“You are Immortal."

"You cannot be hurt, so die for me."

"I am your master, so fight for me."

"I have given you a new life, a life of bones. Obey me."

The trumpets blow loud, and synchronized. I don't know where I am. My thoughts are muddled. I understand that I am atop a far-reaching Hill. An open field of grassland as far as I can see below me. I look up, too interested in my surroundings. I see only dark skies with purple-reddish clouds. My head hurts, I feel it's because I am focusing on everything around me at the same time.

My mind feels hazy as I struggle with my thoughts. It takes many seconds for the pain in my head to fade. I am no longer sure the pain was indeed from my head, the feeling was surely unpleasant.  

Focusing too much on small details was a poor choice. My attention shifts back down on the grassland. The field before me was alive with men in armor, atop strong armored horses. At the back of the mounted knights were archers, a lesser number than the knights on the mounts. They held composite bows, arrows already nocked to bows, but some of them also held the trumpets that I heard. Behind the archers stood men in cloaks, a knight briefly behind them, though this one was in black armor with a sword raised.

I feel conscious of myself; I want to know what I looked like, to be self-aware. I find the movement of my arms to be similar to that of moving my head. My arms were bones, my feet as well, my entire body a skeleton.  

I try to perceive it all, my mind fills with too many questions. My thoughts feel like a slippery snake constantly evading my grip. I feel the pain encircling and let my mind go blank.

The roaring sound of the trumpets unleash through the grasslands once again. The sound was cut off by the master's voice. I can hear the command that was spoken, not aloud but as if the words spoke to my soul.

“Charge.”

The feeling of immortality rushes into me, I feel this great undying purpose to kill those before me. Figures blur before my eyes only to notice mere seconds later that they were skeletons, hundreds, if not thousands, of them are running forward, swords held tightly with their bone fingers, many holding swords and shields and a few hold greatswords.

Across the field, the horses pound the ground as they ran, raising dust in the grasslands. I can see, no, almost feel the mages in the back, they are doing something of what I do not know.

My feet move, almost on their own and I soon start to run. I take quick note of how many of the skeletons loose balance when they ran and some even fell over. The idea of jumping over the fallen skeletons came to me, it fought with the idea that I was immortal and as such had no need for such tactics.

My own idea won over and I jump over the fallen skeleton, landing back on my heels only to have to jump over another.

A huge clash of sound erupts at the front of the battle. The knights charge into a massive wall of running skeletons. Their lances broke bones, scattering skeletons as the mounted knights clashed and rode over bones. I can hear the faint screams of the skeletons, as if their very souls were screaming.

I saw the truth. I am not immortal, I am frail. The newfound knowledge fought the control of the master. My will to break away and run isn’t enough.

I need to kill and destroy the enemies of the master, every thought towards the destruction of my foes feel so justifiable.

A mounted knight, who bore a broadsword instead of a lance, gains my focus. It took some timing, but as the knight formation came deeper into the swarm of skeletons, I jump, my bone fingers tightly holding onto the saddle of the knight's horse.

The sky all at once became lit with human sized glowing balls of blue light, which illuminated the skies. Then the globes of light fell, and explodes. The eruptions cause massive explosions in the more densely packed skeleton areas, and avoided the knights entirely. The explosion sent skeletons into the sky, and caused dust clouds around the battlefield.

The arrows came shortly after, just like the globe of exploding light it impacted the crowed areas of the skeletons, as they merged towards the knights.

Moving closer up the saddle, I grab onto the man’s leg to pull myself up onto the horse as it rush by me. The knight takes notice of the hold on his leg as he swings at the skeletons, chopping off their heads.

The knight seems surprise. He looks at me, and I can see the wonder in his eyes through the helmet he wore. He's quick, and turns swiftly to cut my skull off my shoulders. He was too late. My sword lunge for the opening between his armor. The knight twist in pain, his helmet falls off his head as he bends forward in a scream.

I notice then the blue very opaque light that surrounds the man’s face. The light goes dim as the man slumps against my chest, it grew bright again fiercely, then went out.  

I watch the glowing light with great interest. It's about the size of my hand. The light floats up out of the dead knight’s head. The battlefield slowly fades away as I lose interest in the fight. Time slows, and everywhere around me became empty of sound.

