On the top a mountain there stood a castle in ruins. In the courtyard, a skeleton in black armor was standing surrounded by a bunch of other skeletons.
That, of course, was Connor. He was practicing his blessing to create undead creatures. The skeleton was the easiest and most basic form to create but also very weak undead, unless infused with great amount of power to make it a higher rank.
The ranking was, among other thing, also explained by the shade. The higher the rank of an creature the higher the required power for them to be created. Also for the undead, their intelligence is determined by the amount of power infused into them during their creation.
The lowest rank acording to the shade is soldier. They are the basic non-intelligent undead, unable to make decision on their own. If left alone they will just wander around, killing any living they find. The rank above the soldier was called commander by the shade. The commader class skeleton has the ability to control and order the lesser undead, the soldiers. They serve as the arm of the next higher rank of undead: the general class. They have the command over the commander class and the soldiers. Their purpose is the tactial guidance of the troops during large scale combat. Due to the large amount of power required to create them they are highly intelligent, making them even better at their job. And the last class Connor could create were the elites. The elites could think for themselves, make decisions, and command all the other ones except the king himself, which was Connor, the last class. While they could, of course, command troops, their true purpose lied in their individual combat power and not their strategic capability, making them a noteworthy force even when alone.
Connor also learned how to control the blessing of the plague god. This enabled him to coat his weapon in deadly poison, which in turn killed a human in a matter of second's after even the slightest scratch. In addtion to that, he was also able to coat his whole body in a mist that had a corrosive effect on everything that comes in contact with it as well.
Connor had also been thought how to summon the weapon granted by the dark warrior god, Zetyx, the arch nemesis of the light warrior god Nekel.
This blessing now allowed him to summon a greatsword within his hands. The sword's hilt was made out of countless bones and little skulls. From the sword itself an ominous black aura leaked out and just looking at it would send a chill down the spine of any mortal who dared to rest his eyes upon this cursed blade.
After hearing all the explanations from the shade, Connor continued to practice creating the undead for some time until he was bored with it. The final result of his practice were two hundred soldier skeletons, ten commander class, and one general class skeleton.
*sigh* "I became bored from making so many skeletons, so what now? Not much of this sea of bones remains either." Connor talked as he looked at the skeletons roam around. Only the ten commander class and the general class skeleton were standing still, not moving an inch, as they were not mindless like the soldiers, that needed to be controlled and directed. They had enought intelligence to know how to respect their king, it was in the essence of their being to obey him.
Connor turned around, not minding the standing skeletons, and walked over to the floating shade.
"Hey Shade! Isn't there anything to do here? I'm bored of creating skeletons and there are no longer materials to make more here anyway."
The shade paused for a moment and then spoke:"Hmm... Well, if you are interested, there is a bandit encampment at the foot of this mountain. I scouted the area around the mountain, there is only forest and that encampment."
"Huh.. Bandits? Well this should be fun enough. I wanted to try out this little army of mine anyway. Let's go."
Connor walked back to the skeletons with intelligence. They still had not moved, not even turned around without any command. "Follow me. We move to the foot of the mountain. Also, you", Connor pointed his finger at one of the skeletons and spoke "the general, need a name. You shall be called Krolzis. Any objections?"
"Oh man! What a lame name. It just came to me I am really bad at naming." Connor was thinking.
The skeleton general, now named Krolzis, knelled down and spoke "None, my king. I live again to serve you."
As he spoke, the commander class skeletons knelled down as well.
Connor looked at this scene with a satisfied look "Good. Now Krolzis, all the soldiers here will be under your command. This includes the commanders. Go get some armor and a weapon, all of you!"
"By your will, my king," Krolzis spoke as he swiftly stood up.
As soon as he did the commanders and the soldiers moved around the castle and the courtyard in search for armor and weapons like the king had commanded them to do and in the matter of minutes every single one of them was wearing a rusty armor and weapons. They took everything, swords, axes even broken blades as long as it could be used in some way as a weapon they would use it.
The commanders were wearing a better, more complete set of armor than the soldiers. Their armors were not that rusty and damaged and also their weapons were in better a condition.
And lastly, Krolzis, the general, was wearing the best armor they could find. His armor looked similar to the one Connor was wearing but it did have rust here and there. Overall it was still way better than anything the others were wearing. For weapons he settled on a shortsword and a metal towershield.
Connor looked at his little army and felt satisfied. They were his to command and loyal to the death. Well at least until their next death, and even then he could always just resurrect them again.
"Move out! We march down the mountain!" Connor commanded in a loud voice.
