“What exactly happened?” I repeated the question again as I looked at Cornelia, this time with a much stronger tone, even as I put my hand on Helga’s body to send another wave of healing magic, the healing efficiency much stronger thanks to our physical contact. Not enough to actually cure her, of course, but enough to awaken her in a few seconds.

[-94 Mana]

Meanwhile, Cornelia managed to gather her wits enough to start speaking, enough to give a stammering report. “It was just another wave of monster attack,” Cornelia started even as she trembled, struggling to stay conscious, too exhausted by the latest spell she cast against the death knight before I managed to intervene. “Then, some of the experimental early-warning wards Helga had prepared triggered, alerting us for the undead assault, so we had a couple of minutes to erect some additional wards to keep them away.” She took a shaky breath.

“It was the only thing that saved the lives of the citizens. Iomene managed to create an elite force to cut through the undead defense, and most of the students defended the rears. I took command of the rear, with the strongest students supporting us. We knew that it would have been difficult to defend the rear, but…”

“But we didn’t expect a death knight waiting for us to commit on our strategy before launching,” Helga cut in, awake enough to take the discussion. Cornelia sent her an appreciative nod, and focused on her breathing, trying to stay conscious.

“Well, at least, there are some advantages,” I said.

“Like what?” Helga said, confused. Cornelia didn’t say anything, but her expression suggested that Helga was reflecting her emotions as well.

“Well, at least you girls stopped fighting,” I said with a wide smile. “Our next threesome is going to be so interesting.“

“Caesar,” they gasped simultaneously. “It’s not the time,” Helga continued even as she slapped my shoulder, but their resigned expression brightened. Not because it was an amazing joke, but the fact that I was confident enough to joke meant that I was confident in getting away safely.

I wasn’t really confident, but there was no harm in making them believe it.

“Their strategy doesn’t make sense,” Helga murmured even as she struggled to stand up. “With the forces they committed, they could have taken down every single man in the town much easier. All they needed was to use the death knight against the Iomene’s forces before they could create a breach.”

“Their strategy makes sense, you just need to know their true objective,” I said.

“True objective?” Cornelia interjected, shocked, like she was having trouble understanding the magnitude of the event. “You’re saying that the lives of tens of thousands of people are just bait for their true objective.”

“Not tens of thousands of people, just two people,” I said even as I pointed at them.

Helga gasped. “You’re the target.”

“Right in one,” I said even as I cast a subtle detection spell, expecting to be attacked immediately, wasting some more of my precious mana. Luckily, they didn’t attack immediately, giving me some time to recover. Barely half a minute, something they didn’t even factor in as useful, but my regeneration, even with what the last healing spell consumed, allowed me to more than double my available mana.

[-21 Mana]

[Mana: 1086 / 7595]

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Cornelia stammered. “A whole army, with a death knight,” she uttered even as she looked at me with widening eyes, a sense of worship dancing behind them as she reassessed my strength again, going up even more.

“Three death knights, actually,” I corrected her even as I used another detection spell, trying to understand their strategy based on the way their movements.

[-16 Mana]

The results of the second detection put a wide smile on my face. The hidden death knights still held their position, while the army was slowly shuffling, changing their direction inward, while the wounded one pulled back to join the rest of the army. The more interesting part was the rest of the army, surrounding us completely, which made me smile.

They were trying to use their cannon fodder first to weaken me before launching their deadly attack, unaware that each second that took to reorganize the hulking hordes of zombies was making it harder for them to succeed in their objective. I also considered healing myself, but ultimately, I decided against it. With the army I was about to face, area effect spells would help me much more than a few extra points of HP. Missing skin was painful, but preferable to death.

“Three death knights,” Cornelia gasped in shock, well aware how she compared even one of them, spending all of her mana just to delay one for a few seconds.

“Would I be an evil person if I said I’m glad that the rest of the army is chasing the survivors of the city?” Helga gasped.

“No, you wouldn’t,” I said. “Unfortunately, however, you’re wrong about their target,” I said. A second later, the last embers of the flames finally died, finally revealing the rest of the city. The buildings in our immediate surroundings had been destroyed as a result of the spell, giving the girls a good view of the rest of the city.

Which included a huge army of low-level zombies, closing in like a dark wave, slowly but steadily.

“Maybe I can distract them for a moment,” Cornelia offered with a resigned tone. To her credit, her tone wasn’t filled with fear, making me respect her even more. She might be an annoying noble heiress in the safety of the school, but she was a true battle mage facing an unbeatable enemy.

Well, what looked like an unbeatable enemy.

“No need,” I said to Cornelia even as I raised my hand, to see whether I could bluff another undead army in the same day. Pity that I lacked the overwhelming force option, but that didn’t mean that I was completely out of option, especially since a previous trap of mine had managed to get rid of five death knights in the process.

“Is this all the army you can gather to face me, Zokras,” I shouted smugly, enhancing my voice magically even as I simultaneously cast a variant of the earth element, forcing lines and lines of complicated runes to appear from the ground, shining brightly? “Last time, we were in your base, and you lost five death knights in the process. Are you brave enough to face me mine?”

[-54 Mana]

It was pure bluff, of course. The complicated runes that appeared were just shining brightly, representing many dangerous explosions, but they lacked the proper investment of mana to actually work as advertised. They were just pretty lights.

Helga looked at me weirdly, realizing that it was just a bluff, but smart enough actually not to say anything. Cornelia examined them with a shocked expression, failing to understand it was just a trick due to her own overspecialized magical knowledge.

Their response gave me an accurate gauge of the response of the undead army. Cornelia was lacking in terms of wards when compared to Helga, but only because Helga was overspecialized in theory in a way few actually was, and could catch the inconsistencies between runes at a glance.

On the side of the undead, I doubted anyone other than Zokras could replicate her expertise. Meaning, if they called my bluff and sent the whole army, Zokras was there, directing the assault. If they believed it, he was not.

Then, a small group of zombies —well, small in terms of an endless undead army, easily in high hundreds— pulled away from the main group, but rather than targeting us, spread around, clearly aiming to erase the runes, forcing the trap to discharge early. “No!” I gasped in an exaggerated shock, stretching my acting abilities to the limit, like a staggering assault was the worst thing that could happen.

“Stay back, and defend each other, do nothing else,” I said the girls with a message, then dashed forward.

[-2 Mana]

Even as I rushed forward, I cast another spell, pulling large pieces of metal from around myself, fashioning myself a huge axe, larger than myself, glowing furiously. Though, rather than forcing it in the air, I pulled it from the ground, making it more mysterious.

[-85 Mana]

It wasn’t a good weapon, both in terms of size, and in terms of the magic I invested in stabilizing its structure, but its huge surface was filled with glowing runes that radiated life energy. Despite its uselessness, from a distance, it looked amazing. “Come and taste the edge of the Undead Bane,” I shouted showily as I dashed.

The more I could delay them through my physical capabilities, the better…

[Level: 31 Experience: 489893 / 496000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 58

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 1898 / 6324 Mana: 1629 / 7595 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

Expert Craft [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia – Level 21/25]

[Helga – Level 17/21]