Chapter 13: The Undead Barat

After a couple seconds of awkward silence, the undead general spoke.

“…I guess it would be fine since you’re not strong enough to reanimate all of my soldiers. At least this way they can be of use after death.”

Once the undead general finished speaking, he immediately turned around and walked off. As soon as he was out of my set I let out a long sigh. Thankfully he agreed, albeit reluctantly. I didn’t know how I felt about the jab he made towards my skill but I would worry about it later. I had a creature to reanimate.

I gathered enough bat corpses until they equaled the amount I had with the giant rats. I didn’t want more of the other one since I hadn’t attempted doing a ritual like this yet. I had no idea if one more bat corpse would do something didn’t want it too. Therefore I was playing it safe until I knew what would happen.

After I had gathered all of the corpses I needed, I began arranging them in a circle. I glanced periodically towards my journal to make sure I was doing the ritual right. Once the circle was made, I dumped my two containers of bone dust in the middle. Although they wouldn’t do that much, they would still give my reanimation stronger bones. If I didn’t use them now, when else would I use them?

Rather than making the ferocious giant rat the host, I decided to just combine all of the corpses into one. The reason for this was because I didn’t really want my reanimation to have a rat’s body. I wanted it to have wings and I was pretty sure that if I did it this way, it would have a high chance of gaining wings.

After making sure everything was correct, I sat down and began to meditate. To complete this ritual I would need to infuse quite a bit of mana into the blood. Mana which I currently didn’t have. After meditating for twenty minutes, a decent chunk of my mana was recovered.

Once my mana was recovered, I began to create an earthen brush to paint the necromancy symbols. The task proved to be challenging thanks to some of the blood being dried, but I managed to make it fresh once more using my mana. Infusing my mana into the blood, I began to paint.

As I painted the strange symbols, I began to wonder about them. What did each of these symbols mean? Could I take one out or substitute it for another? Since I was seeing quite a few of them in my rituals, I felt as though I needed to know what each of them meant. If I knew what they meant, accidents would be less likely to happen. When I was done with this ritual, I would make sure to look into my journal. The only problem with that was I only had a couple pages left in my journal. If those pages didn’t contain the information I needed then I might just ask the undead general. Maybe he knew?

The next few minutes passed by in concentration and silence. This ritual had way more symbols than the last one so it was taken more time. I was also taking a painstakingly long time to make sure every symbol looked correct. It was tedious to do, but it would be worth it in the end. If I rushed through this, it might blow up in my face and I had no plans to die just yet.

Once all of the symbols were drawn, I connected them to the corpses with a dash of blood here and there. Before I moved on to the chanting part, I would have to make a decision. I had read in the journal that I could give one of the magics I possessed to my reanimation. But since my level was so low, I could only do one. Therefore I needed to decide on which one I wanted my reanimation to have. Should I try air, earth, or electricity?

First off let’s list the pros and cons of each. Air would allow my reanimation to fire off near invisible attacks. This would be useful because enemies would be caught off guard by these attacks unless it was focusing solely on my reanimation. And even then the attacks would still be hard to see. If my reanimation had wings then the air magic would only complement it. The only con of wind was that earth magic was stronger and more durable while electricity was faster.

Giving my reanimation earth magic would allow me to teach it all of the earthen skills I knew. Which was quite a lot. This would also make my reanimation more durable since earth magic worked best at defending. The cons of earth magic was that my reanimation needed to be on the ground to use it to its fullest potential. If my reanimation had wings which I hoped for, then its earth magic potential would be drastically reduced.

Giving my reanimation electricity magic would be good since I knew so little about this magic. Air and earth were easy since they were part of the four basic elements. The only thing I knew about electricity was that it could paralyze my opponents and electrocute. Anything robotic or water would be devastated by this magic. The cons of electricity was that I knew so little about it. Would my reanimation be able to use it to its fullest extent? Would it complement my attack strategies? I had to think about all of these things before making my decision.

After a few minutes of thinking, I had managed to narrow my options two. Earth magic was out because my reanimation would probably have wings. This meant that it would be in the sky most of the time. How did I know this? It was quite simple. Half of my corpses were bats and they all possessed some type of wing. My ritual was combining these so my reanimation had a high chance of getting wings. I might be wrong, but I doubted it.

Now I had to decide on wind or electricity. Wind would be good since it would most likely be always in the air. However electricity would be nice because of paralysis. Hmm. Which one should I choose?

In the end I decided on wind/air magic. The reason for this was because paralyzing my enemies was not guaranteed and air magic would help my bat since it would be in the air most of the time. It could help it fly faster and allow it to use near invisible attacks. And that was if it could use air magic. All the book said was that it would gain my air mana so I didn’t really know if it could use it as a type of magic. Hopefully it could. If not, it wasn’t that big of a deal since it could gain the characteristics of the corpses it ate.

Nodding my head, I began to chant words from my journal. As I did this, I began to pour my air mana into the symbols. At first I thought this was going to be hard, but it was quite simple. It was like pouring normal mana but adding air into it also. I knew what air magic felt like thanks to my wind blade which ended up helping me a lot.

From the corner of my eye, I could see the corpses moving toward the middle, piece by piece. I spent the next few minutes chanting as my mana slowly decreased. I also made sure to add the words needed for my reanimation to gain the characteristics of the creatures it ate. As I chanted the last few words of the spell, a considerable amount of my health and mana disappeared. The hell?

