The Paladin in the Abyss

When a dead body rises again under supernatural powers, what exactly drives its actions?

For intelligent undead creatures like liches, vampires, and death knights, their original souls still control their bodies, classifying them as higher-level undead. On the other hand, for unintelligent undead creatures like skeletons, zombies, and ghouls, their bodies are activated by negative energy and only act on instinct, making them easily controlled by spellcasters and turning them into mindless servants.

However, relying solely on instinct to fight isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Facing the fierce slashes from Lancelot in his succubus form, the skeleton knight displayed exceptional combat skills, quickly positioning to parry his attack. The hand half sword and the nail-headed hammer collided heavily, producing a piercing screech as they flew back in opposite directions. Although Lancelot did not use True Yuan to strengthen his attack and his physical strength decreased in succubus form, he still had the advantage of charging, yet that single strike did not give him much of an upper hand, showcasing the unusual nature of this skeleton knight.

However, losses always come with gains. To compensate for decreased strength, Lancelot had gained a pair of wings in his succubus form, making his agility rival that of his human form at its peak. He kept his frontal position and moved like a dragonfly to the opponent’s rear side in an instant, his sword light swift like a whip shadow, striking hard at the enemy’s abdomen.

The skeleton knight had just recovered from the force of the collision and had no time to defend against Lancelot’s lightning-quick follow-up attack. As an undead activated by negative energy, it had no fear of death whatsoever. Facing an attack that could destroy it, it simply abandoned any attempt to defend and swung its hammer towards Lancelot’s head, ready to go down together.

However, Lancelot, cunning in battle, would never let such a trick succeed. Frostslash changed its trajectory mid-air, cutting ahead at the opponent’s supporting knee, knocking it down. The nail-headed hammer aimed at Lancelot’s head missed its mark, hitting only air.

Lancelot didn’t need to continue pursuing, as little Isha, who had been lurking nearby, had already taken action. Her half-kneeling figure emerged like a ghost from the darkness, the skeleton knight’s head landing precisely on her prepared thigh. Within that brief moment, the little vampire targeted the helmet’s seams, her two short swords piercing through like threads through a needle.

No struggle, no twitching, none of the dying resistance seen in living beings; the skeleton knight’s body instantly softened, collapsing as if Isha had burst a balloon, leaving her momentarily stunned by the effectiveness.

Fortunately, another skeleton knight had already been engaged by her new teammate, so her brief distraction did not cause severe consequences. Soveris wielded a lightweight elf longsword, entangling the remaining enemy. The raven leader’s swordsmanship was akin to the style of Swift Sword, rarely clashing with the opponent’s weapon, using flexible movement techniques to control distance and delivering strikes with snake-like precision whenever suitable.

To be honest, this swordsmanship was quite effective against flesh-and-blood enemies, but it had limited impact against skeletons in plate armor. His opponent had been struck several times, yet seemed like a bull being toyed with by a matador, far from collapsing, while the zombie princess stood aside, arms crossed, head tilted, showing no intention of assisting. However, when Soveris suddenly fumbled, leaving a huge opening, she immediately acted, releasing three glowing magical missiles from her palms. Though not powerful, they were enough to interrupt the skeleton knight’s pursuit.

"Bird, can you handle this?" the zombie princess exclaimed, "Sigh, haven’t seen you in over a hundred years, looks like you’re getting old..."

"Thank you, Princess, for your help!" the elf shouted energetically, "I’m not old yet!"