Deqi was panicking! The undead he had been sending to stall for time were all easily destroyed. His powers were not strong enough to create specimens with undying attributes yet so all of them were now lost forever.
He looked around for a way out before his eyes landed on the pile of corpses laying in the corner. These were the specimens that hadn't gone through the refining process yet but, they will have to do. As for those on his bed, he wouldn't sacrifice those, they were too precious to him.
He ordered his few remaining undead to arrange the bodies as he went to the pool of bubbling red liquid and dipped his hand inside.
This was the result of years of his research and he had one of these pools in every of his hideouts. It could massively increase the power of an undead and reduce the energy needed to control one. That was one of the reasons he had a large army in the first place even with his normal sized mana capacity, but they were all gone now.
He almost sobbed as he took a mouthful of the liquid and closed his eyes. He felt the power coursing through his body as he turned around to face the mass of bodies laid out in front of him.
It didn't take him long to chant a spell and a twisted formless mist of light and darkness snaked out of his body. The mist quickly separated into different parts as they bored into the bodies of each of the undead.
The mass of bodies twitched collectively and with a thought from his mind, they all uniformly stood up straight in front of him.
He looked at them and nodded to himself, hopefully this should buy him some time. He looked back at the bubbling red liquid for a moment and clenched his teeth, he needed more time!
If someone was to pay attention to the pool of red, they would see what looked like a large white plate appearing just below the surface anytime the liquid gave way. And when the liquid flows even lower, they would be able to see an exposed eye socket, the gloomy dark hole where an eye should have been seemed very deep, gloomy....and large.
The mass of undead stood abnormally silently, some them shuffling slowly as they stared at the team. It was a very eerie sight and the cold chill permeating the air didn't help the mood at all.
Rastel had to say that although the zombies were far more disturbing to fight than the skeletons, he was rather pleased with their presence as this meant he won't be limited to just his earth pillar spell. Unlike the skeletons that could resist such magic, a zombie would burn well.
Iron slowly took down his shield and placed it before him. He turned to look at the rest behind him before voicing out his commands.
"I will pull their aggro. Sing-nim, I need you to watch my back, Rastel please fire your most destructive spells at their rear. Snow, just focus on healing me for now, these are just fodder and we haven't seen the enemy's trump card yet so we can't have you use up your mana. And Doe, you just do want you can but stay behind me always." He quickly took command of their operation.
Rastel had to admit that Iron was very capable in command. He found himself trying to follow his commands before even realizing it.
"Is he in the army or something?" he whispered to Sing who was preparing his arrows beside him.
"Something like that, Oppa really likes getting bossy in times like this but it has kept us alive all this while" the wolf beastman smiled as he answered him.
Snow clasped her hands together as if in prayer and chanted a short spell. A moment later, a white glow enveloped all of them and they received notifications for a buff.
DING!
YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED!
DEX +3 FOR 3 MINUTES
'Light priest sub class?' Rastel thought to himself when he saw the notification. She then made another short spell targeted at Iron only and he received another notification.
DING!
YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED!
END +3 FOR 3 MINUTES
"Thanks Snow" Iron turned back to thank her.
"Be careful Oppa" she replied looking slightly worried.
Iron nodded and faced the front solemnly. Rastel watched their little exchange with a slight smile on his face.
"Let's go!" Iron shouted and they started approaching the undead Army at a small jog while keeping their formation.
They hadn't reached far from the entrance when they heard a loud high pitched voice shout out. "WAIT! WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?"
The entire party stopped abruptly as confusion showed on some of their faces, he wants to parley? As they were still wondering how they should respond, Doe stepped forward and grabbed Rastel's shoulder.
He turned back and looked at her and saw her eyes were filled with unrestrained killing intent now. He was shocked! He could feel goosebumps form on his neck as she looked at him with eyes that practically lusted for blood. But what also surprised him was that he could also see a form of deep sadness and fear in her, like she was afraid she would lose the chance to satisfy her blood lust.
