Chapter 61: Chapter 59: Don’t Be Afraid, Rich Senior, I’m Here to Save You

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The battle, which could only be described as a slaughter, quickly came to an end.

After some post-battle recruitment, Lynch’s Personal Guard gained one more wolf-rider Skeleton, four elite goblin Skeletons, and several dozen grunt Skeletons.

His forces had grown once more.

After quickly gathering the loot, Lynch led his army at a steady pace deeper into the Dark Forest.

This time, however, as they were walking, the beautiful assassin Skeleton, Bone Shadow, suddenly flickered and vanished into the dense woods.

If not for Lynch’s mental link with it, he would have had no idea that it had begun to advance rapidly, acting as a scout.

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Meanwhile.

「Deep within the Dark Forest.」

A great battle was raging here, some distance into the map’s red danger zone and away from the border with the yellow zone.

The air was filled with the scorched smell of purification by Holy Light and the chilling aura of death energy.

One side of the battle was the allied Holy Light Faction, led by Catherine, the "Ice Rose."

Warriors, Holy Knights, Priests, and Elemental Mages—the four classes coordinated flawlessly, their tight formation moving like a precision war machine.

The other side was led by the ace of the Undead System, the senior student Amadis Hayes.

She had been forced back into a narrow hollow in the forest. Behind her was a towering rock wall, which restricted her Undead Army’s ability to spread out and maneuver, putting her at a great disadvantage.

Even so, the composition of her Undead Legion was still formidable—one might even say terrifying.

The most conspicuous of her forces were two Tier One Black Corpses, each over two meters tall with bones as black as iron.

Like two mobile fortresses, they held the front line, withstanding the enemy’s assault with vicious swipes of their sharp claws.

After fighting for so long, their bodies were covered in scorched-black marks from the Holy Light, yet their ferocity remained undiminished.

In addition, there were three Tier One Skeleton Warriors, each leading their own Personal Guards as they charged back and forth on the flanks, attempting to break through.

One of the Skeleton Warriors rode a Skeleton Warhorse that also possessed a Soul Fire, making it a Skeleton Cavalryman.

It was incredibly fast, weaving through the enemy lines like a white bolt of lightning and causing considerable trouble for the Holy Light Faction’s formation.

Farther back stood a Soul Fire Skeleton Mage, clad in a tattered Mage Robe and holding a bone staff.

It continuously waved its Magic Staff, unleashing [Weakness Curse], [Pain Curse], and even small-scale [Bone Spear Skill] to disrupt and eliminate the backline of the allied Holy Light Faction.

Under the command of these elite Undead leaders was a vast and varied force of three to four hundred Skeleton Soldiers.

This army included not only a large number of Humanoid Skeletons but also stronger elite skeleton units, such as goblin warriors, Shamans, and Bear Goblins.

The Sea of Skulls surged forward, a forest of blades, the aura of death so thick it was almost tangible.

This was the power of a Necromancer!

Their combat prowess was directly proportional to the quality and quantity of the Undead Units they possessed.

And among Tier One Necromancers, Amadis’s "assets" were so exceptionally formidable that they would drive any opponent of the same tier to despair.

And yet, she was the one being pushed back.

The reason was simple: there were too many of them, and their coordination was flawless.

On Catherine’s side, there were four official Tier One professionals. Catherine herself was a Tier One Holy Knight, and with her were a Tier One shield-bearing Warrior, a Tier One Holy Light Priest, and a Tier One fire Elemental Mage.

These four formed the backbone of the faction.

In addition, there were over a dozen others, including Leon Hosley, who were high-tier apprentices across the Holy Knight, Warrior, Priest, and Elemental Mage classes.

These individuals formed a nearly unassailable battle line around the four Tier One cores, perfectly balanced for both offense and defense.

Their strategy was clear.

Three shield-bearing Warriors held the front line, one of whom was Tier One.

Empowered by the Priests’ buffing Magic like [Blessing of Strength], [Shielding Skill], and [Prayer of Tenacity], their strength was massively enhanced, allowing them to withstand the frenzied assault of the two Black Corpses and a large number of Undead Units.

Any wounds they sustained were quickly mended by timely Healing Skills cast from the backline, and any Curses were swiftly purified.

Several Holy Knights served as a secondary front line and a mobile strike force.

Whenever the Warriors were under too much pressure, the Holy Knights would step in, blocking and counter-attacking with weapons and shields imbued with Holy Light.

