26 Chapter 26: In hot pursui

"Um, hello? Anyone here?"

I poked my head warily into the stable, which was reputed to sell great horses, steeds and other rides. Having been recommended by the place by Hughes, I had no doubt it was a trustworthy place. At least until I actually stepped into it.

Where's everyone?

I wondered briefly if they were perhaps out watching the parade of heroes. It was a good thing none of my former classmates sought to look for me in the crowd. It helped that I took off my glasses. Without that single visual aid that made me stand out otherwise, the heroes probably couldn't tell me apart from the masses.

That said, I preferred to be able to activate Absolute Appraisal if I needed to, so I had put on my glasses again. A quick appraisal of the stable told me that there were no staff present. I wasn't going to ruin my reputation or record by stealing like a common criminal, so I sighed and left. Perhaps I should drop by again later, but I really wanted to leave the city as soon as possible. The longer I stuck around, the more likely I would run into my former classmates.

Should I try another stable then?

Pushing my glasses up my nose, I considered, but then decided against it. Hughes had recommended this place because it was the best. Given how I would spend at least the next week traveling over a hundred kilometers, I didn't want to settle for an inferior steed. If I was going to spend money on a horse anyway, then I might as well buy a good one.

It's going to cost me quite a bit, though…

I scratched my head as I glanced at the row of horses penned up inside the stable. Come to think of it, I had never ridden a horse before. Even if I bought one, there was no guarantee that I would be able to ride it. I lacked the training and experience.

Ugh…don't tell me I have to hire a carriage.

That was the more expensive and impractical option. Not only would it cost several times more than a horse, I would have to find a driver willing to ferry me across such a far distance. Moreover, while I could probably afford it with the bunch of gold coins I had just earned, I didn't want to squander my newfound wealth so flippantly.

Well, I'll just come back later.

I gloomily left the stable and headed to the outskirts of the city, hoping to keep a low profile and stay out of view of the heroes for the day. Speaking of which, this was a great opportunity to test out my summoning, to see if it had leveled up over the past few days. I had defeated a high orc and his war band after all. Maybe that would have netted me enough experience points or the equivalent to level up my Summoning ability.

Once I was deep inside the forest, I closed my eyes and raised my right hand. Concentrating, I tried to focus my magical energy and shape it into a creature.

My eyes flew open when I heard the moan. Raising an eyebrow, I studied the zombie I had just summoned, testing out my Absolute Appraisal on it. Yeah, from its personal information, it was a "Summoned Familiar".

Definitely a product of my summoning spell.

"Oh! I succeeded!"

I was trying to summon one of the lions that Kijima owned, but I failed. But I could settle for a zombie. Now that I thought about it, it made sense. I was a necromancer, after all. Of course I would only be able to summon zombies.

Another restriction on the special abilities that I devoured?

Obviously I couldn't wield the full potential of the plundered special abilities like my victims. Originally, because I was using Absolute Appraisal so well, I didn't think there were such limits. If I didn't take off my glasses to blend into the crowd, I would never have guessed that my Absolute Appraisal had its restrictions as well.

"So I can only summon weapons and zombies with Kijima's Summoning, I can only use Tsukishima's Absolute Appraisal with my glasses as a medium, and my Machiavellian Charisma still doesn't work. If I'm not mistaken, the power of my Lord of Darkness special ability is actually a nerfed version of the one the Demon Lord originally has."

If that was the case, I shuddered to imagine just how powerful the Demon Lord's authentic Lunar Shadow Fang, Corrupting Darkness and Doombolt were. Well, it made sense that I wasn't as powerful as him. Otherwise I would be going around and mopping the floor with the whole class instead of struggling against even just one of them.

"But I need to summon something that I can ride…something that is able to carry me to Millennia Town."

It was fine being able to summon zombies and all, but I couldn't possibly ask a zombie to piggyback me across 120 kilometers. Furthermore, the damned things were slower than me. I would be faster if I moved on foot than if I hitched a ride on them.

Well, if all I can summon are zombies, then maybe I can summon a zombie horse? A zombie dragon?

Scratching my head, I took a deep breath and tested out my theory.

"Neigh…"

Success. I created a zombie horse.

"Awesome!"

I pumped my fist into the air excitedly. This was better than I thought. One of the problems that plagued me regarding buying a living horse was its living expenses. It wasn't just a one-time payment. I had to continually feed it, buying hay, food and water, find a stable for it whenever I got into town or some alternative space, make sure it was in tiptop shape, etc. and all that costed a fortune. Well worth the money, admittedly, but still something I didn't want to think about too much.

