I became a legion lich

Chapter 77

77 Last resistance

Athos rushed to assist in the battle near the gate, but it was not necessary. Most of the people were already dead when he arrived, corpses piling up on the floor. The skeleton mages created undead until they ran out of mana, but corpses kept piling up in the streets.

The total number of survivors was only 1000 people, showing the absurd number of deaths in less than 2 hours. Some people despaired and committed suicide to avoid being brutally killed by the undead. There were still people who weren’t in the central square at the time of the attack and were fighting for their lives all over the city, but that wouldn’t last long.

‘Divide a part of your forces and kill the people scattered around the city.’ Athos ordered, causing half of the undead to ignore the humans and scatter across the city. Athos hoped this would be enough, but the number of undead being destroyed has not diminished.

The 200 skeletons sent to the slums were destroyed and the skeleton birds alerted him to an armed group running towards the east gates where the undead had initially invaded. Athos had only left a few guards, so if the group of survivors managed to reach the gates, there was little Athos could do to stop them.

...Of course, if they could reach the gates.

With impeccable timing, Caio appeared behind him, carrying Emilia’s body in his arms. He gently placed the corpse at his feet, staring at the body as he walked away.

Athos placed his hand on her body and tried to turn her into a skeleton, but met unexpected resistance. The light energy that formed their affinity withstood the darkness, forcing Athos to expend far more mana than was necessary. It was a challenge, but a very welcome challenge.

‘Someone as strong as that woman is worth the challenge.’ That’s what Athos thought, pouring more and more mana into her corpse. The remaining light was strong, but not strong enough to withstand Athos’ continued injection of mana. The skeleton was successfully transformed and jumped to its feet, before being forced to kneel in front of you. She seemed to want to say something, but Athos paid no attention to that.

“There’s a group of fugitives trying to escape through the gates. Kill them.” Athos ordered in an authoritative tone. Emilia’s skeleton nodded before running to the gates. He was curious about what happened to his affinity for light, but wasting his spellcasting ring just to satisfy his curiosity was a stupid idea.

.....

“Sevenus, how are you in mana?” Athos asked, wanting reassurance that no one could escape. Emilia was incredibly strong, but without a wand, half of her strength would be lost and there was a risk that some humans would manage to escape.

“A little less than... half, my lord.” Sevenus replied. He had consumed mana to create undead as soon as he invaded and used a lot of mana in the fight against Emilia, so it was normal for his mana to be low.

“That’s enough. I want you to support her and make sure no one runs away.” Athos ordered, before turning to the massacre taking place in front of him. The undead that were ordered to scatter across the city also rushed to the gates, so Athos wouldn’t have to worry about them.

Darkness quickly gathered in his hand as he walked around the corpses, casting the undead raiser en masse until he ran out of mana. The new skeletons also donated new life force to him, increasing his total reserve and allowing him to cast the spell again like a snowball that only strengthened him.

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“aura blade!” A fully armed warrior screamed, shooting an aura blade from the halberd and decapitating three black skeletons at once. He was the leader of the yellow dagger gang and a former mercenary named Halt Morrow.

He was sleeping in his base in the slums when the attack began, but quickly woke up to the screams and sound of battle, something he was used to and led the bandits next to him to kill the undead. Most of the city’s adventurers had left the city, the few that remained worked for him now.

Halt had approximately 30 bandits working for him capable of manipulating mana, so he was easily the biggest fighting force in the city. He himself was a skilled warrior and a charismatic leader, so his subordinates had great confidence in him. As soon as he managed to defeat the first wave of 200 skeletons, he tried to meet with the guards in the center of the city, but one of his scouts who was in the square came running back and warned him of the massacre that was taking place there.

Halt immediately realized that the city was going to fall and gave up on the idea of helping dying people. He realized that the battle was approaching from the west gate and moved to the east gate, where the enemy numbers would be lower. They even rescued a few survivors who were alone when the attack began, their numbers increasing to nearly 100 people by the time they arrived in front of the gates.

“Now keep running and don’t look back! There’s a fortress beyond the forest, we can get help when we get there! Kill the undead that get in our way.” Halt yelled, trying to boost the bandits’ morale. He didn’t mention the nearby villages, because they were probably already destroyed, or mention the fact that they would have to march for at least a day to reach the fortress.

Only a few guard skeletons were stationed at the gate and they were easily killed by the bandits. They tried to flee through the open gate, but the ground began to shake and rose like a black stone wall that perfectly covered the gate.

“What the fuck??” Ramdom bandit 1.

“Is this magic? Does the enemy have a mage??” Ramdom bandit 2.

“Look for the mage! He must be around here somewhere!” Ramdom bandit 3.

The bandits became alarmed and hurriedly searched the surroundings using mana vision. They already knew that mana vision was useless on the undead, but it was almost instinct for anyone who managed to manipulate mana.

Halt did it differently and slowly retreated behind the bandits, looking intently at the top of the wall and the roof of nearby houses, where the enemy would have a privileged view of them. Unfortunately for him, the attack came from much closer and too fast for him to react.

A dagger hit the back of his neck until the blade came out of his throat. The blade was pulled back as quickly as it had been driven in, causing blood to spurt from both sides as he fell to the ground dead. The bandits around didn’t understand what happened to their leader, even after he fell to the ground. They stared in disbelief at the bleeding body on the floor, their brains refusing to believe that their leader and the strongest of them died so easily.

Emilia exploited the bandits’ moment of stupefaction to spin around, using the sword’s aura dance skill. The skill generated a black aura blade from the dagger that slashed all enemies around it, but didn’t stop there. Emilia continued to flow mana without stopping to move, creating a continuous aura blade that followed the dagger’s tracks.

She also used an acceleration skill to increase her speed. Emilia moved with grace and agility, faster than any of them could react. All the bandits saw was a blur of black and then the red of their own blood. The ability required her to stop and breathe before continuing the attack, creating a breach that enemies could exploit, but as an undead these limitations did not apply to her.

“Stop that skeleton!” One of the bandits screamed, seeing that half of his companions were already dead on the ground. Bandits carrying shields used the charge ability and tried to stop Emilia’s movement, but she jumped on them a second before the shields hit, spinning upside down in midair and decapitating the squires.

She fell to the ground in a crouch, swinging the dagger at her knee and cutting off both of the screaming man’s legs. After losing their leader and half of their comrades, the rest of the bandits lost the will to fight and ran for their lives, but Emilia didn’t let them get away, attacking them as soon as they showed their backs.

One by one, she pierced their hearts from behind, adding to the desperation of the fleeing bandits. As if to sneer at them, the undead sent by Athos appeared and surrounded the area near the gate, cutting off any hope of escape.

“Haha, we really didn’t stand a chance, did we?” One of the thugs said with a broken laugh, before having his heart pierced by Emilia. After finishing off all the bad guys, Emilia killed all the civilians who had kneeled on the ground while hugging each other, cowering as much as possible to avoid drawing Emilia’s attention.

They screamed in fear seeing the helpless citizens around them being brutally murdered, but Emilia’s murderous aura froze them in place like prey in front of a predator.

‘I’m sorry.’ Emilia thought while crying inside. She saw her own bony face reflected in the eyes of an approximately 7-year-old child, the last person she killed. Her black skull was completely stained with the blood of innocents and she felt disgusted and repulsed by herself for it.

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