Chapter 217 — A Battlefield of Corpses
The forest before the SkyPeak Mountain pathway had never witnessed a scene like this.
For countless years, these trees had stood in silence.
They had witnessed hunters pursuing prey.
Beasts tearing one another apart.
Goblins raiding travellers.
But never...
An army of the living charging against an army of the dead.
And now, it was happening.
Two forces stood on opposite ends of the clearing.
Neither intended to retreat.
Neither intended to surrender.
Only one side was supposed to walk away alive.
On one side stood the growing force of the Goblin Settlement.
More than one hundred and fifty warriors had gathered under the command of their Shaman.
Weapons filled their hands.
Their bodies were small compared to most human warriors, but their expressions carried the savagery of creatures accustomed to killing.
And at their rear stood the Shaman.
His staff was firmly planted against the ground.
His eyes remained fixed on Evan.
Across from them...
Five hundred Skeletons stood in silence.
No battle cries, trembling or fear.
Only empty eye sockets burning with ghostly flames.
Their skeletal bodies filled the forest.
Bones shifted with every movement.
Clack... Clatter...
Deathly energy spread through the trees like an invisible mist.
And at the center of it all stood Evan.
With Bone Armour covering his body.
Earth reinforcing the armour.
Ice layering its surface.
Crimson Edge resting in his hand.
At this moment...
He barely looked human anymore.
If someone had arrived at the battlefield without knowing him, they might have mistaken him for an Undead Lord commanding his army from the depths of some forgotten graveyard.
Yet beneath that monstrous appearance...
He remained human.
And he was staring directly at the Goblin Shaman.
Then...
Both armies moved.
The earth trembled.
BOOM!
The Goblins charged.
Five hundred Skeletons surged forward from the opposite direction.
The distance between them disappeared within seconds.
And then...
They collided.
BOOOOOOM!
The first impact shook the entire forest.
Weapons struck bone.
Bones shattered.
Goblin bodies were thrown backwards.
Skeletons were torn apart.
The frontline instantly became a storm of blood, steel, and broken bones.
The Goblins had the advantage.
A massive one.
Despite being outnumbered more than three to one, the average strength of the Goblin warriors was considerably higher than that of the Skeletons.
A Goblin warrior swung his axe.
CRACK!
A Skeleton's skull shattered.
Another Goblin thrust his spear.
THUD!
The weapon pierced through a Skeleton's chest and sent it crashing backwards.
A third grabbed a Skeleton by the arm and tore it away with brute force.
The Skeletons were being ripped apart.
One after another.
The Goblins pushed through the undead frontline far more easily than anyone had expected.
"Break them!"
"Keep moving!"
"Don't let the bones surround us!"
"Kill them!"
The warriors roared.
Their confidence surged.
They had feared the numbers.
But now...
They were seeing the truth.
These Skeletons were weak.
At least individually.
One Goblin could tear through several of them.
The first wave of Skeletons began collapsing rapidly.
But then...
Something strange happened.
The Skeletons didn't retreat.
They didn't hesitate.
They didn't fear the loss of their comrades.
They simply kept advancing.
A Skeleton with half its skull destroyed continued swinging its weapon.
Another with a broken arm charged forward using only one hand.
One that had been split almost in half dragged its body across the ground before grabbing a Goblin's leg.
The living had pain.
The living had fear.
The living had limits.
The dead had none.
And that difference began becoming apparent.
The battle continued.
Skeletons were destroyed by the dozens.
But for every few Goblins that fell...
Dozens of Skeletons remained.
The battlefield gradually transformed into a sea of corpses.
And then the Goblins noticed something.
A Skeleton they had just destroyed...
Moved.
Crack.
Its fingers twitched.
A shattered skull slowly lifted.
Broken bones dragged themselves across the ground.
Then...
The Skeleton stood again.
The Goblin staring at it froze.
"What...?"
Before he could react...
CLACK!
The Skeleton swung.
The Goblin barely blocked the attack.
"These things can get back up?!"
Another Skeleton rose.
Then another.
The fallen undead were rebuilding themselves.
Every time the Goblins destroyed one...
It could potentially return.
And that wasn't even the worst part.
The Goblins began noticing the corpses around them.
Their own comrades.
Bodies that had fallen during the battle.
