Healers Are a Critical Matter (3)

"They're all inside the walls now. Looks like they're concentrating their forces to the south."

—Got it.

There were sentries posted around the healer, but it was late at night, and no one noticed us exchanging notes through the crow. They only meant to keep her from running—it wasn't as if they were watching her every second.

"Is it really okay for them to be this sloppy?"

There was almost no organization to speak of; the whole place seemed to be running on pure wing-it energy. A gathering of genuine scumbags, and of course nothing functioned properly. Hell, even in a single game of online multiplayer, one in five people was a troll—corral a bunch of people with zero ethics into one place and of course the whole outfit fell apart.

Either way, that worked out just fine for me.

It only made the healer rescue operation easier, right?

Thinking that, I turned one of the Awakened I'd just killed into an undead. I hadn't known this before, but anyone who died because of me could be undeadified even if they weren't nearby. That made everything that much simpler.

Using that function, I turned them all into zombies, had the little spiders cut them free, and sent them charging back into the fray.

There were two reasons I made them into stinking zombies instead of skeletons.

One was so I could tell at a glance that they were originally from Bukhansan.

The other reason was this new skill.

Awakened undead would be used differently from ordinary ones, so it was better to keep them distinct. For now I couldn't check each one individually—I was just sending them in as a wave—but still.

"Man, is the Mythic skill not ridiculously good?"

Just having it raised the rank of skills I acquired. Honestly, I'd started to wonder whether the skill itself was a little underwhelming for something with "Mythic" slapped on the front—and that doubt had just been wiped clean away.

Just imagining the possibilities made my lips twitch with pure delight. What an absolute jackpot.

Riding that unexpected windfall, I issued new orders. Ah—and the criminals I'd already killed had long since been raised and folded into the ranks.

They said they're mainly holding the south, right?

I left a few skeletons posted on the southern side and sent the bulk of the undead north.

The walls really were thoroughly built—but that didn't matter.

"Deathweaver."

The most competent of all my undead.

Deathweaver sprayed non-sticky silk and spun dozens of rope ladders in an instant. The little spiders fixed them to the top of the wall, and undead poured over like a flood.

I watched the entire spectacle through Possession and issued commands. I'd stationed Mari at my side in case of a surprise attack, so I could focus without worry.

"Deathweaver, help the undead get down. Hwanggu—we're going after the healer."

Undead—especially skeletons—were mostly idiots. But if I put the better ones at the front as vanguard captains and issued orders through them, I could maintain a reasonable degree of control. I watched through their eyes with Possession and transmitted my thoughts as commands. Of course, those captains were still idiots, so they didn't always understand perfectly, but…

Ttacttac-i. You can handle this, right?

On that front, Ttacttac-i had unexpectedly shown a real talent for command, so I decided to leave it to him. Not that I had any other undead who could do it.

Ttacttac-i directed the undead in perfect coordination with that distinctive clacking of his jaw. I wished I could understand what he was saying—was there no skill for speaking Undead?

"What the fuck?! They said they were coming from the south—why the hell is everyone here?!"

"You bastards, get your asses ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out here and hold them!"

So they hadn't left the north completely empty—a handful of Awakened came out and put up a fight. One launched ice; another summoned a massive hammer and swung it around. But that was all they could manage.

Overwhelming numbers. A force that just kept coming. They couldn't stop it.

Whenever a skeleton got too wrecked to walk, a few others gathered up its bones and retreated to the rear. Then the next skeleton waiting in reserve stepped forward to fight, and the cycle repeated.

The zombies made from Awakened were fewer in number, but with their enhanced physical abilities they raced through the enemy ranks and sowed chaos. More than that, having only just become zombies, they still looked almost human—a little pale, a little ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠more injured—and that only deepened the confusion.

"But that's not the end of it."

Through the chaos, the little spiders slipped through the dark and struck. They bit ankles to cripple, strung silk between trees to trip people, then bound them in webs—an efficient system. Relatively few people actually died, but it was more than enough to shatter their morale.

These were people used to being the ones doing the killing and the plundering. Just finding themselves on the receiving end was enough to break their spirit.

I watched it all through the eyes of my undead—especially the murder of crows—looking down on the battlefield, issuing orders to keep our losses as low as possible.

"Call everyone up from below! Does anyone have a radio?!"

"Y-yes, right away!"

And just as their numbers began collapsing toward the northern side of the fortress, unable to withstand the undead horde—

Hwanggu found the healer.

"Eek! A-a spider?!"

Chik. Crunch!

