Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 88

Chapter 88: A New Source of Life
The thugs and thieves inside the decrepit warehouse scattered like rats when the door exploded inward.

A few ran to the windows. Others scrambled to snatch up their weapons or hide stolen goods in hidden compartments. None of them knew what was coming. Not really.

Kai remained still in the centre of the chaos, entirely unseen. Dust and ash curled through the air, swirling unnaturally around where he stood, but no one noticed. He tilted his head and smirked under the veil.

‘If they paid enough attention, they’d see the dust is moving around me. I guess they’re too stupid for that.’

His concealment still held firm. It always did so long as he bore no open malice. So long as he entered without harm in his heart, the wards never detected him. No bloodlust. No ill will. Just… hunger.

Not even malicious hunger.

Just… the need.

‘Good. It still works, even with this many bodies around. That’s all I needed to know.’

Two leather-armoured bandits rushed out the door behind him, weapons drawn. One had a crooked dagger; the other, a notched short-sword. Kai let them pass, concealed in the folds of shadow.

“Who’s there?!” one barked.

“Do you know who you’re fuckin’ dealin’ with?!” the other spat, chest puffed with false confidence.

Kai’s voice echoed softly behind them, almost amused.

“No. And I don’t care.”

The concealment faded in a shimmer of black static. In the same instant, Shade burst from the shadow beneath Kai like liquid tar given shape.

With a single, fluid flick, Shade’s blade-like limbs extended. The men didn’t even have time to turn before their spines were severed at the neck, clean, soundless slashes that dropped them twitching into the dirt.

Kai stepped forward calmly, crouching by the bodies as the last of their motor functions faded.

He licked his lips.

His own eyes glimmered a dim, mossy green as Mirage’s Veil slid away fully.

“Raise Dead.”

The dark threads of necromancy surged. Bone twisted. Tendons reformed, and sinew slapped together in gruesome knots. Their heads snapped upright with a crack like dry wood breaking. Glowing green light shone faintly in their sockets.

Kai brushed dirt from one of their cheeks. “You’ll do nicely. Go soften them up for me.”

The two corpses lurched back inside, confused comrades calling their names.

That confusion became panic in seconds. Screams rang out as they began slashing, biting, tearing. Not killing. Kai had been specific. Just wounding.

Kai strolled through the chaos, untouched, Shade slithering beside him like a shadowy beast. Arrows hissed through the air, but Shade swatted them aside or let them sink harmlessly into its body.

He reached out and touched every injured bandit he passed.

A brush of his fingers across a wrist. A palm pressed to a bleeding side. A hand atop a heaving chest.

With each contact, life bled into him.

Screams became whimpers, then silence, then dust.

“Wither.”

A man dropped to his knees and shriveled, bones collapsing inward.

[Withering Touch reached a new rank.]

[Wither Bolt has been learned.]

[Wither Bolt – Cast a bolt of necrotic magic that saps the life-force of an enemy. Effective up to five metres. May need to be cast multiple times. At higher ranks, can cause a temporary leeching effect.]

Kai’s eyes lit up, literally. The green glow intensified, bathing the room in a sickly hue. The surviving bandits hesitated, sweat pouring from their brows as the light twisted in their peripheral vision.

“That’s more like it!” Kai shouted, his voice cutting through the room like glass. “Come on, then! Let’s make this fun!”

All at once, they charged.

Ten of them, maybe more, ignoring the undead, the fallen, the flickering corpses.

He raised a hand.

“Ralts.”

His Chaos Lich rose from the void with an ethereal shriek. She extended her pale hand and twisted her wrist. One by one, the charging thugs froze mid-run, limbs locking in place like their muscles had turned to stone.

“Your flesh-manipulation magic works well on cannon fodder.”

Kai lifted a finger and pointed.

“Wither Bolt.”

A burst of necrotic energy shot from his palm like a jagged streak of black lightning. It struck the nearest man in the chest. His veins turned black. His skin lost its color.

He didn’t fall, not right away. But the second bolt tore through him, and he crumbled to dust, collapsing into a pile of clothes and ash.

A few of them whimpered.

One man growled and broke free from Ralts’ magic, tall, broad-shouldered, nearly as massive as Joe. Blades, katars, gleamed on his forearms.

