Part 1 - Dreaming of War and Death

 

Sitting in his chair, Ubel read the reports about the high necromancer Mortis while drinking from his flagon of water. 

Five wiped villages and an army of forty-thousand undead of differentiating species. Also, it seems that there have been sightings of an undead dragon. Where did he get that corpse from… Are the barbarians behind this? We’re quite close to their borders, it wouldn’t be strange for them to pull something. Going to have to change up my preparations if that’s the case.

With a sigh, he put the report down, closed his eyes, and leaned his head back.

As thoughts ran through his mind, arms suddenly wrapped around him from behind as someone rested their head on his. The smell of blood entered his nostrils, and with a slight smile he lifted one of his hands and rubbed one of the arms.

“Hello War. Is Death making breakfast this morning?”

A woman's voice rang with a pout, “Oh boo. Is the smell still on me? I tried really hard to scrub it out.”

“Don’t, I’ve grown so used to it. If you did, I don’t know how I’d wake up.”

“It’s a wife's duty to do her best for her husband.”

“It goes both ways, or so I’ve been told. Are you ready to enter the battlefield soon?”

Words soaked in bloody honey drifted to his ears, “As long as you wish it, I’d even take the head of the king for you.”

With a small laugh, Ubel replied, “If I wanted to I could already rule this kingdom… So I’ll take a rain check on that deed. Come on, let’s eat before we…”

***

Opening his eyes, Ubel stared at the wooden ceiling.

“Go to battle, War.”

Ubel touched his lips with a dead stare, stopping himself from saying more.

He got out of bed, quickly washed with a pail of water and a towel, then dressed in his military attire.

Walking out of his temporary housing, Ubel saw the fox-kin and support dwarfs running around, getting everything ready for the day. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Volt, still in meditation. His aura had steadily doubled since being here, but he still showed no signs of moving anytime soon.

Ubel only gave him a quick look before heading to the command center.

Already waiting for him inside was his command team, ready for action. He passed by everyone saying good morning to him and sat in his command chair. Although the group had annoyed looks on their faces, they didn’t say anything.

Pushing up his glasses, Ubel's dead eyes moved towards the information mage and Reaver.

“Connect.”

With a nod, the information mage, Kist, pressed his hand on Reaver's back and a glow of light appeared below his palm. The light slowly traveled up Reaver’s back, heading towards her brain. 

Inside of Kist's mind, various views of the world from the eyes of wolves spread out as if on some sort of screen. Now connected to the frontlines, Kist's other hand moved towards the map and began rearranging the stone pieces upon it.

Feeling the strange presence in her brain, Reaver offhandedly commented, “This is your first time doing this, correct Kist?”

The thin man responded as his hand moved at lightning speed, “No. The spell is usually used to gain information on the other's thoughts. Great for collecting critical intelligence from targets, but this works about the same. Our commander is pretty smart for thinking of this.”

Reaver rolled her eyes, “Are you actually praising him of all people?”

Kist chuckled, “Compared to my old boss Ubel’s a saint. At least he sees everyone as pawns. My old boss treated us no better than a lizard’s tail.”

“What’s the difference?”

Suddenly cutting into the discussion, Ubel replied to Reaver's question with heavy sarcasm, “The difference is that pawns are sacrificed to kill a king while tails are made to be abandoned so that their owner can run away. Now cut the chatter and get the teams into their positions, we’re wasting sunlight. Operation Hydra begins in one hour.”

Reaver snorted, “A classy name. I figured it would’ve been more frank.”

Ubel didn’t give in to the bait and ignored her, “Start moving the teams.”

Eye twitching, Reaver had to force herself to reply. “Yes… Commander.”

Soon enough fifteen groups marched out towards fifteen enemy outposts. Some of the troops used the earth, others used the landscape, and a few used magic to mask themselves from sight in order to infiltrate the targeted locations. With the knowledge of their patrol routes as well as wolves leading the way, all the groups somehow managed to remain undetected.

There were a few scares among a few of the troops, but with Ubel's quick thinking he was able to micro-manage and stop the slip-ups from blowing their cover.

With the troops inside the enemy bases and having a moment's worth of safety, Ubel pushed his glass up and wiped the sweat off his brow.

“The first hurdle is over. Order the groups to spread out within the fortress and have the powerhouses begin the assassinations. I’ll leave the operation calls to them now, but they have twenty minutes to kill all hostile forces within their outposts. If a necromancer is not killed within that time they are to retreat if able and if that’s not achievable then they’re to kill as many enemies as they can.

