Chapter 59 - 57: Equally Matched

Whether on Earth or the Haven Continent where the Empire was located, the first soldier in history to discover that a person could fight on horseback was undoubtedly an absolute genius!

When a warrior acquired a warhorse and became a cavalryman, the resulting boost in combat capability was far more than a simple one-plus-one-equals-two equation. First, the speed of a horse meant that he instantly gained an unparalleled advantage in battlefield mobility. Second, the height of the horse allowed him to crush infantrymen from a commanding vantage point during individual combat. Even more importantly, a horse’s carrying capacity meant he could don sturdier armor and wield larger, heavier weapons without hindering his own movements.

In this era before the advent of firearms, where military combat almost entirely relied on the brutal clash of cold steel, a significant portion of field tactics—excluding infantry-dominated siege warfare—was largely centered around cavalry and counter-cavalry maneuvers. Lance Knights, Spearmen, Cavalry Shooters... Massed charges, the Sisson Battle Array, Parthian Tactics... The entire history of medieval warfare was practically a history of gamesmanship revolving around cavalry and anti-cavalry strategies, forever echoing with the thunder of hooves!

Because horses brought such a massive transformation to the landscape of war and mounts were so crucial to knights, "how to stay securely on horseback" became an indispensable part of individual cavalry skills in this era. In this regard, the battle-hardened Grand Commander Harrison Mustafa of the "Desolate Wind" Mercenary Corps was the perfect teaching example!

Faced with the unidentified black object suddenly hurtling toward him from the right, he neither froze in terror like a greenhorn nor made any futile attempts to change his horse’s speed or direction. Instead, he lifted his hips from the saddle, kicked his feet free of the stirrups, and hugged the horse’s neck with both arms. Leaning into the direction of the incoming black shadow, he tilted his body down the left side of the horse. Then, hooking his hands around the horse’s shoulders, he executed an incredibly smooth, full-circle spin around its neck!

As a result, the black object that should have hit him dead-on completely missed its target, sweeping harmlessly over the horse’s back. Having narrowly escaped disaster, Grand Commander Mustafa lightly pushed off the horse’s flank and settled back into the saddle, completely unscathed!

All of this occurred in the blink of an eye. Yet, in that mere split second, Grand Commander Mustafa’s superb reflexes, strength, agility, and horsemanship were fully on display. If his equestrian skills could be likened to a champion cyclist hoisting the trophy, then the horsemanship of the Igor Family, represented by Xiahou Yan, was like a five-year-old who had only been learning to ride a bike for a couple of days and still needed a parent’s steadying hand to keep from falling.

However, before Grand Commander Mustafa could flash a smug, feral grin, another black shadow flew at him from the right!

He was not so lucky this time. Having just returned to the saddle, Grand Commander Mustafa had not yet fully stabilized his center of gravity. Naturally, he could not repeat his trick to dodge this instantaneous second attack! With a muffled thud, the black shadow slammed into Mustafa’s chest, taking him right off his horse and sending them tumbling to the ground.

In that very instant, Mustafa saw clearly what this black shadow actually was. The figure that had suddenly leaped from the roadside bushes was a warrior clad in armor! But before Mustafa could figure out why this warrior’s armor looked somewhat familiar, his attacker lifted its head while pinning him down, locking eyes with him.

Mustafa’s soul immediately scattered in absolute terror!

What he saw were not eyeballs. Instead, inside the empty eye sockets of a bleached skull were two wisps of pale gray, fiercely burning Nether Fire! Stuffed inside this suit of armor was not a living human being, but a skeleton stripped entirely of flesh and skin, leaving nothing but bare bones.

It was a Skeleton Soldier!

Ahead of them, the Igor Family party urgently pulled back on their reins, turning their horses around. However, whether it was Master Laurie or Alice, neither had any desire to step forward and finish off the downed Grand Commander Mustafa. Dozens more identical Skeleton Soldiers were already charging out from the nearby bushes. Like vicious dogs pouncing on a meal, they threw themselves at the fallen Mustafa, pinning the Mercenary Corps Leader ruthlessly to the ground!

