The air shifted as the knight charged forward, its towering form moving with terrifying speed despite its massive armor.
Its tower shield was raised high, an impenetrable wall of steel, while its corrupted greatsword rested atop the shield’s edge, poised like a guillotine ready to strike. The sheer weight behind its charge sent tremors through the obsidian-paved streets, the impact of each step splintering stone and cracking earth beneath its feet.
Van Dijk, despite his immense power, wasn’t one to engage in brute force combat. He knew his strengths—and fighting this abomination of metal and slime in the melee was an idiotic notion for a mage.
So he just laughed
“Let’s dance!”
The vampire leaped back, and for a split second, Ludwig could swear he saw two mouths grinning on his teacher’s face.
Then—
“{Ensnare}, {Bounds of Latvia!}, {Anchor Dead}, {Vow of Silence}!”
Four spells erupted simultaneously in a brilliant cascade of arcane energy, weaving together in a sequence so fluid it looked as if they were crafted for this very moment.
A storm of fluorescent chains shot from the ground, wrapping around the knight’s legs, each link glowing with power as they slithered over its armor, tightening with an audible snap.
The air rumbled as spectral anchors materialized from thin air, crashing into the knight’s shoulders and chest, pinning it in place with a weight that even its corrupted strength couldn’t shake off.
The final spell took shape—a massive sigil of purple light appeared beneath the knight, spreading intricate runes across its helmet until they merged together into a band of glowing glyphs that wrapped around its mouth like a cursed muzzle.
The Fallen Knight of Tibari struggled, its armor groaning under the force of the restraints. It tried to lift its sword, but the bindings of Latvia held firm. The chains tightened, the anchors dug deeper, and the magical seal over its mouth pulsed, silencing the knight’s roars before they could escape.
Ludwig watched, a strange déjà vu creeping up his spine.
He had never seen Van Dijk use these spells before—yet somehow, they felt familiar.
His thoughts were cut short.
“Burn!” Van Dijk roared out as he slapped his hands together. A torrent of black flames erupted beneath the knight, engulfing its entire body in a living inferno. The cursed armor glowed red-hot, the twisted veins of corruption bursting like overheated pipes. Slime sizzled and popped, releasing a sickly-sweet stench as the abomination convulsed, its very existence searing away under the sheer intensity of Van Dijk’s magic.
While the two were fighting, Ludwig noticed something. Around them, the usually tame and mindless attendants were walking up toward them
No longer in their slow, mechanical walk, but a faster, almost urgent trot. They grabbed their tools tightly in their hands, be it a broom or a kitchen knife, but something was different. Their empty eyes seemed brighter, their steps more purposeful.
The docile creatures were not looking too docile right now.
Ludwig was confused, why were they appearing here? Usually a boss or mini boss can command others to come and fight for him, but this guy didn’t have anything in his tooltip that said he can command them.
“Be a good lad and take care of them,” Van Dijk said.
“On it!” Ludwig replied as he called upon a fireball and sent it toward the first two attendants that were coming his way.
The fireball blasted squarely onto one of the attendant’s faces and blew out behind him. Singed and burning, the creature still shrugged off the damage and continued moving. Seeing them not caring much for the impact of the spell made Ludwig worried. But he didn’t have a choice, if they came to hinder his master from fighting, he’d have a harder time dealing with the knight.
Ludwig tightened his grip on the sword shard in his hand and rushed the closest Hollowed Attendant, he swung down with his sword, breaking the frenzied creature’s broom, and slashed right through its collar bone, ribs, and all the way to his hip in one single swing.
Slime burst out from the creature’s body, but it wasn’t going to die. However, what happened next made things a bit more different.
The group of attendants that were coming behind it stopped rushing Van Dijk and instead turned on their friend, jumping at it, tearing it apart,t and consuming it. A sight that he had seen before in the village of the Hollowed Wretches.
Ludwig had thought that their hunger would subside, but it never did, they just never had the opportunity to consume anything.
Could it be, that the reason this place is so clean is that they consumed all the filth and grime? Or perhaps there is a different reason?
Ludwig watched as the wounded attendant was completely absorbed out, not a single drop of slime left from his body in a matter of seconds. A few more attendants had already got near Ludwig and one of them jumped on him, but Ludwig hesitated in striking it because something was wrong.
The way this attendant jumped, he wasn’t going to reach Ludwig, and that was so. The creature fell short but didn’t rise up to Ludwig instead it was gobbling up something on the ground.
Ludwig looked down and saw that the attendant was consuming the slime that had burst out of the knight earlier.
In fact, all the attendants were doing that.
They were ‘cleaning’ the floor from the corruption the knight was releasing passively whenever it moved. Though right now, the knight was burning red and bright as Van Dijk’s flames were making it smolder.
Suddenly a loud howl echoed from the knight’s mouth that suddenly had the spell broken from it and it simply turned to black sludge melting on the floor and seeped through the cobblestone.
A final sentence echoed through the city, “It beckons!”
Then—silence.
Van Dijk blinked.
“Huh.” He frowned, dusting off his coat. “That was rather disappointing.”
He didn’t look any worse for wear and seemed more like he had taken a stroll through a garden instead of fighting against an amalgamation of corruption and malice.
The attendants on the other hand were still frenzied but they weren’t attacking Ludwig, they were consuming the slime and grime left on the ground rapidly. And as soon as the slime was consumed, they ‘woke up’ and began their mindless tasks. Those that had brooms swept the floor, removing the slime that turned to ash from Van Dijk’s flames, while others who had knives and cooking utensils simply withdrew back to town.
Van Dijk frowned as he noticed the creatures folding back.
“No wonder the city is this clean,” Ludwig said, “They never intended on attacking us, well, at least if you’re here,” he said.
“What do you mean,” Van Dijk asked.
“Oh, you didn’t notice?” Ludwig smiled at his master who looked a bit annoyed.
Although Ludwig was cheating since he knew this thanks to his [Inspect] he wasn’t going to miss the chance to sound ‘smarter’ than his master.
“Well then, allow me to explain what just happened,” Ludwig said proudly almost puffing his chest up. he wasn’t about to let go of an opportunity like this one.