Lesser Nye Wolf L8
“Skelly-1, block the enemy. Skelly-2 and 3, circle it back. ” I know they get the mind commands just as well, but when I’m nervous, I prefer shouting to lower my anxiety.
And so, they moved as I commanded, but the ferocious fast approaching enemy continued to stare at me, only at me. A chill runs down my spine as I take a step back and prepare my knife for attacking. Skelly-1 gets between me and the deadly enemy, but it still refuses to acknowledge anyone – or anything – else. We’ll have to do it the hard way – with me getting bitten and thrown.
The light blue wolf is smaller than my old skeleton, but it definitely looks faster and more terrifying. Well, I guess others might find the undead more terrifying. Teeth bearing, the wolf starts a fast sprint, crossing my undead with ease, and then it’s upon me. My legs shake uncontrollably – I don’t feel like a mighty necromancer, at all. I know what I have to do, but I hate it.
My undead are tanks. They block and they crush, but they’re practically harmless in anything else. Thus, I need to pin down the enemy so that the undead can crush it with all their strength. Which means getting attacked and holding on.
The first bite comes for my neck, but I manage to block it with my left hand. The sharp teeth sink into my skin, drawing blood and pain. I hold and try to keep the wolf close – Gods, what am I doing? The wolf releases my arm but bites it again in a higher position while trying to get my neck. I scream, but I hold. The wolf continues to bite me furiously. I can no longer understand what’s happening. The pain is everywhere. I know that my left arm is in rags and it manages to get my legs too, but I can only focus on keeping it in the same position. Please, be quick…
The crash sends me rolling back and I feel my back taking another heavy hit – I’ll never heal this damn rib. There’s pain and blood, a lot of both. I try to find my breath and stand up, but it hurts so much. However, a loud whimper brings me back to the game. The wolf was hit by my skeletons! That’s right! The damn wolf is crying… “Hahaha.”
I laugh maniacally for a few seconds, but then I remember that it’s not dead yet. A quick look over the scene shows the wounded wolf being crushed again – it’s Skelly-2 this time. The second attack doesn’t deal as much damage, the wolf is only pushed back. The beast is furious. It bites back and takes away two bones from Skelly-2, but then it moves past to attack Skelly-1. The undead is also going its way, ready to crash it if all might.
The wolf dodges to the side and bites back to take away a rib bone from Skelly-1. But it’s not satisfied, it bites again, at the head this time. The beast’s mouth closes on the bone, but before the wolf can yank it off, Skelly-3 comes crashing on its back.
It’s my chance! I need to kill it now. I launch myself disregarding the injuries on my legs, only my good hand, which is thankfully holding a knife, can do any damage. The wolf growls at Skelly-3, outraged to have been wounded by such a weakling. However, it’s too late. I’m already on it, and I’ll make it pay for the pain it caused.
I stab, and stab, and then stab again. The wolf whimpers louder, I get another bite on my good hand, but I don’t care. It has to pay! The beast’s cry stops, but I can’t risk stopping. Soon, I feel that familiar rush – probably health and mana entering my body – so I stop. It’s stronger than ever, but I somehow feel some of it escaping toward my undead. That won’t do! Something deep inside tells me I can control it, so I command that energy to flow my way, only to me. There’s another small rush until it’s gone.
My vision blurs and I only manage to lie at the side before fainting.
Sometime later, I woke up to darkness. Am I blind? The answer comes from a movement on the periphery of my sight. No, it’s just night. Slowly, I sit up and start to analyze the situation. My three skeletons seem to be fine; they are circling me to form a… safety perimeter! Great, they know how to act, even without orders. Or they could just be following last night's orders. Either way, great!
The dead wolf is… at my side, just where I left it before going to a nice sleep. Well, it’s already smelling, I should deal with it quickly. My arm! Looking at the wolf, I suddenly remember my wounded arm, I should have bandaged… How didn’t I bleed out? Fortunately, when I look at my injured left arm, I only see the dried blood. Oh, maybe the health I absorbed stopped the blood, or else I would have died from losing that much blood. Let’s check the stats.
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CLASS
NECROMANCER
LEVEL
3
HEALTH
20 (70)
MANA
30 (30)
SKILLS
BRINK OF DEATH
YOU CAN BRING YOURSELF FROM THE BRINK OF DEATH (X).
COST: HALF OF YOUR TOTAL HEALTH (PERMANENT)
RAISE SKELETON
SUMMON AN UNDEAD FROM THE BONES OF A DEAD BEING (I).
Cost: 10 mana and 5 health.
Well, I’m definitely alive. Health won’t go up any time soon, though. From my experiences, I can say that I won’t recover fast from these many wounds. At least, all of my undead survived and I will soon have another. Let bygones be bygones, Shain.
The next five hours were too humiliating to describe. After painstakingly starting a fire with the wood my undead dragged, I finally started processing the wolf. Let me say that processing a corpse with only one good – less damaged – hand is incredibly difficult. The result ended up being less than optimal. Whatever fur had resisted my crazy stabbing ended up damaged by my poor one-hand skinning skill.
However, I still managed to get the bones out before dawn. There was no way around it, these were the worse cleaned bones I got, much worse than my rushed job with Skelly-2. They would probably rot and smell later, but hopefully, I’ll get to clean them when I’m feeling a little more capable.
“Rise!”
Lesser Skeleton L2
I felt something in me change. The part of me that clamors for death grew stronger, deeper. I could feel my undead better as if our bound had gotten thicker. My core – this is what I call the place where my mana comes from – changed too, it became more… spacious. I could pretty much guess what happened, even without checking my status. Then, I finally paid attention to my new undead.
Only a level 2… Well, it’s better than a level 1.
Fortunately, after commanding Skelly-4, I discovered that it was much faster than the other skeletons. It wasn’t very surprising considering its origin, but a good thing, nonetheless. Now, I have to deal with my damaged skeletons.
I commanded them to come closer, and one by one, I started fixing and filling up their mana. Skelly-2 was the most damaged, but the other two also lost one or two bones. Surprisingly, when I was charging Skelly-2 and 3, they absorbed more mana and leveled. Even though the fight had been gruesome and painful, it left me with three level 2 skeletons.
Lesser Skeleton L2
Lesser Skeleton L2
However, the best part was yet to come.
CLASS
NECROMANCER
LEVEL
4
HEALTH
17 (80)
MANA
10 (40)
SKILLS
BRINK OF DEATH
YOU CAN BRING YOURSELF FROM THE BRINK OF DEATH (X).
COST: HALF OF YOUR TOTAL HEALTH (PERMANENT)
RAISE SKELETON
SUMMON AN UNDEAD FROM THE BONES OF A DEAD BEING (II).
Cost: 9 mana and 4 health.
I leveled up my class to 4 and improved my Raise Skeleton skill proficiency to II, which lowered the costs of summoning a skeleton. Although the cost only decreased by 1, it was a nice unexpected gain.
However, the biggest loot was still the new undead. After the last fight, I fully understand the need for versatility. Sometimes, quality really trumps quantity.