'All these emotions are targeted towards this necromancer?' Rastel now suddenly realized that she really might have some personal vendetta to fulfill with their enemy. Thinking of it, he never really sensed any form of relationship between her and the members of the settlement. Apart from the innkeeper, it was like both sides acted like the other didn't exist.
Rastel also remembered the reason he was here. The dead body of the miller and his wife, their daughter's unconscious figure and Myra's crying form as she lay in Amba's arms.
Grabbing her hand, he smiled at her reassuringly. "Don't worry, there is no way I'm letting him escape from here. I promise you that."
The rest of the team looked at the both of them while nurturing their own thoughts, Snow opened her mouth and was about to say something when they were interrupted by the voice again.
"I DON'T REMEMBER OFFENDING PEOPLE LIKE YOU, ISN'T THERE A WAY WE CAN WORK THINGS OUT!?"
This time, Rastel turned around and answered him. "YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST DO THINGS LIKE MURDERING WHOEVER YOU LIKE AND GET AWAY WITH IT? THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WANT YOU TO ANSWER FOR YOUR CRIMES!"
His voice immediately took on a fearful chill. "I WILL GIVE THEM THAT JUDGMENT!"
"CURSE YOU! I WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY! I WOULD SEND ALL OF YOU TO THE DEEPEST DARKEST PARTS OF ARALID WITH MY VERY TWO HANDS!" the voice suddenly turned hysterical as the horde of undead suddenly rushed them.
"Keep the formation!" Iron yelled back as he thumped his huge shield with his sword.
The shield resounded with a metallic sound as it suddenly seemed heavier in his hands. As the first wave of undead reached them, they all seemed to crash into wall as they were forced to a halt!
Rastel looked at the scene in surprise, the entire width of the cave seemed to have been blocked by an invisible shield. With a wave of his hands, a red robe immediately appeared around him. He had decided to get serious!
He waved his hands and chanted continuously as one fireball after the other smashed into the rear of the rushing undead.
Sing also didn't waste a lot of time as explosive arrows were fired into the raging group of zombies. They were eerily silent as they tried to overcome the shield and only the sounds of explosions could be heard.
Unable to hold the skill, Iron finally picked up his shield and with a massive outward thrust that showed his strength, scattered the undead pushing onto him like hay in the wind.
The undead, now free were now rushing through the right and left but Sing and Rastel held the sides while Iron valiantly fought in the middle cutting down undead and sending body parts flying through the air.
Rastel was easily mowing down the enemies rushing him as he kept looking at the cavern entrance to find the necromancer who controlled them. It wasn't long before his exceptional eyesight caught sight of an overweight wood elf hiding at the entrance.
'There he is!' he doubled his efforts to kill all the undead and get the necromancer before he pulled another trick.
But he suddenly realized there was someone way ahead of him. He saw Doe's lithe figure cutting across the horde with her small dagger as she expertly cut off the heads of any undead that stood in her way. She had already seen the elf long ago!
"Damn!" remembering the old man's nagging before they left the settlement, Rastel couldn't help but curse out loud.
He immediately fired a final fire ball before taking out his immortal's blade and rushing off to meet her. There weren't a lot of undead left so Iron and his team were able to handle it.
Iron watched him go but didn't say anything, he had also noticed when Doe went pass him but he was too shocked by her skills and daring to stop her.
Snow stood behind as she occasionally chanted spells to keep up the buffs and healed them when they were injured. She looked at Rastel rushing towards Doe and sighed in relief. She didn't know what Doe had went through to hate the necromancer so much but she wanted badly to help her get her revenge.
Rastel went through the remaining undead with amazing speed as nothing could resist the immortal's blade in his hand. He could see the wood elf panicking and running back into the cavern at the sight of two people aiming for his head.
Doe had already finished off the undead around her and was rushing after his retreating figure. Rastel could see the overflowing hatred in her eyes as she yelled at the top of her lungs with her hoarse voice. "COME BACK HERE YOU BASTARD!"