Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 345: An Unexpected Complication

Since magic was our main weapon most of us brought an arming sword. Skadi had a two-handed axe as well, because she was a spellblade. For transportation we used our carriage but it was not big enough for everyone, so we had to use horses as well. Thankfully the academy provided them, since I only had Coffee. Hatsumi rode my horse so she could lead us towards the vampire.

Besides my tier threes we had Bob and Frank with us. There was no need to bring all of my undead and there was not enough fast transportation anyway. While we had no idea what we would be running into, it seemed unlikely that we would encounter an army.

We came to a stop in front of a moderately sized house. It had a small garden, a metal fence and looked rather unassuming. The neighbourhood was decent but nothing too fancy. It really did not look like a place for a secret lair. Or maybe Skadi and her books had given me a wrong impression about secret lairs.

We got out of the carriage and studied the building.

"I can feel the link inside and below. I believe there is a cellar." Hatsumi stated.

"Hm, no reaction so far. I suspect if they try to flee it might be underground as well. Just to be sure, have Frank and Bob monitor the back entrance." Irene commanded.

"Yes, ma'am!" I replied.

The building itself was two stories tall, had grey stone walls and a wooden roof. Two steps led up to the small porch protecting the oak door. Gronir and Irene walked towards it and knocked. Nothing happened.

Then Irene placed her hand on the door and it started to freeze. Once it was solidly covered in ice Irene kicked it. With a loud crack the hinges shattered and the door fell inwards. Interestingly, the wood seemed fine, she had only shattered the hinges and possibly a lock. It was a rather impressive display and a reminder that Irene was kind of scary at times.

"It smells like death." Irene stated. "Be careful, we are going to search the house in teams. Never go anywhere alone and be ready to conjure a shield. Hatsumi, try to find the way down. I have a feeling it won't be as easy as door to the cellar."

As I entered the living room I found two zombies. Or rather, two sad excuses for a zombie. The bodies wore torn clothes and had clear stab wounds. It seemed they had been killed by weapons before being animated. As the zombies moved to attack, Nyx grew to her full size and hit them with her paws. They went down rather swiftly and became cat food. The other groups found a few more zombies but nothing relevant.

It turned out there was a small cellar. It held a few empty boxes and no vampire, meaning there had to be something more. The cellar consisted of a single room with a stone floor, stone walls and few wooden beams on the ceiling. Hatsumi took a sip from the vial containing Leo's blood, then she studied the cellar again.

"There!" She pointed at a solid stone wall. "It has to be behind there."

"Hm." Irene approached the wall and touched the stone.

"While I utterly respect my fellow packmate, I would like to point out that I hear a voice from over there." Garm said, while pointing with his paw towards the wall on our right.

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"Perhaps the entrance is on the right and the secret path winds around to the other side?" Kaito mused, while approaching the wall Garm had pointed at.

"This is the direction of the sewer." Gronir added, while looking towards the wall Garm had identified.

"I do smell something." Garm added.

As Kaito observed the smooth stone we heard a click. Suddenly the wall right in front of him opened as a hidden door slid to the side. We all stared at a man in chainmail, holding a torch.

"Shit!" He screamed and jumped backwards, while pulling the sword from his belt.

I reacted by forming a shield, it was always a good move in an unknown situation. Kaito's hands were covered in frostfire, which he sent at the armoured man. It collided with a glowing shield of light.

"Ilestria." Irene hissed, while her eyes glowed. Frost formed on one of her hands while fire enveloped the other.

"Careful, there is a paladin." Gronir advised.

"Soon it will be a roasted tin." Irene stated. Kaito stepped aside to provide her with an open line of fire and Irene immediately made use of it. Magic erupted from her outstretched arms and combined into steam. The steam shot through the door into the sewers and expanded, which led to quite a bit of screaming. Clearly there were more people on the other side.

"Push through!" A voice shouted. A soldier emerged from the steam with some visible damage to his skin, only to be greeted by a black orb. Gronir had launched the ball of necrotic energy and the soldier was hit in the face. He had barely time to scream as his flesh withered and died, a corpse fell to the ground.

What followed was an explosion around the door. Stone rained down on us and I was grateful for the shield of ice in front of me. Garm made sure to intercept some debris which was coming for Tim and Tom, while Skadi shielded Cassie. Helena was covered in her ice armour and our teachers seemed more than fine, as were the undead.

I was briefly worried that the ceiling would cave in but it seemed to hold. However, there was a bigger entrance into the room now and I could see more of what we were dealing with. Four men in chainmail with a fifth covered in full plate armour and wearing a great helm. There was also a woman in white robes and a small bear. It was the size of a wolf, had orange fur and his mouth was covered in flames.

Then the real battle began. Our enemies were well trained and equipped but they had not been prepared for our group. Garm jumped the small bear, who tried to burn him with a stream of fire. Garm shielded himself with a layer of frost and grabbed the animal by the neck, then he bit.

The soldiers in chainmail were mauled by cats. Chainmail was rather good for cat claws to hold onto, it turned out. So one soldier found himself with Kasai on his chest, breathing fire into his face. Another was scratched by Ivy, who was using the wound to drain his blood. Yoru used his claws, reinforced with ice, to stab through the weak points of the armour from another soldier.

Hatsumi charged the man wearing plate who tried to use light magic against her. His metal sword started glowing while his shield was made purely of light. While she used blood claws to parry his strikes Nyx used the distraction to hit him with her paw from behind. Kaito was attacking the mage wearing a robe with frostfire while Skadi charged with her axe. Meanwhile, Helena was trying to freeze the ground around the mage to limit her movement, or outright immobilize her.

While watching the battle I remembered something, death magic was great against spells. I prepared a water bolt and tried to infuse it with necrotic mana. When it was ready I mentally alerted Hatsumi. She smoothly stepped aside to give me a shot and my bolt hit the glowing shield. The water began to sizzle and you could see his magic becoming dimmer. While it seemed to weaken him it was not enough. Even fighting multiple people the so called paladin seemed to hold strong.

However, the cats, who had finished the weaker opponents, joined the fight. Yoru, Ivy and Kasai all raced towards the men's legs. None of them scored a hit as the paladin smoothly avoided all three.

"Hatsumi, Nyx, back!" Cassie shouted.

My undead reacted and jumped backwards as the paladin realised too late what had happened. The cats had not been attacking, they had just dropped explosives by his feet. The man was violently flung against a wall and impacted with a crunching sound. Nyx immediately jumped on top of him, and started to breathe death magic into his helmet.

Only the mage remained, who held her own with powerful shields. Until Irene got serious. Suddenly a pillar of flame erupted from underneath the enemy mage and burned her until nothing remained, nothing but ash.

We won.

"Wow." Tim said, as he watched the aftermath. While the twins had seen battles they had never experienced my undead in all their glory. It was rather impressive. Of course, there was also Irene. Who was a bit scary.

Just as we thought it was over another passage opened inside the cellar. A woman in a maid outfit stepped through, but not a living one, a vampire. She looked at us and held up her arms.

"I surrender! Please don't kill me!"