The horse tumbled and Ethan was thrown off it. Ethan cast [Mana Shield] around himself as he rolled away and got up. The horse was less lucky and had had its leg bitten into before getting jumped by the pack of dogs.

The spell [Cloud of Daggers] however was working and started disassembling the skeletons within its range into bones and shards. By the time it ended it would destroy or injure two dozen undead. This had stopped or slowed the army significantly in places. The others in the front of the lines turned and waited for their comrades to join them again. Others glared at Ethan and the commotion he had caused.

Ethan looked around himself and assessed the situation as a group of undead circled around him. The armored skeletons bared their swords out at him and tightened the circle as reinforcements joined them.

“[Dark Bolt]”

Ethan sent out the spell again, but a group of spirits stepped forward and stopped the attack. It hit them and the power of the spell dissipated within them. Seeing that the spell was ineffective they continued to approach. They cackled and howled together and floated towards him.

Their ghostly hands’ sent out small blasts of spirit energy that Ethan deflected with [Mana Shield]. Now that the undead were closer he cast his signature spell.

“[Ghost Hands]”

The spell formed around his hands and the spectral fists followed his own as he attacked. He swiped at the nearby spirits before turning to the undead behind him. The spirits' spectral bodies burned and were knocked back once hit. Behind him, the army was reforming and continuing their march through the fields of the farm.

Ethan grabbed hold of nearby skeletons and swiped with his other hand causing them to break into pieces. Gripping the skeletons tightly he tossed them into the air and let the pieces fall onto the disinterested army.

The skeletons that were hit stopped and looked up at the sky and back down before turning to the area of battle that Ethan was in the middle of. The skeletal horse riders looked over at Ethan in a new light. They spoke with each other and their troops for a minute before turning towards him. The horses kicked up the dirt and started galloping towards him. The other undead followed behind. Other spirits and ghosts stayed near the riders as they drew their weapons.

Ethan was focused on the immediate fight around him but heard the other undead arriving. Seeing that he was dealing with the smaller undead the giants approached. Two zombie giants worked together to fight him. They both carried clubs wielded by their formerly living selves and tried to crush him.

He rolled out of the way as they attacked and used his [Ghost Hand] spell to clear the area of immediate threats along the way. As the reinforcements joined in attacking him his ability to fight broke down. Spells were thrown his way. Some of them hit the other skeletons while others forced him to block them when he almost finished off the enemy.

The giants continued to cause trouble and pinned him down with rotating attacks between the two of them. He hit one with [Dark Bolt] which shattered its club and parts of its hand. The giant roared back and tried to kick and stomp at him.

One of the kicks hit him as he was dodging a club strike. His body hit the wall of undead and knocked the wind out of him before he rolled to a stop on the ground. His [Ghost Hand]s dissipated and his clothes teared up with cuts. When he looked up he saw the face of one of the undead horse riders looking down at him. Its eyes were filled with a fire, and it bared its rotting teeth before striking at him.

Ethan rolled out of the way of the first attack before casting [Mist Form]. The second slash came down and cut through the grey mist constituting Ethan's current form. The skeletal rider watched as Ethan darted between the warriors and reappeared above the giant without its club. He grabbed hold of its head like a child to a parent.

Ethan formed a [Shadow Knife] in one hand and started to rapidly stab the giant’s neck and the side of its face as his grip loosened. The giant tried to grab at him as he attacked but its reach wasn’t great, and he was still partially in mist form as he attacked. His lower body stayed as mist while the giant’s hands went through it.

The [Shadow Knife] cut and burned into what remaining flesh the giant had now that it was an undead and left the giant's left arm limp after its tendons were cut. Ethan was finally forced off the giant when its friend came to its aid and arrows were fired at it in an act of desperation by the other undead.

Jumping away from the two giants, Ethan stepped back and took out an item from his bag. Tossing the vial at the injured giant it burst into flames and lit up the pre-dawn sky. The grasses in the area that had been stomped on and mashed by the army soon caught fire as well.

