Soon I begin to get my laughter under control and I take in the skeletons' presence. Despite being freshly formed through the connection to my core I can feel the nascent mind of the skeleton in front of me. From that connection I can command it mentally or verbally both would work. Also while im not entirely sure of how intelligent it will be once it has time to develop it appears to be decently intelligent as a base which is a good sign. A few low effort skeletons I’ve seen animated by Elrich tend to just roll over onto the floor then stand instead of how mine sat up and pivoted to rise.

  Grinning from ear to ear I speak, “Now what to call you I promised myself the first successful animated undead would be named. Now what to call you?” I begin to ponder bringing my hand up to cup my chin.

  As I stand in front of the skeleton I hear a slight clatter and see my skeleton turn its head slightly to the side. The skeleton begins to shift its body slightly and crouch somewhat in the direction of the clatter. Confused, I begin to shift and turn my head to see Elrich still seated with Nicol at his side on the far side of the room with a grin on his face.

  Elrich then speaks, “Well I suppose it’s time to test your skeleton first Tom, then you can name him after.”

  As he speaks I see other skeleton is missing from its slab as Nicol positions himself in front of Elrich holding a mace and shield. Then a bone hand raises up from the floor and the missing skeleton rises. Instead of the deep green from my own skeleton and Nicol its eyes are a pale sickly green as it sways unsteadily onto its feet.

  My mouth opens and closes a few times as I realize what Elrich did. He prepared a skeleton and disabled the runes on the slab preventing them from reanimating themselves allowing a wild undead to form. Despite the few fights I have been in I still freeze at the sight and the recklessness of this.

  As I freeze the wild undead orients itself before looking around the room for a moment. Then it lunges its fingers coated with death aspected mana in a claw shape headed right for my chest.

  The world around seems to slow as the claws approach with that much concentrated death magic it would severely injure me. From my core I feel a pulse of mana flow out as my own skeletal minion lurches forward in between myself and the lunging undead its own claws of death aspected mana forming. While the claws form, all along its body the bone darkens as it moves with surprising speed for its weight.

  The two skeletons meet a mere foot in front of me and with a clatter the wild skeleton bounces back scraping the ground with its claws. The skeleton I animated however maintains its spot only sliding back an inch from the clash. Watching the wild skeleton right itself by planting its feet before rising up from its hips and snapping forward into a half bent over spot from laying down.

  The two skeletons then move forward once more to clash. The wild skeleton moving with fast jerky unsteady motions and wild uncoordinated movements. In contrast, my own animated undead maintains a wide base with its legs and lashes out with short slashes of its claws that seem far slower than its first move.

  Realizing what is happening I take a few steps backwards and snap out of my shock at the fight before me. Moving towards the entrance I grab one of the maces set on the wall to hold in my left hand to help protect myself.

  While I do so my eyes remain locked on the fight. The wild skeleton's quick wide slashes with its claws are now being aided with the addition of rapid bites as its teeth sharpen and it lashes out with them. Meanwhile my own skeleton is weathering the blows. Several scraps have appeared from the claws but it pulls back from the bites before lashing out with its own claws. Frowning I look over the scrapes and compared to the wild skeleton my own is the only one to take damage after their first crash into each other.

  With breath I examine the movements of my own skeleton and go over the sudden burst of speed it had before it crashed in the wild one. Examining my core I notice that it seems to only be drawing from death and earth aspected mana and not fire currently. However when It burst forward it seemed to draw on all three elements. As I frown at this thought I notice a slight shimmer from my skeleton and realize from all the bones the orange streaks are brighter and seem to be expelling the heat from within the bones.

  Eyes widening I check my mana reserves and realize I am down another chunk leaving around an eighth of my reservoir remaining. Despite the current conflict, my skeleton is not draining as much as I expected right now. However when it first dashed forward and formed its claws it must have drained around a twentieth of my reserves at that moment.

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  With the scrapping of claws on bone being the primary noise I give an order to my skeleton to cancel its claws and clench its hands into fists to defend itself. Feeling the drain on my mana lessen I watch as it shifts its arms bringing them up across its body with its clenched fist in front of its own jaw. Sending it my own lessons on hand to hand training it begins to counter the wild swings with coordinated jabs with its fist following the motions I am sending it.

