Hidden in the cave's darkness, I hung from a stalactite above the bat village. Climbing across the columns without being spotted had been as time consuming as it was nerve-wracking, but I’d finally made it to a good vantage twenty feet above the town. With bated breath, I watched my plan come to fruition.

A larger party of bat people left for the fungle, carrying baskets and bags made of woven fibers. Unlike their usual gathering parties, this time the old and young went out with them, as well as a contingent of guards. And to a person, almost all of them, save the children, looked pissed.

The fault was all mine. I’d snuck over to their food silo while they slept and used Famine. Fortunately, the building was on the outer side of the town, and sneaking up to it had been easy. By the time I’d finished, there was nothing but black sludge remaining of their foodstuffs. When the villagers saw what I’d done, they panicked and sent word to the temple on the hill.

A priest or cultist came to investigate the area, but couldn’t figure out what happened. They burned the silo down, to stop contamination, I assume, and immediately set to work on building another one. However, losing months of food put them in a precarious position.

Part two of my plan made it so much worse.

After assassinating all the lazy outer guards, I moved up the warning markings of the Elfhoptaurs. My ploy worked too well. A runner from the temple brought back a large group of the mana cored bats that fought along the lake shore. Instead of looking for an interloper, they headed toward the bugmen territory to make it safer for their gatherers. Hopefully, for now, they’d blame them for the missing hunting party, too.

After all that drama, the only thing left in my way was a skeleton crew.

I felt a little bad about potentially kicking off a war between two coexisting races. The presence of a temple wasn’t enough to write all the native bat people off as evil death cultists. But, ultimately, they tried hunting me down with weapons drawn. So did the bugmen. That mitigated the sting. I’d done all I could to mitigate collateral damage on my end. If they still went to war after I pulled off my tricks, that would be on them.

That stupid bugmonkey from before sat on the vines watching me, while I watched the bats. My Hide ability kept me from being observed by everyone, but the weird primate continued to stare in my direction. I was terrified that the intense bugger was going to give me away to the villagers. Thankfully, they ignored the creature like I should have.

The stress of having so many lives on my shoulders was getting to me. Chiefly, because I blamed myself for setting all these events into motion. Guilt was hardly an emotion I had to struggle with during my last life, and neither was a scenario where I’d been responsible for a catastrophe.

Quit looking at me! You judgemental hairy bastard, I’m doing the best I can!

After the bulk of the villagers had left, I commanded my skeletons to drop from the ceiling first.

That part of my plan had taken the most time. Killing each of the unalert sentries had been as trivial as it had been unrewarding. All four were nothing more than coreless bat people. The problem was, I needed them to be skeletons in order for me to Create Skeleton.

So, I’d carried their stinking corpses all the way back to the plant monster with an acid reflux problem and gave them a bath. Unfortunately, the dissolution of flesh worked so well that it also weakened their bones.

My creations were anything but impressive, and after I wrapped them up in fern leaves and black moss to make them look like bats, they also looked silly. Unless bats really were blind, these idiot minions would fool no one. Not up close, anyway. I was banking on keeping them away from scrutiny by taking the long way around the village, then up the path to the gate.

Carrying their spears, my minion squad marched to my stalactite and opened a space for me.

I took one more glance around the village to see if anyone spotted their approach, but found no one looking. The few remaining bats were working hard on digging a new hole for a food silo. Guards on the gate were looking outward, and all was silent from the temple.

I can’t believe this is working…

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My drop to the ground left a deep impression of my boots in the dirt, but didn’t damage me in the slightest. Together, with me huddled under a fern leaf poncho in the center, we rushed up the ramping road toward the gate.

The entire trip, my head swiveled back and forth between the silo, temple, and gate.

Come on, come on, come on.

I made no noise, but my skeletons sure did. Every scuff in the soil made my neck muscles cringe in anxiety. Their hastily made leafy shoes did nothing to ease the problem.

When we were only about thirty feet out, one of the three guards turned in our direction. Just to catch my spear in the neck.