Ethan took this opportunity to cast one more spell before resuming the fight.

“[Flare]”

The spell flew through the air and exploded above them in a bright yellow light. He looked down after activating the spell to avoid blinding himself. The undead would have no such problem.

‘Only a little bit longer now and then I can get out of here. There is enough space between them and the undead that they should be fine. I just need to worry about myself now. I’m almost out so I need to be careful here.’

The undead adjusted and moved around the fire that was spreading. The giant stumbled back as well. Its instinctive fear of fire from its time alive kicked in. Arrows from skeletal archers flew past Ethan and he held up a [Mana Shield] to block some of them as he turned towards the nearest enemies.

With [Dark Bolt] he sent the nearest undead backward and into pieces. With his [Shadow Knife] still in one hand he fought off the spirits, but they were getting slowly harder to deal with as his exhaustion increased. One of the skeletal horse riders charged at him and he sidestepped and ducked the horse while striking out at it. The knife cut into its leg and the horse fell and slid into nearby undead.

The rider picked up its spear and stood back up before adopting a fighting stance. Ethan poured more mana into his knife, and it changed form into a sword. The other undead circled him while watching for the fight to begin. The undead attacked first and aimed for Ethan’s head.

Ethan parried the blow with his sword and stepped forward with his own attack. The undead fighter used its forearm bones to block the attack before swinging its spear back around. Ethan stepped back to avoid the attack and cast [Dark Bolt]. The spell hit the rider head-on, and it disintegrated before hitting a second undead right behind it.

The undead seemingly frowned in disappointment and then made noises in anger before resuming their attacks on him. Ethan refocused on attacking the giant while stopping the undead from getting too close to him. He picked up the spear from the fallen rider and began to stab out at the nearest undead.

‘I really should get more weapon practice in if I am going to keep getting myself into fights like this.’

Ethan fought for a minute and adjusted his handling of the weapon as he went. At first, he focused on pushing back the undead and slowly started attacking with precision strikes without needless attacks. As he found a familiarity with the length of the weapon he started gaining ground and fighting better with more effective strikes at a faster pace.

The fires burning in the area continued as Ethan fought. He was careful to watch the positioning of it and the giant. The giant had been pushed back by the other undead also interested in killing Ethan. After another minute it gave up on trying to push through the other undead and started swinging its club around to get the others' attention.

The skeletons in the immediate area were thrown into the air while others scattered when they saw their friends being crushed. Some of the undead tried to put up a fight and only made small cuts into the giant zombie before being crushed. Ethan saw the giant zombie approaching and swung his spear around to face it.

‘I need to get out of here.’ Ethan held up the spear above his shoulder before casting his last spell.

“[Dark Strike]”

Ethan threw the spear like a javelin as the spell imbued itself into his weapon. The spear turned pitch black, and its tip radiated the dark mist from his previous spells. It flew through the air and increased in speed before it hit the giant in the gut and landed in the undead behind him. The giant stumbled as the weight of his upper body failed itself before collapsing to the ground.

Ethan stepped forward to where the giant lay, and he threw out another item from his bag. His flying ship expanded to full size. He quickly jumped aboard as the undead started attacking the ship and sending attacks his way as well. Ethan took out mana stones from his bag and activated the defensive runes on the ship before too much could be done to the ship.

Ethan looked down at the farm as he flew away. The fields had finally started burning. It was no longer of any interest to the undead and they let it be. They were starting to regroup and repair the others. With necromantic spells, they reset bones and reignited the fire within their friends. Sometimes it failed, the power of Ethan’s [Dark Bolt] or other spells had brought too much damage on them ruining their bodies. Other undead sent arrows at the underside of the ship but the arrows bounced off harmlessly if they hit the ship at all. Ethan returned to the control panel and adjusted the ship to pick up speed and point towards the mountains.