Asunam gasped for air as he kept his weary, right arm in front of him while holding his scimitar in a guard stance. He blinked away the sweat dripping into his eyes as his vision swum, making it even more difficult for him to see his surroundings as night fell. However, he kept facing forward towards the two well armored men before him. The were the last few of his comrades left.
Both men wore proper steel helmets and chain mail rather than the flimsy armor belonging to the rest of the thieves he had killed. However, his own ruined, blood covered armor was a testament to the ferocity of the struggles so far. Gashes on torn, iron scales covered every side of his armor, leaving his own scarred skin visible and exposed in places. Any normal man, brave or strong, would have succumbed to even a third of the wounds he had taken, but he was still alive and well.
Almost proving his point, his bleeding left arm that hung limp at his side began tingling. Unlike the first time when he had been surprised and distracted from a spear being thrust at him, Anusam didn't even flinch while he kept his gaze on his current adversaries: Bihar's two boyguards. There was no shock at the feeling, only weariness as he felt strength return to his left arm, as it healed and he was able to use it again. He used it to wipe the sweat from his forehead, as he began to advance on his enemies.
“Asunam, you filthy, ungrateful traitor! How dare you betray us!” The shrill yell from behind the slowly retreating bodyguards rubbed Asunam the wrong way. He felt like cursing at the dog fucker, Bihar. Wasn't it obvious by now that Asunam was also trapped in this madness? Everyone in the oasis had literally watched him be skewered, cut, tossed, trampled, and even shot with fiery arrows during this mockery of a battle.
More than that, Asunam wondered if Binhar was an idiot for not noticing the half a dozen armored skeletons surrounding them at a distance. The undead, armored skeletons stood motionless, the flickering of their green, flaming eyes being the only proof they were paying attention. Asunam knew they would not take any action unless he was too wounded to move, and even then, they would only fend off his adversaries until Asunam was able to fight again.
This torture had continued while he had killed 25 sand thieves, some stronger than him and many fighting him in groups. So, he had nothing to say to the idiot hiding behind the two bodyguards. However, watching the terrified eyes of those very bodyguards, it was obvious they too knew that words meant nothing at this point.
As he felt his body swell again with another round of strength, he rushed forward at an angle, nimbly dodging a diagonal slash from the left as he slashed at the sword arm of his attacker, cutting it before the thief could dodge. His eyes caught movement to his right as the other thief drove his blade towards Asunam's head, but Asunam ducked sideways at an impossible angle and tossed his sword to his opposite hand, before driving the blade upwards into the second thief's lightly armored neck.
Blood sprayed all over, but Asunam ignored wetness on his face and his dying enemy as he tackled the first thief, who had backed away while dropping his weapon. Both of them quickly ended up on the ground, as Asunam straddled the thief, punching him repeatedly in the face with the hilt of Asunam's scimitar until the man went still. Finally wiping the blood from his face, Asunam looked back up at Binhar, who stood a short distance away, trembling as he held a sword in a poor resemblance of a guard stance.
“Don'.... Don't come... Stay away... stay... demon...” The pompous fool's words almost made Asunam laugh, as he wondered what the idiot would say if he saw the Great Fallen One. Asunam almost felt sorry for having to kill the bastard so soon.
“Enough... Leave him... I have a different purpose for him....” Asunam immediately stopped in his tracks as Bihar began twitching before falling over while fainting. The way the cold voice had said 'purpose' made Asunam wonder about what Bihar's fate would be, but with a slight shiver, he decided it was best not to know.
“Go calm down the slaves. Use whatever explanation you need to...” Asunam winced at the distracted sound of the voice as he looked back towards a nearby camp fire, where two dozen slaves were huddled together, staring at the tableau with wide eyes and frightened faces. He was in no mood to deal with them right now, considering his weariness and aching body, but he also knew disobeying his master was not a good idea. Sighing, he began trudging towards the panicking slaves, trying to think of what to say.
