As Reign and the others managed to carve their way through the tunnel they found themselves in a big open area beneath the forest. The huge roots of the trees could be seen hanging from the ceiling occasionally while creepy green flames were floating in the air and illuminating the area.
"Green flames huh, it seems you got a competitor for the ugliest flames, Wolfie." Shadow snickers as he looks towards Wolf who looks away in annoyance.
"Hey Wolfie, Wolfie, whatcha thinking abooouut?" Shadow presses against Wolf as he stares at him with a smile. Suddenly a lock of his hair burst in flames as Wolf looks at him annoyingly.
"Ahhh, my hair!!!" Shadow suddenly starts rolling on the ground as Laura and Beast try their best not to laugh at him.
"Enough Shadow, we have to find that necromancer as fast as possible, I don't want the guys above getting injured while fighting the undead." Reign picks Shadow up by his collar as the latter smiles at him apologetically.
"By the way, didn't the amount of undead we passed through seem … low?" Beast suddenly asks from behind them as everyone nods in agreement.
"Which means one thing, more are coming." Wolf cranks his neck as he looks towards the distance, swiftly they start making their way deeper inside the hideout.
As they went deeper inside the massive underground hideout of the necromancer everyone could feel the death mana being emanated from its depths. The mana was completely different compared to others as even Shadow's shadow/darkness mana still had some familiarity with theirs, this one however had none. The cold feeling that would wash over everyone and the staleness of air were all simply byproducts of the mana.
Soon they all came across more undead. The hundreds of undead were walking towards the exit before charging towards Reign and the others in fury. Before they could do anything however they were smashed to pieces as the party passes through them without looking back. The surviving undead chased after them for a while before stopping and continuing their journey towards the exit of the hideout.
They came across multiple groups of the undead as they battled their way through the hideout, each group consisting of hundreds of undead.
"Are you sure that it's safe to simply go like this, what if the others get overrun?" Shadow suddenly asks Reign as they charge towards the location of the death mana.
"They'll be fine, don't underestimate the others Shadow, they have gone through dangers before, them coming here today to help us is proof enough that they're not weaklings that would cover before enemies." Reign looks back at Shadow as he speaks, Shadow simply looks at him and nods as they continue on their way.
After going through a couple more undead groups they finally got to their location. A tall wall could be seen in front of Reign and the others, the creepy green fires were burning atop of it while the undead were coming out from a big gate that was opened. From what they could see from the outside there were no buildings inside the walls, it seemed as if it was simply circling around a field.
They all charge towards the undead as they slaughter their way inside the wall. The sight inside was sickening as multiple hills made of corpses could be seen inside, their rotting bodies were emanating a horrible stench while death mana lingered around them. In the center of the field, they could see an old man sitting atop a throne made of bones. The old man looked at them calmly as the undead stopped attacking them and made way for them to pass.
"It has been a long time since I had guests, even ones that slaughter my army during their visit." The old man speaks as he rubs his bone staff lovingly while flashing a smile towards Reign and the others who look at him with disgust. They knew who he was immediately, after all, what kind of person would be sitting on a throne whilst surrounded by the undead.
"Aethion, I presume?" Reign asks while walking towards the old man with the others. Aethion shows a small expression of a surprise after hearing his name. He then shakes his head playfully while smiling.
"You even know my name, how nice of you." He taps his staff on the ground as 20 figures slowly emerge from the soil around him. These undead were different compared to others, there were zombies amongst them, but they were visibly different compared to their weak, slow, and rotting brethren in the army. Their flesh and skin were pale while being in perfect condition, if not for the dead-looking eyes that had no irises it would be hard to even differentiate them from normal humans.
Some of the undead were wearing full body armor while wielding pitch-black greatswords. There were giant skeletons, ethereal wraiths that stared at them with a creepy smile, and more.
The monsters were all level 25 elites, even though Reign and the others were higher in level and stronger individually compared to the elites, fighting 20 of them whilst being surrounded by a whole army was not going to be easy.
"So boys, are you sure you want to fight against me?" Aethion smiles gleefully as he looks at them before slowly getting up. The green flames slowly cover his body as he walks towards the elites.
"These are some of my finest creations, they are far weaker compared to their heydays, but still enough to deal with pests like you!" He suddenly shouts in anger as he looks at Reign who had a calm expression on his face.
"Deal with us?" Reign scratches the back of his head as he looks at Aethion.
"Are you senile or something old man?"
"YOU!!" Aethion points furiously towards Reign as his veins bulge out. He was truly angry at the nonchalant attitude that Reign and the others had in front of him, he was once a necromancer that terrorized kingdoms, kingdoms for god's sake. For some kids to come and destroy a part of his army and then even speak to him in such a condescending manner, he was truly enraged.
"You're just a loser that managed to survive, and now you're going to die." Tank laughs as he charges with the others. Aethion was caught off guard with their action.
( Are they crazy, I and 20 of my elites are here, and they are actually attacking us? ) Aethion thinks to himself as he looks towards them. He was level 30 right now and he could still fight, even though a necromancer was not a class that fared well against others.
He points towards them with his staff as his elites charge at them. The undead army that was standing steadily suddenly all stared at Reign and the others before charging as well.
Reign and the others immediately start off strong. Reign's broken sword shines brightly as it gets back to its original state. In a flash, he attacks one of the knights and before the latter could even react his head was cut off.
The others were no different as they immediately used their skills to bombard the elites.
"Damn, these guys are weaker compared to normal elites, this is even easier than I thought." Shadow suddenly says while cutting off a hand of the zombie that was lunching at him. It was true, compared to normal elites these undead were weaker, but there was a reason for it.
Green flames suddenly set ablaze the corpses of the elites as they slowly get up from the ground. Under the shocked gazes of Reign and the others, they walk out of the flames as their bodies were fully healed.
"Hmph, as if my undead would go down so easy," Aethion says while using his necromancy skills to revive the fallen. A necromancer was the strongest when he was behind his undead army. There were different ways a necromancer would fight as well, some would create less undead but each would be stronger compared to their normal counterparts, some would simply focus on increasing the numbers whilst not caring about what happened to the quality.
Then there were those like Aethion. His undead were not especially strong, but he was able to revive each of them almost indefinitely. He was a true pain to fight against as one would grow more and more frustrated the longer they fought.
Reign and the others cut down their enemies time and time again but to no avail. Each of the undead would get back up mere moments after being killed. They contemplated going straight towards Aethion but he was fully shielded by multiple layers of bone walls. Even Wolf was unable to break through his defense right away after attacking him. It would simply take too long and the undead would encircle him before he could destroy it.
"Damn it, fucking coward!" Tank shouts furiously as he grabs the head of a nearby zombie before throwing it into the crowd of the undead.
They were all wracking their brains while fighting. They knew they could not continue this for too long as they would simply get exhausted and overrun by the undead.
"Hahahaha, attacking a necromancer without a light user, idiots." Aethion snickers from the inside of his bone walls whilst looking at the fight.
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