His lens locked onto Gavin.
The goblin alchemist was clad in scorched, layered leather, strapped with satchels. In both hands, he held what looked like crude clay jars.
With a hollering scream that cut through the fading thunder of battle, Gavin hurled the first two jars toward the final swamp troll.
Only now did Adarin notice—the beast was close to breaking through. It was in the midst of the pikemen, charging straight toward Liora.
It bellowed.
But the jars were already midair.
With deceptive speed, Gavin launched two more.
Beside Adarin, Rüdiger watched with a proud smile.
Bright white fire exploded as the first jar struck.
The troll’s bellow warped into a shrill screech—like fingernails raking across a titanic chalkboard, the dying scream of a horse, a noise of pain without precedent.
Then three more jars struck.
And the towering creature became a burning monument—a monstrous pyre lit by chemical fire.
Adarin pulled up the protocol database. Where, where, where... There. Spectroscopic protocols.
He ran the analysis in real time over the flames.
Then whistled.
The data readout scrolled across his combat HUD:
Spectroscopic Analysis – Combustion Composition
- Crude Oil
Chemical Composition: A complex mixture of hydrocarbons (mainly alkanes, cycloalkanes, and aromatics)
Structural Formula (example): C?H?? (octane-like component)
Description: Thick, black petroleum liquid flammable at high temperatures, produces dense black smoke and high-energy combustion. - Quicklime
Chemical Name: Calcium oxide
Chemical Formula: CaO
Structural Formula: Ca2?—O2?
Description: A white, caustic, alkaline powder that reacts violently with water, producing intense heat—commonly used in incendiaries. - Aluminum Dust
Chemical Formula: Al (fine particulate form)
Description: Highly reactive metal powder that combusts rapidly in air; produces intense heat when combined in reactive mixtures. - Iron(III) Oxide
Chemical Formula: Fe?O?
Structural Formula: O=Fe—O—Fe=O (simplified)
Description: Reddish rust compound; oxidizer in thermite reactions.
Reaction Analysis: Thermite Mixture (Aluminum + Iron(III) Oxide)
Reaction Formula: Fe?O? + 2Al → 2Fe + Al?O? + heat
Description: Produces molten iron and extreme temperatures (~2500°C); used to cut through metal and melt targets on contact.
He’s throwing thermite bombs soaked in crude oil and laced with quicklime. Bloody hell.
Adarin noticed his tattoo swirling after the analysis. He smiled absently while watching the spectacle with awe.
Limited Protocol Database (Implant) has advanced to early Tier 1!
Two more jars arced through the air toward the final swamp troll.
Then—detonation.
It died screaming, engulfed in a second inferno.
Adarin surveyed the battlefield—now lit up by the two artificial suns Gavin had conjured. The twin pyres of chemical fire cast long shadows across a ruined landscape.
On the far side of the camp, the last rallying enemy soldiers were encircled and cut down. Necromancers advanced methodically, marching over corpses the undead had already executed.
Black skeletons swept the perimeter like a crescent-shaped wave of blades, hunting down stragglers in eerie silence.
In the distance, beyond the camp, the thick fog of toxic gas began to fade, curling upward and dispersing with the wind.
At the camp’s edge, battles finished. The undead began reforming—lining up into organized columns.
Adarin assessed the field quickly. Seven thousand new soldiers.
He nodded, satisfied.
Cannoneers and musketeers were filing into the rear, forming their mobile artillery wedge.
Then his attention snapped to the struggling rearguard.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Of the thousand undead left to delay the dragon-blooded, only a third remained standing.
Knights in scaled armor were carving through them with brutal efficiency.
Adarin and Rüdiger descended the muddy slope of the hill, the ground torn and trampled with blood.
His spiders scurried back into formation, rejoining him.
Adarin dispatched another two thousand zombies to reinforce the sappers’ prepared fallback line.
A quick check of the noospheric net confirmed: all the necromancers from the rearguard had made it out alive.
Rüdiger exhaled beside him. “Well, well. Despite those big ugly oafs, this went amazingly. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this clean a victory.”
He turned, gaze boring into Adarin with unsettling intensity. “So far, you are a worthwhile investment.”
With that, Rüdiger walked off toward the smoldering corpses of the trolls.
He turned around once more, grin wide and feral. “Time to get some big buddies.”
As Adarin finalized the marching order, pike squares of zombies locked into place around the marching necromancers, musketeers, and cannoneers. Reinforcements moved among them—grenadiers in tattered gear and squads of black skeletons ready for suppression and flanking.
Then, the rearguard broke.
The dragon-blooded charged through what remained of the undead delay.
They were a terrible sight.
