Hungry Necromancer

By the time I'd deemed Panda at risk of dying chasing the army in attrition and called him back, Shaco had grown taller and wider than even Panda. Beating his wings with his tail curled in a protective cocoon around me, we get ready to brace the impact of the growing fireball about to be launched.

Yelenia and what's left of the brutally beaten and exhausted army retreat back to Autue, if I don't end this now it'll turn into a siege. But I'm not worried, not in the slightest. Things have just gotten a whole lot better now that Shaco has absorbed the power of Venegue's scale. 

It's a blow to my pride though, if it wasn't for Venegue this would have most certainly turned out to be a siege, or an outright defeat. Their numbers already overwhelm ours and the added skills of their Mages, which I'm sure they aren't in short supply, would have been a force even I couldn't withstand. 

I don't know when, but somewhere and sometime during the battle two of Lotar's wolves were slain, only three remain, including the large one which is looking worse for wear.

They've surely got a couple dozen more of those Hunter-like fighters in their ranks, unless I handle them personally, chances are they'd kill everyone else with time. Though, I suppose the other exception to that would be Shaco.

A shockwave of mana bursts across my senses as the giant ball of flame launches into the air, illuminating the night sky as the sun would. Even hidden away in Shaco's tail cocoon, the severity of its heat reaches me.

Through the little hole at the top of the cocoon, I catch Shaco extend, drop open his Amphiptere jaw and breathes a fire of his own. The torrent of flame launches into the Mage's giant ball and slows its descent enough that his breath becomes a vortex of fire that sucks the life out of the attack.

With an audible gulp and flamed burp, Shaco nullifies the attack. Shaco unfurls his tail from me and picks up air, gliding shakily but on the right path, before he even comes close to the army they'd released a flurry of arrows, enchanted with multitudes of damaging effects.

A heavy bat of his wings and a vicious breath attack renders it all useless, but he's forced to descend. On the ground he scrambles into the startled levies and the deaths continue.

To aid in his efforts I launch out into the sky with [Death Grip] tendrils and land in arms of two Spirit Warriors, directed to fly me to the hill. On the hill I give one more order, "Get me one…alive."

Amongst the heap of the corpses of those that have died I raise twenty bodies out of the heap with tendrils and line them up in front of me. A grin spreads across my face as I reach to use the first of my true Necromancy skills, "Create Undead."

Even with my proficiency at the spell, creating twenty ghouls at once takes a toll on my mana and I have no choice but to drain from the [Mana Empowering Soul]. My pathways ache but my grin remains as I fight the hurt of it, already I can feel tears along the pathways, leaking out mana and letting in external mana. 

The corpses undergo the bone breaking and twisting process and become ghouls in a matter of moments. Down at the battle the Marquess' army's begin to mount a steady offensive, the Hunter-like fighters, quite a large number of them fend off both my Spirit Warriors and Shaco.

We'll be overwhelmed in a moment, but not if we shatter their morale. I can imagine how terrifying it must be to go against such a beast, to see it roar hungrily at you. Should they see a couple more beasts…I can break the advantage numbers gives them.

No morale…no monsters.

But that is, of course, if I don't succumb to mana exhaustion before then. The ghouls launch out to the battle and I spread my mana across all the dead around me, "Raise the Dead."

In a grueling drain of mana, all the corpses rise, shaking and trembling as necrotic mana vivifies them, animating their movements. They have the first and only batch of orders from me, "Destroy them."

As my first true undead army marches forth, numbering at least a hundred, I pant and grit my teeth at the agony ripping through my pathways, still I know it won't be nearly enough that I raised ghouls and sent an army of undead after them.

Shaco may be able to nullify their blazing massive fireballs but with the Hunter-like warriors ending the bulk of my Spirit Warriors and placing pressure on Shaco, the undead army will be vulnerable to an attack that'll annihilate it.

And this presses on with Serue and his men on the field. Unaccounted enemies disturb my peace. 

That's why I know I have to give this something more, something as deadly as I would have been. 

[Bond Wraith]

[Sacrifice ten souls and reap a fresh humanoid soul at the start of the ritual to gain favourable ground to summon and bond a vicious Wraith.]

[Wraith]

[Malice incarnate, concentrated into an incorporeal form that seeks to quench all life.]

The system goes on to list its abilities, similar to myself it has a life draining ability that takes the life of everything it comes across. It can move through solid objects, it's intelligent enough to command an army of undead and it has the ability to turn freshly dead foes into [Spectre].

The fact that it's intelligent enough to lead an army of undead sells me on the ritual but the ability to raise dead into a different kind of undead, and one I have yet to raise myself is the icing on the cake.

[19 Souls remain]

It's a big minus on the [Soul Gem] but it's for a worthy cause. The Wraith will serve as my third and possibly strongest undead aside from Shaco, with time I'll raise an army of Witherlings for it to command. 

But for now, the warm ethereal glow of ten souls lined up in front of me. Descending next to me are a squad of Spirit Warriors, latched onto each limb of a struggling, screaming man.

"Let me go! Let me go!"

He's armoured but dented and scorched in several areas, I'd guess this one just barely escaped Shaco. The Spirit Warriors land him on his knees and bound his hands behind his back. 

Trembling he looks up at me, illuminated by the white glow of the souls, stained with blood of many and likely reeking a stench of death, I see in his frightened eyes the man that stands before him and a smile curls my lips.

I approach him and caress his cheek, shaking my head bitterly as he begins a silent sob, lips trembling with a silent cry, through squinted, teary eyes he mumbles and sniffs, "Plea-uck!"

"Shhh, shh, shh. Die with some dignity, don't beg for mercy." I whisper in his ear, my dagger jabbed in his heart.

As he hurls and chokes I begin the chant, "Ul Ryp Kan Pyi."

"Ul Ryp Kan Pyi." I repeat feeling a connection to a power beyond once again, digging just below the surface, hungry to be set free. I start the second part and start sacrificing the ten souls, "Hiri Jaluv Kan Ryp."

Reaching out to the ten souls, I place them between I and the revenant power clawing at the surface like a force sandwich. The souls begin to compress, break under the pressure and their power leaks, taming the hungry power as it absorbs the essence of the souls. 

Taking a deep breath I chant the third and final part of the ritual, "Jak! Cuir! Mevakil!"

Caught off guard the vile, hungry force is subsumed by my mana and by the power of the souls. Rather than consume the souls the power I'm tussling with gets wrapped around in a ball of my will. And it floats in front of me.

A reactive ball containing the dark, sick being within. With my finger I cut my hand across and let drops of my blood fall on it, the first drops sizzle but as I repeat the chant the dark ball begins to absorb it until something snaps, locking the two of us together.

[Bond Pact Created]

[Bond Pact: Wraith(Unnamed)-Servitude]

In a flurry of dark movements the Wraith unfurls out of the ball, the grass underneath its shady figure. It's like a wisp of dark auras and fog with a vague humanoid shape in the middle of it all.

"Master." It's low, menacing lull of a voice unnerves me but I can feel I have it entirely under my control. 

With the last of my strength, I give one last command, "Lead them to victory, trap my enemies in their castle until I wake."

Not waiting to hear an affirmative, my eyes shut, the pain bursts through my pathways and mana exhaustion sends me into a coma.