Senani spent most of the next several weeks in discussion with Necrideon.
In that time Senani managed to learn some of the basic functions of blood magic.
Senani also came to realize that his shield could allow him to control certain aspects of the cells. With this realization, he combined several of the cells together and increased the area in which Necrideon could travel.
By the time Maximus and Luna had returned, Senani allowed Necrideon to roam freely throughout the entirety of the castle.
As Senani was the only one to venture into the castle, this was easily granted without disturbing the other members of the settlement.
Soon Senani's idle days chatting with Necrideon were brought to an end.
Luna and Maximus returned to the settlement at virtually the same time.
Maximus was not alone. He had clearly succeeded in his endeavor.
Luna however, returned completely and utterly alone. She appeared rather exhausted, as if a new weight had been placed upon her shoulders.
Senani called for a meeting of the council.
Soon the council converged within the newly rebuilt jail. Though Senani was the only one to know of the buildings original purpose.
As they met, Maximus was allowed to speak first.
"Senani, sparing the nobles was by far the right course of action. Many of the impoverished houses are flocking to your banner.
They strive to make a larger place for themselves in this vast world, and seeing what you have already accomplished, they dare to do so under the banner of House Soth.
This has been made significantly easier as the Church has already taken sacrifices from the serfs on their estates.
They fear that if they are willing to come for the serfs, it is only a matter of time before the nobles and their guards are directly affected.
I managed to bring in 5 nobles and 15 trained guards. All are fully armed and armored far better than you were when you initially arrived as each wears a full set of chainmail."
Senani was elated by this news. 20 men would not change the outcome of the war, yet it would enable them to be far more proactive.
Luna was enraged by Maximus's words. The nobles moved to action in minor ways, only because their serfs were taken.
What of the peasants in the villages nearby?
When she spoke, the venom could be clearly felt within her words.
"Edna is gone. Every single peasant has been culled. The so-called NOBLES didn't even bother to make an appearance at the culling.
Their guards did nothing.
No one did anything.
We need to focus on recruiting the peasants. 20 men will make little difference in this war.
The hundreds that were slain at Edna would have.
We are not enough.
We may never be enough."
Senani's heart broke when he heard Luna's words. So many lives lost so very quickly.
Luna was right.
They were not enough.
But in time they would be.
The only question was, how many lives would be lost if they continued to wait?
Senani passionately replied to the news he had been presented.
"Maximus, that is wonderful news. We are in desperate need of the manpower.
Luna, all of us here feel the loss of Edna.
I assure you; they will be avenged.
Maximus prepare the bandits and guards.
We need to pick our target.
Tonight, and every night after, we strike back at the Hukrat's."
Luna's face dropped at Senani's words.
"Senani, don't be a fool. We can't win this war, and by fighting it, the peasants will be the ones to suffer the most.
IF you must continue the foolish endeavor, at least allow me to visit the villages near our targets so that I can evacuate them to safety.
Even if we evacuate, we cannot possibly house everyone.
A multitude of lives will be lost."
The council agreed to Luna's request.
Yet they were unwilling to sit by idly. The attacks on Hukrat would begin this night.
The first target became a nearby stronghold.
Typically, this would be far beyond the means of the group, as they generally housed multiple Hukrat's as well as a compliment of a hundred guards.
Tonight however, was different.
The bulk of the guards and the Hukrat's had been called to the capital for a gathering of some sort.
Maximus did not know the details.
Only 20 guards remained.
With the newly recruited members and those they already possessed, Senani's group would outnumber the guards.
The group readied themselves and quickly mobilized.
The target sat upon a mountain a mere 4 hours away.
If they were to leave now, they could attack in the middle of the night and catch the guards complexly off guard.
With that thought in mind, the group quickly ventured to the severely understaffed stronghold.
As they travelled, Mercutio, Senani, and Maximus began to formulate an infiltration plan.
By the time they arrived, it had been settled.
Mercutio and a few of his bandits cautiously climbed the walls and quickly subdued the few guards stationed atop them.
They next stealthily moved toward the small gate on the western wall.
As it opened a loud screeeeeeech could be heard coming from the hinges.
This alerted the few guards that remained nearby in the courtyard.
Seeing the troops file into the courtyard, the guards desperately ran to sound the alarm.