A summoned beast didn't pose the same issues. They didn't need to eat or drink, and I could dismiss them to wherever I summoned them from whenever I was in town or a building. They would never fall sick, and if injured, most likely dismissing them and summoning them again would heal them completely.

Plus they were free. They didn't cost a single cent.

"Hah! With this, I don't have to buy a horse."

I would still need reins and a saddle, but to my surprise, I found that I could summon them along with the undead horse.

"Not bad…"

I decided to try riding my summoned horse. Placing my foot on the stirrup, I swung my other leg up and over, and then adjusted my position on the saddle. Gripping the reins, I gently urged my horse into a trot.

I didn't even need to pull on the reins. With just a mental command, my undead horse moved according to my will. Trotting across the forest, it gradually sped up to a gallop and we burst free of the woods and stepped onto a road.

"Hell, yeah!"

I glanced at the staff that was slung behind my back. All I needed to do was modify Tsukishima's staff into a lance and I would become an awesome Death Rider. With a few adjustments, I could tune my zombie horse up into a terrifying, enhanced steed that was near unkillable, then smash into my foes with a power lance or hunting lance. I remembered how there was an awesome corps of cavalry called Death Riders that hailed from the death planet Krieg.

I probably needed a gas mask as well, but I doubted they had such things in this medieval fantasy world.

"Oh, wait. I can summon an explosive hunting lance."

That made sense, it also fit the Warhammer 40,000 lore where you could only use the hunting lance once, when you charged. A kamikaze attack where I slam the lance into the enemy, blow them up, and then summon another lance. Perfect.

"Let's go with that then."

I stared at my horse, and then thought for a while before beaming.

"As for you…I'll call you Matsukaze."

Matsukaze stared at me hollowly. His undead eyes were mere red flames that flickered inside otherwise empty sockets. But the message was clear. He would obey me and answer to the name I had just given him.

I felt like a freaking samurai now. I actually felt like Maeda Toshimaru in particular.

"Let's go!"

With a shout, I urged Matsukaze into a rapid gallop across the gravel road.

*

We hadn't traveled very far when I realized I was being followed.

"…eh? Who could it be?"

Leaving Matsukaze to keep his eyes on the front, I glanced back and caught sight of a squad of knights pursuing me on horseback. One particular knight in front stood out, her long light brown hair gently flowing in the wind.

"…that's Minamoto Kureha!"

I frowned. Wasn't she heading the parade earlier? When did she…?

"Tanaka Tomoyuki!"

Kureha was shouting my name. I ignored her and turned my gaze back to the front. With a mental command, I urged Matsukaze to run faster.

However, my summoned zombie horse, while possessing immense strength, was not as swift as my pursuers. I could see them slowly catching up with me. In my greed for power, I had opted for durability and aggression over speed, and now I was questioning my choice.

Well, if it comes down to it, I'll fight them. It seems like Minamoto is alone. The knights who are accompanying her seem to be normal humans from Restia.

If that was the case, I didn't have to worry too much.

"Tanaka Tomoyuki!" Kureha shouted again, drawing her sword. "You are Tanaka Tomoyuki, aren't you?"

"No!" I shouted back. "I'm afraid you've gotten the wrong guy!"

"Stop lying! You're definitely Tanaka!"

"…"

If you weren't going to believe me anyway, then why bother asking in the first place? Sometimes the sheer stupidity of my former classmates left me speechless.

"Halt! That's an order!"

"Since when do I take orders from you?" I shot back. Kureha muttered something viciously under her breath, then snapped more clearly.

"You're just a pathetic loser who should just accept your fate as our punching bag and obediently die!"

"Uh, Minamoto-sama?"

The knights who were accompanying her were staring at her strangely. Realizing that she had voiced out her true intentions, Kureha cleared her throat and hurried corrected her words while her face was flushed crimson.

"I mean, you're under suspicions of murder! Stand down for investigation!"

I brought Matsukaze around to face them, frowning. Suspicions of murder? Did my former classmates already figure out that I was the one who killed Tsukishima and Kijima? I thought they always believed me as weak, so it shouldn't have occurred to them that I had the ability to kill not one, but two of their number.

Interesting.

"Murder of who?"

"I'm under no obligation to tell you."

I shook my head in disbelief. This was getting ridiculous.

