"What is your next goal, master? Let me know so I can assist you the best!"
Aleric's tireless army was marching through fields and forests. He led it from his undead—also upgraded now—horse. The Spine Staff was lying on his knees.
It wasn't the best companion, but its presence made Aleric talkative. He missed having someone to talk with.
"I told you already that I need an even larger army. Since I can keep as many undead slaves as I have time to raise, I should make more. From bodies of warriors, preferably. Even if they will be old ones."
"Yes, this is a good idea! Are you going to another graveyard?"
"No. Better." Aleric smiled. "In my travels in previous years, I've seen an old fortress north-east of here. I don't know its name, but a lot of deaths happened there. Its walls were full of holes from siege weapons, and there were old skeletons lying around, untouched by scavengers and grave robbers, with their armor and weapons still around. I think they will serve as perfect warriors for me despite their age. Then I will have a REAL army."
"This is true, master! Those who died wrongfully often carry with them fury that stays with them even when they become undead. But if you want to raise even more slaves, I must teach you how to raise several of them at once. Although you should learn some basic Dark magic language first."
Aleric nodded.
"The fortress is at least a week of travel from here with our speed, so we should have time. The templars will definitely attack me during this time, but that's what I was raising all these undead slaves for. I don't think they will gather a force large enough to crush me in such a short time."
He could already imagine what he would do with the army raised from the old fortress—go directly to the Church's chapter houses and attack the templars while they aren't ready for it! Risky, but much better than hiding and running like an animal.
***
Aleric spent a day peacefully and slowly traveling through the countryside and studying magic from the Spine Staff.
The next day, the templars caught up with him.
"FOR THE LIGHT!"
They came from behind a hill—twenty horsemen in white led by Templar Captain Rihard, with cleric Karn charging alongside them.
"An ambush, master!" Spine Staff shouted.
Aleric already realized the same. The surroundings—grassy, mostly even plains—were perfect for a cavalry charge.
Rihard has calculated Aleric's directions a while ago and circled the undead horde to set up this ambush.
Now the templars were less than a minute away from charging into Aleric's undead!
At the moment, they were gathered in a crowd around Aleric and his horse, and the line of bodies between him and the enemy was too thin.
"Defend me!" Aleric ordered.
Obeying his will, the zombies rushed to form a wall between him and the cavalry, raising their weapons in preparation. The fragile skeletons hid behind them together with Aleric.
At the same time, Aleric cast three Pain spells in quick succession, aiming for the Captain and his horse. Thanks to his practice and lack of words necessary, there was barely a second between each spell.
But all of them were blocked by a glowing white shield that appeared in front of Rihard! The templar felt cold sweat from such a close save from Karn.
As soon as the cleric cast this spell, he began chanting another.
Aleric hurriedly shot a new Pain spell at Karn, but Rihard moved to protect the cleric with his body and the shield still protecting him and his horse. The Pain spell left a corroded yellow spot in the shield, but didn't break it.
Then Rihard moved aside, showing the cleric raising a holy star symbol.
Aleric already knew what would happen next. Without hesitation, he jumped off his horse and used it as a cover.
Just in time! A ray of light hit it, burning a hole in its flesh and disturbing Aleric's spells, but not destroying them. A single weak spell wasn't enough to bring down an undead slave of this size.
"Rihard, careful! He's preparing something powerful!" Karn warned.
"Just keep your shield up!" Rihard shouted back.
At this time, Aleric was cursing under his breath and gathering more Dark energy in his fingers. When he moved from his cover, he unleashed all of it at once at the cleric—five Pain spells in quick succession, or almost a quarter of his mana at once!
He was almost down to half of his mana now.
Rihard was still protecting the cleric with his Light shield. The green bolts hit it one by one, each making the visible corrosion larger and larger.
On the fifth spell, the shield gave up and fizzled out. Aleric's eyes widened with anticipation just as Rihard paled with fright.
He prepared the sixth spell—but then, the horsemen reached the lines of his undead.
The horses neighed, and the humans shouted their battlecries as they hacked with their battle axes. The weight of the cavalry charge crushed the zombies like dirt under the horses' hooves. Aleric felt a dozen of his slave spells dissipate at once, with a dozen more holding on to their last motes of energy. Almost a third of all his carefully raised and upgraded zombies were gone from one attack!
"Crush them, men! Destroy them!" Rihard shouted, bringing his axe down on a zombie's head. "Cut through to the witch!"
Rihard expected that the cavalry charge would cut through the undead like a hot knife through butter. The zombies he was used to were extremely slow and clumsy. No necromancer could control over a dozen undead puppets effectively, and those zombies who rose from the graves on their own were absolutely dumb.
Rihard had heard about more advanced undead, but he had never fought any of them before! True necromancers were so rare in Aleshat that he had lived his entire life without meeting someone like Aleric.
Now Rihard realized with mounting terror that his cavalry charge barely went past the zombies and reached the skeletons behind them. The robust zombies clung to the horses as much as they could and hit them even while being trampled.
Meanwhile, Aleric was grinning at his success.
Although he had never seen a large battle, Aleric's sharp mind had already caught onto the strengths and weaknesses of the cavalry. It was powerful in a charge, but without long weapons and armor for their horses, they were too vulnerable in a prolonged fight.
Aleric knew that if he had placed the skeletons ahead of zombies, they'd be crushed even more easily. But now, when the templars were slowed down by the zombies, Aleric had an opportunity to strike back!
'Attack!' he ordered his slaves.
The back rows of his small army moved, surrounding the templars from the flanks. They were skeletons, fragile, but faster than zombies. And they were good climbers. The templars watched in shock at the speed and smoothness with which Aleric's skeletons moved. And there were even more of them than there were zombies.
The battlecries changed with shouts of pain when the skeletons began grabbing the templars' necks and faces. Although one skeleton would crumble from a single axe strike, there was always another one already at a man's other side, about to plunge its fingers into the templar's eyes.
Cleric Karn frantically cast the Ray of Light spell, hitting and destroying two skeletons at once, only for the third to grab its neck and start choking him. Karn couldn't cast spells anymore.
Aleric raised his hand, about to bring this battle to its end even faster.
"For the Light!"
Suddenly, the templar captain raised a silver star symbol, and a halo of Light surrounded him, blasting all the undead away from him!