Unfortunately, they were too few. They were quickly gunned down by the crossbows of Maximus's newly recruited guards.
The guards carefully reloaded, moving through the stronghold like a plague.
Each area they moved to the guards were quickly subdued and slain.
They took no prisoners and showed no mercy.
With this deed done, Senani opened the main gate and the wagons and peasants began to make their way inside.
The group quickly moved through the stronghold, taking everything, they could lay their hands upon.
Even the bodies of the dead were loaded into carts to be looted at the leisure of the group once they were back at the settlement.
While this did not set well with many of the band, each agreed it was an unfortunate necessity. They had far fewer sets of weapons and armor than they did men to wield them.
This problem would grow exponentially as they accepted more peasants into the settlement.
As the group began looting, Senani moved directly to the primary Hukrat's office.
There he began shuffling through drawers, taking each slip of paper and book he could find.
He also happened upon several powered soul stones. These he quickly placed in his pockets with the others he possessed.
The others managed to grab weapons, armor, food, and many sets of clothing from within the stronghold's walls.
The group remained until the following night, slaying any Hukrat guards that happened to travel to the stronghold and adding their wealth and corpse to the ever-growing supply train that would be leaving with the coming darkness.
By nightfall, much of the furniture had also been loaded into the wagons that had been brought, as well as those that had been looted from the stronghold and the Hukrat's that had ventured to the stronghold during the daylight hours.
With night quickly falling, the group evacuated from the stronghold.
This brought about the realization that they would need to do something to distort or destroy their tracks.
To do this, the wagons were separated, each going in many different directions.
This posed the risk of increasing the quantity of people that would see them but enabled them to confuse the direction of their settlement.
The likelihood of discovery was further decreased as each wagon went through a frequently used path for trading, many were used by the Hukrat's themselves.
This also made the trip significantly longer.
The lead wagons arrived within 5 hours, with the last arriving just before the sun rose.
The group had performed valiantly.
The loot was disbursed among the populace.
The weapons and armor were given to the training grounds of Maximus.
There he upgraded the gear of the experienced troops and utilized any remainder as incentive for the peasants to improve.
Once they showed an amount of skill with weaponry, they would be armed, armored, and prepared to join the guards.
The books and bookshelves as well as all the documents were placed within Senani's new headquarters.
The corpses were taken to the entryway of the castle.
Once placed within the entryway, they quickly disappeared. This frightened the populace, and even Senani did not know what Necrideon would do with them.
Over the following weeks, the group established a rhythm.
Mercutio began to lead the nightly raids.
The peasants would drill with Maximus.
Senani would drill with Maximus during the day, and train with Necrideon at night. Vastly increasing his knowledge of history and expanding his knowledge of the blood runes.
By the end of the sixth month, the settlement had been transformed.
The furniture and supplies they had taken from the Hukrat's allowed each of them to live far better than they had initially in the village.
Even the nobles were content with the housing.
Unfortunately, all was not well in other areas of the land.
The Hukrat's had attempted to thwart Senani's group time and again.
Much as Luna had foreseen, it was the peasants that suffered during this time.
This became far more evident as more and more soul stones were brought to Senani from the raids.
These were also stored within the castle with Necrideon. Senani allowed Necrideon complete control over the soul stones. By this point, he had begun to fully trust Necrideon.
Yet even this did not stem the tide of war.
The more the Hukrat's smothered the peasants and nobles, the more recruits swarmed to Senani.
By the end of the year, Senani felt they were truly a force to be reckoned with.
They had gained 50 more minor nobles and 160 more trained guards.
On top of that another 100 peasants had been fully armed and armored from the raids on the Hukrat's towns.
By this point Senani felt they could truly take on the Church of Hukrat's and win.
But alas, all things change.
At the end of the first year, Necrideon discovered something within the castle.
A massive musclebound creature had entered through the mines and was of a variety that Necrideon had never imagined existing. He had no words to properly describe the massive beast.
Fearing what the beast could do to Senani and his humans if it were to leave the castle, he attacked it on sight.
Necrideon began to throw one spell after another at the great beast that stood before him.
Much to his surprise, the beast removed 2 massive axes, one for each hand from the straps on its back and used them to block the spells being cast his way.