Bodies that should have remained dead.
One Goblin warrior looked down.
His dead companion's fingers twitched.
His eyes widened.
"No..."
The corpse suddenly moved.
Bones cracked.
Flesh peeled away.
The dead Goblin slowly rose.
Ghostly flames appeared within its empty eye sockets.
It turned toward the living.
And joined the Skeleton army.
The surrounding Goblins froze.
Their expressions changed completely.
Their fallen comrades...
Were becoming enemies.
Every Goblin they lost was potentially another soldier for Evan.
The battle had stopped being a simple fight of numbers.
It had become something far worse.
The longer it continued...
The stronger the army of the dead became.
And the Goblins were beginning to understand what that meant.
Their bodies were ammunition.
Their fallen were reinforcements.
Their own deaths were feeding the enemy.
The Shaman understood it too.
His expression became increasingly grim.
'This cannot continue.'
The Goblins might be stronger.
But strength meant very little in a battle that could last indefinitely.
Their stamina would eventually run out.
Their wounds would accumulate.
Their numbers would fall.
Meanwhile...
The Skeletons would continue rising.
Again and again.
Until there was nothing left alive.
Yet while the Goblin warriors struggled against the undead army...
Evan wasn't watching them.
His attention remained fixed on one person.
The Shaman.
He stood above the battlefield on a thick tree branch.
His staff moved continuously.
His mouth never stopped chanting.
Mana constantly gathered around him.
And every few moments...
He unleashed another spell.
WHOOSH!
A violent current of wind swept through the battlefield.
Skeletons were thrown apart.
Bones shattered against trees.
Another spell followed.
Then another.
Each one was powerful enough to destroy dozens of Skeletons within its radius.
The Shaman wasn't fighting with the Goblins.
He was dismantling Evan's army.
And he was doing it efficiently.
Evan watched silently.
'As expected.'
The Shaman was the biggest threat to his summons.
If he was allowed to continue...
The Skeleton army would be reduced far too quickly.
Then the Shaman raised his staff again.
His chanting became deeper.
Wind began gathering around him.
At first...
It was only a gentle current.
Then it became stronger.
Leaves were ripped from the surrounding branches.
Branches bent.
Dust rose from the ground.
The air itself began twisting.
A large orb of wind gradually formed before him.
It rotated violently.
Compressed air screamed within its center.
The Shaman's eyes sharpened.
He slammed his staff downward.
BOOOOOOM!
A massive dome of wind erupted.
The attack expanded across the battlefield.
Skeletons caught within its radius were immediately torn apart.
Bones flew through the air.
Bodies were shredded.
Others outside the center were thrown backwards by the violent pressure.
Nearly fifty Skeletons disappeared from the battlefield in a single attack.
The Goblin warriors cheered.
"The Shaman!"
"Keep moving!"
"We're winning!"
But Evan...
Didn't even blink.
His expression remained completely calm.
He raised one hand.
Mana surged through his body.
A necrotic wave spread across the battlefield.
The destroyed Skeletons began repairing themselves.
Broken bones reconnected.
Cracked skulls reformed.
Damaged limbs reconstructed.
Around thirty percent of the lost Skeletons were restored almost instantly.
The rest...
Were already being replaced by the fallen.
Evan lowered his hand.
His gaze never left the Shaman.
'You're troublesome.'
That was all.
Evan moved.
His hand rose.
A tiny flame appeared above his palm.
It looked almost insignificant.
A small flicker.
Barely worth noticing.
But the flame began condensing.
Mana gathered around it.
The flame compressed.
Then took shape.
A cube.
Small at first.
Then larger and larger.
Until a flaming cube hovered above Evan's hand.
The Shaman didn't notice.
He was preparing another spell.
Evan looked at the cube.
He casually threw it upward.
Like tossing a ball into the air.
The cube rose.
Higher and higher.
Until it reached a position directly above the Goblin warriors.
The Goblins looked upward.
Some noticed the strange object.
"What is that?"
Nobody knew.
Then Evan flicked his finger.
CRACK!
The cube shattered.
A rain of flames descended.
At first, it looked harmless.
Tiny sparks.
Small flames.
Almost beautiful.
Then one touched a Goblin.
The warrior froze.
His eyes widened.
