Chapter 80: Malum I

“What I’m trying to say is that I’m a direct undead of a Skull Lord. Who are you?” Malum said.

Riven, who was healing fast, crawled to his hands and knees, coughing. He didn’t know if he should be glad or not. What he did immediately, though, was crawl away from the place, hiding behind a tree.

He knew a fight when he saw one, and this one wasn’t the type he wanted himself involved in.

Zandrel sneered. “You don’t know me, but you will. My name will resound among the heavens! It’s only a matter of time, and I must say, it won’t be bad to have you as my puppet as well.”

Riven winced when he heard that. He’d never seen a more shameless person than Zandrel before. He ignored them and summoned a Grave Knight. He handed his stone necklace over and commanded it to go far away from the place.

Although the compound was sealed, it was still large enough for his Grave Knight to hide. If anything happened, then at least he would appear at a safer distance away.

“What do you want with him, Malum? You don’t know what you are dealing with here. Go away, and my master will overlook this,” Zandrel warned.

Malum shrugged and scratched his chin. “No. I can’t help it. It was a mission given to me by my master. Do you want me to disobey? He won’t like that, you know.”

Zandrel’s eyes flashed, the white glowing like trapped lightning. “So we will fight.”

Suddenly, golden threads were outlined all around them, connected to the two constructs beside him and all the buildings that surrounded them, even connecting to Kivara.

The golden thread only appeared for an instant before they faded away.

All the buildings around them shuddered, then collapsed into themselves. They cracked and snapped, bending at wrong angles as they reshaped and reformed into differently shaped constructs.

The constructs turned toward Malum and rushed him, letting out a screech like air forcefully passing through a blocked pipe.

The constructs were in the shape of men, but twisted. They crawled on the ground like spiders, limbs bent over each other. They covered the distance between them and Malum in a blink and pounced on him.

Malum laughed as his hand came down on the nearest construct, a punch that shook the wood it was made from and immediately shattered it.

He didn’t stress himself. All Riven saw him do was swing his hand around as if it were a hammer and smash all the constructs around him, littering the ground with their broken wooden pieces.

Riven’s eyes flickered to Zandrel. “I thought he was going to attack when the smaller one was distracting Malum. What’s he waiting for?”

But Zandrel didn’t make any moves. He simply watched, face tight, as Malum broke all his constructs. It was only when the small wooden constructs lay around Malum in littered heaps that he made his move.

He jerked his hand up, his fingers moving individually as if there were threads connected to them and he was controlling something with them.

Riven frowned. What’s the bastard up to now?

He saw soon enough.

All the broken wooden pieces on the floor twitched and jumped to life. Different words of power written on them glowed, and then, as if Malum had turned into a magnet, they flew at him.

The construct formed around him, molded around him like an oversized armor made of glowing wood. A line of golden aura connected each single word of power to the other.

It was like a prison.

Riven’s eyes widened. He coughed, his throat still extremely sore. “This crafty bastard.”

Malum’s own aura exploded outward, a black aura so unlike Kivara’s own. It looked like tar mixed with green herb. It swelled in the prison extremely fast, and the prison began to crack, the words of power exploding.

But it would take him time to break free. Time like five seconds.

In that five seconds, Zandrel made another move.

One of the statue constructs jerked to life, its body flared with red light. A single moment, and it was already in front of Malum, sword raised.

Riven understood just how much Zandrel was holding back when he used the construct.

The sword that he raised was instantly lit with red light, as if it were smeared with lava. An extreme amount of heat bellowed out, burning the surrounding air.

Riven felt as if he were being submerged in hot water.

The construct cleaved down.

The force of the swing generated a shockwave of its own. The sword smashed into the prison and into Malum, cleaving through everything with the sound of an explosion.

Riven sucked in a breath, and all he breathed was hot air. He stared at the place Malum was before, and all he felt was disappointment when all he saw was a smoking crater. “All that mouthing off, and for what?”

Zandrel turned back to Riven, face cold. “As I was saying…!!”

“Ah, shit! That was painful,” Malum growled. He came back to the clearing, his right hand gone from the shoulder, leaving behind a smoking stump that was being closed by black bandages.

“You’re not dead,” Zandrel said flatly.

“Technically, I’m dead. And yes, I can feel pain because I asked my master to reconstruct my nerves so that I can feel it. I like to pretend I’m still alive when I tear out my fingers now and then.”

Riven breathed a sigh of relief.

Malum shook his head. “You really are one crafty fellow. How can you do something like that? You didn’t give me a chance to fight back. Shame on you!”

Zandrel barely twitched as the construct with the flaming sword jerked into motion once again. Its sword swung, but this time Malum was ready. He caught the sword with his left hand.

Bam!

The ground shook, cracking where Malum was standing. Still holding the sword with one hand, he turned to Zandrel and smiled. “I forgot to tell you. I am firmly in the middle of Auracrest, and I have a rather powerful relic.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep