Necromancer: Kingdom Building with My Legion of Undead Knights

Horned Olfs]

’Horned Olfs?’ Darion thought. So there are ones without horns? He asked his system in his mind.

It replied yes.

They were Normal Olfs and Horned Olfs. The difference was just the horn, Normal Olfs just had ears, nothing more.

But Horned Olfs were the ones with the downward-curving horns that looked like bony hooks curving toward their necks.

The system explained that Normal Olfs were the weaker of the two. They were smaller, less aggressive, and more likely to flee than fight. But Horned Olfs? They were tougher. More aggressive and more dangerous.

Darion nodded in understanding. He watched the creatures below, his eyes tracking their movements.

They were circling the clearing now, their noses pressed to the ground, their bodies tense and alert. They were cautious and careful, but they were also hungry.

Darion was certain that this territory was mostly dominated by Yuimons. Maybe not exactly here in this clearing, but in that side of the forest where they had fought and killed those massive creatures.

The Yuimons were apex predators, the kind of creatures that probably sat at the top of the food chain with nothing to fear from anything else that walked or crawled through these woods.

They were large, armored, and aggressive, and they hunted whatever they pleased.

He was sure prey weren’t that many in this part of the forest because the Yuimons dominated by being powerful and hunting most of them.

The Horned Olfs were prey themselves, y’know. They were tough, yes, and they moved in packs, but they were still prey. They were the kind of creatures that other predators hunted.

Darion thought about the dynamic between them. The Horned Olfs might decide that because they walked as a pack and fought together, they could handle a Yuimon.

They would circle it, try to wear it down, use their numbers to overwhelm it. But the Yuimons also walked as a pack. They didn’t hunt alone. They moved in groups, coordinated and aggressive, and they wouldn’t be intimidated by a pack of wolves, no matter how many horns they had.

In a fight between a pack of Horned Olfs and a pack of Yuimons, the Yuimons would win every time. They were larger, stronger, and more heavily armored. The Horned Olfs might get a few hits in, but they would be overwhelmed before they could do any real damage.

The Yuimons would tear through them like they were nothing.

Now, the scent of the errligs was drawing the Horned olfs in, and they were trying to decide if it was safe to approach.

Will they be much of a problem? Will they be tough? he asked the system.

It replied: ’They’re tough normally. You’ll handle them just fine.’

Darion stared down at the pack. Fourteen horned creatures, each one as big as a wolf, each one armed with fangs and horns and powerful tails. The system said he would handle them just fine.

And frankly? His system couldn’t have been more right.

He would handle them just fine. He had faced Yuimons, creatures that the system had rated as Very High threat, creatures that had required his entire army to bring down. Compared to that, a pack of horned wolves seemed almost manageable.

He watched them all, fourteen of them, arrive at the errligs corpses. They circled the bodies, their noses twitching, their tails lashing back and forth. Darion expected a fight to break out.

He remembered watching nature documentaries back on Earth, where wild animals would shove each other and gobble meat down their throats as they fought over a kill.

The wildness of the wild: Lions tearing into a zebra, hyenas squabbling over scraps, vultures descending on a carcass like a cloud of dark feathers.

He had never seen this himself, of course. Just on animal documentary channels he used to watch on TV.

He had spent hours watching those shows, fascinated by the brutal, raw reality of the natural world. But he had never hoped to witness any of those wild creatures physically. They were better left on a screen, safely distant and unreal.

But what were the creatures about? Lions feeding on a kill, their jaws tearing through flesh and bone.

Tigers swimming to cool down and also hunt for prey. Vultures circling overhead, waiting for something to die. He had thought those were weird and tough.

Pfft! A tiger wasn’t even close to a Yuimon! And he was sure one of these Horned Olfs was stronger than a lion.

A lion was powerful, yes, with claws that could rip through flesh and jaws that could crush bone.

But it didn’t have horns that could gore an opponent.

It didn’t have fangs that could pierce through armor. It didn’t have a tail that could knock a man off his feet.

The Horned Olfs had all of that. Their horns were thick and sharp, perfect for charging and impaling.

Their fangs were long and curved, designed to tear and hold. Their tails were muscular and heavy, capable of delivering bone-shattering blows.

In a fight between a lion and a Horned Olf, the Horned Olf would win. The lion was powerful, but it relied on its claws and its bite.

The Horned Olf had more weapons at its disposal. It could gore from a distance, bite up close, and use its tail to keep the lion off balance. The lion would be overwhelmed before it could even mount a proper defense.

Now, the Horned Olfs weren’t eating the meat yet, and they weren’t fighting as Darion had expected.

Since they were wild animals, he had assumed they would immediately start tearing into the errligs, their hunger overcoming their caution.

But they weren’t. Instead, they were waiting.

They stood around the corpses, their heads raised, their eyes scanning the treeline. They were waiting for something.

Darion frowned. Waiting for what?

A Horned Olf finally showed from a shrub, walking into the clearing. It was larger than the others, its horns thicker, its body more muscular.