Chapter 1626: Save Shara
Ning’s eyes widened when he heard what the old man said. “What do you mean?” he asked. “What did you say about her lineage?”
“Not something you should be worrying about,” the old man said. “Leave that place already!”
“No,” Ning said. “Not until you answer just what she is and what is going to happen with her.”
The old man took a deep breath. “What was your name again, son?” he asked.
“Ning,” Ning answered.
“I’m going to say this just once, Ning. Move away and let us do our job. If you won’t, we will be compelled to use force.”
Ning stood tall, not giving in to the obvious attempt at intimidation. “So you won’t answer me?” he asked.
“Alright, I’m getting tired of this,” the old man said, his voice filled with annoyance now. He turned around to the bald man. “Go deal with this youngster and have your undead carry her out of her.”
“As you say,” the bald man said, entering the room. Beside him, the tall corpse walked in, an emotionless, nearly rotting face, staring directly at Ning with a missing eye.
“Kid, you should forget about all of this just as the director said,” the bald man said. “I don’t know what has gotten him so heated, but if it had, then it has to be something quite important. Don’t get in the way.”
“Are you okay with handing over such a young girl over to the Empire?” Ning asked.
“It’s the empire,” the bald man said with a scoff. “What can we do?”
“You can say no,” Ning said.
“You don’t say no to the empire,” the bald man said. “Now, will you move aside or do you want to get beaten up by my guy here?”
Ning smiled. “You can’t say ‘no’ to the empire?” Ning asked. “I think you merely haven’t had training in it. Here, let me teach you. No, I won’t hand over the girl.”
[Quest: Save Shara
Stop Shara from getting into the hands of members of the Spirit Department, so that she may not be taken away to the Empire.
Reward 1: 2 points, if you stop Shara from getting into the Empire’s hands.
Reward 2: 3 points, if you stop Shara from getting into the Spirit Department’s hands.
]
Ning’s eyes widened slightly and an amused look appeared on his face. An opportunity to get 5 points at once had arrived. He was more than willing to take on this quest and get those points.
He would have to work hard for it.
The bald man shook his head upon hearing Ning’s response. “Niu, go get the girl. Push aside anyone who tried to get in your way.”
The corpse began walking, coming close to Shara. Ning stepped on the bed and jumped toward the corpse, grappling its neck before bringing it down with him.
The two of them slammed on the ground with a loud thud and Ning felt pain flare around his hip on which he had landed.
The corpse grabbed his arm and ripped it free of its neck, throwing it away before getting up. It reached for Shara, but Ning used his powers, creating a barrier between it and Shara.
A chunk of his power disappeared at once, but he didn’t mind. He quickly got up and grabbed Shara, shaking her away. The girl was in a deep sleep from the older man’s powers.
“Shara, wake up!” he shouted at her, even slapping her around a little, but it did not work. He pried open her eyes to see if it would help, but she was knocked out cold.
‘How strong was the man’s power?’ he thought. While the corpse struggled with his barrier, he focused on getting her to wake up.
While he tried many things to get her to wake her up, nothing worked. He was slapping her around again when he noticed a thin wet line across the side of her cheek, coming from the side of her lips.
He hadn’t noticed it before as it had mostly dried off by now. He thought it was drool for a moment, but it was too dry to be drool if it had happened within the last minute.
He wondered what it was as it seemed quite abnormal. His mind quickly began thinking as to what that wet line could be from when he was surprised by the loud smashing sound and the sound of his barrier shattering.
Ning jumped a little from the bed and jumped onto the other side, toward the windows before looking at the corpse. That was when he saw that it had brought out its sword and was smashing down at the barrier.
It had managed to easily break through the thin barrier.
‘Guess I know how much force it takes to shatter it,’ he thought. He could make a stronger barrier using more powers, but he lacked powers, so there wasn’t much he could use at the moment. If he used too much of it, he wouldn’t have any power remaining at crucial moments.
Which meant, for now, it would be a physical battle at the moment. He was much weaker than the corpse, especially with his current body.
Thankfully, it was not just strength that mattered in a fight. What also mattered was skill and tactics. There was nothing Ning was more skillful at than using a spear.
He rolled out the spear that was beneath Shara’s bed and tossed it up with his feet. He caught it midair and quickly turned it to point toward the corpse.
After the fight at Shara’s house, Ning understood more than enough about how much a weapon was necessary. So, after they were done with their meals, Ning and Shara went to a weapons shop to buy a weapon.
They had bought two spears, one which they kept in Ning’s room, and one which they kept here.
Ning was happy that he made the right choice buying the two spears, as it was coming in very much handy the very next day.
The spear Ning used had long with a long, flat blade on the other end. The blade was double-edged, at around 8 inches in length, and had a pointed tip at the end.
The shaft of the spear was some sort of strong but light wood which made the staff incredibly balanced despite its length.
He stood on the other side of the bed, pointing the spear at the corpse that was just a meter away from it at this point.
“Come!” Ning shouted.
“Really?” the bald man asked from next to the door. “You want to fight the corpse of a soldier that died at a war… with that flimsy spear?”
“How good can he be?” Ning asked. “He died after all.”
The bald man felt a pang of anger go through his heart. “Alright, if you’re asking for it, I’ll give it to you.”
Then, he ordered the corpse to attack.
Ning pulled back his spear just in time as the corpse made a large, horizontal swing. The room was large enough to give him that sort of space, so he made use of it.
Vertical slashes were harder due to the height of the room being quite low, and with the corpse being just that tall, it wasn’t much of a choice.
Ning ran around the bed, making multiple stabbing motions as he tried to see how fast the corpse could react. With a half-rotted body, he was sure the corpse could not move as quickly, but to his surprise, the corpse was quite fast.
‘This is not possible,’ Ning thought. ‘Something with a body this fallen apart…’
After thinking for a bit, Ning realized that it was not his body that was so agile, but rather there was a power that was making it agile.
‘Is it because it is an undead?’ Ning thought. ‘A necromancer made its body move as so.’
The corpse swung its sword, and Ning rolled along the floor, his spear reaching the side of the corpse’s arm, cutting it slightly. He was sure he had cut something there as the feedback he felt on his spear told him so.
And yet, the sword came for him with no change at all.
It swung toward him, nearly clipping his ear as it swished past him while he ducked. Ning attacked at the same time, stabbing the corpse right through the heart.
It had left itself open during the swing, and Ning was good enough to make use of opportunities his opponents gave him. He pulled out the spear and frowned.
There was not a hint of blood on the spear’s tip. That was understandable given that his opponent was an undead, but that gave him another worry. If there was no blood in the undead’s body, how would stabbing it through the heart help him?
It did not.
The corpse moved its sword back, swinging at him again from the other side.
How the hell was he supposed to kill something that was already dead?
‘I need holy power,’ Ning thought, but there was no such thing in this word. Then… surely there had to be a way to kill an undead.
Ning jumped back, landing against the wooden wall, and frowned. He jumped back into the fight, ducking another sword slash before slicing at the corpse’s legs.
There was a bit of a wobble to the entire sturdiness of the corpse and Ning did not miss it. If he attacked the parts of the body, especially the bones that supported the undead’s body, he could win this thing.
“I see you figured out his weakness,” the bald man said. “You won’t get to exploit it though.”
The bald man, who had been watching him fight the entire time, finally decided to use his power.
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