He stopped crying immediately. Was he going mad? Did he imagine the finger move? Was it the wind?

“Master?” He muttered under his breath.

“Oye…” Only the Abbe heard that. It was soft and barely audible.

“Didn’t I say obey my command?” Sora arm moved a little.

Colour immediately resumed to the Abbe’s face. By this time the soldiers casting the mana drain noticed that something was off. They were so busy in their chants that they didn’t hear Sora speaking….however a corpse moving was something that they could not miss.

The corpse of the victim struck by lightening slowly began to get up.

The mana drain chanting stopped immediately.

The soldiers looked scared and confused. There has never been a precedent of some one surviving a direct hit of Jacques lightening strike. Seeing Sora get up slowly was terrifying….the person who stood in front of them rivalled a monster….a monstrous being….that began letting of a murderous intent.

Since everyone was busy packing having assumed that the mission had been accomplished, the other soldiers (those not involved in the mana drain) didn’t even see Sora get up….that is until they heard multiple shrieks.

Vanessa came running forward when she heard the scream….in front of her lay the most unbelievable scene….a corpse stood upright….and all the mana drainers had collapsed.

“Impossible…” She stammered as she began losing her confidence.

“Is that a dredger?” Ramona asked equally terrified.

Dredgers are somewhat the zombies of this world but they aren’t really zombies…more like undead elite hero warriors. They are intelligent, powerful and undead. The strength of a dredger varies but the general dredger is at least twice as powerful as a common soldier (not Erito). That is a general dredger, if the original living person was a stronger being then the strength of their undead version increases exponentially.

None of the residents are certain how dredgers are exactly born but they do know that they can only and only be found in the wastelands….it is said that great evil resuscitates those who fall in the wastelands….essentially as long as one dies anywhere other than the wastelands it should be okay….so the target hit by lightening shouldn’t…couldn’t possibly be a dredger….since this isn’t the wastelands…however none of the Erito forces present have seen a dredger…let alone fought one. The only ones with experience of fighting monsters of those sorts are the Eastern Wall battalion. The one teacher in the Academy from Eastern Wall said this much on the topic, “Any warrior who falls before you but comes back to life soon after is a dredger….anything else is just the undead…”

The Erito forces comprised of the best of the best from their classes. They memorized their teacher’s words well. So to them, this definitely fit the criteria of a dredger.

Vanessa quickly recomposed herself. If this was indeed a dredger, then it was no ordinary dredger, it just wiped out six of her units….and six Erito soldiers was a big deal. To put it across mathematically, one elite soldier is like three common soldiers worth? So to take out six, it was like taking on eighteen soldiers. In terms of how bad the news for the Erito forces? Very bad.

“Pull back!” She told the soldiers who were clamouring after they heard Ramona say dredger. Dredgers are terrifying beings….somewhat villainous heroes?

Vanessa checked the stats again of the target….. “Impossible…” She muttered again. They were still the same as before…Sora was still below average…he probably still couldn’t defeat even a single common soldier. Vanessa didn’t understand, the stats were below average, yet Sora just took out six of her soldiers in a flash….what is going on here?

She could have understood it before…when Sora was alive…since it would mean he is still preventing her from reading his stats through some form of distortion…but a dredger can’t use magic….so using distortion should be out of the question….so which is it? Is he alive or dead?

Vanessa decided to take things into her own hands. “I’ll put an end to this…Jacques?”

Jacques and Zacques would have responded to Vanessa but they were in a state of shock. No one…and absolutely no one lived after their attack. It was the most powerful as per the Academy in terms of fatality. There were spells which were far more destructive but theirs was the most clean and fatal spell recorded. Even in terms of lightening spells, theirs had the most output. Their record of one hit one kill stood broken today.

"Dredger?" the word finally left Zacques lips as he watched the opponent below dodge Vanessa's magic.