Chapter 159: Undead Knights (2)

<Guiding Shot>

Watching as the Mana-infused slugs he fired followed the marks that he had used his new Sub-skill to place on the Undead Knight's weapon, caused Henry's lips to curl in a little smile.

He would have obviously preferred for his first two shots —the ones that had carried the marking of the <Guiding Shot> Sub-skill— to have struck the Undead's Knight's decaying and near skeletal armor-wearing body instead of its weapon, but this was quite literally the next best thing.

The moment the Undead Knight was weaponless, Nyx was charging at it and reared on her hind legs just in time to kick out with her front legs against the enemy's armored chest.

*Bam!* *Bam!*

Nyx's hits struck as she took advantage of the Undead Knight's unstable stance to send it sprawling on its back. But as Nyx raised her legs and made to bring them down for more hard stomps, the Undead Knight stretched out its hands and gripped her legs.

*NEIGH!*

Nyx let out a sound of distress as she tried to push back against the Undead's grip and stomp her hooves on its chest but she found she was barely able to move and certainly not able to gather the required momentum to make Impactful hits.

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Although Nyx had incredible speed that the Undead Knight could probably not match up to, it possessed far more strength and now that it had managed to get a grip, it would not be easy to shake free. This realization dawned on Nyx as she continued to struggle.

The Undead Knight pulled Nyx and brought her legs down until her knees hit the ground hard causing her to let out an anguished whinny.

The Undead, of course, did not care. It took one hand off Nyx's leg and before she could make a move, it rose halfway off the ground and slammed the hand it had taken off her leg against the side of her head in a punch that stunned her.

[Nyx has lost 30 Hit Points]

[Nyx's Hit Points: 30/155] seaʀᴄh thё nôᴠel Fire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"-This Fucker!-" She yelled out her annoyance through the channel only Henry could hear.

Speaking of which, Henry's view of the Undead Knight had gotten obstructed by Nyx and he had also decided not to shoot to give her a chance to get in her strikes. But now, seeing as Nyx had been subdued and the Knight was exposed, Henry reloaded 'Violent Retort' and prepared to fire.

Again, just like the last two times Henry had shot at the Undead Knight, it reacted before Henry could even pull the trigger.

With a secret groan, Henry knew —even without yet using <Insight>— that the enemy's stats were probably staggering.

The Undead Knight reacted to Henry's attempt to shoot at it and with one of its hands still around one of Nyx's legs, it yanked her off the ground and swung her toward Henry with quite a bit of effort.

Henry's eyes widened when Nyx's large body was suddenly in the way of his aim. He was shocked as well as horrified that the Undead Knight had had enough sense to try to goad him into committing friendly fire.

Worse yet, with her Hit Points low as they were, there was no way Nyx would survive Henry's shot. Had she even had her Hit Points at the maximum, it might have still been a deadly attack depending on what part of the horse's body was struck.

Henry might have fallen for this if he had already been squeezing his gun's triggers but fortunately, the Undead Knight had acted preemptively which meant that when Nyx came sailing over, Henry still had time to take his finger off the triggers of 'Violent Retort'.

He went a step further by raising the gun and pointing its muzzle toward the ceiling and because his mind had been so focused on this and sparing his horse a deadly fate, Henry only realized there was another issue when Nyx was now skidding across the ground and was a foot away from colliding with him in an impactful slam.

Henry's brain had the time to wonder just how much he would suffer from the slam and he was just about consoling himself that he could survive it when his Shadow expanded and Nyx vanished into it just an inch away from making contact with him.

As his shadow went back to normal then, sealing up Nyx's exit route, Henry wondered if she'd be gone long again but shook himself out of those thoughts to look at the Undead Knight.

And his eyes, which had already returned to normal after surviving a potentially disastrous contact with his horse, became wide again in horror.

The Undead Knight was in front of Henry and it struck out its gloved —decaying/skeletal— hand to punch Henry in the face.

Henry hadn't even sensed the punch coming. There were a few factors that influenced this, of course;

First, He had been distracted.

Second, while the Undead Knight's speed was lacking compared to Nyx, it was probably well within range of Henry's.

Third, His Perception might just require a few more increases to keep up with the ever-increasing demands of the enemies he encountered.

All these reasons established, Henry's reaction to the coming punch was completely instinctive and he made to escape and get out of the enemy's range of attack.

Despite how close the fist was to his face, Henry still got about a foot back thanks to his impressive agility but the Undead Knight's outstretched arm made it across the slightly increased distance just fine.

*Bam!*

The punch connected in a strike whose damage would have probably been far worse had Henry not managed to take that step back.

[You have lost 35 Hit Points]

[Hit Points: 24/230]

The pain was stunning and the sprinkle of lights that dotted Henry's sights spun as he was sent off his feet and rolled away.

Even as his head rang, Henry locked in and stopped his roll as quickly as possible. He had his Perception spread now and was taking note of the Undead Knight's position in preparation to shoot.

But suddenly, Louis was there.

In the minute or more that Henry had spent involved in fighting the Undead Knight, Louis had been chanting and lying in wait.

When he leaped out of the archway where he had been ducking just out of sight of any Undead Knight and not quite a target yet, he had completed the spell chant and gave the Undead Knight no time to react.

*Brrrrzzzztttt*

As usual, it started with tingles and instantly became multiple streaks of Lightning that moved with far more impactful sounds and charged the very air with electricity.

The Undead Knight, caught by surprise, managed to dodge a tendril but with there being many more, it still got struck and as the electricity coursed through its decaying body, Andor showed himself, Spear in hand.

He ran at the Knight and yelled out a battle cry. The Undead Knight would have reacted quite easily to such an obvious, straightforward attack and it would have overcome Andor's weaker strength… Had its body not been stunned and locked in place by Louis' lightning attack.

The Undead Knight managed to raise a hand but it was too little too late because, just then, Andor stabbed his Spear through a gap in its armor, just around its midsection.

"AH!" Andor yelled as he channeled his Mana-Surge through his Spear which resulted in a blast…

*BANG!*

… that blew off a sizeable bit of the Undead Knight's torso. Its arms dropped uselessly by its sides and it keeled over backward away from Andor to hit the ground with a Thud.

One of the first Undead Knights to be vanquished in the Hall.

It could also have been the very first but Henry couldn't pay that detail enough attention to get it right.

He watched it all end, not sure if to smile or grimace because he was damn sure, he just got robbed of the sweet extra reward of 'Undead Woes'.