Chapter 312: How Can I help

Seren stood at the edge of the battlefield, bow in hand, staring at Darion.

For a moment, she almost forgot she had come here to help. Her feet felt rooted to the ground, her arms frozen at her sides, her mind struggling to process what she was seeing.

Darion was surrounded. Warriors were charging at him from every direction, their weapons raised, their voices screaming for his blood. But he wasn’t retreating. He wasn’t running. He wasn’t even backing away.

He was fighting.

Four of his strongest undead knights moved around him, flanking his position and intercepting anyone who tried to reach him from the sides. Ghet Ulg was one of them, his massive frame cutting through warriors like a scythe through wheat. Edric Vorne moved with lethal precision, his sword finding gaps in armor, his movements efficient and cold.

And Darion himself was in the center.

His sword glowed with brilliant golden light.

WHOOSH!

His blade cut through one warrior’s attack. He stepped forward.

WHOOSH!

Another fell. Darion twisted his body, avoided a spear thrust, and drove his sword into the warrior’s armor before ripping it free.

The undead knights beside him moved almost perfectly with him, creating a formation that allowed Darion to keep advancing. They covered his flanks, blocked attacks he couldn’t see, and cleared space for him to push forward. It was like watching a machine designed for war: every part moving in perfect sync, every movement calculated and precise.

Seren stared.

He looked completely different from the Darion she knew. Not the Baron who sat around discussing farms and castle repairs. Not the man who complained about lumpy mattresses and boring afternoons. Not even the Necromancer who casually summoned undead while drinking tea.

Right now... He looked like something from a myth. A warrior standing in the middle of an army, surrounded by undead knights, golden light blazing from his sword as he cut his way through everyone who stood before him.

Seren swallowed.

There was something about seeing him like this. Something she didn’t quite want to admit. It was...

Hot.

She immediately shook the thought away. Focus. She had come here to help him. And if she wanted to help, she needed to do something.

Seren looked at the battlefield. There were too many warriors between her and Darion. If she fired from here, her arrows could definitely reach some of them. But that wasn’t the problem. The moment she revealed her position, dozens of warriors would rush toward her. She couldn’t fight that many people alone.

I’d just get swarmed.

Her fingers tightened around her bow. She needed to get closer. Much closer.

Seren took a deep breath. Then she ran.

She moved through the edge of the battlefield, keeping low while trying to avoid drawing attention. It was reckless. It was dangerous. And, honestly, it was probably stupid. But staying back while Darion fought alone felt even worse. She pushed forward, her feet carrying her through the chaos, her eyes fixed on Darion’s position.

Then, when she got close enough to actually be heard, she raised her voice as high as she could.

"DARION! GET ME CLOSE!"

Her voice rang across the battlefield. Immediately, several warriors turned. Darion’s head snapped toward her. His eyes widened. For one brief second, everything else seemed to disappear.

Seren.

She had come into the middle of this. And now every warrior around her knew she was connected to him. An intense feeling surged through Darion.

Protect her. Immediately.

"He’s with her!"

One of the warriors pointed toward Seren. "Kill her this instant!"

Several warriors immediately charged toward her. Seren’s eyes widened. "Shit—"

She raised her bow. But there were too many. Before she could even draw an arrow...

BOOM!

Green light erupted around her. Undead suddenly appeared from every direction. One. Two. Five. Then more. They materialized between Seren and the charging warriors, forming an instant wall of undead bodies. Blades struck armored undead. Spears slammed into shields. The impact was absorbed by the undead surrounding her.

Seren stood in the middle of them, completely protected. She blinked. Then looked toward Darion.

He was still standing in the middle of the battlefield. His golden sword was raised. And he was smiling. Not a nervous smile. Not a worried smile. A confident one.

"Let’s do this!"

Seren’s lips curled upward. She raised her bow. "Yes!"

Darion turned back toward the battlefield. Until now, he had been fighting with only a portion of his undead. His strongest knights. A few other undead. Enough to create a path. Enough to kill plenty of warriors.

And honestly... These people weren’t that strong. They had numbers. They had weapons. They had the advantage of home territory. But individually? They weren’t enough.

