Goblin King: My Innate Skill Is OP

One option was to freeze both of them in place and make a run for the tomb while they were immobilized.

But that idea fell apart almost as quickly as it formed.

If these two undead knights were merely the gatekeepers, then there was a high probability that more undead waited inside.

Running past them without understanding how to deal with them would only leave me trapped between enemies at the entrance and whatever lurked deeper within the tomb.

No. Before going inside, I needed to figure out how to deal with these things.

The second undead suddenly appeared behind me, its sword already descending toward my back.

[Swap].

Space twisted.

In an instant, I exchanged places with the knight whose blade was still grinding against [Fractured Reality].

The attack landed squarely on its ally.

The impact launched the first undead several meters away before it crashed heavily against the hillside.

I didn’t stay to watch.

The moment the attacking knight recovered from its swing, I activated [Warp].

The world blurred.

An instant later, I reappeared beside Ariel.

She looked at me without the slightest hint of concern.

”The undead can heal,” I said. ”Did you know that?”

”Of course I did.”

She answered so matter-of-factly that I almost regretted asking.

”I fought them, remember?”

I clicked my tongue.

Before I could say anything else, Ariel narrowed her eyes at me.

”And don’t start with something like, ’Why didn’t you tell me?’”

She folded her tails neatly behind her.

”You charged in before asking a single question.”

I opened my mouth. Then closed it again.

And turned towards the undead.

The undead knight that had struck its own ally slowly turned toward me. This time, however, it didn’t advance. Neither did the other.

They simply stood before the tomb, weapons in hand.

I narrowed my eyes.

Most likely, I’d stepped beyond whatever range they were tasked with guarding.

Fine.

If they weren’t coming to me...I’d attack from here.

Void energy surged through Grave Fang, coating the blade in a dark, unstable aura. Then I swung using[Rift Slash].

The slash tore through space itself before racing toward the undead knight.

It struck cleanly.

The creature’s body split neatly in two, the halves crashing onto the ground.

For a brief moment, I thought I’d found something that worked. Then the two halves began sliding back together.

Dark energy pulsed between the severed pieces, knitting them together in seconds until the knight stood once more as though nothing had happened.

I frowned.

”So that doesn’t work either.”

That ruled out another option.

[Decay] probably wouldn’t accomplish much either.

The skill drained life. Undead didn’t exactly have much of that to drain.

My thoughts shifted to another ability.

[Event Collapse].

I slowly extended my hand toward the two undead. But before activating it, I glanced over my shoulder.

”Get behind me, and hold on tightly.”

Ariel tilted her head in confusion. Then she noticed the space in front of my outstretched hand beginning to distort.

Without another word, she hurried behind me and wrapped both arms tightly around my back. And the instant she did, a jagged fissure ripped open through space.

An overwhelming force erupted from within, pulling at everything in the area.

The two undead knights immediately dug their swords into the ground, attempting to anchor themselves as the invisible pull dragged at their bodies.

For a few seconds, they actually held their ground, the rocky earth beneath their feet fracturing as they resisted. Then the pull intensified.

Chunks of stone were ripped free from the hillside, and loose debris spiraled into the growing tear.

The undead were lifted from the ground one after the other and dragged helplessly toward the rift.

The attraction continued to strengthen.

I could already feel it trying to spread beyond the knights, reaching for the surrounding terrain.

My expression tightened.

Not this time.

The first time I’d used [Event Collapse], I’d allowed the ability to expand unchecked because I had been facing an entire army.

This wasn’t that situation.

I was only dealing with two opponents.

There was no reason to let the rift consume half the landscape.

Gritting my teeth, I focused on the unstable tear and forcibly restrained it, keeping the collapse confined to the smallest area I could manage while maintaining enough force to drag the undead toward its center. Then I initiated the collapse.

The fractured space folded inward.

Layer upon layer of distorted reality crashed together, compressing everything trapped within. From every direction, space itself closed in on the two undead knights like massive stone walls converging at once, leaving them nowhere to escape.

The pressure mounted in an instant. Then, the collapse was completed.

The fissure sealed itself as though it had never existed, leaving only a deep crater gouged into the earth.

Scattered across its center were fragments of crushed bone. The remains of the two undead.

A smile crept onto my face.

It worked.

Then the smile disappeared.

Two familiar wisps of purple light drifted into the crater. They circled the shattered bones before sinking into them. The fragments began to twitch. Then they slid toward one another.

Cracks vanished. Bones fused. And within seconds, the two undead knights stood once again, completely restored, as though they had never been crushed into pieces.

I stared at them for a long moment before letting out a slow breath.

”So even that wasn’t enough...”

I shook my head.

There was no brute-forcing my way through this.

I had used every offensive ability I possessed, but it was still not enough.

The only abilities I hadn’t tested were my Domain Skills.

But those consumed an enormous amount of mana.

Even if I used one, there was no guarantee it would produce a different result.

If these undead simply regenerated afterward, then all I’d have accomplished was wasting a huge portion of my mana before entering a tomb whose dangers I still knew nothing about.

That was a gamble I wasn’t willing to take. So why bother?

A loud sigh came from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder.

Ariel shook her head dramatically.

”To think,” she muttered, ”the mighty monster can’t do anything against them.”

”That’s not the issue,” I said, my eyes never leaving the two undead knights. ”I can destroy them all right. But the problem is that they recover. Even if I managed to trap these two somehow, there’s no guarantee there wouldn’t be more waiting inside the tomb.”

I gestured toward the entrance.

”What do I do then? Freeze every undead I come across and hope I don’t run into too many?”

”Freeze?!...” Ariel exclaimed, amused. ”That seems like a good idea.”

”No, it isn’t.”

”Isn’t that the only option at this point?” Ariel asked.

I slowly shook my head.

”No.”

There had to be a way to deal with them permanently.

More than that...I wanted to find that way.

The thought of walking away while knowing I lacked the means to kill them left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Ariel remained quiet for a moment before speaking again.

”Then how about this?”

I looked toward her.

”You use your teleportation ability to take them as far away from here as possible.”

She flicked her tails toward the tomb.

”Then you come back, and we enter before they can return.”

I considered the suggestion. But...something about it bothered me.

I didn’t like the idea of avoiding them.

These things were level seventy-five.

If I could actually kill them, the experience alone would push me significantly closer to my next evolution. Letting that opportunity slip away simply because they regenerated felt... wasteful.

I wanted to defeat them. Not bypass them.

My gaze settled on the two undead once more.

The faint purple wisps flowed through their skeletal frames, drifting between the gaps in their bones like veins of unnatural energy.

I’d seen those wisps every single time they regenerated. Every single time.

I narrowed my eyes. Then a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

I turned toward Ariel.

”Say...”

She looked back at me.

”Would these creatures be considered creatures of darkness?”