The other thing that made it less dangerous was that the knight’s Intelligence and Wisdom had dropped severely as well. Beyan had also been bothered by that, but not surprised. The spell he used to animate the corpse, Summon Weak Zombie, apparently never preserved the magical abilities of the target. Again, Richter was somewhat relieved. If the knight went feral, fighting it would be hard enough without it summoning minions. True, it made the knight less effective in battle when fighting for him, but Richter still felt better.
Besides, the knight was still deadly. It had preserved much of its combat potential and Strength. Not to mention the fact that its undead nature would let it ignore pain in battle. Richter hadn’t been sure that Beyan would come on the attack, but after using Analyze on the knight, he was glad the gnome had brought his pet.
Name: Reclaimed Decaemur Knight Disposition: Angry
This Decaemur Knight has been reclaimed from death a second time by the Death mage, Beyan. The union of the knight’s body and a weak Death creature, it has lost its magical abilities but remains a deadly foe in the martial realm.
Level: 28
Health: 430 Mana: 20 Stamina: 420
Strength: 39
Agility: 28
Dexterity: 27
Constitution: 43
Endurance: 42
Intelligence: 2
Wisdom: 3
Charisma: 2
Luck: 12
The knight was wearing high steel armor and carried a huge broadsword made of the same metal. Its original armor had given a bonus to casting Death magic. When it was clear that the reclaimed undead couldn’t cast spells anymore, the armor was sacrificed to the Forge. Three items, the helmet, boots, and greaves, had to be sacrificed, but the Forge learned the enchantment. Thankfully, the enchantment didn’t come with the requirement that only undead could use it.
Alma had never warmed to the undead creature. The dragonling hissed at it from her perch on Richter’s shoulder when Beyan walked up.
The gnome frowned, “It would please me if you would restrain your familiar from attacking my knight, Lord Richter.”
The chaos seed chuckled, “What are you worried about? That thing is huge. Alma is the size of a cat.” That statement got him an annoyed look from the dragonling.
“Then that is a very large cat,” Beyan responded.
“That’s what she said,” Sion quipped.
Richter rolled his eyes at his friend, but the sprite continued undaunted, “Nice to see you Beyan. What are you doing here? You do know that we are heading to battle, correct? Are you and your girlfriend there looking for a fight?” The chaos seed didn’t know why his friend always liked fucking with the Death mage, but since he usually thought it was pretty funny, he let it go.
Beyan seemed like he was in a good mood and gave as good as he got, “I would ask where your girlfriends are, but I see them at the end of your arms. All ten of them.” The gnome locked eyes with Sion, clearly ready for more.
Sion sniffed, and said, “Not bad.” Then he started walking away.
“Next time, you can just say ‘Respect’ at the end,” Richter called after him.
The sprite stopped and thought about it. Then he threw up a peace sign, something else he had learned from Richter, before saying, “Respect,” and continuing to walk off.
Chuckling slightly at his friend’s antics, the chaos seed addressed the Death mage. “Looks like you’re feeling good,” he said. “What happened? Did you eat your Wheaties?”
Beyan looked at him confused, “No. I did not eat wheat. I did, however, reach level eleven in Death magic! Only two more levels before I can animate skeletons.”
Richter understood his excitement. The Death mage had found the bones of some rare monster and was just itching to reanimate it.
“Are you sure you want to come for this fight?” Richter asked the gnome. “I am happy to have your strength and the sword of your pet, but you are risking your life.”
“I am not afraid,” Beyan said, offended.
“I am not saying you are. I would not blame you if you were. The truth is, I am afraid of what is coming. There is no shame in fearing battle. What I am trying to say is that I know you spent a lifetime hiding your powers. Today, you must do the opposite. You will have to unleash what you have kept secreted away. What I need is for you to embrace your power. What I need is a necromancer.”
Beyan pulled himself up to his full four feet of height. The man’s face was a bit pudgy and his head was bald, but Richter did not doubt his sincerity when he said, “You have one.”
Richter extended his arm and Beyan did the same. The two men clasped wrists, united in purpose. As they released their grip, Yoshi raised his voice to address the whole warband.
“Move out.”
CHAPTER 21 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
Yoshi formed a war party, including Richter within it. The sword adept’s Sphere of Influence was more than up to the task of including the hundreds of fighters, seeing as how it extended thousands of yards. One of the badges the fighter had invested in apparently increased the Fighting Spirit of any friendlies inside of his SoI. No matter how the day would play out, everyone had steel in their gaze as they marched.
Terrod had arranged the Mist Village forces to have the melee fighters on the periphery as they moved. Despite the fact that they had to travel dozens of miles until they reached the goblin encampment, it didn’t mean that danger was far away. They were going through the forest as night was falling. In Richter’s experience, animals and monsters alike had a survival instinct so they should avoid a party as large as his, but there were exceptions. The undead especially didn’t seem to care if they lived or died. Which basically made sense.
Richter had been going to form his war party, but Yoshi convinced him to wait. The adept’s reasoning was simple. If Richter was brought into Yoshi’s war party, then he could have all of the benefits without actually forming his own party, something that he could only do once every twenty-four hours. The reasoning was that if the higher ranked war leader were to fall in battle, his subordinates could reform their own war parties afterward.
Yoshi also told him that different ranks of war leaders had different names. A novice was called a Strike Leader and an initiate, like Richter, was a Battle Sergeant. After that, the ranks were Battle Captain, Battle Leader, War Leader, and masters were Battle Lords.