Phase magic.
A school of magic under the dark magic arts.
Dark magic, in particular, has many forms of uses and some schools of it are considered taboo magic.
Overall, dark mana was at its best in affecting one's surroundings and being.
It was an extremely strong element that gave birth to chaos magic and heretic magic.
The former was infamously known as the best element for pure destruction while the latter could bend and claw the mind of one's enemies.
Many mistaken the latter part as some type of magic school under death magic, thus categorizing it as a taboo spell.
But the popular way to use dark mana was to conceal one presence and hide it from other people.
The school of phase magic through brought that very idea to the extremes.
This type of magic aimed to completely erase one's presence by reality itself and hide their true body in a separate place hidden by dark mana.
Alas, such a kind of magic wasn't without any disadvantages, to say the least.
One of them is the extremely high mana cost.
...
'Dammit!'
The rogue couldn't help but curse internally.
Appearing somewhere else in the castle, he held his chest with one of his arms trying to resist the pain coming from there.
"I underestimated him...to think he could see through [Phase Location]..."
Though some of his ribs were broken and we were creating to pierce his lungs, he was most angry about being found out in the act.
He went ahead with the mindset of not underestimating the necromancer.
He was even convinced that Borg would stop him long enough till he finished the deed in Wilhelms bedroom!
But that guy didn't even last a minute!
That ethereal hand came also as a surprise to him.
It wasn't like he has never seen it before.
The skeleton did indeed appear before, but that was only for an instant before disappearing.
Back then he couldn't really guess what was expected of a modified version of the weak spell mana hands.
But now that he experienced it first hand, he knew that he couldn't be more wrong.
The pull was unavoidable and the pain seemed to attack his mind, as well as his body.
'Wait! Does that mean...!'
He had a sudden revelation.
The necromancer not only sneaked into the castle with ease but also detected a peak 3rd-rated assassin that used magic that affects one's mind.
He must also be attuned with dark mana! Also submerged in the path of darkness!
His mind trailed with the necromancer being capable of heretic magic, or at the very least created some form of blending between necromancy and heretic magic.
"I should even consider the possibility of him being attuned in the darkness too." The rogue mumbled with a low voice.
*Thud, Thud, Thud~.
Hearing multiple footsteps growing closer to his location, the rogue cursed as he phased through the wall.
In the next moment, he appeared right above the walls while hiding his presence.
"Phase reality is way too taxing to use..."
Watching his surroundings, he saw tens of undead running through the castle in groups.
'At least those things are way too weak to see through my morphosis...I should leave now before the necromancer comes.'
Right as he turned around and prepared to jump off the wall, a huge shadow fell upon him.
Alarmed he turned around while moving to the side.
The danger that was behind him had three ethereal eyes of Skull Claw staring at him with its high jaw slowly closing to take a bite him.
Though his reaction was incredible, the huge jaw pierced his arm.
"[Phase Reality]"
Before the teeth rigged deep enough to bite the rogue's whole arm, his arm like his body started to phase through the jaw and the floor of the wall.
Where he appeared next was down to the outside of the wall several meters away to the right side.
Skull Claw's eyes though immediately followed the rogue's movement as if knowing beforehand where he was going to appear.
"Kwaaaaouhhhhhh!!!!
With a dreadfully howl aimed at the sky, everyone undead turned their eyes towards Skull Claw, including Danzel.
The undead on the walls jumped off the walls and landed their feet on the ground, ignoring that their joints became damaged from doing that.
But to them that didn't matter.
Their liege has given them his command and they were sure to follow his will.
*Buhhh!
The ground trembled by Skull Claws' landing.
Taking the lead of the charge, the undead is full of hate and killing intent towards the rogue.
Cursing internally, the rogue turned around and made a run for it.
The druid he left behind?
He didn't care. Inside his mind he considered him to be already among the undead of that necromancer.
He also didn't specialize in fighting head-on battles.
He guessed that he could take on the huge death hound in one on one, but together with all his other lackeys and the raid boss coming soon after them?
Yeah, he wasn't suicidal.
Also, the fact that his hand started to show signs of necrosis didn't make the option of fighting back more attractive.
His dashing to the forest was the obvious choice with the undead shortly after giving chase.
At that moment though, multiple jets of winds came raining from above to where the undead was.
And like some kind of invisible bullets crashed upon the undead and the ground itself.
Crashing the draughts mercilessly with a single blow.
The draugrs didn't know what hit them, making them helpless under the barrage of wind bullets raining upon them.
Skull Claw also finds herself severely damaging her legs and a large piece of junk in her skull. If it weren't for the fact that she turned her body into an ethereal quickly enough, by now she would've "died".
"Finally done something." The rogue mumbled as he dashed to the forest to meet his last remaining colleague.
His celebration thoughts though we're soon
"Kwaagggh! Kwagh!!!"
Skull Claw howled as she tried to chase after the rogue while moving away from the air bullets. Alas, she was hit, again and again, making even her tough body slowly break.
