I Level Up Dragons with My Evolution System-Chapter 31: Join me

With each blow, the wounds on Edward’s body opened up, especially the one on his side near his stomach. Although the healing potion had worked better than he expected and slowly seemed to close it, with so much movement and blows, it began to open again.

Despite that, he did not stop.

He had a clear advantage: his opponent was not as smart as he was. Although it was really cunning, it still fell into his traps.

Thanks to that and the weakening of its armor, he broke through its almost perfect defenses to deliver powerful blows.

The problem was that his blows were becoming less and less powerful, as the wounds on his body slowly weakened him.

’There shouldn’t be much time left on the pill.’ He didn’t even want to check the time, or rather, he didn’t have a chance to do so. But he estimated 10 minutes... 15 at most.

He had to do something.

This stalemate would be his downfall if it continued.

Or maybe... he was already lost.

He started running around the room toward the cave walls, thinking the knight would follow him. But he didn’t.

The Death Knight just stared at him.

’Isn’t he following me?’ Edward looked at the distance between himself, his caterpillar, and the Death Knight, thinking that the latter would want to attack his caterpillar, but it was too close to him and too far from the Knight, so that shouldn’t be the case.

He didn’t have to think too much.

Suddenly, the Death Knight’s mouth spat smoke. His eyes glowed brightly and his hand drew his sword, as if he wanted to enchant it with some kind of attack.

Edward frowned... It can’t be, right?

Wasn’t this guy fighting with all his might?

Edward gripped his sword and stared intently.

The knight’s sword began to surround itself with fire, as if magic flowed through the Death Knight’s hand and enchanted it.

The oppression grew several times over, and the Death Knight’s figure intensified under Edward’s gaze. He hadn’t grown, but his aura had changed.

A drastic change!

The Death Knight swung his sword at him in a vertical upward motion.

VROOM!

Edward jumped to the side to dodge a terrifyingly powerful fire attack that formed with the movement of that sword and struck the wall behind him.

"What the hell?!"

’You never taught us this, Professor Owen!’ he roared inwardly, and soon found himself forced to leap again as another attack came toward him.

The Death Knight then leaped toward him, his eyes and sword ablaze with roaring flames that threatened to engulf everything and reduce it to ashes.

Each movement destroyed dry bones on the ground and tore up the earth. The power of the attack was so terrifying that not even the earth could stop it until it hit the walls of the cave.

After dodging a series of successive attacks, Edward noticed a pattern.

’They’re slow. It takes time to activate each attack,’ he thought.

Although the attacks were powerful, there was a clear time difference between the launch of one and the next.

It took approximately 20 seconds to attack again. Of course, it was a dangerous attack, and if it hit him, he would surely die.

But being so slow, how could they possibly strike down a skilled swordsman?

’You’re underestimating me, Death Knight.’ Edward smiled. ’I haven’t trained much in swordsmanship, but it turns out I have a natural talent for it. Besides, I’m a transmigrant!’

Instead of continuing to flee, he began to run toward his opponent, who still hadn’t noticed his weakness.

His attacks continued to rain down, but Edward was able to quickly dodge them or deflect them with his sword at odd angles that allowed him to get even closer.

Suddenly, the Death Knight was before him, preparing his next attack.

’Too slow.’ Edward attacked him repeatedly, with fierce strikes to the weakened areas of his armor.

The attacks were so precise that they slowed down the storm of fire that roared in his wake.

VROM!

The attack roared as it came out, a powerful thrust aimed at Edward’s stomach. But he jumped over them, allowing his sword to drag through the middle of the fire, while his head remained close to that of the Death Knight.

He was too slow in his new phase.

Because of this, Edward was able to repeatedly attack him in the head, finally wounding him in his main area.

The Death Knight was brutally pushed back by the force of the impact. One thrust had pierced his eye, the other broke his rotten teeth and went through to his throat.

A cloud of smoke then poured out of his mouth, as if he were evaporating from the inside.

"Human." Suddenly, a grotesque voice echoed.

Edward froze upon hearing it and stared at the Death Knight.

"You can talk," he said, in shock.

"Why don’t you understand, human?" The grotesque voice sounded again.

Edward frowned. He didn’t remember Death Knights of such a low level being able to speak.

Was this one special?

He couldn’t know because Professor Owen only gave vague explanations. He probably didn’t think that one of his completely untalented students would ever have to face one.

"Understand what?" Edward asked.

"You can’t kill me," it said. "Don’t you understand? I can’t die."

That was pretty obvious. The undead won’t die in normal ways.

Obviously, what he was after wasn’t killing it. It was destroying it. Once you disconnect an undead’s core, you practically destroy it.

"I don’t intend to kill you," Edward replied plainly, without giving much explanation.

The undead’s remaining eye looked surprised. But it could understand the meaning of his words.

"Why are you clinging on so tightly, human?" he asked, looking at the distant caterpillar. "Do you trust that little thing? Even the two of you together won’t be able to kill me. And I can see that your body will soon succumb to the energy of my land."

Edward stared at him. "What are you getting at?" he asked.

"I know you humans. You are treacherous, arrogant, and greedy. You would do anything for power. For real power."

Edward didn’t respond. He was taking advantage of the opportunity to rest, but also to find out how much time he had left.

"I can give you that power. Real power that would never fade away, human." he said suddenly.

Edward frowned and looked at him. "Get to the point."

"Join me, human."

"Join you?" Edward asked, perplexed. What was that suggestion?

"Yes. I’m not just any Death Knight you’ll see out there," he said and looked up. "Have you ever wondered where all those troops waiting to devour you come from?"

Edward had a bad feeling or premonition about this. "They’re your minions, they come from the Cursed Regions."

"No." The Knight shook his head. "This dungeon wasn’t filled with this type of undead when we sent it here."

He frowned. ’That’s true,’ Edward thought.

"All those piles of bones were your allies. They were human, just like you. Even... the one you faced before you found me was a brave human swordsman who died by my hand," he revealed.