The Black Necromancer

An ominous aura spread across the battlefield. The weaker soldiers down below felt fear grip their hearts and squeeze their firm wills, as if wanting to choke their courage out of them. They all looked up at Leon who seemed to have suddenly become ecstatic.

When the domain spread underneath them and the ominous aura intensified, they could not help but take several steps back. Truly, the aura that they perceived was many times worse than what was released earlier when Leon was summoning his Undead Army.

Up in the sky, Leon secretly strained as he struggled to support the passage of so many powerful beings. He was shocked!

Just how many A ranks did the Nameless Order have?! He could feel more than thirty already trying to pass through his Domain, and manifesting them would cause a serious drain on his mana reserves. The only thing that helped him was that the initial Ten Knights did not need much mana to manifest, as they would only be transporting themselves from the Demon Continent through his Domain. As for the others, he could only summon them from the Abyss of the Undead. The manifestation of his Domain reduced the mana consumption and drain, but it was still a lot!

Grokus came over to Leon's side and pulled out a skull totem from his waist. The skull flashed with black light and Leon felt a huge amount of mana pour into him from Grokus. Leon nodded in gratitude and continued.

On the other side of the battlefield, he could see the expressions of the many Demons twisting in shock and surprise. They could also feel how terribly powerful whatever reinforcements Leon was calling upon was.

"Don't let him finish! Attack!!!" Garr gave his order at once and his forces all sprung forward. As he was working together with the Demon King this time, all the forces present also adhered to his command and rushed forward, including the weaker Demons.

The defenders did not delay in their response and also surged forward. Mages began to concoct spells while the warriors dashed forward to engage in close combat. The ranks spread out while still maintaining their cohesion and formations. The stronger ones also picked different battlefields to prevent damage from slipping to the weaker ones.

The battle instantly reached its climax as multiple powerful forces began to clash in the sky high above the ground.

Several powerful Demons charged forward to confront the A rank defenders. Leonidas instantly identified his opponent as a rather influential Demon. It was none other than High General Ashtar!

The High General had initially wanted to manage things from the background, but after Garr had gotten involved and met the Demon King, he was forced to come to the frontlines and fight by himself.

Ashtar paused midair and stared at the Beastkin emperor that was covered in black fur. Leonidas had done a partial transformation to release some of his power. He had never fought at full power in his life, and there were reasons for that. One of them being his lack of control over that dangerous power.

"Emperor of the Gublin Empire. Are you not supposed to be sitting in your ivory tower? Your Empire did not join hands to halt the Demons during the Great Shift. What are you doing here now?" Ashtar sneered.

"High General Ashtar. You will die here today." Leonidas ignored Ashtar's jab at his pride and said.

"Let's see you try." Ashtar growled as he spread his arms.

Those were all the words exchanged between the two of them before they began to trade blows. Both of them were powerful warriors that were also proficient in magic. Their blows were devastating and the shockwaves that spread from the attacks shook the sky.

Leonidas' fists grew in size as a black power glowed around them. His armor also glowed dimly as several enchantments that had been inscribed into it came to life. His already agile body sped up even more. His fists turned into blurs that Ashtar's eyes struggled to keep up with.

Ashtar used a combination of magic and the skills he had long since trained to perfection to keep Leonidas from landing a solid blow on him. A few glancing blows grazed past his face, but they were all trivial in his eyes.

"Have a taste of this!" Ashtar suddenly bellowed as he activated his most powerful skill. A Master Skill!

Everything seemed to become slow in Ashtar's mind. Even Leonidas who had been moving blisteringly fast only a moment ago had slowed to a crawl.

This was the effect of Ashtar's Master Skill, Time Freeze!

Ashtar was a rare individual that possessed a tiny affinity for Time magic. His affinity very poor, though! Even still, the effect of the one skill that his poor affinity had brought about was so exaggerated that it was supposed to be considered a cheat!

Ashtar was nearly three hundred years old. He had spent most of that time making sure that he grew his Time Freeze Skill to the absolute maximum before he focused on the rest of his skills. It was his only Master Skill, but he was glad that he had it.

The black bastard sword in Ashtar's hand glowed brightly with a blood red aura as he brought it down on Leonidas, slashing multiple times. He was not able to stab the emperor's head directly, as a powerful enchantment protected Leonidas' head and helmet.

Ashtar's face broke into a cold sweat as he felt the strain of keeping the skill active begin to wear on him. He pulled back and gathered most of his power for one final stab.

Shhk!

The sword broke through Leonidas' defenses and stabbed into his chest. Unfortunately, the final defenses of his armor and enchantments made the strike deviate and miss his heart by mere centimeters.

"Dammit!" Ashtar cursed and quickly put some space between himself and Leonidas before cancelling the skill. His face paled and his fingers trembled from the strain he had to endure. Regret filled his heart as he realized he had wasted the perfect opportunity to get rid of a powerful combatant.