Chapter 278
Unfortunately, just because I looked like a necromancer didn't mean that I could just destroy them. Indiscriminately. The way the necromancers acted showed that they had a complicated web of alliances between them, and while the betrayals were common, I could also see several that was not being touched despite the chaos around them.
Considering they were not particularly strong among the necromancers, it was not hard to guess that they were servants of the stronger beings. For the moment, I left those alone as well, looking for more appropriate prey.
As my skeleton knights spread around, I started looking around, looking for prey. Soon, I found my first one, a necromancer that was rushing back, chased by two mounted skeletons, his wounded state proving just how badly he had been defeated.
"Aner!" he shouted desperately as he shouted at a distance, probably to the controller of the skeletons, who had been doing his best to retreat. "Do you think you can just kill me without consequence? The others will make you pay!"
"Only if they survive," Aner shouted back, several hundred feet away while his minions rushed forward, one of them carrying the crystal. I sent a skeleton forward, doing my best to empower it with speed...
But the skeleton shattered halfway.
"Okay, better be careful," I murmured, realizing necromancy might be a tad more complicated than I had assumed. I didn't have necromancy as a skill, so I was roughly copying the way I had animated the treants, using the necrotic mana to enhance the skeletons.
However, I had missed one important detail ... treants were still living beings, and the excess nature mana just made them grow and strengthen.
Necromancy was the exact opposite. Necrotic mana corroded even the remains, and the excess mana hurt the skeletons. The true strength didn't come from the physical power of the shell, but from the soul, whose power was forcibly plundered through the connection.
And, since I had no intention of mutilating the souls of the poor dead elves — I had my limits — I needed to find an alternative path.
Luckily, unlike the necromancers that were using the opportunity to kill and massacre, I had different options. The skeleton shattered after the empowerment, because it was weak, which meant, there was an easy answer.
Use a stronger skeleton.
Luckily, I didn't need to go around with a shovel and dig to find a stronger skeleton. Instead, I just targeted one of the shattered and abandoned zombies, and cast a spell to separate the flesh from the bones. Then, I targeted the bones with a flood of mana, using my full range of biomancy abilities.
The treatment cost me a pretty chunk of mana, but considering the ordinary bones soon received a strength that could rival bone dragons, it was acceptable.
"Arise, my minion," I muttered as I chuckled, finally raising a skeleton that could rival a strong skeleton warrior.
Though, I had no doubt that any necromancers would have been maddened by watching me waste such an absurd amount of mana, easily touching ten thousand barriers, just to raise a weak minion. It went against the whole principle of necromancy, its greatest advantage was its absurd mana efficiency.
During my experimentation, the skeleton knights had already managed to deal with the escaping necromancer, and captured its spark into a crystal container. They were already returning back to their owner, when they were ambushed by my new skeleton knights, and smashed.
And, before the necromancer could even react, it covered the distance and brought it to me.
"Thanks for the crystal," I shouted happily as I used my mana to repeat the same process on the bones of a horse, and started running away.
Predictably, the angry necromancer chased me. "Stop, you bastard!" he shouted, but as I ignored him, he continued to chase me.
"Catch me if you can," I shouted, a little absurd, but the allure of the crystal in my hand was enough to anger him. A good excuse, I decided as I used my empowered skeleton to steal a few crystals, and soon, I was being chased by a large group of necromancers.
The first few that joined the crowd were the ones that lost their crystals, but after a few, some greedy necromancers joined the mess without needing me to anger them.
Of course, I wasn't idle while running. First, I drained the crystals I had stolen until I had empowered my fake Necrotic Spark, until it reached a reasonable limit, allowing me to control a small horde of skeletons with ease, but not corrupting my soul any further.
{+65 Necrotic Spark, Chosen}
Once I had gathered enough Necrotic Spark to give a convincing outlook of a strong necromancer — necessary for the next step of my plan — I had drained the rest of the Crystals I had stolen, empowering myself.
{+562 Purified Spark}
Not a huge amount, but every bit counted, especially since the next step was going to be pointlessly difficult.
