We are dealing with a necromancer here. I am sure of that now. The death mana should have tipped me off if I am honest. I did manage to figure it out with the shambling corpses that have stood up all around me now though.

  "Has a cat got your tongue?", the man speaks. "Your silence won't protect you, you know."

  Even as he speaks, I can feel the mana in the room flowing under his control. I can feel his mana pool around me, trapping me in a bubble. This is death mana. Too much of it and my body will simply start dying. I cycle my mana feeling the cold sensation withdraw for a bit. I won't be able to maintain it for long though. This man is capable of throwing around a lot of mana. An inhumanly large amount.

  The man has achieved control over such a large amount of mana due to that barrier of his. There are quite a few formations capable of giving me control over mana like this. Every one of these tend to have serious drawbacks. The first one is that such formations don't have a lot of range. Once you go beyond the range, to become useless.

  "Well, why should I fear you, necromancer.", I speak. "Your power is restricted to this very room."

  The man begins to laugh, his voice echoing creepily. I can feel the quantity of death mana surrounding me increase. While it is painful, this was the best outcome. The more death mana I have to face the lesser that the others will have to face. Andrew and Jacob will still be fine, but Trevor will be in a very bad position.

  "And yet you have entered into place.", he speaks. "Should I call you brave or foolish?"

  The man speaks almost as if he cannot see me. Like he is speaking to me by approximating my present position. The man is doing something else.

  "Necromancer, you certainly talk big.", I speak. "Yet all I see in the room are corpses. You must be an apprentice since all you can control are zombies."

  Well, all I know about the necromancers is that the zombie is the most basic undead that they can raise. Only apprentices raise them.

  "You can thank the mayfire for that.", the man speaks. "You would already be dead if he was not attacking me now."

  Even as he speaks, I can hear the corpses behind us shuffle as if they are getting up. The undead appear as blobs of death mana in my vision. These zombies are ready to attack.

  Well, it would be wise if I did not make any sudden moves. The zombies are surrounding us from every side. Zombies are pretty easy to fight when they are alone. When they combine to form a horde though they are a very hard enemy to fight.

  The deadliest thing about them is the plague that they carry around with them. Each zombie carries with them the plague of undeath. One bite or scratch from them and you will be infected with their poison. It is the same poison that made these people into zombies in the first place.

  We mages can fight it off with our vital mana, but it drains quite a bit of your vital mana in the process. We also have Trevor to protect as well. The man doesn't have a cultivation to speak of. The man will become a zombie if he does not get medical treatment in time. Right now, I am not sure the mayfires would be able to handle a zombie plague.

  In the time that I have been recording this, the man opposite me has been busy. He is moving massive amounts of death mana in the room, for what purpose I don't know. My present assumption is to fight this Mayfire that is attacking him.

  The man certainly does not need to move around that much mana just to attack me.

  Still, I am caught in a bear trap here. I could attack the other party and shatter their barrier. It would certainly make fighting these creatures very easy. The problem is how am I supposed to do that? The man has undead set against me. If I were to even twitch in his direction he would attack me.

  I could retreat, but that also allows the zombies to attack us. The only thing that I can be sure of is that the other side is struck to this very room. The barrier of his must not have a lot of range for the mana he can push around.

  The only problem is how. The man is barely concentrating on me and I can feel myself drowning in his mana. On top of that death mana is just hard to defend against. All of this is without the zombies getting involved.

  If he were to see me retreating the man would attack me. The only question is will I be able to survive until we retreat to the office? I mean, I am more than confident that I will survive. I am more worried about the old man. He will be the first person attacked. The horde always goes after the weakest first.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Who are you fighting against?", I speak, trying to project as much confidence as I can into my voice. My hope right now is that I will be able to taunt the man into losing focus. Maybe this Mayfire would be able to make use of this to finally defeat the necromancer.

  "You don't need to know. After all, you are going to be a part of my army soon enough.", as he speaks, the man's face splits into a creepy grin.

  As he speaks, I can feel the surge of mana around him, as he raises all the corpses in the room under his control. As he does so, I gesture to the soldiers behind me to retreat.

  I don't need to honestly, as the corpses start shambling towards us. In front of me are five zombies, each burnt in some way or the other. I move forward without breaking formation, attacking the leading zombie.

  I don't aim for any of their vitals. Doing so would mean that the other zombies would attack me. Instead, I attack the legs of the creature leaving a long gash on the leg.

