A loud boom echoed inside the woods as the orb touched a skeleton and created a big fire.
The orange fire raged rapidly in every direction, devouring all the skeletons, trees, and grasses.
All seven Elite skeletons burned to crisps instantly, and even the Death Knight got affected by the shockwave and was thrown off.
Abium turned his gaze towards his left without any delay, conjured another ball of fire, and threw it at another group of skeletons.
Although the ten plus Elite Skeletons tried to evade his attack spell, the orb moved too fast. It appeared in front of the leading skeleton in a blink and exploded, enveloping everything in its path.
Abium noticed that the other skeletons from the front had stopped moving due to fear and shook his head.
Though he could kill all the remaining skeletons, he refrained from doing so.
'I have no time to waste here.' He muttered inwardly and turned his gaze towards the Death Knight.
"But I still need to take care of him." He said coldly.
Meanwhile, the Death Knight stood up from the ground and dashed towards him at an unimaginable speed.
In just two seconds, it arrived before him, raised its broadsword above its head, and made an overhead strike to split his body into two.
On the other hand, Abium calmly adopted a sword stance by moving his right leg forward and gripping his sword with his right hand.
Simultaneously, he opened his mouth and muttered.
"Blazing Shield."
A second later, a dense amount of fire-elemental energy appeared from his soul, covered his body like a protective Force-Field layer, and created an orange shield made of pure fire!
The Death Knight's broadsword stopped right before it could touch his head and collided with the fire shield.
A banging sound echoed, followed by a rippling shockwave.
Before the Death Knight could raise its broadsword again to attack, Abium imbued mana into his sword, coated the edges with Advanced Sword Aura, and slashed his sword at its chest region.
The next instant, his long sword made a whizzing noise. It then tore through the Fire Shield like paper, appeared next to the Death Knight's left humerus bone, and cut it like butter.
But the sword didn't stop there. It soon entered the metallic armor, cut through the ribs, sternum, and spine, and appeared on the other side.
The Death Knight was horizontally sliced into two and fell with a loud thud in a blink.
"$%)#^#%* @*%#(*&" It bellowed in an unknown language before it took its last breath.
Without wasting any time, Abium turned around and started running deep into the woods.
But after running for five minutes, he suddenly slowed down and furrowed his brow.
At that moment, he saw three red dots following him from behind.
'It must be the Skeleton Assassins.' His eyes glinted in a cold flash.
He quickly jumped up, grabbed the tree branch, and hid under the leaves.
A few seconds later, three black-cloaked skeletons stealthily walked from the other side and soon stopped right where he was hiding.
They then looked at each other and talked in a strange language.
But just as they turned around to return to the fortress, Abium enveloped his sword with an intermediate sword aura, cast [Blink] spell on himself, and disappeared from there.
A second later, he reappeared behind the Skeleton Assassins, slashed his sword at a fast speed, and beheaded two Skeleton Assassins in a single attack.
As his sword was about to move further to kill the third Skeleton Assassin, it managed to react in time and backed away.
Simultaneously, the Skeleton Assassin took a needle out of nowhere and threw it at him.
Thankfully, Abium also noticed its action and ducked his head.
The needle flew above his head at an incredible speed, stuck onto the tree's trunk, and started eroding at an astonishing pace.
In two seconds, the whole tree suddenly made a cracking noise and fell slowly!
'What the hell?! Is this even a poison?' He looked at the corrosive area in shock and hurriedly ran towards the left.
At that moment, the Skeleton Assassin opened its mouth and chanted some mysterious words.
A cloud of black smoke came out of its mouth a second later and started spreading in all directions.
Abium didn't know what that smoke could do, but he had an uneasy feeling!
The black smoke soon blended with the air as it started spreading a corrosive effect and crept towards Abium at a fast speed.
Meanwhile, the Skeleton Assassin even took a knife and threw it at him.
Abium attempted to block it at first but soon noticed that it was coated with a strange liquid.
Quickly, he dodged that knife instead of blocking it and frowned.
He then turned around, disappeared from where he was standing, reappeared in front of the skeleton, and thrust his sword at it.
The sword made a whizzing sound and penetrated deep into its skull in the next second.
But he didn't have time to breathe as he saw the corrosive smoke start affecting his clothes and skin.
He instantly cast the [Blazing Shield] spell and defended himself from the corrosive smoke.