A truckload of mana came off the guy, and I knew then that they all had mana cores.

Uh, oh.

Still channeling Necrometry, for mastery with a spear, I reached out and grabbed the weapon of my minion on my right. Then I cocked back my arm for another throw. My next target reacted quickly, diving off the platform and dodging my projectile. The other bat had a shocked look on his face, eyes wide and teeth bared, and turned to run for a bell hanging from a post.

I quickly grabbed the minion’s spear on my left before sending all four of them and Galahand to engage with the dodger.

Lining up another throw, I waited until right before the scared sentry reached the bell before releasing. My throw was masterful, passing directly through the arm of my target and into the wooden barricade with a thunk.

That’s when the problems started.

First, I realized I was essentially weaponless for the next minute, without a spear. My bastard sword was already in hand, but without my blessing giving me expertise, I may as well have been whipping my weiner around.

Soon afterward, I learned a bat can screech every bit as loud as a bell. The pinned guard’s wailing was so intense I wondered why they even bothered with a bell at all.

I shot across the remaining distance with my sword held in a jousting position. The dodger, who was on my left, threw a bladed weapon ‌to intercept me, but I easily avoided it.

Two can play that game! Hah!

By the time I reached the screaming bat, it had removed the spear from its arm, and had forgotten about the alarm altogether. Or maybe it had just reached the same conclusion as me about its car alarm style soprano.

Leaping up, I took a swing that would have made the old me stuck in a motorized chair proud. The blade went wide, missing the legs of the sentry entirely, and cut a flaming groove down the side of the palisade. A moment later, the bat kicked me in the chin with its bare foot.

I stumbled back only a step; a fact I think surprised us both. Either I was a lot harder to hurt than I believed, or the mana cored bat-man had little strength.

I reacted first, reaching out to grab the sentry’s leg. He tried to snatch it away, but I grazed his foot with a finger.

That was all I needed.

Degenerating Touch hit the guy, and a second later he keeled over, falling head first off the walkway. My blade took him in the chest before he could rise again.

Ignoring the swell of mana, I looked over my shoulder to see how Galahand was doing. The remaining guard was much stronger than the other two had been. Only one skeleton remained active, and sadly, it had no legs. Galahand was darting around on the ground like a jumping spider, doing its best to keep the bat from going after me, but it wasn’t enough of a threat to deter him for long.

Sheathing my sword, I turned back to the wooden barricade and leapt up to the walkway. There hadn’t been enough time to switch to another weapon with Necrometry, so I went for the spear that I’d thrown.

It was stuck.

A motion to my left caught my attention, and I narrowly evaded a spear thrust at my stomach. The bat had made it past Galahand, and had no intention of being delayed further.

The guard used a Skill, and the next stab came at me in a blur. Though the classer had aimed the thrust at my heart, I still had enough enhanced agility to intercept the attack with my right hand. The spear point sunk into the enchanted leather, then skittered off, only leaving a slight cut on the back of my hand.

Instead of waiting for a third attack, in a remarkable show of acrobatics, I leapt against the palisade wall and kicked off to land on the stuck spear. Now out of reach of his weapon, I jumped again and reached the top of the wooden barrier. With both hands gripping the edge, I easily pulled myself up and swung a leg over.

Behind me, Galahand was racing past the flames I’d ignited earlier, trying to scale its way to me. Though I was out of reach, my champion was not.

The guard pulled back to use his Skill again, and I knew my poor minion was done for. I was too far away, and no ability I possessed would reach the spear in time.

A shout roared its way out of my throat before I could clamp down on the emotion. Time slowed down to a crawl as the guard’s weapon took on a slightly blue glow before flying toward my best friend.

Only to get knocked off course by a rock.

It wasn’t a forceful diversion, barely knocking the attack a few inches, but it was enough to do nothing more than scratch Galahand’s pinky.

I looked up to see who had thrown the life-saving missile and saw the bugmonkey.

I gave the noble creature a salute, then jumped off the wall with Galahand perched on my back.