The Headless Knight And The Black Horse

I proceeded smoothly through the dungeon and reached the bottom floor――the fifth basement level.

As Emily said, I arrived at the bottom floor’s Boss room without encountering any other adventurers even once.

“Alright, you lot, go back.”

I stored the summoned Shadows into the shadow.

“What? The chief will fight alone?”

“Yeah. Like I said before, there might be opponents who you can’t beat just by raising levels. Gotta move the body sometimes.”

I swore revenge. I need to get stronger for that.

But if I only have Shadows fight and just raise levels, without training my raw physical ability I’ll eventually be undone.

For example, if a Level 20 Swordsman-rank adventurer and a Level 30 adventurer fought, the latter would certainly have the advantage.

But if the former is a master of the sword and the latter has no martial arts sense, it’s entirely possible for the stat difference to be overturned and for the former to win.

Therefore I judged that I must hone my combat skills without relying on stat bonuses.

The Hero Sylvan from the Hero party is of royal blood.

He likely learned swordsmanship from childhood, and the Heavy Knight Garen comes from the Royal Guard and has more combat experience than anyone.

Even if you only raise levels, if you let your guard down you can still lose.

“Being diligent is a good thing.”

I opened the door and entered.

In the center of the antechamber stood a headless knight in black armor on a large black horse――Dullahan.

A blue flame burned where the neck should be.

“Let’s give it a go…!”

I drew the longsword at my waist.

The knife I favored in the fight with the Goblin Lord broke, so this is a newly bought sword.

‘―――――!!’

“Hihiiiiin!!”

When Dullahan kicked the black horse’s belly, it charged off at terrifying speed.

“Sid――it’s coming!”

“It’s fast…!”

――Kiiiin!

I barely stopped the slashing attack Dullahan launched from horseback with my blade.

I counterattacked, but Dullahan was out of my reach and couldn’t be hit.

Dullahan turned in an arc and slashed again.

‘――――!’

“Tch!!”

――Kinn!

This time again I managed to react and block it.

“This is bad… Without a means of ranged attack, I’ll just be attacked one-sidedly…!”

I pride myself on being pretty strong, but it’s pathetic that alone I can’t even defeat a B-Rank Dungeon Boss.

――Kinn!

――Kiiiin!

“Damn!?”

I kept parrying blow after blow, but my sword reached its limit first.

“That old blacksmith does sloppy work! He gave me a dull blade just because I’m of the Shikai Tribe!”

“No――that headless one was repeatedly attacking in a way that intentionally damages weapons. It’s likely using the sword skill【Weapon Break】which damages weapons.”

“Sorry for doubting the old blacksmith!”

“It’s coming, Sid!”

Dullahan changed direction again.

The black armor atop the black horse closed in.

I tried to hold him off with my broken sword――――Thud!

“Gah!?”

Dullahan’s thrusting attack pierced my abdomen.

The blade protruded from my back.

“Hihiiiiin!!”

Dullahan, impaling me, lifted his weapon and held the tip of the sword up to the ceiling.

――Zubuzubuzubu!

“Aghhhhhh――――!?!!?”

Still impaled, I was pushed deeper by gravity.

Then Dullahan raised his sword high and swung!

This time the centrifugal force threw me free from the impaling blade, but I slammed into the chamber wall.

The place I hit was about three meters above the ground, so I fell to the ground on my shoulder.

My whole body gasped with pain.

“Gah!?”

“S-strong…!”

Because of my Undead body, the abdominal wound closed immediately and my HP recovered.

Because I’m Undead I won’t die, but I can’t win either.

“Hmm――it seems this is as far as you go. Sid, with you as you are now it’s impossible to defeat the headless one. I’ll go out.”

A blond head bubbled up from the shadow――but I pushed that head back with my hand and returned it into the shadow.

“Huff, huff… Just because the leader can’t handle it, I’m not going to do that lame thing of making subordinates fight. Stay put.”

“In fact you are weaker than those subordinates. Even including your Undead ability, you’re below Minotaur. Without 【Shadow Necromance】, your stats are about that of a B-Rank adventurer. Facing a B-Rank Dungeon Boss alone is impossible.”

“You won’t know until you try.”

I stood up.

My wounds were completely closed and my HP fully recovered.

That Dullahan seemed to think I didn’t have the strength to even get up on my last legs, and shook its armor in surprise.

“Besides, I’m more used to using this one (a knife) than the sword.”

I pulled out the knife sheathed on my back.

“Ten years of being a slave――I’m used to struggling dirty like this.”