I became a legion lich

66 POV: Sevenus

‘Um...does it look like we’ve arrived?’ Sevenus said, looking at the distant village. He was mounted on one of the rock bear skeletons, looking out over the village in the distance. It was early in the morning, so he couldn’t approach the village without being discovered, but Sevenus could observe the village from a distance thanks to his vision amplification ability.

The sun had risen an hour ago, but the villagers had already started their activities, like plowing the fields or tending the cattle, so he would have to take even more care to ensure that no one managed to escape. Athos had ordered him to follow the same plan of attack as the green village, but Sevenus decided that some changes were needed to prevent any villagers from escaping.

One of the biggest changes he underwent upon becoming a sub-commander, is that he didn’t have to strictly follow Athos’ orders. Sevenus was still limited in what he could do, but he could make changes to his plans if he saw fit, unlike the other skeletons who were forced to follow his orders without question.

Overjoyed at the trust his sire placed in him (Unintentionally), Sevenus gave new orders to the monster skeletons, before ordering them to take up position.

‘Fufufu, my lord gave me all the skeletons of monsters, his best skeletons, because he had full confidence that I could put them to good use. I must live up to that trust.’ Sevenus thought, faithfully believing that Athos trusted him.

In fact, Athos had given away the monster skeletons precisely because he didn’t have an iota of trust in him, and he gave as much power as he could to make sure he didn’t screw it up.

Oblivious to Athos’ thoughts, Sevenus ordered the rock bear he was mounted on to advance. The first part of the plan was similar to that of Athos. The skeletons split into two groups each moving towards one of the village gates. They took a long turn, taking care not to be seen by the villagers.

As soon as everyone was in position, the angry Boars and Gray Wolves attacked the front gates, scaring the villagers away. The wolf skeletons climbed on top of the boar skeletons making use of their speed.

.....

“What are those things??” One of the villagers, a farmer who had gone out to tend the fields shouted, looking in terror at the approaching skeletons. Unlike the green village, the villagers quickly noticed the black skeletons thanks to the sunlight, but the Boars’ speed made up for it.

“They’re monsters, so run!” Another farmer hurriedly yelled. He didn’t recognize the monsters, but the murderous intent they gave off told him everything he needed to know. That they were predators and he was the prey.

He tried to hurriedly run into the forest, in a different direction than the skeletons were advancing, but a feather as sharp as a dagger hit him in the head from above, killing him instantly. The villager beside him didn’t understand what happened right away and looked up to the sky, only for a feather to hit him in the right eye and sink into his brain.

Sevenus feared that the villagers outside the village would scatter in time to flee, so he ordered the bladed birds to fly over the village and kill any villagers outside who tried to flee in any direction other than the village.

“Run back to the gates, quick! And watch out for the birds!” The gatekeepers shouted hurriedly, pulling back the villagers who were about to leave and closing the gates as the fleeing villagers returned.

They rang a bell to warn everyone of the danger, but a bell also started to ring at the back gates, making the villagers look at each other in confusion, not knowing where to flee.

“Shit, what do we do??” one of the porters asked, trying to calm the villagers and failing miserably.

“First of all, we have to block the gates! Bring the wagons and put them in front of the gate!” The village chief said as soon as he arrived, ordering the panicked porters. He didn’t know what was going on, but people’s panic had to be serious.

People were about to follow his orders when a wind strong enough to lift someone hit the gates, knocking them to the ground. Unbeknownst to people, blades of wind had hit the hinges of the gates a second before the gale, cutting them in half. The wind mage was stationed here, to ensure the village was successfully invaded.

“What was this??” the village chief asked, looking in horror at the fallen gates and the skeletons invading the village unhindered.

The wild boars ran along the muddy village road, trampling anyone who was too slow to get out of their way. The wolf skeletons leapt off the boars’ backs as soon as they entered the village and killed all who fell to the ground, before chasing those who fled down paths too narrow for the boars to pass.

Boars were fast in a straight line, but wolves were superior in maneuverability.

On the other side of the village, Sevenus personally led the bears in the attack. The birds had been assigned to the front gates, so there weren’t any watching here, but Sevenus personally burned anyone who fled, so there was no problem.

He also blew up the gate causing the bears to invade without resistance. The villagers ran for their lives, but instead of chasing them, the bears got up on their hind legs and caught the two-faced monkeys clinging to their ribs, flinging them as hard as they could. Now that they were undead, all it took was an order from Athos or a superior to change shape.

The skeletons grew while in the air, dropping to the ground with agility before rushing towards the villagers, cutting off their escape route. Trapped between the three-meter-tall monkeys and rock bears, the villagers were brutally slaughtered, with no chance of resistance.

“You don’t...need to fear...death. Soon you...will join...me...as my...eternal servants.” Sevenus said, looking haughtily down from the rock bear. He mentally ordered the bladed birds to seek out the villagers hiding around the village and kill them, before raising the corpses into the undead one by one.

The new undead connected to him, but his sire should have already received the life force from the reanimated skeletons, so he should already be aware of his success. Athos had tested whether Sevenus could create undead and whether they would be linked to him, but that was before he was named sub-commander. Now, every undead created by Sevenus was linked to him, but they would still recognize Athos as absolute and Sevenus as their leader.

“My lord...you could have...taught me...how to create...the undead en masse.” Sevenus grumbled, as he created the undead. He did the same process as Athos in the green village, gathering all the corpses and supplies, but it would take a long time to heal each of the undead, so he had an idea how to speed up the process

‘These skeletons don’t have any control over their core, but they instinctively know how to release mana through the core.’ Sevenus thought, calling out to a skeleton with a few fingers missing.

‘Circulate as much mana around the body as you can and eat until you’re full.’ Sevenus mentally ordered and the skeleton obeyed. The corrupted non-elemental mana acted in the same way as the darkness, healing the undead. The recovery speed was slower than if a mage was healing, but all skeletons could recover at the same time and saving Sevenus’ mana.

‘With that, I won’t have to waste my mana on this rabble and my lord will definitely be grateful for my discovery. Fufufu, I can’t wait to see him again!’ Sevenus thought, ordering all the skeletons to heal and equip themselves with what they could find before marching again towards the next village.

Sevenus proudly marched ahead, with the monster skeletons close behind and over 300 human skeletons behind them. And in just a few hours, that number would increase again.

*********