Reborn As A Ghost: Time To Build My Undead Army!

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Artorias, a student from Class 1C known for his excellent swordsmanship, and nothing else. He seemed to be another of those "sleeping dragons" that the professors had begun to discover as the battles between students continued.

While Jonathan was well known and popular across the entire Academy due to both his strength and looks, Artorias always remained low key, and was mostly asocial, without friends, always on his own, growing stronger, silently.

Because of this, he was one of the biggest mysteries for many, as despite his unremarkable appearance and life, he always scored perfect scores in Nightmare Realm Explorations and anything else involving physical fights and labor.

And now, he was showing the entire Academy the sleeping dragon he was!

FLASH!

Within a single second since the battles were announced, he gave a single step forward, flashing through space at the speed of lightning.

It was only two seconds, as he reached Jonathan almost instantly!

Although most of the spectators couldn't even keep up with his speed, Jonathan's sharp eyes were able to, rapidly summoning his Dream Weapon, his Golden Divine Sword, and blocking the impact with it before it was about to slice his neck.

CLAAASH!

"This guy…?!"

Jonathan gnashed his teeth as he kept his stance, rapidly pushing his sword forwards, only for Artorias to quickly place his foot around his own, trying to make him trip and lose balance, all while he placed a shield made of light in front and took away his sword, before aiming to stab Jonathan's neck again.

"Aiming at the neck again! This guy really wants to kill me, doesn't he?!"

Jonathan, however, kept his ground, the attempt of Artorias to make him lose his balance didn't work, Jonathan's body was both tough and heavy, unable to be easily moved by stupid tricks like those. Maybe they were perfect against weaker people, but against him they proved to be absolutely useless.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Their swords met again as he clashed against his with his sword, intercepting his aims at striking his neck as he quickly moved forward, summoning a shield of light and then pushing Artorias several meters away with a strong Shield Bash.

BAAAM!

"Ugh…!"

Artorias kept his composure and stayed standing up, glaring at Jonathan in silence while his sword glowed with bright light, growing stronger, his aura then expanded, as armor of light encompassed him, and then even a crown of light above his head.

"You're a fine swordsman, Jonathan," he smiled. "I've tested your might enough; I will go with all my strength now."

"Is that so? So you were just playing around before?" Jonathan wondered, holding his shield and his sword with a smile. "Lucky me, I wasn't going near as serious either."

"Hmph… Let's see how true is that," Artorias said.

"I have to same the same thing, let's see," Jonathan nodded.

FLASH! FLASH!

Both of them disappeared and then appeared next to one another in the middle of the arena, their swords instantly intercept the other, clashing and releasing sparks of lightning as they fought.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Jonathan held the advantage in size and physique strength, while Artorias was exceptionally fast! He easily evaded Jonathan's blows and then responded with powerful stabbing blows into the stomach, aiming at his vitals every time. However, his opponent was Jonathan, the Hero of Light in Yggdrasil.

His sheer strength alone surpassed that of most divine beings of SSS Rank, and he went even beyond that as he began to develop his own Divine Ember!

"HMPH!"

With a mighty swing, he unleashed a massive wave of light against Artorias, making the young student's eyes widen! He responded by unleashing his own attack, as both attacks clashed.

BOOOM!

A huge explosion of light erupted across the battlefield, as Artorias and Jonathan completely stole the show out of the three battles, which were going very slowly and were quite lame in comparison.

"Not bad! But I have yet to even use all I have!" Artorias kept bluffing with those words.

"{Illusory Garden of Swords}!"

A shockwave of light encompassed the entire surroundings, as he and Jonathan found themselves within a domain.

"What…?!"

Jonathan looked around in confusion, realizing he was in the middle of a beautiful garden of white and golden flowers, surrounded by hundreds of swords.

"After achieving enlightenment for a long time, I've attained this power. A Domain," Artorias smiled, his face slowly growing more fascinated with the thought of fighting a strong opponent. "I want to find out if you can take it or not!"

As he said that, the hundreds of swords surrounding Jonathan started moving on their own, all of them pointing at Jonathan's body while floating in midair!

"I see, so this was your plan all along, I'm guess?" Jonathan wondered, smiling.

As he asked that question, Artorias nodded, as the swords reached Jonathan within a mere second, charged with lightning energies to move even faster!

Any normal person would easily die, pierced by hundreds of swords at once!

It was a tremendously lethal domain not even nightmare demons would easily survive at all.

Yet for Jonathan…

This was child's play.

His eyes shone bright gold, as his focus reached a new level, spreading around with his Aura.

His body moved on his own, his Ki and Mana combining to enhance and strengthen his attack power and dexterity.

Until he reached the limit of what was humanly possible, and broke through that, getting even further beyond.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

He intercepted all the swords coming at him at lightning speed, using only his sword and shield, and constantly moved forward, expanding his attack area.

"Ah!"

Artorias couldn't help but become shocked, and even more fascinated, as cracks started appearing across the entire domain, until…

Crack, crack…!

"Sorry Artorias, but this is not going to stop me."

CRASH!

The barrier exploded into pieces, destroying the domain instantly. In that very moment, Jonathan pounced forwards, swinging his sword vertically.

"{Holy Guillotine}"

CRAAASH!

Artorias evaded the attack by a hair, quickly spinning his body in that moment and swinging that very sword he carried, trying to slice through Jonathan as he charged forward.

It was useless though.

CLANK!

Jonathan defended with his shield, then swung his sword again, this time, it landed.

CRAAASH!

The force of Jonathan's attack made Artorias lose all balance and fall into the ground, vomiting blood as he felt his insides exploding.

BOOOM!

"Uuaagh…!"

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