Over at the kingdom capital "the gilded city" had some reports coming in about the shallowtown event being sabotaged. Multiple small villages getting pillaged and burned down and multiple people going missing.
The nobles that were in charge of the safety of the land were flustered due to the events taking place in a similar way.
The method of killing was nearly the same: targets were firstly knocked out cold then killed.
They decide to send out a group to investigate the so-called barbarian raids on the villages.
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This was the first village they raided, Arlo led the elimination of any real caution that could stop them. First guards, lumberjacks and hunters. They were the first ones to go down. The skeletons were doing their job dangerously well.
They showed Arlo how to gain power. İt went like:
Stab this man.
A toddler is crying.
Give him a quick death.
A woman is screaming for help.
Kill her.
An old man is trying to get away on a mule.
Stop him.
Someone is approaching Arlo with an axe.
Make the skeletons kill him.
Kill anyone and everyone…
When the job is done, set the place ablaze.
Arlo and the raised skeletons admired their perfectly done job as the village turned to ash. They have been doing this for a while now… And Arlo had a large condensed fog covering him.
Until this point he managed to guess about the fog as something only undead like him could see at will.
The four brigands used to be barbarians that were defeated in their last raid.
They also gained some fog on their own and became a little more skillful. They wanted Arlo to raise their friends that remained buried.
But instead of that he raised some horses from the slaughterhouse. The skeletal remains of the admirable creatures now looked even more fierce than their previous life. Small blue dots made out of fog made their empty eye sockets whole again. Even the grumpy brigands were happy to be able to see more effectively.
'İ need a stronghold,' Arlo decided. 'The horses will become the carriers of the carts' they attached the horses to carts.
The small group scavenged through the charred village and gathered specific items from smithys, stonemasons and guard outposts.
Now examining a map he found Arlo managed to locate the old camp of the brigands that was once another large outpost for knights and other military officers.
The group and the horse carts started the journey to the outpost.
Other than those achievements Arlo also felt guilty during the raids because they reminded him of his own home. A voice in the back of his skull whispered to him: "it's okay… these actions are needed…"
The voices were getting stronger alongside the visions since he left the cave. He understood what they wanted, they were the burning passion of what was left from his soul.
During those two years of rotting, the only feeling he had was rage. His life was taken away… Aldis was no more… Probably many more were going to experience what he went through.
The main problem was the sickness called humans. When they had little power they would get hurt from ones that had it.
The ones who had power (like a specific redheaded someone) would become rotten and twisted… Eliminating the powerful ones and controlling the system was the only answer Arlo could see.
These thoughts stalled Arlo enough to arrive on the ruined outpost. The old fort has seen better days… wines came out of some windows, cracks were visible on the walls. Surely conquering this place won't be easy? Every skeleton could feel the sinister beings hiding in there.
Arlo commanded the brigands to follow him and the horses to stay put. "With meh…" when was his voice going to recover? The undead horde staggered into the darkness.