Protagonist's POV
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I leaned back in my throne, satisfied at my servant's performance. The sand thieves had gotten their just desserts, and I had gotten a relatively decent view at the combat capabilities of 'unawakened' humans. The fact Asunam had survived was just a bonus, though he still had a decent amount of bad karma to work off. I figured he would plenty of opportunity later with the sand thieves, who were still alive in their base.
However, another big reason for me wasting my time had been to test out how effective [Enslave Will] was and to test some basic spells. While I could only guess at some of the things I would encounter when I entered civilization, I knew for sure that I would end up dealing with more normal, living people of this world. Being familiar with the spells their bodies could tolerate and knowing how far I could control them was the first step in preparing for various eventualities.
That being said, I hadn't been a counch potato watching the show either, as I had finally begun experimenting with a few things. I looked to my side at an iron table covered with half a dozen, crudely made cuboid objects that were about the size of a basketball. The incomplete magical constructs were mostly steel shells, but each of their metal sides had panels made of mithril about the size of a sheet of paper. With a command, one of my skeleton summons brought me one of the steel cubes, and I looked at its insides through an open top.
Most of the internal space was filled with steel bracing and small rods of mithril leading from a central, mithril container to the panels on the sides of the cube. I double checked to ensure that at least three of the sides had the [Float] spell engraved on the mithril panels. Two other sides had [Dark Arrow] engraved on them, while the last side was the 'lid' to my little magic construct.
After making sure everything was right, I began casting a mid tier spell [Entrap Soul]. When I was near the end of the spell, I signaled Slith to release the Mana Spore he was busy keeping restrained a reasonable distance away. The moment it was released, I killed it with a
Timing it right, I finished casting [Entrap Soul], creating a black mist like cage where the Mana Spore had died. As the black, misty cage floated over to me, I could see a gray form struggling in it. However, my attention had already moved on to the next step in the construct assembly process, having grown a little bored with the tedious work.
My [Purge Soul] spell then scrubbed the low tier soul's memory clean, leaving it basically a blank slate. Retrieving an acorn sized realm stone delivered by one of my skeleton summons, I cast a high tier spell [Bind Soul] to essentially fuse the Mana Spore's soul into the realm stone. What I ended up with was a low tier soul that was not going to break down over time thanks to its access to the self charging mana reserves of a realm stone.
Sticking the manufactured, black colored Soul Stone into the little container in my Magic Construct, I finally cast [Enchant]. The short spell only took about 30 seconds to cast, but its casting time did not equal its potential. Being an Untiered spell, it could be used by all tiers, but the higher the demand the caster had on the spell, the more mana it sucked out of them.
As the cube glowed black, I watched as the soul stone fused with its small, mithril container, leading to a cascade of events. The mithril rods and panels all lit up with a dull black glow, as the soul stone gained access to the engraved spells in the magic construct. I sensed confusion from the soul as it reached out to test its 'body,' but I quickly squashed its plan to try out the engraved spells. From experience, I knew it would take some time for the soul to learn how to power and use the spells correctly.
However, its curiosity did not go unnoticed. Around the throne room, I suddenly felt interest coming from a half a dozen spots. I looked up to see other cubes covered in a dark mist rising into the air. All of them moved in my direction, looking for the new sibling they had sensed through their undead mind links.
Their independent thoughts were like a pack of dogs coming over to investigate something new, but at a command from me, the Independent Attack and Recon Drones formed up in a wall like formation. They were not like my summons, where I had direct control over them. However, the soul pressure from a high tier undead still automatically made them subservient to me, especially since I techically 'imprinted' on them when I trained them after their rebirth. Though their independence allowed for the low possibility of betrayal, they also did not require me to feed them mana constantly, thanks to the realm stones. The trade off was a compromise for now until I could get other types of constructs up and running in the long run.
Even as powerful as I was, my mana was limited, and at least for now, I needed permanent, low level combat units that I could deploy flexibly. However, the IRADs were just the beginning. Next to the wall on my left, an incomplete, humanoid figure made from adamantine and steel alloy was propped up in a stone frame. Its crude, blocky form was a testament to how much trouble I was having forging parts without the proper metallurgical spells, and I knew I was still a decent distance away from getting it actually functioning. Still, it was a step I the right direction.