Darion’s grip tightened around his sword. Golden light burned brighter around the blade.

He had been holding back. He had been trying to fight his way through them with only a fraction of what he had. But why? Why was he limiting himself?

He wasn’t some ordinary warrior. He wasn’t some weak Baron who had wandered into an enemy settlement with a sword and a dream.

He was a Necromancer.

And this... This was exactly what a Necromancer was supposed to do.

Darion smiled.

Then he opened his system.

His entire inventory appeared before him. Undead. Knights. Creatures. Everything he had accumulated. Everything he had saved. Everything he could summon.

He was done holding back.

Darion raised his hand. Green light began spreading across the battlefield. One summon. Then another. Then another. The air itself seemed to tremble.

Seren looked toward him. The warriors surrounding them slowly realized something was wrong. Darion wasn’t finished. Not even close.

His smile widened. And then...

He summoned everything in his inventory.

His hand rose.

The system responded.

[Summoning Undead...]

Green light exploded across the battlefield.

BOOM!

The first creatures to emerge were the Yuimons.

One after another, their bodies materialized from the green light. Massive. Armored. Terrifying. Their circular mouths opened wide, revealing rows of glistening teeth. Their eyes glowed with an unnatural green fire. They stood silently, waiting for his command.

Then more came. And more. And more. Until the battlefield behind Darion began filling with them. Their massive bodies crowded the street, their presence alone causing several warriors to hesitate.

They had already seen Darion’s undead. They had watched the knights fight, had seen the wolves tear through their comrades, had witnessed Ghet Ulg’s monstrous strength. But they hadn’t seen this many. They hadn’t seen an army.

And Darion wasn’t done.

Then came the snakes.

All of them began writhing across the ground as undead serpents emerged from the green light. They slithered between the feet of the larger undead. Across the grass. Over rocks. Through gaps in armor. Their bodies moved in waves, a sea of coiling death that spread across the battlefield like a plague.

Seren stared at them. There was something especially unsettling about snakes on a battlefield. They didn’t need to charge. They didn’t need armor. They didn’t need weapons. They simply moved. Quietly. Patiently. Waiting for an opening.

Then—

Bite.

One snake could sink its fangs into an exposed leg. Another could crawl beneath a shield. Another could strike at a warrior’s hand. And once they were among the enemy... they would keep going. Wriggling. Biting. Moving. Again. And again. And again.

Darion remembered the venomous undead bats he had once used to infiltrate Valdenmoor. The bats had been incredibly useful. They could fly over walls. Enter buildings. Attack from above. But on a battlefield? They were different. Bats could be spotted. Hundreds of flying creatures moving through the sky would immediately attract attention.

Snakes were different. Good luck spotting one in the middle of all this. They could disappear beneath feet. Under corpses. Between shields. Inside gaps in armor. And unlike normal animals, these undead snakes didn’t care about pain. They didn’t care about fear. They didn’t care if they were crushed. As long as even one of them survived long enough to bite... they could keep killing.

Darion looked at the growing mass of serpents. A small smile appeared on his face.

’Yeah. These are going to be useful.’

But the snakes were only one part of it.

Green light continued appearing behind Darion. More undead creatures emerged. More animals. More warriors. More monsters. The battlefield kept filling. The warriors of Vrethka slowly stopped charging. Some stared. Others stepped backward.

They had expected a Necromancer. They had prepared to fight undead. But they hadn’t expected this.

Darion had.

He had spent months building this army. Every corpse he had raised, every creature he had revived, every knight he had added to his inventory, all of it had been for moments like this. And now? He was finally putting all of it on the battlefield.

The green light eventually began to fade. Silence settled over Darion’s side.

Then he looked behind himself.

One hundred and forty-three undead knights stood ready. Behind them were one hundred and forty undead animals. Yuimons. Snakes. Bats. Wolves. Rops. And countless other creatures he had collected over the months.

143 knights. 140 animals. 283 undead. All standing behind him. All waiting for one command.

Darion tightened his grip around his glowing sword. For the first time since entering Vrethka... he didn’t feel surrounded. He felt like Vrethka was surrounded.