Zero arrived to find the town already under siege, its defences breached and crumbling.
As he rushed through the entrance, he saw the streets littered with corpses of every kind—though notably few were his own troops. Explosions echoed through the air, followed by screams of terror and pain.
Zero phantom dashed from rooftop to rooftop, trying to assess the current situation below.
"Drogna, what's happening?" he called out as he dashed between buildings, catching glimpses of fierce fighting in the streets below.
Drogna violently shook her body, and urgently made a loud screech in his ear.
"Okay, we need to find him quickly," Zero said, making a sign towards Drogna with his fingers as he paused on a building's edge.
Drogna let out a sharp call again, then started to sniff the air and directed him with a tilt of her head toward a specific area.
Zero immediately phantom dashed in that direction, with it going from rooftop to rooftop. When he reached the area, he looked down and saw two of his own bone walkers locked in combat with three enemy soldiers. One skeleton wielded a bow, positioned behind another that fought with a chipped spear, their weapons clashing against their opponents' blades.
He dropped down into the shadows between two damaged buildings, to avoid drawing attention, focusing on finding the Drogger. Only to find it right beside where he landed lying motionless.
"There you are, " he whispered as carefully lifted it. Soon as it saw him, it started to sweat as Drogna came out of his shoulder and began to scold it, making sharp but quiet, visceral gestures—waving its small scaly hands at the trembling Drogger.
Zero glanced back at the fight, studying the bone walkers' appearances more closely.
"Wait, are these the same bone walkers from the village?"
One soldier stood determined and ready in front of the others while the other two soldiers behind looked stronger and higher ranked, one had short blond hair, bright green eyes with a confident expression, he had a short sword and wore light armour and the other had his black hair tied up in man bun, dark blue eyes, he wore a more level headed expression than the other and he was with two daggers and light armour.
All with light armour on.
Soldier one – sword, light armour
Sergeant one – confident and one short sword, light armour.
Sergeant two – Man bun and two dagger, light armour.
Bone walker one – bow and arrows
Bone walker two – chipped spear.
(make it easier to track)
Soldier, one charged in roaring "Ahhhh" sword raised.
"Wait soldier!" sergeant two alerted trying to rush in after him but sergeant one held him back, "Let him."
Sergeant two looked at him annoyed, but lowered his weapons letting off a large sigh.
An arrow flew and hit soldier one in the head.
Killing him on impact.
"Now that we have him out of the way, let's charge!" Sergeant One said arrogantly
Sergeant Two grumbled but complied and rushed in with Sergeant One..
As both Droggers continue to fight.
"Quiet" Zero whispered intrigued while concealing himself in the shadows.
They both stopped immediately.
More arrows are shot.
Bone walker two, charged in on both, thrusting at sergeant one, who easily weaved past it, but bone walker two didn't let up as it repositioned its grip, turned to the same side and swung its weapon directly at sergeant one again which forced him to block.
"Move! You damn skeleton!" the sergeant roared trying to push back, as their weapons stayed locked in a clash.
Sergeant two, tried to slash bone walker two with his daggers, but it's intercepted by arrows flying his way, forcing him to jump back.
Bone walker one, now aiming for sergeant two
No, I can't waste my time here, I need to shake this skeleton off, so I can help Keno, Sergeant two thought to himself, as his eyes scanned the distance between him and bone walker one.
Bonewalker one shot more arrows, but Sergeant two dodged and moving in a zigzagged pattern toward the Bonewalker.
Bone Walker One tried to track him with its weapon, but it failed as Sergeant two was too fast already lunging and appearing above bonewalker One.
—In that moment, Bone Walker Two with its weapon forcefully pushed Sergeant One's weapon back, breaking the clash, whirling around to face the other Sergeant. Simultaneously, Bone Walker One aimed at Sergeant One.
Sergeant One, seeing this, scrambled back immediately.
Whys, it coming for me?! Dammit! he thought startled
Bone Walker Two repositioned its grip and followed with an upward slash of its spear, forcing the Sergeant to deflect the strike and leaped back.
