John's body lay dead and broken beneath the Assassin. Blood of the Shadow Rebel dripped down onto the Tiefling's body. He was dying but still alive, even as Suna’s Shadow Arrow stuck deep in the undead body.

  The blood slithered down, and the darkness around the Assassin's body began to waver; it flickered, resisting death. Then, as if it were a bandage, it moved like a lash and tied itself around the Assassin’s chest. It looked like tentacles trying to coagulate its mass into one point.

  “Is it healing?” Wendy whispered beside him, already forming one of those invisible rods to throw at the assassin.

  Suna also already had Emberwind ready. He poured in more mana, intending to blast away the Assassin’s last defense. He could sense the way the shadows coiled around the Assassin, as the Drowfication tried to keep the Assassin’s body alive, to numb the arrow across his chest.

  “I think so.”

  Wendy released her magic, and the rod slammed against the Assassin’s head, knocking him back, but not fully bringing him down.

  Her attack connected. Why didn’t he dodge like he usually did?

  Suna released his Emberwind, blasting the Assassin in the chest. His arrow flew true, and flame roared forward, pinning the Shadow Rebel into the dark wall of the throne room, coloring it with the bright gleam of orange.

  The Undead was pinned with shadows still trying to wrap around his chest. The Shadow Rebel raised his face, and a smile marred his yellow-lined lips.

  Die already…

  Suna had an idea. As the Tieflings around them kept firing those wind slashes, he instead summoned Sootroot arrows, infusing them with more mana, and Drowfication seeped into them, then quickly stored them in the Grave Vine Quiver. Five of them. They would need an enchantment first.

  So Suna fired a different Sootroot arrow; he shot straight at the Assassin. Lashes of shadow whipped and blocked away slices of wind magic from the Tieflings. His arrow was caught and slapped away even as the Assassin appeared unconscious.

  “Do we approach?” Reki shouted over the blaring winds. The Runebearers around them let out cries of anger as they blasted their magic at the Undead; their fury was palpable, and inside Suna, he felt a bit of responsibility for that.

  But his mind, the rational part of him, told him that it was a good choice. His experience in this strange world had taught him that hesitation only gets you killed.

  “He seemed to be dying already,” Noa said, examining the Undead Rebel beyond his shield that he held with an axe, the support Tiefling had given him. Speaking of the Support Tiefling, one of them appeared behind Suna and Wendy to give them a Mana Potion and an HP potion. Suna quickly took them and drank them at once.

  “Here,” Wendy said, picking up his Brimhat from the Tiefling and putting it on Suna’s head.

  Nodding his thanks, he wove another Emberwind and aimed it at the Shadow Rebel.

  “You guys should go,” Suna said. No time to hesitate. “Wendy and I will be fine.”

  “For John,” Reki said, raising his Warhammer of gold high above. Light still covered them thanks to Suna’s Shadow Arrow, so the effect of the golden glow diminished, but it was unmistakable that the Warhammer glowed brighter as Reki said those words. Reik repeated John's name, and somehow the Warhammer glowed even brighter like he was holding a miniature sun across that hammerhead.

  And his skin shimmered with the gleam of molten warmth; heat permeated to Suna’s forehead. A magic like Drowfication? No, this one must be class-specific.

  “Watch out!” a voice cried out. Suna turned and saw the knight bolt toward them. Blue armor shimmered as it entered the circle of light, its greaves pounded against the floor, and a Pyre Claymore brandished with blue flame.

  Suna moved, letting go of his Emberwind and Gale Bow. He grabbed Wendy and the Support Tiefling, then with Gale Backstep, dragged them away.

  “Noa! Shield!” Suna screamed as he saw Noa turn to direct his last shield; however, the Knight swung first, before the Claymore could cleave down on his friend. A Warhammer rushed in and smote the claymore away. Both weapons were blown back in loud assaults of steel chime.

  The Knight pivoted expertly, bringing its center of mass down, and wove the sword into the next attack. Pyre flame blazed along its claymore and struck down on Reki; this time, Noa caught the blow. Flame sizzled against the Bulwark shield, and Noa’s shield glowed with bright Mana that resisted the Undead Godknight’s strike. Noa, with his left hand, swung his axe, only to have it rebound away as it met with the Knight’s thigh armor.

  The Knight deepened its attack, pushing Noa back, who gritted his teeth under the great pressure of Pyre flame. Reki swung his Warhammer straight at the Knight's chest, and Suna released an Emberwind, which he quickly fired at the Knight’s head.

  The Godknight’s armor shone bright golden for one second. Before Suna knew it, Reki’s Warhammer lost its light and uselessly bounced back against the Knight’s armor. Not just Reki’s Warhammer, but Suna’s arrow too lost its fire property, becoming a frail arrow that broke as it hit the back of the Knight’s armor.

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  What was that?

  Could it nullify an attack? Despite its ridiculous defense already? Why was the Undead King so scared of sending it against the Shadow Rebel then?

  There must be a reason, which the knight's next act reinforced this idea.

  The Knight shrugged off Reki with a push-down, sending the Orator sprawled across the floor, and merely skipped past Noa to charge forward—at the Shadow Rebel, who still somehow used lashes of shadow to ward off the wind magics of the Tieflings.

  It just left them?

  Something tugged at Suna. A danger sense. Not from one of his skills, but a pure instinct he had come to develop since arriving in this world.

  Wendy let out a huge sigh of relief beside him and said, “It went after the Assassin! Come on, Suna, we need to get more potions to Reki and you… What is it?” Wendy asked as she saw his befuddled face.

  “Shadow,” Suna said. “Its weakness is shadow.”

