POV - Sylmare

“God damn it!” I yell into the air, punching a dried-up tree with my full force. The tree then shatters into splinters and dust but I don’t care about that for now. I turn my head around to look at the incompetent team that dares to call themselves a partying in the Adventurers Guild. For god’s sake, they don’t even have a Rogue to complement the team, all they have is a Paladin, a swordsman, a Priestess, and a mage. I wish there was another team that found the god damn dungeon that may not even be a dungeon.

I can tell by me looking at them that the Priestess is scared of my look and the Paladin is wanting to run and protect her. From this, I can tell that they're from the same religion. Deep in my heart, I do know that it is not their fault but the fault of the field of Endless War but I can’t force my anger on a place. The field of Endless War is a field that is red and all looks the same, some trees are dead the others monsters and worst of all is the field is full of undead strong and weak. Yet, I still focus my anger on the team cause they're also to blame for their constantly fighting with each other and bickering about where it was. For Luna's sake, we have been wandering around the field for days now and we have yet to find it, just walking in circles. It is grinding at my sanity constantly, how are they fine.

I take a deep breath in and let it out, “Are you sure that this exists, and you have not just been in a hallucination or illusion?” I ask again for what has to be the 30th time and yet.

“No it was real because it has leveled me up,” says the Paladin sticking to his story. I can see he almost draws his sword because of my utter anger in the words I have said.

I let out a sigh if I find out that this was all a lie I’m going to kill them bring them back to a high-ranked Priestess get them revived then kill them all over again, and repeat that. I do believe that I can find a Priestess of a dark god to do that for me. The worst part is that there has been barely any undead thanks to the Priestess's aura of light scaring them away. The only undead that we have met have been so weak that all I have to do is breathe on them to have them die.

I look at the sky and see that is close to getting dark, “Alright everyone set up camp. So we can begin anew tomorrow.” I say defeated at the hand of a none sentient field.

With those words, everyone starts moving not wanting to get on my bad side more than they already are. They quickly set up tents and gathered wood from the destroyed tree that has been scattered. With the wood, they set up a fire so some heat can be given in the cold night. Everyone except me has to set up a tent but luckily I have a portable home artifact. Though the home is not big it is comfortable.

I activate the artifact causing a small wooden cottage to appear. With a quick step, I entered the cottage. The Adventurer’s party originally ask if they could also come into my cottage but I told them off because they were already bickering at this point, so I was very annoyed at them. Like that everyone was getting into their tents and houses. I almost forgot to set up a watch so everyone can go to sleep. Within my spatial storage ring, I bring out a magic sensing device that will alert us when a person of strength comes into the area. With that finally, I can close my eyes and embrace the most sacred of duties, sleep.

Like that everyone was sleeping peacefully. When they first started their trip the Paladin was skeptical about the magic sensing device but after several times when it detected undead coming into camp, he acknowledged the device. So after that, there were no more complaints about the device and all slept without worry. But only after a few hours did the device let out a wailing scream signifying that it detected a mana presence coming closer to the camp and not just skirting it. Since this has happened multiple times before and it has all been low-level undead there wasn't much of a reaction from me and all I did was grab my equipment at a leisurely pace. By the time I open the door to see what we are fighting, was a few minutes far less than it would be if I focused on it.

When I have opened the door I already expected that the problem would have been dealt with by the adventurer's team but instead, I was surprised to see a stare off with them and a god-forsaken Death knight. Like what the fuck is this, a mother fucking death knight. Aren't the Death knight supposed to be nearer to the empire's ruins? I guess that the death knight arrived after sensing the aura from the Priestess.

Death knights are high-ranked undead that is intelligent, good with melee, and are most of the time honorable. Sometimes you even find a death knight riding a Mari Lwyd which acts as its own personal buffer in the fight, luckily this one seemed to have just been walking around and found us. I charge out and to in front of the Adventurers to make sure they don’t get killed, so I don’t have to be in some long guild discussion and be fined, it would be annoying if they died.

The death knight says from under its helm, “You must be the strong person I felt within the camp, I was severely disappointed with the people that were in front of me but now that you are here we could have our duel.” Its voice was scratchy yet in the voice I heard someone else voice that sounded similar yet it felt like it came from a different time. That was not what cot my attention instead it was the fact that he could speak at all. Speaking indicated that this was not only a high-ranking undead but was also a high-level undead.

I cursed it inside my mind but keep a calm facade in reality, “you also seem to be very strong, but may I ask you before we start our dual can you have these Adventures behind me leave. So that they don’t interrupt our duel.” I say trying to copy the way the voice in front of me spoke, while also trying to get the Adventures behind me to leave safely.

“yes, I do agree with your idea, I hate it when people interfere in battles it ruins the whole experience and makes the battle meaningless. Adventurers now that you've heard our verdict I request that you now leave the premises, or I’ll be forced to kill you because you might interfere.” The Death knight says in a tone as if he is calm yet eager to fight me. With these words, I also realize that I will be forced to fight him cause if I run away he will just kill the Adventurers.

Behind me, I hear the bickering and arguing coming from the Priestess, trying to explain to her teammates that they should stay back and help her. I curse cause if they try to help me and interfere they will 100% get killed by the Death knight with ease and I would have to drag their bodies with me to a high-level Priestess. I also hear behind me that the Paliden was dragging the Priestess away stopping her from trying to help and I thank him in my mind.

I say trying to have a dominating tone in my voice, “Now that the rabble is gone, let us get ready for the duel that we are about to have.” I begin walking 25 meters in front of the death knight as the death knight walks back 25 meters, in accordance with the ancient rule of the empire. This proves to me that the death knight was at least alive during the time of the empire. In my mind, I already know that this is not one of the knights from that empire’s capital but is most likely a knight in training that has left the capital for some leveling because if it was one of those knights I would be bowing thanks to the knight's aura.

“Yes let's begin.” The Death knight says while walking away. Once we both reach our spots the Death knight says in his calm voice yet travels to me, “My name is Reinhold l’Honnête knight in training, currently a Death knight.” Hearing this I remember the next part before the fight which is to introduce themselves.

“My name is Sylmare Carthyra next in line to the duchy in the kingdom of Alitura,” I say doing my best to copy the formate that Death knight used.

“Let us begin at the count of three.” The death knight says grabbing his hand ax from his side. The ax was made of dark metal with rippling runes constantly appearing and disappearing. Seeing that he has drawn his weapon I also draw my rapier. My rapier is my pride, I found it in a high-ranked dungeon when I was still wandering around with my team. The rapier, in particular, was made of a purple crystal which has been analyzed to be concentrated shadow so it is light and almost indestructible. Even though I don’t use shadow magic it still fits my style of fighting, the handle is made of dark steel with a swept hilt design, runes covering it making sure that there is a small barrier around my arm so it doesn't get cut off.

While I have been analyzing our weapons the Death knight has been also analyzing me to see my weakness and how he is going to exploit it so I quickly start saying, “three…two…one.” With that, we both charge at each other and I activate [Inspect] on the Death knight.

Name: Reinhold l’Honnête

Race: Death knight

S-

Level: 323

Hp: 100%