The Ruined Death Knight

Staring at the dark knight that killed all of their abusers, a sense of fear crippled this way to their hearts. It was as if the blinding bright hope that came to his dark place to dimmer and the closer the dark knight got, the dark the light became.

Though he killed their abusers, the process he used to kill the last magic caster was way too inhumane for everyone to take.

"S-Stay away!" A woman in the cage screamed towards the approaching dark knight.

"..." Looking at the woman who screamed at him he came to halt.

`So that's where it is....´ Danzel thought before changing his direction towards the woman at the cage.

That action of my made the woman who screamed at me felt like a scythe was placed at her neck, with a deathly pale face she tried to move away from the front of the cage in hurry.

"N-No! Stay away!"

Standing in front of the cage, Danzel silently stared at the woman and the other slaves as he was in deep thought.

The people in the cages had their breath sucked up, too afraid to gain the dark knight's attention.

All except the woman of before...

"W-What are you looking at! If you aren´t going to free us to go away!"

"Hey!" a man beside her whispered

"Someone close her mouth!" another said.

Everyone in the cage panicked and quickly tried to closer that woman's mouth before he annoyed the knight anymore.

Taking a glance towards the dark knight, everyone remained nervous as he was silently staring at them without speaking a word.

After some moments of silents, Danzel slowly raised his hand towards the cage.

But before he was able to reach it a loud voice sound behind him.

"Hey! Danzel! Over here!"

`That voice...´ Retreating his hand, he picked the runed sword that he threw and turned around,

"Gerak?" Storing the sword inside this [Ring of Spatial Storage], he walked towards the dwarf inside another cage.

Danzel momentarily halted as he saw multiple dwarfs inside the cage where Gerak was.

`So much facial hair...´ Staring at the 10 dwarfs with a similar big beard about the same weight I might have mistaken Gerak if I weren´t used to his greedy face.

Looking at me shaking my head Gerak frown towards me.

"Hey, you thinking of something rude don´t you?" He said with a sharp gaze.

"You probably are mistaken..." Danzel said as he cursed internally of being found out.

"Anyway, how did you end being kidnapped by those guys? Weren´t you suppose to be able to beat a monster of the 2nd-tier?" Danzel said.

"Not everyone has such monstrous strength like you! How am I able to win against two of the same tier and their lackeys! I am just a blacksmith!"

The other nine dwarfs who looked at us bickering at each other sighted in relief, glad that this dark knight is on their side.

"Hey, Danzel...can you?" Gerak pointed at the cage with a slightly awkward expression.

"Sure..." Putting Veren back to this sheath, I grabbed the metal bars with both of my hands.

"Hmm? What is he-" Just as the dwarfs began to ask what I was doing, the low screeching from the metal made them all look at the metal bars surprised.

`They...are bending!?´ Everyone inside the cage thought in disbelieve.

In fact, every other slave who was watching this spectacle looked dumbfounded!

`How can someone of the 2nd-tier have so much strength?´ Gerak thought to himself surprised.

He knew that Danzel was strong, but for him to be able to bent metal was unthinkable.

With each passing second, the metal bars bent more and more, slowly making a bigger opening in the cage.

But as the bars were about to snap, a sharp howling wind could be heard.

"Huh?" as I were to turn my head to see where the sound came from, the skill [Sense Danger] activated out of the blue.

Letting the bent bars go, I quickly turned around while summoning the shield from the [Ring of Spatial Storage].

The moment I turned around, a strong wind came like a swinging hammer towards the dark crystal shield.

"This..." Before I could make sense of what was happening, being unable to hold my ground from the sudden projectile, Danzel was pushed back and came crushing towards the cage behind him.

*Crack

"The hell was that..." Picking himself from the ground, Danzel cursed internally as he felt the crack behind his skull.

"Hoh, you sure are a sturdy bastard to survive that..." A deep voice said full of mockery.

Turning my gaze towards the voice, he saw a bald brown-skinned man walking towards him.

`Another one..? Nonetheless, that guy is far stronger than those two magic casters.´ Danzel said while getting back to this feet.

"So you are that dark knight? You sure got the balls walking in here and kill my subordinates wherever you like. Aren´t you afraid of the association!?" The man said clearly enraged.

"I am not sure of what derisive association you are coming from neither I care." Unsheathing Veren, he pointed at the man.

Upon hearing my response the man frowned.

"Clueless bastard...maybe the name Black Fist will give you a needed reminder of who you are messing with!".

"Black Fist?" Danzel mumbled confused.

Gerak who heard my mumbles replied with a frown on his face.

"Be careful Danzel, the man before you is one of the most powerful 2nd-tier going by Dark Fist. He was an adventurer who was at the apex of 2nd-tier who uses similar abilities to a druid..." Gerak explained with a low voice.

`Apex of 2nd-tier, huh?´ Nodding towards Gerak in understanding, his focus was placed on the man before him.

"Still, the name Black Fist is too fancy in my opinion. Why don´t you call yourself Bald Fist instead?"

"You..." While veins started to show up in his head, a sudden blue aura appeared around his arms and legs.

His legs and arms muscled flexed for a second while his skin got tougher with the blue aura around.

"I will teach you a lesson that you will never forget! [Beast Bear Form]!" A blue illusion of bear arms and legs appeared before fading away.

After both images faded away, he started to run at him like a charging bull.

Each step left cracking parts on the floor.

`He is fast...´ Glancing behind me, I ran towards the side.

With now having some space around me I gather my mana towards Veren.

"Hmpf!" The Black Fist scoffed as he was already in range.

"Feel my fist!" 

The punch soon clashed with Danzel's black crystal shield.

"[Riposte Defense]..." Activating the skill, the force behind the man's punch got reduced by a large amount, but not completely.

Though It wasn´t enough to push me back, it still made me somewhat falter.

"I am not done!" The man threw punch after a punch.

*Thud! Thuad! Thuad!

Each punch was shortly blocked through the help of the [Riposte Defense] skill, but after five seconds the blocks were no more.

`You thinking of me like sandbag?´

Even though five seconds didn´t seem like much, they were just enough to gather my mana in the Veren blade.

Swinging my sword at the bald fist, an air blade glowing of dark green was released towards the man.

*Fsheeen!

The Bald Fist who already saw this coming jumped back in advance and the previous blue glow in his hand faded with a green replacing it to his arms and chest.

"[Beast Turtle Form]!" A small image of a turtle shell appeared on his chest and when the image faded, a light green shield surrounded him in a sphere form.

The air blade that came crashing to the shield got torn apart, leaving only a big crack towards the Bald Fist shield.

"Hoh, not bad" The Dark Fist whistle in surprise.

He didn´t think that this dark knight that caused such a mess would be able to almost destroy his shield.

`He is more dangerous than I though...´

As the green shield slowly faded away, Danzel dashed towards him and swung Veren at his neck.

Looking at that the Bald Fist frowned.

As the Veren was about to reach the Bald Fist, it was shortly deflected by the man's front side of his arm while the other free arm attacked Danzel using the palm.

"Hmm..?" Blocking the palm with his shield he jumped few steps back while gazing at the man's arms.

`Though he used a palm for this attack, it clearly had less power than when he used the blue aura...´

Seeing that his opponent was staring directly at these arms he slightly frowned.

"Let´s see how you handle that..." The Black Fist said while the previous green aura faded and a new appeared.

Engulfing these legs and palms, a bright brown aura came from his body and showing an image of two eyes and a jaw of a monkey.

"Another one..." Cursing internally, he prepared to welcome him while charging another [Gale Mana Blade] in Veren.

But unexpectedly, the Bald Fist moved with speed far faster than he was before.