Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 377: An old Woman

Our search found more signs of fighting and the remains of some undead as well as goblins. It became clear that the tier three had hunted quite a bit to increase their army, a concerning thought. Sadly we did not find the undead itself and had to turn around.

We were still inside the forest but we made our way back to the main road. It would allow us to ride and move a bit faster. After a small bend in the road we spotted something in the distance.

"Is that a tree on the road and an abandoned wagon?" I asked.

"Possibly corpses as well, there seem to be bodies on the ground." Garm added.

"If bandits blocked the road to ambush someone, why did they leave the wagon behind?" Skadi wondered.

"Maybe they were able to carry the valuables? Or their hideout is not reachable with a wagon?" I suggested.

"A wagon is worth something and they need to get their goods towards a city anyway to sell them." Skadi replied.

"Unless they stole something small, like drugs." Cassie suggested.

"You think this has to do with this new drug?" I asked.

Cassie shrugged. "We won't know until we investigate."

We carefully approached the scene but there was no movement. I could see four dead humans and one dead dwarf. Interestingly there were about ten dead goblins as well. The horse, or horses, were missing. Two of the humans and the dwarf wore armour while the last two corpses had simple clothes. The wagon itself was covered with a canvas.

"I hear something form inside the wagon." Garm warned.

Hatsumi summoned her blood claws and approached carefully, then she looked inside. "Survivor!"

"Oh, you are not a goblin, thank you!" I heard a raspy response.

Hatsumi left the wagon while helping an elderly woman, who took a seat at the driver's bench. The poor woman had a haunted look, a lot of wrinkles and her skin looked a bit grey. Interestingly her hair had not gone white but was still rather black with only some grey mixed in. She did not look very healthy but there were no visible injuries.

"What happened?" Hatsumi asked while Kaito positioned himself behind the wagon, out of view. He was considerate enough to hide since the woman might react badly to seeing another goblin.

"We… We were attacked! They came out of nowhere. We were on our way to… to…"

"Rovik?" Helena asked.

"Yes, yes. We did not even have anything valuable! They just…"

"Goblins eat humans, which makes it interesting that they left the corpses behind." Garm observed.

"Do you need healing, ma'am?" Skadi asked.

"Oh, no thank you. I… I hid under a blanket and they did not find me. I think something chased them away." The woman said.

Something felt off about this. Who chased the goblins away and why? Was it us? Why didn't we hear any fighting or see any goblins? I mentally nudged the cats to do more scouting. Maybe that woman had been left alive as bait? Would goblins do that?

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"When did the attack happen and how many goblins were there?" Helena asked, while offering some water to the woman.

"Thank you, my dear. It was not that long ago, I was inside the wagon when it happened. I saw the green skins and I hid." She replied.

"MEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!"

I turned towards the scream and saw fire. It must have been Kasai who found something. But she was not the only one as I heard ripping and tearing from other directions. All of the cats were engaging something.

"Ambush, they are coming from all sides!" I shouted.

Helena jumped away from the wagon as an ice armour formed around her. We had been prepared for combat so I immediately summoned my shield but that was not all, I was standing around fresh corpses. It was time for some necromancy! Raise undead formed in my mind and…

"The corpses are undead!" I shouted as my spell failed to find a target.

Garm reacted immediately and bit a corpse in half before it could rise. Kaito and Goro's frostfire covered some of the undead pretending to be corpses while Rose drew a sword and positioned herself close to me.

Cassie was grabbing potions while Skadi's axe cleaved into a goblin corpse rising from the ground.

I checked on the old woman who was still next to Hatsumi and my eyes widened. The old woman's hand was covered in darkness and she laughed as she cast a spell on Hatsumi. The vampire did not care and stabbed the woman with her blood claws.

Both of them seemed rather surprised as the old woman nimbly jumped back not caring for the holes in her torso.

"She is the tier three!" Hatsumi shouted.

"You are undead!" The old woman shouted.

Hatsumi's runes flared as she rushed the woman. While Hatsumi was a lot faster the enemy seemed to heal very rapidly. Even worse, while Hatsumi could cut her undead flesh the bones seemed to be rather durable.