  This is enough to trip the creature to the ground. I retreat out of the grasp of the zombie. It is still trying to get up, but it can't. This is enough to stop two of the zombies from coming forward. They have already begun to go around the injured one, though.

  The other two are still moving as they are. I push as much mana as I dare to into my sword, activating it forcefully. The stench of the corpses makes me want to retch but I keep myself steady and attack.

  My sword passes through the neck of the two creatures decapitating them in a single move. As the two corpses collapse to the ground, I realize that the creatures yield no blood mana. Well, that is going to make things annoying.

  That single swipe cost me ten percent of my mana reserves. Well, now that I am relatively free I get an idea of what the other people in the troop are doing. Andrew is dealing with three zombies. He is fighting them in a defensive battle. While he won't kill them any time soon, he also won't die.

  While he doesn't seem to be able to defeat them he is not in any threat from these creatures as well. Jacob is fighting against one zombie. He is dancing around it and trying to disable it with quick jabs of his dagger. Once he manages that our escape route will be safe.

  As expected the man at most risk right now is Trevor, who is somehow holding against two zombies on his own. I wish I could move to help him, but I have my enemies as the three zombies near me finally begin their attack.

  The injured zombies attack first. Its teeth are aimed at my ankle. The remaining two are aiming for the ground above me. The fucker is directing them. I refuse to believe mere zombies are capable of this.

  Well, it's an instinct that drives me as I take a small step to the left dodging the maimed one's bite. A quick step and my leg crushed the zombie's face to the ground. I duck down at the same time, as the zombie's claws (aka particularly long fingernails.) meet the air. I thrust my sword into the neck of a zombie pinning it to the ground.

  I shouldn't have done that as I felt the claws of the undead pierce my leg. It feels like a whisper in my ears as the poison infects me. I duck again to dodge the other zombies, losing grip on the sword in my hands.

  I have to admit that the world around me has begun to be a bit airy as if I am not even here. It takes me a while to return to the battle. At that time my body moves like somebody is possessing me. I step to the side dodging another strike from one of the zombies.

  It is a weird feeling.

  (After about five minutes.)

  What the fuck was that. Right now, we are back in the office, with Andrew and Jacob pushing the table against the door. The only thing that I can feel is the surge of pain that I am feeling in my arms.

  It takes me a few moments to recollect the carnage that we have managed to survive somehow. The only person injured in this endeavor is me. Even now I can feel the poison coursing through me. This feels like a wave of exhaustion, leaving me groggy. I did not experience such exhaustion in a very long time.

  Fuck, I did not even mention about my sword. Right now my sword is still present in the throat of the zombie. Even now I think that the damn creature is trying to pull my sword out of itself. It is still pinned quite solidly to the ground though.

  It is suggested that one is not supposed to stab into zombies. Unless you get the spell that is animating them, there is little to no chance that you will be able to harm them.

  At the same time, stabbing them increases the risk of the sword getting stuck in the body. That is why you need to always attack them in slashes.

  Even if I had the sword though, I wouldn't be able to do much with it. The sword works best when I am absorbing the vital mana of an enemy. I could take the vital mana of one of my troop members, but that is a task that is going to take very fine control over my vital mana. I can quite easily drain them to their death as well.

  If I have to be honest about it, I don't think that I will be able to do it now. For now, we have brought ourselves some time, but I am not sure how long we have.

  The necromancer is busy fighting the mayfires I presume. He won't bother about me unless I were to return to the room. That doesn't stop him from sending his underlings after me.

  The zombies are already attacking the door. They punch at it and claw at it. Thankfully the door is holding. It is good old wood and unless the necromancer was to interfere suddenly will hold for a good long while.

  "Captain, can you remove the plague from your body before it takes root?", Trevor suddenly asks me.

  "I think that I will be able to. It will take me a couple of hours though and I will need to meditate.", I reply.

  "Good, do exactly that.", he commands me.

  "Trevor, the bastards can break the door any second..."

  "We have the time, captain.", he speaks. "Right now we need to make sure that the plague doesn't take root in you. Jacob and Andrew can hold against any enemy that breaches the place."

  "We can at least retreat.", I reply. "We have a fucking necromancer in the room beyond us."

  "It is clear the necromancer is bound to that circle of his. He will lose his power if he were to leave it. That leaves us only the zombies to worry.", he speaks with complete certainty. "Your soldiers will be able to handle it. Anyway, it would be wiser to keep an eye on the enemy."