Novels2Search

Chapter 1

AN UNNERVING SCREAM ESCAPED THE CAVE AS THE BONES OF THE DEAD CAME BACK TO LIFE, GIFTED WITH THE BLESSING OF THE LIVING ONCE AGAIN, FLAMES ERUPTED OUT OF THE HOB-GOBLIN SKULL, ASHES, SEEMINGLY OUT OF NOWHERE ESCAPED ITS JAWS AS IT LOOKED AROUND-

IT UNDERSTOOD THAT THIS WAS THE SECOND TIME IT CAME BACK, IT UNDERSTOOD WHAT IT WAS, WHAT KIND OF BONES MADE UP IT'S BODY AND WHY IT CAME BACK, THE FLAMES FLARED UP AS THE UNDEAD REMEMBERED ITS MULTIPLE DEATHS, AND YET, THANKS TO THIS, IT UNDERSTOOD... THAT, CHARGING IN WITHOUT ANY PREPARATIONS WOULD ONLY RESULT IN IT'S DEATH.

IT SMILED.

IT'S TEETH GOING UPWARDS, THE SHATTERED JAW OF THE HOB-GOBLIN SKULL ENABLING IT TO HAPPEN WITHOUT CONSQUENCES NOR DAMAGE TO IT'S SKULL.

The skeletal warrior looked around, looking for any weapons that could be useful, amongst many things, it found a dagger, two swords, and the broken shards of glass that came from the bottle that killed it the second time. It understood the contents of the glass, what kind of materials were used to make the liquid, and, it understood how to make it.

IT knows what it once was, and it knows what it had become- he is a four-armed skeleton warrior recently born, arms of the hob-goblin acting as the upper arms, whilst both the sword wielding hands of the two brothers acted as it's lower arms, these were the ones that grabbed the swords beneath it's feet, handling them with great dexterity and movement, it spun the swords within it's hands, the wrist spinning in a perfect 360° angle, unhinged by the flesh that once restrained it.

Now possesing weapons, the skeleton moved it's legs and left for the cave's entrance, each step caused the sound of crackling fire and crunching bones, the sounds echoing from it's starting point to the cave's entrance.

Fresh air greeted the undead as it left he stony walls, the moonlight swallowed the entire forest, giving the canopies a silver glow, whilst the underbrush beneath shone with the reflecting light that came from a nearby water source. It felt fear at the sudden realization that liquid was nearby, and, using all the knowledge it had gained from the two humans that got mixed up in it's creation, it left to find materials for something that's called a "Jacket", to be more specific, a waterproof one - made from plant fibers and tanned frog skin - this would prove useful as it is currently weak to fire in it's current state, the internal furnace within his head burns bright, and he cannot risk it dying out any time soon.

The skeleton warrior muttered a name- "Karvas..."

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Ursus sighed as he waited in line, he had already proclaimed that he had important information to relay when he cut in front but, apparently, the panicked looked of one of the more stronger mercenaries out there wasn't enough to make the guild fume with worry. "Goddamnit." he muttered, he did his best to get back as fast as he could ever since he came out of that cave a four days ago, only for him to get ignored as he tried to frantically say that there was undead.

He was stopped by the other people who were in the line before him, ignored by the receptionist.

Still, this is an important matter and, taking a deep breath, he prepared to shout-

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The undead took the last bit of remaining plant fiber with his hands, his swords have been placed within his rib cages, storing it like a natural scabbard, unsurprisingly, the human hands that the undead got is better than the Hob-Goblin one (Despite the latter belonging to an actual forest dweller. An adept one at that, bio engineered to live within dangerous climates as well.) they were able to pick herbs with great ease and even instinctively recognize which part of the stem would be best suited to cut - The dagger he found within the cave proved to have been useful for this sort of task - more importantly, the hands possessed enough muscle memory to properly contain the plants within it's palms for quite some time without damaging them.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Not that he needed to of course, considering that the various rope-like creations currently hanging on his elbows didn't really need a good grasp to properly hold, they can simply get coiled around something, in this case it was the aforementioned elbows. The skeleton warriors gathered the last bit of plant fiber that he needed and left to find the small amphibians commonly known as a frog.

Finding the nearest pond, he carefully grabbed as many greenskins as he could, and once they ran out, he set out to find more.

