The elven arches shot early at the Dullahan before it could initiate its charge. But their arrows proved ineffective against its heavy armor. They did little to stop or even slow down the undead knight's advance.

Pyrzan tried to stop it by putting a solid mana wall in front of it, but the Dullahan's steed had an unnatural nimbleness. It quickly side stepped avoiding Pyrzan's wall turning sideways and running on the tower's wall as if gravity had no effect on it.

Orpheu met its first attack. The Dullahan's heavy sword coming down on the professor weighted by the speed of the horse's charge sent Orpheu flying backwards landing near his students who now had concerned looks on their faces. Orpheu himself only survived the strike by using his sword as a shield.

Dyzan knew that allowing a cavalier to charge was a big mistake. They needed to reduce the space and not give the Dullahan room to gain speed. Dyzan sprinted forward with his spear aiming the unprotected gaps on the horse's armor, but the undead knight was quick to deflect his spear away from his mount. Even holding a sword so big as that, the Dullahan was impressively fast.

On a subsequent movement, Dyzan tried to use the blunt end of his weapon to make the steed trip, but that creature didn't follow the laws of nature. It leaped and turned upside down landing on the ceiling.

Pyrzan tried to down it from the ceiling with a barrage of magic missiles, but every one of her shots was parried or destroyed by the Dullahan's sword.

The archers also tried shooting it down, but their arrows were too weak to harm the undead knight.

The miasma that was now surrounding the whole tower was starting to take a toll on the living. Their movements got sluggish and their skins started to burn with small ulcers. They were also fighting against time.

The Dullahan descended from the ceiling with a surprising speed landing on top of Harlynn with a blow so powerful that it bent slightly the metal handle of the elf's axe when he defended the strike. But Harlynn was strong enough to handle that kind of blow and quickly countered the attack by driving his axe on the horse's flank with a huge clatter of metal on metal.

Even though his attack didn't harm the steed, it was enough to slow down the Dullahan for Dyzan to approach and hit the knight from the side opposite of where Harlynn was. The spear's tip drawing a squiggly line on the Dullahan's black plate armor.

When the knight lifted its sword to cut down Dyzan, an arrow met its hand changing its trajectory and making huge chunk of metal miss the elf's body by a hair.

While Orpheu ran to rejoin the combat, Dyzan and Harlynn were keeping it in place, each attacking one of its sides with Pyrzan and the archers giving them aid from afar.

Orpheu reached the Dullahan at full speed. The undead knight's horse noticed him coming from behind and tried to kick him using both its hind legs, but Orpheu was ready for that and jumped over the kick landing on the beast's croup landing a downward slash on where the headless knight's head should be.

That seemed to hurt the Dullahan more than the other attacks. Enough to make the undead knight to ignore the two men surrounding it and turn on top of his horse to grab Orpheu with one of its hands by his clothes and use him as a weapon to hit Harlynn.

While Orpheu and Harlynn tumbled together on the floor, Dyzan took the opportunity to pierce the knight's flank finding a weak spot on its armor near the waist and meeting its decaying flesh underneath.

The fire on the Dullahan's neck grew as if it was being fanned by a pair of bellows from inside itself. It quickly used his leg to kick Dyzan away from him and descend with his sword on the elf's head that managed to parry the blow with his spear held high.

Pyrzan took the opportunity to hit the Dullahan's back with a powerful magic missile that made it lose balance and almost fall from his mount, since the foot he used to hit Dyzan was not supported on the stirrup. However, the undead horse quickly shifted itself under its knight and prevented it from falling.

With Harlynn and Orpheu on the ground and Dyzan shoved away, the Dullahan had enough space to move again. Its horse charged forward galloping on the walls and then on the ceiling changing target to the elven archers who kept hitting him with arrows wearing down its Vital Shield but doing no real damage.

From the ceiling, it descended down on top of the archers swinging its massive sword in a wide arc making the elves drop down to avoid the strike. Another magic missile from Pyrzan hit the steed's face making it lose focus for a single moment, giving time for the archers to put some space between the undead knight and them.

Without stopping its momentum, the Dullahan kept galloping towards Pyrzan who raised a mana wall to protect herself from a slash aimed at her. The undead's strike was powerful enough to shatter her protection and still find her flesh taking a slither of blood from her ribs.

On the same gallop, the Dullahan reached one of the archers and in a single strike took his head away before he could defend himself.

The image of a head flying away from its body drove the students who were watching the battle to gasp and avoid looking. Fear crept even deeper now. However, the people who were fighting, themselves, seemed unfazed by the loss of a companion. Orders were shout and new strategies were made. They had no time to mourn when they still had a monster in front of them to defeat.