“Begin phase two.”

***

Valkus and company stood in a blind spot, watching patrols of armed undead pass by every few minutes. The group was utterly silent, not willing to make any sounds for fear of being discovered.

Valkus stared at the scaled wolf wagging its tail with a silly look in its eyes, waiting for the signal. It didn’t take long before the wolf began tapping its left paw softly, three short, three long, two short. Nodding his head Valkus turned to his group and started gesturing.

“Blink, you lead them to the ambush points in groups of threes and fours. I’ll strike first, and when I do, bring down the hammer.”

The dirt covered Blink nodded in understanding and fist-bumped his brother for good luck.

Valkus watched his brother and company leave before he and his accompanying wolf headed deeper into the outpost.

I’ve never killed a necromancer. Hope it’s a good hunt.

He thought offhandedly, leaning his spear against his shoulder while gripping a strange knife on his belt.

 

Part 2 - Valkus vs. Necromancer 

 

Valkus moved swiftly and silently through the complex, avoiding the undead patrols in various ways— hiding on ceilings, walls, on and behind pillars, and more. Sometimes he even moved by digging his toes and fingers into the bone filled walls while holding onto his spear.

The scaled wolf, on the other hand, used shadow magic to vanish into the shadows on the ground, allowing it to move unimpeded. In a way Valkus felt jealous of the wolf, who didn’t need to put in much effort in moving unseen, but he quickly crushed that feeling to focus on what was needed.

The duo somewhat easily bypassed the horde of skeletons and reached the target's room unscathed. In front of them stood a large door, six meters in height and three meters wide. 

From the map I know that that so-called mecha is with the target. If I don’t finish him off quickly he’ll most likely try to use it. Which means I need to go all out from the beginning. Too bad there isn’t any other way in but the front. Judging by these door handles it’s thankfully a push not pull— meaning I can just smash forward.

Plan finished, let the hunt begin.

Doing a few stretches and a small crack of the neck, Valkus held his spear. He lifted his foot and smashed into the door, blasting the doors open. Valkus only got a quick glance at the female figure sitting at the throne making moves to get up, before he smashed his foot into the bone floor, cracking it, and launched himself forward.

“Who dares invade my chamber, I’ll turn you into a puppet corps- Urk!”

Valkus closed the distance in an instant, smashing his spear at the female necromancer who somehow managed to block it with her staff. However she didn’t have enough strength to hold her ground, and the force of the spear soon sent her flying off into the wall.

Her bones cracked from the impact as black blood flew out of her mouth. 

Not stopping, as soon as his feet touched the floor Valkus’ muscles bulged as he threw his spear with all his power, intent on impaling the necromancer.

Scared out of her wits, the female necromancer stuttered out a spell, summoning a six-inch thick wall of bone in front of her. When the wall appeared between the two, she didn’t hesitate and began to call her troops, only to notice that they were already in combat.

Frustrated, she called all units not currently in combat to reinforce her. While she was doing this, the necromancer felt Valkus’ spear smash into the bone wall. Luckily for her, only the spear’s tip had pierced through. Not a moment later a shadow loomed above her, as Valkus leapt over the barrier, aiming his strange knife right at her forehead. 

Mumbling under her breath the necromancer launched herself out of the way by summoning a bone wall under her feet. The knife missed by mere inches, allowing her to let out a sigh of relief as she rose into the air.

If I stay up here he shouldn’t be able to reach me, but I should get into my mecha to even the playing field. And if I wait one minute my bone army will come in and kill this fiend. Still, why didn’t Master report about such a dangerous- Wait. What is that fiend doin-

Valkus raised his leg and smashed into one meter of the bone pillars surrounding the room, causing it to crack and begin to fall. He then grabbed his embedded spear, dislodged it, and waited as the pillar fell towards the necromancer.

I’m not that easy to kill fucker!

The four-armed woman began chanting another spell, ready to make a comeback. Then the hairs on the back of her neck started tingling. She turned to see the jaws of a scaled wolf heading straight for her neck. On pure instinct she raised one of her arms in an attempt to save her life. The wolf ripped it right off her body. The female necromancer didn’t feel any pain, but rather furious as she pushed the wolf off with one of her remaining three hands and cast another spell. A bone wall protruded from the side of the room, and she was able to take some shelter on it.

