Thorin grimaced as he sat down against the cave floor panting. Lauros was put at the entrance to the cave incase any goblins somehow tracked them. He summoned his over used medikit. He pulled out a wine sack, that he bought at the inn, and took a deep drink to help with the pain. He took off one of his leather vambraces and placed it in his mouth, so he wouldn’t bite off his tongue. In one hand he help a handful of cotton and the other tentatively grabbed the hilt of the dagger in his shoulder.

‘Well this is going to hurt.’ He thought as he pulled it out as fast as possible. The dagger was old and jagged. He let out a muffled scream and quickly pressed the cotton against the wound with his other hand. The blade didn’t come out clean and took a small chunk of his shoulder out when he removed it. He began to feel light headed, but he forced himself to focus.

Thorin knew that if he fainted right now the wound would possibly fester or cause him to bleed out. He took out a waterskin and poured the water into the wound. Thorin tried to use his good arm to clean the wound out, but the pain was too much. At least he washed out most of the rust and dirt from the blade. He would have to depend on his higher vitality to help him avoid getting an infection. He quickly wrapped a bandage around the cotton binding it to the wound.

He would normally stitch it, but his hands were to shaky right now from all of the running. Right now he just need some good sleep. Before he could let himself do this though, he had to check on the results of last nights raid.

He opened up his status menu. He had gained a large amount of experience last night and gained three levels, giving him a total of fifteen status points to use. He added eight to willpower, three to intelligence and four to vitality to help him recover. Along with this came the extra twelve points gained due to his specialties. This was a great progress and would help him kill more goblins.

Thorin forced himself back to his feet as he heard the other group coming back to the cave. He looked out to see only four skeletons returning.

‘Honestly I only thought Roland and Talon would be able to escape.’ Thorin said as he forced more of his mana out and into the returning skeletons. All of the larger scrapes and broken pieces of bone slowly began to repair and mend back together.

“Good job today, join Lauros outside and keep watch. I need sometime to recover and remake our forces.” Thorin said giving the due praise.

Cynar would be back much later. He was in charge of constantly watching the goblins in case they decided to move against them in large numbers.

Overall the night attack was very successful. He quickly checked his dimensional storage and brought out all of the goblin corpses he managed to collect. When he finished counting them all up he got a total of twenty seven bodies. Before he could let himself rest he need to replenish his forces enough that they’d be able to respond to an attack. He forced himself despite his weariness to start raising up skeleton after skeleton.

He managed to raise another fifteen skeletons before collapsing in exhaustion and decided it was best to call it a day. If he made a mistake in casting the spell in this state he could end up doing more harm to himself. Twenty skeletons would have to do for now as he got up and dragged himself over to his bed and fell asleep on the spot. He was so tired from using a large amount of his mana and being injured that he was able to avoid having one of his nightmares.

He woke up half a day later semi refreshed. This constant fighting was taking a toll on his body and mind.

‘I can keep this up though if it means the town survives.’ Thorin thought as he prepared for the day. He would have to fight the goblins yet again today. There was no time for him to rest. If he wanted to stop them, he would have to lead his skeletons against them constantly. He stood up and stretched before moving over to the remaining twelve goblin corpses. Thorin considered trying to make another crimson skeleton, but decided against it. There was too many variables in this spell. Unlike his other spell, Thorin didn’t have the knowledge to cast it safely.

When Cynar taught him the other spells, he was also transferred the safety precautions and details of the spell. He would have to spend time learning more before he began to feel more confident to cast it.

He ended up just raising them as normal skeletons. His first order to them were to clean up the remains of their previous bodies. If this cave was to remain Thorin's hide out, it would be detrimental to have it full of rotting flesh. Speaking of flesh Thorin decided to check his shoulder and peeled back the bandages. It wasn’t magically healed with one day of rest. A higher vitality doesn’t mean instant healing, it just helped. Sure the wound looked much better, but his shoulder was extremely painful to move. Today he would have to shy away from close combat. After replacing his bandages, he got ready to move out.

He put all of his normal skeletons into his dimensional storage. This was so he could move fast be less likely to be notice. The white skeletons in the middle of the forest were a beacon for any goblins that were looking for them. Today with his thirty two skeletons thorin decided to take a different approach.

He went through the forest making his way back to goblins camp. Due to yesterday's attack they were spooked and decided to stay in place.

‘Apparently the leaders of the group decided I was a big enough problem that they should stop and deal with me.’ Thorin thought as he neared the camp. His group was being extremely careful and avoided being spotted. After walking around the camp for a while Thorin found a good spot ten minutes away from the camp where the they would set up. He took out three skeletons out of storage and had them leave with Lauros towards the goblin camp.

