The Villainess and I, her Zombie

The royal protector and the proudest corpse charged at each other at the same time.

*BOOOOOOM*

The empowered first hit the golden shield and produced a shockwave that shook the entire treasury causing the dust to fall off from the ceiling.

/Skill level up

Shield proficiency (level 2)

"Khaha!"

The blue undead giggled triumphantly as the system message showed up in his vision, informing him about the sweet, sweet gain only after a single exchange.

"What is so funny, rotten bastard?"

*WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *BOOOOOM*

Quince asked and followed up the first punch with the whole chain combo of punches and kicks that all ended up raining down on the golden shield.

/Skill level up

Shield proficiency (level 3)

"Pffft...! Khahahahahaha!"

By the final hit, which was a powerful elbow charge that send Zombie slide across the entire room, another system message popped up for the blue undead making him burst out into even more diabolical laughter – all to the increasing annoyance and anger of the muscular man who was his opponent.

"BASTARD!"

Quince roared – though that seemed to be a shout to boost his morale or maybe even a nickname for his skill rather than an insult directed at the blue undead – as he slammed his fists together causing pure-white halos to appear around his forearms – three per each arm.

"Since you've already chosen your fate, I will make it quick."

The man scoffed and retreated to get himself a proper running start for another punch.

*SHING*

"...!"

But as he was doing that, a massive black blade - that certainly wasn't there a second ago – tore through the air with a chilling sound, nicking his clothes and barely missing cutting his stomach open and giving the descriptive 'ripped abs' a brand new meaning...

"You...!"

The muscular man jumped back, gluing his eyes to the blue undead who lightly swung the overbearing hunk of metal as if it was made out of paper – before the blade flashed and turned into a spike-like sword – estoc.

The next moment, the smile on the blue undead's face grew into a mortifying grin and his legs erupted with blinding white light...

"!!!!!!"

...and all blood drained from the muscular man's face as he realized what was coming next...

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

The floor of the empty treasury broke down from the undead's kick-off and seemingly within the same time frame the estoc's tip sunk into Quince's skin...

*whoosh*

*thump*

...and passed through the empty air as the muscular man teleported to the other side of the room and dropped on the floor, drenched in sweat.

"...this..."

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Quince wanted to say something but another explosion shattered the southern wall – the one where the exit was at – and the blue undead and his estoc was already right in front of the royal protector again!

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

*whoosh*

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

"WHAT THE...?!"

The muscular man shouted in panic when another explosion – this time shattering the east wall – responded before he even properly touched the ground after teleporting again!

Was it that obvious where he would move on to?!

*whoosh*

Nonetheless, the only choice Quince had was to get skewered on the spike-like sword or escape.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

"URHG...!"

*whoosh*

But with the west wall now turned into a crumbling mess, the tip of the estoc wasn't just aimed somewhere around Quince's body as it would be with just the blind luck – the blue undead was somehow able to pinpoint his location and this time Quince almost lost an eye!

He could not allow himself to make a mistake at that point – one move could mean his own death.

And not just by the blade of the blue undead either – Quince knew that if he ran away from a threat, the blond queen would not forgive him.

...and the royal protector knew all too well that anything was better than trying to escape the avatar of greed pursuit...

Hence, instead of merely escaping to the corners of the treasury in attempts to get enough breathing room to attack, it was better to aggressively rush into the offensive!

*whoosh*

That's why he teleported right behind the blue undead who finally seemed to have slowed down considerably – and unleash a devastating uppercut at his side to crush his ribs.

*WHAM*

"HAAAA!"

**********

*CRUSH*

"?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

How that situation played out caused Quince to freeze in utter shock.

Just as he thought that he got the blue monster, the undead's body flashed white and he managed to jump up and twist himself in such a way that the man's fist hit the gold shield right into the ruby mana crystal.

Although shocked, the royal protector used the power of the halos around his forearm and made all three of them slam into the golden shield, sending out waves of holy-element power erupting against the shield and washing over it, most definitely enveloping the blue undead and sending the shield into the already destroyed east wall in such an odd way that the shining piece of equipment was sticking out of the wall as if it was a lid.

"What was that thing supposed to be...? Fuck...! That little shit must have been an undead lord or something...!"

Quince couldn't help himself and cursed, wiping off the sweat pouring into his eyes while breathing heavily.

The teleportation was a tier 3 skill that was known for being extremely mana-hungry and he just used it in very quick succession.

Unfortunately, on short distance teleportation was incomparably less efficient than the skill it was derived from – blink – and left the man drained out of mana to such an extent that the three halos he had left on his other forearm flickered, and two of them disappeared into the thin air while the last one was barely holding on

"Holy shit... that was ridiculous...!"

Quince shook his head and stumbled back, lightheaded from the exhaustion.

He honestly did not remember the last time he felt that drained.

It was as if the blue undead came up with the strategy that was created solely to use every single weak spot of Quince's skills and fighting style against him.

"Fuuck... glad that it's almost over."

The royal protector nodded to himself, looking at the last weakly flickering halo around his forearm.

The message about defeating a monster did not pop up so that could only mean that the undead was somehow still alive – although annoying, it wasn't all that odd, the shield must have given him the minimum of protection, and the mangled undead was surely barely holding on to his fake life.

The halo empowered punch will be just the thing to finish him off.

"Whoa. I messed this thing up really bad... yeah, it's probably just his head behind it or something."

Quince leaned down, looking at the shield - his fists wiped off all the intricate shapes and the shield was now just a plane golden shield with a round ruby mana stone in the middle – no snake or stem and leaves to make the ruby look like an apple.

The muscular man sighed one last time and straightened his back.

"Now, then. Time to say goodbye, little fucker."

Quince smirked, and dug his fingers into the wall, grabbing the edge of the golden shield, and raised his other hand with the white halo at the ready, to strike his opponent right as he would pry it open...

*crumble*

*************************

The shield moved, setting lose a pile of rubble to fall to the ground just as the ruby flashed with a threatening light and a beam of white light shoot out with a low unearthly hum, straight through the Quince's chest, sending him flying and tumbling on the destroyed floor.

Then, the shield moved on its own, revealing the severely burnt blue undead, stuck in the crumbling wall like a cannonball.

/High-level player defeated

You receive EXP

/Skill level up

Shield proficiency (level 5)

"Khahaha...!"

The blue undead couldn't help himself and laughed out loud while exiting the cozy hiding-hole he prepared himself with one of his attacks.

"Ah, sorry, that was rude - I should honor your last wish, I guess."

Suddenly, Zombie flinched and looked towards the dirty corpse that gathered all the dust because of the sweat covering it.

"Goodbye."

He smirked and bowed down at the exact moment that the orb of light that Quince created went out, leaving the whole place dark.