The Ruined Death Knight

*Poouf~ Pouf~Pouf

Faintly through those frozen lands, the sound of cold metal stepping into the white snow could be heard.

The one who made those sounds walked through those pure lands that had only ice and snow to show.

With a long sword on his hip and wearing a full-plated dark armor with a pair of 2 dark green ethereal flaring eyes, the death knight walking in the snows suddenly came to a halt as he found what he was searching for.

*Booough~

*Booough~

*Booough~

Staring in front of him, there was a small herd of a large beasts, looking like oversized buffalos that had their horns extended in front of their faces. Another key difference from them was their long beautiful brown hair that covered their whole body.

Some of those beasts were resting in the snow as if they were taking a nap while others were to what looked to the death knight as socializing among themself.

"Those would work..." The death knight mumbled as he stopped his advantage to them.

Opening his right palm, a sudden flash of light made an ordinary spear with runes on its tip appear on his hand. And took a stance as if he was about to throw a javelin.

"This one will do..." The death knight mumbled as he gaze at one of those haired buffalos who seemed to just wake up from his nap.

*Bough~

Taking a step forward, the death knight threw the spear towards that haired buffalo stronger than any ballista could accomplish.

*Fsiiiiiihn!

The spear flew through the air at extortionary speed before meetings his target and piercing... the haired buffalo's neck.

*Bouooooughh!?~

The haired buffalo was instantly woken up wide as it felt a piercing pain on his neck, making it cry out in pain, resulting in the other haired buffalos sleeping to wake up, and the others looked surprised at the sudden pain from one of them.

*Bough~?

*Boough~??

*Booough~???

"Sigh... I missed." The death knight sighed out loud as he stretched his hand.

And suddenly, an ethereal dark green skeleton appeared and drew the spear out of the haired buffalo's neck, making lots of its blood in the white snow with blood.

The hurt-haired buffalo gazed in the direction of where the spear that hurt it was going, making it finally notice the armored skull holding the spear.

*Booough~!!!

Enraged at being hurt, the haired buffalo started running head-on toward the death knight despite his wound.

The Death knight, in turn, made his spear disappear and put his right hand on top of his sword handle, before shaking his head.

"No, not with this." The death knight mumbled before letting go of the handle and chose instead to simply stay still, waiting for the haired buffalo to come to him.

Once the wounded-haired buffalo was about to ram the death knight with his horns and run him over, the death knight raised his hand and grabbed hold with both hands of the horns.

*Psouh~

The death knight was pushed slightly back from the charge of the haired buffalo, but he wasn't overrun.

Starting his strength towards the horns, the death knight began pushing the whole-haired buffalo back, shocking the haired buffalo in return.

*Bough~!?

The death knight managed to raise slightly the haired buffalo's front two legs up to the air together with his head before he turned the horns and pushed it to the side. Making the haired buffalo be thrown to the side and fall.

Seeing that, the other-haired buffalos had already run toward their king and circled around the undead.

The death knight drew his long sword out of his sheathed and pierced the ground, resulting in a wave of ice growing around the body of the haired buffalo, barely enough to stop it from raising up.

Moving up closer to its face, the death knight made a different sword appear in his hand.

And using that sword, he swiftly swung it at the haired buffalo's neck, making the haired buffalo cry in pain. The cry became weaker by the second.

*Bough~Bouuugh....~

Looking at the silent-haired buffalo, the death knight made the sword disappear from his hand and picked up the long sword stuck into the ground. Once picked up, the ice surrounds the now dead-haired buffalo disappearing at the same time.

Sheathing the long sword back to the scabbard, the death knight moved close to the dead-haired buffalo, and using a single hand, he managed to lift the corpse behind his back and started carrying it away while ignoring the other haired buffalos who surround him and were yelling at him with their "*Bough" and "*Bouuugh".

Though none of them stepped up to stop the death knight carrying one of their kind away from their herd.

None except of a single one.

*Bouuughh~!!!!

One-haired buffalo stepped in front of the death knight's path as it yelled at him.

Compared to the others, this one horn had signs of mana being always present, its body much more muscular than any of the other haired buffalos and its eyes even burned with a faint sign of mana.

"So that's the guardian of the herd, huh?" The death knight mumbled as he stared at the muscular-haired buffalo that looked ready to charge toward him.

"Soul Ender." The death knight said in a whisper.

The instant those whispers came out of his mouth, the mana burning in the muscular-haired buffalo for an instant disappeared altogether before reappearing.

Next, it started to shake abnormally before falling to its knees, looking to the ground while sweat started to come out of its body.

Looking at the reaction of the muscular-haired buffalo, the death knight slowly walked towards it while still carrying the corpse of the other-haired buffalo. Making the muscular-haired buffalo only start shaking more.

Walking to his side, the death knight stroke the muscular-haired buffalo hair with his hand softly, but the very touch of this undead made the hair of the buffalo wither.

"Continue protecting the herd, guardian." The death knight spoke in as cold of a tone as those frozen lands.

The other-haired buffalos seeing their guardian in such a state stopped yelling at the death knight and only surrounded the guardian trying to see if he was ok.

With only a few of them staring at the trail of blood of their kin disappearing through the distance.

The death knight in question then continued walking with the corpse of a haired buffalo towards the frozen lands.

He could see how white-furred wolves came looking at their noses after smelling the blood of the haired buffalo.

