...
Lynch sat up, all traces of sleepiness gone in an instant.
He took a moment to compose himself and heard the door of the wooden hut next door—the one used for storing tools and miscellaneous items—being violently smashed open. Immediately after, whatever had broken in began a fierce battle with Bone Valor and the ten Skeleton Servants stationed inside.
The sounds of clashing bones mingled with the strange shrieks and cries of goblins.
"Is that... goblins? They've got some nerve, launching a night raid on me of all people?" Instead of being alarmed, Lynch was delighted. This was practically a free delivery of experience points and materials.
He leisurely pulled on his black robe and laced up his boots before unhurriedly giving an order to Bone Jade.
"Bone Jade, clear the way."
CREAK~~
Following Lynch's command, Bone Jade pushed open the main hut's wooden door and charged out, taking the lead. The Soul Fire in its eye sockets burned with exceptional intensity in the darkness.
A large group of its underlings followed close behind.
Surrounded by his Skeleton Guards, Lynch followed them out the door, his eyes scanning the surroundings in the hazy moonlight.
By now, the lumber yard had descended into chaos.
About thirty to forty dark-green-skinned goblins were rampaging through the yard, letting out strange, guttural cries.
They were short and incredibly ugly. Some were randomly smashing the stacked lumber, while others had surrounded the small wooden hut where Bone Valor was.
The hut's doorway was relatively narrow. A few goblins were trying to force their way inside, clashing fiercely with the Skeleton Servants blocking the entrance.
Leading them was an elite goblin, its build clearly a cut above the others.
It wielded a thick wooden club stained a dark, bloody red and was trading blows with Bone Valor, who brandished a Bone Knife. For the moment, neither could gain the upper hand.
The narrow doorway limited the number of combatants both sides could commit, leading to a stalemate.
The moment Bone Jade, Lynch, and their retinue burst out of the main hut, they immediately drew the attention of the vast majority of goblins present.
Among them was an exceptionally large goblin standing in the center of the lumber yard.
It was nearly as tall as an average adult man, with an unusually stout body covered in bear-like bristles. It clutched a massive Wolf Fang Club studded with rusty iron nails, and its entire being radiated a savage, volatile aura.
Its eyes met Lynch's for a split second before it let out a low, threatening roar. Then, it brandished its Wolf Fang Club and charged toward the main hut.
As it moved, the twenty-odd goblins around it moved in unison, surging forward like a mighty green tide with astonishing momentum.
"Oh? A Bear Goblin, too?" Lynch raised an eyebrow slightly, recognizing it as one of the goblin variants.
They were stronger and more ferocious than common goblins, usually serving as leaders or elite enforcers in a Goblin Tribe.
A regular academy apprentice would have had a massive headache dealing with a Bear Goblin, but Lynch, far from being alarmed, grew excited as if he had just spotted a rare treasure.
He sized up the exceptionally brave Bear Goblin charging at the forefront and couldn't help but praise it in his mind. 'Look at that physique, those muscles, that ferocious aura! If I turn it into a Skeleton Servant, it would be the perfect meat shield. A born tank!'
To show how much he valued this "future star general," Lynch decided to give it a welcoming gift to put it in its place.
With a slight stir of his Spiritual Power, the [Banshee's Kiss] on his finger activated.
In an instant, a ghostly white orb of a Weakness Curse shot out and sank into the body of the roaring, charging Bear Goblin.
The poor Bear Goblin immediately stumbled, its massive body nearly crashing to the ground. Its charge came to an abrupt halt.
The horde of shrieking common goblin underlings swarmed past it.
At the same time, Bone Jade led its fifteen Skeleton Servants to meet the onrushing horde of goblins.
The two small forces collided without any fanfare, engaging in primitive and brutal close-quarters combat.
For a moment, the continuous sounds of cracking bones, screaming goblins, and clashing weapons were like a martial symphony.
Seeing the large number of enemies, Lynch sent his ten Skeleton Guards forward as well to support Bone Jade.
He himself cautiously retreated a little, squeezing in between the just-arrived Bone Mage and its escort Skeletons, shamelessly mooching off the protection of its "guards."
The Bone Mage, pushed aside by Lynch, wasn't idle either.
