Chapter 437: False Allies
Alexander decided to test the skill he had assimilated.
"[Mist Armor]," said Alexander.
Upon activation, a layer of grey smoke emanated from his pores, enveloping his body.
The skeleton knight stared from atop his steed, the fire in his eye sockets shifting color as he witnessed the transformation.
"He is no monarch, he is a blood traitor!" roared the skeleton knight in fury. "Kill him!"
The undead troops redirected their weapons toward him, but the solid mist entities reacted at the same time and lunged at the skeletons, shielding Alexander.
Alexander was left in shock by the chaos. It seemed these beings possessed no reasoning and operated on sight; now that Alexander looked like a mist entity, they considered him one of their own and turned on the skeletons.
"Testing what I can do isn’t a bad thing," said Alexander, adjusting his claws.
Taking advantage of the confusion, Alexander launched himself at the undead commander. He unleashed a claw strike loaded with shadow and bloodlust, but the knight reacted with speed: he parried the impact with his broadsword and executed a counterattack.
The vertical slash cut through the air and cleaved Alexander’s body at the waist.
"The abomination is dead," said the skeleton knight, lowering his blade.
However, Alexander kept his [Divine Regeneration] active. Within milliseconds, his flesh and shadow tissue reassembled, sealing his wounds.
Lunging from behind the giant before it could turn, Alexander thrust his hand forward, impaling the skeleton’s back. His hand burst through the dark ribs, but upon reaching the center, he realized there was no heart inside to destroy.
The skeleton knight snapped its head a full one hundred and eighty degrees around with a crack, roared, and spewed a torrent of spectral flames at Alexander’s face.
Alexander dodged the fire by leaning to the side, yanked his arm out of the chest, and leaped back to create distance. As he retreated, he watched as the skeleton’s ribs sealed back up, closing the cavity.
"This is getting interesting," said Alexander, smirking as he brushed the flames off his shoulders.
As the solid mist entities and the undead troops slaughtered each other, a cascade of notifications flickered across Alexander’s view:
[Skill Acquired: Bone Armor]
[Skill Acquired: Bone Weapon]
[Skill Acquired: Mist Weapon]
[Shadow Armor Leveled Up to Lvl 2]
[Shadow Weapon Leveled Up to Lvl 2]
[Mist Armor Leveled Up to Lvl 2]
[Mist Weapon Leveled Up to Lvl 2]
The slaughter was so chaotic that Alexander was assimilating skills from both factions. Thrilled by the surge in power, he decided to test his acquired abilities.
"[Shadow Armor]," said Alexander.
A suit of armor similar to the knight’s encased him, albeit with a lighter hue. However, his mist and shadow skills began combining upon his body, intertwining into a chaotic flow.
Upon attempting to manifest a weapon, the condensed mana emerged as a mass. Alexander focused his mind, visualizing the silhouette of a broadsword, and the mass reacted, morphing into a blade forged of shadow and mist.
The skeleton knight gritted his helmet’s teeth and raised his broadsword with rage.
"Your existence is an insult to the Dark Realm!" roared the skeleton knight, his voice echoing across the battlefield. "You shall be exterminated!"
"You think you can? Come at me!" said Alexander, gripping the hilt of his sword with both hands.
Alexander lunged forward and brought down a strike with all his might. The blade of shadow and mist collided with the skeleton knight’s broadsword, holding firm in a metallic screech for a second before starting to yield under the giant’s mass.
The knight was superior in physical power; however, the volume of creatures slaughtering each other caused Alexander’s skills to keep leveling up without pause. Notifications flickered before his eyes as his armor gained density and rank.
Noticing the young man’s growth, the skeleton knight tried to leap back to command his troops to hold fire.
"Troops, cease fire!" roared the skeleton knight.
"You’re not going anywhere!" said Alexander, intercepting him with a flurry of claw strikes and thrusts.
Alexander kept him at bay without giving him a second to breathe, forcing him to block continuous strikes and preventing him from restoring order to the chaotic battlefield.
Cornered by the flurry of slashes and seeing his troops continue to fuel his rival’s power, the skeleton knight let out a roar.
"Enough!" roared the skeleton knight, plunging the tip of his broadsword into the rocky ground.
All the spectral mana and bone energy flowing through the giant’s armor compressed into the center of his silver blade. The cracks in the earth glowed with green light as bone spikes erupted from the ground within a twenty-meter radius.
"Perish along with this land, cursed abomination!" screamed the skeleton knight, bringing down his fully charged broadsword toward Alexander’s neck.
Alexander watched the compressed mass of mana descend upon him, but instead of dodging, he set his stance and raised his combined shadow-and-mist weapon.
At that instant, a surge of notifications flickered across his field of view: [Shadow Armor], [Shadow Weapon], [Mist Armor], and [Mist Weapon] had all reached Level 9.
"Just what I was waiting for," said Alexander, releasing the accumulated bloodlust within his core.
The four skills intertwined and fused into two higher-tier techniques: [Dark Mist Armor] and [Dark Mist Weapon]. However, facing the imminent impact of the giant’s broadsword, Alexander pushed his mana flow to the limit and merged both skills, giving birth to a supreme skill: [Dark Mist Body].
His physical figure dissolved into an entity of black mist and crimson aura so dense it warped the surrounding air.
Alexander executed an ascending slash into the giant’s ultimate technique.
The impact produced a shockwave that blew apart the surrounding terrain. The knight’s bone broadsword cracked from top to bottom before shattering into a thousand pieces. Alexander’s blade cut through the commander’s armor from shoulder to waist, severing his body of stone and bone in two.
The green fire within the giant’s eye sockets dimmed as the suit of armor crumbled to the ground.
"The Dark Realm... shall never... fall..." said the skeleton knight in a final whisper before dissolving into ash.
Alexander took a breath as the surge of energy released by the commander’s death flowed into his shadow.
Upon seeing their commander cut in half and reduced to ash, absolute chaos took hold of the undead forces. The skeleton troops’ discipline collapsed in an instant, and they began fleeing in all directions toward the valley’s shadows, abandoning their weapons on the ground.
For their part, the solid mist entities ceased their attacks. The greyish smoke slowly restructured itself as the surviving creatures began to regroup around him, hovering in silence and gazing at Alexander with a mixture of fascination and deep curiosity as the aura of his [Dark Mist Body] rippled through the air.