The Ruined Death Knight

As Danzel on the other undead moved forward the treasury, the more humans they found running towards the same direction. 

For Danzel and Nersan´rah was quite fortuned to have more bodies to put wraiths to possess over.

As for the people who had their bodies defiled even in death, not so much.

So in total, they were 14 wraiths together with Skull Claw following behind their own master.

Though Danzel felt somewhat bitter for letting the wraiths kill the others, essentially stealing his XP. He decided to not think much of it.

Knowing that the living would by now gathered around with unknown numbers, he wanted to go there prepared.

Since his undead´s would come out just as peak 1st-tier strength with a human body. Letting the wraiths who were somewhat able to use magic and how to handle their weapons, which was for all a voulge.

The choice was obvious the wraiths.

Though they would have relatively the same physical strength as his undead, the above mention traits would make their strength that of a 2nd-tier combatant.

Of course, there was also the option to turn the corpses into ghouls which would effectively make them much stronger than the wraith´s possessed body. That choice was crossed out as he only had a few pairs of the runed armor and the lack of control that he had on them.

Though he doubted that they would attack him as a fellow undead, he much more preferred the controlled undead than the rogue ones.

Not much later after walking for a few minutes, a towering building came in sight.

The many steps of the building leading to the entrance together with the material that it was built out of made it look like a sacred tomb.

Though his night vision thanks to being undead, was Danzel able to appreciate the detailed carvings in the walls.

But that only lasted a moment as his attention was won over by some sand humanoid figures.

They looked very much like the wraith\'s sand bodies that he saw them with.

From the top of where the entrance was, a group of people stared at Danzel and the wraiths with a frown.

Sasha who was among this group couldn\'t help by be shocked when she saw the people behind the leading figure.

The moment she saw bloodstains in their throats and chest area together with their golden eyes.

Though it was her first time seeing such a thing, she imminently realized the state of the people she knew were in.

"Undead..."

Hearing that, the Explorers who were staying in the Sashia village together with the villagers who only had bows and a tool to fight against had their frowns grow much worse.

Particular the latter if the group.

Instead of staying behind like the majority of the villagers, they with their 1st-tier combat power decided to fight too.

But after seeing the armored figure leading a bunch of undead, they immediately regret their decision.

"Shit! Is it a necromancer!?"

"Even Merrick the magic caster died together with the others..."

"Can we win?"

With most showing their concern out loud, Sasha was about to speak up when one of the Explorers stepped up instead.

"Don\'t worry, with Sasha and me as magic casters and the help with the others. We don\'t have to worry about a mere necromancer and his minions."

The magic caster wearing a mix of a robe and armor holding a staff pointed at the sand humanoids spread around the steps.

"After all, we also have those guys around."

Seeing the sand soldiers created by Sasha and the explorers, the villager gulped back their anxiety.

Having the number advantage together with veteran fighters, courage started to grow in their chest.

\'That\'s the former leader for you.\' Sarah thought to herself.

The magic caster named Valdenz, a 3rd-tiered magic caster and previous leader of the explorer party that Serah was in didn\'t disappoint in people management.

During the mana from her body to her staff, the sand that accumulated in the treasury entrance started to raise up.

Danzel who saw that imminently charge forward with the fellow undead following behind him.

The sand soldiers on standby turned to face Danzel with their spears.

Thrusting his spear towards Danzel\'s chest, Danzel pushes his blade against the spear.

Having greater strength and speed, he pushed the spear away while swinging at the sand soldier\'s neck.

Cleaving the mass of sand in one clean swing, the sand soldier fell to the ground without any signs of recovery.

Before being able to relax, the villagers let loose of the bowstrings.

\'Slow\' Danzel thought as he raised his sword and started blocking the arrow as if they were nothing.

Compared to the archer that he fought back then in the tower, the speed and amount of arrows were too lacking.

The wraiths who were shot at simply raised their hands and formed a shield of sand in front of them while running towards their target.

