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Kai crouched on his knees. In front of him, the deeply wounded guard remained unconscious with his head dangling from the side as he kept it on his lap.

He tried to concentrate on the mana that swirled inside his body.

Healing a deeply wounded person was one of the hardest things for any Mages, especially a 1st circle one. Kai wasn’t even proficient in many healing spells, but he knew he had to try.

He inhaled.

Keeping his hands on the wounded area, where a lot of blood was coming out, he started pushing his mana out.

It was a 2nd circle spell which would hopefully close the wound, but as soon as he started to build the spell structure, he felt the guard’s limbs go cold underneath his touch.

He immediately stopped the spell and started to see if the guard was breathing.

Earlier, he had been twitching from time to time, fighting for his life. Now, he laid still. No movement.

Kai frowned.

A hint of guilt clouded his mind immediately. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Killian crouching down to sit.

"He is dead," he said aloud for Kai to hear.

Kai simply nodded his head.

His eyes were glued to the lifeless body of the man as something heavy washed over him. He knew what it was and he couldn’t run away from it.

He wanted to shrug it off immediately, but he felt bad for what happened. It was more of a sense of responsibility that the man died under his watch.

His death was on him.

Earlier, he had seen death but hadn’t been responsible for any men. He had always treated it as the consequence of people’s actions. It seems like being a lord has made it different.

"Lord Arzan, do you need a minute or should we head back? I initially assumed they were Grade 1 monsters, but they are stronger. At Grade 2 at least," Killian said cautiously.

Kai looked at him.

Although Killian felt bad about the situation, there was no sense of remorse in his eyes. He must have seen countless guards dying back in the duchy.

Kai shook his head for what he said.

"No, we can’t go back now," Kai said. There was no point in going back. Deaths would come, but they had to deal with the necromancer first.

"Are you sure, Lord Arzan?" Killian’s eyes bore into Kai’s back.

"Yes, we will scout out the extent of the army we are dealing with. If it’s more than what we can handle, we are going to go back and seal the forest area. Ask help from neighbouring territories," he said, looking back at him.

He stood up from his crouched position and looked at the other guards. A few of them had minor injuries, but it was nothing big.

They took a break for half an hour, and the guards dragged the body of the dead guard into the grass and marked the location. On the way back, they could pick the body up and give it a proper burial.

With that done, they decided to walk again.

"Let’s move ahead!" Killian commanded the rest of the guards who were quick to get into formations.

Kai started walking ahead, but his thoughts were still clouded by what happened just a while back.

He didn’t know why he felt so responsible for the guard’s death. In his past life, he had seen a lot of deaths, but he hardly felt responsible for any of it, aside from his masters and only a few— less than a handful.

But now, the guilt he felt for a random guard almost ate him up inside. He didn’t even know his name properly, but a part of him ached, thinking about how his family and friends were going to react to the news of his death.

"Lord Arzan, you tried your best to save him." Killian walked from the side and got closer to Kai.

He must have noticed that Kai was in deep thought.

Kai’s frown eased as he heard Killian’s voice.

"I know, we did what we could. The rest of the guards should take care of themselves. The fight ahead won’t be easy. Let’s focus ahead," Kai sternly said and continued walking.

Killian simply gave a nod.

Although Kai was still not over the guilt, he shook his head. Being the lord, he needed to act calm and look out for any more skeletons that might be hiding in the trees.

The trees covered with a slight mist of snow started to increase in number as they walked further inside. It was a sign that they were going deeper into the forest.

The trees that were only on the sides were now in the middle of their path.

It was obvious that rarely people came to this side of the forest. Normally, the fear of monsters would not let them approach. It also seemed like the necromancer had used a place deeper into the forest for that reason.

As they walked, Kai suddenly noticed something strange. His vision was getting cloudy and there seemed to be fog all around the troupe.

He hadn’t noticed it before, but it appeared out of nowhere and surrounded them.

Looking back, he couldn’t see the location where they had come from and he could only see a small range. Even that was diminishing.

Kai stopped and made Killian halt in his steps.

"Stop everyone!" Killian shouted out.

Kai looked around.

"What is this fog, Lord Arzan?"

"It seems to be a spell," Kai inhaled the mana surrounding them. It was not the usual kind of fog that could cover a forest. It was afternoon and fog wouldn’t be present at this point anyway.

"What?"

"Yes, someone is trying to disrupt our vision to separate us… It seems the necromancer knows that we’re coming," Kai whispered in the last part.

With the thickness of the fog expanding, Kai no longer could see anyone else. Not even Killian who was right next to him.

He quickly started creating a thread of mana.

He formed a simple spell structure in his hand and cast it. Immediately, the cantrip spell bound them to each other with small gaps in between, almost like a rope that they had to hold. It kept them in a formation as Kai started moving forward.

"Don’t lose the rope. If you get lost, I’m pretty sure skeletons will be waiting for you all. The necromancer knows we are coming," he said out loud. A few guards gulped, but they held onto the rope.

As he took a few steps forward, he noticed some dark spots around them. He halted them in their footsteps and bent down to take a good look at the plants.

The trees that had wrinkled leaves due to the weather were slowly turning black. He extended his palm and grabbed a handful of soil. From how it felt against his hand and the sensation it gave, he knew it was corrupted.

To confirm his assumption, he brought it up to his nose and inhaled deeply.

He wrinkled his nose. The use of dead mana was affecting the surroundings.

"The necromancer is close," Kai said and started walking in the front.

The fog continued to grow thicker. The surroundings were too silent for Kai’s liking, but it only made him sure that they were getting closer.

Soon enough, the fog started to fade away.