Flames spread across his body.
FWOOSH!
"AAAAARGH!"
He collapsed.
Another flame landed nearby.
Another Goblin screamed.
Then another.
Within moments...
The battlefield erupted.
Flames spread across bodies.
Armour melted.
Skin charred.
The smell of burning flesh filled the forest.
The Goblins had seen this flame before.
They remembered it.
The same terrifying fire that had turned their comrades into corpses.
The same fire that had marked the human they had once hunted.
Panic spread through the warriors.
"Fire!"
"Get away!"
"Don't let it touch you!"
But the flames kept falling.
One after another.
The Goblin formation began breaking apart.
The Shaman's expression changed instantly.
He raised his staff.
"Move!"
Wind erupted around the Goblins.
The falling flames were swept sideways.
The Shaman redirected them away from his warriors.
The flames were carried toward the Skeleton army instead.
Several Goblins watched anxiously.
Then... Nothing happened.
The flames touched the Skeletons.
But unlike the Goblins...
They didn't erupt into flames.
The fire simply clung to their skeletal bodies.
Some Skeletons continued fighting as though nothing had happened.
The Goblins stared.
Confusion appeared on their faces.
The Shaman wasn't confused.
His eyes remained cold.
'So that's another trick.'
He had already realised something.
The human had more abilities than he had shown.
And every time the Shaman believed he understood him...
Another ability appeared.
He couldn't afford to underestimate him again.
But Evan didn't give him time to think.
The Shaman began another incantation.
Mana started gathering around his staff.
Then...
The shadows beneath him trembled.
His chanting stopped.
"What...?"
SHHHH!
Darkness erupted from beneath the branch.
Wisps of shadow crawled upward.
They wrapped around his legs.
His body suddenly locked in place.
The Shaman's eyes widened.
"What is this?!"
The shadows tightened.
His movement was completely restricted.
And then he felt it.
A gaze.
He looked across the battlefield.
Evan was staring directly at him.
Their eyes met.
For the first time...
The Shaman felt something close to fear.
Evan slowly raised Crimson Edge.
Flames erupted across the blade.
FWOOSH!
He swung.
A crimson slash tore through the air.
The attack shot directly toward the Shaman.
The tree branch beneath him was in its path.
The Shaman reacted instantly.
The moment before the slash reached him...
His body disappeared.
BOOM!
The crimson blade of flame ripped through the branch.
Wood split apart like butter.
The slash continued upward before disappearing into the sky.
A few meters away...
The Shaman reappeared.
His robes were dishevelled.
His breathing was slightly heavier.
But he was unharmed.
He immediately looked toward the battlefield.
Then his expression froze.
The number of Goblin warriors had fallen drastically.
One hundred and fifty...
Only seventy-six warriors remained.
Nearly half his force had disappeared.
And the battle was nowhere near finished.
The Shaman clenched his teeth.
His gaze returned to Evan.
For a moment...
He hesitated.
Then he raised his staff.
His voice thundered across the battlefield.
"All warriors..."
The Goblins turned toward him.
The Shaman's expression was unwilling.
Reluctant.
But the decision had already been made.
"Retreat for now!"
The words echoed through the forest.
"Gather at the settlement!"
The Goblins began pulling away.
But Evan simply stood there.
Watching.
The battle had not gone according to the Shaman's expectations.
It had gone exactly according to his.
The Goblins had entered the forest believing they were hunting one human.
Now...
They were retreating from an army of the dead.
And Evan had finally forced the Shaman to understand something.
This was no longer a hunt.
It was a war.
And the dead had only just begun to rise.
Every warrior heard the Shaman's command.
For a moment, they simply stood there.
They had expected the battle to continue. They had expected their Shaman to order them forward once again and crush the remaining undead before returning victorious to the settlement.
Instead, they were being ordered to retreat.
The sight before them was enough to make even the most stubborn Goblin hesitate.
Hundreds of Skeletons were still moving through the battlefield.
Their bodies were broken in countless places, yet they continued crawling forward without hesitation.
Some had lost arms.
Some had shattered skulls.
Others were missing entire sections of their bodies.
Yet none of them stopped.
The Goblins finally understood something terrifying.
They weren't fighting warriors who feared death.
They were fighting something that had already experienced it.
