“AAAAGGHHHH!”
There was a horrid shriek that spread out through the quiet battlefield. Surrounded by five hulking figures, one woman was on her knees, screaming in pain. Her body started to act up, holes forming at random and almost immediately healing up, flames engulfing her and an eerie blue aura that forced itself down her throat.
When it was all done, she fell on all fours, huffing heavily. The orb she dropped glowed faintly and hummed calmly. It was speaking to her, informing her of what was happening to the souls.
‘H-Half? Gone? Already?’
The orb hummed again.
‘What do you mean I’ll die if all my undead die?’
ZIIIING!
‘Y-You… my soul… I was never going to get my revenge, was I?’
ZIIIING!
‘Someone created the monsters that destroyed half my soldiers?’
ZIIING!
‘If I make them mine, I won’t have to create more undead?’
ZING!
A sharp shock went through her brain and she stood up immediately with a crazy grin on her face.
‘That’s it! Whooo!’
She jumped on one of the undead that was surrounding her and stood on his shoulders to get a better view of what was happening.
There was a cloud of darkness straight ahead that relentlessly destroyed the undead army she had spent months making. She shrugged as she thought about the first undead she turned. He was probably in the mix of undead that had been destroyed. That was not important here.
Rather, she wanted to meet the master of that cloud of darkness. If she absorbed that being, she doubted she’d need Zana for much at that point.
With a snap of her fingers, the ground shook mightily. Cracks formed on it and the undead that would normally just move forward started to shake. From the ground, ten giant snakes jumped out. They were a pile of bones covered with pieces of rotting flesh and had blue flame manes.
“Destroy them, my babies! Kill them all.”
The snakes opened their mouths and released powerful blue flames like rockets. Contrary to her expectations, the shadow cloud received little to no damage. Only a few shadow beings there were not amongst the collective were destroyed.
VWOOOSHH!
Up in the sky, one of the shadow beings had its hand raised to the sky. Above it, a spear of pure darkness was being formed. This was one of Hinotori’s Greater Shadow Demon Soldiers. He was the one who led the other shadows when Hinotori gave a command.
“Filthy.”
He brought the spear down on one of the snakes, completely piercing through its head and destroying all its bones. The other four Greater Shadow Demon Soldiers did the same, destroying four other snakes. A quarter of the shadow cloud went after the remaining snakes, who poured all their firepower at them. This still failed to cause much damage. In fact, it only made the shadows appear more terrifying as they swarmed a snake, destroying it within seconds.
They jumped on to the next, as the bigger collective focused on wiping out the spread-out necromancer forces.
‘This is wild! Really wild!’
While she was thinking about this, one of the Greater Shadow Demon Soldiers was flying towards the necromancer in an attempt at destroying her once and for all. A being zoomed by, grabbing the shadow demon along with it and crashing into a pile of undead.
As if the necromancer did not even notice that, she kept observing the other fights.
The shadow demon quickly recovered, taken aback by what had just happened.
“Tch. Crazy shadow bastards. I thought we’d seen the last of ya lot since the Zett’s rampage.”
A creaky voice said from the dust clouds.
The shadow soldier took out his sword and pointed it at the source of the sound. The undead stepped out of the clouds, revealing a hulking humanoid figure with dull orange scales. It possessed holes in some spot, hollow sockets with an eerie blue glow, sharp horns protruding its forehead and grey hair that reached its mid-back as well as a long beard.
“IMPOSSIBLE! YOUR RACE WAS ERADICATED!”
The shadow soldier said.
“I figured as much. We really did tha’ lil fella dirty back then. I’m not in a mood ta fight ya, but that lil cuckoo over there’s controlling ma body.”
The undead jumped at the shadow soldier who easily parried his punch with his sword.
“THEN PREPARE TO DIE ONCE AGAIN, VERMIN.”
The shadow soldier took a stance with his right hand behind his back, his side facing the undead and his massive sword lifted as if it were a twig.
“Aww, tha good ol’ days. If there’s something I’ve missed. It’s sending ya lot back ta hell.”
The undead steadied himself and brought his fists up to his face, breathing in and out till he stabilized himself.
The two began their fight in earnest. The others noticed this very incident from above.
“THIS WENCH… HOW DARE SHE BRING THEM BACK?!”
One of the shadow soldiers asked in anger. Their leader raised his hand to silence them all before they interrupted the fight. He then pointed at the necromancer herself and they all noticed that she was surrounded by four more.
“Destroy.”
He ordered, and the others vanished without a single second to waste. All of them flew the undead out of proximity with the necromancer who still stood on the biggest of the undead. He glared at the duo who seemed to pay no attention to him whatsoever.
Angrily, he flew at the duo. Hopeful thinking told him that he might be able to get both of them in one. Realistic thinking told him we definitely wouldn’t be able to get the necromancer in his attempt. And if he managed to distract the undead, why not? It would just make things exponentially easier for the princess.
A split second before he made contact with the undead, the necromancer flipped off the body. Having anticipated that, he swiped his sword in a wide arc trying to get her head, but the undead’s arm blocked the attack, allowing the necromancer to escape beheading by a thin margin.
The necromancer moved to the center and looked up at the sky, not even glancing at the shadow demon. The undead grabbed him by the head in his distraction and flew him some distance away.
“Get ya act together!”
The undead roared loudly from the sky, coming down with his legs raised for a kick. The shadow demon rolled out of the way and raised his sword.
“Sheesh, letting such a greenhorn get to ya. This ya first time leading an army?”
The undead asked, scratching his scruffy beard with a wide grin.
“IT HAS BEEN OVER TWO CENTURIES. HOW HAVE YOUR BODIES NOT DECAYED COMPLETELY?”
“That’s the first thing you ask me? Well, how am I supposed to know, ya shit?”
The red skinned undead threw a punch at the shadow who easily blocked the attack with his fist.
“Huh?”
“I SEE. YOUR BODIES HAVE BEEN WEAKENED AS COMPARED TO BEFORE. ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU CANNOT USE AURA AS AN UNDEAD.”
The undead struggled against the demon’s grip.
“YOU WON’T EVEN BE WORTH MY TIME AT THIS RATE.”
“Haa… tch.”
***
The necromancer looked up in the fog. She was looking for something weird she’d be able to see. After a bit of searching, she found it. A weird amount of mana was concentrated in a certain spot in the fog.
“Hey! Zana! Zana! I’m here. You can see me, right?”
After ensuring that she had acquired its attention, she cleared her throat and stood up straight.
“We got off on the wrong foot, Zana. But I wish to make a deal. You’ve seen all these shadows right? You should have been intimidated by them at first too, right? They are basically a walking calamity! You should also be working with the one who made these shadows, right? In fact, they’re probably there with you right now, right? Hand them over to me and I promise to leave you and the south alone… deal? Before you talk because you think they have the upper hand here, I’ll let you know that my closest undead are 5 dragonborn. These guys were considered gods back in the days because of how strong they were. Simple farmers that could match the strength of Knight captains without any training and stuff. So, rest assured, that this stupid shadow fight will be over with my victory. Now, you can decide. Join my side and be assured safety, or pray a god descends to save your skin. I’ll give you five minutes to come before me with the summoner in h-”
“That will not be necessary.”
Behind the necromancer, a towering presence appeared from the fog. This time, the figure was not foggy, but the actual Zana. She carried a creature in her left hand. A bird with dark gold feathers and dark patches laid unconscious in her grasp.
“This is the summoner.”
She said, not even managing to look at it.
