We continued to walk through the stone corridors and fought with 3 more squads of skeleton shieldbearers and skeleton spear users. Thankfully only one squad had 2 skeleton mages. The students were very tired by this point and even me and Alex had to interfere a few times due to it being too dangerous. Stron looked at Vorlander viciously and said "Look at the trouble all the students have had to go through. One of them nearly had his head lopped off! I am calling it off here, consequences be damned. I ain't going to die in some unknown dungeon because of a noble. Students, if you want to leave follow us, we'll take the full blame!" He started prepping his gear and looked at the other students as if to ask which were coming and which were staying, Vorlander was furious and screamed "You can't do that! I'll have you arrested and locked away for life! I order you to stay under using my father's decree!" Spit was flying as he screamed that at the top of his lungs, with his face looking as red as a tomato.

Stron didn't seem to care and simply replied with "If you want to die here then be my guest but we are no longer risking our lives for no gain because of some spoiled brat. Besides I have a few favours I can call in to avoid trouble with your father should the need arise". He had finished packing his gear and looked at the students, all of whom had finished fixing their gear and doing whatever packing and maintenance they needed to do. We were about to turn around and leave when we heard it. THUMP. The sound came from down the hall straight ahead. We were in a room filled with pillars along the sides of the room. It had been filled with a lot of skeleton shieldbearer's and had 2 skeleton mages. The room also had a skeleton knight. That was rather dangerous. It was covered in rusted iron plate mail and was wielding a greatsword. It took quite a lot of effort to kill it since it's armour was rather tough to break through.

Everyone was quiet and looking in the direction of the sound with their weapons at the ready. THUMP. The sound came again, followed by the sound of metal scraping the floor. It kept getting closer and I felt a chill go down my spine. "I have a bad feeling about this Alex, I don't think we should st-" I stopped talking as I saw a long greatsword made of a pitch-black material. I then remembered my reoccurring dream's and even though it sounded crazy I didn't hesitate. I grabbed Alex and shouted "HIDE! I-IT'S A DEATH KNIGHT!". I didn't wait to hear everyone's replies and instantly hid behind a nearby pillar while dragging Alex with me. The adventurers looked at me and then looked at the looming silhouette that was getting closer and Stron instantly made a decision. "Everyone use you're warp stones! NOW! We need to lea-Guhaah!" Stron didn't get to finish as he was stabbed through the gut by the large black greatsword and then was sent flying into a nearby pillar.

Meldor ran to Stron and pulled out his warpstone as well as Stron's and instantly used them both before screaming "USE YOUR WARP STONES! RUN!" In a whirl of mana and blue light they disappeared, with Meldor's warning echoing through the halls. Followed by that was a hair-raising roar as the creature came into full view. A Death Knight. One of the strongest undead that exists. Over 7 feet, with some Death Knight's nearing 8 feet it loomed over us. It was wearing some rather terrifying armour made out of the same pitch-black material its sword was made of. It also had a large tower shield that covered most of its body. That shield would cover a normal human easily, probably even 2 or 3 standing side by side. It looked at us with its blue flames for eyes burning brightly as it looked at us all. It let out a mighty roar and then charged a nearby student. The one in leather armour. He fumbled with his warpstone as he tried to activate it. Unfortunately, he was too slow and was cut in half by the Death Knight. The warpstone then activated and teleported his top and bottom halves out of the dungeon. The other students were absolutely terrified at this point and Vorlander instantly used his warpstone after fumbling with it for a bit. Maria yelled at the other's who were still in shock "What are you waiting for?! Use your warpstones!" She readied her sword and used a defensive martial art, Stone stance.

The other students finally snapped out of it when Maria was sent tumbling after narrowly avoiding the swing of the Death Knight. They quickly pulled out their warpstones but one guy wasn't so lucky and got his entire left arm and part of his shoulder cut off before finish the teleport, with the body part warping with him even though it was detached. Maria quickly got up and tried to use another martial art but was about to be cut in half by the sword swung at her, so I acted without thinking. I used around half of my mana to create a spell and quickly shot it at the Death Knight. The spell was Napalm Strike, but since it used half of my mana to cast it was a far more powerful version, with bright white flames burning the thing. It stopped mid-swing and looked at me. It then roared in fury as it charged at me. I yelled at Alex and Maria as I started to make a break for it. "Get out of here you two! I'll find a way out!" I wasn't really thinking properly as I said that and said it in the heat of the moment. I kept sprinting as I heard a loud THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP CRASH from the Death Knight charging down the hall and swinging its sword at me only to be blocked by my mana barrier. The swing took a shit ton of mana to block and my barrier was already cracking. "Matthias! Don't Die! We'll be coming to save you in a bit! Hide and don't die!" I heard Alex scream as he sent something flying into a wall, presumably some other undead that wandered over due to the noise.