The first Goblin turned around.
Then another.
Within moments, the formation began collapsing as the warriors started retreating in different directions, desperately trying to create distance from the approaching undead.
The battlefield that had been filled with roars only moments ago was now filled with hurried footsteps and the clattering of weapons.
Evan watched them leave.
His eyes narrowed.
He hadn't expected the Shaman to retreat so quickly.
But that didn't mean he was willing to let them go.
"You think you can just leave whenever you want?"
Evan slowly raised one hand.
"No way."
Mana surged around him.
Above his head, the air began trembling.
Then...
CRACK!
Bone spikes started forming in midair.
One.
Five.
Twenty.
Then dozens.
Within seconds, hundreds of small, ball-sized spikes floated above Evan.
Each one slowly rotated in place.
Their sharpened ends glimmered beneath the faint light filtering through the forest canopy.
The sight was almost beautiful.
Until they moved.
Evan flicked his hand toward the retreating Goblins.
The hundreds of spikes shot forward.
FWOOSH!
The forest suddenly became a rain of death.
The projectiles tore through branches, leaves, and thick vegetation as though everything in their path were nothing more than paper.
Then they reached the Goblins.
THUD!
THUD!
The first warrior was pierced through the back.
Another spike entered through a Goblin's shoulder and exited through his chest.
Several others were struck through their legs, causing them to tumble helplessly onto the ground.
The retreating formation instantly turned into chaos.
Goblins fell one after another, their bodies collapsing among the trees like leaves being torn from branches.
"AAAAARGH!"
"Run!"
"Protect yourselves!"
"Don't stop!"
Their screams echoed through the forest.
Evan continued watching calmly.
He had no intention of allowing even a single warrior to escape if he could prevent it.
But then...
A violent surge of mana erupted behind the retreating Goblins.
Evan's eyes shifted.
The Shaman appeared among his warriors.
His staff was glowing with condensed mana.
He had understood the attack immediately.
Without wasting another second, he swung his staff toward Evan.
"Wind..."
The air screamed.
BOOOOOOM!
A gigantic gust of wind erupted from the Shaman's position.
The force was so violent that the earth itself cracked beneath it.
Trees were uprooted.
Branches were ripped apart.
Leaves became deadly projectiles.
The hundreds of bone spikes were swept away in an instant.
But the wind didn't stop there.
It continued rushing forward.
The Skeletons caught within its path were thrown into the sky.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
Their bodies spun helplessly through the air before crashing against trees and rocks.
Even Evan's footing was disrupted.
His body slid backwards for a moment as the violent wind pressed against his armour.
He dug his foot into the earth and stabilised himself.
The attack finally weakened.
Silence slowly returned.
The Shaman stood among the retreating Goblins.
His breathing had become noticeably heavier.
His staff trembled slightly from the amount of mana he had just expended.
Yet his eyes remained cold as he stared directly at Evan.
"Human..."
His voice carried across the battlefield.
"Don't think this little battle means you've secured your victory."
He tightened his grip around his staff.
"Only the one who remains standing at the very end becomes the true winner."
His gaze hardened.
"And I assure you..."
"You won't be the one having the last laugh."
The Shaman paused for a moment.
"Until then..."
"Don't push your luck."
The moment those words fell...
Wind gathered around him.
The Shaman turned and disappeared into the forest with the remaining Goblins.
Evan watched their figures vanish between the trees.
He didn't chase them.
He could.
At his current strength, he was confident that he could continue fighting and eventually overwhelm the remaining warriors.
But doing so would come with a price.
And Evan had no intention of paying that price unnecessarily.
His gaze moved toward the battlefield.
The number of Skeletons standing around him had dropped drastically.
From the five hundred he had initially prepared...
Only a little over one hundred remained in fighting condition.
Evan's eyes narrowed slightly.
'So this is what the first confrontation cost me.'
He had known the Skeletons weren't individually powerful.
That was why he had prepared five hundred in the first place.
He had expected casualties.
But seeing the result firsthand still made him realise how difficult the final battle would become.
The Shaman's strength was troublesome.
His wind magic could destroy dozens of Skeletons at once.
And the settlement itself contained even more warriors.
If he entered their territory with only his current force...
The losses could become enormous.