Hwanggu appeared out of the darkness and bit the sentry to death before he could keep the healer from running. She was so terrified she started scrambling backward, so I quickly reassured her through the crow.

—That's my subordinate.

"Ah—one of the Summoner's monsters."

—Get on.

The healer hesitated a moment, then climbed onto Hwanggu's back, and I moved to evacuate her at once.

My goal wasn't to conquer Bukhansan. I only needed to kill the ones in my way—I had no interest in staging a massacre. In fact, I'd ordered the undead to kill only enough to break their morale and simply restrain the rest.

They were garbage, sure, but they hadn't actually hurt me yet, had they?

Honestly, it's more that I'm scared of the Special Security Bureau…

If a rumor got out about some mad necromancer who'd wiped out every last Awakened on Bukhansan, that would be a real problem. I had no confidence I could face that boy I'd seen—the one who'd thrown burning sword aura. More than anything, I wasn't a psychopath necromancer.

Killing a dozen or so people? Eh, call it a minor accident.

So: snatch ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the healer, slip out, and play dumb. That was the whole plan.

Everyone, get outside now!

I ordered the vanguard captains of the undead causing havoc up north to retreat, then focused back on Hwanggu.

The absolute top priority right now was getting the healer out in one piece. If she died, I could always turn her into an undead—but I really didn't want to. More than anything, once she was undead she wouldn't be able to keep me company in conversation.

But as if to prove this vast fortress wasn't entirely running on pure improvisation, someone appeared.

"…So the rat muddying the waters is a summoner, is it? Teamed up with a necromancer, I take it."

A burly man in a leather jacket. He walked slowly out of the brush, speaking in a low voice.

"Die."

He shaped a massive cube of stone out of thin air and brought it crashing down on Lee Se-a and Hwanggu, pronouncing their death.

"No!"

Maybe my desperate shout helped. Hwanggu sprang sideways in a flash, and the healer wasn't crushed.

"Good job, Hwanggu!"

But the attack wasn't over.

"Persistent. Taming a B-rank monster couldn't have been easy. So the summoner and the necromancer are in cahoots."

Cube-shaped stones reformed and fell again within seconds. Hwanggu moved fast, dodging, but with the healer on his back he couldn't avoid everything cleanly.

"Grrrr. Graaah!"

"Hah… turning them into undead from a distance, are you? Must be a Heroic-rank necromancer at least."

I raised the sentry I'd just killed into a zombie and threw him into the path of the next strike, barely weathering the crisis. The leather-jacketed man's face twisted at the sight.

"I don't know what kind of heinous achievements it took to become a Heroic-rank necromancer, but this much won't be enough to face me."

Full of swagger. And he talked a lot. He looked well-fed and well-kept, and he spoke with the kind of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠insolence that said he held real power around here.

Odds were good this bastard was the master of the Bukhansan fortress…

In that case, I'd better give this everything I've got.

The way he was throwing around "Heroic-rank," he was at least that strong himself, right? I might have been Mythic-rank, but a necromancer was a growth-type ability—and I'd only awakened recently, so I wasn't exactly using that power to its full potential. I didn't know how strong a Heroic-rank class really was, but if he'd been training steadily for two years and seven months, he was nothing to take lightly.

I quickly called the nearby undead to me.

The first to arrive was a crow.

"Time for you to die already, you boring little— ugh?!"

Crow No. 2's beak-jab, aimed right at his eye!

It didn't quite land—but that wasn't the end of it.

No. 1, No. 3—Brave Bird!

They were hollowed out inside and not all that strong, but they couldn't be ignored. Getting your eyes attacked was a catastrophe. No Life Orb, no Choice Band—but the attack was plenty threatening on its own.

"Kh—pointless thrashing!"

He conjured several stone blocks to defend, and the crows' beaks shattered against them—but it didn't matter. Once I got the healer out, I could just fix them!

And I'd already bought all the time I needed.

"You pieces of trash!"

Because of that, he missed his aim again, and Hwanggu finally broke free and fled into the distance with the healer.

CRACK!

Furious at letting them slip away, he swung his arm hard and launched a crescent-shaped boulder at the crows.

"Aagh! No. 2!"

Crow No. 2 caught a glancing blow from the rock and went spinning. The man swatted the other crows aside and tried to race after Hwanggu—but he was already too late.

It wasn't that Hwanggu had gotten that far. Other undead had arrived, and the man could no longer afford to chase him.

Kieeeeeek!

"What the hell is that…? You're commanding an A-rank-level monster?"

Because the white spider that had come charging from the rear—Deathweaver—had arrived.