Dead frogs tied to a rope hanging from a charred black skeleton with a flaming skull, the scene was quite bizarre but, here it was, in all it's grotesque glory.

A few hours in, dawn was setting in, and the sky was soon bathe in a violet hue, as beautiful as it was, the scenery, the breeze, the chirping of distant animals and the mesmerizing light of the rising sun, at the center of it all is- a skeleton that carried dead, bloodied up frogs.

The skeleton's mouth once again turned into a sharp grin, the flaming skull only adding into the creep factor of the entire thing.

The reason for such a thing was simple, the skeletal warrior was able to find a small opening on the side of a cliff, their was a waterfall a few yards out but, the intelligent undead deemed that he truly didn't need to go there in the first place.

Placing all his items on the floor right beside the ragged stone walls, Karvas proceeded to create a small ember within his skeletal palms, the small ball of flame slowly grew, eventually enveloping the entire arm. Karvas, knowing what to do due to the knowledge of camping given to him by the two human brothers, grabbed a piece of nearby wood, lighting it up with the flame he conjured on his arm, he placed it on a small cauldron on the floor before getting more wood, feeding the fire and adding stones beside it let him create a shallow fire pit.

Once the fire got going, Karvas bent down and sat at an indian position near the fire pit, grabbed the frogs, and proceeded to gut them, he extracted their bones and placed them on the fire-pit, causing them all to become charred black, the resulting bones had a weak affinity towards fire but, they will do.

the skin was removed from the muscles, and the flesh of the amphibians were soon exposed. Karvas pierced the skin using a bone needle that he had made - a thread of plant fiber was found at it's tip - and proceeded to tie them together, preparing the resulting rag of skin that came from the frogs, the skeletal undead let them soak on the nearby river. He left after he secured the rope of plant fibers the raft of skin was attached to.

The flesh, though, the flesh was a problem, Karvas knew how to sew, knit and even craft items with all his four arms but, he had no prior knowledge when it comes to the bodies of different animals, so he did not know which was which, the only thing that he did know for certain was where the fatal areas were, but apparently, these areas had a time-span when it comes to their decay and when the appropriate time passes, the bodies would become useless.

Then a memory flashed through his mind, one that belonged to the Hob-Goblin-

Karvas heated up one of his fingers, placing it on the thigh of the frog made it move even though it was dead. The undead smiled, and decided that perhaps experimenting on the things wouldn't be a waste of time.

A few days in,

An inferno erupted out of Karvas' eye-sockets as he merrily looked at one of his first creations, an amalgation of flesh that looked more akin to a blob than an actual animal was present in front of him, moving and twitching as it did. The undead laughed, happy that his efforts had become fruitful, the four-armed skeleton warrior dawned his newly created jacket and stood up, carrying the fleshy blob on one of his arms.

Upon finding an animal, Karvas threw his sword at an exetremely easy going pace, easily piercing the skin of the large boar, slowing it down in a manner that enabled the undead to pierce it's neck and kill it with ease. Once the boar was dead, Karvas placed the amalgamation on the thing, hoping it would do something, and sure enough, it did, the skeletal warrior smiled as he looked at the fleshy blob crawling towards the open wound now present at the corpse's neck, once it reached the wound, the fleshy bit proceeded to mend the wounds, assimilating itself with the body soon after.

The neck soon grew a massive fleshy tumor, comepletely unnatural when it comes to any and every creature out there, it pulsed with each second that passed, as for why that is? well, it's simple, the "organ" as Karvas called it, kickstarted the living organisms' biological operations, uncaring as to whether or not it had died a few minutes ago, possibly enough to deteriorate parts of the brain to the that the organism would no longer move, but the "Organ" didn't care, it was now the new brain that had taken over the body, and it would move like one. Though instead of the usual purpose for the organisms of whatever planet they all resided in, this one's goal is to kill and eat, consume everything till there is nothing left.

perturbed by the sudden result, Karvas stared at the newly created undead and smiled, though he was only ever able to mutter a single word - "Karvas..." - the contents within this singular word is more than enough to justify the tone of appreciation that the skeletal warrior had when he spoke such words.

The boar, now undead lifted itself up, it's eyes long blackened due to the blood that had poured in during it's death. Karvas, it's creator was ignored, thinking it was merely it's kin.

The boar growled, soon leaving the joyful Karvas to do what undead did best, and that's to convert more living animals as another one of it's kin.