Chapter 30: Into the Swamps, Part II

Breathing a sigh a relief now that Ahriman decided to stay silent for the time being, Kaz sent his spirit minions on a short task.

Flying around the camp, the reaper spirits and blood spirits took note of where the patrolling sentries were. While his minions were spying on the Janaroian camp, Kaz finally took inventory of his new souls.

Mm. I managed to snag twelve mage souls before I fled through the spatial gate. Each mage soul seems to give me…five soul power each. That added with my blood spirit gives me sixty-eight net soul power total.

Kaz’s eyes widened as he realised the implications of having so much more soul power.

Even though normal mages have at least more than double of that in mana, their limits are much harder to increase than mine is. They'd have to increase their mastery of mana but I only need to collect more souls. There's a limit to how many souls I can collect though, so I need to make sure many as possible are mage souls since those have more innate soul power.

Waiting his spirit minions to come back, Kaz nibbled on what little dried food he had left.

I didn't manage to put any new food into my bag after reanimating those groundhogs. I sure hope this camp has enough dry food for me to last a while.

Soon, Kaz's reaper spirit and blood spirit flew back. Viewing their short-term memories, the layout of the camp was revealed.

The camp is divided into an inner and outer section, with the spatial gate at the center of the camp. It's a good thing I didn't manage to come out there, I would have been surrounded almost immediately. I need to pick off the patrolling sentries and soul-search them to find out the actual composition of the camp's soldiers. Using mana sense would tip off any other mage if they also sensed my mana probing the area.

Cautiously, Kaz started to approach a Janaroian soldier that was patrolling alone.

Sneaking so that he was only a dozen meters away, Kaz made his move.

The sentry’s tired face froze as Rigor Mortis paralyzed the man's body. With a flick of it's hand, the blood spirit ripped open the sentry’s neck. A crimson jet stained a nearby bush red as the blood spirit basked in the man's lifeblood.

Enslaving the man's soul mere moments after he died, Kaz wasted no time in dissecting the poor bastard's memories. Disregarding anything not relating to the camp, Kaz found out the camp's soldier composition within seconds.

There’s only about thirty people left in this camp out of one hundred that started out from Janaro. About fifty went with Alessio through the spatial gate in Abaza and the final twenty were lost along the way through the swamps.

Shaking his head, Kaz reanimated the man’s body into a bone soldier.

I’ll leave his flesh mostly intact even though it slows down the movement of the bone soldier. I can use the poor lighting and relatively relaxed atmosphere to catch the rest of the sentries off guard when I attack.

Spreading out his mana sense to the outskirts of the camp, Kaz quickly found out what directions the other patrolling sentries were walking towards.

Sending his bone soldier in front of him, Kaz stealthily approached the next couple of sentries.

When the bone soldier got within sight of the two other patrolling sentries, Kaz made it spasm and fall down onto the ground in full view of the other two sentries.

Startled, the other two sentries quickly flashed hand signs to each other.

They’re coming….it’s a good thing the standard procedure among Janaroian patrols is to not leave themselves alone when in an uncertain situation.

Gathering mana in both of his hands, Kaz waited for the two sentries to check on the collapsed bone soldier.

I just need these guys to get a little bit closer….I don’t trust my aim from more than ten meters away, but they might notice me before then since they’re carrying torches.

The two sentries’ faces blanched when they saw the state of their former comrade. Sitting in a pool of his own blood, the collapsed Janaroian man looked as if he was already dead.

Forcing the bone soldier to raise his arm weakly, Kaz made it wheeze so hard it started to cough naturally. Bloody spit dribbled down the side of the cadaver's mouth. Alarmed at what could catch a veteran spearman off guard, one sentry crouched down to inspect the ‘dying’ man while the second stood tall and looked for anything out of the ordinary in the surrounding area.

Shit. Aren’t these two sentries a bit too cautious?

When the torchlight was almost about to reveal his position, Kaz forced the bone soldier on the ground to move. Near instantly, the bone soldier’s arm drew the dagger sheathed on its thigh and stabbed at the crouching sentry.