A clearing opened up in front of them and all of them stepped into it. It was a completely different area from the dense forest with tall grass all around them.

"There it is," Phillips said while staring at the system of caves. The mouth of the openings of the cave yawned open like a gaping maw. The walls were rocky but were rough from all the weather differences it bore for ages.

The hunter’s voice was barely audible, as they all stared at what was beyond the cave.

Through the cave system, it led to a hill—where there were hundreds of skeletons standing.

From the way they had come from, they wouldn’t be noticed right away.

A guard gasped at the sight and the others took a step back.

Kai shook his head and kept his finger on his lips, letting the guards know that they shouldn’t make noises. He pointed his finger at the skeletons. The guards briefly nodded.

The skeletons weren’t aware of them yet.

He observed the skeletal figures. There were a lot of them, more than 50. The hill was a slanted mountainous area where the skeletons were just standing in line. He saw that they were bearing no weapons.

A few of them bore seals and were enchanted, but most of them didn’t. The majority of the skeletons looked to be Grade 1, with a few Grade 2.

They could take a chance against them.

If he was right, the necromancer was strong, but it wasn’t one that he wouldn’t be able to handle. Although he could be wrong, the enchantments and fog from before meant that it was someone who was versed in support spells and arts rather than pure offensive ones.

Kai was going to give a brief to his guards before moving tactfully, but suddenly, a noise occurred.

He turned to look at a guard who had stepped on a dried stem, making the skeletons turn towards them.

It happened instantly as all the eyes bore on them.

"Fuck! Prepare yourself!" Kai yelled and looked at the guards who took a few steps behind.

Kai’s attention went back to the skeletons.

The hill was quite far away, but he heard how their skeletal teeth moved.

The skeleton that was at the front end of the hill roared and started running down.

It was followed by a few other skeletons who slid down the hill without a care of getting hurt. Kai saw how a few of them went back for something. And during the interval of the first few skeletons sliding down, the rest of them started following them with weapons in their hands.

His heart sank like a stone as he saw the skeletons running towards them and sliding the rocky hill down with ease.

He wasn’t worried about the normal skeletons in the front, but the ones in the back were skeleton warriors, Grade 2 undead equipped with weapons. It was going to be a pain to deal with all of them.

Within seconds, a few skeletons lunged forward. They were weaponless and, therefore held their hands high in the air, jumping to attack.

"Defend yourself!" Killian yelled loudly and started rushing forward. "Get into formations!"

His sword was met with the bony hands of the skeleton as he put all his strength into the spear, pushing the skeleton away from him. He succeeded as the skeleton stumbled a few steps back and then hit it with the slanted side.

Kai scanned the rest of the field.

Their manpower was far less compared to the army of skeletons who continued to charge at them.

Kai looked back and forth between the skeletons, trying to make patterns of their attacks. If they were similar to the previous skeletons, then he knew what he could do.

As a skeletal figure sprung forward, Kai drew a structure in his hand and cast a [Fire Bolt] spell towards it.

It was an easy spell but strong enough to strike through the skeleton’s bones, just like the goblins before. The crimson energy pierced through as its bones splattered.

A few skulls turned to look at what happened.

One skeleton made a scratchy noise and extended its bony hand towards Kai.

Kai didn’t understand the noises they made, but he simply assumed it was something like "Don’t let him move!".

He quickly cast a [Blinding] spell, as the spell structure lit up with mana, making the skeletons who ran towards him take a step back in agony.

With limited mana and the number of skeletons, there were only a few ways he could take on the battle. So, he simply decided to stay back and help out the guards from the back.

It was the best strategy since he didn’t have enough mana to take on all the skeletons.

He started throwing [Fire Bolt] at every skeleton that got close to him or any guards that seemed to be in trouble.

The tall grass around the battlefield gave him an idea as he chanted an incantation.

"[Astrum Langotra]!"

It was a two-word incantation for a 2nd circle spell called [Circle of Flames].

A roaring fire crackled out of his palms as the spell structure sprung to life. A searing tail of flames surrounded the skeletons that were trying to gang up on the guards and the tall grass around the clearing simply helped spread it.

"Get back from the flames!" Killian yelled as the guards backed up.

The sounds of skeletons crying out occurred as the flames engulfed them. The guards smiled in delight, but the next second, Kai felt the grass rustle in front of him.

One of the skeletons sprung forward with a massive axe dangling in the air.

Kai rolled on the ground and looked up at him to the flaming eyes staring at him with rage.

It charged up ahead, but Kai rolled before hitting it with a fire bolt. It stumbled back and it gave the opportunity to Feroy to charge at it with a spear, taking it head-on.

Kai nodded at him before pushing bolts of fire one after another at every skeleton that came across him.

A lot of times, he made sure the guards had ample time to attack since unlike Killian, they were rather weak and susceptible to the skeleton warriors’ attack.

The battle continued like that.

The area was wide enough for Kai to move a lot and he kept jumping around, hitting the skeletons with bolts as Killian and Feroy handled the frontlines.

Even Palman defended with Phillips and a few others, taking on a bunch of skeleton warriors.

Soon, their numbers dwindled as the skeleton warriors fell and the normal ones never stood a chance. They took a few hits too as a few guards got injured, but they kept on fighting.

Kai had no time to worry about the injured on the battlefield and he kept on firing his spells, controlling his flames to dictate the battlefield.

When the last few skeletons were left, Kai looked around and frowned.

The battle was going on nicely, but there were no signs of the necromancer. Just as he was thinking where it could be, a loud shout echoed from the caves.

"Is that-" Kai paused his words as a skeleton dashed forward from inside of it, heading straight towards Killian who was busy in a skirmish with a sword in its hands.