The wolf freefalling through the air caused shadow magic to flash over its body, summoning a ball of darkness below it to cushion its fall. The pillar of bone uselessly crashed into the floor causing dust and bone shards to scatter across the room.

The necromancer felt she had finally caught some breathing room and started to cast a more complex spell. However just as she began to chant the spell she noticed Valkus sprinting up the wall towards her. By the time she'd noticed him Valkus was already halfway up the nearly twenty meter wall and quickly closing in on her spot near the ceiling.

So was so stunned that she stopped chanting and cried out in fear, “What the fuck are you?!”

Valkus replied by smashing through the bone platform from below and aiming his spear at the female necromancers' neck.

“A dwarf.”

The necromancer blocked with one of her arms, losing it in the process, and yelled as she used a fragment of bone to create a wall that launched her across the room.

“A DWARF MY ASS! I’m going to fucking kill you, torment your soul for a thousand years, and make your body into a meat puppet to server me for all of eternity!”!”

Valkus lost his target and fell down to the ground, his landing creating a small crater in the bone filled floor. He stood up unharmed and watched as the necromancer flew in the direction of her bone mecha.

She continued screaming as she approached the machine, even laughing hysterically. 

“Ahahahahaha! Now that I have my machine you’re doomed to die you freak of nature! If you bow down now I might take pity upon you can confer you a title as my slave and-”

Suddenly a thought occurred to the necromancer. Wait. Where is that wo- Oh shit.

Somewhat dazed, the woman looked over at her mech only to see the scaled little devil standing on top of the bone mecha’s head. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

She whimpered before the wolf tackled her in midair.

Soon only her screams could be heard within the room.

 

Part 3 - Unicy vs. Necromancer 

 

Valkus stood over a pool of black blood, staring down at the limbless body of the female necromancer. To the side was the scaled wolf, wagging its tail back and forth while licking its blood-covered snout.

Is this considered a powerful necromancer? Wasn’t really much of a fight. I hope the other necromancers are better.

As Valkus mused he raised the strange white knife in his hand, angling it at the necromancer's head. The necromancer was listless, staring at the ceiling as if she was dead, but Valkus had heard from Ubel that unless their heads were destroyed, a necromancer could revive. 

As he was about to bring the knife down, words suddenly escaped from the bleeding woman’s mouth.

“How many times have I died?”

Suddenly the wolf appeared in front of Valkus, making him stop his stabbing motion.

“Why?”

The wolf snorted and tapped the floor.

Information is it? Fine. 

“Help. Clear.” Placing the strange knife on the floor, Valkus began heading for the door.

“Young man, I’ve already destroyed the undead under my management. So will you listen to this old woman's woes?”

“How do I… know you are... not lying?”

“Listen.”

Closing his eyes Valkus listened for signs of battles outside, but even with his amazing hearing, he could hear nothing.

I doubt Blink and them would fall in such a short time, so she must be telling the truth.

Valkus glanced at the wolf and saw it nod, so he heaved a sigh and sat down in a dry area.

Seeing the freak that claimed to be a dwarf sitting down, the woman forced a smile before turning to stare at the ceiling.

“Where shall I begin, while I still have my lucidity… Oh yes, I’ll tell you the tale of how my race fell to our current torment. Then I shall ask you a favor, young freak.”

“Dwarf.”

“Whatever. The story begins…”

***

Meanwhile, in another outpost, Unicy rode the tiger Rex to fight against a male necromancer in heated combat. Wielding her iron bow loaded with explosive tipped arrows, Unicy caused blinding blasts of light and sound to ring out within the throne room.  

I’ll have to thank the crafters for making me this custom rigging. Still, how many bone spears can that fucker summon?

Standing atop a floating platform made of bones, the necromancer had bone shields floating around him as cover while he rained bone spears down, one after another. 

Unicy maneuvered Rex to dodge while the tiger used his powerful jaws to catch and shatter bone spears in their way. 

“Midget, you dare to invade my master's domain? You and all those you’ve brought with you will have your souls tortured for eternity for this disrespect!”

Unicy could feel the sweat pouring off her body as her eyesight erratically scanned the area, taking in all available information.

Wish I learned magic. It would’ve been easier to make an opening for the kill shot if I had. Don’t have much time left with these bone spears in the ground making it more difficult to move, however. At most, we have thirty seconds before we’re both killed by spears or the tidal waves of skeletons heading to this position.