The Holy Light flowing over their weapons and shields was especially effective at suppressing and harming the Undead Units.

Mixed in with the group, Leon Hollis had a vicious look in his eyes, opportunistically firing [Holy Light Bombs] to snipe elite Undead Units in the distance.

But that wasn’t the most terrifying part.

The three Elemental Mages combined their efforts, forming a mobile artillery battery.

BOOM—!

The Tier One fire Mage finished their incantation, and a blazing Fireball, half a meter in diameter, shot out and slammed into the densest cluster of Skeleton Servants.

The massive explosion and resulting flames instantly consumed more than a dozen ordinary Skeletons, sending shattered bones flying in all directions.

BOOM! BOOM!

Although the Fireball Techniques from the other two high-tier Mage apprentices were weaker, their casting speed was still fast. Each blast took down two or three grunt Skeletons.

In contrast, Amadis, despite her numerical superiority, was constrained by the terrain and unable to fully leverage the advantage of her Sea of Skulls.

She could only watch helplessly as her hard-won elite troops were rapidly whittled away, the fury in her heart burning ever hotter.

"Catherine, you truly are a despicable, shameless wretch." Amadis’s voice trembled with rage, her long, deep purple hair floating around her as her Magic Power surged. "To think you’d ambush me right after I exhausted my forces attacking the Steelfang Camp! How shameless can you be, ganging up on me like this!"

What made her even more furious and frustrated was that she had already used one of her trump cards—a [Chain Lightning] Magic Scroll—to quickly defeat a large goblin encampment led by a Tier Two chieftain named "Steelfang."

She’d originally had two of those scrolls, but she’d used the other one after the black market auction to deal with an audacious rogue Tier Two Necromancer who had been lying in wait for her.

She couldn’t help but glance at the Skeleton Mage in its tattered robes, holding a bone staff, its eye sockets burning with Soul Fire.

Acquiring a powerful Undead Skeleton Mage had been a joyous occasion, but it had also sown the seeds of today’s defeat.

’If I still had a [Chain Lightning] scroll, what would I have to fear from Catherine and these bastards who only know how to use their numbers to bully others?’

’One cast of Chain Lightning would have been enough to at least cripple their backline of Mages and Priests.’

"Despicable? Ganging up?" Catherine’s cool voice cut clearly through the din of the battlefield. "Amadis, this assessment is a competition. You advanced too deep by yourself, and we seized the opportunity to surround you. You have only yourself to blame for your carelessness."

"For the sake of our years of ’friendship,’ I’d advise you to just tear your Surrender Scroll. It would be better to save some of your forces and a shred of dignity."

Catherine would never kill a fellow student during the academy’s assessment. Her goal was simply to force Amadis to surrender, knocking her out of the running. If she succeeded, the entire Undead Major’s assessment scores would plummet.

Then, after the assessment, their Holy Light branch could once again make a move and petition the dean to abolish the Undead Major entirely.

"In your dreams!" Amadis gritted her teeth, a defiant flame burning in her eyes.

She slammed the butt of her jade-bone Magic Staff, inlaid with a deep purple Gemstone, onto the ground, and the Undead Army began to charge, heedless of the cost.

Even if it meant devastating losses, she was determined to drag those Holy Light System scum down with her—preferably by taking that despicable bitch Catherine out of the fight for good.

"Hmph." Catherine sneered. "Utterly incorrigible."

"Everyone, be careful! Don’t get taken out by that madwoman’s final counterattack."

Just as she predicted, under Catherine’s command, the Holy Light Faction stood firm against Amadis’s frenzied counterattack, like a reef against the tide, and continued to rapidly whittle down her Undead Army.

"Mentor Annabella, I’m sorry!"

Seeing that there was no way to turn the tables, a look of helplessness and despair filled Amadis’s eyes. ’This time,’ she murmured, ’I’m going to disappoint you.’

However, she had just finished speaking. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

RATTLE RATTLE~

A sudden clattering of bones echoed from the dense forest behind the Holy Light Faction.

It was the sound of Skeletons charging.

Catherine whipped her head around.

She saw a single Skeleton Soldier charge out of the woods, followed by several dozen goblin grunt Skeletons.

Before she could even breathe a sigh of relief...

The next instant, an even larger army of Skeletons burst out from all directions, a dense, white tide of bone.

Catherine felt her insides clench, and her scalp went numb with dread.

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