I kept running and didn't stop even as my lungs protested and screamed in pain. I heard more thumps start following me, the amount of death knights chasing me probably increasing. "Why the hell does this dungeon have Death Knights?! AND ON THE FIRST FLOOR! They should be on the 50th floor or something, not here!! What the hell is wrong with this dungeon?! I should have known shit was wrong when the number of skeletons kept increasing at an alarming rate and the difficulty kept spiking at a faster than normal rate" I chided myself for being a moron and kept running. I heard a loud crack as my mana barrier took another hit from the Death Knight's chasing me. I coughed some blood as the strain of keeping the barrier active even with the immense attacks was taking its toll on my body. Normally my barrier would have shattered, but it was thanks to me having a ridiculously large mana pool that I was able to maintain it. My mana pool was so stupidly large for my age that people would call me a genius if I studied here. "Too bad I'm stuck as a slave here, haha. AGH!" My laugh was cut short by another attack sending a new wave of pain through my body as it impacted my mana barrier. I wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer, even with my stupid amount of mana.

I kept sprinting, turning around corners and taking twists and stairs to wherever in order to avoid the Death Knights chasing me. "Would you give it a rest already?! Don't you have something better to do?!" I screamed as I sent more Napalm strikes flying behind me blindly. I was rewarded with several roars of anger. I had to provide them with mana so my mana was dropping ever so slowly. The clock was ticking and I was going to die if I didn't find a solution soon. It then hit me as I turned a corner. I combined a spell that increased your voice's volume and a light spell Flash. I instantly fired the spell and a large ball of light went flying behind me and then I mentally triggered it. What came from behind me was one of the loudest sounds I've ever heard followed by a blinding light flashing and lighting up the halls. My ears were ringing as I kept sprinting. I looked behind me and saw to my dismay that it only stopped a few Death Knights, the rest were still hot on my heels. "Goddamnit! Piss off!"I blindly sent dozens of these 'flashbang's' as I decided to call them. I mean they were literally a large flash and a big bang. I know I have terrible naming sense but shut up me. "Why am I arguing with myself over a stupid spell name? I need to find a way to escape those Death Knights"

~~~

I kept running for god knows how long. It felt like hours, or maybe days. I couldn't tell the time in this dungeon Eventually, I found that the things chasing me were basically allergic to the large flash of light mana from the flashbang's so I sent as many as I could. Eventually I was able to stop running and catch my breath. Wait...what was I running from again? How did I even get here? Whatever that doesn't matter right now. First I need to get out of this dungeon. Honestly, how did I even get here, also where are Maria and Alex? I had a feeling of Deja vu when I thought that. I had been so focused on trying to live that I forgot where I even was and what I was running from. I then tried to remember my dream more but I heard some more thumping behind me. "Shit, they already caught up with me". I started to sprint down the halls to escape whatever it was that I was escaping from. "Oh right Death knights! That's what I was running from!" I said in realization and heard a roar come from behind me, prompting me to spring even faster.While I'm running with my lungs feeling like they're about to burst, I catch something glowing in the corner of my eye."Well isn't this very familiar. Here goes nothing!" I dove into the large glowing crack without any hesitation and continued to crawl as fast as I could. I heard the thumping from the Death Knights as they passed by my little hidey hole. I kept crawling through to the other side because I didn't want to go back to where the Death Knights were.

Once I pass through the crack and exit at the other side I immediately get blinded by an intense yellow light. "Let me guess, there's a fancy glowy sword of doom?" I laughed as I said that but stopped when I saw I was right. I saw a giant sword, with dull yellow flames licking the sword edges lazily. There seemed to be a series of random grooves near the handle of the blade that looked like some form of writing which were glowing a more vibrant yellow. I laughed at how my dream ended up coming true. I wasn't sure how it ended up being true but I didn't care. I wanted the sword. It looked cool and was probably super powerful. "Hell I could probably slaughter everyone at the academy with this sword, and make my way out of the city, carving a path of bloo-" I stopped and shook my head. This wasn't like me. I wasn't a blood-crazed maniac who wanted to murder. I also didn't want the sword, or did I? I shook my head as the desire to take the sword started to take root in my mind again. I backed up but found that I was already against the wall. The sword looked menacing now that I looked at it better, but who cares as long as I get it right? People can't argue when they are dead can the- "Goddamnit! What the hell is wrong with me? I need to leave before this weird sword influences me more than it already is. Whatever this sword is it seems like bad news". I decided and was about to leave when a massive wave of mana flooded the room and brought me to my knees.

Desire. Power. Greed. Freedom. Those thoughts echoed in my head and I got up, then walked back to the sword. Slowly I inched closer as I tried to reason with myself that I didn't need the sword. I was a fricking mage, why would I need a sword? I wasn't Alex who could wield weapons with his massive bulk even though he was a mage. But the sword would grant Freedom and Power. When those words were in my head they seemed to echo and make my desire to take the sword even greater. I went over to grab the sword and when my hand finally grabbed the sword. The echoing words soon changed to maniacal laughter. It was a terrifying laugh that would send chills down anyone's spine. As the laugh faded I saw a prompt from the world's voice appear in front of me.

You have acquired the Cursed sword of Hephalio

"Shit" was all I managed to say before I fell to my knees and blacked out, still gripping the sword. There were a few more prompts from the world's voice but my vision went black before I could read them.