As soon as Kaz mentally sent out the order, he also popped out of cover and blasted both sentries with prepared Rigor Mortis spells.

Caught off guard, the crouching sentry could do nothing but watch as the bone soldier drove the dagger hilt-deep into his left eye. Dying nearly instantly, the crouching sentry fell backwards and twitched a couple of times before dying.

Eyes bulging in terror, the standing sentry could do nothing while under the muscle paralysis inflicted upon him via Kaz’s Rigor Mortis spell. Glancing at the frozen man once, Kaz retreated into the shadows as the bone soldier lifted up its spear.

A moment later, the sentry’s torch fell into the muddy ground with a hiss as it extinguished itself against the wet ground.

Another moment later, two additional bone soldiers rose to their feet with spears in hand. Their eyes contained a baleful yellow glow as they trudged towards the next group of sentries.

Methodically, Kaz managed to ambush all of the patrolling sentries group by group.

None of these sentries were set to pass another group. I guess this system is designed to patrol the most amount of ground with the least amount of people, but there’s absolutely no response from one group if it manages to get ambushed.

Clicking his tongue, Kaz turned to look at the bone soldiers that he had available. Silently standing before him were twelve bone soldiers. Not a single one of these bone soldiers were untouched. All of them had at least one or more horrific wounds on its flesh. Rotating the trapped souls around him, Kaz’s figure looked hazy as the spirits around him wailed silently.

Carefully dissecting the combined memories of the dead sentries, Kaz was able to get a better idea of the remaining composition of the camp.

There’s three mages for sure, but the rest of the fifteen Janaroian soldiers was not clear to me until now. There’s ten commandos and five scouts. There aren’t any horses within the camp since transporting the animals to the middle of a swamp would not be worth the effort. Thankfully, the anti-magic capabilities of the Janaroian soldiers is nearly nonexistent. I could probably win this fight easily if I planned out my actions carefully.

Looking towards the camp, Kaz made his plan of attack quickly. Dividing his bone soldiers into groups of four each, Kaz moved a group towards each of the three camp entrances. Although the Janaroians weren’t the best in building camp defenses, they still managed to erect a shoulder-height barricade out of rocks and fallen trees. Under cover of darkness, Kaz’s bone soldiers managed to slip into the camp one by one.

With all of the patrolling sentries dead and no extra soldiers standing watch at the camp entrances, Kaz’s minions quickly made their way around the camp towards the still living soldiers.

Seriously, why is the camp so quiet? Shouldn’t they be panicking at how the spatial gate failed earlier and how Alessio isn’t back yet?

Frowning, Kaz sent his reaper spirit into the camp to serve as his eyes and ears.

I guess I still can’t use mana sense to view the world through the eyes of physical minions yet. This is quite inconvenient, I’ll need to look into this problem or ask Ahriman when he finally deigns to speak again.

Ethereal and practically invisible in the dark parts of the camp, the reaper spirit stopped near what could only be the mages’ tent. Gaudily decorated with a standard of the Janaroian Church posted outside the tent flap, the large tent was a beacon pointing towards the mages. Utilizing the reaper spirit, Kaz was able to hear the nervous conversation within.

“What are we supposed to tell the soldiers? The spatial gate failed earlier, and I don’t think Master Alessio would be able to make it back before our supplies run out.” A high pitched voice, sounding remarkably like if a rat could speak, spoke in hushed whispers.

“What do you mean by that, Ezra? I thought we had enough supplies to last for months.” A deeper voice this time, as if it was suppressing a great anger.

“You think dry rations and fresh water is easy to preserve in a swamp? The magical seals that we put on the barrels of food and water are starting to fail, and the only mages that were able to retrace them are either dead or missing.”

“So what? It’s only a few seals. Why can’t you do it yourself? Some quartermaster you are.” With a harrumph, the deep voice sounded as if it took the camp’s ration problem personally.

“Now, now. Don’t get all huffy Bjorn. Magical seals aren’t that easy to draw or maintain. You of all people should know the difficulty of maintaining magical seals, ser battlemage?” A third voice. Soothing. Female.

