“Alright breaks over get packing you lot”-Leader

“Yes sir”-Aide Allen

“The sooner we get packed and moving the sooner this patrol can be over”-Leader

“Yeah I could use a drink when we get back”-Officer Bill

“Well you can once we are finished now get packing faster”-Leader

“You sure sir, we can wait longer for you to rest”-Officer Charles

“Enough of your lip officer or you get to personally clean the guts of the next batch of monsters we find”-Leader

“YES SIR”- Officer Charles

Well the end of yet another exchange here in the wild lands, why did I get dumped with leading this large patrol of freshly trained soldiers. Oh yeah because everyone else is busy and we get the chance to refill the special shock companies here. My other title probably paid alot in getting this post out with the hordes of feral monsters, better this then holing up in some fortress for a few months. I will the horses back into readiness off their low mana mode and the clacking of bones fill the air. This batch of replacements I have finished is also woken up into moving order while those I have not finished are stuck back in the carts for later, yep the works of a necromancer in the military. At least I have seniority when I meet any comrades and can get them to do the grunt work, though not likely to occur considering I stuck myself here on purpose.

Once this self imposed term of service is over it's back to my nice quarters at the academy doing research and maybe taking on a position as teacher to have a few classes to teach the young ones, hopefully things have calmed down back home. It can be so annoying having to fight in the army but that's what I get for my research grants and privileges in the empire, besides war has it benefits. Right now it is a time of peace however with a lack of aggressive campaigns so actual fighting is minimal but that just makes things boring if it drags on, so of course dammed people have to find something to do and I do not want to spend my days on warding off intrigue.

Of course I also have to justify my title of nobility but really who can try to unseat me politically, my history of service is more than long enough along with current contributions to stop anyone who feels ambitious. I kept my hands off my territory  after making sure I appointed proper caretakers to only need the occasional peek to ensure that things run smoothly and slap a few naughty hands. Well this is just the musings of an old mage and soldier out on patrol right now with no exciting work on my hands, the lesser of evils compared to bad work getting pulled too heavily into infighting. I have had enough of politics for a lifetime, things will hopefully be sorted out in the year or two I am gone on a tour of the border defenses.

“Alright sound off each troop, who has finished?”

“First Company ready”

“Second Company ready”

“Third Company ready”

“Fourth Comany ready”

“Rimark Regiment still needs time, half of the troops are ready”

“Corvesta Regiment is majority ready, only the supply train needs to finish preparing”

“Alright all separate troops move into position once Rimark is finished it will be rear guard with Corvesta just in front of them”

“Understood”

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Yes the last leg of the journey before we arrive at the fort and exchange posts. Rimark stays behind and I am off with the individual troops and Corvesta back to other fortresses. Once I drop off the completed skeletons and parts I can take that break. But first finish this patrol and guard exchange, alright good everything is packed up while I was thinking.

“Move out”

“Yes sir”

Ahh the comfort of my personal travel mount, the combination of two avius land striders worth of bone means I have enough space for all my things and a good travel saddle with plenty of padding. Not to mention this thing is tough enough to massacre a full size platoon with ease by itself. Everyone else is moving forward on foot or on horses we should only face one more battle by the woods and then there will be only a few more days of journey. The tramp of boots and hooves mixed with the thump of bone claws and feet. The sun is hanging in the sky with a few clouds for cover, we are keeping an eye out for anything. There should only be monsters out here as any humans need to be in large groups to survive and bandits are not disciplined enough to survive against the large beasts here and as far as I know no other groups reside here ,or would have reason to.

Out here on patrol unless you are a scout or an utter ascetic you can’t help but start thinking about random things or reminiscing on your life. As I thought back to how I got my position, as a child I was an orphan in some nameless village on the frontier. Either I became accepted as a full member and spent a life of farming or died as a child without support in the harsh village life near the wilds. Except for my case I was taken in by my old master Thel’Tholast, he appeared an old traveler and needed someone to help him on his journey. The village offered me up and I left with him in short order, as it turned out though I had some magic potential and so became a disciple. He taught much of what he knew but he got into trouble and had to enroll me in the local academy for safety. Still don’t know what happened to him but he should be okay. The man was unstable at times, collateral damage from spells were high when he was ever forced into a corner.

Still I learned pretty much whatever he had learned in regards to necromancy and anatomy along with some smattering of other systems of magic. This let me make my way in the academy before transferring to the royal capital’s academy. Did well enough to be noticed and that led to a streak of mishaps that eventually then led to my rather lofty positions and various titles though I prefer just Hierarch necromancer and general. Necromancy is allowed here but under restrictions including clauses like only reanimating non sentient creatures only and other such things. Of course my own work paved the way for other methods of necromancy though mostly improvements to existing work.

The military especially like my improved undead horses for logistic use, specialty warhorses are also something I make. This fuels my research into other forms of necromancy and magic though admittedly some are illegal. I did get nationalized for military use but the spoils of war and some active covert field testing does make up for it. Ahhh war is useful for many things though it does get tiring at times. Nothing like watching your creations at work and feeling that maker’s pride, now on that point I wonder how the special troops I made for the young one is doing. He is a good lad and I hope he succeeds in his goal, I could probably improve his chances much more with direct intervention but he wanted a chance for himself and is good enough to try it at least.

Ackkk “SHIT, SCATTER EVERYONE SCATTER FORMATION. INCOMING MAGIC”

FUCK my magic sense just found a massive blast of mana heading for the formation, this thing is powerful enough to wipe us out in one fell swoop. Who is crazy enough to attack this army with that scale of magic, the resources for this powerful a strategic magic is not worth it even if I am here. That is a massive raw mass of mana throwing out tendrils and flares as it goes, someone spent alot of charged magic crystals to make that. I doubt that gathering all the mana crystals in the empire can create a blast as strong as this.  My magic is not special at least those spells that I have shown, others can make up for the slack if I die having left my teachings behind. There would be a temporary drop in logistics and shock company numbers but the reserves are enough to cover training more necromancers. It would be more worthy to attack a stronghold border fort or my labs then only a relative handful of troops.

Any attempt at shielding against this massive an attack is worthless, telling the transport horses to head out as fast as possible with their crews and getting the troops heading outward of the blast zone. Some will survive but not many, at the center of the formation against a single blast my chance to live is unlikely. Taking out the control talisman for my undead I change the barrier settings to only allow my immediate superiors to use it and throw it out with my other grimoires and artifacts . Perhaps others may use it to avenge me for I will likely not live through this, I do hope that my back up plans work but I never planned them for such a massive mana blast.

As the mass of mana grows closer the flare off its surface lash out at those nearby frying them in a bath of pure mana. Even running with massive mana infusion into my mount I am not far enough to escape, soon I feel a massive pulse of mana tear my component parts to bits than detachment......I feel nothing at all, total deprivation of the senses. My mind still functions but nothing else does, no limbs, no beating heart, nothing.... Pushing hard with my mind I soon feel something more familiar, my soul... I can sense it now but that is it, there is only my soul and the void. How can this be, a soul cannot exist without some sort of medium whether it is a body or magic essence to anchor onto and this is not one of my planned survival cards. Even so called disembodied spirits have some sort of essence to cling to even if it is metaphysical. Just what could maintain my soul in such a state, as I was to find out my answer would appear very soon.