A lot of clattering and gnashing sounds erupted suddenly from all around them, accompanied by the clashing of flesh against bone and bone against steel. Before they could rescue the other Augias, a horde of Skeletons rained down on them, pouncing from the bushes and plummeting from the trees.
"Aaarrrh!" Kailu skidded to a halt and rolled backwards to avoid a Skeleton's sword, his eyes twitching with fear.
A second Skeleton landed heavily next to him, but its femurs broke as it landed, snapping him momentarily out of his daze. The Undead slowly raised its arm and swung it even more slowly in his direction, in a feeble attempt to decapitate him.
Under a rush of adrenaline, the Healer didn't notice anything and retaliated with 200% of his strength. He sidestepped nimbly, deflecting the enemy's rusty blade with his longsword, then with a flashy spin, knocked its skull off its shoulders.
He thought he was done with this Skeleton, when the headless body of the latter brandished its sword again and swung it in his direction blindly. Once again, the Undead was incredibly slow, and even in his fright he found the courage to raise his blade to parry the enemy's attack.
A ridiculously low impact force barely shook his arm, but even more absurd was that the skeletal arm holding the enemy's weapon snapped into pieces from the shock. The Skeleton lost its balance and toppled forward. Kailu cautiously avoided it and watched in a daze as his opponent fell to the ground and shattered itself.
"What the... They're fucking weak!" His eyes lit up with joy. He couldn't believe he had put himself through so much misery for these fragile things.
"Look around you!" Noreen yelled sternly as she shoved Kailu forward with a kick to the butt.
With a few swipes of her claws, she shredded a dozen Skeletons that were about to surround the Healer and a shower of bones fell down in all directions.
VLANG!
At that moment, the Long-Necked Augias they were following whipped its tail around and smashed a good fifty Skeletons that had the misfortune to be in its path. Dozens of more or less intact Undeads shot up into the sky, sometimes reaching the top of the tallest trees before starting their descent.
Ikaris and the others finally learned where the Skeletons that had dropped on them a few seconds earlier had come from. The other Augias they were supposed to be rescuing had not been shy about using their tails to sweep around them either.
That was a good sign. It meant they were still in fighting shape. On the other hand, it also confirmed Magnus' words. The Skeleton Sorcerer he had defeated was not alone and was part of a larger army.
Besides Noreen, the other three Werewolves were experienced warriors and none of these slow Skeletons already in bad shape managed to breach their guard. The sound of breaking bones continued to echo through the forest where they stood for a little over twenty seconds and then silence returned.
Malia had also used her own sword and superhuman speed to eliminate her opponents, and none of them had managed to so much as touch her shadow.
Ruvaen was the grumpy, stubborn type, but his age was the real deal. Even surrounded by a horde of Skeletons his expression was totally impassive, almost jaded. Instead of using brute force like the four Werewolves or superhuman speed like the Dhampir, he needed only his skills.
When the elf fought, his movements were like a murderous dance repeated over and over again and the Skeletons seemed to break apart as soon as his sword touched them. On closer inspection, one could see that he was aiming at the weak spots in their joints, but not only that.
A disruptive psychic force would briefly stun these Undeads before each attack, giving the illusion that they were willingly accepting their second death.
Ikaris was different from his allies. He was more in a mood for experimentation. When a Skeleton lunged at him, a hazy memory emerged from his Necromancy Spark and he calmly touched his opponent's forehead. A stream of Death Mana transferred from his palm to the Undead's skull and it stopped moving.
"Fight for me." The boy ordered as he released his vampiric charm, but also the sacred authority from his Nephilim lineage.
At that very moment, a second Skeleton attacked, but the first Skeleton suddenly turned and parried its comrade's sword. Ikaris took the opportunity to touch it as well and transferred another fraction of his Death Mana to it.
"Fight for me too."
With each Skeleton targeting him, he repeated the process and soon found himself surrounded by thirty mismatched Skeletons standing at attention. His allies were giving him strange looks.
"If I had known you were a necromancer I wouldn't have followed you." Ruvaen grunted with a mock scowl of disgust. He had already made his peace with it.
The four Werewolves and Malia were no longer surprised by anything, but Kailu's eyes bulged with astonishment.
"Are you sure you're not some hidden bastard from House Morgunis? He blurted out without any respect. "That would explain a lot."
"Heh? It probably would have been better for me if I were." Ikaris laughed miserably. He still didn't know which foot to dance on with Anaphiel who had found out his secret.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and quietly calmed his breathing. Although his performance just now seemed to be both eerie and badass, only he knew how difficult it was.
His Necromancy Spark was a hybrid spell with he didn't know exactly how many components. Although his Soul Spark was still level 1, when he actively or passively used this Spark he was able to subconsciously control his Death Mana to cast a few simple spells. However, he didn't really understand how he did it since he wasn't able to observe his own Mana flow at the moment.
The knowledge stored in his Necromancy Spark had taught him that without using complex spells he could easily tame Undeads weaker than himself by virtue of being a Nephilim of Faulch. If he gave them some of his Death Mana, the effect became much more permanent.
Yet, the reason he was sweating was because he could feel a force eroding his hold on these Skeletons. He couldn't see the Mana he had left in those Undeads, but Magnus had already confirmed to him that it was burning up quickly, even slightly strengthening the Skeletons controlled in the process.
"Kill them now." The old Vampire snorted gloomily. " Faulch's mark is not so easy to erase even if you can now be considered his descendant."
He plugged back into his Necromancy Spark to tap into his list of spells and knowledge and found a way to retrieve the transferred Mana with a snap of his fingers. The Skeletons awoke from their slavish trance and immediately targeted him and his companions.
"Even if I can't control them for long, because I'm a Nephilim I can still influence them." Ikaris concluded with a smirk. Before they could approach him he calmly commanded, " Stand still."
The Skeletons closest to him halted their movements as if in a dilemma and glanced at their fellow Skeletons as if to ask their opinion.
"Kill them." Ikaris said indifferently to his friends.
While the group of Skeletons dithered, his companions shrugged and complied, slaughtering the indecisive Undeads.
"It would be even better if you could infuse your voice with your Soul Strength." Magnus sighed appraisingly in his head. "The Influence ability stemming from your Vampiric Charm allows for that to a certain extent, but it only really works well on living humans of the opposite sex. Undeads are obviously not one of them."
The high-pitched whining of the Augias boomed louder and Ikaris and his party suddenly realized that their four-legged guide was no longer with them. He had joined the fray with its fellows. From a distance, they could see dozens of giant, bloody corpses covered with Skeletons like the prey of a swarm of ants.
"Let's hurry." Ikaris urged them.
The smell of blood grew more pronounced as they neared the battlefield, and they passed thousands of broken skeletons and bones on their way. On two other occasions, the tail of an Augias triggered a bombardment of Undeads in their direction, but after the first instance they finished them off in no time.
They passed a few more bushes, then suddenly a clear view of the battlefield appeared before them. Giant trees uprooted, bushes and tall grass torn up as if a combine had passed before them. Augias' blood, bones and corpses were everywhere.
These huge mammals had long since perished, but sometimes they were still alive while these Undeads munched on them. It was like one of those animal documentaries where a dying zebra was eaten by a pack of hyenas without batting an eyelid as if it had already given up on life.
Only nine Augias were still fighting, including the one who had guided them here.