Meanwhile I contemplated my options. Death magic was not going to kill undead and since they were already controlled I could not just take them. I could mentally challenge the tier three but that was too risky. That left me with ice and water, or simply using a weapon. I did know the simple ice bolt spell but most of my offensive magic relied on death mana. I drew my arming sword and decided to simply chop up some zombies for now with Rose at my side. At least I was not vulnerable to any necrotic attacks they might have.

From the forest more undead goblins emerged, some of them even used bows. My shield came in handy rather quickly to protect myself from arrows. The cats tore through the enemies in the forest but I had no idea how large the enemy force was. Killing the tier three would be important, afterward I could even try to control the wild undead.

"We need to kill the old woman!" I shouted. It had briefly occurred to me to talk to her but she seemed responsible for ambushing those travellers and she was trying to kill us.

"Kill me?" The old woman laughed. "I am death, you fool. And I am going to take your toys, starting with him."

She was still getting stabbed by a frustrated Hatsumi but somehow none of the blows stuck. Undead flesh mended and her bones were too tough for the blood claws. The old woman raised her hand and pointed it at Garm. Hatsumi's claws hit the hand and pierced the undead flesh but the bones underneath did not yield.

A bolt of darkness raised towards Garm and hit his left head. Black chains burst from the ground and tried to hold the orthos. Garm's right head looked at the old woman.

"You are not very good at this, are you?" He asked, then his left head started to bite through the chains.

"Impossible! You should be dead, you should be mine!" The woman screeched.

"Perhaps you should have paid more attention to your enemies." Kaito stated calmly from behind the woman. Frostfire raced from his hands towards her and covered her legs, then it slowly crept up her body.

"Dullahan, fight your master! Break free! Join me!" She screeched.

"I must decline." Kaito stated, then his left hand reached towards Goro's neck. Frostfire from the headless hound raced into Kaito and towards his right hand which unleashed it at the old woman.

"Hold her, I will put all of my runes into strength to crush her!" Hatsumi shouted while her runes flared.

As the frostfire immobilized the old woman Hatsumi's blood claws shone brightly and impacted the undead's hand once more. This time bones were cut and the appendage went flying.

The old woman screeched, however the hand somehow still twitched. It seemed that whatever spell animated this undead was rather complex and allowed the control of a separated body part in some way. That meant the core undead was not the entire body, the spell was concentrated on some specific part.

Before the hand could move on the ground a bottle sailed towards it. Then it exploded and the hand was turned to dust.

"Explosions work, so if you hold her still…" Cassie said, while grabbing the next bottle.

"I am not sure if that will be necessary." Kaito stated. "I believe this undead will have a far better purpose: Cat food."

As he spoke Nyx jumped from the bushes. She had grown to her full size and her eyes were blazing with fury. The old woman screeched as Nyx jumped her. The enemy undead fell to the ground with Nyx on top. Frostfire still covered the enemy's body as Nyx tore into her with teeth and claws. Hatsumi used her own claws to help Nyx tear the woman apart. I could see black smoke rising from the enemy as my undead began to devour her.

Kaito, Nyx and Hatsumi combined their powers to cut away pieces and devour them. The undead's regeneration tried to keep up but it was too much.

Meanwhile we still had goblin zombies to deal with. Cassie focused on exploding them while Skadi cleaved them with her axe. Helena provided large scale ice magic to freeze the zombies and stop them from rushing us at the same time while Kasai, Yoru and Ivy dealt with the archers. Garm had managed to clear the black chains and joined the devouring while Rose did not leave my side and stabbed everything that came close.

There was one last screech and the old woman turned into dust, devoured by my forces. That left the other undead without guidance and they stopped their coordinated assault, however they still tried to attack the living among us. I reached out with my magic and managed to claim 9 goblins while the others fell to our attacks.

They were crude undead but not as bad as I had expected. I would have to decide if I wanted to keep them since they did cost about twice the mana as my own creations. But for now we had won this fight.