Necromancer: Kingdom Building with My Legion of Undead Knights

Chapter 206: Bait and Wait

For a moment, he didn’t know how to react. The embrace was unexpected, sudden, and completely out of nowhere.

His body tensed instinctively, his muscles locking up as if preparing for an attack rather than an embrace.

It was awkward.

As Darion, the bastard son of Emperor Valdris, no female had hugged him before. Not like this. Not with warmth, not with intention, not without some hidden motive behind it.

His mind raced through the possibilities. Was she scared? Was she relieved? Was this just a reaction to the intensity of the battle, the adrenaline finally wearing off and leaving something softer in its place?

He didn’t know. He couldn’t read her, he couldn’t predict her or understand what had just happened.

But then, slowly, he returned the embrace. His arms came up hesitantly, wrapping around her, his hands resting lightly on her back.

He felt the tension in his shoulders ease, felt something unclench in his chest that he hadn’t realized was tight.

The hug was brief but very deep, a moment of connection that felt almost foreign to him. He wasn’t used to this kind of contact. But he didn’t pull away.

Then, as quickly as it had started, it was over. Seren pulled back, a smile on her face. It was a genuine smile, the kind that reached her eyes and softened her usual guarded expression. She looked at Darion for a moment, then shook her head slightly, as if she was still processing everything that had happened.

"You know," she said, "when I saw your undead knights climbing that tree, I was like... huh?" She laughed, a short, breathy sound. "I had no idea what you were up to. I thought maybe you’d lost your mind. I mean, why would you send them up into the trees when the fight was on the ground? It didn’t make any sense to me."

She paused, her eyes drifting toward the clearing where the Yuimons had fallen.

"But... wow, the fall and the finishing was epic. I’m not a fan of gore or bloody sights, but I enjoyed watching that."

She laughed again, the sound warmer this time. "Watching those knights drop from the sky like that, it was like something out of a story. Like the kind of thing bards sing about in taverns."

Darion returned the laugh, a low chuckle.

"I had to think outside the box," he said. "The Yuimons were too strong and too aggressive. If we kept fighting them on the ground, we would have kept losing undeads. I needed something that would end the fight quickly, something they wouldn’t see coming."

Seren nodded slowly, her eyes still on the clearing. "It worked," she said. "It really worked. I’ve never seen anything like it."

Darion smiled.

——

They continued hunting. The forest was quieter now, the chaos of the Yuimon battle left far behind.

The undeads moved around them in a loose formation, their green eyes scanning the shadows. Darion and Seren walked side by side, the silence between them comfortable but charged with something... uh... unspoken.

They found creatures exactly like deers but with stripes and seemingly very large teeth.

The system identified them as Errligs. They were grazing in a small clearing, their heads lowered, their bodies relaxed.

Darion watched them for a moment, assessing their threat level. They didn’t look particularly dangerous. The teeth were unsettling, but the creatures themselves seemed skittish, more prey than predator.

The undead with him finished them quickly. They were four in number, and Darion didn’t need extra hands.

The wolves moved in silently, the Rops flanking from the sides, and within seconds the Errligs were dead on the ground. Darion barely had to lift a finger.

His system notified him there was a pack of creatures ahead. A large one. The kind that would take time, effort, and possibly more undeads to deal with.

It was rare for the system to inform him of threats beforehand. He wasn’t sure he remembered a single time the system had ever done this since he got it.

Normally, he’d just meet threats unexpectedly, like the Yuimons they had fought not long ago, emerging from the trees without warning, their massive bodies crashing through the underbrush.

There had been no notification, no warning and no preparation. Only sudden violence and the desperate scramble to survive.

The system usually only told him about things after they happened.

Congratulations on killing. Congratulations on reviving. Congratulations on surviving. It was always retrospective, never proactive. It rewarded him for outcomes, but it never gave him a heads-up about what was coming. That was just how it worked.

So this was different. Unusual. Maybe even significant.

The system had never warned him about a pack of creatures before, never told him to watch out for what was ahead. Why now? What made this situation special?

Was the pack that dangerous? Was the system trying to help him avoid a fight it knew he couldn’t win? Or was it simply a new feature, something that had unlocked after his recent growth?

He didn’t know. The system was never clear about how it worked.

But he wasn’t going to ignore the warning. If the system was telling him there was a pack ahead, he was going to treat it seriously. No unnecessary risk and no unnecessary fights.

He had already lost quite enough undeads today, and the thought of losing more made him not like it.

He needed a smarter approach.

He came up with a plan, which he told Seren.

He wouldn’t revive the errligs now, instead they’d be used as bait.

They would use the Errligs as bait. These deer-like creatures, fresh and bloody, would be left in the middle of the forest, in a clearing, while they hid up a tree.

The pack would come for the meat, and they could pick them off from above without risking a ground assault.

Seren hesitated. "I’m kind of afraid of heights," she said.

Darion assured her that she should trust him. He told her to close her eyes while his wolf took her up.

She contemplated for a moment, her eyes searching his face, looking for any sign of doubt or hesitation.

She thought about everything they had been through together: the battles, the hunts, the danger.

Darion had handled situations so well, and had kept them alive when they had no business surviving. Things had never gotten out of hand, not really. He had always found a way, always pulled them through. She decided that she could trust him now.

So Darion selected a tree. It was tall and sturdy, with thick branches that could support their weight.

He commanded his large undead wolf to check if it was alright. The wolf climbed silently, its claws digging into the bark, its green eyes scanning for any threats.

It found no snakes, but there were many harmful large bugs, which it quickly chewed to death. The tree was safe. The tree was good for them to climb.

Darion said, "Alrighty then." He unsummoned all of the undeads except the large wolf. Seren looked at him now, her eyes widening slightly as she realized what he was planning.

She doubted how he would get her up there or something, her gaze flicking between him and the towering branches above.

But in the end, she had expected they would get up there with an Undead.

He mounted the wolf, his body settling into the familiar position.

He told Seren to sit at his back and hold him really, really tight. Seren hesitated a little after she saw him mount, her feet rooted to the ground.

Then she joined him. She climbed onto the wolf’s back, her arms wrapping around his waist, her grip tight enough to leave marks.

He could feel her heart pounding against his back, could feel her breath quicken as she prepared herself.

The wolf then jumped on the tree.

Thoom!

The impact was sudden, the world blurring as the wolf leaped. The ground fell away beneath them, the branches rushing past as the wolf climbed higher and higher.

Darion held on, his body pressed against the wolf’s back, his hands gripping its fur. Seren screamed, a short, sharp sound that was swallowed by the wind.

Thoom! Thoom! Thoom!

The wolf bounded from branch to branch, its powerful legs propelling them upward with each leap.

The leaves blurred past, the bark scraping against their clothes. Darion could feel Seren’s grip tightening, could feel her face pressed against his back, her breath hot and fast.

Then, suddenly, they stopped. They had reached a sturdy branch, high above the clearing. Darion dismounted first, then reached back to help Seren climb off the wolf.

Her face was pale, her eyes wide, but she was breathing. She was alive. She had made it.

Darion smiled. "See? Not so bad."

Seren stared at him, her face unreadable. Then she blinked. "Just take us down quickly after this."

Darion laughed. He looked down at the clearing below, at the Errligs still fresh on the ground. The bait was set. The trap was ready. All they had to do was wait.

He could feel the weight of the moment settling around them: the silence of the forest, the stillness of the air, the anticipation of what was to come. They were hidden and safe, ready for whatever emerged from the shadows.

He leaned back against the tree trunk, his body relaxing. Seren sat beside him, her body still tense, her eyes scanning the forest floor below. The waiting had begun.