I looked around for somewhere to run but I'd managed to box us in better than the kobolds could have ever managed on their own. The rocky outcrop was of course directly behind us and the Kobolds in front but if we went left we'd be going further away from a lot of things including most importantly water. On the other hand, if we went right we'd be going back the way we came and the ground I knew was treacherous in parts, we'd walked it easily enough but it’d be impossible to run through. In short, we were trapped.

I looked over the enemy, a dozen Kobolds, two rows of five armed with a mix of spears and clubs and two female Kobolds with swords as well as two more girls with a slingshot in the rear. My own warriors lined up in front of us both and readied to receive them.

The first wave reached mine with rather mixed results. Three of them with spears stabbed clean through the skeletons to no effect whatsoever. They tried cutting bones with the edge of the tip but had about the same success. The last two however ganged up on my left skeleton with clubs.

I drew my sword, realized my shield was even further away this time because I hadn't felt like lugging it around and sighed.

I wrapped my right hand tightly around the blade of the sword and pulled up.

Red sprayed out of my palm and fingers coating my hand in necromantic mota and blood.

Then I grabbed the sword with both hands and charged at the nearest kobold as he bashed my skeleton repeatedly on the head.

The skeleton had lost his weapon when he'd chopped into the shoulder of one of the two kobolds attacking him. But right after impact, the second Kobold brought his wooden club down on the middle of my skeleton's arm, taking off it off at the elbow.

This had left him weaponless and helpless against the rain of blows which now assaulted him.

The upside was the strike had actually driven the sword attached even deeper into the other kobolds shoulder further disabling it.

Now headless from repeated strikes, my fourth skeleton fell lifeless to the ground and the still healthy kobold turned to face me growling.

His first strike came at my left side and I parried it with my sword, guiding it towards the ground. I kicked out at his chest and knocked him down but couldn't follow up. I had to intercept the charge of another kobold from the second group arriving behind.

His club came down hard onto my blocking sword and I had to absorb the full force of the strike. My legs buckled, driving me down onto my knees. He'd overextended though so I tried to go for a stab at his gut, that's when I discovered my blade was stuck fast into the wooden club. Shit. Shit Shit Shit. I'm so fucked.

I only barely had time to catch the glint of sun on smooth metal as a one-ounce ball of iron left its sling.

The blood dripping from my hand raced out in front of the incoming iron and formed a tilted shield of red between me and it.

The metal ball hit the angled shield of blood and ricocheted off careening into the face of the kobold above me.

Damn, I'm good.

The kobold screamed pulling his hands back towards his face and ended up taking his club and my blade along as well. Being driven to my knees turned out to be fortuitous, I drew the dagger from my boot and stabbed out at the blinded Kobold, driving the blade through his palm and into his already damaged eye socket. The narrow blade must have been long enough to reach his brain because he fell back and started spasming on the ground. I ignored my dagger buried in his skull and heaved the blade of my sword free from the now discarded club as he twitched a few more times before staying still.

The four other kobolds in the second group joined the three already attacking my other skeletons and began laying into them with greater efficiency. It was seven on three and they had two clubs and a sword now.

The first kobold I'd kicked down stood back up and swung at my feet. I jumped back and looked behind me to see the injured kobold had also recovered enough, his club now in his other hand and swiping at my head.

I'd forgotten that he was still alive and even with his off hand he could easily split my skull. His club whistled by my head as I successfully ducked but I was surrounded on both sides now.

Then the injured kobold gurgled behind me and blood spewed out his neck, Kaylee had been blocked from my view by the kobolds bulk and I'd not noticed her until the dagger’s tip ran through his throat.

Both slingers fired again and one got dangerously close, forcing me to use precious energy deflecting it.

I eyed the single remaining kobold appraisingly. "Kill him," I said.

"What!" she replied, terror in her voice, but I was already running towards my surrounded skeletons.

There were only two skeletons left now and two of the kobolds armed with a spear and a club turned to block my path.

The spear-armed one reached me first and stabbed out in an utterly expected attack the moment he got in range. I was turning sideways to let it pass almost before he even began the strike. How predictable.

After the spear tip passed I reached out grabbing it by the haft and pulled it onwards, extending the strike far past it's original intention. The Kobold wielding it was knocked completely off balance, holding on he was pulled forward into the dirt and then forced to release it anyway as he tumbled. I casually ran my blade across the back of his legs as I walked by, severing tendons and leaving him incapable of doing more than dragging himself through the sand.

I hefted up the spear I'd stolen in my off hand and then threw it at the Club wielder. He flailed his weapon in front of himself in an attempt to intercept it but missed.

Having been thrown with the tip facing me, the blunt end smacked into his stomach. It did little actual damage but so greatly startled the lizard that he didn't react to my charging in after.

I got inside his reach in the confusion and drove my sword into his chest.

Then I wrapped my arm around his neck, embraced him in a hug and drove the sword deeper. The rich infusion of mana was intoxicating as it poured out of him. Better still was the sound of gurgling as his lungs tried and failed to breathe for the last time.

Breathing deeply I tasted the air, it tasted of death and waste and I couldn't fill my lungs with it fast enough.

I took a moment to glance behind me.

Kaylee looked to be struggling. The kobold's greater reach kept her at bay and worse, her knife had somehow been knocked free and she was unarmed.

She breathed deep, her chest jutting forward appreciatively for a moment before she exhaled directly at the kobold's face. The necrotic infused air wormed into the kobold's mouth and nose and he coughed violently once to expel it.

