My Skeleton Soldier Is Strange - Chapter 194
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 194
Armor stained crimson with blood, eyes gleaming with an eerie luminescence, an aura of dread emanating from his form—the Armored Knight stood unnaturally conspicuous in the midst of the battlefield. He surveyed the carnage-strewn surroundings for a moment, then slowly raised his right hand. Between gloved fingers smeared with dark blood, his grip tightened around the sword’s hilt.
―Uuuuoooong….
At that instant, a strange phenomenon erupted from the Armored Knight’s blade. As if drawing darkness itself upward, a shadowy radiance began pouring forth from the sword’s edge. The dark energy swiftly seized control of the surrounding area. Moaning like a lament, it crawled across the blood-soaked earth, then began enveloping the bodies of fallen knights one by one.
The corpses shrouded in darkness stirred slowly, their rigid forms rising to their feet. Severed limbs reattached themselves, severed necks knitted together, and they were reborn not as mere corpses but as living undead. From their two crimson eyes blazed madness and murderous intent, and the weapons in their hands gleamed with an aura of malevolence.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Terrified screams erupted from the surviving knights at the emergence of the undead unit. The sight of former comrades-in-arms transformed into nightmare creatures, snarling and charging forward, was nothing short of a hellscape. The knights who barely maintained their sanity began retreating, but the undead unit’s momentum was absolutely overwhelming. Their eyes blazing crimson, they exploited the combat techniques of their former lives, trampling the living without mercy.
“Bombard them!”
As the tide of battle turned, a mage’s desperate cry pierced through the stench of blood. Before his words even finished, the sky split open and a barrage of multicolored magical explosions erupted. Thunder crackled with deafening roars, and swirling cyclones engulfed the Undead Legion.
“….”
Yet it was only momentary. The Death Knight standing at the center of the bombardment remained unmoved. His eyes blazing with madness, he glared at the sky, then slowly swung his sword. As the blade consumed by darkness cleaved through the air like a blade of severance, a wondrous and terrible spectacle unfolded. From that single stroke of the Death Knight’s sword, a torrent of dark energy poured forth, and as if a black void had opened, it swallowed the magical circle whole.
Rumble-BOOM!
With the explosion, even the most formidable magical circle was consumed in an instant. As the mage’s overwhelming power crumbled to nothing in a heartbeat, despair painted the faces of the survivors.
Then, a voice echoed in their ears.
“Dercan.”
From Kim Jae-beom’s lips, floating in midair, came a murmured utterance.
That was the moment.
Crackle-crackle-crack!
The air split open as a rift of darkness began to tear wide. From within the chasm that emanated a sinister aura, a skeleton soldier emerged. It was Dercan—the one whose name Kim Jae-beom had called.
Dercan materialized, his scarlet cloak billowing behind him. Clad in jet-black armor over his skeletal frame, he gripped a pair of swords in each hand, their blades radiating an eerie green luminescence.
Whoooosh!
Cleaving through the rifted space, Dercan plummeted toward the Castle Wall. He landed lightly, then glanced around. As if inhaling the blood-reeking air, the skeleton soldier exhaled slowly.
Kim Jae-beom, observing this sight, opened his mouth. A cold and decisive command fell.
“Dispose of them.”
At Kim Jae-beom’s single word, a crimson radiance seeped into Dercan’s skull. Gripping the green twin blades, he signified his acceptance with a single nod.
Boom!
Dercan charged toward the mages. His movements, tearing through the air with a thunderous roar, were the very embodiment of death’s charge.
“Stop! Block it―”
The terror-stricken mages hastily began chanting their incantations, but they were far too slow to match Dercan’s speed.
The skeleton soldier’s movements closed the distance to the mages’ faces in the blink of an eye.
Whoosh!
Dercan swung the twin blades gripped in both hands in a great arc.
The sword edge infused with dark energy wailed mournfully as it cleaved through the air. Accompanied by a sharp whistling sound that could sever steel, a green trajectory rippled forth.
In that very instant, an entirely unexpected spectacle unfolded. From Dercan’s blade poured forth a torrent of emerald light.
Splash!
