Rio jumped back and hurriedly used his handkerchief to tie his hand and forcefully stop the bleeding.
Rio stared at the attacker with focused eyes, even when he tied his hand he didn't look away and kept track of the opponent.
'This thing can avoid my detection range at such close proximity…. Moreover, it's so fast….' (Rio)
A knight stood in front of Rio in dark black armor, his robe tattered and his armor was broken and dented in several places. Even the helmet was half broken and the knight's half of the head was missing.
'This thing has died long ago due to its head exploding by mana deviation…' (Rio)
'Which means…. This is an undead…' (Rio)
[Monster Specie: Undead]
[Monster Description: Undead are mysterious creatures who are born from dense demonic energy accumulating in a corpse filled with hatred, greed, and residual will.
A swarm of Undead can cause an area to become contaminated and corrupted. Undead is said to be a byproduct created after the death of various demons in the same place.]
Rio stared at the undead and several thoughts raced in his mind:
'This corpse must have been of a peak S-ranker originally and now that it's an undead its rank has decreased a lot…. I would consider it a pseudo-S-rank at this level…' (Rio)
The undead tilted its head at Rio as if it was in a state of confusion, it opened its mouth and its tongue fell out, it seemed to want to say something but what came out of its mouth were unintelligible beastly noises.
*groooarrrrr* *vrroorar ssshsssssrrrrorrrrr* (This is what the undead is saying: 'This is my homeland demon scum! Leave this place at once! Or you will get slain by my hands!'…)
The undead's body shook and it flailed its hands as if it wanted to tell something. Rio's eyes narrowed at this gesture.
'It seems the residual will of this undead is too strong…. This person might have been an extremely strong individual originally…' (Rio)
Rio could still see those long pointed ears hanging to the head of the undead, proving that the person was originally a member of the now-extinct dark elf race.
(As I mentioned before, during the thousand-year demon extinction war, the demons dropped a perfect mana bomb on the Maya continent and the whole of the dark elf race which was fighting against the demon army at that time was completely wiped off the world map.)
(The Dark Elf race is already extinct in the real world and there are no records of their sightings after the Maya continent was reduced to an uninhabitable place.)
The Undead took his stance and put his giant axe above his shoulder.
*grorrrrrr* ('I already warned you! I will fulfill my duty! I will not let you demons tarnish the honor of the dark elves! Die Scum!)
A greyish aura covered its axe and mana strengthened its body.
Seeing that the undead was using a proper stance and had better mana control than an ordinary A-ranker, Rio's eyes widened in shock.
'This is dangerous…' (Rio)
Rio might be one of the most talented people in this world right now, but he still hasn't grown up to be able to fight on equal levels with a former peak S-ranker.
*Boom!*
The Undead stomped the ground and launched towards Rio at an insane speed, its giant axe raised above its shoulder and descended as it approached Rio.
[Sword Intent!]
[Elemental Sword Art: Fire type: Rising Sun!]
Rio swung his sword upwards and dense black flames covered his sword.
The sword and the giant axe collided with each other instantly and a massive shockwave was created. All the nearby corpses were swept far away and the ground cracked due to air pressure.
Several nearby corpse hills were blown away instantly and the battlefield was cleared for the two to dance at their heart's content.
'Too strong and too fast… as expected of an S-ranker…' (Rio)
Since Rio was fighting with just one hand, his hand trembled due to the insane strength of the undead's attack.
[Handling!]
With no other choice left, Rio used his deflection skill and deflected the force of the axe towards the ground and jumped away from his spot.
'It's been a while since I was forced to use handling like this…' (Rio)
Rio only uses handling for attacks that are too strong to block and impossible to dodge, this skill is one of his core fighting abilities. He hasn't used it much during other battles because he rarely feels the need for it.
'But I can't hold back right now… this undead is perhaps only at its 5 percent of the original level, but it's still too strong for me as a B-ranker…' (Rio)
'If even a single attack landed…. It's instant death for me…' (Rio)
Rio doesn't have the crazy defensive ability of Link and neither does he have the unbreakable protection of a divine spirit like Lia.
