Hungry Necromancer - Chapter 270: War Clothes

My eyes flutter open to a scattered bunch of system notifications. I haven’t had this many since I woke up in the cave. The dinging at the back of my mind stops once I acknowledge the notifications and my surroundings.

I’ve been stripped of my clothes and put in a white, soft long gown that reaches my ankles. I’ve been laid and propped up rather comfortably on a bed and surrounded by soft pillows my arms and head sink into with ease.

At the end of the bed there’s a table right in front of a mirror, a makeup table, but atop it is a familiar large gem, brimming with mana that I quickly identify as my own.

‘Kaylin made it.’

She must have administered me the drug while I was unconscious. Though I hope she wasn’t the one to strip and dress me.

Groaning, I sit up and start giving my attention to the system’s alerts.

[Perk Unlocked – Malevolence]

[Passive release of dread makes weaker minded creatures cower]

[Perk Unlocked – Undeath Domination]

[Growing dominion over undead creatures of all kinds, easier to control, tame and destroy undead.]

[Militia Undead ]

[Raising all types of undead and raising an undead capable of acting independently.]

[Militia Undead Commander – Wraith]

[Militia Undead – 30]

‘There were a lot more than thirty of them…’

They’re running out of mana, I bet some of them are just lying un to ground, stiff as rigor mortis takes them again. I let out a sigh and drag myself off the rather comfortable bed.

“Time to pay a visit to my commander and give him a hand, encircling a village with the possibility of a routed army returning must be tense.” I speak to no one in particular as I say this but a reply comes theless.

“Yes, it is.”

Startled, I freeze in place as my eyes dart around the room, searching for the source of the voice. But I already know it’s coming from within.

“Who…?” I start to ask the question but the sensation of a link comes to the forefront of my mind, “You’re my commander, Wraith.”

“You wish to call me by my nature? Shall I call you by yours?”

“Snarky.” I snort and start moving again, stretching out my joints I feel my entire body pop and crack with satisfaction. “You want a name. That’s…interesting. I’ve never had an undead think, I thought if I were to get one it would be with simple…thoughts. Not to the point of desire.”

“And you tell me this so I curb my desire for a name?”

“Blunt. But no.” I grab the mana gem and it floats out of my hand a moment later, invigorating me with mana, “You have something you want, you have…purpose. If you’re as intelligent as the system says, it means you’re intelligent enough to benefit from focused goals. Meaning you’ll serve me better if you have a reason to.”

“My name?”

“Yes, your name, I’ll give you a name, in fact, I might even let you choose if you serve me exceptionally. You have to complete three very important tasks, I’ll even give you an army of undead to use, with a gem filled with mana, just like the one fueling me now.”

“What are these tasks?”

A smile spreads across my lips as I open the door and find Shaco snaking up to the room with Kaylin and the Diviner close behind.

“I’ll let you know once I’ve thought of them. But first, hold it together, I’m on my way.”

“Hurry. The sun will render me incapable.”

‘A weakness…I suppose it can’t be perfect with no weaknesses.’

Out the windows I can see the dark blanket of night tinting a shade lighter at the edges, before I’m done talking to Kaylin or even saddling a horse it’d be too late.

“Asher! Are you alright?” Kaylin gasps, concern riddling her face. Her eyes glance over to the low humming, large gem powering me, “You’re already recharging, are you sure-”

“There frankly isn’t time to waste, I’ll talk to you all later.” I start, sparing looks at her and the Diviner. He stutters but respects my word.

“Shaco, I need-”

“Yess Masster.”

With a flurry he bats open wings that sprout out of his previously small back and breaks out of the building, tearing apart the wooden roof and exposing us to the drifty outdoors.

‘Am I not wearing any underwear?’ Anxiously I look at startled Kaylin and Diviner and sigh, ‘Too late to put one on. The gown will suffice.’

With that sad note I let Shaco’s tail lift and plant me onto his back, and clutch onto his rough hide. It’s an amazing view from up on his back, the village is brightly lit and with Shaco breaking open the roof of what I’m assuming is the Mayor’s Mansion people are peeking out their windows to get a look at the Amphiptere rising out of the village’s centre of power.

“Hold on, Masster. I cannot guarantee my mastery of flight.”

“That’s alright, I can pick myself up after a fall.” I say all while swallowing, tightening my butt for the worse.

With a hefty beat of his wings, Shaco lifts off into the sky, snaking his way toward the next village over, Kerilin.

Serue won’t be there, but it’s the last mustering point he and the Marquess have so we can’t let them have it. It’s a three day long journey to the centre city of the March, the home of the Marquess. For an army that’s recently been through hell, they’ll be in two states.

One, they’ll want to get back to safety, home ground where they can rest, treat their wounds and eat to recover their strength. They’ll want to talk about next objectives, and strategies, but since Wraith push an endless chase on them and thought it brilliant to encircle their last muster point, they can’t do any of that.

So two, they’ll be desperate to return, to chase off the army surrounding their supplies and fight for a rest. They’ll want to do this because for an army their size, foraging or hunting isn’t an ideal or feasible option in these lands. I’ve seen it first hand, when I stepped out of the cave there were barely any other rats to be found, a scanty few insects biting me in my sleep but never enough to abade my hunger.

In the March there are fields of long grass, swats of bush and shrubbery all around but very few animals. It was lucky I found Shaco, but even that it seems was due to Venegue’s presence.

The area is barren of edible life, travelling five days with an unsupplied and tired army you’re bound to get plenty of deserters.

“Haha.” I snigger from Shaco’s back, staring at the passing land. Already I can make out a few of them, scattered across the army’s retreat path, but I also start to make out some of my own as well. They must have been the ones that extended themselves the most or got hurt more at the beginning of the chase and battle.

Shaco, sensing my will, drops us closer to the ground and glides above it. This close I start shooting off balls of mana, raising my sleeping army and ordering them to follow.

Soon we make our approach to the village and the connection I’ve felt with Wraith grows stronger, I can even feel him resisting the effects of the rising sun just from my being there. But it’s not nearly enough for him to do anything he would normally be capable of. Beside him I catch sight of a being sharing the same nature as he does, except I have no connection to it, it’s an undead of Wraiths own creation.

I have no control over it…yet.

As we start to land Shaco draws my attention to the approaching army, a bunch of them racing down a hill towards the village. Just as I thought.

“Wraith.” I greet as I land, there are undead everywhere and with Shaco’s help I start raising them.

“Master.” Wraith makes a sort of bow then turns his attention to the charging, hungry army. “This should be easy.”

I chuckle and spread my sense out for the Spirit Warriors, stubbornly a few of them have run off. Sacrificing a chunk of my mana I tug on the thread of connection my mana imprints on them with each summon.

“Yes, it will, we have reinforcements from every corner coming.”

“Very well, let us break them apart.”

“Shaco?” I start.

He flaps his wings and takes to the sky, and like last time their response is a flurry of arrows and racing projectiles. Shaco simply rises above most of them, and makes his way towards the army, his maw leaking fire.

My undead charge forward and I draw on whatever little blood that was left on the ground and send out razor sharp shards while Wraith does its best to eat at the flesh of his victims with the mere necrotic effects his presence causes.

“Ah, brilliant, ending an army in my nightgown.”