As I panted on the ground exhausted, all of the corpses and my ingredients began to combine into a big ball of flesh. Why had my health disappeared along with my mana? That had never happened before. Was it because of the new ritual I had done? I watched in confusion as the ball of flesh began to form the shape of some sort of hybrid creature. Like the undead bat I reanimated,  I could feel my mana inside of my new reanimation. However I could sense considerably more from my new reanimation than  I could from my undead sinister bat.

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Odd. Was this because of all of the health and mana my reanimation took from me? Did my connection to my reanimation depend on how much of my mana I gave it? It made sense when I thought about it. I could sense my reanimation’s confusion as it began to form its body. It did possess quite a bit of my mana. It already had a lot of my air mana, but it also took a chunk of mana and health a few seconds ago which made it have a considerable amount of my mana inside its body. I would have to think on this later since my ritual had finished while I was thinking.

Undead Barat - Lv.7

Hp: 55/55

My reanimation looked more  like a bat than a giant rat. If I had to guess I would say it looked like a different species of the sinister bat at first glance. I was thankful for this because if it ended up looked like a giant rat, things would not end well. The only exception to this was that my barat did not have the giant size that the nearby bats had. Instead it took a size similar to a house cat.

To be honest, I didn’t mind the size. I would be unnerved if my barat was bigger than me. Even my reanimated bat was a little bit shorter than me,  and it was always awkward whenever I glanced its way. Shaking those thoughts about its size out of my head, I continued my examination.

The body of my barat was similar to the bats although it seemed to contain more muscle than its counterparts. Like the sinister bats, the front arms of my barat was connected to its wings enabling it to fly. I allowed a small smile on my face once I realized that my previous hypothesis was correct. At the edge of  its wings were sharp claws that could tear through flesh easily. Although I couldn’t really see it, I assumed that it had stronger bones thanks to the bone dust I had used.

Similar to other bats, my barat had a patch of fur around its neck. I had no idea what it stood for. Maybe it was some kind of fashion statement. Sharp white teeth filled the mouth of my new reanimation. Anything bit by it would be torn to threads in seconds unless they had considerably tough skin. Crimson eyes that shined like rubies adorned its face. Long ears were perched upon the top of its head, enabling it to hear across long distances. One thing that made it different from other bats was the long tail it possessed. At the end of its tail was a barbed end that could pierce through skin. As I would no doubt see in future battles.

The color of my barat’s body was a mixture of black and brown. This allowed it to have natural camouflage in the sewers we were in. I watched curiously as it sniffed its surroundings and looked around. The moments its eyes met mine it immediately opened its wings and flew up to my shoulders. After a few seconds of flapping, it took perch on my left shoulder. Once it was situated,  it wrapped its tail around my neck and looked around. Before I could comment on this, I heard a voice in my head.

“Hello savior.”

My head jolted in shock as I tried to comprehend what just happened. Did my reanimation just speak to me inside my head? How was that even possible? Was it because we both possessed the same type of mana in our bodies? No, it couldn’t be. My reanimated bat couldn’t do this. I also noticed that my newest reanimation wasn’t an it. It was a female. Or at least that was what the soft spoken voice sounded like.

“Uh, hello. Do your remember anything? Do you know why you’re here?”

Unlike my other reanimation, my barat had been composed of multiple bodies. I assumed that all of the corpses’ brains combined into one. But that left the question of what happened to their memories. Did my barat keep them all, or did they just vanish? I don’t think anyone could remain sane if they had multiple minds inside one body.

“Hmm. It’s a little hard to explain. I remember living several lives but none of them feel like mine. It’s like I’m watching someone else’s memories yet they all seem familiar. As for why I’m here, it’s because of you. In every memory I have, I ended up dying. However I felt your mana and I got to live again. Therefore I am indebted to you for letting me live once more.”

So it seemed my barat had all of the memories of the corpses that made her. However none of them seemed to be hers. It was like she was an entirely different existence. However one thing was still bugging me.

“How are you able to speak to me telepathically?”

There had to be a reason my barat could do it and my reanimated bat couldn’t.

“It’s hard to explain. I’m connected to you by our mana and all I have to do is direct my thoughts into the stream and you will get them. I also feel another creature with our mana but the connection is too weak so I can’t speak with him/her.”

Huh. So I am connected by my reanimations with mana. It seemed she could speak to me telepathically thanks to her having so much of my mana. The other creature she was feeling was probably the bat I had reanimated. He hadn’t gained much of my mana in the ritual so he didn’t have as much as my barat. I spent the next ten minutes conversing with my barat until the general came over to talk to me.

In these ten minutes I had learned quite a bit of information. One of the things I learned  was my barat’s name. I had asked her what it was since I couldn’t really refer to her as my reanimation seeing as how I now had two of them. She told me her name was Viola. It didn’t really have a specific meaning since she had just made it up. Before I could think on my new reanimation anymore, the undead general arrived in front of me.

“I believe it is time for you to meet our leader.”

With that one remark the undead general turned around and began to walk. Was I supposed to follow him? Shrugging my shoulders I quickened my pace until I was walking behind the general. What was the bat boss like? For better or worse, I would meet him soon.