The First Legendary Beast Master

As Karl hacked his way through the Undead, the crowd in front of him parted, and a group of black armoured undead Knights joined the fray.

Thor's joy at getting to fight against real knights, even if they were undead knights, was infectious, and Karl found himself smiling behind the visor of his helmet.

They were all strong Monarchs, except the leader of the squad, who was clearly an Overlord.

Karl pointed his sword at the leader, and saluted him with the hope to signal a duel and give them some space to fight.

The gesture worked remarkably well, and the Wights simply ran away, creating a twenty-metre circle for their duel.

The Epic Guard went to assist Thor, who had been blocked by the Wights, with Tessa on his back spearing the creatures, using her new shield to guard Thor's flank.

The squad of undead Knights fell in around Karl and their leader, waiting for the outcome with unnatural stillness, a pond of calm in the chaos of battle.

The Knight used a broadsword as well, and when Karl lunged forward, shattering the air with the speed of his attack, the Knight managed to parry, knocking his attack up and away. Karl followed up with a knee, and the Knight spun to the right, then launched his own attack at Karl's neck.

Flames met unholy light as the two blades met again, and the circle shifted so that they remained in the centre.

That appeared to be a tactical decision, as Karl noticed that the aftermath of their basic attacks was stopping half a metre from the encirclement. Those shockwaves were nothing major to either of them, but if they hit the Royal Rank Wights, there would be casualties.

Both blades danced in a flurry of strikes, probing for weakness, and a sound like rapid fire thunder rolled over the battlefield as the two Champions tested each other.

Karl saw the trick to the Undead Knight's defence. It wasn't that he could keep up with Karl. He had a skill that let him automatically parry with a certain level of success.

A few strikes made it through, and if Karl followed with a secondary attack, it almost always landed. But the Knight's counterattacks were not nearly as fast as his parry.

So, when they engaged again, Karl coated his fist in [Nullify] and [Ghostfire Body], and the moment that the Knight's blade was out of the way, he simply punched it in the face, collapsing its mask and causing the undead to collapse to the ground as a pile of inanimate armour.

Then, the others were on him, but Karl knew how to deal with them now.

With the duel ended, Thor and Tessa moved back to Karl's side, letting the Epic Guard protect the other flank.

Karl noticed that they had a system worked out, and Tessa was watching Thor's back, telling him when to swipe, when to smash, and when to use [Gravity Slam] with his tail to keep enemies off them.

That let Thor fight violently with his front feet and horns, while Tessa's long spear defended his vulnerable areas.

Karl dropped two of the Monarch Ranked Knights, and noticed that the undead were pulling away from the front line. Enjoy new chapters from My Virtual Library Empire

Not in defeat, but because Lotus had transformed, and the Holy Light of the Tree of Life was anathema to the undead.

They could not stand within the light to hold this position any longer, so they shifted the lines out of her range.

But that also made Lotus a target.

Hundreds of attacks flew her way, only to be shot down by the Militia, Remi and Dana. Demon fire, Lightning and waves of Arcane Energy met balls and arcs of black unholy energy, creating a crackling storm of energy overhead.

The flying defenders were forced to either place themselves in between the horde and Lotus or retreat further into the air, which made it harder for them to effectively block, as aiming down was at their own troops if they missed.

For the troops on the ground, now that there was a safe spot to retreat and recover, the defenders began to cycle the wounded to the back. They moved into Lotus' light to recover for a minute or two, then traded with someone at the front, and let them catch their breath and get healed.

It made the whole battlefield fluid and constantly shifting, but casualties were very low, and the ones retreating were dragging the severely wounded with them for treatment.

Karl held his position with Tessa and Thor, letting the defenders surge forward past him.

That gave them a moment to recover and take stock of how the battle was going.

The City Governor and the Undead Mage, a Lich Lord named Komolos, according to his System information, were fighting a few hundred metres out to sea, while the Lord and the Undead known as Bomgon, after whom the fleet appeared to be named, were holding a massive battle thousands of metres overhead.

It was still shaking the city, and Karl wondered how the lower Ranked residents were doing. That sort of magical backlash and shockwaves could be incredibly dangerous to an average body. Karl could see that the Lord was trying to move the battle, but the Undead leader was dead set on fighting directly over the city.

Likely so that he was close when it came time for the final strike.

The battle overhead was getting more fierce by the second, but the Undead Horde on the shores did not appear to care at all.

Watching the two sides fight at the docks, one thing was becoming abundantly clear. While the Ranks of the militia and the undead were easy enough to sense, the species difference could make a massive difference, even with the same maximum energy output.

For example, there was one huge Demon over by Rae at the river. He was shirtless and simply shrugging off anything that hit him. He didn't have a barrier active that Karl could detect, but the blades of the Wights didn't even penetrate his skin, and he was just smashing his way through the Undead with a massive club.

So, while he was Royal Rank, and the Wights were Royal Rank, they were nowhere near his match in combat. It was an issue that was much more obvious here than it had been in the Golden Dragon Nation, where the Giants didn't really use much magic.

When both sides were using similarly powerful magic, and one side simply didn't take damage, the whole equation changed.

That reminded him. Where was Cara?