Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 234: Squad


Skadi's theory was spot on, Archibald did not get a group. Instead he got extra lessons about teamwork. His complaining and his angry face were satisfying to watch.

Meanwhile we prepared for the field trip. Sadly we would not be fighting together, so we all trained with our cats. Well, I also had a lot of other undead. I decided to bring 20 human skeletons, the two goblin skeletons who were still around, the skeletal mage, Frank, Chariot, the ibex, Hatsumi and Nyx.

I contemplated the Iron Beaks but I decided against them, for myself. Instead Cassie took 15. Her bombs were attached to them after all, and she was the weakest fighter.

One week before the trip I was introduced to my squad. I met them at the training area inside the academy.

Six people were waiting for me. Four men and two women. They saluted when I approached. I had Hatsumi with me and Nyx on my head, which resulted in some curious looks.

"At ease! I am Koyuki, your leader for this trip. I am a necromancer and with me is Hatsumi, a tier three vampire. On my head is Nyx, also a tier three. I will bring a bunch of undead to help with our task. But first, introduce yourselves." I said.

The first person was a man with black hair and a moustache. "Corporal Finn, I am your second in command."

Next was the woman with short brown hair. "My name is Brie, ma'am. I am a scout and archer."

A clean shaven man with dirty blond hair followed. "My name is Jeff, I am also a scout and archer."

"Bram, I am a fighter." A big man said. His head was almost completely shaven, only a stubble of brown hair remained. I would have guessed he was almost two metres tall.

"Irma, I am a fighter." The woman had green hair, possibly some elven heritage.

"Mac, I am also a fighter." The last man said. He had short black hair and his eyes spent way too much time checking out my body instead of looking into my eyes.

"What is your standard approach when you work with a mage?" I asked them.

"Depends on the situation and the type of mage." Finn answered. "Most of the time we would have both scouts deployed in the front and the fighters surrounding the mage. Our job is mostly to protect you and provide intel. We stop anything from reaching you so you can use your magic, ma'am."

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"I see. I think the scouting will be very helpful. I don't have a real tracker among my undead, although Hatsumi can track some scents and blood. We will have to do a few training sessions together but ideally the undead will do most of the fighting. Nyx can release a necrotic breath that is rather hazardous to anything alive."

A lot of eyes were on Nyx, who was the size of a kitten.

"She can grow." I added, I was not sure if it helped.

"Ma'am, do you have any special orders for us? We still have a week to prepare. Is there anything we should bring?" Finn asked.

I scratched my head. Then I felt something wet on my finger, Nyx had materialised her tongue and was licking the hand I had used to scratch myself.

Hatsumi snickered next to me.

I withdrew my hand and pretended nothing had happened while fighting some slight embarrassment.

"We need supplies and camping gear. I will bring my own food, tent and horse. I am not sure what we are going to face but a spear and shield might be good for the fighters. I trust that you know what you need, to be honest. You have more experience than I do."

I could see a smile on Finn's face. He seemed happy with my answer. "Yes, ma'am. I will make sure we have everything we need."

"I would like at least one training session before we depart. I am not sure how much time we will have on the road. And we want to be prepared if something happens." I added.

"We can start immediately, ma'am. If you have time." Finn responded.

I did have time, although I did not have anything prepared.

"Sure. I will just order some more undead to show up. We have training weapons in there." I pointed at the building behind them.

The eyes of the soldiers widened when they saw my small undead horde. I brought everything I wanted to take with us. My skeletons lacked armour and their weapons were a mix of swords, maces, axes, spears,... loot from our enemies, to be honest. But I did keep my skeletons all clean. For the training they would use practice weapons as well.

Nyx jumped from my head and grew to her full size. She looked rather smug when the soldiers stared at her.

Then we started training. At first I had the soldiers face off against my normal skeletons. It went poorly, for the soldiers. 20 skeletons were no joke and the soldiers had no magic. Also, the skeletons were commanded by me. I used their numbers to encircle them. The soldiers were capable of dealing with a skeleton one on one, but getting swarmed destroyed them.

Next they faced Nyx. She toyed with them. Her bones were too strong to care about one strike and she was way too fast. She also used her ice breath to slow them. She even froze the feet of some and made them trip. I felt bad for the soldiers. I also started to realize just how hard it was to deal with magical creatures, without magic yourself.

I decided to not have them face Hatsumi. The soldiers' morale was already low, at least they had only lost to an undead horde and a monster. If they were beaten up by a maid it might be too much. I did not fight myself either. Most of my offensive magic was death magic and would not work for a spar.

"Your undead are… strong. Ma'am." Finn stated after the exercise.

I nodded. "What I mostly lack is experience. I have been in a few fights but I value your insight. Ideally the undead will do most of the fighting for us after the scouts locate targets."

The scouts would be valuable. The fighters? Normally they would be great bodyguards, something a tier two undead was not best suited for. But I had tier threes with me. I could even deploy Nyx on the front and still have Hatsumi guard me. But their experience might still be helpful.

The soldiers looked unhappy about the outcome but did not complain, openly. I heard some of them muttering unkind words. Hopefully they would be happier once they fought alongside my undead.

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