When Dyzan saw the opportunity, he charged forward intercepting the Dullahan's gallop path with a powerful thrust from his spear forcing the undead steed to rear up stopping on its position to avoid being hit. While its back hooves slid on the floor trying to break its momentum and his front hooves were up in the air, the Dullahan swung his sword towards the elven leader who had to roll on the floor to avoid it. The undead horse took the opportunity to come down with its hooves on top of where Dyzan was, but Pyrzan protected him with mana wall that cracked but not shattered from the force of the blow.

It was when Harlynn came forward and with a slice from his axe hit the undead steed again with enough force to make it lose balance and almost fall to the ground.

That was enough to give Orpheu the opportunity to jump up and strike the Dullahan again finding a weak spot on its left armpit making the fire on its head to swoosh up again in pain.

The undead knight tried to counter that attack, but, as its horse was unbalanced because of Harlynn's strike, it missed by an inch while its steed stumbled trying not to fall to the ground.

When the undead horse firmed its hooves on the floor, Dyzan, from his position kneeling on the ground, raised with his spear hitting the steed's chest on an uncovered part of its armor drawing a long and painful neigh from it. The elf was immediately shoved away from a fast kick from the horse's front legs.

At the same time, the Dullahan attempted another strike towards Orpheu, but missed because of Dyzan's stab on his mount opening way for Harlynn to strike again and take off one of the steed's hind legs.

The undead horse tried its best to keep its balance hopping with three legs, but it was a losing battle. The Dullahan decided to ditch his mount and jump away from it as the steed fell to the ground. On the floor it had no defense. Soon it was destroyed by another stab from Dyzan reducing it to a mana mist and a huge dark mana crystal.

The Dullahan lost his mobility advantage with the loss of his mount. But it was still a formidable opponent.

The three men approached it slowly in a circle surrounding the headless knight. Each step was careful and measured.

Pyrzan took the initiative and sent another magic missile from the back that was easily intercepted by the Dullahan's weapon.

Taking advantage of that, Dyzan charged forward hitting the knight square on the chest making it take some steps back with the force of the blow.

Harlynn was next hitting its leg and bringing it to the floor where Orpheu stabbed it again between the crevices of the armor near its ribs.

That blow made the fire on the Dullahan's neck to grow two times larger like a blowtorch and suddenly vanish. Then it became very still on the floor.

The students cheered. They were finally safe, they thought.

But the seasoned elven warriors and Orpheu knew better. Defeated dungeon monsters fade away in a mist of mana and leave crystals behind. The Dullahan was still alive.

Dyzan tried to stab it on the floor as soon as Orpheu pulled his sword out, but a burst of blue flames threw the three men surrounding it quite a distance back from where they were.

The headless knight got up, now surrounded by blue flames with the fire coming out of his head pulsing like it was gasping for air.

It charged forward towards Orpheu swigging its massive sword like it was made of paper. Orpheu's mastery of swordsmanship was the only thing that kept him alive. Being level 16, he was severely under leveled to fight that monster alone. Soon he was slashed through the abdomen. His wound caught on fire, the same blue flames that surrounded the undead knight.

Orpheu knelt on the ground using his sword as a cane to keep himself up. The flames on his belly, that was burning his clothes and his flesh, getting bigger.

When the Dullahan tried to take off his head, Dyzan managed to get close and stop its blade. Pyrzan took the opportunity and quickly teleported in and out taking the professor to safety with his students that hurried to heal him.

No matter what they did, the flames didn't stop burning him. Water and healing potions proved ineffective to douse the fire. Until Orpheu himself muttered behind his pain for his students to purify the flame.

Unholy flames. A combination of unholy mana and fire. A powerful spell. A fire that could only be fought by purifying it. As soon as one of the Priest students used Purification, the flames disappeared and stopped burning the professor.

While Orpheu was being healed, the Dullahan produced a ball of blue fire on his hand and threw it at one of the elven archers. The archer tried to dodge jumping away, but, as soon as the fireball hit the floor where he was, it exploded engulfing him on fire.

His screams broke all hope the students had of getting out of there. And his silence seconds later was deafening.

With only one elven archer, the woman who was disguised as Jessica earlier, Pyrzan, Dyzan and Harlynn as their fighting force, things were looking grim. Orpheu, even though no longer in mortal danger, could not fight anymore. Matthew had almost no mana left. And the students were all too weak to help with anything.

Still the Dullahan walked slowly forward towards its enemies. Its iron clad feet stomping heavily on the ground. His body surrounded by dark blue flames.

The headless knight brought its hand to its chest again.

Not a greeting this time.

Saying goodbye and thank you for a good battle.

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