"Mmh?" Xin, who was drawing on her grimoire with Mormon like a pair of little kids doodling on the paper, suddenly straightens her back as she feels the anti-scrying enchantment she put on the carriage become active, which means someone is trying to peek at them again.
"What's wrong?" Zarba, who sees his slave-wife suddenly become serious, asks with curiosity as he raises his head from the grumbling Nadia's lap, whom he forced to become his pillow.
"There's someone just trying to peek at us with a clairvoyance spell." Xin replied curtly as she also cast some quick clairvoyance spells to look around just in case there was an ambush waiting for them nearby while her anti-scrying enchantment dispelled the unknown magician's clairvoyance spell.
"Isn't it Helga again?" Zarba makes a guess even if he doesn't believe that the self-proclaimed fortune teller woman is peeking at them again this time before Xin shakes her head in denial, confirming his thought.
"Unfortunately, no, my husband. I had already gotten a contract link with her when she visited, so she can just contact me directly with the communication spell and has no need to use the clairvoyance spell again. I'm pretty sure it's an enemy." Xin explained while she was looking around the jungle and the road ahead that was displaying on her magic circles as the people in the carriage became alert after hearing her mention the enemy.
"Hah, we can't even travel in peace for long, can we…?" Zarba sighed with an annoyed expression as he stood up and commanded the skeleton horses that were pulling their carriage and the Zar-Bros outside to stop. They will have to prepare for battle ahead.
"Heh, finally some action…!" In contrast, Nadia was quite happy that she could have a fight again so soon; the earlier fight with goblins was too boring, as they died too quickly, so she didn't really satisfy her fighting urge properly.
"Eh, is someone after us?" Mormon piped up, flipping the grimoire shut with a thud, her earlier fascination with the breast growth spell forgotten as her big blue eyes looked around for an answer. She wonders what is going on with the trio that makes people target them.
"Oh, I guess I didn't tell you about me being a runaway prince of the Great Golden Empire..." Zarba answered the curious goblin girl as Mormon was surprised by the revelation, but before she could react and ask why he was out here instead of staying inside a castle or something, Xin's magic circle that was looking at the road ahead suddenly became unstable and glitching with a static image, confirming the presence of magic interference from the other magician.
"Hmph, it seems like this rude magician is waiting for us on the road ahead." Xin huffs while she stands up after they stop as the skeleton horses outside screech to a halt on the road with the ranger knights repositioned into a defensive formation around the carriage.
"And here they are…" Xin murmured, her fingers poking at the image display on the magic circle as the image paused, revealing the static image of shadowy, grotesque silhouettes behind the formation of zombies standing around on the road three kilometers ahead before her clairvoyance spell just got dispelled by the enemy magician.
"That's undead, isn't it?" Mormon said the obvious as she tilted her head to the side.
"That's quite odd for a necromancer to be out fighting with their minions. I thought their kind only liked to steal corpses and play with them in their filthy cave, maybe even harass helpless peasants and travelers now and then…" Nadia snorted with contempt in her tone as she walked towards their luggage to get her armor and greatsword after she saw the zombies in the magic circle. She is kind of disappointed that the enemy is only undead and a necromancer.
And by the way, the existence of necromancers is not really feared in this world, as they are despised and hated by most people and are often hunted with extreme prejudice, so they are always running or hiding from people like cockroaches.
As for those necromancers that stand out too much, they are usually dead not long after they make a debut to the world, as there are just too many powerful people who like to kill them for sport.
"Well, with my summons we don't have to worry about their advantage in numbers or their biowarfare at least..." Zarba hums as he also follows behind Nadia to get his equipment as well. He doesn't think the zombies are going to be much of a problem, but the two large silhouettes in the back and the unknown necromancer are still what they have to be cautious against.
Zarba then summoned two Pro-Maids and one Zar-Bro inside the carriage and had them help him and Nadia equip the armor while Xin grabbed her magic staff and two ornate golden necklaces from her stash of enhanced items.
First, Xin wears a necklace that has an ornate golden plate and two blue and one red gemstones. This necklace is a powerful magic artifact Xin took from the vault that can create a decent, strong magical barrier that can defend against both physical and magical attacks. She will need it when she has to fight with the necromancer later. She has already decided to fight alone with the necromancer since this is a rare opportunity to duel with the fellow magic user.
Then Xin gives the other necklace to Zarba; it is a golden chain necklace with starry crystal stones as Zarba takes it and wears it around his neck. This magic artifact is anti-curse and anti-mental manipulation magic.
They are going to fight a magician that is definitely going to utilize dark magic, so these items are a must-have.
And after they finished getting equipment, the trio walked down the carriage, while Mormon will remain inside and stay back with a battalion of Zar-Bros who will guard the carriage since she doesn't have any fighting power at the moment, so it's obvious that she will have to stay out of combat.
Zarba in his black armor and metal mask walked a couple of steps before an obsidian skeleton horse got summoned in front of him. He then turned back to Xin before the half-elf walked up beside him as he helped her up on the golem warhorse.
He then turned to Nadia and summoned the skeleton horse for her as well as the muscular woman just casually pulled herself up on its back with her greatsword resting on her shoulder.
"Alright, let's go slay some necromancer!" Zarba said after he got on the horse behind Xin, before he and the two women then rode off side by side away from the carriage while Mormon waved her hand behind them as she wished them good fortune from the carriage's window.
"My husband," Xin calls as she leans her back on Zarba while she looks ahead at the road. "I want to fight with the necromancer in a duel; could you let me test myself against the other magician?"
Zarba raised one of his eyebrows at the half-elf's sudden request as he looked down on top of her head before he sighed. He kind of understands her wanting to fight and see how strong she is against the other since she has only been shooting magic spells at monsters and some normies until now.
"Alright, but I'll intervene if I see that you seem to be playing around…" Zarba warned as Xin huffed, a bit displeased that he thinks she might make such an idiotic mistake.
"I would not." Xin denied with a pout as Zarba chuckled while he kissed her head to soothe the displeased half-elf, and then the three of them rode on the skeleton horse as they started galloping at full speed towards the horde of undead and one mysterious necromancer who awaited them.
÷×÷×÷
"Don't eat any corpse you see, you imbeciles!" With a sound of fresh slapping bone, the old witch kept whacking the heads of her two undead chimeras with a leftover arm of the zombie that was eaten by them, while the two undead just shrank up a little like a pair of toddlers being scolded. It might even look cute if they were not a pair of grotesque monsters made of corpses stitched up together.
"For crying out loud…" The necromancer witch huffs as she throws away the zombie arm after getting tired of hitting her undead.
"Oh?" Suddenly she feels the scrying attempt on her area before she counters the spell as the bird skulls in her hand glow green.
"Hmmm, I didn't know Prince Zarba has a magician with him… interesting…" The old witch smirked as she destroyed the clairvoyance spell of the magician of Zarba with the invisible wave of mana release from the little skulls in her hand towards the spell.
"Well, let's welcome them properly!" The witch's single eye was glowing green light as she cackled ominously amidst the undead horde...