Keeping cool, calm, and collected, Unicy replied to the necromancer. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Ho ho, I’d like to see you try.”

With a glint in his eye, the necromancer held both hands in the air, causing hundreds of bone spears to appear in the air above Unicy, making her eyes open wide. 

“Now, let’s end this farce.”

The necromancer motioned downward, making the bone spears go into a freefall. 

For Unicy, time seemed to slow down for a moment as her eyes moved around, searching until she saw it.

The line.

Digging her feet into Rex’s sides, she motioned him towards the western wall. She then notched three bulky tipped arrows one after another, shooting them forth into three bone spears. The explosion was large enough for the bones to blow up, leaving behind only dust and a shockwave large enough to blow the surrounding spears away.

The necromancer lost sight of, thanks to the cloud of dust and huffed, “You think a weak parlor trick can save you?”

The necromancer summoned a new wall of spears, sending it into the cloud in hopes of impaling the insects inside. He fired wave after wave of spears, littering the floor with countless spikes.

Then he heard a scream.

The necromancer laughed with a smirk, “Finally caught the bugs.”

Now it’s time to clear the rest of the vermin out of here for Master.

Feeling confident that he had killed Unicy and her pet, the necromancer started to lower the platform he was standing on but stopped himself when he saw the dust clear.

Where is the bod-

Before he could finish the thought, out of the corner of his eye he saw a white-tipped arrow.

Right before it entered his head. 

If it was an ordinary arrow it wouldn’t have caused much damage, a ruby arrow charged with flame mana would’ve hit harder; those high explosive arrows that caused the dusty smokescreen would’ve done major damage, but the necromancer felt confident he could survive one.

But this was an arrow with a ruby tip heavily infused with holy power.

“Go fuck yourself, bone spear cunt.”

Unicy’s cold words were the last thing the necromancer heard before his head exploded with holy fire that quickly traveled down his body and burned it into nothing more than cinders.

***

Unicy stared coldly until their foe turned into ash, idly patting Rex, who was clinging to a wall. When the light faded her gaze turned somber as she looked down at a bone spear sticking out of her side. Coughing out a mouthful of blood, she put her bow away and grabbed Rex’s reins with a death grip.

She whispered, “Reaver… take me to a medic… I’m… going to sleep for a bit…”

Rex let out a mournful roar as he clambered down the wall with Unicy leaning heavily upon the tiger’s back.

 

Part 4 - Change of Plans

 

“You… you used us…”, holding her cracked ribs Elana stared hatefully at Agate, who sat upon the headless corpse of a necromancer.

Drinking casually from his wine sack, Agate wore a refreshed smile.

“You’ve done your job perfectly, second in command. Without you ants, I might have gotten injured, and that would have been worrisome with the battles to come. Come now, go rescue those hostages, I have to nurse this wine and recover my energy.”

Looking at the egotistical Agate then at her surroundings, Elana only saw the devastation. No one in their group besides Agate came out of the battle unscathed. Some had lost limbs and a few had even died only to turn into beams of light and vanish.

Those less wounded were helping to treat the injured, stopping blood loss or helping the ice mage to cool limbs in hopes for the white mages to be able to reattach them. The most pitiful of the group was Tänzer, who had had his legs crushed from one of the necromancer’s attacks. He just stared at his legs in a daze, the light from his eyes gone.

Elana’s body trembled as her heart burst into flames, “You could’ve prevented this, all of this! You had the power to easily deal with that monster!”

Looking at her like she was retarded Agate scoffed, “Why is it my fault? They were weak and the weak are made to be used. That’s just a rule of the universe, no matter where you go. They should be thanking me for giving their pathetic lives some worth. What’s that saying, the one that retarded king kept repeating? Oh yeah. For the glory of dwarven kind! What a fucking joke, it should be for my glory. Now go rescue the hostages. Hopefully, they’ll be better than these dumb rats and midget foxes.”

Feeling something snap within her, Elana gathered the earth mana around her. As she was about to attack Agate, a wolf stood before her. 

It growled at Elana making her confused. 

Falling to her knees she mumbled, “Reaver, Ubel… why?”

“Haha, see what I mean? The weak have no say in front of the strong. Even that Ubel kid is sensible. I mean, no one is really going to die here as long as that fake ‘King’ pays up. You’re getting too emotional for nothing. If we were back on Red Mountain I would have killed you for even thinking of rebellion.”

