I grabbed several bones from the collection we’d amassed through our kills. Mostly it was just the twice dead remains of my own skeletons but we also had the skeleton of the kobold Kaylee had been perhaps too overzealous executing. Her necrotic mana had so thoroughly consumed him it left little but bone remaining.

“Come here,” I told Kaylee.

She walked over and after taking a glance at her face I handed her the smaller of two carving knives I grabbed from a pouch.

“When mota are close, they pull on one another in many directions. If you release the containment while they are in that state it will rapidly expand and fly off everywhere. If however, your careful, they’ll reach equilibrium and the pull on the bonds will be equal in all directions. Such a stable state will allow you to release the containment and they will stay bound. This is what happens in your core. Watch,” I told her.

I nicked the top of my hand and poured mana into two bones. The mana first corrupted what remained of life mana inside before filling it with concentrated necrotic mana. A small chain of mana linked both bones together at the top and bottom respectively creating a joint.

“Mana will naturally settle into a balanced state if one is possible. Your job is to feed and compress that mana until you have the right ratio to achieve stability.” I stated as I tossed her a small finger bone.

She fed mana in while compressing it tighter. The pressure must have been too much for her and the containment suddenly collapsed causing the bone itself to try to hold the rapidly expanding cloud of mana in. A hairline crack left over from some injury rapidly fractured further and the top half of the bone flew into the air as the bone splintered in half from the pressure.

I grabbed two more medium bones and cut the top and bottoms off before cleaning out the marrow from the middle. I handed her one.

“Take this, you’ll need it later,” I said, “Then practice more.”

I went off to train myself. Most mages focused on ever increasing their core density but there are actually two important base skills. The ability to condense mana of course but also the speed at which you could do it. I practiced my speed, starting with a basic defensive barrier, I quickly stabilized it using just enough mana to protect against an arrow or simple spell. Then I continued moving up in density doing it as rapidly as possible until I reached the strongest density I could manage, a death touch spell.

After several hours spent training and meditating and then training once more the sun began setting and we readied to leave.

We moved out for the edge of the Kobold camp after dark. That ensured we could get relatively close without being spotted by any posted sentries.

As we walked, I kept a careful eye on Kaylee through my skeletons, which is how I noticed her drawing closer suddenly.

“Yes, Kaylee?” I said as I turned.

She pulled up short surprised by my action. The two skeletons behind her grabbed onto her shoulders and wrists and pinned her in place.

It appears getting to have an insecure virgin is way more fun in your imagination than in practice.

Perhaps a little fear would temper her anger.

The skeletons shifted their hands slightly lower down the front of her shoulder.

“I’d hate to share you, princess,” I told her.

I could see a moment of fear cross her face as the realization of what I’d just said hit her.

“I- I wasn’t trying to kill you!” she stuttered. “I just wanted to know what the plan was.”

“Hmm, perhaps..” I said as I trailed off into details.

We finally reached a small trail in the desert after several hours of walking. The trail was walked often enough it was visible even in the ever-shifting sands. I’d scouted out this location several days ago when we were still a raiding party and knew the Kobolds used the path every morning and evening to get water from the small oasis at the end of the path.

They did not camp at the water or even leave a guard. I suspected it was due to the number of desert creatures which frequented it every day. That meant we could refill our water skins and make preparations through the night.

As I listened, I could hear what had to be another dozen of the enemy approaching the water’s edge. With nothing in view, they seemed unconcerned as they filled up containers.

One kobold I could sense peering closely into the muddy water but he was already too late. Four spears shot out from skeletal hands laying on the waters bed and impaled two of the kobolds before dragging them into the water and holding them submerged until the last bubbles died.

The other three filling water shrieked in alarm and backed up as my minions stood up and walked out from the water’s edge. They’d apparently not even bothered bringing weapons and hid behind five guards with the apparent leader.

The leader shrieked at one of the unarmed kobolds and he took off down the path towards the camp. He made it less than thirty feet before my hand came free of the sand in the path where I had been buried by the skeletons and it closed around his ankle tripping him up and triggering my death’s touch.

Death’s touch is an exception to the rule you can’t directly harm someone with necrotic mana like you can with other types. By directly touching a target a concentrated blade of necrotic mana can overwhelm the dense life mana in the skin and then rush through the gap to spread corruption inside a target.

Scale and skin tried and failed to resist the onslaught of necrotic mana. His face barely had time to register shock as it liquified his insides.

Kaylee rose beside me and I saw the predatory grin on her face as we both watched the unarmed kobolds look desperately for an escape that didn’t exist.

That face looked a little too interested in a slaughter.

“Keep to the plan,” I reminded her.

The five guards reorganized into a circle to protect the three ones without weapons and we closed.

Kaylee struck first, biting her own cheek before sucking on the wound and spitting at a kobolds face. The blood pulled up short, going from a ball to a thin sheet and hung in the air blocking the kobolds view, growing bigger as more blood streamed in from her wound.

The kobold barely had time to notice the blood dispersing as my shield charged through it, the center boss smashing into his face and leaving him exposed to a follow-up strike. A sword disappeared into his stomach and I twisted on the way out. He looked briefly down at the remains of his intestines he now held in his hands before falling to his knees and then collapsing altogether.

Three armed kobolds faced me and Kaylee while the last two stood against my skeleton warriors.

Two club armed skeletons tied up the enemy while I directed the last two with spears to stab through their ally’s empty chest and into the kobold, piercing his stomach and thigh. He howled as they withdrew to stab again, quickly taking him down.

The second went down with barely an effort outnumbered and surrounded.

Kaylee flung the now reformed wall of blood at another enemy charging her, wrapping his head in blood that filled his nostrils and blinded him such that she simply stepped aside and tripped him as he charged past. She leaped onto his back and drove her dagger in severing the spine. But she was so engrossed in her work she missed the second kobold rushing her.

“I think your friend wants a chance to be on top now Kaylee,” I yelled.

I poured mana into now dead kobold beneath her and took pleasure in seeing the brief look of shock cross her face as it grabbed hold of her and threw her to the side just before the charging sword came down. The blade buried into the zombie and I forced it to roll away from Kaylee with the blade still pinned in it. The kobolds blade flexed as it held the handle fast. Then in a sign of the cheap quality of the metal, it snapped near the guard and he held a one-inch long sword.

Kaylee recovered enough to see him with his broken sword and having so nearly died must have made her wild again, she giggled before saying: “I didn’t know they made them that tiny.”

Then her hand reached up and grabbed his sack. She buried her fingernails into him deep enough to draw blood and yanked down. I actually gulped as a few moments later as his decayed balls came off.

He stabbed uselessly then leaped for her trying to claw and bite. The dagger in her hand embedded in his neck and he gurgled blood.

It then flowed up into a sheet and wrapped itself around the head of the final kobold. He died clawing at his face to extract the blood as it wormed into his nose and ears.

That left only the three unarmed kobolds.