...
Faced with his master's questioning,
the Skeleton Mage merely tilted its cracked skull, its Soul Fire flickering as if it were a clueless, dazed simpleton.
Obviously,
while the Skeleton Mage had grown more intelligent recently, understanding its master's complex mix of relief and frustrated anger was still quite difficult for it.
But regardless,
the battle continued to rage on.
With the Skeleton Mage's efficient support Curses, the situation on Bone Jade's side of the fight quickly began to clear up.
Compared to Bone Valor, who only knew how to charge in recklessly,
Bone Jade was clearly a cut above in intelligence. It didn't get tangled up with the ordinary goblins that swarmed it, instead locking its focus on the two elite goblins.
It withstood the attacks from several goblin minions' bone spears and wooden clubs, allowing a few shallow marks to appear on its pearly-white bones. But the Bone Knife in its hand was as cunning as a viper; seizing an opportunity, it lunged forward in a sudden burst, its blade flashing.
An elite goblin, slowed by a double Curse, reacted a beat too late. A spray of foul blood instantly erupted from its throat.
"Urgh..."
The creature clutched its neck, gurgling as it collapsed.
The few goblins surrounding the elite shrieked in terror and instinctively scattered backward.
However, before they could get far, the slow-moving Bear Goblin in the rear let out an enraged roar, driving the routing soldiers to regroup. They charged back, howling and bluffing.
But Bone Jade had already used this opening to close in on the last double-Cursed elite goblin, felling it in just a few strikes.
With that, all three elite goblins had been slain.
"AWOOO—!!!"
Seeing its capable leaders die one after another, the Bear Goblin flew into a complete rage.
It was already ferocious and physically powerful, and now it had somehow shaken off the Weakness Curse. Its blood-red eyes locked onto Lynch and the Skeleton Mage—the two culprits.
"ROAR!!"
The Bear Goblin let out a deafening roar. Its thick legs kicked off the ground, sending dirt flying as its massive body charged toward Lynch like a frenzied brown bear.
"Whoa, this guy sure holds a grudge." Lynch raised an eyebrow, not the least bit flustered. He even had the leisure to comment, 'With a charge like that, it'll make for an awesome vanguard general once I turn it into a Skeleton.'
However, before Lynch could even raise his Magic Staff to do anything, the Skeleton Mage beside him had already acted.
With a calm and effortless air, it raised its well-worn Magic Staff. The tip flashed with a ghostly light, and another Weakness Curse shot forth, striking the charging Bear Goblin.
The Bear Goblin's charge came to an abrupt halt once again. It staggered and pitched forward, face-planting right into the mud.
At the same time, the Skeleton Mage lightly pressed its Magic Staff downward. The ten Skeleton Guards standing by immediately charged forward, waving their Broken Swords and Sabers to begin a righteous gang beating on the Bear Goblin.
"..."
Lynch gripped his Magic Staff, looked at the Skeleton Mage who had already lowered its own staff as if nothing had happened, and opened his mouth, but no words came out.
'Forget it. I'll just slack off and save some Mana.'
He continued to watch the battle.
On the main battlefield, Skeleton Servants were constantly being shattered by goblins, but far more goblins were screaming as they fell under Bone Knives and battered weapons.
Meanwhile, Bone Valor had already led its Skeletons to wipe out the fleeing goblin squad and had returned.
The two Skeleton forces merged. The number of white skeletons on Lynch's side grew, while the green figures dwindled.
Eventually, all resistance was crushed.
The only ones left standing were Lynch's skeleton army and the Bear Goblin, which was fighting like a cornered beast.
Its body was covered in crisscrossing wounds, blood soaking its mane. The Curses and its injuries had made its movements slow and heavy, and every swing of its Wolf Fang Club was a visible effort.
But its ferocity hadn't diminished in the slightest. It continued to roar, smashing away the surrounding Skeletons.
However, even if it had the might of a legendary warrior, two fists are no match for dozens of hands.
As Bone Jade, Bone Valor, and their Skeleton Servants swarmed and completely overwhelmed it, blades and Bone Knives descended from all directions.