Today he decided to set up an ambush. He noticed that earlier that some of the goblins started giving up when chasing Thorin away in the last attack. They must have realised after all of Thorin's attacks, that they wouldn’t be able to catch them. He would use Luaros and the other three skeletons as bait and lure the chasing goblins back to where they would be slaughtered. Normally the goblins chasing would be too much for the thirty skeletons to fight, but with some of the goblins not pursuing, and the element of surprise Thorin believed they would win.

Thorin realised early on that the trick to being a successful necromancer was that he had to always kill more than he lost. Hopefully with this ambush he would be able to lure fifty goblins and have enough of his skeletons survive to make up for his losses. He sent the three normal skeletons out with Lauros to die. The goblins had to feel like they were winning while they were chasing. This way they'd be less careful and not suspect it was a trick. Luckily, Thorin’s skeletons don’t fear death and, therefore, didn't care.

Thorin carefully found a spot in the bushes and prepared for the coming battle. He had Roland in charge of runners and Talon stay near him incase any of the goblins tried to attack him while he was injured. Thorin keep the rest of the skeletons in storage and was ready to release them at any moment.

After around a half an hour Thorin saw Lauros running back to the group. Behind him he had a group of about sixty goblins behind him. They were yelling and had large smiles on their faces. It was a bit more than he wanted but, Thorin decided to continue anyways.

Lauros continued to run and made his way past Thorin who hid himself behind a fallen log. When two thirds of the goblins passed Thorin he released his skeletons. Each were equipped with weapons that Thorin handed out before leaving the cave. There was a brief moment where the goblins were stunned by the skeletons sudden appearance and faces quickly changed from smiles to panic. Thorin quickly ordered all of the skeletons to attack.

Each of the white skeletons quickly found the nearest goblin and began to fight. Before the skeletons appeared all of the goblins were running at a full sprint to catch Lauros. When the skeletons appeared they all tried to stop. Many tripped and fell due to the surprise, while others, were unable to stop their momentum and collided into the skeletal soldiers. This was the reason Thorin believed his forces will win.

If a normal skeleton was to fight two goblins most of the time it would lose. If the fight was one on one the skeleton would be able to win more often. When looking at the numbers, if these sixty goblins were to attack Thorin's thirty or so skeletons they would lose.

This wasn’t a normal fight though. Due to the ambush and catching a lot of goblins off guard, almost twenty of the goblins were cut down in the first moments. Many were cut down as they tried to stand up or slow themselves. The goblins were so caught up in the chase that they weren’t ready for this kind of attack. The odds were now much more even. Thorin and the crimson skeletons could make up for ten more of the goblins, thus leaving thirty goblins for his normal skeletons to fight one on one. The outcome of the battle was decided before the fight even began. Thorin was honestly impressed and expected a tougher fight, but spawning the skeletons right in front of the goblins had a greater effect than he first anticipated.

They weren’t done yet though there were still plenty of goblins to kill. The goblins recovered and begun to fight back despite their losses. Thorin began to cast energy siphon aiming it at any goblins who had the upper hand fighting against their skeleton. His mana shot out in dark purplish ball and struck the goblin in the chest. Its energy was then taken and sent back to Thorin helping to heal his wound and fill up his diminished mana pool. It wasn't enough to kill the goblin, but caused it to become exhausted and falter. The skeleton took this opportunity and slayed the creature, before moving onto the next one. A couple of goblins noticed the spell and decided to try and take out the threat.

Talon stepped out to stop them, and allowed his master to continue his spells. Thorin wasn’t worried about him, he wasn’t likely to be beaten, and could probably take on five or six goblins himself. He just continued to cast his spell targeting any goblins who were doing well. Eventually, the number of goblins started to dwindle. Three of them tried to turn tail and run, but Roland stopped them before they could get far. The rest began to lose their fighting spirit and quickly joined their friends on the ground.

Thorin let out a cheer when the last one fell and looked over his skeletons. Only a four of his minions had fallen. This was fantastic, better than anything Thorin had ever expected. Most of his skeletons were unharmed and just gained some battle experience. Thorin, still cautious, checked to see if more goblins were coming, calmed himself, and began to collect the goblins bodies. He counted as he collected them and end up with sixty two goblins killed during this fight. He had his skeletons group back up and headed back to the cave so Thorin could raise more skeletons in a secure environment. He had the skeletons march back due to the corpses taking a large amount of room in his dimensional storage. Thorin eventually made his way back and sat down to meditate, he needed more mana. He had skeletons to create.

Name: Thorin Black Class: Necromancer Lv 12 24/120 XP Health 308/330 Mana 432/1640 Stats: Strength: 31 Vitality: 33 Stamina: 19 Endurance: 12 Intelligence: 64 Willpower: 79 Agility: 14 Dexterity: 13 Skills Summon Familiar Rank S Skeletal Fusion Rank C Energy Siphon Rank D+ Summon Skeleton Rank D Blood Lust Rank D Talents Affinity with Death Dimensional Storage Head Start Magic Reserves Strong Soul Blood Lord Thorin's Forces Skeleton 23 Crimson Skeleton 3