What caught him by surprise was that everything in the immediate vicinity began to burn.
'That corrosive smoke became fuel?' He muttered in shock and soon noticed that he wasn't affected by the heat!
'Is it due to the fire shield? Interesting,' He muttered slowly, turned around, and ran into the woods.
Abium reached the grassland area an hour later but saw nothing but half-built fences. He also noticed broken ice near the tree and furrowed his brow.
He scanned the surroundings and found something red on the broken ice.
It was blood!
Bloodstains appeared on the strange ice, then on the grass, and continued to move deep into the woods.
'Someone got injured?'
Abium frowned deeply before following the blood trails.
After following the blood trails, he finally saw broken bones on the ground and multiple claw marks on those nearby redwood trees.
What startled him most was the strange ice-elemental energy around those claw marks which even froze a layer of the woods in ice.
"Did Umi's mother wake up from her coma? Or was it Umi's doing?' He raised his eyebrows in suspicion, moved deep into the woods, and soon saw crushed skulls and bones along the way.
'It's not Umi.' He nodded in confirmation and continued to walk into the woods.
After some time, he heard clanging noises from afar and hurriedly dashed over there.
Within a few seconds, He reached another grassy area and noticed that ten Elite Skeletons were encircling three figures and attacking them from all directions.
But what made his eyes widen was that he saw a two-meter tall humanoid figure moving here and there and engaging with the skeletons.
As he looked at the face, he noticed a familiarity.
It was Umi's mother.
But unlike before, her body was tattered and covered in white hair, making her unrecognizable. Her eyes glowed in a deep sky blue color, and her claws appeared more like sharp knives with icy edges. White fur covered her smooth chin, and she looked terrifying.
At that moment, she didn't use any sword and solely relied on her ice-covered claws to battle against six Elite Skeletons alone.
Whenever her claws touched the skeletons' swords, it released some strange ice energy and started affecting the weapons.
'She is using her bloodline spell. It must be the [Chill Touch] spell.' He quietly shifted his gaze towards Nicolaus and noticed that he was defending Umi and trying his darnedest not to get surrounded by the remaining four Elite Skeletons.
In addition, Abium saw a sharp sword wound on his left shoulder.
'Thankfully, no one died.'
Letting out a deep sigh, Abium took a step forward, sprinted towards them, and joined the fight.
"Where have you been? I thought we were done for!" Nicolaus broke into a smile as he saw his arrival and shouted.
Meanwhile, Abium blocked an Elite Skeleton's sword, twisted his sword a bit, and deflected the sword's trajectory. Then, he made a skillful slash, decapitated its head, and spoke solemnly.
"I found their lair. No, it's not a lair but a fortress." While saying so, he glanced around and asked.
"How many skeletons have you guys killed?"
"I didn't count, but it should be more than 30 skeletons. If Umi's mother hadn't woken up on time, these things would've butchered all of us by now." Nicolaus said while panting heavily.
"You did pretty well." Abium smiled lightly, enveloped his sword in an intermediate sword aura, and suddenly stepped forward before unleashing all-out attacks.
Whenever his sword touched the enemies' weapons, it sliced them like paper and even decapitated the skeletons' heads.
Within a few moments, he exterminated most of those skeletons by himself. After that, he moved towards Nicolaus, patted his shoulder, and helped him stand up steadily.
Then, he took out a water pouch and gave it to him.
"Drink it."
The white humanoid fox also started to transform a second later and soon turned into a 30-year-old-looking woman. She had long silvery hair, bluish eyes, olive skin, a duchess nose, and barely visible eyebrows.
She covered her chest with her hands and adjusted her torn dress.
Noticing her situation, Abium shook his head, took out a pair of brand-new brown dresses, and gave them to her.
"These are made of Pinleather and have the property of elasticity, Ma'am. Even if you transform into a three-meter tall Beast, it won't get ripped easily." He added calmly.
Meanwhile, Umi's mother gave a hesitant look and reluctantly took them from Abium's hand.
After that, she hurriedly moved towards the nearby bush and started changing her clothes.
A minute later, she walked out of the hiding spot, moved towards Umi, and checked if there were any injuries on her body.
Once confirming that her daughter was safe and sound, she breathed a sigh of relief and shifted her gaze towards Abium.
"Who are you, Half-elf? Why did you save us?" Her voice contained a trace of confusion.