Deep in the woods...

A thief wielding a dagger was running for his life. Black fog festered around his right arm, causing him extreme pain. But he didn't stop; he ran with wild abandon in hopes of getting away from that nightmare.

'I'm almost at Snakepoint just a little more, just a little more!'

To his left, three skeletons appeared and intercepted his path.

Not even stopping his run, the thief charged the skeletons. In one fluid motion, the pommel of his dagger smashed the skull of the 1st skeleton, kicked the 2nd in the ribs, and body slammed the 3rd into a tree—a near-perfect display of dexterity and combat experience. But, unfortunately, near-perfect wasn't enough.

The black fog on his arm seemingly gained a mind of its own. It expanded and wrapped around his body like a snake. In an instant, the thief became exhausted and fell to the floor like a drunk. Then, the thief could only watch in despair as a skeleton wrapped in dark fog appeared from the trees.

"Please, please, I'll give you anything. Just let me go!"

Complete ignoring the cries of the desperate thief, the lich grasped his shoulders and slowly pulled.

Shuck

The soulless husk of a thief fell to the floor as a blue blob flew into the lich's jaws. More than 12 bodies laid behind the lich, all with the same hollow-eyed look. It relished in the sense of fullness it gained from its meal. But, alas, the moment didn't last as a familiar ringing sound erupted in its mind.

[Congragulations! You have leve-]

A raspy snarl cut off the notification. The newborn undead had seen the box numerous times already. For whatever reason, the gray box seemed to enjoy interrupting its after-meal enjoyment. Finally, the burning pain in its midriff alerted it that its joy time had already run out.

"SijAKa" it snarled the lich equivalent of a curse and began to move again.

Following the lich was a wide assortment of skeletons, zombies, and corpse beasts. At the center of the horde, the dungeon core silently trailed behind the lich. As it floated over the bodies, black fog billowed out from the pyramid flooding the 13 corpses. Soon 13 more zombies rose and joined the congregation.

After a few hours of hunting, the lich had gotten quite a bit smarter. While still stupider than a child, it had learned a few things. Like by letting injured prey escape, it would run to bigger groups allowing the lich to dodge the hassle of searching for them.

The lich marched quickly as it followed the trail of blood up a hill.

As it began to climb, a small town came into view. The lich's "eyes" saw hundreds of blue dots wandering around the place. It almost immediately leaped into action. But the lich stopped as its instincts flared up. Its senses were screaming warning signs telling the lich that place was dangerous. A strange apprehension caused its skeletal body to freeze. For the first time in its unlife, the lich felt fear.

Its fight or flight response was teetering back and forth. Unwilling to let such a feast go to waste, the lich remained stuck. But the danger it sensed wasn't small. The longer it looked, the more it felt that it should run. Its mind was beginning to hurt as it fiercely debated its choices. Luckily, a sudden burst of pain in his midriff decided for him. Extreme pain numbed the lich's mind. Overwhelming pain drowned out its instincts. Its fears drained away as an overwhelming desire to feed grew.

Completely ignoring its past apprehension, it quickly began to stride towards the town. Its stride quickly evolved into a full-out sprint. No longer able to bear its hunger, it threw caution to the wind. Following their master, the massive horde of undead all ran out to follow. Charging at full speed, necrotic fog diffused around the lich, wrapping around it like armor. It set its sights on a couple of ramshackle huts at the edge of the town. The lich could see a dozen blue dots sitting in those huts. Luckily for the lich, one blue dot came out of its own accord.

Pointing its bony finger forward, dozens of zombies sprinted past the lich and charged at the isolated human. In the dead of night, there was no way to see anything. So the lonely human had no chance as a mob of zombies descended upon him.

"What the f-"

His sentence was cut short as one zombie ruthlessly bit into his throat.

While the ambush was a success, zombies weren't the quietest fighters. The crushing of bones and tearing of flesh had alerted the rest. Dozens of men armed with daggers, swords, and spears rushed out from the huts. Torches were lit left and right, illuminating the massive horde of undead in front of their eyes. The fighters reeled back in fright as the nightmarish horde revealed itself.

Not giving them any time to recover, the horde of undead charged forward. The haphazard defense force barely held on as a wave of skeletons crashed into their front line. Zombies and corpse beasts dashed to and fro, biting with zeal. A ghoul ran about the battlefield slashing down humans with its claws. At the horde's center, a lich covered in a mantle of darkness defused necrotic fog around the battlefield. As they inhaled the fog, dozens of fighters began to choke and falter. One after another, warriors were slain by the undead army. The lich pulled on the souls of the defeated and opened its maw for the feast. The endless void of pain finally began to recede as satisfaction like never before filled its body.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Unfortunately, its meal was interrupted quite rudely.

"WHO DARES ATTACK THE TURF OF THULG THE GREAT!"

A 2-meter tall muscleman screamed as he jumped into the fray. Wielding a giant ax in one hand and a mace in the other, the new combatant rampaged through the undead horde. His giant ax drew a brilliant arc slashing 20 skeletons in a single go. At the same time, his mace shook the ground as he turned zombies into mush.

The appearance of Thulg completely shifted the tide of the battle. With the undead's momentum halted, the defenders began to reorganize. Spears flashed forward, and defenders raised shields. The wave of skeletons slowly began to recede against the wall of shields and spears even though the undead horde had nearly twice their numbers. The organized counterattack with Thulg at its head squashed any attempts to fight back.

Even as a half-mad monster, the lich realized it couldn't allow this to continue. Temporarily freed from its endless hunger, the lich's innate ability as an undead commander began to surface. With a thought, it ordered all its skeleton minions to charge the muscleman. Then, while they charged, it ordered both its zombie and corpse beasts to block out the defense force.

