The Second Challenge, [The Breaking of Graves], will begin today.

Time remaining: 0:0:0:27

A force of unprecedented power and was about to impact the world, forever reshaping the course of its history.

And Temujin was leading the simultaneously strongest and strangest horde he’d ever led. Horses ran alongside cars, trucks drove next to tanks, and overhead, machines he could scarcely have imagined were possible flew, having launched to be ready right now, at this moment.

So polite of the System to announce when it would attack. So foolish. It wasn’t like one could use information to lay traps, right?

Of course, this trap would be rather ineffective if the information he’d received from Europe turned out to be wrong, but the fact that there was something to the missive had been fairly easy to prove. Temujin hadn’t even had to go out and look for said proof, a simple review of the last few days had shown him exactly how the monsters within a hundred kilometers or so of him were concentrated around his location.

However, there was one small issue. He had no earthly idea how close to him the monsters of this new wave would appear. Which meant they needed to be mobile, since it was easy to imagine a worst-case scenario where they found themselves utterly surrounded by enemies, with their foes being so close that the horde’s outer ranks would be instantly embroiled in combat.

Because being surrounded was one of the worst situations an army could find itself in, just like being attacked while in the middle of fording a river spelled defeat.

That last one had been one of Subutai’s favorite tactics. Run away from the heavily armored European knights, cross a river, then turn around and annihilate his enemies while it was their turn crossing the river.

It had been funny how much “tradition” had been holding back the Mongol tribes of his youth. Subutai had been from a different tribe than Temujin’s own, one of reindeer herders to boot. No one would have ever made him a general under normal circumstances, simply because of his origins, but Temujin had decided to throw tradition out of the window a long time before he’d ever met Subutai and gained an overwhelmingly capable general in the process.

However, encirclement wasn’t the only reason they were out on the steppe, in the middle of nowhere. Because modern fortifications were awful. Granted, considering the modern military’s propensity towards devastatingly accurate long-range weaponry, that was understandable, but that didn’t change the fact that no modern army base would do the job he needed it to fulfill.

So, to ensure that this fight would go well and not end in seconds due to monsters being dropped right on their heads, he’d established the army-slash-horde in the middle of nowhere, a place where he had options.

“Advance,” Temujin ordered. It wasn’t a full-on charge, something at a far lower speed than that, but it was the start. Something that could easily transition into a dead stop or a charge, depending on the requirements of the situation.

The horses began to trot forward, the vehicles’ engines began to chug to life, and overhead, the helicopters still did their thing, hanging there, making an infernal racket that was annoying even down here.

Temujin’s horse nickered and he patted it on the head, applying yet another dose of [Horse Whisperer] to calm it down.

They had a lot more cars than they did horses, but paradoxically, between [Horse Whisperer], [Enduring Mounts], and [Supernatural Lineage], it was the horses that were all-around better. Though he privately had to admit, he’d have likely chosen a horse even if the cars had been superior, simply because he was more familiar with it. And those cars … he’d have been reduced to a mere passenger because him driving one was not a good idea. Yet. He’d learn, he’d even started, but for now, he had to be honest in his assessment of his driving skills.

A mere thought minimized the warning window, reducing it to a mere countdown in the corner of his vision.

Five seconds, four seconds, three seconds … and finally, the countdown hit zero, and jumped up to twenty days while the window expanded back to its full size without his input. Temujin only looked at that long enough to make sure they wouldn’t get hit by the third wave while still fighting the second one, then removed the window from his field of view and paid attention to the area around him, channeling [Remote Administration] to get information on things he couldn’t directly see.

His entire field of view was filled with nameplates, and while his Skill didn’t show them, he was absolutely certain that the areas it showed him were likewise covered in the warning signs.

Skeleton (raised human), Level 1

Zombie (raised human), Level 1

Skeleton (raised horse), Level 1

Skeleton (raised reindeer), Level 1

Enhanced Skeleton (raised human), Level 10 Field Boss

Skeletal Amalgam (raised fusion), Level 35 Raid Boss

Zombie Horde (raised humans), Level 30 Raid Boss

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

A lot of simple, Level 1 beasts that didn’t look to be particularly tough, a handful of larger creatures that would doubtlessly turn out to be Field Bosses when he looked at them directly, and two immense creatures right in front of him.

A skeletal spider-thing with far too many limbs, many of which were likely whips, while others held immense bone balls on their ends.

And an unnaturally dense group of rotting human corpses that, for some strange reason, shared a nameplate.

“Pivot right and break through! [Crushing Charge]!” Temujin roared, his Skills ensuring that the orders reached every last member of his horde.

There were at least a hundred meters between the undead and the closest to them portion of the horde, but that distance was rapidly disappearing as the monsters advanced.

And they were in a terrible position right now, completely surrounded by the dead closing in, and their foes were stronger or at the very least equal at the moment. If they weren’t, [Overwhelming Superiority] would activate, tilting an already uneven balance of power further in Temujin’s favor, making small advantages have a far larger advantage, assuming everything worked as advertised.

So, they had to get out of here, and Temujin was driving the horde straight through the weakest spot in the horde, using the hundred-meter gap to accelerate while [Crushing Charge] allowed the attacking horde to create a massive wedge of energy before it, ripping clean through the enemy. Rotting flesh was pulped and bones reduced to powder as the frontline crushed the enemies.

