"What is this!?"
Numerous people exclaimed the moment the dead army walked out of [Valhalla]. The skeletons were frightening enough, but what followed was even worse. The aura of death flowed through the endless portal along with Ashton's shadow generals.
Since Ashton had levelled up quite a bit recently, the growth of his shadow generals had also skyrocketed. By looking at them, the mercenaries understood why Ashton acted so bold, even in the face of death. He had outnumbered them since the beginning!
"Your command, master."
All his summons knelt to greet him, but most surprisingly, Atlas had decided to join them for the first time. However, now wasn't the time to look surprised.
With his back turned to them, Ashton pointed at his team and said, "If anyone dares to take a step towards them, send their heads flying."
"Understood."
As soon as Sven said that, the skeletons surrounded everyone in the area. The message was clear, if the Ghosts weren't going to survive, neither were the rest.
Celeste raised a shadowy barrier to protect the Ghosts while also prohibiting the rest of them from escaping the carnage that would come in the form of the beasts. At the same time, a bunch of skeleton mages helped her reinforce the barrier to improve its sturdiness further.
Ashton wanted to test the barrier and launched a punch at it with all his might. His knuckles began to bleed, but the barrier remained unscathed. Nico would have a hard time breaking it, let alone the beasts.
Raven surprised Ashton the most. While inside [Valhalla], he didn't idle around; he took some skeletons under his wing and taught them the way of the assassins. Watching a small number of hooded skeletons with daggers was a cute surprise.
On the other hand, Atlas stood beside Ashton with his warhammer sling over his shoulder. Although Ashton didn't know what caused the change in Atlas, he was happy nonetheless.
"Aren't we going to fight?" Vimur was confused.
With the preparations completed, all they had to do was wait for the beasts to do their dirty work. Once Nico, Cyclops and their men had been weakened enough by the beasts, Ashton would put the final nail in their coffin.
Nico was an experienced warrior and knew he was at a disadvantage. It wasn't the first time he had crossed paths with a necromancer, so he thought he would quickly take care of Ashton.
However, his calculations were drastically off the mark. Ashton wasn't unlike any other necromancer he had seen, and judging him like one was something he would have to pay the price for.
Although Ashton followed the same tactic of using the number to his advantage, that's where the similarities between him and any other necromancer ended.
Ashton's summons were unlike any other Nico had seen before. While the skeleton soldiers Nico had fought before would flail their swords around, hoping to hit someone, Ashton's summons were built different.
Not only the skeletons had specific roles they filled, but Ashton's undead summons were comparatively just strong as their master.
"Tsk, we underestimated that bastard," Cyclops mumbled while staring daggers at Ashton, who was still smiling from ear To ear.
"We wanted to use the horde to our advantage, but the plan backfired on us." Nico replied, "We might be strong, but we can't handle the beasts and the bastard one after another."
Despite his backstabbing ways, Nico was still loyal to his people and thus wanted to protect them from the beasts. However, there was no guarantee that Ashton and his army wouldn't attack them from behind if he focused on taking care of the beasts.
Being sandwiched between two deadly forces was the last thing Nico wanted for him. Also, Ashton might destroy the city as 'revenge' if he was killed.
After all, he was a mutant, and the animosity between them and the humans ran deeper than the most grevious wounds. Nico had to do something to un-fuck the situation.
"How long will it take for the cult to arrive?" Nico asked Cyclops.
"A week, at least." Cyclops begrudgingly replied.
"Then that's enough time to prepare for them."
"What do you-"
Ashton couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at the surprising turn of events. Out of all the scenarios inside his head, he never thought Nico would stab Cyclops in the back.
Cyclop's lackeys were too shocked to do anything. Using that to their advantage, Nico's team slaughtered them. Once that was done, Nico walked up to Ashton and offered his hand.
"I hope we can temporarily put our differences aside and get rid of the horde first," He said unapologetically, "Let's not punish the innocent for my misdeeds."
Ashton looked at Anna, who shook her head. Vimur and Laihud both had similar reactions, and they were right. If Nico could betray Cyclops without a second thought, he wouldn't hesitate before doing the same to them.
Ashton nodded in Celeste's direction, who immediately lowered a portion of the barrier. To everyone's absolute horror, Ashton accepted Nico's offer by shaking his hand.
"What are you doing!?" Vimur yelled in absolute horror.
"Relax," Ashton replied, "I know what I am doing."
"You made the right choice," Nico smiled, "You are more humane than you look."
Saying so, Nico turned around to leave. However, Ashton still had fingers firmly wrapped around his hands.
"What are you doing?" Nico angrily asked.
"You should have known better than to get this close to a vampire," Ashton whispered in Nico's ear before baring his fangs, "It's just been a while since I had a taste of human blood."
Nico's team saw what was happening and immediately rushed to protect their leader. However, it was too late. Ashton had already dragged Nico inside the barrier as Celeste closed it.
The soldiers kept attacking the barrier with all their might, but they couldn't do a thing to protect their beloved supreme commander and only watched in horror as Nico flailed his arms to push Ashton away.
Sadly, a vampire's venom had a 100% fatality rate for humans. But since Nico was an A-grade being, the poison wasn't enough to kill him, but it was enough to paralyse him, allowing Ashton to do his job without any disturbance.
"Let... Go..." Nico barely mumbled before everything went black in front of him.
[Do you want to resurrect the selected being?]
"Yes," Ashton replied before wiping his bloodied mouth, "I can't let him go without fulfilling his wish of fighting the horde, can I?"
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