Of course, this maneuver was simply a crude attempt to stall for time. Thulg smashed and slashed over 40 skeletons in a few seconds. While the squadrons couldn't easily slay the zombies, the damage the zombies could do was minimal. In little over a minute, Thulg had considerably thinned the horde of undead. Bones and rotten fleshed littered the ground as the defenders slew the undead. The defenders finally let out a breath of relief, thinking the crisis had passed. Even Thulg was relieved; had he not been nearby, his subordinates would've been massacred without a doubt. If the undead had bolstered their forces with their corpses, Thulg shivered at the thought.

"These monsters ain't nothing for the Vulture Crew!" Thulg yelled. "Finish'em, boys! 10 silvers for the one who kills the one in black!"

The fighters whooped and rushed out to sweep the few remaining zombies and corpse beasts that remained. Few of the more courageous ones directly charged at the eery figure in the back.

'Now, all I need to do is wait for those bums to kill the necromancer.'

Throughout the fight, Thulg had kept a close eye on the figure covered in darkness. That strange black fog had devasted his crew, so he kept his guard up. Strangely it hadn't moved a muscle since he appeared. Thulg guessed that it might've run out of mana, but he didn't dare take a chance. Although he made killing those undead look easy, it still took a toll on him. He planned on letting his subordinates test the waters before taking action.

'If I can catch a living necromancer. I'll make bank turning him into a slave!'

However, his dream would never come true as a wave of negative energy flooded the surroundings. The bones and rotting flesh on the ground quivered and shook. Then, one by one, the fallen undead rose again, all their bodies covered in dense black fog.

Thulg's face changed; he stumbled backward subconsciously, the confident expression he had gone without a trace.

"How could this be?!" Thulg was completely dumbfounded.

Seeing the large army, he had assumed the necromancer had already burned most of his mana just maintaining it. Never did he think he could revive the horde and even empower them! If he knew that, he would've risked his life to prevent it. But it was too late to lament the horde was already upon them. Those that charged forward could only scream as skeletons rose around them. The remnants attempted to form up again, yet their efforts were futile. The horde already outnumbered the humans. Bolstered by negative energy, the battle didn't even last a second.

[Congragulations through a special action, you have learned the spell Negative Energy Field!]

The battlefield turned into a slaughterhouse as the Vulture Crew crumbled. At the edge of the battlefield, Thulg quickly retreated. He grimaced as he watched the crew he worked so hard to cultivate crumble to dust. He gritted his teeth and promised himself he would put a bounty on that hateful necromancer!

Unfortunately, his escape didn't go unnoticed.

"KIAAAAA!" the lich released a horrid battle cry and charged.

Thulg stopped and scowled as he saw a figure in black run towards him. The lich rapidly dashed forward and slashed with its claws. With surprising grace, the 2-meter tall man swiftly dodged the attack. Countering the attack with his own as his ax flew straight towards the lich's arm. Not even bothering to dodge, the lich simply raised its arm.

Thulg sneered at the amateur move.

His expression crumbled as he felt his ax slow to a crawl. Like wadding through mud, his ax couldn't break through the mantle of fog that covered the lich. He swung out again and again in hopes of finding any weakness at all. With no luck, even after smashing and slashing it from every angle possible, there was not even a single crack.

With an ugly expression, all he could do was retreat from the rabid claw strikes. Despite his stature, Thulg was able to move at an uncanny speed. A strange standoff formed as the man dodged every strike. With only its pitiful combat skills, the lich could never catch the seasoned warrior in a 1 on 1. Fortunately, a lich never fights fair.

A platoon of skeletons rose and charged at Thulg. He scoffed and swiped his ax destroying the platoon in a single swing. A second platoon quickly followed, and it was destroyed just as quickly. It didn't stop there soon; a third, a fourth, a fifth, a near-endless wave of skeletons slammed into Thulg. Finally, 5 minutes later, a pale-looking Thulg stood on a mountain of bones.

Skeletons fragile as they were served as great cannon fodder.

The lich watched indifferently as Thulg huffed and trembled from exhaustion. He could only use his mace as a crutch and stare hatefully at the lich. Not even registering his gaze, it simply beckoned another platoon over.

"ENOUGH! I AM THULG THE GREAT FIGHT ME ONE ON ONE, YOU COWARDLY BUG!" Thulg screamed, exasperated.

Surprisingly the lich actually stopped summoning skeletons and stared at Thulg.

"Heh, it seems you still have some honor you-"

His sentence was cut short as a hand stabbed through his chest. A hollow-eyed ghoul stood behind Thulg, and it pushed its arm further with glee. Thulg could only look dumbstruck at the arm sticking out of his chest. No time for last words, the lich opened its jaws and pulled.

Shuck

The hollow corpse of Thulg The Great fell to the floor.

[Congragulations for killing a Rank 2 warrior! You have leveled up!]

With the death of their leader, the remnants of the Vulture Crew despaired. Soon the battlefield turned quiet as all the remaining humans had either perished or fled.

The lich stood victoriously over the mountainous corpse formerly known as Thulg. His soul serving as the final push the lich needed to escape its mad hunger. With the pain gone, a strange feeling swept over its body. The first taste of sentience was a weird but pleasant experience. Unfortunately, it couldn't relish in the feeling long. It quickly noticed a large crowd building at the periphery of the huts.

Maybe before it gained wisdom, it might've feared the crowd. But now, all it could think about was how delicious they looked.

"So many souls!" the lich cackled as it slowly walked towards the crowd.