Reborn as a side character with a system

The Shadow Looms

Chapter 26

Hours passed at the far north, where Hilda and her army pushed deeper into the forest. They had cleared six stages of different beasts, each one more vicious than the last. Blood painted their armor in streaks of green, black, and crimson. Their swords dulled. Their shields cracked. But they kept moving.

"We stop here for now."

Hilda stood at the edge of a small clearing, her eyes scanning the darkness between the trees. The forest ahead seemed to breathe, its branches swaying without wind, its roots trembling with something buried deep beneath the earth.

Her men dropped to the ground, gasping, their bodies hitting the dirt with exhausted thuds.

"Thank the heavens above... I thought we were still going." One knight sprawled on his back, staring at the canopy, his chest heaving. Others relaxed against tree trunks, their armor clinking softly, their faces pale beneath the grime.

"Eat up and drink water. Tend the wounded. We head out in an hour's time." Hilda's voice was flat, stripped of warmth. She turned and walked toward the tree line, her boots crunching on fallen leaves.

"Aren't you going to rest as well, Miss Hilda?" a knight called out, his voice hoarse.

She paused. Her back straightened, her shoulders squaring like a soldier bracing for a blow.

"This mission is of utmost importance to Master Nolan." She turned, her expression cold as ever, her eyes hard as flint. "So no."

She walked ahead, alone, into the shadows.

---

Deep in the west of the forest, Nolan stood behind his army, a support mage in a war of steel and claw. His men fought ogres, hulking beasts of level forty and fifty, their skin thick as stone, their roars shaking the leaves from the branches.

But his men moved with excellent teamwork. Five knights to one beast, each backing up another where they lacked, shields rising in unison, swords falling in rhythm. And Nolan...

He helped them all from behind, his magic weaving through the battle like invisible threads. Earth walls rose to block charging ogres. Wind blades cut through thick hide. Fire burned where steel couldn't reach. Water healed wounds before they could fester.

Finally, the last ogre fell, its body crashing into the dirt with a tremor that rolled through the ground.

"Well done, team. You all did well." Nolan muttered with a smile, his eyes scanning each soldier, checking their levels, their health, their status. Each member had leveled up to Tier 5, their stats glowing brighter than before.

"Shall we continue or rest here?" one knight asked, wiping blood from his brow.

"There seem to be no big casualties, so for now drink healing potions and rest. Your stamina will be of importance farther ahead." Nolan seated himself on a fallen log, his posture relaxed, his eyes alert.

The knights settled around him, whispering in hushed voices.

"He really has changed, as rumor goes," one whispered.

"Yeah... I also heard he saved Isabella, who was his assassinator," another added.

"Shhh... Better keep quiet before he switches," a third hissed.

Nolan's eyes twitched. A smile of frustration formed on his lips, hidden from their view.

"I heard it all, you idiots," his internal voice growled. He released a sigh, staring at the system window only he could see.

"Well, not bad for supporting."

[Status Window]

Name: Nolan Weldon

Age: 18

Class: Mage (Element / All Magic)

Level: 40 (Tier 3)

HP: 2800/2800

Mana: 3000/3000

Abilities: Fire Lv.21 | Earth Lv.21 | Wind Lv.24 | Water Lv.21

Skill: Dagger Mastery Lv.19

Strength: 46 | Speed: 49 | Agility: 43 | Intelligence: 49

Free Tokens: 34

[Additional Abilities: Purple Flames Lv.12 | Ice Lv.12 | Nature Lv.12 | Spatial Warp Lv.17]

"Truly not bad..." He smiled for a moment, pride warming his chest. Then his face turned serious, his brow furrowing. "What does 'all magic' mean, though? Could the class have changed due to the skills I got? And this ability, spatial warp..."

His thoughts drifted, searching for answers in the novel's memory, in the lore he had read before coming to this world.

Then it hit him.

An electric shock ran up his spine, sharp and cold, like a blade of ice dragged along his vertebrae. His eyes widened, snapping to attention, scanning the trees for danger.

Nothing.

The electric shock happened again, stronger this time, making his teeth chatter. "Again... What's going on..."

Just as the thought formed, the shock passed through him a third time, and he rose his eyes.

A large looming shadow appeared behind his men.

It moved silently, blending with the darkness between the trees, its body low to the ground, its eyes two pinpricks of yellow light in the black. A Shadow Lizard. Level 50. A predator that hunted by erasing its presence, that killed before its prey even knew it was there.

Without a word, Nolan took out his dagger and threw it.

The blade sang through the air, spinning end over end, passing between two knights who froze as they saw it fly past them. The dagger hit the shadow's head with a wet thunk, burying itself to the hilt in scaled flesh.

But Nolan was already moving.

He ran forward, his body a blur, and in mid-stride he snatched a sword from a knight's scabbard. The soldier didn't even have time to protest. Nolan was already past him, already swinging, the blade catching the dying light as it arced toward the shadow's neck.

The sword cut clean through.

The Shadow Lizard's head fell to the ground with a heavy thud, its body collapsing a heartbeat later. Blood, black as oil, pooled beneath it.

Nolan let go of the sword. It fell to the ground at the same moment as the beast's head, the two sounds merging into one.

Silence swallowed the clearing.

The soldiers turned slowly, their movements stiff, their eyes wide and unblinking. They stared at Nolan, at the dead monster, at the sword lying in the dirt. No one had the guts to utter a word. They simply stared, their mouths open, their hearts hammering against their ribs.

Nolan stood over the corpse, his chest rising and falling in slow, controlled breaths. A dark smile spread across his face, small and secret, the smile of a predator who had just remembered what it felt like to hunt.

[System Activated]

[Level 50 Shadow Lizard has been slain]

[Swordsmanship has been added to your skills]

[+300 EXP has been added]

[390/700 EXP]

Nolan stared at the notification, his dark smile widening.

"Shadow lizards..." he thought, his eyes gleaming with something dangerous. "Now things are getting interesting."