  “Stop it!” A familiar voice shouted–James.

  A blur of movement rushed past, sending wind cries in their wake. Ten Runebearers dashed with their magic onto where the Undead Godknight was.

  James, who led them, reached the Godknight and committed a full-on strike, to which the Godknight paid no heed, and the Thiefmaster’s attack merely rebounded harmlessly against the Godknight’s armor. James swiftly crossed in front of it and thrust into its eye slit—this earned the Godknight's attention, and the knight swivelled gracefully and brought its sword down for a swing against James, who dodged back.

  “Stop what?” Wendy called out.

  James, of course, did not have the capacity to answer as he wove between the Undead Godknight’s fiery swings, barely keeping his life with each move. The Tiefling proceeded to run backward toward the Shadow Rebel and tried to end the life of the Assassin, but lashes of shadow flailed around, forcing James to dodge the magic while keeping his attention on the Godknight’s swings, which now targeted James as well.

  “It tried to deny the rune,” someone answered Wendy. Between Wendy and Noa stood Amidela.

  Tears slackened her face as she saw the corpse of John lying near the Undead Rebel.

  Her shoulder shook, but she went on, speaking loudly enough for both groups to hear. “Some of us gained shadow-based skills thanks to our relentless fighting against the Assassin’s minions. Earlier, after our Wind magic did nothing against the Godknight, we used shadow magic, and this caused the Godknight to react. It began parrying, and eventually my spell—a shadow wind—managed to cause a small gash across its shadow plate.”

  Reki and Noa walked toward Amidela, and they shot her a look of brief sympathy. But Reki's face quickly contorted into business. “So it tried to prevent one of us from getting an item or skill rune of the Undead Shadow Rebel,” he said, as the tentacles of shadow kept snapping around, preventing either James or the Knight from getting close.

  One main reason neither of them could get close was that if one tried to aim to kill the Shadow Rebel, the latter and the others would try to gang up to prevent it.

  But they had numbers, and the knight didn’t.

  “True, I couldn’t even imagine an item or a skill from that monster,” Noa said.

  “It would be nice to know that earlier; I could have brought both Min and Jack here,” Suna muttered. Well, there was no way to know this information.

  “True,” Noa said, before turning on him. “Who is Jack?”

  “A Runebearer who got a legendary shadow spear, who has been fighting with me. Anyway, not important right now. He is not here,” Suna said.

  “They’re in a stalemate right now,” Wendy added. “What do we do?”

  The rest of the Thiefmasters joined them, and they kept the Undead Godknight away with relentless attacks. James no doubt told them the Undead Godknight’s weaknesses, and some of them began to use shadow magic; however, Suna could make out that only about three of them could use such magic. And two had to get into close range.

  One summoned a dagger of shadow, and the knight moved swiftly. It punched the Tiefling, making it stagger back and crushing its head with a sword pommel in a burst of blood.

  “I’m going,” Amidela said, stepping forward.

  “Wait,” Noa's hand shot out, gripping Amidela's shoulder.

  The Tiefling turned with fury in her eyes, but couldn’t escape Noa's grasp.

  “You work with us; we will need this shadow wind of yours,” Noa said.

  “Work with you? John is dead! How did this happen?” she growled.

  “Battle happened,” Noa said, lifting his gaze to meet hers. The light left the Bulwark’s burnt face, and once again, shadow engulfed them. “Now, you and Suna will keep the Undead Godknight away. Both of you can injure it. So draw its attention while the rest of us try to get the rune from the Shadow Rebel.”

  “Who will get it?” Suna asked.

  “Not me,” Reki quickly said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “It will ruin my next class I’m working on.”

  “Whoever gets the chance should take it,” Wendy mumbled, eyeing Suna.

  Suna smiled at her, annoyed.

  I’m not going to insist on having it under these conditions, thank you very much.

  “James, give it to James,” Amidela said, exhaling deeply. “With his speed and proper means of attack, he can deal with the Undead Godknight. Maybe.”

  “James is our first choice, then,” Noa said, nodding. “Our second choice will be… Suna.”

  “Fair enough,” Reki surprisingly said.

  Suna could see the wisdom in this. He was their second-best fighter here, probably. And yes, if… if he could get a proper weapon of shadow… He was confident he could take the Undead Godknight. Not alone, of course; he still needed others to come into the fight.

  “I need to move around to use a proper Shadow Arrow,” he reminded them.

  “Is that a problem?” Wendy asked.

  “No, it's not. Give me more potions, please. I will have to keep up the Drowfication.” He opened his palm, and the support Tiefling laid down a basket full of mana potions, and Suna began drinking more and more. “Amidela, you mirror my movements from the opposite side, just so we can make sure to attack from two sides.”

  “I can do that,” Amidela said, her face clenched in a resolute look, pushing down her grief.

  Suna would tell her what happened after this fight only.

  “Good. Reki, your magic works well against the Shadow Rebel, so you will pair up with James to open his way. I will join and guard him from those shadow tentacles,” Noa said, rubbing his chin. “And Wendy, you use your magic from long range. Don’t separate it; just focus it into a powerful barrier and decide which area of the fight needs it the most.”

  Wendy nodded, gripping her staff.

  Without further ado, Reki and Noa moved, ready to charge into the Shadow Rebel and somehow keep the Undead Godknight from getting on James's back.

  “We can get unlucky, and the Runes would offer stats only,” Wendy said, which was the part everyone knew but did not need to be said aloud.

  “But no use thinking about that,” Amidela said. She turned to Suna, and in a low voice she said, “When it comes to it, please don’t miss.”

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