stuck out his tongue for a second and said in a grating voice.

“You’re late, End Baron. I have been… waiting.”

“… How did you know?”

There was no way he could find out. Oliver is watching over Monica and while I might have made a few detours, I came here without taking any breaks.

In the first place, I only talked with Selzard once. As I stood ready, Selzard said.

“The cold rage you had… would be impossible to appease otherwise.”

“…You got me.”

I didn’t expect somebody that’s mostly a lizard to read my course of actions… Am I that easy to read? I guess I am… Even Man-Eater was fully prepared for me.

Dell readies his rugged sword while still wearing his thick coat.

“Selzard, I have no grudges against you. You pierced through my heart, and I opened you a new hole. Let’s call it a tie.”

“…”

Selzard doesn’t respond. I pour blood power in my right arm. My arm makes a creaking sound, and it changes into a white blade.

Dell gasps after seeing my power for the first time.

A weapon made of holy silver, huh… the blade made from ‘Sharp Claw” might be a part of me, but I wonder if it’ll still be okay if we clash? 

Unfortunately, I don’t have other weapons with me for a reason.

“Move, if you don’t want to die. I don’t want to kill you all like the ‘King of the Night’ that attacked your hometown.”

I want to avoid exhausting my powers even by a little bit. I don’t need a holy silver sword either. It won’t work on Rainel anyway and if Dell gets back his original weapon, he might try to kill me, so I’d actually prefer it to disappear.

There was no resentment on Selzard’s face.  But there also was no hesitation in his answer to my advice to surrender.

“Lizardmen warriors know no retreat!”

“… You guys must have families too.”

“All for! Our King!”

Selzard roars and his troops spread around. There is readiness to die, conviction, in his eyes. 

What a pain in the ass. Time is the most important right now, and we’re already weaker than Rainel as it is. We don’t have time to fight in a place like this.

I’m relatively strong. Even if Selzard, who’s physically weaker than me, uses a weapon made from holy silver I won’t lose easily.

At the very least, it’s easy to annihilate Selzard’s underlings. I do like him better than ‘Man-Eater’ because he doesn’t use cheap tricks, but if he’s insistent in getting in my way, I won’t hesitate to kill him.

“You might not care but your underlings will die in vain. Wouldn’t it be better if you at least let your allies esca――”

At that point, Selzard’s underlings attacked me from all sides.

That’s some amazing fighting spirit they have.

The fear they showed when I overpowered Selzard on my first day here has completely disappeared.

How can they jump at me without any regards for their lives when they have no chances to win is beyond even me with my reputation of being unreasonably stubborn.

Is this―― what it means to be a warrior?

Their attacks are sharp and their physical abilities far surpasses that of a human. I avoid the slashes and stabs from all directions by stepping back.

If I take them head on, somebody with a small stature like me will be easily blown away. There are too many of them ―― it’s like a wall. Some of them have shields too. While melee is the best I could ask for, Selzard, who’s in possession of a weapon that could fatally wound me, is more troublesome. 

Holy silver deals a lot of damage to demonic beings. That weapon can probably easily cut off my extremely hard ‘Sharp Claw’. Just when I thought that I got my hands on a good weapon, I already found its weakness.

“Dell, go ahead. I’ll take charge here!”

“Wha?!”

I repel the blades with my claw. Each strike is heavy, but they’re not on the level of a vampire’s power. I can instantly heal any wounds. The only one I have to look out for is Selzard.

But this swarm is troublesome for Dell. I’m sure he couldn’t handle them all alone.  Even if he managed to do it, he would probably not escape unscathed. 

When Monica first told me about Dell, she mentioned that he killed thirty elite warriors, but he most likely didn’t have to take them on all at once. Besides, a single cut could become fatal for a human. 

I lightly flicked away the attacks and shouted while moving back.

“They’re only after me! You can get away if you’re alone! We don’t have time to spare! I’ll finish up soon and follow after you!”

Selzard is looking only at me. I’m sure that even if Dell slips through, Selzard wouldn’t chase after him. In his mind, a single Death Knight wouldn’t be Rainel’s match.  And he’s trying to kill me at all costs. Did I do something in my fight with Man-Eater that made him think that way?

“If you don’t hurry up, reinforcement might catch up. If there’s an ally nearby, I can’t go all out! Go ahead, please!”

“Kh…”

He gnashed his teeth for a moment, but Dell ran ahead. He slipped behind the lizardmen that were surrounding me. Just as I expected, Selzard didn’t even pretend to chase after him. While retreating from the rain of blades and dealing with them forcefully, I asked.

