Chapter 69

69 First death

Outside the walls, a few minutes before the mage slayers wake up.

After the mage skeletons learned to hide their presence, Athos ordered Sevenus to lead the troops, before departing along with the mage skeletons, two-faced apes, and bird skeletons such as pigeons and sparrows. These were birds that Athos had hunted when he was trying to gather as much life force as possible.

They split as they approached the city, releasing a tiny amount of darkness that obscured their bodies. Along with the darkness of the night, it made their figures imperceptible to untrained eyes.

‘All in position?’ Athos asked mentally. He was responsible for the north bell, while the skeleton wizards for the other three. He could still mentally communicate with the mage in the east and west, but the south was out of reach. However, Athos had realized that the skeletons could mentally communicate with each other thanks to Sevenus, so he created a kind of wireless phone to maintain communication.

The skeletons in the east and west relayed his question south, then relayed the message back to him. Athos still had no control over the minds of the mage skeletons, so he had to keep the questions a yes or no to ensure they would be able to answer.

He had also positioned mice at regular intervals to use them as message relays, keeping in touch with Sevenus and the army miles away.

After a few seconds, Athos received a positive response from the mage skeletons and ordered them to start the plan. The apes used the small deformations in the stone wall to climb, while Athos created platforms of corrupted mana to jump on, before clinging to the wall to avoid being seen.

The bird skeletons were flying over the wall around the bells, so he knew the position of the guards even without seeing them. The bells were protected in watchtowers attached to the top of the wall, to ensure a wider view and notice potential threats.

‘Two guards around the bell, two on either side of the wall corridor and two more guards, one watching the sky and the other watching the inside of the city. They seem to be on guard against another crazed attack. There are 8 guards in total.’ Athos thought, casting two spells. The first spell created a layer of air that blocked the passage of wind, preventing sound from passing through.

.....

The second quickly burned the oxygen out of the air, making the guards around the bell feel dizzy and gasping for air. The guards hurried out of the watchtower through the nearest exit for air, just as Athos wanted.

‘Attack from the left, I attack from the right.’ Athos mentally ordered, causing the monkeys to jump to the walls. The monkeys grew quickly, knocking the guards to the ground with their superior physical prowess, before strangling them to ensure they made no noise.

Athos also jumped, surprising the guards and releasing a knee-high black bolt, electrocuting the guards and causing them to drop like flies. the stone wall rose to waist height on either side, so its spell wouldn’t be visible as long as it didn’t glow.

Athos pierced their eyes with bony fingers all the way to the brain, painfully killing them just for fun. He quickly raised them like the undead, before going to the monkeys and doing the same. His black core greedily absorbed the life force, but there was no other change.

Athos was left waiting and in less than 30 seconds, the life force was sent to him three more times. Only then did Athos make contact with the other Skeleton Mages, confirming that they were successful and no enemies were alerted.

‘Sevenus, start the attack.’ Athos relayed the message through the rats, receiving confirmation a few seconds later. In the distance, he could see a black shadow approaching across the pastures, as if a swarm of black ants were approaching, before slowly splitting in two, each heading towards one of the gates.

“Alright. One of the mage’s skeletons will come to help, work together to attack the gates.” Athos ordered before jumping off the wall onto the roof of a nearby house. He used stealth and moved from roof to roof, being careful not to be seen.

He jumped across the rooftops until he was on the roof of the milf brothel. Athos was about to break in through one of the windows when he noticed the front door opening and two hooded people coming out. Athos assumed it was only the homeless occupying the place and paid no attention to them.

Athos broke open one of the windows and entered, looking around to make sure no one was around. He was in one of the brothel rooms, right next to his target. He slowly opened the door and peered out into the hallway, ensuring there was no one there. Athos was not hasty, scanning every room for anyone.

‘There’s someone in this one.’ Athos thought, using the vision of death inside the rooms, until he found one with a shadow. It was the biggest shadow Athos had ever seen, fully covering the person’s body, making Athos think for a second that the person on the other side was already dead.

He opened the door silently, seeing a thin man lying on the bed, breathing hard. Athos was about to kill him, when he saw a set of white suits hanging in a closet, making him stop in his steps, anger welling up in his mind.

It was him. Or at least one of them. Athos didn’t know why he was so dying, but he wouldn’t let the opportunity to kill one of his enemies pass him by.

His presence still undisturbed, Athos stood in front of the head of the bed and covered Caio’ mouth with his left hand, before using the bony fingers of his right hand to stab the throat and eyes in quick succession. He used the pierce skill on his fingertips, making them as sharp as spears.

Caio awoke with the pain, screaming like a pig being slaughtered and tried to get up, but Athos’ grip was firm. He accurately punctured the windpipe, causing the blood to enter the respiratory tract so that Caio would drown in his own blood. At the same time, he pierced his fragile eyes, blinding him and turning his brain to a bloody pulp.

Caio struggled for some time before dying, not even seeing his killer’s face. Athos waited for a few seconds before releasing him, making sure he was dead. The sight of death revealed to him that shadows had accumulated in his throat and eyes when Athos stabbed him, but were now spread evenly across his body.

Athos was beginning to suspect the nature of the shadow, but this was not the time to think about it. He quickly raised his skeleton like an undead, desiring his information, just like a mighty servant.

The corpse took longer than usual to transform, most likely from the corpse’s strength. The black skeleton rose from the bed and only then could Athos confirm the strength him. The skeleton had four layers of death, making it easily the strongest skeleton in your army.

“Where are your companions? Especially the one sent to hunt the guardian in this city.” Athos asked wasting no time.

The skeleton looked confused, but quickly turned to him, before moving to the window with stiff movements and pointing towards the square and towards the warehouses.

“How many? You can’t talk, so count on your fingers.” Athos asked, trying to remember if there was anything important in the warehouses, but he couldn’t think of anything. The skeleton only raised two fingers, causing Athos to tilt his head in confusion.

“Just two? What happened to the rest?” Athos asked. According to Sevenus, the mage slayer units were made up of ten members, with one captain even stronger than the other members.

The skeleton held up seven fingers this time, before running a thumb across the neck.

“Dead? The entire unit?” The more Athos listened, the more incredulous he became. He thought for a moment that the skeleton was lying to him, until he remembered that skeletons were incapable of that.

The skeleton nodded.

“So where is the guy sent to kill the guardian at in the city?” Athos decided to leave the questioning for later and focus on what mattered: killing the enemy. Everything else could be left for later.

Seeing that the skeleton pointed towards the warehouses, Athos mentally ordered the surrounding bird skeletons to search the area for any suspicious people. The birds didn’t even need to look, Finn was jumping between the roofs and the bird skeletons were already keeping an eye on him.

After getting his real-time location, Athos prepared to leave. “An army of the undead will invade this city in a few minutes and I have a special mission for you. I want you to deliver this to the skeleton in charge and then obey his orders.” Athos said, breaking through the wall and revealing several sealed bags in the space between the walls.