...
Lynch was instantly ecstatic. A tingly, numbing sensation washed over his entire body.
He was dead.
He was finally dead.
What a pitiful end for such a powerful Necromancer. Aside from instantly casting a single Weakness Curse with his Magic Ring, he hadn't even had time to cast a single proper spell.
He had been beaten to death in this nameless forest by Lynch, a fellow practitioner who refused to play by the rules, using the most primitive and savage of methods.
And the very instant the Necromancer's life force completely dissipated, all the creatures under his command stopped their attacks.
It was as if their souls had been ripped out all at once; they froze in place in perfect unison.
But this state only lasted for a moment.
The next instant, having lost the constraints of their contract and the mental link to their master, they fell into complete disarray, scurrying about like headless flies.
Driven by instinct, they began to indiscriminately attack any moving object around them.
Even the two slightly more intelligent Netherworld Skeleton Soldiers, after being struck by a Skeleton Servant, began swinging their bone blades, frantically attacking everything in their vicinity.
In just a few moments, the entire battlefield descended into a chaotic scene of Undead Creatures slaughtering each other.
Lynch was still weakened and drained of all strength. He could only manage to roll off the Necromancer's corpse, lie down beside it, and then shift the body to cover his own.
He then held his breath and played dead, terrified of drawing the attention of the out-of-control Undead.
At the same time, he directed his own surviving Skeletons to slowly move toward him, trying to get them out of the chaotic fray.
The slaughter lasted for a full five or six minutes before the hair-raising commotion finally subsided.
After another moment, once he confirmed there was no more movement, Lynch cautiously pushed the Necromancer's corpse aside and shakily got to his feet.
HISS—
The scene before him made him gasp, and an urge to start cursing violently welled up inside him.
The once relatively open clearing was now covered in a thick layer of scattered, shattered skeletons, as if a small-scale Undead Calamity had just occurred.
And his own Undead Army, which he had painstakingly built through grinding and spending, was now all but wiped out. Barely a handful remained standing.
Bone Jade was among them.
Bone Jade was covered in wounds, its body riddled with fractures. The Soul Fire in its eye sockets flickered like a candle in the wind, threatening to go out at any moment.
There were also three Humanoid Skeleton Guards missing arms and legs, and one... hmm, Fishman Priest Skeleton?
Lynch's gaze swept over its almost perfectly intact skeleton, and he couldn't help but purse his lips.
'This thing is quite the survivor. Not only did it make it to the end, it seems to have come out unscathed.'
Meanwhile, the Fishman leader Skeleton that had bravely saved its master and stood strong against the Netherworld Skeletons was gone. It had met a heroic end at some point, and not even a bone was left to be found.
The only proof it had ever existed was the thick bone club Lynch had used to bludgeon the enemy Necromancer.
Lynch offered a second of silent mourning in his heart, then promptly put it out of his mind.
His gaze then shifted to the Holy Light quartet lying on the ground not far away.
'Hmm, these bastards are pretty lucky. They don't seem to have been caught up in the Undead infighting.'
Though still unconscious with faint breaths, their chests were still rising and falling. It looked like they wouldn't be dying anytime soon.
He had to admit, the life force and self-healing abilities of these Holy Light System folks were truly impressive. Each one was as resilient as a cockroach.
"Bone Jade, you've worked hard."
Lynch sighed and walked over to Bone Jade.
The Weakness Curse had worn off, but his body still felt awful.
But this was no time to rest. He gathered his Mana and slowly infused it into Bone Jade's broken frame.
As a Necromancer, his Mana was essentially Negative Energy, suffused with a pure aura of death. For Undead Creatures, it was one of the best restoratives.
Nourished by the Mana, the cracks on Bone Jade's skeleton began to slowly mend at a visible rate. The weak Soul Fire in its eye sockets gradually stabilized and grew stronger.
And after a series of life-or-death battles, although Bone Jade's aura was weak, Lynch could sense that the essence of its Soul Fire seemed more refined and robust than before.
Clearly, it had been absorbing ambient death energy during the fight and had grown stronger.