Now this was more like it. As useful as having all the information he could access in this new life was, it could get overwhelming. Very overwhelming. But this, charging against an enemy with the wind whipping through his hair, bow in his hand, and staunch allies all around, this was a return to his glory days!

Modern warfare was loud, roaring engines and rattling guns far exceeding the noise level caused by clashing metal and whinnying horses, but that was just another part of the enigma that was the world of Temujin’s second life.

His [Dread Aura] began to flow out of him, his emotions boiling out of him as a literal, physical, presence, undead quailing wherever it touched, further opening the breach in the enemy encirclement.

The Skeletal Amalgam, in the meanwhile, had already reached the back of his forces, ripping into them. Not good.

Twisting in his saddle, Temujin loosed an arrow at it, activating [Starfall Shot]. A glowing meteor was hurled through the air, gracefully arcing through the sky, trailing embers, before returning to the ground with a vengeance, ripping clean through the Amalgam’s chest in a massive explosion of fire and bone splinters. Not enough to kill it, but certainly enough to slow it down.

Also, it seemed like their escape was a sure enough thing that another of his Skills would activate in the way he wanted.

“[Inevitable Conclusion],” Temujin intoned, reality itself seemed to stutter, and from one second to the next, all living humans were two kilometers from the undead, formed up to face their foes, while said foes were congealed into a massive blob that was stumbling in his general direction.

That particular ability was very much a double-edged sword. It wouldn’t hurt anyone, in fact, it would neither kill nor destroy in any way, and yet, it was easily the most indiscriminately lethal Skill in his arsenal. Simply put, it ran through a simulation of how an engagement would go, and if there was an outcome, or rather, a conclusion, that was highly likely, the battlefield would be shaped to match it, shifting armies around in an instant.

Undisciplined enemies would see their formations torn ragged before their discipline broke, traps that were likely to work would instantly succeed and whatever small chance an enemy had had at spotting and evading them would be reduced to nothing, and maneuvers that were almost guaranteed to succeed but entail casualties could be pulled off bloodlessly.

While they were fighting to free themselves from the enemy encirclement, this Skill might have seen Temujin’s forces intermingled with the undead, all but served up to them on a silver platter. But once the escape had started to succeed, well, they were more than able to set themselves up to square off against this scourge.

Temujin led the cavalry contingent, trotting it out in front of the vehicular forces, while those in cars got out and started to aim whatever ranged weapons they had in the direction of the undead, while the tanks began to fire, explosive shells raining down into the densest clumps of enemies.

Missiles and bombs rained down from overhead, wiping out huge chunks of the enemy army as well, but at this point, the little ones weren’t the real issue. Not with their modern weaponry and vastly superior mobility. No, the real issue would be those “Raid Bosses.” Strange name, but the power they held was respectable.

“Onwards!” the horsemen charged past the undead horde, unleashing bullets and arrows from well outside the monsters’ range.

Again and again, they shot past, the stupid walking corpses constantly deciding that they, as the closer target, were what they wanted to go after, despite them not only being far more mobile than the shambling undead but also than the other humans. Simple as can be.

Until eventually, only the two Raid Bosses were left. With the Amalgam, it was abundantly clear what granted it the power its rank demanded.

But the Zombie Horde had been harder to understand … until he paid attention to how it was taking damage. Any time a part of it was struck, every other part took the same amount of damage, weakening the original strike into near-irrelevance in the process. Combined with the sheer durability of anything high-leveled, and they were all essentially indestructible.

That would be a pain in the behind to fight, so he snapped a few orders and charged at the other enemy. Because it wouldn’t be his job to deal with the Horde, and everyone else would more easily be able to take it down without the threat of the Amalgam hanging over their head.

So he stowed his bow and charged, then, leaning out of the saddle, scooped up one of the monster’s limbs that he’d blown off with his initial strike. The bone whip began to flop around but he triggered [I Claim This Weapon], forging it into a deadly tool for him to wield, a mighty glaive that would cleave his foe apart.

[Crushing Charge] flung him forward, closing the distance at ever-growing speeds, then [Moment of Glory] triggered, further sending both his and his mount’s physical abilities rocketing skywards for just a brief moment, but it was enough.

The titanic weapon he’d forged his enemy’s limb into struck a crack in its armor with unstoppable force and hacked through, slowly but inexorably carving through until both halves of the beast hit the ground.

Which just left the Zombie Horde. He sighed. It would take a while for things to be ready there, but until then, they had horses and cars, they could just keep retreating. And they did. Until the preparations were finished.

After that, things were just … anticlimactic. A pit had been dug, and half the monsters had fallen in before the rest of the entity realized the threat. By that point, it had been a simple matter of bombarding the pit with incendiary weaponry, and with the flames concentrated in a single point, it didn’t really matter that the damage was spread out between various bodies. Granted, with half the undead outside the hole, they were only burning half as quickly as they should have been, but that only bought them a little time.

The Mongolian army simply retreated before the slowly advancing and even more slowly disintegrating army until eventually, even the last zombie had been reduced to blackened bones that were seemingly no longer capable of ambulation.

[Legendary Khan of Duality Lv. 63 -> Legendary Khan of Duality Lv. 65]

[Skill Boost gained]

[Skill gained: Self-Guarded Settlements]

So, as different as his power-gain experience was, with him not having gotten any [Skill Boosts] or [Evolutions] to date, and the only thing he had gotten that wasn’t a Skill being his [Ascendant Capstone: Heart of the Horde], he could still grow.

Temujin grinned.