Evan wasn't worried about winning.
He was worried about how much winning would cost him.
Then his gaze fell upon the battlefield.
Broken Skeletons were scattered everywhere.
Goblin corpses covered the ground.
Bones lay beneath trees.
Fragments of weapons were buried in the soil.
The battlefield looked like the remains of a massacre.
But for Evan...
It was something else.
It was resources.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"Even the losses of my summons..."
He slowly walked toward the scattered remains.
"...are still boons in my hands."
His eyes became colder.
"I'll show him exactly what he left behind for me."
Mana surged from Evan's body.
He raised his hand.
The battlefield responded.
Broken bones began trembling.
Clack...
Fragments moved across the ground.
Clatter...
Shattered Skeletons began reconstructing themselves.
Bones joined together.
Broken limbs reconnected.
Skulls returned to their bodies.
Those that could still be restored slowly rose again.
At the same time...
The fallen Goblin corpses began moving.
One body twitched.
Then another.
Bones pushed through flesh.
Bodies twisted unnaturally as necrotic energy spread through them.
One after another, the dead Goblins rose.
They were no longer warriors of the settlement.
They were Evan's summons.
His army.
The number inside his summon storage began increasing once again.
What had been destroyed during the battle was slowly being replaced.
And Evan wasn't finished.
The scattered bones that could no longer be used as Skeletons were also gathered.
They floated toward him.
A stream of bone fragments surrounded his body.
Evan activated Bone Armour.
The bones began merging with his existing armour.
They reinforced the structure around his body.
Additional layers formed over his chest.
His shoulders became thicker.
His arms received another layer of protection.
Even the damaged portions of his armour were strengthened.
Earth followed.
The material condensed around the bone structure, creating another protective layer.
Then ice covered the surface.
A cold layer formed over the entire armour, making Evan's already monstrous appearance even more intimidating.
But this time...
He wasn't the only one receiving the reinforcement.
Evan directed the remaining materials toward his undead army.
Bones covered the Goblin Skeletons from head to toe.
Their bodies became thicker.
Their defences improved.
Their old weapons were repaired where possible.
One by one, they began resembling smaller versions of Evan himself.
Bone armour.
Earth reinforcement.
Ice coating.
Old and worn weapons clutched in skeletal hands.
Hundreds of miniature undead warriors now stood around him.
They looked less like ordinary Skeletons...
And more like an army prepared specifically for war.
Evan finally stopped, breathing a little hard.
His mana had fallen considerably.
He needed time to recover.
He walked toward a nearby fallen tree and sat upon its cut trunk.
The forest was slowly becoming quiet again.
Only the occasional clatter of bones broke the silence.
Evan closed his eyes for a moment.
His mana began recovering.
There was still some distance between this place and the Goblin Settlement.
That gave him time.
And he intended to use every second of it.
He couldn't afford even a minor disadvantage when he entered the final battle.
The Shaman had already shown him what he was capable of.
The settlement contained more warriors.
There were Hobgoblins.
There were scouts.
There were the Shaman's tamed beasts.
And most importantly...
The Shaman himself would be waiting.
Evan opened his eyes.
His gaze turned toward the distant direction of the settlement.
This next battle would be different.
There would be no retreating into the valley.
No running back toward SkyPeak.
No second opportunity.
Either he demolished the Goblin Settlement...
Or the mission failed here.
There was no third possibility.
Evan leaned back slightly against the tree.
Then he opened his status.
The familiar system panel appeared before his eyes.
He calmly began checking his condition.
He needed to know exactly what he had before entering the final battlefield.
Meanwhile...
The Goblin Settlement had already begun preparing for his arrival.
The warriors were returning.
The wounded were being gathered.
The Shaman was undoubtedly making his own preparations.
And somewhere beyond the trees...
The settlement was waiting.
Evan stared toward it without the slightest concern.
He had caused an enormous disturbance in the forest.
He had killed their scouts.
Destroyed their warriors.
Turned their fallen into his own army.
And forced their Shaman to retreat.
Soon...
The consequences would arrive.
But Evan wasn't interested in worrying about what would happen later.
For now...
He simply sat there.
Recovering and preparing.
Because when he finally stood up and began walking toward that settlement...
He intended for it to be the last march of the Goblin settlement.