Chapter 75: Chapter 73: Taking Over Silver Sand Bay
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The Tidal Fishman Warrior, afflicted by the double Curse, was quickly dispatched by the Black Corpse in just a few blows.
Lynch noticed that the Black Corpse’s aura had grown fiercer again. Its strength had clearly advanced, and it didn’t seem far from reaching Tier Two.
This left Lynch quite gratified.
The stronger his ace was, the more secure he felt.
As for the remaining Tidal Fishmen, the two Fish Giants, with their thick hides, managed to struggle for a moment. But faced with the absolute numerical superiority of the Sea of Skulls, they too soon fell upon the sand.
The common Tidal Fishmen had already been routed by the Sea of Skulls’ charge and were completely slaughtered in just a minute or two.
The battle ended.
The beach was littered with the bodies of Fishmen and... a huge pile of shattered Skeleton Servant remains.
Even though sixty or seventy Skeletons had "died," Lynch was unfazed.
What war is ever fought without casualties?
To a Necromancer, common Skeleton Servants were nothing but cannon fodder. This loss was well within acceptable limits.
Besides, the bones of these "dead" Skeleton Servants were mostly intact. With a cast of the Skeleton Resurrection Skill to reassemble them, he could raise at least forty or fifty more. His actual combat losses were minimal.
The fresh Tidal Fishman corpses, however, were the greatest spoils of this battle.
He decided to handle the two Fish Giants and the Tidal Fishman Warrior himself.
The rest of the Fishman corpses were left to the Bone Mage for the grunt work.
But after he was done, Lynch couldn’t help but fall into a contemplative silence as he stared at the three blank, Soul Fire-less elite Skeletons before him.
Instead, among the pile of common Tidal Fishman Skeletons resurrected by the Bone Mage, one had actually awakened a Soul Fire.
The faint, burning Soul Fire was an eyesore.
’I thought the stronger the corpse was in life, the higher the chance of awakening a Soul Fire?’
He wanted to curse out the Bone Mage, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
After all, the creature was just standing there holding its Magic Staff, the Soul Fire in its eye sockets perfectly calm, as if to say, ’Master, I was just doing my job. I don’t know how this happened either.’ It looked completely innocent.
Alright, fine.
Lynch shrugged, calmly accepting the outcome.
’As a Necromancer, as long as I fight enough battles, I’ll naturally accumulate more Soul Fire elites,’ he reasoned.
’Besides, aren’t there still a Tidal Fish Giant and a Tidal Fishman Priest right over there?’
「Soon.」
The Skeleton Army, now reorganized and even larger than before, once again surged forward like a white wave of death, crashing down upon the remaining Tidal Fishman forces.
This time, leading the charge were none other than the newly resurrected Tidal Fishman Warrior Skeleton, the Fish Giant Skeletons, and a large contingent of common Tidal Fishman Skeletons.
For the surviving Tidal Fishmen, the sight was far too shocking.
A torrent of terrified shrieks erupted.
The Tidal Fishmen turned tail in terror, scrambling on all fours toward the sea.
Even the wounded and fallen Fishmen desperately dragged themselves toward the water’s edge.
It was a total rout.
Seeing the disastrous turn of events, the Tidal Fishman Priest brandished its Magic Staff and let out a series of shrill cries, attempting to rally its collapsing forces.
But it was utterly futile.
It was swept away by the tide of fleeing Fishmen, stumbling along with the retreat.
’Heh, you think you can escape?’
To Lynch, the small fry didn’t matter, but he had already claimed the Priest and the Fish Giant for his army. How could he let them escape?
Instantly, he and the Bone Mage raised their Magic Staves in near-perfect unison.
Two spheres of light from the Weakness Curse shot through the air, striking the Fishman Priest and the Fish Giant.
The two Elite Fishmen faltered, their speed dropping by more than half. They could only watch helplessly as their comrades fled into the distance.
That brief hesitation was all it took for the Skeleton vanguard to close in.
The turned Fishman Warrior Skeleton led the charge, viciously thrusting its trident at the Fishman Priest.
