The Golem Mage

Though the orcs were doing their utmost to overwhelm the golems with sheer numbers, somehow the golems continued to hold their ground without wavering.

The blood-bone hybrid golems moved like speedsters, their abnormal swiftness already terrifying enough for their realm, but that was not the only thing they had to offer.

With every kill, they seemed to grow even stronger, and it was not simply a matter of leveling up situation. No, the real horror lay in the fact that whenever they killed an orc, they used the orc’s blood immediately.

Some of them used the blood to augment themselves with temporary buffs, some of those buffs made them far more nimble, while others made them monstrously stronger, which causes their visible muscles to look as though they would burst out of proportion if care was not taken.

Some used the blood to forge weapons, while others shaped it into armor, in that way, with every kill, they not only grew stronger, but also became more absurd.

Even being swarmed did not seem to frighten them, and the most annoying part was that they were incredibly difficult to kill.

As long as they managed to scratch an opponent or draw blood, they would begin their healing process, they had a terrifying regeneration ability that made many of the orcs desperate to avoid them altogether.

As for the death knights, they brought their own special kind of dread to the battlefield, not only did they display incredible swordsmanship, to the point that it seemed only an Advanced level master swordsman could defeat them in a direct blade clash, but they were also able to fully infuse their elements into their attacks, making them the perfect magic swordsmen.

The Dullahan death knight seemed to possess three different elements: decay and darkness, which he controlled naturally, along with the burning blue flames of his mounted steed.

All of the orcs’ attempts to use ropes to drag him off his horse had failed miserably, because every rope thrown at its master was burned away by the flames, which flared over both rider and mount as though bathing them together, reducing the ropes to ash in the process.

There were even some orcs unfortunate enough to rush him while the blue flames engulfed both him and his steed, but they paid the full price for that mistake.

The moment they got too close, the flames latched onto them and began to burn, causing those Orcs to cry out in agonizing pain as they tried everything they could with their powers to extinguish the fire, but the stubborn blue flames clung to them without mercy.

Which caused many of the surrounding orcs to pull back in shock, not daring to let those terrifying flames touch them as well.

One orc shaman even tried to use water magic to quench the fire, but all it did was let the flames leap through the spell and spread to the shaman too.

It was almost laughable, after that final failed attempt, the orcs around them all cleared a wide space around the Dullahan, fearing for their lives.

Fortunately, the steed moved through them swiftly as the Dullahan swung his blade, ending the misery of those who had been screaming their way toward death.

His swordsmanship was clean and merciless, even his blade was coated in a layer of dark energy that made every slash more efficient at beheading those who fell before him.

However, something even stranger happened after they were cut down, a dark aura was spread toward the corpses, and the bodies of the dead orcs, that are now missing their heads, began to tremble slightly.

Under that death domain, which seemed to be expanding with every passing moment, the dead orcs were raised again as skeleton soldiers, with their flesh fully eaten away by decay.

The sight of headless skeletons, still shaped like orcs but now far more menacing, with bones jutting out like cruel weapons, was enough to shake anyone, they first picked up their severed heads and placed them back on their necks before grabbing their weapons.

That sight made the orcs around the death knights start to feel that there was truly no reason to keep fighting in such a place, because even in death, they still would not be allowed peace.

Those with much sharper instincts, especially the Red Orcs among them, all turned toward where that dark energy had come from, and they were able to locate one of the death knights positioned at the rear, where he had planted a black banner behind him that was covered in strange engravings.

They knew he was the one responsible, because he was using the dark energy from that banner to resurrect those the death knights had killed.

Though there seemed to be a penalty though and that was the fact that regardless of whether the fallen enemy had once been in a higher realm, after resurrection they would be forced back to the peak of the Tier 5 realm as skeleton warriors, all because they couldn’t surpass the realm of their masters.

Apart from the Dullahan and the banner knight, who seems to have skills that skewered more towards the lich branch, there was also another death knight not too far from them battling with two curved sabers and controlling a dark frost element.

It was a fusion of frost and darkness, a chilling power that could slice through orcs and kill them without leaving so much as a drop of blood.

When that dark energy sent by the Banner Knight touched those the Darkfrost Death Knight killed, they retained their flesh unlike the Dullahan’s skeleton soldiers, but his looked more like zombies, frost zombies, to be exact.

Then there was the third, a Dark knight, he was the one who truly embodied the name death knight. The dark armor with shadow runes on it, the long sword that had dark inscription, the helm that hid his face completely, and the oppressive dark aura around him made him feel like death itself had taken form.

Whenever the dark energy spread toward those he killed, they changed into something even more twisted.

Their bodies were first coated in the darkness, then their structure warped into monstrous forms, turning them into dark beasts—or as they were more properly known, ghouls.

They were fast, strong, armed with claws, able to dash forward like primitive apes, yet still intelligent, and they carried an insatiable hunger that seemed impossible to satisfy.

The death knight unleashed them toward the orcs ahead, and they tore into the battlefield like demons set loose, as for the Draugr, his undead had taken on the path of frost skeletons, though with a distinct Viking aesthetic to them.

And with at least ten undead under each of those death knights, they had been able to slowly turn the battle in their favor, while Hunter’s golems cut down every enemy that came at them in the fewest moves possible, proving just how terrifyingly efficient they were.

They all moved together, each carrying a knight shield in one hand and a greatsword in the other, every one of them covering the backs of the others.

They were what one would call a proper team, judging by the discipline of their formation.

They charged through the midst of the orcs as if fear did not exist in their world, around them was a small domain created by the combined presence of all ten. Anyone who stepped into that domain would no longer be able to augment their attacks with mana, let alone cast spells.

They were durable, dangerous, and powerful. Though they were not as flashy or as destructively overwhelming as Vermis’s golems, they more than made up for it with how decisive they were in cutting down the orcs and how quickly bodies kept dropping in their wake.