The Bear Goblin's roars quickly turned into wails of agony before finally falling silent.
When the Skeletons pulled back, all that remained was a massive, mangled body lying in a pool of blood, still twitching faintly.
The chaotic night raid finally ended in a resounding victory for Lynch.
With that, Lynch began to take stock of the battle's results.
First, his own losses.
Of the original forty-five Skeleton Servants, only a little over thirty were still standing, and many of those had cracked bones or were missing arms and legs. They were a miserable sight.
"Tsk, this Bear Goblin was pretty tough. A shame for it, running into me." Lynch walked a circle around the damaged Skeletons, feeling no particular heartache.
Of course, there was an exception.
When his gaze swept over the Fishman Priest Skeleton, the corner of his eye couldn't help but twitch.
Amidst a crowd of battle-scarred Skeletons, its pristine, ghostly-blue frame was glaringly conspicuous.
"You..." Lynch pointed at it, momentarily at a loss for words.
He carefully recalled the battle. It seemed... he hadn't noticed this guy do anything from start to finish.
The guy had next to no presence on the battlefield.
And faced with its master's questioning, the Fishman Priest Skeleton still appeared vacant and dull.
"..." Lynch rubbed the bridge of his nose.
'Whatever. Why get worked up over a cannon fodder Skeleton with no Soul Fire? The fact that it survived is a skill in itself.'
He put the small episode out of his mind. Then came the happy task of processing the spoils of war.
The Bear Goblin unit's misfortune was Lynch's good fortune.
To him, the field full of goblin corpses was no different than a mountain of gold and silver.
He first directed Bone Jade to lead the others in separating the corpses into piles: the shattered Skeletons, the goblin minions, the two elite goblins, and the Bear Goblin.
He first went to the large pile of Skeleton remains, raised his skull-topped Magic Staff, and cast [Skeleton Resurrection Skill].
A pale white light flashed, and amid a series of CRACKLE-CRACKLE sounds, nine relatively intact Skeletons rose to their feet once more.
'The remaining bones are too damaged to be of much use. I'll just keep them as materials for skeleton repairs.'
With that, the number of Skeleton Servants directly under Lynch's command was restored to thirty-nine.
"Ah, Skeleton Mage." Lynch turned to the black-robed Skeleton Mage waiting at his side, a smile on his face like he was entrusting it with a great responsibility. "You are my most capable and beloved general. Come, these brothers are all injured. Go and heal them."
'Heh, you love being an overachiever, don't you?'
'So I'll leave this thankless repair work to you.'
The Skeleton Mage dutifully stepped forward. Using some of the leftover bone fragments, it began to cast the Skeleton Repair Skill on the damaged Skeletons one by one.
Watching the Skeleton Mage diligently get to work, Lynch nodded in satisfaction before finally turning his attention to the goblin corpses.
He first cast [Skeleton Resurrection Skill] twice in a row on the pile of over twenty goblin minion corpses.
When the light faded, a total of thirty-one short and scrawny goblin Skeletons stood up.
They blankly picked up their crude weapons and stood dazedly to the side.
Adding the five that the Skeleton Mage had casually converted during the battle, plus one elite goblin Skeleton, Lynch's total number of goblin Skeleton cannon fodder reached thirty-six, with one elite on top of that.
"Not bad, not bad. The cannon fodder battalion has been replenished." Lynch was very satisfied.
Next, he walked over to the two elite goblin corpses and cast the Resurrection Skill on them.
Soon, two elite goblin Skeletons with noticeably sturdier frames stood up.
Their auras were far stronger than the minion Skeletons'. Either one of them was no weaker than the previous Fishman leader Skeleton. It was a good haul.
Finally, it was time for the main event of the evening.
Lynch walked to the Bear Goblin's enormous corpse, channeled his Mana, and cast the Skeleton Resurrection Skill again.
Flesh and blood burst apart in the pale light. Soon, a Bear Goblin Skeleton as tall as a human but with an extremely thick and burly frame rose from the filth-strewn blood.
...