The light calls out to me. My lust for death fades away. The world around me turns dark and the light grew even brighter.

I reach out for this light. Why did this light come from the knight? Will it explode like the balls of light in the sky? I grew worried, and lean away from it. But, only shortly after it almost sang to me, like a violin. I'll touch it, yes touch it.  

My hands raise. I could not tell if I’m controlling my own movements, but my hand simply shot forward. I am now holding the light as if it were physical. I was holding light. I sense it on my hand. It's cold and warm. The soul is fill with fear and wonder of what was next. I sense love mix with hate, but most of all I feel the power of the light.

I squeeze the light, no it was better to say, I absorb it. The light turns into what looks like a liquid, it felt like water as it flowed onto my fingers and between the joints of my bones. It flows up my arm and into my ribs. I don't know where it went after that, but what I did know was I remember something.

I remember dreaming of training in the Almerian army as a child, and how filled with happiness I felt when I finally got accepted. I remember Ariel, one of the King's many daughters who I had fallen in love with, and the promises I made her. Not to mention the pride I felt when I became knighted. The memories were like quickly flashes, and soon enough I forgot most of them.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I know these were not my memories, nor even my life. I also know that the knight would never get to see his princess again, and the promises he'd made will never be kept.

I remembered things as well, things from my own life, just brief images of great cities it was enough for me to know that I didn't belong here.

Time resumed, as the world once again returned to its normal speed. Only mere seconds had gone by even though it felt much, much longer to me. I felt different for some reason, I don't know exactly what felt different, it was just this difficult feeling to describe.

Something stood out to me instantly. Small light globes, like the ones that I had just absorbed were floating up all over the battlefield. They vanish as they reach a certain height in the sky. I know now what they are. They were souls of the dead, filled with memories. I try to recall the memories of the knight but, I found them too hard and uncertain like trying to remember what you ate last month. I just know it was there and that it happened.

Did that mean I'm someone else now? My train of thought was abruptly cut off as the horse I sat on attempted to throw me off. I pull on the reigns of the horse, and quickly gained control of it.

I rode the horse like a knight of Almeria, back straight, proud and fearless. The skeleton army no longer focused on stopping my horse. They are unorganized and their true strength are in numbers. The horses of the knights began to fall slowly one by one. The constant assault on the mounts left the battle with the eerie death screams of the horses. The fallen knights were then left to face hundreds of bloodthirsty skeletons, it was a death sentence.

The knight formation began to turn hard to the left. A rider to my right notices me. The man stops mid swing to stare at me. His wonder didn't last long. He saw me as the greatest evil, I know this also from the memories. He made the effort of turning his horse and his body to me. His sword lunges out in a stab towards my head. I deflected it with a powerful arc of my sword. The unexpected action causes the knight's sword to be flung from his hand into the chaos of swarming bones.

The rider reaches for his other sword, which is strapped to his left, all knights carry two, all Almerian knights at least. I try to recovery quickly before the knight could resume this battle. I attempt to bring the sword down onto the knight's helmet, but I overextended and it was sloppy as well. It caused me to almost lose control of the horse. I had missed the knight's head entirely as the sword came back down, it almost sliced into my horse's neck.

The memories from the knight's soul came forward and I pull my sword back in a practiced block. Our swords met in a ringing collision. My impact was much heavier, the rider didn't lose his grip this time, but his sword arm recoiled back from the impact causing him to lose balance.

I didn't lose my chance this time. My sword went in for the strike, digging into the space between the knight's helmet and his cuirass.

The resistance of the sword can be felt, as it went through flesh of the man's neck. He grabs at my sword with both hands as if pulling it out would make him avoid death. He eventually slumps forward as I pull my broadsword out of his neck. The now dead knight rolled off the side of the horse. The horse trips over his body, and fall to its doom.

I feel little for the death of the man. I turn my head around completely to see the dead man's soul float upwards. The only regret I had is letting the man fall. I wanted to absorb his soul, but why? I feel like I have an addiction. The weight of many unanswered questions are still in my head.

I feel the pressure of the master’s commands grow, and my thoughts once again focus on the destruction of life.