He growled like an animal and took a step forward.

Kai didn’t flinch.

“Joe,” he said, barely above a whisper, “show him what it means to defy me.”

The death knight rose behind him, a towering shape wrapped in black steel and old hatred. Joe still smiled, the smile of a man who’d enjoyed murder in life and never stopped.

“You really are creepy,” Kai murmured. “Still holding on to your old self. Ralts, release the big one. Joe, play with him.”

The man howled and charged straight at Kai.

“Big mistake.”

Joe stepped into his path and swatted him like a fly, sending the man crashing through a wall. He hit the cobbled street beyond with a wet crunch, but rose again, staggering to his feet, coughing blood.

Kai’s eyes narrowed.

“If you want him to serve under you, Joe… kill him. But leave him intact.”

With his back turned to the others, Kai approached the frozen bandits and gently tapped each one.

One man jerked forward suddenly, blade arcing at Kai’s neck.

Kai twisted backward just in time, the blade slicing through the air inches from his skin. He landed on one knee, heart racing.

He looked at Ralts. She was swaying; her form flickering. Her magic faltered.

‘She’s running out of mana. I never thought about it, but… where’s her phylactery? Maybe I can augment them later. Maybe it’s inside their bodies?’

Kai shook the thoughts from his mind.

The others had broken free and were lunging.

“That’s okay. Go home, Ralts.”

She gave a silent nod and sank into the shadows.

Kai’s grin returned.

He cloaked himself in Shade, its oily mass clinging to his limbs like a second skin.

Then he moved.

One ducked low, sword in hand. Kai sidestepped, ramming two fingers into his eye socket and twisting until blood sprayed. The man shrieked and fell.

Another swung for his legs. Kai leapt over the blade and landed on the man’s shoulders, jabbing a knife into the base of his skull and vaulting off.

‘Oops.’

A third came from behind. Kai spun, dropping low and slicing through the man’s Achilles tendon with a flick of his curved dagger. He collapsed, screaming.

A fourth threw a hatchet, Kai twisted, the weapon grazing past his ribs as he rolled forward, leapt, and drove both fists into another attacker’s spine. Bone shattered. The man dropped, twitching.

He weaved through blades like water between stones, fluid, perfect, unnatural.

A spear thrusted at his stomach. He slid sideways and snapped the shaft in half with his heel, spinning around to carve his dagger across the wielder’s throat.

Blood sprayed across the broken floorboards. Kai didn’t stop.

He gouged out eyes. Crushed windpipes. Crippled knees and dislocated shoulders. Screams became background noise.

In less than a minute, a dozen men lay broken, blind, twitching, or crawling in agony.

Kai stood in the centre of the room, slick with blood, breath calm and steady.

He looked around at the ruined corpses.

Then at Joe, who stepped through the rubble with the broken body of the big man slung over his shoulder.

Kai smiled. His training with Kael, Joe, and Joran had paid off in Mirth.

“This is what happens,” he said, voice cold and final, “when you waste your lives like this. And you all decided to defy me, kidnap a girl’s sister, and do whatever else it is you do.”

Several of the men on the ground tried to crawl away.

“How many of you died there? Mass Raise Undead.”

Kai extended his hands, and three men rose to their feet. The giant man slung over Joe’s shoulder wriggled free before bowing before the victor of their fight. Joe smiled and patted his knew undead knight on the head like a father praising their child.

“You… and Ralts. What is it about the two of you? You’re both still oddly… Human?”

Kai absorbed the life essence from all of the living men in the building before checking up on Kleo.

She remained exactly as he left her, not even moving a muscle.

“I… didn’t move, just like you told me.”

“Dammit. I said wait for me, not to stay still. Are my commands not what I intend, but what you believe them to be? That’ll be a pain in the future, I’m sure of it. Stand.”

She stood up and smiled.

“You really killed them?”

“Yes. There are more, though, right?”

“They’ve infected most of the city… Kidnappings, black market dealings, assassinations, and more. Stealing is some of the lighter stuff they do. I’m really not a bad person, Mirlin, really…”

“I believe you, Kleo. I will meet you outside of the Thesiones Academy every night from now on until we deal with them all, okay?”

“O-okay…” Her eyes welled up with tears as Kai walked back into the building.

He searched for anything of use to him.