Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

The skeleton just stood there, waiting for orders. I could feel the link.

“What can it do? What can it do?” Helena asked, excitedly.

“We need to find out!” I replied, then added: “Probably not in here though. If it can use a magic attack that would destroy some equipment.”

“Let’s go to the training room then.” Skadi suggested.

I left my normal skeletons in the lab. We still needed to clean up but we were too excited right now. There was a new undead to figure out.

As a tier two undead, the skeleton should be able to instinctively use its powers. The problem is, I did not know what sort of powers it had. Sadly it did not come with a manual. So we had to see what it did when ordered to attack, or defend itself.

We found an empty training room and went inside. Then I simply ordered the skeleton to attack the reinforced wall.

The undead lifted its bony hand. A small shard of ice formed and flew towards the wall. It shattered on impact.

“Nice!” Cassie said.

“Hard to say how powerful it is. But a ranged attacker will be useful.” Skadi mused.

“We need a better target.” Helena said.

“Well, I brought Frank. Since he is an undead with a frost affinity, and can conjure armour, he should be able to take a hit.” I concluded.

“That won’t tell us how effective he is against the living.” Skadi pointed out.

“We don’t have a living target. Well, I suppose I could have it attack my water shield. I am not sure how much information I could get from that.” I mused.

And so our testing began. The skeleton shot ice bolts at Frank. Then It shot ice bolts against my water shield. Afterwards, I had my friends attack the shield and I tried to compare the strain on my mana from the different attacks.

“I think it is weaker than Helena’s ice daggers. But not by that much.” I concluded.

“So it’s going to be weak against people with shields. Those bolts won’t fully penetrate. And against armour a lot depends on its aim.” Helena said.

“Is it a normal ice attack?” Cassie asked.

I scratched my head. “Good question. It could have necrotic properties. That would help.”

“The cold itself will also slow people down and eventually harm them, if you hit them enough.” Helena added.

“Let’s test its defence.” I suggested.

I ordered Frank to take a light swing at it. The skeleton conjured a shield made of ice to block the attack. I ordered the skeleton to keep the shield while we examined it.

“Not very thick, but it does look solid.” Skadi said, knocking on the shield. “Ouch.” She looked at her hand. “It stings. I think there is some necrotic mana in there.”

“Gronir said necrotic ice was possible.” I said with a smile.

“It's a shame that we don’t have a living target.” Helena commented.

Skadi shrugged. “Someone will try to kill Koyuki sooner or later.”

“How much mana does it have? It is fueled by your core, right?” Cassie asked.

“It does not have a core but it can store some mana. My bond replenishes the mana. It could absorb some from its surroundings. But you would need a source of necrotic mana nearby.” I explained.

“We should test its capacity.” Helena suggested.

I nodded.

We had the skeleton fire ice bolts at the wall until it ran out of mana. It could fire about 25 bolts before it had to stop. Afterwards it was able to fire about one bolt per minute. We did not know if they all had the same strength but it gave us some idea about its capabilities.

“Should we test the shield too?” Skadi asked.

“That would be hard. The mana it needs likely depends on the strength of the attack.” Cassie pointed out. “We don’t have a standardised attack to run tests.”

“Ideally it does not need the shield anyway. It’s supposed to be a ranged attacker. Draugrs in the front, magical skeletons in the back… That would be a fearsome army.” Helena said with sparkling eyes.

It was certainly an interesting thought. An army like that would be rather intimidating. And sort of cool…

“You need more corpses. Have you tried to attract more assassins? Go for a walk, alone, at night?” Cassie wondered.

“What if we dressed up reasonably well and walked through the seedier parts of town, at night? Could we bait some robbers?” Skadi wondered.

“That sounds like a horrible idea.” I said.

“Doesn’t have to be you. We are not hunted by assassins. And we can take care of normal robbers.” Helena said.

“You are crazy!” I replied. “Have you been reading Skadi’s books too?”

“Not yet.” Helena replied.

“You know, there is a book where the heroine baits a lot of robbers…” Skadi said.

“And you could always have your undead close, to help if needed. Uh, you need to make another draugr, one that looks more… fragile. We could use an undead as bait!” Helena suggested.

“And where would we get that corpse?” I asked.

“We have some money. We could ask at the cemetery. Maybe someone is willing to sell us one.” Skadi suggested.

“What if we dressed up Frank?” Cassie proposed.

“Dress up Frank?” I asked.

“Well, we are talking about baiting robbers at night. He looks human enough. Have him wear a wig, maybe a dress. A bra with some apples in it…” Cassie explained.

I groaned. Then I thought about it some more. Was it really a terrible idea? Getting rid of some bandits might even be helpful.

“Would that even be legal? Also, is killing people for robbery not a bit harsh?” I did not want to kill anyone without a good reason.

“Depends if they just want money, or more.” Helena said. “But if they attack, you can defend yourself. Give them a chance to surrender. If they don’t, they suffer the consequences. We can give the ones who come peacefully to the guard.”

“A lot of robbers would not stop at taking your purse. It’s those that I would be ok with killing.” Skadi said.

I was not convinced but the idea did have some appeal…