She was completely helpless.
She didn't have any movement abilities which allowed her to close in on one's opponent, making her quite the easy target for ranged attacks. Only her [Temporally Ethereal Body] allowed her vitals, mainly her skull to be kept safe except for the first surprise attack.
But even though the skill [Temporally Ethereal Body] was strong, it consumed too much mana to be relied on against barrages of attacks. And the fact that the air built was completely invisible didn't help either in any attempt of dodging.
If she didn't retreat now, she was undoubtedly going to be destroyed and engulfed in the dark waters of the realm of the dead. But the idea of retreat never crossed her mind.
Only the command of her liege echoed through her mind.
And once her mana reserves were starting to reach the limit, a wave of dead mana washed through her body, slowly regenerating each damaged bone while also granting enough mana to activate.
"Leave."
The all-so-familiar cold voice sounded from behind her.
In the next moment, like a comet hitting the ground, a dark armored figure stood in front of Skull Claw.
His dreadful aura makes even Skull Claw himself freeze in fear.
But as soon as the command of her creator continued to echo in her mind, she dashed away and climbed the tall wall by piercing her sharp claws into the wall.
Ignoring what was behind him, the dark armored figure kicked the ground and dashed like a charging train to his target.
"Tch, [Phase Reality]!"
Going underground, the rogue disappeared from its previous location and reappeared in the forest.
"You aren't getting away!" Danzel yelled as he swung his cursed sword, releasing several ominous wind blades at the location where the rogue appeared.
In the path of the dark wind blades, several trees were cut apart and started to wither in the location where they were cut.
The path that does ominous wind blades was obviously towards the rogue.
"Again!?" The rogue cursed as he moved to the side and dodge the wind blades aimed to claim his life.
He was extremely frustrated that both the death hound and the necromancer could see where he would next appear after using [Temporally Ethereal Body].
For him, it was quite easy to dodge the wind blades, but the real problem lay on the necromancer closing his distance.
With no other choice in hand, he could only try and run away for his dear life!
'I won't go without a fight!' The rogue thought as he took several throwing knives in his finger from his cloak.
Instead of turning around and throwing them directly at Danzel, he instead threw them right in front of him.
"[Phase Arms]"
As soon as the daggers hit a tree in front of him, instead of getting stuck there, the dagger sank into the tree itself similar to when his body used [Temporally Ethereal Body].
Without losing the slightest speed, the daggers reappear around Danzel.
A total of 8 knives were thrown by a 3rd-tier expert, each coming from a different location!
The knives were also cooler blitz black so that they can blend in a dark environment and also enchanted to suppress the sound of the cut wind.
Making it a deadly technique for any 3rd-tier to face against.
Sadly, Danzel was of no ordinary 3rd-tier.
Screening every single dagger coming his way with his dark vision, his body was surrounded by mana.
With a swipe of his sword, he deflected half of the daggers and blocked 3 with his shield while dodging the last one coming for his head without even turning his head around.
Making the rogue curse internally.
'Do you have eyes behind your head!?'
He now understood that the one chasing him was of no doubt way beyond the strength of a 3rd-tier. Making that revelation, the rogue started to despair.
He could only run for his life, while the one chasing him was slowly but surely getting closer to reaping his life.
Shortly after Danzel was only 10 meters away from him, he raised his now cursed sword, slowly gathering his mana into the blade, preparing to finish the traitor right here and now.
But before he could do such, he felt an immediate danger coming from somewhere very far away.
Looking at where the threat was coming from, Danzel saw the elve archers drawing her bow from kilometers away.
The archers who sensed his gaze widen their eyes from the shock of being discovered. She was also surprised to feel the killing intent from him even after being so far away. Making her release the bowstring of her arrow.
He instinctively hid most of his body behind his skull shield of his. He only saw her releasing her bowstring see neither heard nor saw any arrow coming his way.
In the next moment though while he was chasing after the rogue, a huge kinetic force hit right to his leg, snapping his tibia bone, resulting, in the end, falling to the ground face forward.
Only through his quick reflexes did he manage to stay with a knee up with his shield guarding his body.
"..."
Confused at what just happend, Danzel stared at his leg, finding only his armor to have been penetrated.
And in his confused gaze, he slowly saw how an arrow that was sticking out of his leg reappeared from thin air.
'Invisible arrows?'
"...[Necromatic Restoraction]"
Repairing his leg, Danzel stood up and looked around the forest while gritting his teeth in anger.
"Dammit!!!" His anger itself manifested out, and pushed the nearby air away, creating a small shock wave.
Wherever he looked, his [Eyes of the Damned] didn't pick any living creature around him.
In other words... he lost them.
He considered chasing blindly through the forest in hopes to catch a glimpse of them. Alas, after calming down his hate towards the living, he lowered his sword and turned back to the castle.
"At least that druid should still be on the castle." He mumbled ominously to himself.
