Cassian quickly swung his sword in the direction from which the animals came. And a thud sound came from within the trees as if hit a metal.
"Is it the seniors trying to scare us?" Sharron questioned as she unsheathed her sword.
"I doubt they would do that, plus they're behind us, how could they have gone to the opposite side without getting caught." Cassian replied as he gripped on the sword tightly.
Sharron as well stood beside him, as if something would jump out of the trees in front of them.
Sharron swung her sword towards the left as she felt something run past, then in the next second Cassian blocked a sword as a death knight jumped from the top of a tree.
"Death Knights! Sharron cast Lumen towards the sky so they can come." Cassian ordered as he pushed the death knight away.
Sharron raised her finger up towards the sky but two more jumped at them, and she had no choice but to dodge the axe as Cassian engaged with the other two.
Sharron kicked the death knight and cut its arms off, on the other side Cassian parried the sword strikes of the two death knights ith ease.
He clashed his sword with one and then twisted his sword and slashed its neck off of the body.
The other one tried stabbing him but he blocked the tip of the sword with the flat side of his, and point blank raised his index finger towards its face. To not let Sharron know he casted chantless he spoke,
"Air, align.
Compress and strike."
[Ventus]
Wind took the shape of a bullet and shot through the death knights face blowing it all off. He looked at Sharron who had dealth with the death knight that attacked her.
"Sharron, you okay?" He asked as he crouched and took a look at the death knights. They had a faint trace of a foreign mana, from what he could tell.
They were not naturally occurring ones, rather reanimated ones by a necromancer most likely.
"I'm fine but are you hurt anywhere? You took on two of them and still ended up winning." She questioned.
"Beginners luck I guess, we should head back and report this incident to the others. These death knights have a trace of foreign mana in them, most definitely the work of a necromancer."
But before they could head back the weather changed as though something dangerous came towards them.
Lightning struck the ground in front of them as the thumping of hooves was heard by them. They looked behind and from within the trees, on a tall war horse a headless knight approached them.
It held its head in one arm and in the other a massive longsword, it was a headless knight or the official name given name given to it, a 'Dullahan'.
It raised the massive longsword and aimed at both of them, purple mana gathered on the tip and shot towards them. Cassian pushed Sharron away and swung his sword downwards to cut through the attack,
Lightning jumped at his body and cut him all over as though he was getting whipped by someone.
When the Dullahan stopped, Cassian stood with his sword still gripped and breathing heavy. His clothes tattered and blood seeping out of all his wounds.
"Sharron now." He shouted.
Sharron quickly raised her hand in the air.
"By ordered aether and luminous accord,
Gather, condense and obey my will.
Manifest."
[Lumen]
A light ball shot up in the air but the Dullahan saw this and aimed his hand towards it to disrupt it but Cassian saw and this time he shot a fire ball upwards which would merge with Lumen and explode making the seniors arrive.
Till then he had to hold against a Dullahan and not die. He cursed himself because why did he push her away? He was no longer in the military, and he had wanted to move on from living the life of a hero.
A hero who no one acknowledges, a hero who was court-martialed because he saved people. He gritted his teeth and lowered his body, at the same time the muscles in his legs shifted.
He might not be as powerful as his seniors and others but this transmigration ability was useful.
He shot towards the Dullahan in the blink of an eye, the Dullahan swung his sword to intercept Cassian but he slid under it and cut the side of the horse.
The horse bellowed in pain and violently shook, and thus the Dullahan had no option but to get off it.
It towered over Cassian, it was over two metres tall, Cassian knew the difference in raw strength was too much, so he needed to play it safe and Sharron would help him with it.
***
Roland and Eric were busy talking when another senior noticed the light ball in the air and then saw the fire ball combine it with creating an explosion.
"They're in danger, everyone with me." Roland shouted and ran inside the forest with Eric behind him.
As they got closer to the sounds of metal grinding against metal, they saw corpses of the death knights in front of them.
Then they arrived at the scene, Cassian and Sharron was on the defense as both worked with each other and covered the blind spots of the others.
Eric and Roland smiled their synergy, then both of the jumped to block the attacked directed towards the both of them.
"Take them back and give them first aid quickly, we'll handle this one." Roland commanded with a chuckle.
"Yeah, leave it to your older brother. I may tease you but I will always protect you." Eric said.
As Sharron and Cassian were taken away from the place Eric and Roland looked at each other and smiled. Roland made a handsign with his fingers and said,
"Steel that answers only to my will,
Draw the line that divides this world.
Within this boundary, all paths lead to my blade".
[Sphere: Sovereign Edge.]
The world around them distorted as the scene changed to a river with a massive tree with red leaves in the middle of it.
Roland was quicker than the Dullahan to manifest his sphere, though uncomplete it would give them an edge against the creature.
"Let's see what this thing can do." Eric said as a turquoise aura covered his hands.
He jumped towards the Dullahan and punched it, but it simply blocked with its sword and pushed him away but then as it swung its sword, but every swing inside the sphere would get intercepted.
Roland didn't swing his sword wildly, he adjusted and made a single micro-movement. The Dullahan's blade trajectory bent and went off course.
Eric's aura covered fists struck its chest and it flew backwards and was rammed into the tree behind it.
But it wasn't enough, it got up as its chest healed, it too did a handsign and multiple death knights rose from the ground.
Numbers were important in any fight and right now Eric and Roland were outnumbered. But at the very least the sphere was still up.
The Dullahan had an open sphere so that's why it didn't interfere with Roland's. Eric and Roland charged, a punch put down two death knights together and a horizontal swing disintegrated three.
They were the graduating class of the academy and their strength showed. As they cut through the death knights the Dullahan attacked, Roland blocked its strike which due to the sphere's effect was already going the wrong trajectory.
Eric cocked back his arm, his breath was steady just like flowing water, then his fist connected with the Dullahan's head it held in its arm.
The head burst apart as the Dullahan was launched so far back that it broke out of the sphere and lay unmoving on the ground.
As they walked back to the others past the forest, from where the Dullahan came a man shrouded in shadows stood there.
He moved his hand and the corpse of the Dullahan dissolved into the ground alongside the death knights.
***
Cassian was given first aid and his wounds healed rather quickly. Despite taking the attack of a Dullahan head-on he didn't suffer any serious injuries.
The others thought it was because of the blessing of the God of War but little did they know he raised his muscle density to the max to tank the attack.
Two days passed normally, he attended classes in the day, visited the Imperial Historical Audit Office in the evening and snuck outside at night for something.
Detective Julian had sent him a letter that his request has been completed but he would have to wait till the night to go and get the results because it was the day of the banquet for the first years who had started the academy.
He woke up a bit later than usual, Martha had prepared his best clothes for the banquet despite him protesting against it because he didn't wanted to stand out.
***
[Chapter 10 - The Art of Manipulation and Concealing the Truth(1)]