The Amber Sword

The entire place was dark. Some of the female nobles’ shrieks could be heard all over the place. Brendel and Roen were the first to pull out their swords from their robes, while Ciel and Batum’s reactions were slower to pull their weapons out. Batum removed the strap that was holding the two-handed sword sword, while directing the girls to move in between him and Ciel.

He then held Roen’s shoulder with one hand, afraid that he was going to try and do something funny. The cripple snorted lightly, but his expression did not seem to mind it.

After the panicked screams, the men angry yells and questioning voices could be heard from all directions, even from the Boxes.

It was the hall on the first floor that appeared to be more calm. These were seasoned adventurers and mercenaries, and they had enough experience in battles to remain composed, preventing the chaos from becoming bigger.

“Brendel, what’s happening?” Romaine’s voice was one of curiosity and not fear.

Amandina who was behind Romaine, grabbed the hems of her dress anxiously till the point where her fingers were white. But she narrowed her bright eyes and tried not to show her fear.

“Quiet—” Brendel said. He saw that there were some nobles and impatient youths who lit the area up with torches or gems from their scepters.

But the light were quickly extinguished again.

It was not uncommon to see people in Vaunte using Elementary Light magic, and some of the bigger cities had Light crystals installed into the street lamps. Even Roen had a ring like that, but he did not rush to bring it up. Anyone who raised up a light source in this darkness would only become a target.

But sometimes reality went against wishes.

Right when Brendel thought there was no immediate danger, the Thorn of Light glimmered once. He paused slightly and looked at it, and realized the sword was glowing brighter with every second. The next moment, a dazzling flash from the sword lit up the entire area clearly.

Before he had the chance to be surprised at the scene, four robed figures were rushing swiftly through the narrow corridors and passages, rushing straight at their direction.

Their hands were within their robes, indicating that there were weapons hidden there.

[Enemies and not allies.]

Brendel did not say anything but held up his left hand decisively and aimed below him. A series of bolts flew from the hidden crossbow from his sleeve, and they struck on the nearest robed figure.

The steel bolts had a powerful impact since they were so close, and that robed figure made a muffled noise and fell backwards. His allies moved to the sides and raised their heads to look at Brendel’s direction.

And Brendel saw a pair of orange flames burning below the hood in every robed figure.

“They are undeads.....” He was puzzled.

[Why are these damn things appearing in this area and at this time?]

But the situation did not allow him to think much. The three robed figures withdraw a strange looking scythe with desiccated arms from their robes.

Brendel was not sure whether he should call the weapon a scythe. The weapon was like half of a starfish, the end of the curved blade was gleaming in three directions. (TL: The description of the blade is just bad. The author isn’t making any sense here so take it with salt.)

Curses had very little effect on undead, so Brendel gave up on using any more of the cursed bolts. He stood behind Romaine and retreated back in between Batum and Roen.

The remaining three robed figure pushed aside the people in front of them, and rushed straight at Brendel, and swung at him without any hesitation.

Brendel raised his sword and parried one of the strange scythe. The feedback from the sword was strong enough to make him to take a few step backwards, and he nearly stumbled onto the seat behind him.

Romaine screamed, but Amandina grabbed her arm and dragged her away. She forced Romaine to lower her body and they crawled to the opposite direction. She was really tense, but her mind was working clearly, and she acted like she had planned her actions from the beginning.

Batum used his sword to block one of the robed figure, but he immediately grunted in effort, showing that he did not fare well either against the strength.

“Iron rank, upper tier strength.” He roared.

“Zombie Outlanders!” Brendel recognized the identity of his opponents.

These were something like an animated armor, but the undead wizards had placed the soul of a warrior into an empty armor, and thus these abominations were created. They were approximately level 31-33, and considered as a second tier strength within Madara. They were agile and adapt at masking their movements, but they also had another identity—

Madara’s assassins.

Brendel felt that he was facing an elite Zombie Outlander, as its strength was near a Silver-ranked fighter. It was still not the strongest unit in Madara’s second tier forces, but as a unit within Incirsta’s undead army, it was one of his best units.

[Am I the target?]

Brendel did not really understand the situation, but the Zombie Outlanders in the place started attacking everyone. The adventurers and mercenaries were yelling in angry confusion as they were attacked.

Brendel felt that his strength was not as strong as his opponent, so he retreated backwards, grabbed a chair and threw at it. The Zombie Outlander swung his strange scythe and smashed it into pieces, but the youth was already in position to launch a thrust to the core of the soul fire.