It was at this point Necrideon realized he may have made a mistake, as this beast clearly bore some form of sentience.
As Necrideon hit the beast with one spell after the other, it deftly dodged or blocked each attack.
The beast moved ever closer as it dodged.
Necrideon blasted the beast with a blast of frozen air.
The beast was far to large to dodge such an attack in the tight confines of the hallway.
Instead it merely crossed its axes and continued to move forward.
As the frozen air hit the beast's axes, it appeared entirely unphased.
Seeing that frozen air did not phase the beast, Necrideon next through a fireball.
The fireball engulfed the tapestries in the hallway as it moved forward.
With nowhere to go, Necrideon felt certain this would fell the beast.
Much to Necrideon's disdain, when the blast died down and the fire subsided, a mound of dirt fell from in front of the beast. It had taken the full force of the fire.
Furthermore, the beast had used the earth to put out the fire on the walls and the floor.
The beast smiled a toothy grin as it began to again move forward.
Necrideon had now exhausted a large amount of power from the soul stone in his hand.
One more large spell and it would crumble to dust.
Necrideon pondered what to use. He had an epiphany as he prepared the last spell for the soul stone.
When the spell completed the beast began to writhe in agony.
Necrideon had cast a rather powerful spell from his repertoire of blood magic.
The beasts blood began to boil and evaporate.
As the beast hit the ground in excruciating pain Necrideon began to move forward.
In his mind this battle had been won, for the spell he had cast would cause the entire volume of blood within the beast to boil and evaporate.
As Necrideon approached, he attempted to kick away the axes.
As he did, the beast swung the axe within its right hand directly toward Necrideon's neck.
Necrideon had no time to respond before the axe struck the shield around him. Completely shattering the soul stone within the necklace around his neck.
It then continued straight through Necrideon's neck, completely decapitating him.
Seeing this Senani cried out as he drew his sword.
"Necrideon, do you live?"
Hearing the voice, the beast replied.
"You speak common? That could make things far simpler. How many of you are up here?"
Necrideon replied from where his head now lay upon the ground.
"It matters not how many we are. I thought you were a senseless beast. You may call me Necrideon.
Behind me is my human friend Senani. May we know your name and where you hail from master beast?"
The beast smiled its fierce toothy grin as it responded. "You may call me Asher. I am a midnight beast. It matters not where I am from. Merely that I am here."
Asher had determined that these creatures would be no challenge for him and thus continued.
"There are others with me within the mines far below this building.
We mean all of you no harm. I only attacked to defend myself.
Will you allow us to make a home there in peace?"
To this Senani replied. "If your willing to split the ore you mine with us 50/50, we will allow you to call it home.
Further, we could really use your help. We are at war with the Hukrat's. Would you be willing to fight them to protect your new home and allies?"
Asher considered this before he replied.
"We are already at war with the White Walkers and the entire drew settlement. We will protect the tunnels, but no more than that."
Necrideon moved to pickup his head and place it back upon his shoulders.
Seeing this Asher became quite curious.
"What manner of magic causes this skeleton to live?"
Necrideon smiled as he replied. "I am what is known as a lich. Blood magic and the souls of the dead power all of my spells."
Asher was clearly flabbergasted by this response. His surprise and revulsion were apparent in his voice as he spoke.
"I know not this magic. Neve has always used her own power and that of the crystals embedded within her staff. Why do you not use crystals for fuel your magic?"
"Crystals exist within the blood of creatures. I can form them into blood crystals, but they are far less powerful than the soul stones I currently use." Replied Necrideon.
This statemen confused Asher more than anything else. "Crystals come from the center of all creatures. They possess a variety of qualities and strengths. Some are the size of a fist or larger."
This provided Necrideon with an epiphany. He had often wondered how crystals had been used to craft the sword and shield that Senani now bore.
If they were as Asher had described, then that would make sense. He now wondered if Hadorix and Skammlauss had managed to travel to Asher's homeland.
Thinking again, Necrideon considered how terribly powerful Asher was. IF the other beasts of his land bore the same strength, how would a human have managed to survive such things?
Then again, the sword had been forged from the crystals of ants. Perhaps there was a reason that such typically inconsequential beasts were used to form such an incredible blade.