“Magical armor and weapons is naturally hard to maintain, and I wouldn’t begrudge anybody for finding it difficult. However, all Ezra has to do is retrace the enchantments onto a bunch of water barrels and food packs. How hard could that be?”

“The difficulty of the magical seals isn’t the problem.” Exasperated, the high-pitched voice sighed deeply. “The magical seals aren’t difficult to draw at all. The problem is with the containers. They’re starting to rot from the outside.”

“...What do you mean? The containers themselves are failing?” Worried, the woman shifted in her chair.

“Yes! Although the contents of the containers are safe for now, within two weeks the containers themselves will rot through and rupture. The most important containers are the ones that store fresh water. Without fresh water I’m afraid we would have to risk getting sick by drinking the swamp water or be even more severely weakened by dehydration.”

“Devils below...we don’t have any way of purifying the swamp water?” Sounding deflated, Bjorn sighed.

“None. The only mages with any mastery in water mages accompanied Master Alessio through the spatial gate. Their water barriers are extremely useful in neutralizing thrown hidden weapons and arrows. Lacking other sources of defense against ranged weapons, the master took those three in order to better protect himself.” The sole female mage’s voice was soft as she realized the depth of their problems.

“What about the soldiers, Ezra? What have you told them about our situation?”

“Nothing. I’ve revealed nothing of our current dire situation. I had all the available spearmen go patrol the area surrounding the camp and I had the rest of the infantry and scouts go to their tents to sleep early. As for the spatial gate’s malfunction, I only told them that we were preparing to have the Master return.”

“Sure they’d get suspicious as to why Master Alessio and the rest of the soldiers haven’t returned yet?” Doubt evident in his voice, Bjorn started to crack his knuckles nervously.

“None. I just stated that it was harder to return through the gate because the master captured a large amount of Klavan commandos. It would naturally be more difficult to transport more people through the same gate. They bought my explanation without any questioning. I guess the indoctrination of the Church is starting to show its worth.”

Smiling to himself, Kaz realized why there weren’t any soldiers around the campfires throughout the camp.

It seems that the soldiers of Janaro obey their mages unconditionally. This is an interesting factor that I could manipulate for sure in the future.

Silently, Kaz’s bone soldiers slipped into the light brown tents that were occupied by the Janaroian soldiers. Wearing clothes and leather armor, the bone soldiers made no noticeable noise as they moved. Preparing to be noticed, Kaz was rather surprised when all of the Janaroian soldiers were actually sleeping.

Nobody’s standing watch? At all? Is the discipline so lax in this camp? Or is there something else horribly wrong?

Without a second thought, Kaz willed his minions to take the lives of every single sleeping soldier. Muffled thumps echoed throughout the camp as spears went into throats. Seeking to kill without being exposed, Kaz’s minions stabbed the heads and necks of the sleeping soldiers again and again until every last one fell into an eternal sleep.

Quickly enslaving the fresh souls, Kaz infused the still warm bodies of the dead Janaroians with soul power and had them slowly surround the mage’s tent in the north side of the camp.

Taking extra care to hide his spirit minions away from conventional sight, Kaz had some of his bone soldiers light torches with the camp’s main bonfire. Taking a deep breath, Kaz ordered his minions to throw the torches.

Nearly a dozen torches lit up the camp as they were throw in a high arc towards the mage’s tent. Another five were thrown at paths between tents so the mages would be baited towards the main bonfire where the majority of the bone soldiers were.

“FIRE! Why is the tent on fire? Is the camp under attack?” Growling, Bjorn was the first one to charge out of the tent.

The battlemage looked nearly exactly as Kaz thought he would. Just over two meters tall, Bjorn was covered in full plate armor. Glowing runes could be seen pulsing dimly on his armor. In his left hand was a shield, which to be frank was really a thick piece of metal, and his right hand held a sagaris axe. Seeing how every path was blocked except for the one leading to the bonfire, Bjorn snorted once and charged straight ahead.

Following him in mere moments, Erza and the last mage came out with staves in hand.