The knights are now less than a dozen in number. The skeletons are now less than half of what they were. So much for immortality. I could feel the master's pressure for me to believe in immortality, my blood thirst was still there, but the truth could not be remove.

Light bombs, the name which I had taken to calling the falling exploding light. The small craters caused by the light bombs all over the field, broken arrows as well. So that was the plan. We are being lead around in a huge semi-circle while the mages, and archers take us out. The plan had not worked out that well. There are simply too many skeletons.

The light bombs which are floating above the ground up ahead are different. They didn't explode as they made contact with the ground, instead they laid still. Just floating there. I know nothing good would come of it. I reduce the distance between myself, and a rider in front of me, my left hand reaches out to catch a very close soul and I suck it in.

I reach out with my hand, and grab the rider, pulling him to the side as I grab onto his armor. I send the tip of my sword below his arm, the man fell back, and off the horse. However, not before I absorb his soul.

The lines of light bombs explode as the knights reach the archers. Debris are thrown into the sky from the explosions. Dust covers the area and for a moment nothing could be seen through the dust screen, but it didn't last long. My skeleton brethren burst out through the smoke in full rage.   

The sight of a skeleton riding a horse, followed by almost two hundred skeletons caused even the mages to flinch. The crazy thoughts that must me going through their minds.

The archers stood firmly and hold their bows towards us.

"Release!" A voice shouts, soon after the twangs from the bows filled the air. Another shout from the same voice signaled the archers to once again nock their arrows.

Arrows do very little to a war band of skeletons, after all we are only bones. Sadly, my horse wasn't and it finally succumbs to the many arrows that stuck into him, but not before I manage to almost decapitate one of the last knights.  

I roll several times on the ground as I fall from my horse several feet away from the archers. The Almerian archers let go of their bows, drawing long daggers, a few outright fled. The skeletons crash into the archers savagely, blood whipping into the air as their swords slam into the line of archers.

The skeletons numbers were decreasing, and souls were floating up in the air in all around me. My sword plunges through an archer’s back. I snatch the soul from the air, and suck it dry. The thirst for my enemies grows even larger. My hunger for death reaches it's peak. Did the other skeletons not want souls? The real question is could they even see the souls? They seemed oblivious to it. That was okay, more for me.

Screams filled the battlefield. Screams of souls, oh the souls, yummy souls. The archers grow slower. I suck the soul out of the air from the last dead archer as he slumps to the side, and falls to the ground.

Blood runs down my hand. My bones are now stained with blood. Less than one hundred skeletons remained yet the charged at the mages, like they charged at the knights.  

I now know who the man behind the mages is. A knight captain, in charge of a full legion.

“What are you waiting for! Now now now! “The knight captain shouts at the mages. Seeing the mages up close now I see how their robes had small tiny stars of various sizes. It reminds me of the night sky.

The mages began to chant, in quick succession. Light bombs burst forth from their hands. Watching it this close it looks like lasers. The explosion scatters many of the skeletons. The skeletons were weak to the light bombs for some reason. I know this from simply watching the bombs decimate the skeletons. It was also why I lag behind, to avoid being struck by one of them. An advantage when you know that you aren't immortal.

I burst through the smoke and dust along with two dozen of my fellow skeleton brethren. The mages begin a new spell again. Were the mages always this sluggish?

I push my sword up the jaw of one of the mages. The sword broke bone as it entered the mouth, and out the top of the mages skull. It sent brain matter launching into the air from the hard impact.

This soul is so unlike the others. It's large to begin with, as large as half a man, and it wasn't blue. It's white, but I could see faints of yellow, red and green on the edges of the dominant white soul.

I suck it in. I feel like I'm choking, it felt like biting a burger bigger than my mouth. I push, absorbing and absorbing. I want more and more. I squeeze it with both my hands. I try to compress it as it slowly turns into its liquid form and moves up my arms. I consume every bit of the soul. Yet I want more.

The knight captain is gone. I move fast, like a blur. Before I know it, I’m holding onto another white soul. Absorbing the souls became easier with each one. By the time I'd absorbed five it's as easy as sucking in blue souls.

No more mages are in sight, but that wasn't good enough. The remaining skeletons would have to do. I broke their bones and ripped them apart, their souls were mine.