Looking across the bridge, I watched as the dark figure that was my last challenge stood completely still.
"Are you sure you want me to stay out of this-nos one?" Cernunnos asked, scratching his head. "It feels particularly strong."
"Yeah, I know," I nodded, sensing the magical energy that thing was letting out.
Normally, ghouls have just a spark of magical energy, at best, and it was corrupt due to their undead nature. Remnants tended to have slightly more than that depending on how strong they are.
The one standing at the other side of the bridge? That one was straight up radiating magical energy, both corrupt and normal. They're as close as undead can get to Servants. They must have been strong when they were alive.
There's no way Scathach would have let something like that around unless she did it on purpose. She really went all out.
"I still want to take it on my own. I haven't spent all this time fighting just to have someone else do it for me," I said to Cernunnos as I stepped forward.
"Alright, but if things get bad, I'll come in to cease-nos the fighting," the beast god nodded at my statement.
I kept walking until I was halfway across the bridge.
Only then did I finally get a clear view on my opponent. The difference between them and the usual remnants became apparent almost instantly.
This one was... a bit bigger than humans. It was two heads taller than my puppet body. It had obvious signs of muscles despite the old, rusted and chipped armour that covered it.
Other than the armor, it had rags and robes just like the other undead, though a bit longer than them, making this one's robes look like a cape. It also had a few weapons such as broken swords, spears, and arrows stabbed around it's body, showing how many battles it survived.
In its hands was a large, single edged sword covered in scratches and a chipped edge with the very tip being broken.
This thing was reeking 'battle veteran' everywhere you looked.
Third POV:
Zack stood across from the warrior remnant. The undead seemed to have noticed him, turning its head in his direction, but didn't make any attempts to attack yet.
Pointing his sword downwards, Zack wrote a speed Rune on the ground before stepping on it. His body was covered in green aura.
Zack shot forward at great speed, sword raised and eyes hardening. The speed he was going with was more than any ghoul and remnant he faced can handle.
He was planning to go all out from the start.
Swinging his sword downwards, Zack's blade tore into the ground where the undead stood, but the remnant had already vanished.
Instinct kicked in causing Zack to glance upwards, seeing the undead falling towards him with one of its swords held in a reverse grip, ready to stab into him.
"(So fast!)" Zack thought as he jumped away as the undead crashed into the ground, its sword tearing through it.
Zack barely had enough time to stand up again before he had to raise his sword to block the remnant's own weapon. The strike had enough force to nearly knock Zack's weapon out of his hand.
While that didn't happen, it did leave Zack open for the remnant to grab his head and smash it into the floor. Running forward as it dragged Zack's head on the floor, the remnant threw the Elemental's body to the side of the bride.
Smacking at the railing, Zack shook his head and immediately rolled away as the remnant brought down its sword on him. Standing straight as fast as possible, Zack immediately began writing on the ground as the undead pulled out its sword and charged at him.
As soon as he finished writing, however, the undead stopped and immediately jumped back as the ground where he stood exploded into fire.
"(This thing is not stupid like the rest,)" Zack noted, seeing that the undead noticed he was doing something and jumped back from the danger.
When the fire was about to completely vanish, the undead prepared to jump in to attack Zack again, only for three knives to burst from the remaining fire. Swinging its sword, the remnant managed to knock away two of the knives but the last one managed to stab into its shoulder.
"It's not completely intelligent," Zack mumbled, noticing that while the undead did block because it noticed the knives, it wasn't able to block all of them despite its speed.
Such speed was demonstrated again as the undead dashed towards Zack with its sword raised. The Elemental jumped away just as the blade came down, tearing through the ground.
"(I'm out of knives, it's smart enough to be wary of my runes, and all I have now is the sword,)" Zack thought as he raised his sword and stopped another swing from the remnant. "(But, it seems to only notice danger, not what kind specifically.)"
Pushing with his all the might of his puppet body, Zack tried to match the remnant's strength as their blades clashed. It was then that Zack noticed something.
There was a crack on the remnant's sword.
A plan quickly formulated in Zack's head. It wasn't perfect, but seemed possible. Moving back, Zack let the undead's strength push him away while it's sword dropped on the ground.
Zack wrote another speed Rune on the ground and stepped on it. This time, his hopes were to match the undead's speed rather than attack. That proved to be effective because the next time the remnant attacked, Zack was able to keep up with its movement.
Swinging his sword, he matched the strikes of the undead. Both swords clashed, creating sparks through the air, soon enough, they were in a deadlock again.