Green beams of light extended in all directions. The intensity grew fiercer, and soon the entire surrounding area was engulfed in emerald brilliance.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
A heart-rending death cry tore through the air. The green sword energy pierced through flesh and blood without the slightest resistance. Chunks of meat scattered, bones shattered—a horrifying spectacle unfolded. The mages shrieked in terrible agony. Yet the merciless sword strikes did not cease. The green wave swept across the Castle Wall. In the blink of an eye, a crimson tempest raged, and the wall was covered in blood and corpses.
“Mm. Good.”
From above, watching the massacre unfold, Kim Jae-beom smiled with satisfaction.
“Absorb them.”
The command was terse and absolute. Dercan nodded silently in acknowledgment. The skeleton soldier, shaking blood from its blade, extended its right arm toward the slain mages. Souls—terrified and fleeing their bleeding corpses—began to pour forth. From Dercan’s palm erupted a torrent of abyssal darkness, an abyss as black as pitch itself.
The panicked souls, turbulent with fear, had no time to recover before they were sucked into the swirling void. Screams and wails tore through the air, but it was already too late. Every fragment of their final moments was consumed entirely by Dercan.
* * *
Ten minutes had elapsed. The Castle Wall’s final resistance crumbled, and not long after the Undead Legion had completely surged into the fortress, Kim Jae-beom passed through the Castle Gate and stepped into the Plaza.
He crossed the Plaza slowly, his gaze fixed upon the Fortress that loomed majestically within the city. The towering stone walls bore the crest of the Aderan Kingdom carved deep into their surface. Within, I could make out the silhouettes of mages and knights.
Kim Jae-beom observed them meticulously, muttering to himself.
“No players here.”
A cynical smile played at the corners of his mouth. The forces within the Fortress were nothing but NPCs, bound to predetermined routines and scripted responses. There was no vitality, no dynamism—the unmistakable spark of living users was entirely absent.
“Then I can destroy them without hesitation.”
A grim laugh escaped his lips as Kim Jae-beom slowly raised his right hand. His fingers, pale as death itself, twitched ever so slightly.
Uuuooong!
A deafening roar that shook heaven and earth echoed across the silent Plaza. The Undead Legion under Kim Jae-beom’s command unleashed a unified howl and surged toward the Fortress. The procession of skeleton soldiers clad in blackened armor seemed unstoppable, an endless tide of bone and malice.
The undead mages stepped forward, chanting their incantations of destruction.
Crimson flames roared to life, scarlet lightning crackled through the air, and sickly yellow-green acidic clouds laden with poison swirled together. Magikal energies of countless attributes intertwined and spiraled outward. Spheres of devastating magical force hurtled toward the Fortress like arrows loosed from a bow.
Boom! Crash! Thunderous explosion!
Colossal detonations accompanied the devastating magic as it hammered against the Fortress. Solid stone shattered into fragments, scattering in all directions as rubble and debris rained down everywhere.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Without missing a beat, the undead knights charged at full speed toward the Castle Wall, seizing the moment of impact.
The skeleton soldiers surged forward like a tidal wave, trampling everything in their path. With rusted swords and spears thrust forward, wielding shattered shields, they came like an unstoppable deluge. With teeth bared and snarling, they were beasts incarnate.
At the vanguard stood two commanders who seemed to have crawled forth from the depths of hell itself. Dercan, the skeleton soldier, tore through the oppressive wind as he charged. His emaciated frame, wrapped in armor black as the abyss, was the very embodiment of malice.
With each swing of his twin emerald blades, a sinister aura erupted outward. Like venom sprayed upon the earth, sickly green sword energy swept across the battlefield, severing everything it touched.
Beside Dercan, the Death Knight advanced with heavy, deliberate steps.
As if death itself held no terror for him, he charged toward the Castle Wall with great strides. The massive greatsword gripped in his charred hands was wielded with chilling precision. Each rhythmic descent of the blade was terror itself—a cruel, devastating force that tore flesh and shattered bone.
In the form of this fallen knight, not a shred of humanity remained. Only a grotesque monster consumed by a singular hunger—the hunger for destruction and slaughter.
[You have become the new vanguard of the forces of evil.]
The same was true for Kim Jae-beom.
The System no longer regarded him as an ordinary player. Instead, it recognized him as one who blazed a treacherous path that others dared not walk.
A glittering System Message.
A smile bloomed across Kim Jae-beom’s face as he read it.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————