207 Post battle
‘I’m not even close yet. Even after killing so much, my core doesn’t feel like it’s even close to forming a new layer. I haven’t done a rough count, but I’m pretty sure the number of new undead must have exceeded 30,000.’ Athos thought, calculating the number of new skeletons.
It was just an approximate count and the real number was probably higher, but it helped Athos to realize that he would need to work even harder if he wanted to keep his pace of evolution from now on.
‘Well, even if my developnt slows down in the future, I’m still at an absurdly higher pace than anyone else in this world, so I don’t have much to worry about.’ He finished the thought and ordered Simogo to drag the corpse of the red wyvern to the skeletons.
There were parts of the wyvern that were missing that they could find in the midst of the army, saving energy on turning him into an undead.
Athos suddenly rembered sothing and called out to Treevor through the mind link. ‘Hey, is there anyone alive among the demihumans?’
‘We’re scouring the landslide for survivors or the bodies of demihumans. Why do you need soone alive? lab rats?’ Treevor asked curiously.
‘No, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Anyway, imprison so demihumans if you find any alive.’ Athos ordered.
Athos and Malti approached a few seconds later and received the red wyvern’s leg. Athos healed the corpse until it was in mint condition, using the disfigured corpses of goblins that had died from shared curses as fuel and avoiding overburdening the corpse.
It would take a lot of work to heal so many disfigured corpses, and goblin skeletons weren’t all that useful.
.....
Once the healing was finished, Athos cast the raise undead spell over the corpse. He was prepared to inject a second spark of life force if necessary, but it wasn’t necessary and the skeleton wyvern slowly rose to its feet.
‘Looks like wyverns don’t have a dragon core. It is a pity.’ Athos thought slightly disappointed.
He began to tremble as he tried to attack Athos with all his might, but Athos relinquished control of a hundred goblins to him, quickly breaking down his resistance.
“*****...**********...******” The skeleton wyvern tried to say sothing, but Athos didn’t know the demihuman language and didn’t understand a word of what he said.
“He’s introducing himself. His na is Wilver and he said it’s an honor to et you.” Treevor translated the wyvern’s words. “What happened to the other yellow one? Did you kill him?”
“Yes, and Astrus is with him at the mont. Astrus should arrive with the wyvern skeleton any mont now.” Athos answered and in good ti they could see the dragon approaching in the distance.
They weren’t flying, as both of the wyvern’s wings were destroyed and Astrus had no corpses on hand to use as energy to heal.
It was a funny sight to see wyvern skeleton trying to walk on its hind legs, as its bone structure wasn’t suited for that.
Athos also ceded a hundred goblins to her and healed their corpse.
“My king, can I use them to heal myself too?” Astrus asked, pointing to the goblin corpses in pieces.
“Yes. We’ll use them to heal all demihumans anyway.” Athos spoke, not attaching much importance to the goblins. “Were you able to gather any living demihumans?”
“I got less than twenty so far. Half were trolls and half were orcs. Is that enough for you?” Treevor asked and Athos nodded.
‘Soone bring the storage ring that Malti brought from the fortress. Let’s force one of these demi-humans to remove all the items it contains there.’ Athos spoke through the mind link.
Treevor and Athos went to what was left of the ravine, where the survivors were being held. There were no n among the survivors and all the won had bruises or broken bones, but they glared at Treevor and Athos as they approached.
“You bastard! How dare you slaughter our clan?? Our families??” An orc woman with a broken arm scread, but Athos did not understand and ignored her.
‘Translate my words so that they will understand.’ Athos spoke to Treevor, who nodded in understanding.
“I am Athos, the commander of the army that just overpowered them-” Athos introduced himself, but the orc woman spat in his face and cut him off.
“You know what, let’s skip the education and introductions. On our knees.” He ordered as he cleaned his face, the skeletons behind the won forced them to their knees. The orc and troll won tried to resist, but the skeletons were also demi-human and trained warriors, so the won’s effort was in vain.
“You have two choices now. Die like all the warriors who opposed , or do a favor and run away with the survivors.” Treevor translated each of his words, but the demihuman won just snarled at him.
“Why would we believe your words after you destroyed everything we built??” A female troll spoke while snarling at him and Treevor translated for Athos to understand.
Athos looked at the trolls woman for a few seconds, trying to find any difference between the male trolls he had seen before. They looked exactly the sa, except for the hair which was a bit longer than the rest.
“Because it’s your only chance to save what’s left of your clan and your family. If you follow my order, I will allow you to escape with any woman or child that survived the landslide.” With those words, the demihuman won didn’t imdiately respond.
All they wanted was to attack Athos and rip him to shreds, but the ntion of children made them hesitate. Most of them had children and were separated during the landslide and still hoped they were still alive.
“What do you want from us?” The orc woman with the broken arm asked cautiously, wanting to at least know what Athos’ objective was before making a decision.
“I have a dinsional ring with , but I can’t access it because of my current condition. I want you to activate it and take out all the items inside, then you’re free to go.” Athos spoke seriously, making the kneeling demihuman won look at each other for a few seconds, before the orc nodded.
“We accept, but I’ll be the one left behind. I want you to let them go and not follow them.” She demanded in a cold tone and as soon as Treevor translated, Athos nodded, not caring about the terms.
“Fine, I don’t mind. But try to trick and my dragon will chase you all down and kill you one by one.” Athos threatened and Simogo lifted his head to look at them, making the demihumans swallow hard.
The skeletons stepped back and let the won get to their feet. The demihumans looked worriedly at the orc woman, but the latter just nodded for them to flee.
The army of skeletons cleared a path for the won to pass. and they ran as fast as they could, those who could not walk or had injured legs being carried by others.
‘Have the mage slayer units chase them and kill them as soon as they are out of sight.’ Athos ntally ordered Emília and the assassins began to follow the demihumans surreptitiously.
“I’ve already done my part. Do yours.” A skeleton appeared and handed the dinsional ring to Athos and he offered it to the orc woman.
The woman took the ring and for a second thought about destroying it, but then she rembered the won fleeing and the few living demihumans being pulled out of the landslide. The skeletons weren’t being careful with them, but they weren’t attacking either, just dragging them off the rocks.
She took a deep breath and activated the ring, removing everything that was inside the dinsional ring. Bags containing alchemical items, a few dozen magic potions of different types and a pile of magic crystals of different purity.
The kingdom had sent the magic supplies before winter started, so the dinsional ring was a small treasure.
“Is that all there was in the ring?” Athos asked and the orc woman nodded.
‘Is that all there was in the ring?’ Athos repeated the question, but this ti to Malti. Since she was the previous owner of the ring, she would know if anything was missing.
‘It’s all here, master. The alchemical items are less than I rember, but I spent so while we were fighting.’ Malti responded and Athos took the ring back before snapping his fingers, ordering the skeletons to execute the rescued demihumans.
“You bastard-” The orc woman scread indignantly and leapt at Athos, only for Treevor to step in the way and snap her neck with a flick of her wrist.
‘Were all the fugitives killed?’ Athos asked the murderous skeletons, who nodded in the affirmative.
‘Excellent. Collect all the items and take them to one of the carriages and search the camp for any usable resources. Continue the search for corpses in the landslides and once you’re done, give a list of our current numbers.’ Athos ordered all the skeletons, making the army move to do his bidding.
Even the demihumans who were unable to speak human language complied, as it wasn’t them moving their bodies but the black chains.
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