Hearing his king's order Krolzis took control over the army."Form the formation! Follow the king!" When he was finished giving the order, the skeletons had already formed the square formation behind Connor. Krolzis followed just a few steps behind him with the ten commanders in turn following him and lastly the soldiers. They all moved in unison, as if they were one. They already behaved like a trained army. This made Connor even amazed more at the skill the general class had. Then Connor remembered that there is still one rank above that which in turn would be even better. He could not feel be anything but happy thinking that from here on it would only get even better.
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"Can't wait to try it, hehe."
At the foot of the mountain was a forest, covered by snow. Inside the forest, a clearing, which the bandits used for their encampment. They had set up a stockade around their camp to keep animals and potential enemys away.
The bandits slept in the tents they had set up there. The leather tent, whose the creator obviously was not best, were set up without a system just all over the place. They had about thirty of them, but currently, some of them were put down to make space for the grand feast they were holding in their own style. They sucessfully robbed the caravan that was passing nearby. In the process they killed everyone except the young girls. For them they had other plans. The girls were taken to their base,the bandits would indulged themselves in their bodies and after they were done they would simply kill them and toss them in the forest for some wild animal to eat them.
This situation lead to them being off guard and failing to notice that they had been surrounded before it was too late.
"Boss! Boss!" One of the bandits ran up to a big bald man.
The man turned around while getting his pants up "What is it? Don't you see I am busy?"
"We are surrounded boss!" the man started to panic which made the boss of the bandits flinch "What? How many and who are they?!"
"We do not know how many? they broke the stockade bu-......" the man stopped for a second and started talking again soon.
"They are all skeletons! Undead, boss!"
"Undead? Damn! There were not supposed to be any here!" the boss yelled as he heard screams from all directions.
"Ahhhh! Spare me, please spare m........!" Slashing sounds could be heard from all directions as well as the screams of the dying and the men pleading for their lives.
"Damm it! All the remaining men, gather to me!" The banditboss yelled and the remaining nine bandits gathered. They were back to back as the horde of skeletons surrounded them.
The bandits expecting them to attack were shocked when they suddenly stopped and the horde partet to let a tall black knight emerge.
"Hehe, these skeletons are better than I expected." Connor spoke as he looked at the dead bandits.
"Who the hell are you? Why did you attack us !?", the banditboss yelled at Connor.
Connor turned his gaze towards them, all they saw was red light inside the helmet, making them shiver. They felt like gazing into the face of death himself. Just as Connor was about to speak, Krolzis stepped out of the skeleton horde, and spoke before Connor could.
"You! A mere human, dares to speak to our king, and even without bending his knee. Foolish. Bow down to the Skeletonking, the king of the undead! And maybe he will allow you to join his forces, in undead of course." Krolzis spoke with an anger that even shook the air a little.
"Skel....skeleton can talk !", one of the bandits spoke.
"This is enough. Kill them Krolzis!"
"By your command, my king.", Krolzis was more than happy to do it.
As the skeletons started attacking and killing the bandits, their leader begged for his life with a terrified voice.
"W.....wait please .....please wait ..don't kill me. I will do anything! Please spare me!" the bandit boss dropped his sword on the ground and begged while falling on his knees.
Connor turned around, walked next to the bandit and spoke to him "Then tell me. Is there any city or a town nearby?"
"Y.....ye....yes yes there is a town j....just east of here a day walk from this mountain !" the bandit spoke.
"I see. Well, thank you for the information." Connor got up and turned to Krolzis "Kill him!" with those words the bandit boss sunk down, in his desperation he thought that if he killed the king then the rest would be gone as well. He got up and grabbed Connor by the shoulders. His intention was to toss him to the ground and kill him with his well hidden dagger. But it was wrong of him to do that because as soon as his hand touched Connor the plague god's blessing startet to affect him and the bandits hand's started to rot and fall apart. In the matter of seconds it started spreading to the rest of the body, he screamed for a but a second before his throat had rotted away and he soon died.
Connor looked at the remains of the former bandit leader, he could not even be made into a zombie in his state. All that was left was just a puddle of flesh.
Connor used his blessing to rasie the thirty bandit corpses as zombies and have them follow Krolzis. He then looked around the camp and saw some dead girls but there were some alive as well. In their eyes he all he could see was emptieness, they were longer in this world. All he could give to these girls was a quick death and so he did. While Connor hated humans, he hated rapists even more.
"Well then, Krolzis, I will be moving to the town in the east alone. You will take the army up the mountain and hold the castle for me. Kill anyone who approaches it."
"By your command, my king." Krolzis immediately moved to order the troops to get up the mountain. The zombies would slow them down but in direct combat they would be worth more because of their durability compared to the skeleton soldiers.
Connor, seeing them execute his orders, made his way to the east.
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AN: a little late but here you go.