"ROOOOOAAARRR!"
A series of roars resound in the surroundings. Hundreds of poisonous crocodiles were rushing toward the undead, but Keryan wasn't too worried.
His army gathered into a compact formation with the reanimated magical creatures acting as vanguard and meat shields.
The horde of crocodiles jumped directly in the melee, biting and scratching with their powerful poisonous fangs and claws, reducing the reanimated into meat paste really fast.
Fortunately, it gave enough time for the zombies to push the lines and circled the massive reptiles and under Keryan direct command, they succeeded in dealing huge damage to them reversing the situation.
Poisonous claws against sharp and putrid nails, the fight was a gruesome sight and chunks of flesh flew in all directions, covering the soil in blood.
The icy blue haired girl didn't stay away, mounted on her reanimated wolf she jumped straight into the battle, engaging in the melee with her bone staff wielding like a sword, she thrusted and sliced furiously with her staff enhanced by green flames.
On his side, Keryan began to absorb the mana from the environment, transforming it into a ball of green flames until the moment he launched it right in the middle of the crocodiles' horde.
~swooosh~
The green ball of flames flew in the sky before falling on the poisonous monsters and an instant later, a big explosion happened!
~BOOOOOOMMMM!~
Dozens of reptiles were turned to ashes by the fiendish flames and others were sent flying away like wheats in the wind!
Suddenly, while they were winning this fight thanks to their brutality, the undead began to be slaughtered in return, the fault of a huge crocodile which measured twenty meters with a mouth that could swallow two to three zombies in one bite!
Even with their sheer numbers, they were still pushed back by this immense creature that was swinging his tail right and left, suppressing the formation of Keryan's army with ease.
The zombie mage couldn't let his troops be slaughtered without retaliating and a cold hint of green flame glowed in his eyes.
"Stay in formation, Don't get too close to that monster!"
This time, Keryan prepared a huge spell, instinctively gathering the essence and remains of all the destroyed zombies and dead creatures. His zombie's instincts combined with dark magic into the bone staff as a catalyst, then the inspiration came out of his mouth and he chanted an incantation.
"From bones, flesh, skin and dark magic rises the golem! Come to me, Patchwork!"
A big green circle of dark magic twenty yards large appeared under Keryan's feet, then a huge whirlpool began to rotate, after a short moment, the magic circle released a mighty shockwave accompanied by a flash of green light.
Few seconds later, an abomination tall like a giant, towering a dozen yards emerged from the green light with Keryan on his shoulder.
It was a literal patchwork of skins sewed with bones and animated by zombie's mage dark magic.
Keryan looked like a demon sat on his evil spawn, leading his newly created monster into the battle.
His undeads made way for their leader and within a second he was already in front of the enormous crocodile.
Instantly the creature roared, but it was obvious that it was more like a roar of fear than a challenge. Unfortunately for him, Keryan was angry because he lost many of his companions. And so, he coldly ordered his golem.
"Patchwork, kill that monster for me!"
The eyeless golem opened his maw showing his rows of teeth made of sharp bones and roared, announcing the near end of his target!
"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
The sound was so terrifying that many other creatures living nearby flew away from a miles radius!
And then, the golem launched himself at the giant crocodile! They soon were engaged in a fight of titan, giving and taking blows after blows, however the golem took the advantage very quickly and hammer his giant fists like a hammer onto the enormous reptile's head time and time again until his skull broke like an egg!
~Splash!~
Purple blood splattered everywhere and the golem roared again, celebrating his victory!
"Guaaahhhhh!"
All the present zombies raised their decaying hands to celebrate with him, making ulgy sounds. It was comedic but Keryan was proud about his monster so he raised his hand too.
Not far from here, the icy blue haired girl who had seen all the battle was bewildered. That was her first time seeing a spell of that level because even if her master was a high ranked mage, she never saw her displaying her magic.
As someone that wanted to dedicate her life to study magic, she was respectful toward that kind of power but also a bit of fear. She already knew this zombie mage was someone she couldn't compete with but now she understood how big the gap between the two of them was.
However, instead of being annoyed or depressed, she also raised her hands and screamed to celebrate this victory! She was secretly happy with her decision to follow that zombie lord.
Keryan amplified his voice with magic and said.
"We'll stay here for the time being, feast all you want on our defeated enemies, you well deserve it! However, the big one is mine, also, keep all the mana shards for me or else you'll become flesh for my Patchwork!"
"Guahh!"
Not long after his declaration, chaos erupted within the ranks of the undead army, of course their primal instincts had been triggered and they wanted to be first served with the reward!
At this sight, Keryan facepalm, even if his zombies were smart enough to understand his orders and had some of their past abilities, it was obvious they weren't as intelligent as before they had to be before their death.
They were behaving like loyal dogs at most, more like beasts… this would inevitably become a problem in the future if Keryan didn't find a way to give them some semblance of intelligence, because with so little wit his zombies wouldn't stand a chance against well-trained troops, and he wasn't fool.
But for the moment he couldn't do anything about it.
Keyran jumped off Patchwork and went directly for the grey matter of the giant crocodile, nonetheless he didn't gain anything accurate from the creature, only the feeling of being more familiar with the dark swamps.
While he was thinking about the usefulness of eating magical beasts, he sensed a change coming from his stomach and running all through his body, a fresh nutritious sensation that he could only feel when he was alive.
At first he didn't understand what that feeling was, but that wasn't the first time he encountered the same kind of situation. He quickly understood his body was undergoing a slight change, in fact his putrid teeth as well as his sharp and yellowish fingernails were evolving.
It didn't take long for the process to end, and after a little amount of time, his teeth became sharper, the same for his fingernails, but that wasn't all! His putrid smell had also disappeared, replaced by a poison hidden in bites and scratches! This was a perfect combination for a zombie, especially to fight in melee.
Not long after his slight evolution, Keryan saw he wasn't the only one who had undergone changes, that was to be expected, the other zombies that had consumed those poisonous reptiles were in the same situation.
That was of course only a small portion of his army but Keryan was very happy with that result. He passed in review his new troops and called them Elites, they were approximately sixty of them, that was not a high number that was a good start to form the core of his army.
When this event was finally behind them, the icy blue haired girl came and began to speak with him.
"Lor zombo, are you going to start a war with your undead?"
Keryan snorted slightly and replied.
"Do you want me to go back to the grave? Even if we are not weak, we are not a match for the Prince of Eleos. This holy prince won't stop to hunt us down until the last one. You should have already guessed by now that we are not ordinary summoned minions. I don't know how your dark alliance gave us that new twisted 'life' but I'm sure that the Holy Empire won't let this matter go."
The girl looked at him intently, she then said in hesitation.
"I'm not sure myself, but it should be related to the lost amulet. It is said that it was a legendary catalyst created by the founder of the dark path. My master told me that after he disappeared from the world, the amulet was sealed into three different necklaces; and of course, the dark alliance has one of these necklaces that is held by the council."
Keryan was utterly shocked! That amulet was a piece of lore shown during the few loading screens he was in the game. It was called the Amulet of Malakir, an evil object that can bring the dead back to life!