Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 96

Quietus could easily have started the next attack immediately after he came back to life. It would certainly be a surprise to the enemy. However, they had already killed a decent amount of his undead horde. He was still confident in his ability to defeat them, but he would lose more units than necessary. Instead, he decided to wait.

The second assault force, even at half strength would be able to cause quite a bit of trouble for the defenders in the keep. In fact, the battle was at a very critical moment. From their perspective, their arrival would signify the beginning of their victory over The Children of Light. Indeed, The Children of Light weren’t prepared for a sudden assault from the rear. They had to split off some attention from the other front, which made both parts weaker.

Quietus was no longer involved with The Children of Light. Thus, he had no particular reason to help them at this point. Still, as the second assault force was starting to gain some ground, his undead horde attacked. Mostly because he didn’t have any reason not to help. He was here to kill people, and these people were still alive. Now, they were pinned between his undead army and the keep. The best part was, all of their vulnerable, ranged people were at the back.

Not that his attack was a complete surprise to them. They had some inkling that his minions might return. However, they were not expecting him with them. Even if they had been, they were expecting a necromancer, and not an assassin. Thus, while his minions were still far enough away to have not been sensed, Quietus began his attack.

This time, his tactics were taken from the ghosts he had first fought. Rise up out of the floor, materialize and strike, and then dematerialize back into the floor. Unlike the ghosts in the Moaning Mines, though, Quietus was capable of killing his enemies in one attack. At least, all of those who were vulnerable like the mages. All of the heavily armored and healthy enemies were up front, scaling the walls.

Quietus only got in a few attacks, and therefore kills, before the remainder of his minion horde arrived, providing other things for them to focus on. Otherwise, they would have been able to concentrate on him and kill him yet again. Still, the situation wasn’t looking much better for The Children of Light, since they still had to split their attention between two fronts. A welcome relief came in the form of a dragon attacking those in the main army.

In addition to all of these things, Quietus had planned to have the players he killed enter his undead horde, although it would have been only temporary. However, those he defeated knew there was a necromancer, and thus prevented the corpses from being made into undead, just in case something strange happened. It was unfortunate, and bugged Quietus. Then, he realized, there were still plenty of bodies that likely weren’t protected.

Quietus slipped out into the front battle. It was quite safe, since he just had to travel underground where no one could see, hear, or attack him. The second assault force had been casting spells to prevent their fallen from being resurrected, since they knew it was a possibility mid-combat. However, upon his death, they had considered the matter dealt with. Meanwhile, the primary assault force had been locked in combat pretty much the whole time, and didn’t have any reason to believe a necromancer would be coming. Thus, all of their recent fallen were still there, ripe for the plucking. Though some of the bodies would have disappeared already, there were many recent bodies as well.

“Ye who have returned to the land of living. This black and corrupt land is a dark place. The eternal dark law will never disappear, engrave this upon yourself. Undead Rise!”

Undead Rise was a mass undead creating spell. Although it wouldn’t be as good as individually creating undead, these were players and wouldn’t be permanent minions anyway. In addition, it was much more time efficient. It also covered a very large area.

The enemy forces were surprised when their members started coming to life and attacking them, since there shouldn’t have been any necromancers around. The Children of Light were somewhat surprised as well, both at that, and their own members coming to life. However, they were pleasantly surprised to find the undead not attacking them. Angelo was somewhat less surprised than the rest at the undead, since Quietus was known by Angelo to be a necromancer. However, the feeling of reinforcements was no less pleasant, and the help itself was still surprising.

Sir Draco and the newly raised players threw the front lines into chaos, and the back lines were surrounded on all sides. The sudden arrival of a large force was something they weren’t prepared to deal with, and the battle quickly shifted back in the favor of the Children of Light. The enemies turned to flee once they realized they were losing. After all, it wasn’t worth losing levels for nothing. The Children of Light weren’t in a good enough position to chase them.

Quietus, however, was. He and his minions chased down every player fleeing the battlefield. Those who could fly were of course taken down by Sir Draco. It was possible a few slipped away in the chaos, but it became almost a total destruction of their forces. Then, Quietus and his minions started looting the bodies, though only of those they chased down and the second assault force. Previously, Quietus would have disdained loot that he couldn’t personally use, but equipping a minion horde was very expensive.

After his minion horde stripped the battlefield of everything he felt he had claim too, they left. It was not the level loss of the enemies that would keep them from trying again to take over the keep. Indeed, they might even try again. However, the victor of the battlefield would leave with a large amount of equipment, since they would be around to gather it, keeping their own items and gaining others.

Quietus, since his minions were not able to be brought back to life, at least not at anything resembling their former strength, was somewhat worse off. Except, mostly only his weaker minions died. His stronger ones survived, and grew even stronger. Plus, he could always make more.

Lucky also survived. Quietus wasn’t sure if he actually participated in the battle, but he participated in the looting, claiming a second boot. Which he promptly placed on his head, instead of the foot that didn’t have a boot. That… was precisely what Quietus had come to expect of him.

Quietus was feeling good. He’d killed a lot of people, gained a lot of loot… and his cousin would probably also be happier. Happier people near him was also good.

//End Chapter 96