A necromancer, that is what we are dealing with here. Of which kind I can't be sure.

  "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.

  "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 Jacob 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. Could it be?

  "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 they can raise zombies. It is supposed to be their most basic undead they can raise.

  "You can thank the mayfire for that.", the man speaks. "You would already be dead if he had not attacked me out of the blue."

  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. How the fuck did I not notice that before.

  Well, it would be wise if I do not make any sudden moves. The zombies are surrounding us from every side. Zombies are pretty easy to fight when they are alone, but when they combine together to form a horde they are not easy to fight.

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

  We mages can fight it of with our vital mana, but it will leave us useless. We also have trevor to protect as well. 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.

  The man does not need to move around that much mana just to attack me. So I have to assume that something else is happening here.

  Still, I am caught in a bear trap here. The only thing that I can be sure of is that the other side is struck to this very room. I can't tell how the man is moving around that much mana in the room, only that the barrier he is in has something to do with it.

  The man's range also shouldn't be that high. Even retreating to the room that we have just left should be enough to greatly diminish the man's power.

  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.

  If he were to see me retreating the man will attack me. The only question is will I be able to survive until we retreat. 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.

  "Who are you fighting against?", I speak, trying to project as much confidence I can into my voice. The man opposite me might be able to kill me in one move, but he doesn't need to know. I have stood against the commander, I have fought a snowlord.

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  "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 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 his vitals. Doing so would mean that the other zombies will 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 though they have already begun to go around the injured one.

  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 realise 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.

  While he doesn't seem to be able to defeat them he is in not threat from this creatures. Jacob is fighting against one zombie, 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 can move to help him, but I have my own enemies as the three zombies finally begin their attack.

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

  Well, it instinct that drives me as I take a small step to the left dodging the maimed ones bite. A quick step and my leg has crushed the man's face on the ground. I duck down at the same time, as the zombies claws meet the air. I thrust my sword into the neck of the zombie in the ground.

  I shouldn't have done that as I feel the claws of the undead pierce my leg. It feels like a whisper in my ears as the poisonous mana infects me like in a glass of water. I duck again to dodge the other zombies.

  I have to admit that the world around me has begun to a bit airy, as if I am not even here. It takes me a while to return to the battle. In 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 death mana like sludge in my body.

  I can barely get my mana through the death mana. It is not concentrated enough to simply kill me, but it is there and it is enough to stop my vital mana from functioning ptoperly. This I feel like a wave of exhaustion, leaving me groggy in a way that I did not expect.

  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 get out my sword but it has at least pinned to the ground.

  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 kill it.

  At the same time, stabbing them increases the risk of the sword getting stuck in the body. This is what has happened to me. That means that I won't be able to rely on the sword to heal myself.

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

  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 somebody else, one of 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 andrews 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."

  "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. They will be the easiest to fight here.", he speaks with complete certainty. "Your soldiers will be able to handle it.