Bro, I'm not an Undead!

SWISH!

A blade slashed at an incredible speed, aiming at the man who wore the robes!

His gaze remained firm even when he couldn't clearly see the attack coming for his life, but that didn't matter!

A greyish, transparent hand darted from around his body and knocked the sword away, the vibration from the solid impact pushing away Natalika who launched the strike with her striped blade!

She skidded on the ground as she looked at the Summoner, trying to get a full feel of the appearance of the creature that protected him from her collective senses.

Once more, the creature that protected the Summoner who scoffed at Natalika's failed attempts vanished the moment it was done defending him.

It truly looked like a ghost.

Its body was like a curled cloud that wrapped around the man's image like a worm, having no head or face but an elongated eye on its midsection that produced a purple glow.

Two freakishly long arms would also be flailing around when it appeared, ready to block attacks thrown at the Summoner.

'That thing appears to only have the ability to interact with physical matter when it shows itself. Does it simply not exist until the time it appears to defend this man or is it merely invisible until then...?' Natalika questioned as she clicked her tongue.

Summoners were a troublesome bunch.

So much so that their existence had been outlawed.

All Summoners were to be caught and killed.

In Pelian at least.

The reason was a simple but terrifying matter.

Naturally there was a contrast between Summoners and Tamers.

Tamers captured known creatures, while for Summoners...

No one knew where the creatures they summoned came from. Not even the Summoners themselves.

There had been many conjectures about the possibilities, the Summoners themselves trying to defend their case by saying that summons probably came from the one continent on Aigas that no one could access.

Amanas.

However, the Royal Family, since old times refused this inference, their scholars and experts claiming that Summoners were in fact, summoning the creatures they could, from the 'The Under.'

Therefore, all Summoners were declared to be potential Evenfall cult members and to be killed on sight.

"I really thought fighting you would be interesting, heh. A blindfolded swordswoman. Very niche. So far you've disappointed, heh. Or is it because you lack the motivation to kill me? I can give you plenty," the man said as he stretched out his hand with a crooked smile.

Natalika rendered the man no answer.

She didn't make it a habit to answer her enemies in combat.

It was her self-imposed standard as she aimed to be strongest swordswoman of all.

Seeing that she wasn't going to receive any reply, the Summoner's hand became saturated with mana as he grunted with displeasure, flickers and sparks popping from the air before him as shortly after, a circular warp appeared with a dark blue tint!

It looked like a portal of some kind, swirling with an eerie and unstable element but it seemed functional, being the size of half a man's body!

"Let's start with this, heh," he said with a grunt and in the next moment, several dark figures flashed from the portal at rapid speeds, one after another!

They rushed towards Natalika who drew back a little, giving herself a second's worth of time to fully ascertain the incoming hostiles' shape, strength and potential energy.

These creatures, were ravens.

Or what looked like ravens.

They were as tall as an average human being with dark blue coloured furthers!

They zoomed with incredible speed towards Natalika, but she didn't impulsively swing her sword as she felt the raven's next move before they even executed it!

They suddenly accelerated, turning into dark blurs as they then went on to fly around Natalika in a circular formation!

The lone blind swordswoman felt the creatures swiftly dart around her so fast that a raging wind started to form, having the intensity of a hurricane that was infused with expert levels of sharpened mana that would start to rip apart her flesh as the birds continued to move at high speeds.

Her robe which reached her waist fluttered as she bend her body in a sturdy stance, feeling the accumulation of power from within the raven's charge.

'Crude...' she thought as she actually went on to leave her sword's hilt and extend her hand above her head in a chopping gesture.

She then brought down her hand in a slow descent, arcs of mana palpating from it!

FLSHH! FLSHHH! FLSHH!

Blood and pained bird calls resounded in the air as in an instant, all the ravens were slashed into pieces, feathers and flesh falling to the ground!

The hurricane they had formed vanished with a shudder of the air, their split corpses falling gracelessly to the ground!

"Oh..." the Summoner said as he nodded his head. "As dangerous as I thought..."

Natalika didn't bask in this small victory as she knew that the man before her was simply probing.

His portal was still open and Natalika could pretty much see that she was in for the long haul but she didn't intend to tolerate an enemy whose sole capability was to spam summoned creatures.

That was... boring in her tastes.

"Let's turn it up, heh!" the man said as more mana churned from him, the portal before him opening wider as larger ravens blasted from it, their size being double that of the average human being!

Their wings were rather large and their flight rather impactful and incredibly fast at the same time, their bodies shining with a solid cover of mana from white and blue cores!

Hundreds of these appeared, emitting loud calls that reverberated through the ground like tremors.

Natalika was unfazed as all this registered in her senses.

She grabbed her sword this time as the monstrosities approached in their hundreds, half of them going to start darting around her to a create a catastrophically violent tornado, while the rest remained on stand by, flying stably at a distance as they awaited Natalika's next move.

Within the fierce winds, Natalika remained relatively unscathed as an encirclement of mana was around her, warding off the cruel winds.

Her earlier stunt of instantly dispatching the other ravens was proudly sponsored by the basic nature of her sword technique.

The ability to manipulate vectors of concentrated force that she created or otherwise!

Being around these vicious winds wasn't a threat to her in any way, though in her base, it could be overwhelming if all the ravens set out to attack at once with this wind attack.

As she grabbed her sword, ready to attack, she suddenly felt something odd outside the cage of wind.

"Hmmm?"

A ridiculously fast object darted from near Ginie's location, bolting forward in a straight line as it tore through thirty odd ravens instantly before reaching the Summoner who had noticed the build up and release of this object a little too late!

'What?!' the Summoner thought as his eyes bulged.

BOOOWOOOM!

The object flew at him so quickly that the only thing he remembered from the moment it reached him was an absurd shockwave that ruptured the ground, sending a chilling and painful vibration around his body as a clash had happened in that very moment without him seeing it!

The Summoner flew over three meters away and skidded on the ground with sweat dripping from his body.

Around him, the ghostly figure of his protector had appeared, reacting to the quick flying object that had launched towards him!

The Summoner turned his eyes this way and that in a panic, but saw nothing, feeling only faint wisps of something that was flying around erratically in an attempt to confuse his senses.

'What on Aigas is that?!' he thought before turning his hand to the location where the thing had come from!

A long distance away, even further than where he had seen a short girl with a staff whom he deemed insignificant, a young man with auburn coloured hair could be seen, extending his hand while in a balanced stance that had his feet spread apart.

'Him?!' the Summoner thought. 'Is—"

Before he could continue his next thought, another explosion rocked the ground with his figure being sent flying forward, as this time whatever the thing was that assaulted him came from the back!

The creature around him appeared and tried to swat the dark object away but the result was a ridiculous explosion of force with the outcome being survival and not much else!

The Summoner leaned forward, his portal closing as he had lost focus, but he didn't mind that, instead bellowing angrily towards the ravens he had summoned.

"Kill him!"

The hundreds of ravens that weren't part of the attack on Natalika stormed towards Skullius with blitzful speed!

They flooded Skullius' view as they approached, creating a rather menacing scene!

'Good. With this, he probably won't be able to—'

Once more, the Summoner was interrupted, the dark object smashing into his side as it launched him a distance!

However, this wasn't all.

Not by a long shot!

He was silenced and perturbed by something else.

The reign of brutality he saw before him, over fifty of his ravens that had targeted Skullius getting blown to bloody bits that oozed of flesh and feather, as this young man with auburn hair became covered with a shallow layer of darkness, both his hands swinging quickly as he twiddled his fingers as well, as if he was the Herald of death, directing it to whom he pleased...!