(xxi.)

Lazarus stood up as the sun rose. No attack happened overnight.

Very odd, why would a country supposedly being overrun with monsters have a night with none? Either they are building for a larger attack or something else is going on.

Lazarus willed Jet and his new Ghoul to follow along with him.

“We will head to the closest city.”

Lazarus pulled out a map. There was a city very close by to the north called Delton. Delton had a lake near it on the map so it would make sense for monsters to congregate there as well. He put away the map and began to travel in that direction. The country appeared to be a mix of plains and forests.

He found an old beaten down road to follow in the general direction of the city. There were many dead monsters and people along the road as he walked. He briefly considered creating some undead skeletons but thought it would be too much of a hassle right now and hard to explain to anyone living they might run into.

The Taoist Ghoul following him was already a sort of problem, not to mention Jet. Lazarus felt he could explain him away or just dismiss the friendly wolf skeleton if it came down to it. However, other unnamed minions could not be dismissed and brought back so easily.

As Lazarus traveled the what could barely be called a road he started to see signs of a struggle. Sounds of battle could be heard up ahead along with a wagon pulling several caged carts.

“Master? What should we do?” The Ghoul spoke up from his side.

“Call me Leader. Master will sound too suspicious,” Lazarus snapped.

“Yes, Leader.”

“We will investigate.”

The trio started to move faster towards the sounds of battle.

Jet rushed forward barking like a hound on the hunt. What Lazarus saw when they came across the battle was not what he had expected at all.

There were four large spider wolf hybrids, much like horse sized spiders covered in fur with spider legs but with the faces of wolves. Lazarus decided at that moment to call them Woofspiders, the adorable name failing to capture the true nature of the beasts at all.

The deftly named Woofspiders were attacking what was left of the guards of the caravan of caged covered wagons. Four guards were all that remained of what Lazarus could see was once a full crew of ten guards. The remaining living consisted of two swordsmen wearing mismatched heavy armor, one female archer wearing equally mismatched leather armor, and one dagger wielding hit and run specialist.

It seemed that the specialist would rush between the other fights at the critical moment to do large amounts of damage. It became clear this was his role as he would disengage if the Woofspider even glanced at the man. His armor was all shades of black. That one seemed to be a head above the others in skill.

It was at this moment that Lazarus had an idea for a experiment. What if he tried to create undead from this range? Would the undead spawn near him or at the corpse? Did he need to be closer, at the range he could touch the dead body, or could it be by just line of sight?

He must know the answer but why waste the effort to just test one thing? He could see if he could raise more than one thing at a time as well.

My mana is full.

Lazarus cast King's Great Sword. The blade was black as night with a silver trim running along the blade.

No reason to leave myself helpless.

Then, without much consideration for the other fighting people, he cast Create Undead on three of the dead guards at once. He cast Skeleton Swordsman on two of the bodies and Skeleton Archer on the third, leaving Lazarus with no extra mana for any spells whatsoever.

He cast the spell at all three targets, selecting the type of undead not randomly, but rather selecting what looked like the bodies of three swordsmen to see if the skeleton archer would manifest a bow or be without.

He did not need to wait long for the answer or rather the results of his experiment.

The two swordsman immediately rose, skeletons gleaming from the freshly shucked corpses they were recently a part of. The archer, however, struggled to rise before the bones turned to dust. The spell didn’t fail outright, so distance and power must be a limiting factor.

A factor he would offset with additional research.

The two remaining living swordsmen jolted, failing to account for the new arrivals even as Lazarus directed them into battle. One of them was snagged, and dragged kicking and screaming into the woods, leaving his stunned companions to fend off the remaining three Woofspiders.

Making a snap decision to retain the integrity of his research, he kept the new Ghoul back. He was certain it was stronger than the skeletons by a wide margin, thus he did not want the results of this newest experiment tainted. The skeletons must be tested. And tested they were.

While two Woofspiders remained focused on the remaining three guards, the third turned toward his new bony companions. There would be blood. But it wouldn’t spill from his minions.

They lacked veins after all.