"[Sand Missiles]" casting her spell, similar to the spell [Magic Missiles]. 5 mana missile with the sand increasing the impact of the spell flew towards Danzel.

As Danzel was about to think of what to do against those, Nersan\'rah\'s crystal shone a dark golden light for a moment.

Manipulating the sands nearby Danzel, the sand shot up in the air like a huge tentacle and slapped the incoming missiles with little to no difficulty.

\'That\'s magic for you\' Danzel said internally at the casting speed and power of Nersan\'rah\'s spell.

With the help of the wraith\'s stopping the sand soldiers, Danzel rushed forward with little to no interference.

"Buy me some time..." Valdez said to the explorers.

He didn\'t expect that the infamous sand soldiers would start falling so quickly.

Though they lacked the numbers, the wraiths and Danzel could easily storm through the sand soldier as they were more powerful, with Danzel being an unstoppable force that the sand soldiers couldn\'t handle.

"Create more soldiers, Sasha. I will deal with him."

Nodding her head, she started summoning more sand soldiers.

The explorers who joined into the mix quickly started to push the wraiths away. Which made their confidence recover.

They didn\'t know that those undead were just mere puppets who were hiding inside.

Wraith would have such a hard time if they weren\'t inside the corpses.

But as those who decided to face the tying thread, the sword-wielding necromancer soon came to regret their decision.

As Danzel made quick work on the two who arrived in front of him, the sand tentacles slapped the remaining 3 to death.

"What the hell is this guy!? He is both at magic and physically stronger!" One of the Explorers who watched from the side cursed at the sight of the 5 dying so fast.

Before they were to get discouraged in fighting the necromancer though, a sinister light came behind them.

"Move back," Valdenz said as he raised his staff.

From the endpoint of his staff, a dark flame as back as the night appeared with a sight of grey light indicating light.

\'What flame is this?\' Danzel questions internally and the sight of the flame.

Without letting him think any further, Valdenz let his flame lose.

"[Chaos Core]"

*Wruagh!

"Danzel, dodge that," Nersan\'rah said in a whisper-like tone to Danzel.

Following Nersan\'rah\'s advice, Danzel moved to the side, away from the dark grey flames path.

But seeing the flame chance his path Danzel cursed under his helmet.

"A homing type..."

As soon as the flame got closer, the sand tentacles shot up to face the flame.

But to Danzel and Nersan\'rah\'s surprise, the flame pushed through the sand and continued headstrong towards Danzel.

Sensing his sense of danger skill activating, Danzel knew he had to avoid the flame.

Jumping back a few steps, he grasped a wraith\'s shoulder and threw it at the dark grey flame.

*Wraaauagh!

With the far grey flames exploding, the wraith manipulating a corpse was engulfed in such flames.

"Kuagggh!"

A scream came out of the burning body.

Before long, a dark mist was shot out of the mouth of the corpse, directly towards the crystal of Nersan\'rah.

"You..."

"It was an emergency," Danzel said with a cold tone. His ethereal eyes glued on the magic caster responsible for the dark grey flames.

\'Though the wraith survived, that guy itself is a problem.\' Danzel though.

"Nersan, can you block one of those flames?" Danzel said loud enough for only Nersan\'rah to hear.

"Yeah...but I will have to put all my focus into it, meaning that I can\'t support you." Nersan\'rah said in a cold tone.

Nodding his head, Danzel raised his sword up.

Channeling his mana into his sword he let loose 2 dark green wind blades towards the location of the magic caster.

Which were shortly blocked with two sand walls.

"I see...one defense while the other attacks\' " Danzel said quite annoyed.

\'If I don\'t finish this quick I would be forced to make Nersan release all the wraith\'s true bodies.

Something that Nersan\'rah didn\'t want to do if it wasn\'t necessary.

Since even though he used the crystal as a vessel, his body still slowly started to break a bit, even if it was at a snail\'s pace.

As a Death Spirit, he would weaken if the dead it collected were to leave his body.