After tending to Bone Jade's injuries, Lynch grit his teeth and pulled a bottle of Basic Awakening Potion from his clothes. He uncorked it, tilted his head back, and GULP, GULP, chugged the entire thing down.
The bitter liquid slid down his throat, sending a jolt through his body and barely managing to dispel some of his exhaustion.
His depleted Mana pool rapidly refilled.
Then, he glanced at the field of bone fragments and the Necromancer's corpse, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"So much 'high-quality material.' How could I possibly let it go to waste?"
Forcing down his mental exhaustion, he began to cast Skeleton Resurrection Skill again and again on the skeletal remains littering the ground.
Pale lights flashed one after another, accompanied by a series of CRACK-CLACK sounds of bones knitting together. Group after group of Skeleton Servants slowly rose from the boneyard.
Obviously, their skeletons were not entirely their "own"; most were pieced together from various sources.
For example, one Skeleton might have someone else's arm, while another might be fitted with ribs from who-knows-where.
In short, for a Necromancer, any usable skeleton frame would do. If it could stand up and swing a blade, it was a good Skeleton.
"Wait, how did that weakling Fishman Skeleton get mixed in with the Humanoid Skeletons?"
Lynch glanced with disdain at the short, scrawny Fishman Skeleton. It was squeezed blankly amidst a crowd of towering Humanoid Skeletons.
"Shoo, shoo, shoo, get over to the side."
He directed the Fishman Skeleton to walk into the distance, then simply dispelled the spell.
"Are you kidding me? With so many high-quality human bones right here, what use do I have for a mere Fishman? It's a waste of a precious troop slot."
He mumbled and complained under his breath as he continued his grand project of recycling waste, seemingly having completely forgotten that the majority of his previous Undead Corps had been Fishman Skeletons.
In the end, Lynch assembled a force of twenty-five Humanoid Skeleton Servants.
Though they looked crooked and many were cracked, their sheer numbers were not to be underestimated.
He handed over complete command of this new army to the mostly-recovered Bone Jade.
At its current strength, commanding these twenty-five decent-quality Humanoid Skeleton Servants was about Bone Jade's limit. After all, Humanoid Skeletons required more Commanding Power than feeble Fishman Skeletons.
As for Lynch himself, he continued casting Skeleton Resurrection Skill, reassembling fourteen relatively "sturdy-looking" Skeletons to serve as his personal Skeleton Guards. Among them was the Fishman Priest Skeleton that had "survived" until the very end.
It was just a shame that the loyal Fishman leader Skeleton that saved him couldn't be brought back.
But now, Lynch's forces were not only larger than they had been before the battle, but their overall quality had also improved.
"This... this is the most fascinating trait of a Necromancer."
Lynch looked at his brand-new Skeleton Army and was filled with emotion.
As long as you can win, no matter how brutal the process, a Necromancer's forces will just keep getting stronger, like a snowball rolling downhill.
With enough troops to guard him, Lynch finally regained a sense of security.
Only then did he turn his attention to the corpse of the Necromancer who had died with open eyes.
It was an old habit of his.
Save the best for last.
First, of course, was the much-anticipated looting of the corpse.
Lynch crouched down, grabbed the Necromancer's withered hand, and forcefully wrenched off the bone ring that had given him so much trouble.
The ring was cold to the touch. It seemed to be made of some kind of bone and was inscribed with Undead-lineage runes. A small, dark Gemstone was set in the center, faintly emitting weak fluctuations of death energy.
"What a find~~"
Lynch's eyes lit up. This was undoubtedly a piece of Magic Equipment.
He adjusted the clasp on the inner band of the ring slightly and slipped it onto his finger.
Then, he extended a tendril of his Spiritual Power into it. He scanned it and sensed a solidified Magic Model contained within. By charging it with Mana, he could instantly cast a Level 1 Weakness Curse Skill at a critical moment.
"Hehe, this thing is a perfect tool for ambushing people. Not bad, not bad at all~"
Lynch studied the ring with satisfaction and gave it a nice-sounding name—Banshee's Kiss.
...