That was all the time my little psycho bitch needed. She ran forward and leaped towards him, knocking him over and winding up on top.

Her hand clasped over his mouth and he struggled a moment before biting down. Her grin was absolutely feral as his teeth drew blood. Dear Gods, if she fought like she fucked, she'd fuck till she cried.

The blood dripped into his mouth and I looked away, I already knew how it would end.

My skeletons were all dead and five kobolds turned to face me. Yet more balls whizzed by but none came close enough to be a danger.

I pushed the kobold I'd embraced off my sword while at the same time infusing mana into him. As he came free the now undead zombie immediately turned and launched at the nearest enemy.

The kobold it charged at held its spear forward but the zombie just kept charging, impaling itself all the way up to the kobolds hands and lunging forward bringing them both to the ground. Claws and teeth raked at the face of the downed lizard.

the nearest female kobold took her sword and stabbed at the zombie, clearly not having learned yet of how little undead care about being stabbed.

I commanded the zombie to reach behind with both hands and grab the weapon by the guard on each side.

The kobold tried to pull away in terror as what was about to happen hit her. But the zombie's grip held fast and the weaker kobold couldn't get the blade away.

The zombie pulled hard towards itself, stabbing the blade clean through and into the guts of the kobold underneath.

The sword-wielding kobold, hands wrapped around the hilt of her weapon was reeling in shock and did nothing as my blade came down on her wrists. Severing both hands and separating her from her sword permanently.

She screamed in agony, her stumps turning towards me and showering me in a spray of red mist. I licked my lips.

Three left plus the slingers.

Kaylee ran towards me, the decayed remains of the kobold she'd petrified from the inside out baking in the sun behind her.

Just as she reached me two more shots whistled through the air and this time one found it's target.

The slug impacted her bicep and was followed a moment later by the sound of metal impacting bone.

Her scream so close to my ear was deafening.

I caught her as she stumbled and grabbed the dagger as it began to slip from her now dangling arm.

No time to do this the right way.

I pulled her close to me and laid our arms palm up beside each other.

Then I sliced the dagger across both our wrists spraying blood into the air.

I arced mine towards the stumpy girl and poisoned her open wounds, quickly killing and turning her in an instant.

Next, I raised up the dead kobold pinned underneath my zombie and together with stumpy they buried one of the remaining two in a pile of bodies.

I saw Kaylee drive her wrist up into the dagger, spewing a jagged rent of mana and guiding it towards a charging female.

Kobolds don't generally wear clothing and these were no exception. You couldn't normally pierce the skin with mana, but she didn't need to.

Necromancy worked its way between her legs and shoved inside. I could see the skin begin to wither and die as the corruption spread.

She turned away to break the stream but it was already too late, blood spewed out as she bled internally and she only made it a few steps before collapsing onto the sand.

Kaylee barely seemed to notice her life spraying out across the desert. Her eyes were glazed over and I understood why. It was intoxicating.

If you ever feel sad and lonely, if you ever feel dead inside, just throw yourself out onto the edge of existence and while you teeter push someone else off.

I never tired of it.

Seeing what was happening the slingers bellowed a cry of fear and began running.

The remaining kobold, realizing he'd been abandoned turned to do the same thing but took a moment too long to stare at his comrade under a sea of bodies.

The reanimated hands of stumpy crawled up his legs and he freaked out trying to shake them off. He could only shake one leg at a time, however.

The unhindered right hand first crawled up his back distracting him.

This caused his leg to stop shaking and the left hand made it to his chest.

He freaked out again but focused and eventually grabbed the one on his back.

He threw it onto the ground in front of him and went to stomp on it. The left hand leaped at his face.

Fingers gouged into his eye sockets and he tried to flee. But he stumbled blindly into the kobold trying to drag itself away with no working legs and fell.

I walked casually over and brought my slit wrist close to his ruined face.

I drew on the necrotic mana created as some of his became corrupted in death. Using it to rapidly stretch my dead skin taut and meld it back together.

The hand on his face was now busily trying to crawl into his mouth muffling his screams.

I whispered to him gently “ sssshhh little one, it's ok, it's all over but the dying now”

Kaylee looked at me with a hint of desperation, finally having noticed she was about to stop teetering on the edge and start falling off it.

"Ryzen?" She said.

I sat down on the hamstrung kobold.

“Come here,” I told her.

Her wound was too jagged and torn to be fixed as easily as mine. She'd been reckless in opening it.

She walked over as I pinched some skin on my chest, I then ran my blade down cutting off a strip and leaving me gasping.

I pushed the open wound together after, then killed off and melded skin together enough to hide bone.

It was actually possible to heal as a necromancer. You just needed enough life motas concentrated that you could wrap it in a bubble of necrotic mana and force onto a wound before it all became contaminated.

Done quickly it would bind and heal wounds.

"I'd considered healing you but you did well, you've earned your scars Kaylee."

I laid the strip of skin across her wound and infused it with necromancy until it was bone white, before melding it to her.

Over the next hour, I carefully set her broken bone so it could heal properly then made an incision exposing it. It'd actually been nessacary to heal her as she'd needed to replace some shattered bits of bone I couldn't set back into place. Luckily we had a ready supply of life mana just below me. I finished up by slitting the throat of the last remaining kobold and shoved his life energy into the open incision. In a few minutes, she was healed and we could get ready to head back.