Yet, he can keep a former peak S-ranker at bay for a few minutes, this is already a remarkable feat that is extremely rare for anyone to achieve.
…
After seeing that it had failed in its attack, the undead pulled its axe out of the ground and took its stance once again. This time it put the axe near its waist.
'A horizontal attack is coming-' (Rio)
Just when Rio thought that the undead was about to do a horizontal attack, it suddenly threw its axe at Rio with insane force, but since Rio was ready to dodge, that one, he easily jumped up and avoided the attack.
'Now's the chance!' (Rio)
Rio's eyes narrowed as he put his sword above his shoulder and activated his sword intent.
[Sword Intent!]
[Elemental Sword art: Thunder type: condensed arc!]
Black thunder sparks crawled on Rio's sword like wriggling snakes and with his downward swing and the enhancement of 'Sword Intent' the black thunder formed a massive thunder arc and launched towards the undead.
*Groooar* ('I will protect my wife from you demons!!!!')
The undead howled at the top of its lungs, it bent its legs and directly jumped towards the thunder arc.
Its armored hand condensed a greyish aura on it and directly punched the thunder arc.
The attacks collided and a massive shockwave spread everywhere, the air pressure made the clouds scatter and the ground cracked in several places.
Just when Rio landed on the ground he saw the undead rush towards him from above, thus he jumped back and followed up with another attack.
[Elemental Sword Art: Thunder type: Condensed arc!]
Rio launched the condensed thunder arc towards the undead again, but the undead directly stomped the ground and changed his standing position by tilting the stones under his feet.
He easily dodged Rio's attack and rushed towards Rio.
'The previous attacks did minimal damage to him…' (Rio)
The first thunder arc was directly shattered by the undead with a single punch, although it did some damage and destroyed the undead's right hand completely, the undead didn't feel any pain and continued to pursue Rio relentlessly.
*Groarrrrr* ('DIIIIEEEEE!!')
The undead opened its palm and the axe that flew towards it on its own and landed on its palm. With the giant axe in its hand, the undead took its stance again and directly launched towards Rio.
[Elemental Sword Arts: Fire Type: horizontal shift!]
Rio swung his sword with black flames covering it and directly blocked the attack of the undead.
[Handling!]
With a sudden twist of his hand, Rio deflected the giant axe's trajectory making its attack lose any lethality to him.
Just when Rio deflected the attack, the undead directly punched towards Rio with its right hand.
'Sh*t, it can use demonic healing!...' (Rio)
The undead beings can heal their body using the demonic energy in their body, but it's very difficult to do and only an undead with extremely strong residual will can actually do this thing.
Due to this sudden unexpected healing of the right hand, the undead's punch Rio was caught off guard and he barely had the time to dodge his head from exploding like a balloon.
The punch grazed, Rio's cheek and directly ripped off his left ear. That slight impact made Rio lose focus for a millisecond and the cunning undead didn't let this chance go to waste.
It directly abandoned the giant axe in its left hand and punched Rio in the stomach with its left hand.
"Ugh!" (Rio)
The punch landed on Rio's stomach and directly destroyed his internal organs, Rio coughed up blood from his mouth and the impact from the punch made him fly away like an arrow.
Rio's body collided with a large boulder several hundred meters behind him and the boulder shattered into pieces from the impact.
…
…
Yo! It's your beloved author here! Well, fighting a former peak S ranker is not that easy, but who knows if this near-death experience may actually prove to be beneficial…
Question of the day.
What would you guys like to become?
1.A Knight (Wearing the amazing iron plate armor is a dream for many people...)
2.A Wizard (Playing with mana and launching massive magic spells from a safe distance sounds nice too…)
3.A Sword Master (Become one with the sword, and dominate the world as a sword god!)
4.A W*lmart Bag(What the!?)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.