Mustafa’s enraged, cornered-beast roar erupted from the pile of pale bones! He exerted every ounce of his strength, executed every combat technique he had ever learned in his life, and even triggered the exclusive "Frenzy" skill of a Dwarf Berserker. Ultimately, with bloodshot eyes, he could only endure the endless tide of Skeleton Soldiers biting into his flesh bite by bite and stabbing into his waist blade by blade! Under the dreary, cold moonlight, a smear of crimson blood quickly bloomed amidst the countless Skeleton Soldiers.

The orchestrator of it all, Lord Xiahou Yan, gripped his horse’s reins and observed this scene with a complex expression. He knew the exact number of this pack of Skeleton Soldiers: sixty.

Indeed, this large, terrifying horde of skeletons was created by him using the corpses of the "Desolate Wind" Mercenaries who had died in the previous battle, all following the guidance of the Essentials of Necromancy! The armor wrapped around them and the weapons clutched in their hands were the very Leather Armors and Sabers the mercenaries had used in life! Grand Commander Mustafa likely never imagined that it would be Undead Creatures forged from his own subordinates who would pronounce his death sentence, one slash at a time!

Watching the scene of dozens of Skeleton Soldiers besieging a living person, Xiahou Yan finally realized just how potent the true power of the Undead Magic recorded in the Essentials of Necromancy was, and why it was considered taboo. Why were there only a handful of combat Magic spells, like "Death Finger," that dealt direct damage in the entire Essentials of Necromancy?

Because they weren’t needed!

Throughout history, all renowned Necromancers were fundamentally hands-off masters, constantly flanked by swarms of Undead Creatures, never needing to strike the enemy themselves! The reason they didn’t require any means to directly harm their foes was that the fangs of zombies, the sharp claws of skeletons, and the eerie ghost fire of spirits were their absolute best weapons!

Unlike an immortal zombie such as Dave, the Skeleton Soldiers created from corpses by the Master-tier Magic "Skeleton Rebirth" were deficient in strength, intelligence, and self-repair capabilities. Once their crucial joints were severed, they would crumble back into scattered white bones, making them thoroughly single-use consumables. However, the advantage of "Skeleton Rebirth" was that it could be cast on a large batch of corpses at once, the Chanting was swift, and it did not have overly strict requirements regarding the intactness of the bodies!

Xiahou Yan, who had long anticipated that this journey might be fraught with unforeseen variables, specifically transformed the sixty mercenary corpses into Skeleton Soldiers all at once using "Skeleton Rebirth" before entering Yanxi City. King Yama did not let him down either, generously waving his pen once again to waive the exorbitant Magic Power expenditure required for his Casting. Otherwise, with his mere level as a second-tier Mage, he would undoubtedly have been incapable of unleashing this Master-tier Undead Magic.

The cunning and astute Lord had already arranged for the Skeleton Soldiers to thoroughly ambush the bushes in this area, preparing for any contingencies. After being targeted by Grand Commander Mustafa, the Igor Family party naturally followed the road toward the Skeleton Soldiers’ ambush site, successfully luring Mustafa step by step into this Undead trap!

The moment the Lord gave the order and the ambushing Skeleton Soldiers poured out in full force, the death knell of Mustafa’s fate had already rung!

Sometimes, the progression of events was just that paradoxical. The Igor Family, which had just suffered heavy losses from an ambush by the "Desolate Wind" Mercenary Corps, had actually turned the tables and set up their own ambush against the Mercenary Corps Leader this time!

The amount of damage sixty Skeleton Soldiers could inflict in a short period was staggering. Although Grand Commander Mustafa had initially slain over a dozen white bone skeletons with astonishing strength and a fierce will to survive, he ultimately weakened under the relentless assault of the remaining skeletons. Soon, not a single sound emerged from the mound of pale bones.

Xiahou Yan and Master Laurie exchanged a glance. Secretly channeling his Netherworld Magic Power, Xiahou Yan waved his hand.

In response, the Skeleton Soldiers obediently backed away, revealing the blood-soaked corpse of Grand Commander Mustafa.

The Lord did not immediately lead his subordinates back to the camp. Instead, under the enlightened gaze of Master Laurie—who finally realized that things could be handled this way—he dismounted and walked toward Mustafa’s corpse.

He still had one crucial question to ask this mercenary bandit!