Sage wasn’t sure what Count Voctem hoped to accomplish with these empowered zombies. They weren’t instantly defeated by the First Light, but they still weren’t very powerful. He could send them flying with a single punch and with just a little more effort cleave them apart. After knocking a few more of them back he saw the first zombies he hit had recovered. The severed arm was collected and pressed up against the shoulder. A green light flashed and the limb was reattached. They were pretty easy for him to deal with, but after a few moments of fighting he realized what was going on.

They came at him only one or two at a time, and while they were easily handled the others behind would support them. They would try to catch the ones he sent flying or gather the body parts he severed so they could be reattached more quickly. Holding themselves back and fighting one at a time gave them no chance of winning, but it extended the time it took to beat them. This terrible tactic was used in action movies constantly, to make the hero look good by beating up huge groups of foes, but it was also a horrible idea if you actually wanted to win. Instead of overwhelming someone with numbers you were just trying to tire them to death.

In this case, it seemed Count Voctem wanted to win by attrition. By the time he beat up two or three of them, another one or two would have already finished recovering and returned to the fight. They ran from him whenever he rushed into the group, spreading out to minimize how fast he could slice all the limbs from them. Even if he stabbed his bare hand into their bodies, it didn’t seem to have any additional effect, so chopping them into pieces seemed the most effective at disabling them, but that was also pretty useless when the other zombies could pick up the limbs and help reassemble their allies.

Glancing back over to the Count, Sage saw him place a large circle and symbols onto the ground, laying down some sort of small formation. Then he released a bunch of floating candles into the air, some of them made of black wax and others red. These candles spontaneously lit on fire and floated through the air, slowly circling around him. At the same time, he started doing strange motions that weren’t quite like the hand seals that Sage knew and pouring that blackish green Qi into the formation.

Ahh, so he’s just buying time. The plight of the wood cultivator, always needing so much time.

Just like he had to in the past, Count Voctem’s methods all seemed to require large amounts of time and planning to set up. Just like when he relied upon the Sacred Banyan as his main method. The difference was that this guy also used some sort of dark or yin natured Qi at the same time which seemed to create many new options and also added a lot of creepiness. It would definitely give him a big boost against the weak minded or inexperienced. The only question was what price was Voctem paying to have all these ghosts and zombies? Was he just a graverobber or did he kill all of them himself?

The only problem with Count Voctem’s plan was that the zombies didn’t actually stop Sage from moving around. The dark tree’s branches had sunk down to try and protect the Count, but they could only hinder his approach. Just like the zombies, he could smash his way through them and reach the Count quite easily. It seemed this fellow still underestimated Sage’s strength and speed, let alone the other powers he was clueless of. Even so, Sage didn’t charge through the zombie to disrupt the formation and smash the candles. Instead, he spread his own Qi into the ground and watched the show that Voctem was putting on.

It took almost a minute before Count Voctem’s activity had some results. The candles snuffed themselves out and the wisps of smoke multiplied into a smoke that rolled down onto the ground like a carpet of fog. This carpet of smoke rolled forward and swirled in front of Count Voctem. The Count stepped out of the formation he was in and then smashed his palm down against the ground in the center of the swirling smoke. Then he pulled his hand upwards and seemed to strain against something. His fingers curled and with a yell he pulled something from the soil.

The earth burst apart and a dark object emerged. The flat surface rose upwards rapidly, drawn by the hand of Voctem placed upon it. At first it resembled a pillar or lectern, but then it continued to rise. The rectangular object widened and then narrowed again. Given what had happened so far it didn’t take long to recognize this thing as the top of a coffin, rising vertically out of the ground. The coffin was wood lacquered black with a silver insignia of a bat attached to the lid. Once it completely surfaced, Count Voctem slashed his palm again and slapped his hand against the back of the coffin. The front of the coffin separated, falling forward to slam on to the ground. It had no hinges and was held shut with only a few nails that were now pulled out by this action.

Will it be what I think it’ll be?

Sage waited to see a pale faced fanger walk out of the coffin, but he was extremely disappointed by the result. Instead of a thin and pale person, the occupant of the coffin was large and olive skinned. After stepping out, it was also apparent this woman was extremely muscular. Her biceps were just as thick as her thighs and after stepping out, she reached back into the coffin and drew out an axe that was nearly as tall as she was. The blade was just as wide as her shoulders and it only barely fit into the box behind her, but it had a sweeping crescent shape reminiscent of bat’s wings. She was garbed in a much more primitive style than Voctem or Sage was. The cloth she wore was rougher, more like yarn rather than threads. It was decorated with stone beads and she had feathers woven into her braided hair.

After stepping out and picking up her huge axe, she lifted it into the air and then leaned the head of it back over her shoulder. Surprisingly, there was no sign of rotten or discolored skin like the other zombies had. Sage was curious if it was because of the coffin or some other complicated process. This also raised the question, was this woman even dead? She stared over at where Sage was battling with the zombies and waited as Count Voctem swallowed a healing pill and then picked up his scythe. The fruits on the tree above him continued to grow but this time he stepped forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with the large woman. The two of them carried their large slashing weapons and started to advance towards Sage.

Is that the connection? Similar fighting styles? Interesting.