Seeing that the crack only grew bigger by a small margin, Zack groaned. Raising his foot, he attempted to kick the remnant away only for it to grab his foot. Before Zack can react, the remnant pulled him in and raised Zack upwards.
The undead swung the Elemental in an arc and slammed him on the other side of the ground. Raising Zack again, the remnant tried to slam his opponent the other way, only for Zack to recover and swing his sword down, cutting off the hand that was holding him.
Being mid-swing when he cut off the hand, Zack was sent flying to the other side of the bridge. After a rough landing where he barely stood on his feet again, Zack glared at the undead.
The remnant didn't seem bothered by the severed hand or the pile of black blood that came out of the wound. Instead, it focused on its opponent and raised its sword.
Zack wrote on the ground again, this time a different Rune than either the fire or speed Rune. This time, his body was covered in red aura, enhancing his strength. Zack was the one to charge first this time, the undead
did the same after he did. Their weapons clashed
again, this time the Elemental managed to keep up
with the undead's strength.
The cracks on the sword got bigger and bigger with each strike. "(Come on... come on...!)" Zack begged in his mind as the crack, while seemingly getting bigger, didn't seem closer to the edge. "Dammit break already!"
Just then, Zack's eyes glowed in Rainbow colors. The Yggdrasil wood heart in him pumping magical energy in the veins of the puppet body. The strength of the next strike was enhanced several times over, and, finally, Zack's sword finally broke the remnant's, and manged to leave a deep cut on the undead.
Zack smiled seeing the blade break in two... but that smile vanished when the undead sent him staggering backwards with a headbutt.
Glaring at his opponent, Zack saw the undead get on all fours like a wild animal, despite the fact one of its hands was a stomp.
"Oh for the love of-" Zack didn't even have time to complain as the undead charged at him, its remaining hand raised to claw into him. "(It's getting desperate!)"
Raising his own sword, Zack blocked the strike, but it had enough force to make him skid back a few feet. The undead jumped at him again, but this time Zack rolled under the charge.
When he stopped rolling in a kneeling position, Zack reeled back his sword to the ground, looking ready to deliver a slash at the undead as it turned around and jumped at him again.
However, instead of attack like he appeared he would, Zack instead jumped away, and revealed a Rune that he wrote with his sword in the guise of reeling it back to attack.
The remnant couldn't dodge with how fast it was going and the fact it was mid-air. The ground exploded as soon as the undead reached the Rune.
Zack had to actually cover his face from the explosion. He had used a whole sentence worth of Runes instead of just a word or two. There was more than enough power in that explosion to completely eradicate every ghoul and remnant he encountered.
"That had to have to taken it down," Zack groaned, only to freeze as he saw something come out of the smoke. "Oh, are you kidding me?!"
The undead was still standing, though barely. It had several holes in its body, one of its shoulders was missing with the arm only connected by the bone, and one of it's legs was just bone from the knee down.
The undead, despite it's broken state, tried to attack Zack. However, unlike before, it was sluggish and slow, giving the Elemental the chance to charge in and cut it in half.
The undead's upper body dropped on the floor. "Finally," Zack sighed, standing behind the remnant. Hearing something moving, he looked over his shoulder and groaned seeing the undead flip its upper body with what remained of its arms and start crawling towards him. "Are you serious?! What the he-" "Must... fight..."
Zack froze and his eyes widened as he heard actual words coming from the undead. He turned around and stepped aside as the undead kept crawling PAST HIM.
Zack then realised, the remnant was not crawling towards him, but the castle.
"Must... fight..." The undead groaned again. "Must... fight... must... fight... for... my... Queen..."
"Oh," Zack was then struck with an idea on whom that remnant might have been. Or at least the people he belonged to. "You were one of the warriors who served her, huh," that was more of a statement than an actual question. Walking forward, Zack stood besides the undead and raised his sword. "It's okay. Your war is over and has been for a long time. You can rest now," with those final words, Zack swung down the blade, cutting off the remnant's head, effectively killing it for good this time.
Watching the remains of the warrior slowly vanish into a pile of black mist, Zack sighed and turned his gaze into the castle, watching its glowing, purple appearance completely out of place in the Land of Shadows' dead and grey lands.
"Scathach can act tough as much as she wants," Zack
said shaking his head. "She has as much sentiments for the ones that are gone as much as everybody else," he sighed, knowing that Scathach placed this particular remnant because she trusted her own men even in death.
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Title :- One with Nature
All credits to XanaShadow
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