Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 339: Undead Formations

My ice shield cracked, then it splintered. The force of the impact knocked me to the ground and a heavy weight landed on my chest.

"Meow."

"You win." I told the smug feline who had bested me in a sparring match, again. I was training with Nyx regularly, hoping to develop our bond, but so far we had not discovered any additional guardian powers.

We were not the only ones training. My friends and my other undead were busy as well trying to improve their skills. While that worked for the tier three, it was hard to train the tier two. They did have instincts but you could not turn them into sword masters. It made me think about commands again. Maybe it was time to improve my forces a bit. While I did not have a way to counter light magic for my goblins I could still make them more effective in other ways.

"Did you fall asleep?"

I was still on the floor and looked up towards Helena. Then I pointed at the small cat skeleton on my chest. "I am clearly pinned down."

Nyx purred and started kneading.

Helena snickered. "Sure."

I stayed on the floor and tapped the empty space beside me. Helena got the clue and sat down.

"I was just thinking about my goblins and what it would take to make them into a true force." I said.

"Oh, army building! I vote for mounts!" Helena said.

"That would be a future step but for now I was thinking of a shield wall. What if they had a bunch of different orders depending on their position?" I wondered.

"Oh, you mean like first line, second line and so on?" Helena asked.

"Something like that. I could have a bunch of different commands depending on where they are in the formation and it would allow them to fight more efficiently with less direct oversight. It would help with coordinated manoeuvres, like the first line crouching and the second line adding their shields, for example. It could also help with them filling an empty spot and immediately adapting their orders to the new position." I replied.

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"I like it. I can't help you with the magical part but I can help when it comes to the kind of manoeuvres you should teach them." Helena offered. "But you do have one problem."

"What is it?" I asked.

"You undead don't have shields." Helena pointed out.

"Hopefully some cheap wooden shields are within my budget. For now I can use some of the academy's practice shields while I work on the commands. Speaking of shields, I am wondering if I could include a magical undead focused on protection." I mused.

"Like your magical skeleton? You don't use it very often." Helena said.

"What if I created a more specialised version of that? It does not have to be a skeleton but I would want one magical undead per unit which is capable of shielding allies. It does not need any attacks, it would be purely for defence." I reasoned.

"What about range? A shield wall is a good defence but you would want some ranged attackers behind them. Have you considered bows for your undead?" Helena asked.

"Bows would work but I would need to spend some money on decent ones. I would also need a lot of arrows. My main concern would be friendly fire. Can a tier two undead differentiate between an ally and an enemy at a long distance?" I wondered.

"I guess you would need a tier three to direct them. But you would want some oversight anyway, right? How much of your formation would work only with commands?" Helena asked.

"True. A tier two will never know if they should hold, advance or retreat. While I can improve their combat effectiveness they still need someone to make the decisions for them." I admitted. "But with proper commands my undead could be more easily directed by someone else, like you. Of course it would help my tier three as well. Ultimately it would improve coordination, would allow for more complex manoeuvres and I could give commands more rapidly. The only real problem is designing the commands themselves."

"So you should stop lying on the floor and start working." Helena said.

I pointed at Nyx. "I am still pinned."

Helena grabbed the feline and put her in her lap. "Now I am pinned and you can train again."

I stuck out my tongue, then I got up and stretched. "The shield wall might be doable but I will need more corpses if I want magical goblins. Do you think we can find a goblin camp somewhere? Or help the army deal with them?"

"Hm. I have heard more talks about goblin raids recently. I think the vampiric nightshades have pushed some of them into the open. Or they are getting bolder for some reason. But we have to wait until the break and then hope something happens while we are nearby. It's not like there are known goblin raiders just waiting for us, the army deals with such problems swiftly." Helena said. "We would have more luck with the orc raiders in the south. You can always find some in the desert. Orcs would make good undead but it's the opposite direction from my family. I don't think we will have time for that during the break."

"Maybe we could make a deal with the army for some goblin corpses?" I wondered.

"If we use our connections, maybe. The army uses any spare corpses for their own necromancers and we are only students. Once we graduate you will have an easier time getting some of them. Also, I don't think they would ship them in the condition you would like them." Helena said. "What we could do is visit the adventurers guild."

"They are always out of corpses. Has something changed?" I asked.

"We haven't tried for a while but I was thinking of placing a special order. You still wanted some light affinity monsters, right? The easiest way would be to pay someone to get you corpses."

"I am not that kind of rich." I countered.

"We could ask about the price and then decide. Also, don't forget that my family has some money. Daddy might be willing to help us get a few corpses. Your strength is our strength." Helena said.

I guess it would not hurt to try. For now I had some commands to figure out.