“Diana, what should we do? Is Bjorn going to be okay?” Looking excessively worried, Erza’s eyes darted from shadow to shadow, seemingly afraid that something was going to jump out at him.

“No need to worry about that brute. I’ve seen him beaten half to death many times and he’s still alive.” Quickly chanting under her breath, Diana shot a ball of light out of her staff into the air. Hovering in the air directly above the bonfire, the camp was illuminated with daylight. The shadows banished, at least temporarily, Kaz’s bone minions were revealed in all their gruesome glory.

“Wh-what...are those things?” Teeth chattering in fear, Erza shrank back as far as he could into his robes.

“Heh, you think a couple of these undead abominations are enough to take care of me? I’ll destroy you!” With a roar, Bjorn raised his shield as he slammed into the first bone minion that he encountered.

Seeing the wall of steel coming towards it, the bone soldier held out its spear as Bjorn’s shield hit it directly. With a loud snap, the spear splintered and the bone minion was trampled underfoot by several hundred kilograms of steel and flesh.

“Support Bjorn with spells! Those undead freaks are easily distracted by Bjorn, and we can get several spells off by the time they take notice of us!” Elbowing Erza hard in the ribs, Diana started to focus her mana. Erza nodded and began to do the same.

Gods. I don’t think my bone soldiers would be able to pierce the armor of that battlemage.

Kaz’s face was as black as a pot as he controlled his minions to try and kite Bjorn as much as possible while he thought of a solution to deal with the battlemage’s armor. Keeping his spirit minions in reserve, Kaz constantly forced the bone soldiers broken by Bjorn to keep reanimating. Cycling the minions one by one, Kaz was able to keep the destruction of his minions by the battlemage to a minimum. Leaving a constant five bone soldiers to deal with Bjorn in the center of the camp, Kaz spread his minions throughout the camp in an attempt to circle around to Erza and Diana.

With a sneer, Diana unleashed the spell that she was preparing. Three beams of light shot out of her staff and blew apart two bone minions that were attempting to make their way around the east side of the camp. On her right, Erza’s spell unleashed a series of small quakes that buried four of Kaz’s bone soldiers in a sinkhole.

Frowning, Kaz continued to throw minion after minion at the three mages.

“AGH, I hate necromancers! Why are they such cowards all the time? FIGHT ME!” Enraged at being set upon by mindless undead, Bjorn infused his armor with mana. The dimly lit runes on his armor blazed with power, the force produced blowing away the five bone soldiers that were surrounding him. The runes on his axe now blazing brightly, each swing of Bjorn’s axe blew apart another bone soldier.

Gritting his teeth, Kaz finally brought the reaper spirit into play. Flying down from a nearby tree, the bright blue mana sword materialized in the reaper spirit’s right hand. Cackling, the spirit minion slammed its weapon into Bjorn’s back.

*BANG*

The moment the mana sword hit the battlemage’s armor, the runes on the armor glowed brightly as they brought forth their powers of protection. With a grunt, Bjorn was knocked off balance. However, the mana sword was unable to slice through the thick plate armor.

Slamming his right foot into the muddy ground, Bjorn was able to pivot his body into facing the reaper spirit before it was able to launch another attack. With a growl, the battlemage lunged at the reaper spirit. Hissing, the reaper spirit raised its mana sword and started to engage in a brutal melee with Bjorn. Runed weapon against mana sword, magical sparks flew everywhere as the two combatants fought.

Back near the now fully burning mage’s tent. Diana and Erza were stunned at the sight of the reaper spirit.

“Gods, what is that spirit? It seems really dangerous.” Gulping, Erza’s heart rate soared as he started to lose his mind to fear.

“I don’t know, but we don’t have a choice. We need to destroy it as quickly as possible. That abomination has completely occupied Bjorn. If the other bone minions slip past him and charge towards us, we’ll be hard pressed to survive.” Pursing her lips, Diana started to chant as fast as she could.

Following her lead, Erza started to chant as well.

Unnoticed by either of them, a spirit glowing a bloody red that blended into the flames started to approach from the north behind them…..