Alas, the presence of death that was always on the death knights' side kept them from attempting to do the impossible.

The death knight ignored those that kept to themselves and killed any other beast trying to get in his way.

After an hour of marching, a winter storm seemed to make its appearance, but that didn't stop the death knight to stop moving.

And after 3 hours of walking, the death knight arrived at the beginning of one of the many mountains.

Spreading his mana into the mountain, a wall of stone suddenly started to come down from the stone, revealing there to be a cave, with a small flame flickering.

Near the small flame, was a small girl covered with a robe and pale skin, shaking from the cold despite being near the flames.

"You are back..." The small girl with pale skin said seeing the death knight, a being who holds a hatred towards the living.

Without answering back, the death knight let the haired buffalo fall to the ground and made the wall of stone behind him raise once more before he walked near the fireplace.

Taking out half of a tree that he found in those frozen lands, he started to crash the tree with his bare hands into small pieces and throw them in the fireplace. In an attempt to make the fire strong, albeit because it was soaked from the snow outside, the added wood didn't do much.

"It's still wet..." The death knight mumbled as he put his hand near the flames near enough to burn someone's hand.

Using his mana, he started generating fire in hopes to be strong enough to burn on its own.

Alas, with little success.

"The way you use your mana isn't efficient." The small girl said while looking at the death knight attempting fire magic.

"I know." The death knight wasn't offended by the small girl saying that he sucked.

"Do it for me. I will prepare the meal..." The death knight said as went towards the haired buffalo. He moved towards the other side so that the small couldn't see him butchering the animal.

He pulled the dagger that he was carrying and started cutting the haired buffalo's stomach. Though he said he would prepare the meal, the death knight had no idea if everything was eatable or not. So instead he decided to cut the muscles first into small pieces.

And once enough, he went and settled at the fireplace with the gathered meat on top of a few stacks of paper.

He then brought out another clean spear from the thin air and grabbed it with his hand.

His hand suddenly emitted some kind of death aura while his gauntlet lighted in dark green light. On top of that, flames started to appear in his hand.

Slowly, he pulled the spear in his burning hand.

"W-What are you doing?" The pale small girl asked while staring at the death knight burning a metal spear.

"I am cleaning the spear." The death knight said as the matter of fact. Making the small girl confused.

After the death knight was done "cleaning" the spear, he pierce pieces of meat in the spear and raised it on top of the flames.

He also made 2 hands of mana to slowly rotate the spear with the meat, while he looked carefully at the meat.

"Have you done this before?" The small girl asked while staring at the rotating pieces of meat.

"I have not." the death knight answered.

Then there was an awkward silence between the two.

The one to break the silence first was the little girl.

"D-Do you know where we are?."

The death knight shook his head.

"I do not. Neither of the maps that I have contains information about a land filled with snow and ice. Not even the communication device that master Velkir given me seems to work." He answered.

"Then how did we get here? A-And how can we go back?" The small girl said with a shaking voice.

At the such question, the death knight could only sigh out loud.

"For your second question, I do not know. We might be in unexplored lands, but that doesn't mean that we can't find our way back. As for how we came... it seems like something interrupted master Velkir's spell at the last minute, resulting in our situation."

Hearing the harsh reality of the situation that they were in, the small pale girl buried her head between her knees.

And it was only after Danzel judged the meat to be cooked that the girl speak once more.

"Bad fish...why are you helping me?" She said, with a voice that suggested that she was resisting crying.

The death knight made the mana arms raise the "cooked" meat above the flames before looking at the small girl, trying not to cry between her knees.

"Out of obligation." The death knight said.

"Though saying that, is only half the truth. Shiro, your grandpa saved me through a fate that I avoided my whole existence and I promised him to return the favor of saving him."

"Nevertheless, I never specified how I will return that favor to your grandfather. I am undead, a death knight at that. A being that holds hatred towards the living as his instinct. And that instinct doesn't exclude you, Shiro."

"I could let you alone to these frozen lands to fend for yourself. Leaving you to die with someone knowing. Not even your grandfather."

"I have other ways of repaying you, grandfather. My runesmithing for example..."

Danzel explained while staring at the small girl named Shiro, who raised her head and looked at his flaring dark green eyes.

"Doing so would repay my debt, but at the same time that will make me ungrateful in being saved by you grandfather." He explained as he started cutting the piece of meat and putting it on top of a piece of paper.

"The other half of it is... there is no reason not to help you. A fellow discipline of a shameless Lich and a member of the deathfull skulls." He said while giving the piece of "cooked" meat to Shiro.

"Also, I am immortal. Wasting some time to bring you back to your grandfather isn't such a big deal."

He stayed silent for a moment before talking again.

"What I am trying to say, While I will try to bring you back to your grandfather... It won't be at my risk. The only one that you can trust is yourself and only yourself. Now eat before it gets too cold."

Shiro looked at the "cooked" meat and then at the death knight before slowly nodding her head and cleaning her face from the tears with her sleeve.

"Thank you." She said before stuffing the meat of the haired buffalo in her mouth.

"Also, my name is Danzel."

"Rue Danzel, not bad fish."

Once the death knight, Danzel said that Shiro's face shallowed what she was eating.

And soon enough, her face distorted as if she ate something completely disgusting.

"Blegh!"

"..."