Just as Brunhild, Garrick, and Eilif arrived, they saw Thorne sent flying toward the center of the village with unstoppable force. Their hearts froze. Before they could even react, the creature landed and chased after Thorne with terrifying, eight-legged speed.
Brunhild rapidly fired two arrows back-to-back from atop a hut, but the creature dodged by rolling in an inhuman way. It didn't even turn to glance at the archer, simply speeding toward the center of the village.
"I will go get Elianor," Eilif quickly said.
Just as he was about to move, Elianor vaulted out of a nearby hut, "I am fine! Let's rescue Thorne first."
She was unhurt, as Thorne had thrown her onto a thatched roof which cushioned her fall. She was fine, but she had seen Thorne get thrown away somewhere into the distance.
By now she had calmed down considerably, though she still felt that she couldn't face that creature head-on, let alone fight it.
With Caius and Brunhild, they still had a chance to win, or at least drive the creature away, so it was not entirely hopeless.
Brunhild and the others gave a quick nod to Elianor. Just as they were about to hurry toward Thorne's location, they heard the loud voice of an unknown man booming from the center of the village, "Morbus, Mortisia, Gravis, Vellara! Release our hungry hounds!"
Promptly after, four responses echoed from different directions of the village.
Brunhild and the others' faces turned grave.
It meant there was not just an Adult-stage Rank 1 creature, but at least five more enemies.
They suddenly sensed many unrestrained, foul presences all around the village, appearing out of nowhere.
The rest of them quickly climbed the hut on which Brunhild stood, and as they looked out, their expressions turned grim.
On the side visible to them, they noticed rotting humans had started heading in their direction. Even though the monsters were quite slow, the group could sense that there was a massive crowd of them.
Elianor's voice shook, "T-those are... Undead?" Her face paled with fright.
At this moment, Caius's anger-filled words echoed through the village, answering her question.
Brunhild's expression fell the moment she saw the zombies. It meant the entire village had been murdered! She was livid, but now was not the time to show her anger.
She quickly explained, "Yes and no; those are Zombies, the Reanimated Corpse spell of a necromancer. Let's first check on Thorne; I saw the creature go elsewhere and not directly after him." Only she and Caius were truly aware of that spell, so she mentioned it to make the others understand that this was the work of necromancers.
Everyone then quickly dashed toward where Thorne had been sent flying.
They soon arrived at the village square, which was situated in the heart of the village. It seemed the creature had deliberately thrown Thorne in that direction.
They noticed multiple huts were destroyed where Thorne had crashed through them. Just as they arrived at the last ruined hut, they saw Thorne walking out of the debris while holding his forehead and swaying.
"Thorne, are you alright?" Brunhild asked, while the other three caught up right behind her.
Thorne said with some lingering pain, "I am fine. I used mana to guard myself... It seems this situation is much more severe than just an Adult-stage Rank 1." He had also heard the shout of the unknown man, who was not far from their current location.
Brunhild acknowledged this gravely. She spoke only one word: "Necromancers."
After hearing it, a lot of things started to become clearer to Thorne, "I see. Only they could hide the foul smell of the corpses with some unique spells or ingredients."
He had briefly seen a corpse when he kicked the barricade toward the creature at the guard tower while rescuing Elianor. He had wondered for a moment why there was no smell of death or blood. He had even thought he might have seen it wrong, but now it all started to make sense—all of it.
Brunhild agreed. She had also realized this fact, as there was no way so many rotting smells could normally be hidden from them, nor could the zombies suppress their own decaying presence due to their lack of intelligence. Thus, the necromancers had likely used a spell to hide the zombies beneath the ground, possibly under the houses.
Suddenly, Brunhild and the others heard an unknown woman's laughter from behind them.
"Hahaha! It seems our uninvited guests are pretty smart. That's right; we used our unique spell, Unseen Crypt."
Brunhild and the others swiftly turned toward the voice and noticed a woman standing atop an intact hut a little way from them.
She was a beautiful woman with long blonde hair, dressed in a tattered, dark blue robe that exposed quite a lot of her fair skin, and she possessed a pair of soft green eyes.
She released the presence of an early-stage Rank 2, and surrounding the hut on which she stood were dozens of mindless zombies, swarming around but not taking a step forward yet.
Brunhild and the others frowned. Before they could respond, another voice came from their left with a strange snicker.
"Heh, that's right, Mortisia. I wonder if they are actually that strong!"
Brunhild and the others turned toward the voice and noticed two men standing side-by-side above another thatched roof. The one who spoke wore a simple hooded cloak with a white skull emblem on its chest. He had short, spiky hair dyed a ghastly shade of purple.