The torchlight from the two-thousand-strong pike line reflected off iridescent armor—emerald scales, crimson trim, gleaming silver helms—and onto the scaled hides of their mounts.
It was like watching stained glass charge through a nightmare. If we lose the pike line, the necromancers die.
Fireballs lit up in the habds of the knights.
The magical projectiles soared through the air, a hailstorm of incendiary death, arcing toward the zombie line.
They struck, exploded, and ignited.
Adarin triggered another spectroscopic analysis through his combat HUD:
Spectroscopic Analysis – Magical Combustion
Substance Identified: Napalm analog
Chemical Formula: C??H? + RCOOH (typically palmitic acid or similar fatty acid) + aluminum soaps
Structural Formula: Long-chain hydrocarbons bonded to aromatic compounds and gelling agents
Description: A sticky, high-temperature incendiary compound. Clings to surfaces and burns slowly, resistant to being extinguished.
Adarin whistled aloud. That’s nasty stuff. But… The zombies didn’t care.
Parts of the line turned into torchlight horrors—shambling, burning silhouettes—but they didn’t break. Spears leveled. Formations tightened.
If the enemy feels no pain, fire is much less dangerous.
The knights struck. Mercilessly, they crashed into a weak point in the line.
It crumbled—but not immediately.
It held for a few precious seconds.Just enough time bought. Adarin shifted from side to side. If the mines don’t ignite, we get overrun.
Gavin was already leaping up and down behind the ranks, shrieking joyfully as he lit a fuse.
A dozen wriggling trails of fire shot out like serpents across the dirt, winding toward set points along the fallback line.
Then—whoomph.
The entire 300-meter-wide line disintegrated in a series of overlapping detonations.
Thunder. Flame. Smoke.
Chunks of earth, meat, and shattered armor rained down around Adarin as he ducked.
The buried gas grenades cracked and ruptured—releasing their payload into the dragon-blooded ranks. Thick, acidic clouds rose and rolled over the broken rear. Fancy armor always loses against proper munitions.
Adarin sprinted back toward the marching formation.
He noticed the covetous gleam in the eyes of several necromancers. The mutant knights would make excellent specimens...
But Rüdiger had already come down like a ton of bricks.
They weren’t here to pick bones clean. They were here to escape.
Only a few necromancers disobeyed—casting mass-raise undead spells into the freshly dead.
Another rearguard was born from the corpse-heap.
In the pale light of the dim light bands, the army marched on.
Skeletal horses dragged the battered cannons along muddy forest roads. Necromancers kept formation near the center, flanked by blocks of zombies, black skeletons, and musketeers. The rear was shored up by grenadiers and mobile death squads.
Liora marched near the rear, quiet, eyes fixed on the horizon. Her hands trembled—but her pace never faltered. I’ll have to check on her later.
Rüdiger now walked flanked by two undead swamp trolls.
One was skeletal—taller than the others, its spine visibly fused with iron bracing and necrotic reinforcement rods.
The other still putrid.
Adarin noticed its head had been reattached.
So he took the one I got. But the head’s different. Replacement parts for soldiers. Neat trick.
Stitched with black wire, it clearly didn’t belong to the original body.
Quite pragmatic, Adarin thought, grinning.
Rüdiger, somehow sensing the attention—despite Adarin having no visible eyes—turned his way.
“Yeah, yeah. They’re beauties, aren’t they?”
He pointed at the skeleton.
“I did a shitty job with the weave on that one. What can you expect? Liora made a mess of it.”
Then, as he spotted the young woman approaching, he amended himself with a grin.
“An amazing mess.”
He clapped a hand onto the sticky flank of the putrid troll.
The flesh squelched. His hand came away glistening with slime. Rüdiger wrinkled his nose and muttered something.
A flicker of green flame—sickly, necromantic—engulfed his hand for a second and burned it clean.
He gave Adarin a sheepish smile. “It’s an abomination.”
The thing—stitched together from incompatible parts—twisted its head to peer at them with a single milky eye.
“We have what... twenty-five thousand undead now? Three thousand living?”
Adarin nodded silently.
“Good, good.” Rüdiger rubbed his hands together. “Once you make camp, you’ll see how true necromancers multiply their forces. A human can serve in many ways. Ja, ja.”
And Adarin, for the first time all night, felt something like fear. He shook it off and focused on the pulsing system tattoo. Time to see what upgrades I got.
Thanks for reading — let me know in the comments what you thought about the chapter!
Upload Schedule: Mon–Fri at 4:47 PM EST / 10:47 PM CET
Want more? Want to support my journey towards being a full-time writer? Join my Patreon for 30 extra chapters (6 weeks ahead):