“Shaaahhh!” The screeching sound of the metal eaters scraping their exoskeletons, threatening me and summoning more reinforcements echoed through the large space that had possibly been one of the greatest industrial wonders of the continent. Of the once spectacular forges and metal works, all that was left was scrap and rubble. Everything that had been made of metal was gone, devoured or taken away by the bastards in front of me. That included the specialized tools that would have been enough to kick start an industrial revolution on any world. Instead, the now brightly lit weapon's foundry and workshop was just a pile of ruins of a glory lost to time. The longer I kept looking around, the more it kept pissing me off.

However, my fury found its target as thankfully more of the shitty metal eaters kept arriving to fill the trashed foundry for me to stomp on. I sneered mentally at their futile struggle. My battle line bulged in a semicircle with my forces advancing, wading through the flesh and blood of my enemies. Three of my avatars, all skeleton summons, were spread evenly across the line, surrounded by dozens of skeleton summons each and a handful of floating, humanoid ghosts, also low level summons created by the spell. Every few minutes, a skeleton summon and or a ghost joined the battle line, crawling out of the entrance leading to my sanctum.

My avatars constantly tossed out low level, 'Lineage' spells like , , , , and targeting the smaller metal eaters, killing them, trapping them, or mentally stunning them. Metal eaters were scrambling and dying everywhere in the chaos, as they struggled desperately and the paid for their temerity in thinking they could challenge me. Even when they succeeded in closing with me, all they met was a wall of marching bones. My skeletal summons ripped into my enemies with trained coordination, wielding bloody stingers ripped out of my enemies as improvised weapons and carrying their pried off, flesh covered exoskeletons as shields.

Once in a while, on the command of my avatars, a handful of the skeleton summons would also fire off a or spell using their pitiful mana reserves. I had installed the spells in their souls using a high tier, 'lineage' spell called before they left my throne room. No sane necromancer would have wasted their mana and knowledge doing such a thing. The whole point of a low level summon was to be cannon fodder, especially as the summoner had to constantly feed them small amounts of mana to keep them 'alive' and moving. However, my crazy move meant that they could use spells once every minute or so, while I was literally pumping them full of mana. All of it was draining my mana constantly, but even at the rate things were going, I figured I could continue the battle for another thirty minutes or so before I hit danger levels. I had a purpose for the insanity of course, and it was flailing around on the other side of the foundry.

My few dozen ghosts were busy hitting it with long distance pot shots using the 'Lineage' spell and dive bombing it with the spell , that I had installed in them. The constant hits kept the massive metal eater weak and barely moving, as it kept constantly struggling in place. It was a cheap and shitty move to use, but I couldn't take the chance of that bastard joining the battle or escaping. It was more than likely a mid tier monster, though a weak one with poor mental resistance. However, even a weak, mid tier monster was capable of causing havoc on this battlefield, if it got a chance.

Eventually, the enemy's reinforcements seemed to start petering off, though the large metal eater continued to flail around, sending screeching sounds echoing through the large space. By this time, my forces had increased to 144 and crushed any resistance. It spoke volumes of how many metal eaters had died and how much mana I was expending for this insanity. However, as I watched my prey from three different angles as it was abandoned by its underlings, I felt satisfaction in a job well done. “I said I would be back.”

The view from all my avatars was confusing, since it meant I was literally in four different places all at once, but the higher tier, 'Lineage' spell was truly amazing in what it had allowed me to do. Neduzar's memories told me that he had been able to pull it off with a dozen or more avatars at the height of his power, but I was barely able to maintain three, with how confusing all the sensory input and coordinating was. Still, it had been a necessary move, since I needed 'captains' that could coordinate my forces and act as multiple 'turrets,' as I had no mid tier summons to overwhelm my enemies with. However, looking into the hate fill eyes of the mid tier mental eater, my three avatars mentally muttered at the same time. “At least, not yet.” Then, dozens of dark arrows mercilessly killed it, freeing its soul from its worldly worries.