Beside him stood a man donning a dusty brown cloak with a high collar, obscuring all but his sharp, angular nose and piercing yellow eyes. He stood silently with his arms crossed over his chest.
Both possessed the presence of mid-stage Rank 2 combatants and had over a hundred zombies surrounding their hut.
Brunhild and the others' expressions turned heavy. They had truly landed in a terrible situation.
The zombies were troublesome, as their constitutions were as high as Rank 1 Warriors—which stage exactly depended on the corpse—but since they were mortals before death, they shouldn't be higher than late-stage Rank 1.
Brunhild and the others' nightmare didn't end there, as they heard another voice from their right.
"I wonder how much they can help our Night Hag Arachnid evolve. If we take down their leader, who is at early-stage Rank 3, then perhaps she will even have the chance to reach the Young-stage of Rank 2." Though it wouldn't be that easy; they would need more sacrifices for that.
Brunhild and the others turned toward the voice, and their expressions shifted to despair.
There stood another beautiful woman, dressed in a faded, bone-white robe with intricate black lace. She had a serene expression and hair as dark as a moonless night. Beside her rested a huge warhammer that was even taller than she was.
What made them despair was that this woman's presence was that of a late-stage Rank 2! And unlike the other three, she was a Warrior. Although she didn't have any zombies surrounding her, she alone was extremely dangerous.
Suddenly, they all heard the loud boom of a house being knocked over with great power.
They turned and noticed that Caius, who was on the other side of the empty field, was blocking the Adult-stage Rank 1 creature's attack. Although he was still unharmed, it was unknown how long he could keep it up.
Caius hadn't fought the creature for long, but he was already starting to feel that something was greatly amiss.
It was indeed at the Adult stage, but its agility, strength, and even constitution were abnormally high—perhaps as high as the Elder stage. If it were truly so, then there was simply no hope for any of them to escape and survive.
There was also a late-stage Rank 3 necromancer mage standing calmly without attacking. If that Rank 3 Mage also attacked with full force alongside the creature, Caius was certain he would die within moments. Right now, all he could do was focus on dodging and blocking.
Brunhild and Thorne's faces were grave as they watched Caius fighting some distance away, while Elianor, Garrick, and Eilif's faces were pale with despair. Not only was there an Adult-stage Rank 1 creature, but also a powerful Rank 3 Mage! It was a hopeless situation for all of them.
They all wanted to dash toward Caius to unite with him and come up with a plan, but the zombies surrounding them completely blocked their path.
"Not so fast, little ones. You are not getting anywhere until you deal with our zombies first," Vellara, who was a late-stage Rank 2 and the only warrior among them, said calmly.
Brunhild, without any hesitation, fired an arrow at extreme speed straight at the blonde-haired woman who had appeared first; she was the weakest among the necromancers.
If the controller died, the zombies wouldn't bother them unless someone actively attacked them or came too close. So, it was best to eliminate even one of the necromancers first, which would also raise their own spirits. Furthermore, the blonde was the most vulnerable, standing alone atop the hut.
Brunhild was confident that as a Mage two minor ranks below her, Mortisia wouldn't be able to dodge, and that single arrow would cripple her, if not kill her entirely.
Mortisia wasn't able to react fast enough. Not only was it too sudden and fast, but Brunhild had also slammed her spiritual pressure down onto her while shooting the arrow, staggering and delaying her.
However, before the arrow could come within one meter of Mortisia, an invisible shield suddenly appeared and deflected it.
"Hehe… Smart! But unfortunately for you, you don't know. When creating our zombies, we Necromancer Mages cast another spell called Ossuary Embrace. Unless you kill all of our controlled zombies, this spell grants us an invisible barrier that protects us from all projectiles. So yeah, good luck killing our zombies first," Mortisia mocked, giggling.
There were many weaknesses to this spell, but there was no way she would inform her enemies of them.
Mortisia didn't wish to delay further, lest the archer figure it out, so she commanded her zombies to begin attacking the group.
Morbus and Gravis, who were standing together, also sent their massive zombie army forward to attack.
Vellara just stood still and observed. Mortisia, Morbus, and Gravis also calmly watched, not joining the battle personally.
Their goal was simple: to reduce the group's Mana and Stamina, after which the Night Hag Arachnid would eat them one by one. Still-living Mana Wielders provided the best nutrition for her; a dead one's effects were reduced by more than half.
In fact, as a Necromancer Warrior, Vellara stood to gain a lot from the leftovers once the Night Hag Arachnid had finished her meal.