I can't even get close! Sergeant two thought to himself
Bonewalker Two begins to hold sergeant two off as bone Walker One takes on sergeant one.
Sergeant, One struggled to block an arrow from bone walker one. But Bone Walker One doesn't relent—it kept firing arrows while running toward the sergeant.
Sergeant, One struggled again as he deflected another arrow.
Then he's hit with two arrows in the chest simultaneously.
"Why are these skeletons so annoying!" Sergeant One groaned
He tried to rush forward, but the Bone Walker pelted him with another arrow, making him stumble back. Then Bone Walker one started circling him while peppering his body with arrows. The sergeant tried to rush again, but he gets hit and stumbles back. Bone walker one continued to slowly close with each rotation around the circle not hitting his head only below the neck.
Sergeant One, now weak, dropped his weapon. Bone Walker, One kicked it away.
As the sergeant fell to his knees, Bone Walker One closed in behind him and pressed the arrowhead against the back of his head.
"All that… gone? So quick?" he said falteringly
Then the bone walker fired.
Killing him.
Sergeant one corpse hit the ground, Blood flowing from all its orifices.
Sergeant Two, still engaged with Bone Walker Two, saw this. "KENO!"
He ignored the Bone Walker and ran straight toward his fallen comrade, but Bone Walker Two blocked his way with his spear, swiping at him.
He flipped over it, then threw a dagger toward the Bone Walker's head.
It stuck deep in his forehead, staggering the Bone Walker for a moment
The raging sergeant kept rushing forward.
Then, just before he reached Keno, Bone Walker One jumped back over Keno's body, creating distance. Mid-air, he fired an arrow toward the sergeant, but mana flickered around Sergeant Two for a second, deflecting the arrow. At the same time, he threw his dagger, sending it straight into the middle of the Bone Walker's head.
Bone Walker One fell back against the wall, cracking his skull against it, and slumped against a stone wall.
The sergeant stopped and dropped to his knees beside Keno, cradling his body and weeping.
"I'm so sorry, Keno…"
He kept weeping.
"I promise to carry on everything yo—"
A blade sliced horizontally through his neck.
His head slid off his shoulders.
A cold presence loomed behind him.
Bone Walker Two stood there, blue sockets ignited coldly, Keno's short sword in his hand.
Blood dripped from it.
As the sergeant's head fell.
Bone Walker One stood up.
Clapping started.
"Hahaha, well done, you two! Good show!"
"Now come and kneel."
Bone Walker One gets up, pulling the dagger from his skull. Bone Walker Two and one dropped their weapons there as they both knelt in front of Zero.
"Now let's first see what really happened here."
He touched their heads and closed his eyes, reading their minds.
Bone Walker Two climbed the wall while Bone Walker One shot the guards on the wall using the large amount of bonewalkers to protect itself by moving around and hiding within the crowds of the undead, to avoid projectiles coming its way. Then Bone Walker Two stealthily got to the door and opened it up.
"Wow! That's impressive and interesting. You guys are abnormally smart for just some random void spirits… Usually I have to give you guys specific instructions for different situations. Even Skull Lord, who has the collective brain power of three void souls (literally), needs to be aimed like a siege weapon."
"In this raid, the only order I gave everyone of you undead was for you to continue your assault until I arrived, but you two improvised…"
Zero smirked
"I'll be keeping a close eye on you two from now on..."
"Now lets see, I've got something for you two to do. You are now being given authority." Zero continued
Necrotic mana licked around them, restoring them to full by mending them completely.
"I want you two to round up this raid and place the bodies at, the circle I created, this creature will act as your guide—just follow it,"
He sets the Drogger down in front of them.
"Thats enough now, I've got to go. But first—"
Zero leaves, seeking out and mercilessly killing the E-rank captains that were left, and the D-rank commander. All four lieutenants and one captain had already died due to the overwhelming numbers of bonewalkers.
He then makes a small magic circle and leaves.