"You're accusing me of something but you can't tell me what you're accusing me of? How is that fair?"

"There's no need to show fairness to a loser…criminal like you," Kureha sneered as she rode her horse forward, closing the distance. "Surrender now and we might spare your life. We'll just be questioning you for a bit."

Somehow I doubted it would go as simply as that, but I was always one to give people the benefit of the doubt. No, I was highly skeptical about Kureha's promise, but I decided to play along for now. That didn't mean I wasn't expecting her to go back on her word and backstab me. I had been betrayed often enough that I no longer trusted anything my classmates said.

But it'll be fun to see what Minamoto attempts.

I dropped off my horse and held up both my hands. Matsukaze snorted, almost as if voicing his disapproval, but he galloped off and disappeared. The knights didn't seem to care about my horse – along with Kureha, they kept their steely gazes riveted on me. To my not-horror, they weren't slowing down at all.

"Uh, what happened to questioning me?" I asked, but Kureha ignored me. Keeping her sword drawn, she pointed her blade at me.

"Kill him!"

"Eh?"

"Minamoto-sama?"

The knights stared at her in surprise but she scowled at them with a terrifying expression that caused them to turn pale under their armor.

"I gave you an order. That man is an extremely dangerous criminal. We must not let him live at all costs."

"Y…yes, ma'am!"

The knights, along with Kureha, increased their pace. While Kureha got ready to slash me, the knights lowered their lances, as if getting ready to impale me. I could see that they weren't expecting to deliver the killing blow. They believed that Kureha would be more than enough to kill me with her first strike.

They were so wrong.

I waited until the last moment before I moved. Bending my legs slightly, I propelled myself off the ground and jumped up high, twisting my body in midair to sail above Kureha. My former classmate gaped as her sword slashed through thin air, completely missing me. She spun around, quickly diverting the trajectory of her attack, but I was completely out of her reach. Her knights tried to pierce me with their lances, but the weight of their huge, clumsy weapons meant that they were too slow and cumbersome. By the time their lances struck the heavens, I was long gone.

Landing behind the entire contingent, I flipped my body around as if to land on my legs. But I didn't touch the ground. Instead, Matsukaze materialized under me, galloping at full speed. I landed atop my faithful steed and summoned my hunting lance. With a black power field crackling around the weapon, I lunged forward and lanced through the rearmost knight.

"Ugh!"

There was a huge explosion as my hunting lance exploded. But it had done its job, spearing through my victim and blowing him and his ride to smithereens. As blood splattered across his stunned comrades, I summoned two swords and slashed another two knights, sending them toppling from their mounts with shrieks.

"You…!"

Minamoto Kureha turned her horse around to face me, completely flabbergasted at how I turned the tables on her. She brutally charged her horse through the confused ranks of her subordinates, shoving them over and causing their horses to panic. Her Saint Sword shining in the air, she slashed at me.

I crossed both swords and parried the blow, but Kureha's sword was no ordinary weapon. It was a sacred blade forged in some legendary mountain or whatever, a sword designed for a hero – if I believed the rumors in the books I read in the Library of Eden. Whatever the truth was, the sword was powerful enough to shatter my hastily summoned weapons.

"…!"

Fortunately, my block was more than enough to deflect her blade ever so slightly away from me. Kureha's sword grazed my Redwood jacket, but the light touch did nothing more than scratch the first protective layer, which immediately regenerated.

"Damn!"

The momentum of her charge carried Kureha past me. She would have to circle around to charge at me again. As for me, I found myself surrounded by enemies – which was a good thing, as far as I concerned.

It meant I had a lot of targets to choose from.

Summoning another hunting lance, I smashed another knight into oblivion. As he screamed before exploding, I had Matsukaze circle around to face Kureha. She too had turned her horse around to confront me, her face a mask of fury.

"Tanaka…!"

I briefly wondered why my former classmates hated me so. It was one thing to bully me, but they were really going over the top with this hatred and attempts to murder me. What did I ever do to them?

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"Just fucking die already, you loser!"

I summoned another sword to block Kureha's next strike, but it was no less successful than my previous attempt to block. The blade broke again and the immense force behind her attack sent me tumbling off Matsukaze.

"Ugh!"

I managed to land on my feet, dropping to a crouch to lessen the impact on my knees. Glancing up, I saw Kureha circle around again, getting ready for a third charge.

That horse was annoying as hell.

"Thanks, Matsukaze, but you can stand down for now."