The Fishman Priest shrieked a string of curses and, in its panic, barely managed to parry the trident with its Magic Staff. But a rain of swords and spears immediately followed, striking its body from all sides.
Meanwhile, the Fish Giant backed toward the sea, roaring as it swung its iron anchor, sending several Skeletons flying. But more Skeletons immediately swarmed it.
Surrounded, the Fish Giant’s brute strength was useless. It was quickly submerged in the sea of bones.
By the time the last Tidal Fishman scrambled into the water and swam for the Deep Sea without a backward glance, another thirty-odd fresh Fishman corpses littered the sands of Silver Sand Bay’s Fishing Port.
Among them were the Tidal Fishman Priest, its eyes wide in death, and the Fish Giant, its massive head severed from its body.
’I refuse to believe my luck is this bad!’
He decided to personally resurrect the Priest and the Fish Giant again, leaving the Bone Mage to raise the common Fishmen.
And so, Lynch ended up with two more blank elites, while the Bone Mage failed to produce any miracles this time either.
"Fine, you win."
Lynch rubbed the bridge of his nose and cursed.
In the end, the entire, sizable Tidal Fishman force had yielded him only a single Low Tier Fishman Skeleton with an awakened Soul Fire.
All the other elites—whether converted from the Fishman Warrior, the Fish Giants, or the Fishman Priest—were completely blank.
Still, even with such poor results, his overall forces had grown considerably.
But with this increase in numbers, Lynch’s total Commanding Power was becoming strained.
As a Necromancer apprentice, the number of Skeletons he could command directly was limited. The majority of his forces had to be delegated to his Soul Fire units.
The Commanding Power of Low Tier Soul Fire units was similarly lacking. The new Tidal Fishman Skeleton, for instance, had such a weak Soul Fire it could lead a dozen or so common minions at most.
’I need to cultivate more High Tier Soul Fire units,’ Lynch muttered to himself. ’Someone like Bone Jade, who’s a Tier One Skeleton Warrior, has far more Commanding Power than these low-tier grunts. And the Black Corpse can easily lead one or two hundred minions. I need to get the Bone Mage and Bone Shadow to Tier One as soon as I can.’
But that couldn’t be rushed. He would have to wait until he was properly stationed and settled before he could focus on strengthening them.
After quickly cleaning up the battlefield, Lynch recalled the bulk of his army into the Death Banner.
The Black Corpse, Bone Shadow, and his other Soul Fire units were recalled into his Bone Bracelet.
Even so, Lynch still had over a hundred Skeleton Servants following him.
There was nothing to be done; his bootleg Death Banner was just that pathetic.
He had Red Rabbit, Bone Valor, the Fish Priest, the Bone Wolf, and the newly added "Fish-Bone" Skeletons—all of whom he hadn’t recalled—each take command of a group of minions.
「After getting everything sorted.」
Lynch mounted Red Rabbit and, leading his now much smaller Skeleton Army, slowly made his way to the entrance of the Fishing Port.
Meanwhile, the villagers behind the stockade were still cowering, trembling, their faces etched with despair and fear.
To them, this Undead Corps was perhaps even more terrifying than the Tidal Fishman force.
Lynch paid them no mind and simply called for their headman to come out and speak.
Before long, an elderly man who seemed to hold some status emerged, trembling. Flanked by several militiamen, he bowed respectfully. "I am Old Baal. Thank you for saving us, Lord Mage."
Lynch wasted no words. He produced Amadis Hayes’s letter of appointment and had one of his new fish-bone Skeletons deliver it.
The old man’s hands trembled slightly as he accepted the document.
After reading it carefully, he let out a visible sigh of relief, his attitude growing even more deferential. "So you are the new garrison officer! Old Baal thanks you for saving our lives, my lord... I..."
"That’s enough," Lynch said, raising a hand. "What’s the story with these Tidal Fishmen?"
’This is a far cry from what Amadis described,’ he thought. ’She called it "remote and peaceful," a place "even merchant caravans rarely visit."’
’She never mentioned this Fishing Port came with a regularly spawning "seafood platter" special.’
...