  As It follows my commands I watch the streaks as they begin to darken once more. After around a minute of clashes the streaks take on the same shade as when it was at rest. Ordering my skeleton to grace I command it to let the next bite land on its right forearm. Over the next few seconds the wild skeletons' swings begin to tighten as it grows used to its body.

  Then it lurches forward with it maw open in a wild strike towards my skeletons head. Following the motions I send my skeleton slides back bringing its right arm up to intercept while its left fist is drawn parallel to its ribs. With a crack the wild skeletons jaw clamps down on the arm but instead of breaking the bone into splinters like I thought it would, instead the teeth sink in and the arm has several cracks but maintains its shape.

  With a burst of mana I yell out a command. “Ignite the channels and punch its skull apart!”

  As my voice rings out my skeletons core and eyes flash and I feel all three elements of my core being drawn on. The burnt orange flashes a bright orange and with a burst of speed my skeleton jerks its right arm down dragging the skull of the down in line with its left fist that shoots forward at the same instant. The moment the grey fist meets the Ivory skull there is a burst of energy forming a shell around the wild skeleton's skull to protect itself. For a brief moment I worry it was not enough only for the grey fist to continue forward and shatter the top half of the skull.

  For a moment it is silent only to be broken from the clatter on bones as the wild skeleton falls apart across the floor. My own skeleton straightens itself out and pries the jaw of the destroyed skull off its own arm before taking a few steps back and positioning itself in front of me.

  Then clapping starts as Elrich rises from his seat and Nicol moves forward with the coffin to collect the destroyed skeleton. “Well done Thomas, well done indeed.” His grin is wide as he speaks showing all his teeth. “I thought for a moment Nicol and I would need to step in but it seems your undead has a few tricks of its own already.”

  With a shuddering breath I step out from behind my skeleton and reply. “Thank you for the compliment. However next time WARN ME WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO RELEASE A WILD UNDEAD ON ME.” I begin quietly before ending in a yell that echoes around the entire chamber drowning out all other sound.

  Taking several deep breaths I begin to try to calm myself after this unexpected fight and reign in my anger at this surprise test. With my breathing being the only thing I hear for a moment do I look up at Elrich and see him looking down regretfully.

  “I’m sorry Tom you're right I should have warned you. I suppose this tradition is one of the few I should have not taken from my own mentor.” Elrich’s voice is low and I can hear the regret in his tone.

  Closing my eyes for a moment I take another breath. “Probably for the best Elrich being ambushed with less than a quarter of my own mana available was not a fun experience.” Deciding to move the topic to my skeletons movement I add, “Also it seems my own skeletons speed bursts take a solid twentieth of my mana at once.”

  At my statement Elrich looks up shocked, “A quarter you should of had at least half your mana remaining from that ritual. Unless due to the problems with your spell not forming the link it kept cutting off the mana drain early.” At this Elrich frowns deepens as he curses under his breath.

  He takes a moment before looking up at myself and my skeleton and motions for me to sit. “Take a seat and have your skeleton lay down on a slab. I'll repair it while you recover your mana.” He orders with a determined look.

  Looking over I send the mental order to my skeleton and move to sit down at the table we had noting my reservoir is around a tenth of its full amount. Grabbing one of cups full of tea I begin to drink and go over the fight in my head. Making note of how my skeleton seemed more durable than expected and the sudden bursts of speed it can perform.

  As I go over the fight and Elrich repairs my undead, Nicol is sealing the coffin back up and placing it in the slot along the wall where the other coffins are kept. Once he is done he moves over and grabs his broom to once again sweep the floor of the Morthouse.

  Soon Elrich takes a seat across from me and grabs his own cup and takes a sip. He then asks “So after all this and the fight have you had any inspiration for a name yet?”

  Pausing after taking another sip I begin to mull over his word for a minute in consideration. After watching the fight and how they clashed one wild and uncontrolled one steady with bursts of strength and strength I find myself hard pressed to find a single name for my undead.

  “I think so, I'm thinking of naming him Flint” I finally say.