I ran, until I saw a nice small valley that would work for my benefit. It was clear that it had been a beautiful vista just a day ago, but the undead attack had already trampled it to destroy most of the vegetation, and the remaining plants were already dying due to the increasing density of the necrotic mana.
As I entered the valley, I was already crafting some destructive arrays, mixing Necrotic mana with Arcana to create some necrotic bolts that would be effective against other undead.
"Finally—" one of the necromancers exclaimed as he charged with a burst of speed after noticing I slowed down, enthusiastic to get the first hit, but two of my skeletons ambushed him, killing him easily. They didn't even carry a crystal, so I used my mana connection to absorb his Spark before he could react.
{+81 Purified Spark}
"Not bad," I murmured even as I noticed the amount of Divine Spark he possessed, enough to make him a significant enemy — at least in the context of the amount of strength I was revealing — if he didn't act too greedy.
Unfortunately, the necromancers might be greedy, but they were not idiots. After watching the fate of the first one, the others slowed down, while a few of them rushed forward to cut the sight of the valley.
Not exactly a problem since I had no intention of retreating. Instead, I ordered my skeletons to rush and destroy what the other necromancers had brought in. The amount looked impressive at first glance, but only because I could count almost fifty necromancers that had been split from the main group.
With that fact considered, the horde was relatively small, the majority of their horde too slow to follow up with the chase.
"Good," I said as I watched my skeletons stand against the mismatched army of the necromancers that chased me, their job made even easier by the fact that the necromancers had no idea how to cooperate with each other. None of them worked together with each other, they were just some that attacked me randomly...
A few of the smarter ones tried to retreat. The first one succeeded — as I needed a bait — but the second one hit against a ward, bouncing back. "It's a trap," he shouted.
"Smart, but too late," I said as I waved my hand, casting another illusion, one that, paradoxically, looked like I had just broken my illusion. I looked like an ancient lich, radiating necrotic mana to reinforce the. View.
"Just attack together, he can't destroy all of us," one of them shouted. "We just need to resist until the rest of our horde catches up, and destroys the wards from outside—" he tried to explain, but that was all he was able to say until a necrotic bolt hit him.
He didn't even try to dodge, feeling that the bolt was not a threat. The necrotic bolts still hurt them rather than benefit them, but their resistance was strong enough to treat that as a nuisance. Unfortunately for him, I had used the necrotic bolt just as an anchor, and the real work was done by the Arcana mana in it, exploding to destroy its whole structure.
{+34 Purified Spark}
Not as strong as the previous necromancer, but still better than nothing.
"We should attack," one of the other necromancers said, but he stopped when I waved my hand, and an army of skeletons rose from the ground. As the army marched toward them, most of them decided to break the wards was the smarter choice.
Pity, as only the first line of skeletons was actually real, the rest was just statues of colored earth just giving the aura of the undead. However, without thousands points of mana to reinforce each of them, they would have shattered at the slightest touch... Making them only useful as tools of intimidation.
However, the selfish nature of the undead worked well, and fifty necromancers that had been happily chasing a great harvest turned to try and run ... allowing me to easily harvest them.
{+3190 Purified Spark}
"Not a bad harvest," I murmured as I took down the last necromancer. Not a bad one indeed, especially since I just stole their Divine Spark, and not the crystals they had carried. I had rapidly absorbed the Necrotic Spark first, turning it into Purified Spark, absorbing it easily, while I channeled the Nature Spark they had captured into God Forest.
{+2420 Purified Spark}
{+5128 Nature Spark, God Forest}
"They had been working harder than I expected," I said with a frown, realizing that I still need to protect the tribal elves that had been retreating back. But not immediately.
I first needed to deal with the large chunk of the undead army reacting to my latest move...
{Strength: 16 Charisma: 22
Precision: 16 Perception: 16
Agility: 16 Manipulation: 22
Speed: 16 Intelligence: 16
Endurance: 24 Wisdom: 16}
{Purified Divine Spark: 6475}
{Pseudo-HP: 5800 Mana: 15000}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Necrotic - Chosen 99
Nature - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
Guardian God Forest - 23305}
Elven Priestess - XXXX}
[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]