The Soul Fire in its eye sockets flickered. It raised the sinister, well-worn Magic Staff Lynch had given it, pointed it forward, and instantly locked onto a slightly larger elite goblin.
The tip of the Magic Staff flashed with a dark light, and a [Weakness Curse] shot out, striking the target.
The elite goblin's movements immediately became sluggish.
Not to be outdone, Lynch quickly chanted an incantation, swung his Magic Staff, and fired his own [Weakness Curse], hitting another particularly active elite goblin in the enemy ranks.
However, before Lynch could finish casting his next spell, the Bone Mage's Soul Fire flashed again, and it pointed its Magic Staff once more.
Another Weakness Curse flew out, tracing a long arc over the chaotic battlefield and landing on the elite goblin currently locked in combat with Bone Valor at the hut's entrance.
"Holy crap~~" Lynch was speechless for a moment. 'Your casting speed is even faster than mine, and you don't even need to chant?! The key is, you're smart enough to know to curse the elite units first...'
For a moment, he felt that his own minion, the Bone Mage, had completely stolen his thunder as the master.
Resigned, Lynch could only find a random common goblin grunt in the fray and resentfully tossed his own Weakness Curse—which had formed half a beat too late—at it.
Thus, in the short time since the battle began, Lynch's side had launched a total of five Weakness Curses. One for the Bear Goblin leader, three for the three elite goblins, and one... for an insignificant trash mob.
After firing off his opening salvo, Lynch found himself with nothing much to do.
That was the extent of the Undead Magic he had mastered. All that was left was to watch his underlings do the work.
He watched with great interest as the cursed Bear Goblin, blocked by its own goblin underlings, could only stumble about trying to get around them. Its clumsy, furious appearance was quite amusing to him.
But clearly, the Bone Mage was not as idle as he was.
It raised its Magic Staff again, its Soul Fire flickering. In the next instant, a scarlet orb of light shot from the staff and struck the agitated Bear Goblin.
[Pain Curse].
The Bear Goblin's massive body trembled, and it let out a roar of pain and fury.
Without pause, the Bone Mage continued casting. With several more flicks of its staff, it bestowed the Pain Curse upon the other elite goblins in turn.
Its skilled and efficient casting posture made Lynch's gaze turn dark.
'Are you just showing off because I don't know the Pain Curse?' A strange sense of resentful competitiveness welled up in Lynch's heart.
But of course, the Bone Mage couldn't sense its master's complex emotions. Its Magic, however, had an immediate and decisive effect on the battlefield.
Bone Valor was the first to achieve a breakthrough.
The elite goblin fighting it was now afflicted with both a [Weakness Curse] and a [Pain Curse]. Not only was its strength greatly reduced, but the soul-deep pain it felt every time the Bone Knife struck also made its movements contort, leaving its defenses wide open.
Bone Valor seized the opportunity and cut down the elite goblin in just a few strikes.
Once the elite died, the morale of the goblins clustered around it collapsed, and they scattered in all directions, shrieking.
Bone Valor immediately led its subordinates out of the narrow wooden hut, pursuing the fleeing goblins relentlessly. With every swing of its blade, another goblin corpse was left behind.
"A perfect chance!"
Lynch's eyes lit up. He prepared to cast the [Skeleton Resurrection Skill] to turn these fresh goblin corpses into immediate combatants.
But he had just raised his Magic Staff and uttered the first syllable of the incantation when another wave of pale death energy flew out, washing over the goblin corpses like a tide.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The sound of tearing flesh and cracking bone filled the air.
One by one, short goblin Skeletons shakily rose from the pools of blood.
They looked around blankly for a moment, then picked up the crude weapons they had wielded in life and joined the hunt for their former kin.
The Bone Mage lowered its Magic Staff, the Soul Fire in its eye sockets calm and steady, as if it had just done something trivial.
Lynch's hand, holding his skull-topped Magic Staff, froze in mid-air.
He silently glanced at this "capable subordinate" beside him, then at the goblin Skeletons on the battlefield now under the Bone Mage's command. He couldn't help but say resentfully, "Hey, Bone Mage... How about you be the boss from now on?"
...