Lord of Rot

Leech gripped the reins, circled his horse twice, and came to a halt. He said to Lacy Sith and the light Cavalry behind him, ”Lacy, we’ll part ways here!”

Lacy nodded gravely. ”Yes, my lord!”

The troop split up. Lacy Sith led all the Cavalry south toward Hazelnut Village, where they would confirm the location of the Petroleum Ore and bring the latest news to the people there.

The oil would be the perfect weapon for destroying the remaining thorn-vine corpses.

Quick Blade would lead the remaining Soldiers to defend Iron Wall Castle and maintain order within. Without proper control, Iron Wall Castle would surely fall into chaos; it had to be held.

As for Leech, he kept only two Corpse Ghosts with him.

’It takes a corpse to fight a corpse.’

Leech sent a message via his Spiritual Power, ordering Corpse Ghost Guy to advance at full speed with his detachment of 200 elite corpses. Once all his forces were assembled, he would go to Beech Village to confront the woman in the red dress.

The best rallying point was Lilac Village, about a half-day’s forced march away.

”Ah Yamei,” Leech said, turning to the Necromancer. ”Raise a few Undead to start.”

Ah Yamei’s gaze shifted to the corpse whose head Leech had just shattered with a single swing of his sword.

The corpse’s flesh and blood dripped away like melting wax. The bare, skeletal remains of a Mercenary in leather armor clambered to its feet. As if unused to its new form, it twisted its body twice, and two of its already rattling ribs snapped and fell off.

The Skeleton Soldier paid it no mind, simply bending over to pick up a broken sword.

One after another, skeletons were roused from death, forming a rudimentary squad of Undead that shuffled slowly behind Leech’s horse.

They hadn’t gone far with their small squad of Undead when an old woman in a black dress appeared ahead, shouldering a rake.

Leech waved his hand, and the squad of Undead charged forward.

With a CRACK, the old woman brought her rake down on the first Skeleton Soldier, shattering its bones.

Another Skeleton Soldier rushed forward, sword aimed straight at the old woman’s head. The blade plunged through her eye socket, knocking the corpse backward. The sword tip burst from the back of her skull, pinning the body to the ground.

The Necromancer, Ah Yamei, used her Magic again.

A moment later, a skeleton rose, leaning on the iron rake.

”We still have a long way to go,” said Leech. ”This journey gives us time. We can let Ah Yamei build her Undead host to its limit.”

”Here, use this.” He casually tossed an Energy Storage Staff to Ah Yamei.

The Necromancer’s Spiritual Power limit was a mere 40 units, and the staff alone provided another 20. This drastically increased the maximum number of Undead she could control.

...

CLACK... CLACK...

The sound of grinding, clattering bone was incessant.

In half a day, Leech had amassed 145 Skeleton Soldiers.

He had killed every person he encountered since leaving Iron Wall Castle, which was how he’d been able to gather these Soldiers so quickly.

Unfortunately, these Skeleton Soldiers were physically weak and abysmally equipped. They could only rely on sheer numbers to win a fight. It usually cost one to two Skeleton Soldiers just to deal with a peasant woman carrying a rake.

If they came across a Mercenary in armor, it took a suicidal charge of three to five Skeleton Soldiers to eliminate them.

FLAP FLAP FLAP!

A bird came flapping from ahead, darted through the woods, and finally landed on Ah Yamei’s helmet.

It was the undead bird Leech had sent out to scout the path ahead.

A troop of thorn-vine corpses was approaching their position.

The undead bird had encountered no issues while scouting from the air. But as soon as Leech himself drew near, the local corpses began to converge on his position, as if guided.

’Is something about me attracting them? Is it because I’m a living person, or because I’m a Transcendent?’

Those were the only possibilities he could think of.

The undead bird monitoring Lacy’s position had observed the same phenomenon, the only difference being that the numbers on Leech’s side were far greater.

Lacy was only encountering small pockets of resistance, which his thirty-odd light Cavalry easily shredded.

The chaotic sound of running echoed from the distance.

As far as the eye could see, there was only a chaotic mob.

Over two hundred vine-wrapped corpses charged toward them, their numbers still swelling.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The Skeleton Soldiers fearlessly raised their weapons and surged forward.

The moment the lines crashed together,

CLATTER! A dozen Skeleton Soldiers were instantly smashed apart.

Although the Necromancer, Ah Yamei, was reassembling the broken skeletons as fast as she could, she was nowhere near fast enough to keep up with the rate of their destruction.

The ranks of Skeleton Soldiers were thinning rapidly.

The difference in quality was too great.

”Aina.” Leech turned to Corpse Ghost Aina. ”Go help them!”

Corpse Ghost Aina leaped forward, the scimitar at her waist already drawn.

A massive Poisonous Touch erupted from her back, forming a giant claw that swiped at the horde.

Both skeletons and corpses were caught in its path. None were spared.

Unfortunately, her opponents were all corpses, rendering Aina’s toxins completely useless. She could only rely on her Extraordinary physique and superb technique.

She spun, her scimitar becoming a blur.

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! Several heads flew high into the air, only to be trampled underfoot by the surging mob of corpses and skeletons.

Aina mowed them down, reaping heads as if scything grass.

Head after head tumbled to the ground as the number of headless corpses grew.

But the situation remained grim, as the number of corpses arriving to reinforce the horde was also increasing.

The undead bird perched on Ah Yamei’s helmet spread its wings and took to the sky.

Peering down from the clouds, it saw, just as Leech suspected, yet another stream of corpses rushing in their direction.

From a distance, they were scattered, but they immediately coalesced into a single stream as they drew closer.

Countless such streams were converging, forming a tide of reinforcements that rushed toward the battle!