Inwardly Agate was happy, Good, this Ubel is scared of me. I wonder how much more I can milk out of him before leaving. Humph, being a follower doesn’t suit me at all. I should just kill that fake king and take over.

The wolf stopped growling and turned to Agate to tap its paw.

“Medic heading over. Clear skeletons, rescue hostages, take the mecha’s power core, and retreat to the temporary camp for more orders.”

With a smirk Agate enunciated each word loudly and clearly, enjoying how the words seemed to pound into those nearby like hammers. In their hearts hatred burned for Agate, and Ubel for looking the other way.

***

“Info Scribing.” Kist murmured as he closed his eyes, holding onto a large ruby. Soon misty white energy flew out of his nose, ears, mouth, and eyes. It collected upon the ruby before slowly seeping inside.

It only took a minute for Kist to finish his spell, and when he was done the floating white smoke receded back into his brain. 

Opening his eyes, Kist handed the stone to the awaiting Ubel.

Placing the stone on his forehead Ubel spoke the words “Info accept.”

Eyes closed, the stone flashed and information began to pour into his mind. Memories began to appear, one by one. The battles, the necromancers’ abilities, the number of wounded, the states of the hostages, everyone's contributions to the battle, and even Agate’s ruthlessness.

It took him a few minutes to digest the information before he opened his eyes and sighed.

“So the bastards are forming up to retreat from the outposts. Three out of our twelve powerhouses are too wounded to engage. The rescued fox-kin are malnourished and have only half their strength.”

Ubel paused with a sigh, “I was expecting the undead to charge at us but instead they’ve decided to retreat. My orders are as follows, those too wounded to fight are to be cared for until a medical unit arrives. Next, each hit squad is to move out and group up with another squad. We’ll be ambushing six of the seventeen retreating outposts. If they can kill more afterward, before they reach the castle, then do so. Allow magicians to cast large area spells to level the skeleton armies.”

Gritting her teeth Reaver turned to Ubel, “Are we really going to do nothing about that monster?”

Ubel just glanced at her lazily, “Of course not. I plan on killing him in this event. He’s just too useful and dangerous to attempt to assassinate him at this moment. Does this motherfucker think he can play games with me? He’s going to pay with his life for making light of me. Now go relay my orders, use writing this time as some were confused with the code we were using.”

“You promise?”

Ubel pushed his glasses up, “I don’t promise things I’m not a hundred percent sure of. But you can rest assured that I do take down those who try to undermine my authority. Now send out the message, we’re on the clock.”

Reaver stared at Ubel, searching for something in those dead fish eyes.

“It’s not what I wanted, but I expect you to follow through.”

Turning away, Kist and Reaver reconnected to begin sending out orders as the wind mages headed out with the healers to help the injured.

Ubel leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes.

Well, those rat-kin and fox-kin show some metal in a fight. The rat-kin show utter loyalty and ferocity, although they fail to compare to the fox-kin with their innate magic. They killed just as many selections as we dwarfs did, if not more, and even helped assist in killing a few necromancers.

If the kids are this good I wonder how the adults compare. It’s a good thing we got them so cheaply. If we can bring them back home they’ll be excellent citizens.

Now… I expected Agate to not conform to my expectations, but his brother is a nice surprise. He actually tried his hardest in his fight. His team even has no wounded to speak of, which means he seriously wants to make a good impression. 

Now the question is how greedy I want to be. If we kill off his brother will Bishop stay with us? Or will he side with his brother? I’m going to have to talk with him, one on one, to get a feel for where he stands. I’ll have Reaver set something up with him after this field battle. I’ll also have to deal with those sacrificed to feel out that roaming bomb in the skin of a dwarf. I’ll need them to not make a scene before I can make use of Agate to his fullest ability or it’ll affect morale.

To do that I’ll need to remove them from Agate’s control. Thankfully most of them are injured.

“Reaver, tell Agate that his team is to stay back to meet up with another squad. They need a healer afterall.”

“Alright.”

“Good. I’m heading out for a bit with some spearmen. I’ll need to borrow some mounts, Reaver.”

“But Ubel, the battle isn’t over yet. What if they decide to pull something?”

Ubel handed her a paper as he walked past her, “I’ve written some scenarios on this instruction sheet. Follow it to the letter. Has Agate left?”

Kist responded, “Yes, he snorted at being overworked and followed the wolf.”

“Excellent, then I’ll be heading out.”

“To do what sir?”

“To set the trap.”

Edited by:KuroYousei