“Did I do something horrible enough to make you hate me this much?”

“You’re wrong. This is―― respect. You’re strong. That’s why, I will use all my might to destroy you.”

Sheesh, why do Undead have so many enemies? I click my tongue and go on the offense.

I change my left hand into a blade too and push forward with all my might. I repel the blades, the spears, and pierce the Lizardman that was guarding his left through his shield. Blades graze my body from all sides, but that’s not a problem. Lizardmen are like pieces of paper.

Perhaps thinking that others wouldn’t be able to hold me back. Selzard also joins the offense. It’s my first time fighting against a single edged sword, but it’s no different from any other longsword. I evade the beautiful arc-shaped slashes by retreating, kick the Lizardman next to me and take the spear with my left hand that I’ve changed back into fingers. 

As expected, Lizardmen won’t use garlic bombs or crosses against me. While the lizardmen in front of me are noble, they’re far inferior to their master as warriors.

I block another slash by swinging the spear. But, as expected, the quality of this weapon is considerably poorer. If I’m careless, its handle might split in half.

Selzard shouts. His voice is full of strong fighting spirit.

“What’s wrong? Are you afraid of death?! Your friend went ahead!”

Am I afraid of death, you ask?

“Of course I’m afraid.”

But letting my ally go ahead was according to my plan.

Even if Selzard didn’t appear, I was thinking of making up an excuse to send him ahead.

After all, I don’t know Demon King Rainel’s true power. I know that he’s powerful and I’ve heard stories, but I don’t know exactly how powerful he is.

I don’t plan to die in vain. I needed a touchstone.

If the veteran warrior, Dell Gordon gets killed in a second, I will

―― gallantly run away. That would mean that it’s still early to take on Rainel.

Here, I switch over my thoughts. I can’t just let him keep talking. I block the silver blade with a newly stolen sword and smile at Selzard.

“Still, I’m shocked. I didn’t expect to fight soldiers who were fully prepared to lose.”

“…”

Selzard doesn’t reply. But his agitation is transmitted to me through his blade.

I understand it instantly. A swarm of subordinates. A lineup with many shields. A silver sword.

At a glance, it looks like they’re attacking me with all their might, but this is not a battle formation that’s aimed at victory.

When you are fighting against a vampire, what you need are elite warriors. Small fries without silver weapons do not pose any threat to me.

They’re stalling. Selzard is sacrificing his life to buy more time. The fact that Selzard didn’t attack until I went on offense is the biggest proof of that.

I don’t know the definition of a warrior but blocking somebody’s way without any readiness to win or will to survive is insane, to say the least.

“Are you waiting for the reinforcements? Who are you waiting for? Monica? Oliver? Or perhaps the champion ogre?”

The number of wounded keeps growing. Their shields and spears break. Blood is splattering everywhere and many warriors fall. But there is not as much as a scratch on my body.

My brain, my body is hot. The flames of the combat instincts smouldering in my brain course through my body, exciting me. I open my eyes wide and look at Selzard. My fangs itch. I entrust myself to my urges and scream.

“That’s not right, is it… Selzard? The one you’re waiting for, the one you called for is ―― “Man-Eater’. The cowardly beast and the only one who managed to heavily wound me.”

Selzard doesn’t respond. But silence is as good as confirmation.

Oh yeah, that beast could definitely kill me.

It’s because Hebram is smart. He has enough intelligence to analyse why he lost and come up with a countermeasure and he’s cowardly enough to instantly put it in action. That beast is quite similar to me, so he must have felt my killing intent too.

Selzard’s choice was absolutely correct. It’s not easy to seek help from somebody you hated before. 

If he made a single mistake, that would be――

“Hebram… won’t be coming. I already killed him.”

If you want to kill someone, you must do it before they can do anything.

There was no way somebody as fearful as me would leave that terrifying, strong, wise, cowardly and cunning beast alive. I would naturally kill him right away.

Our swords clash together. The blades, that haven’t been blessed, piece my body from all sides. 

The face of Selzard, who has been unresponsive to my words until now, distorts greatly for the first time.

I blow slightly towards his protruding chin, a peculiarity to lizardmen.

Small black sparks mixed with my breath burn his scales.

Selzard’s eyes open wide in shock. That’s the only thing he can do.

The black sparks don’t go out. The fire magically spreads,

enveloping Selzard’s head and lighting up his body like a black torch.