The blast of Light turned the skeletons crawling over Rihard, Karn, and a couple of nearest templars into dust and bones. The nearest zombies were scorched, and their already battered servitude spells were blown away.
A single spell destroyed a dozen of Aleric's undead! He staggered back in shock.
So many undead that he poured his mana and efforts into were wrecked just like that, without even a spell incantation!
"Another mage, him?!" Aleric hissed.
"No, master! Look—it was just a one-use artifact," the Spine Staff said.
Aleric understood now. The Light energy wasn't being channeled by the templar through the holy symbol—the Light was coming from it to begin with. Now all of it was spread around instead.
It was good to know this won't repeat itself, because Aleric's forces were growing alarmingly thin!
The templars have suffered several losses among both people and horses, but now they attacked with renewed strength. Some pulled vials of holy water from their belts to throw them at the undead; the cleric began chanting a new spell, even as he hacked at the undead beneath with his own axe.
Aleric clenched his teeth, then sneered.
This victory made his enemies sloppy. Nothing was protecting the cleric right now!
The bolt of Dark energy flew from the eyes of the Spine Staff much faster than the man finished chanting. It hit him in the forehead, and the incantation changed with a scream.
"Karn!" Rihard shouted, noticing this. He had a second to think about the mistake he had made when he stopped keeping an eye on their cleric.
Then Aleric's next spell flew at him. Rihard tightened the reins of his horse, making it jolt to the side. The spell narrowly missed Rihard's leg and hit the steed instead.
It screamed in agony and thrashed, throwing Rihard onto the ground. Something crunched when he landed, and he couldn't tell from the pain whether it was his bone or some skeleton underneath.
Then, two zombies pinned him with their entire mass, and a third crawled closer.
To the side, Aleric watched the templar Captain being overwhelmed by the undead with satisfaction. The sight broke the battle spirit of his enemies, making them doubt and hesitate.
And making them perfect targets for Aleric's spells! When two more fell in agony, the remainder routed and tried to flee. Some even jumped off their horses—if they weren't thrown off earlier.
But it was too late.
The victory was in Aleric's hands!
Without their leaders and their usable items, the templars fell easily. A few minutes later, the last templar's head was bashed in by his own former comrade, and it was over.
Aleric wandered over the battlefield, counting his losses and gains.
His mana was empty again, but already recovering from the death energies around. Which couldn't be said for his undead…
"Pox take these templars… They hate necromancers even more than I expected," he muttered, poking a dead body with his staff. It was one of his templar zombies previously, but holy water destroyed the magic inside and burned through its right hand.
Before this, he had 51 total zombies and 35 skeletons. All of them were undead slaves, even if Aleric had to spend a lot of time yesterday upgrading them to this state.
Now he had less than half of that by his estimate. Closer to a third…
The rest were lying on the ground or walking as Pain-reanimated puppets, and it was still a question whether they could be reused.
"Slaves, sort out this mess," Aleric muttered, gesturing at the bodies.
The undead obediently began to carry the bodies in rows, so that Aleric could later look at which ones had enough limbs to function.
"Master, this was an outstanding victory! The enemies were numerous, but you still crushed them. As for the losses—who cares, they are just tools for you to use!" the Spine Staff cheered. "Also, if you pick that one-use artifact the templar leader was using, I might be able to teach you something useful."
"Hm? Useful, you say?"
Aleric walked to where the Captain's corpse was lying, with the top of its skull being cracked in two, and brain matter splashed all over the place. A zombie's inanimate body was lying on top of it, so Aleric had to push it over before he could pilfer the templar's pockets.
After some searching, Aleric found the silver star, matted with blood and rotten mucus. A small blue jewel shone stubbornly through the dirt.
There was no magic left inside now.
"It looks expensive… But it's hard to find a brigand that will trade with me, anyway," Aleric said.
"Although it was a Light artifact, it can be reused for our purposes, master. Although the school of Bones is the one that specializes in making artifacts, there are some Necromancy artifacts that I know how to make. And this one is so simple that you can do it right now. You have all the materials!"
Green light flashed in Spine Staff's eyes and beamed toward the corpse of the cleric lying at a distance.
"I will teach you a spell that will bind a piece of a dead mage's soul with this vessel. Its materials are good for storing mana, and a dead soul will recover it on its own. The resulting artifact will increase your mana reserve a little—just what you need right now, master."
Aleric grinned.
"Oh, this will make fighting these people worth the bother. Show me, Staff."
With the Staff's instructions, the process took a couple of hours of effort. The cleric's body lost a tooth, which Aleric tied to the silver star as an anchor for his soul piece.
The Dark energies that permeated the artifact have tarnished its silver, and the tooth made it look even more macabre. But the power within echoed with Aleric.
The Tarnished Star artifact doubled his mana reserve! At least until it grew even more with practice.
And, as Aleric looked at the rows of bodies waiting to be raised, he knew…
He would have a lot of practice. Right now.