The Zombie Outlander gave a hoarse yell and it grabbed Brendel’s sword with its hand. White flames immediately burst up from its fingers and the cleansing fire reached into the soul’s inner depths, and the intense pain caused the undead to immediately scream.

But it did not release its grip and swung at Brendel’s elbow.

“Bastard—” Brendel gritted his teeth. This was not the first time he faced a Zombie Outlander. but the tenacity of these undead had left a deep impression on him. When this undead fighter grabbed the Thorn of Light, he felt his position was in a bad one.

He immediately released his hand and retreated, avoiding that counter attack that was almost certain to strike him.

Under such a close distance, Brendel had lost nearly all means of attack when he lost the Thorn of Light. He was able to use the Ring of The Wind Empress, but he was unable to ensure that the impact did not hurt Amandina and Romaine.

The Holy Sword Card did not have any Earth EP that he could use, and the Magic Control card had no effect here. He was certainly able to use the Wind Spider Spirits, but summoning at the creatures at this distance would prove to be useless because the opponent would already have cut him into pieces.

His hesitation was only for one moment.

Brendel next action was to lunge at the enemy. His arms grabbed the enemy’s abdomen. The collision knocked the Zombie Outlander off its feet and fell backwards together with Brendel, knocking three rows of chairs over. Brendel felt dull aches all over his body, but at least his mind was clear and got up as quickly as the Zombie Outlander did.

The creature went for the scythe, while Brendel picked up the sword that was on the ground. Due to the reach of the scythe, Brendel had no choice but to use the Charge technique to regain control of the battle. The impact left the armor flying across the opposite direction, but the swing of the scythe had already begun and it aimed at Brendel’s shoulder.

“Barkskin!” Brendel roared in his mind. The appearance of his skin swiftly changed to the color of wood, but the scythe still cut through his natural armor. Blue light flashed briefly as the scythe went through his various defenses.

For a moment, blood droplets flew in the air.

Brendel did not utter any sound as he bit down. However, it was enough to cause him to break out in cold sweat. He pulled out the scythe that was buried in his shoulder and threw it to the ground. His eyes followed the Zombie Outlander, while he quickly pulled out the Wind Spider Spirit card.

“Display. Cards of Fate, The Wind Spider Spirits.”

A series of stats information appeared in his retina.

Wind Spider Spirits.

8 HP

4 MP

Str: 1.9 OZ

Agility: 2.7 OZ

Physique: 1.0 OZ

Attributes ‘Blank’

Attributes ‘Blank’

Attributes ‘Blank’

Attack (damage 1-1)

Special ability: Ethereal form

[Ethereal creatures take 1/3 of the damage, so a weaponless Zombie Outlander will find it hard to kill a spider with a single attack. Furthermore, there are fifteen of them.]

He pointed on the ground, and fifteen green vortex appeared. The spiders that appeared from the vortex were baring their fangs and raising their legs, and they went straight at the Zombie Outlander. One Wind Spider Spirit had nearly 2 OZ strength, and while fifteen of them did not exactly in simple addition, it was enough to stop the Zombie Outlander’s movements.

The spiders bit at the creature continously, and it roared in anger. It pulled them off from its body and threw them away onto the ground, but its actions were pointless as Brendel had already made use of this opportunity.

The sword had already pierced through its chest. Even though the Zombie Outlander wanted to retaliate at the last moment, the spiders had caused his stance to break apart.

The sword reached the core of the soul fire.

The Zombie Outlander released a groan of dissatisfaction. The damage from the Thorn of Light in that critical area had dealt four times the normal damage. Brendel watched the creature turn into a pile of ashes, while the blackened armor fell onto the ground.

700 XP went into Brendel.

He turned his head around and saw that Batum, Roen and Ciel forced back by the two undead Zombie Outlanders, while Amandina and Romaine was moving into the opposite direction from the fights.

A loud noise came from above.

Brendel looked up and saw a black figure falling from above and to the ground. It was quite for a moment, then a series of yells came.

“Sir Russell!”

“Marsha above, it’s the vice captain from the city guards!”

“They killed him!”

Brendel’s heart tightened when he heard that.

[It looks like I’m not the true target of these damned armored undead. Is this a plot where Incirsta is trying to kill Bruglas top brass? What is he trying to do here? There’s no event like this recorded in history.]

He was still mulling over it, when he suddenly saw the doors from the stage suddenly opening. Five different rows of skeleton archers walked out from it with their bows raised.

The youth’s eyes shrank immediately.

[This many undead? What the hell is the organizers doing? The city guards? The Silver-winged Cavalry and the army? How the fuck did these undead get in?]

Brendel cursed inwardly.