Olivia and I spent the whole flight talking about our suspicions. We had suspected an unseen hand in the situation as the situation seemed suspect. The initial hostility was created by an attack that came from nowhere as neither group seemed like the likely perpetrator. Charity was too aggressive and cared too much about her subordinates to sacrifice them in such a roundabout plan. Reginald was too cautious and intelligent to perpetrate an attack that seemingly had no upside as burning the kennel gained him nothing but a potential war.

The attack was the perfect combination of causing a large amount of hostility while not weakening either group. When both groups were told to ignore the attack, two events that happened at virtually the same time that neither group could ignore putting the groups on the inescapable path to war.

The gangs went from the lowest level of hostility in years to the highest in a single night.

To confirm our suspicions, we went to the local branch of the FBI to check the bodies for anything suspicious.

The second I saw the bodies I knew that we were right.

“Bingo was his namo.”

“What do you see?” Olivia asked in a curious tone.

“The werewolves are infested with necromantic energy, and I suspect I’ll find something righttttttttt aboutttttt hereeeeeeee” I said while combing through the hair on the back of a werewolf’s neck. “There it is.” I found what I was looking for, a pinprick.

“How’d you know that was there?”

“Saw a concentration of poison essence there and made a guess.” I said with a grin.

“What about the leeches?”

“That is even easier. Here let me show you.” I opened one of the vampire’s chests with material weaving and displayed a shriveled grey heart with a symbol made of glowing green stiches.

Olivia leaned in and looked at the heart, “Magic is not really my thing but I’m pretty sure that’s a control sigil.”

“It is rapidly becoming mine and it is. A necromantic one at least.”

***

After dinner, we went to St Mark’s Graveyard following the trail I picked up from the necromantic sigil. We stopped at our hotel to change into our battle attire, well Olivia did. Ironically, I had yet to create true battle attire due to a previous lack of inspiration and/or materials to create something special. Though that would soon change due to something I picked up here in Detroit.

“You really know how to treat a girl, take her to a nice dinner and then a creepy abandoned graveyard.” Olivia said with an eyeroll.

“Killing zombies sounds like much more fun than bowling.”

“I do love bowling.” she said coquettishly.

“I got a secret; I love it too. Want to go after this?”

“Love to.”

“If you two are done with the flirting, I would like to get started on our fight now.” A creaky voice called out from the shadows.

“You done doing “the flirting”?” I said with finger quotes and a laugh.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“I do like it. Just under bowling in fact.”

“Well let’s finish this quick and get to the bowling.”

“What about the flirting?”

With a wink, “We can do that too.”

The creaky voice called out from the shadows again, “Alright Abbott and Costello let’s get going.”

“We secretly can’t stand each other?” Olivia and I said at the exact same moment. We then turned to each other, “You can’t stand me?”

Our conversation partner did not appreciate our resulting cackles.

“ARGHHHHH!” The hooded figure that stepped out from the shadows screamed before unleashing a wave of pale green energy across the graveyard. Zombies and skeletons broke out of the ground following the necromantic wave of energy.

_

Thomas Cain AKA The necromancer standing in front of me right now

“You’ll be the death of me. You know… if you were much stronger and I was much weaker.”

Grade D

_

“Kill them.” The figure gritted out while pointing at us. The undead stormed towards us.

I unleased a wave of holy water essence in response which swallowed all the undead and tried to do the same to their creator. The necromancer was able to avoid said fate by creating a platform of bone.

The holy water was soaking into the ground to prevent any other dead bodies from springing up. This was an active process that I had to actively manage and was thus unable to contribute to the fight much after starting.

Olivia charged the necromancer with her shield and sword up. The necromancer tried to stop her with bone spears, but Olivia enlarged the defense provided by her shield with chi thus covering the entire front of her body.

This guy was a plotter not a warrior and it showed. He did not even scratch her barrier by the time she was in front of him. He was subsequently bisected, and the two halves were swallowed by the wet earth to prevent liching.

“Night is coming. You cannot stop it.” The man said before the ground completely swallowed him.

I extracted the information he had on necromancy which was minimal but showed where he had picked up the skill. I walked over to an opened crypt and saw an open stone casket containing a yellowed skeleton covered in carvings that represented a compendium of necromantic knowledge. The necromancer was a low pay grave digger that had been attacked by a werewolf thus piercing a veil and with his new sight had discovered said skeleton. He subsequently developed delusions of grandeur and ruling a city. Said thought was put into his head by a voice modulated phone call that gave him the plan he used and told him to prepare for the coming night. Not that he knew what that meant unfortunately.

This skeleton was highly useful as it contained quite the necromantic knowledge and was made with quite strong bone infused with the concept of all thing necromancy.

I first copied all the inscriptions into Mena’s Book, then stored the skeleton for later.

After leaving the crypt I walked up to Olivia, “So, bowling?”

“Sounds great. Just gotta make a call first.”

“Have fun. I’ll be in the car.” I said before walking away and intentionally tuning my bat hearing to avoid eavesdropping. She deserved her privacy.

*Ring*

*Ring*

*Ring*

“Code D is a go. You got your contender for the title match.” Olivia told the person on the other end of the phone before hanging up and meeting her new friend in the car.

Current Equipment:

Head:

[The Black Wasp Jackal’s Face]

Earrings:

[]

Necklace:

[The Energy Baron’s Stomach]

Clothes:

[]

Rings:

[The Mentalism Ring]

[Succubus’ Kiss]

[Mena’s Book]

[Matthew’s Water]

Bracelets:

[]

Shoes:

[]

Armaments:

[Sense Cane]

Storage:

[Various Essences]

[Chi Organ]

[Spirit Shards]

[Various Murder Weapons]

[Green Thumb]

[Glass Eye]

[Werewolf Blood Essence]

[Howl Technique]

[Ruined Suit]

[Necromantic Skeleton]