I dismissed my concerned horse. From here on out, it was time to battle. I wasn't trained in horseback warfare, so fighting like a cavalryman was a mistake to begin with. Kureha had far more experience and skill in that area. There was no way I could match her, not especially when I only had two weeks of combat experience and she had six and a half months.

However, that didn't mean I was out of options.

As the remaining trio of knights and Kureha stampeded toward me, their weapons leveled lethally to take my head off or obliterate my body, I unslung the staff from my back. I might not be adept at jousting, but I was sure as hell confident in my magic.

"Corrupting Darkness."

Slamming my staff against the ground, I unleashed a wave of miasma that spread out and blasted the horses. Whinnying, the steeds fell, throwing their riders off their backs as they kicked and thrashed about wildly. Their brown skin blackened and they began rotting away, their lives slowly sapped away by the volatile curse.

The knights were protected by their armor, which glowed brightly as the defensive runes carved into the pristine, silver surface dissipated most of my curse. But having already expected that, I was launching a Doombolt at them.

Her reflexes as the Sword Saint being godly, Kureha dodged immediately, springing into the air, tucking her body into a ball and spinning to make herself as small a target as possible. Her comrades were not as lucky, however.

The knight in the center cried out as he was struck, but his voice was abruptly cut off as the upper half of his body simply ceased to exist.

The surviving knights stared at me in horror.

"What the hell is he?"

"I've never seen such magic before!"

"No, wait…isn't this demonic magic?"

"Is he a demon?"

Including the two knights who had charged along with Kureha, there were still about another five left. A full contingent of twelve, reduced to seven after I had killed almost half of them.

But that wasn't the worst thing.

Their dead comrades, along with their fallen horses, were rising from the dead. Moaning, the zombie knights stumbled toward the remaining knights, reaching out with their weapons and rotting fingers.

"Eek!"

"What the hell?!"

"Necromancy?! Is that guy a necromancer!?"

The knights fell back, only to find themselves surrounded. The zombies – both knights and horses – lunged at them. Credit to the knights, they didn't panic but rallied to form a circle of steel to resist against the horde of undead.

"Don't falter! Don't panic! They might be zombies, but they still can be killed!"

"As long as we stand together, we should be able to exterminate them!"

"Yeah, we owe them that much!"

Indeed, the knights would have survived against the zombies…if I wasn't present.

With their attention completely focused on the zombies, they didn't realized that they were so tightly clustered together that a single Doombolt could obliterate them. I showed no mercy, unleashing the cruel spell and annihilating the last seven knights.

Four of them died instantly, disintegrated from the sheer blast. The other three were alive for just a few seconds longer, enough to see whole segments of their bodies gone.

"My…my arm…"

"I can't feel my legs! Where's my legs?"

"Aaaaah!"

One of the knights was wailing, clawing at the dirt, his entire body from the waist down simply erased from existence. Another had lost his arm and sword, and could only stare dumbly as the zombies closed in on him. The last was screaming in pain at the massive hole in his torso, his liver, stomach and intestines completely gone.

There was no need to bother with them. They were doomed. I could leave them to my zombies, and in fact, they would be joining my horde of undead shortly afterward.

"You…you monster!"

Kureha had managed to land safely, and she was watching the massacre in horror. I snorted when I saw that the irony was completely lost on her.

"Look who's talking."

"Unforgivable…unforgivable!"

With a swing of her sword, Kureha unleashed a holy blast from her sword. The divine assault harmless dissipated against the Dark Barrier I conjured with my staff. Noticing the weapon in my arm, Kureha narrowed her eyes for a few seconds before gasping.

"Where did you get that staff?"

"A staff member gave it to me."

"Fuck you!" Kureha swore. "That's Tomoyo-chan's staff! What did you do to her?"

I shrugged innocently. "Who said I did anything to her?"

"You liar!" Kureha clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles turned white…or at least I guessed they did, given that she was wearing gauntlets. "I see…no wonder Tomoyo-chan's been missing for almost two weeks now. You killed her!"

"Are you sure someone as pathetic and weak as me can kill Tsukishima?" I taunted. But Kureha was beyond reasoning. She was so incensed with rage that she was no longer paying attention to anything I said.

"I'll kill you! I'll never forgive you for killing Tomoyo-chan!"

Yet you guys were all right with trying to kill me. A bunch of hypocrites. Oh well, it just justified my revenge.

Gripping the staff I stole from Tsukishima, I braced myself for a vicious onslaught from the girl known as the Sword Saint.