Chapter 14: The Manipulated Corpses

The ground around him was strewn with shattered corpses—human and beast alike—scattered in disarray, with some severed limbs still twitching, animated by some unseen force that granted them vitality.

George exhaled deeply, pulling his oak spear from the headless knight’s corpse.

No blood spurted out; instead, a thick, black liquid oozed from the wound.

“That’s Knight Gavin! I’ve seen him once before. George, you bastard, you’ve killed a knight!” Rafama’s voice was more excited than fearful.

“It wasn’t me who killed him. Knight Gavin was already dead before this. This is just a corpse being controlled,” George replied.

“Of course, I’m not blind. I can see that!” Rafama ran over excitedly and began dismantling the armor from Knight Gavin’s body.

George opened his mouth but ultimately swallowed the words he intended to say.

“Looks like this is the work of a group of necromancers—those terrifying fellows.” Though he spoke of fear, his hands didn’t stop moving.

“Tomorrow, I’m going to report this to the lord. I think I’ll be rewarded. Maybe I can become a knight’s squire, and perhaps then I can marry Yara.”

George didn’t want to discuss such matters. He said, “I need to go help the others.”

“Aren’t you going to rest, Brother George?” Rafama slowed his movements and asked.

The corpses controlled by the necromancers at the South Gate had already been cleared.

George alone had slain ninety percent of them, including a controlled knight.

“The Lord teaches us to help the weak,” George said, hearing the screams from within the village.

Perhaps the North Gate had been breached, and those controlled corpses had stormed into the village, massacring indiscriminately.

Those killed by these corpses would also become controlled bodies, attacking the living.

“In that case, you can head east in the village. By the stream that runs through the village, there’s a mill—that’s the Daniels family’s estate. Maybe you can play the role of a knight rescuing a princess.” Rafama said no more.

“…”

George remained silent, gripping his oak spear tightly as he hurried into the village.

After he left, Rafama’s movements ceased, and the excitement vanished from his face.

“Boss, should we go loot something?” A guard approached quietly, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

“Fool! Stop fixating on petty gains. We’re no longer bandits living in caves; we’re recognized guards now. We should protect the villagers,” Rafama scolded.

“Alright, if you say so, boss.” The guard shrank back.

He knew of Rafama’s ruthless methods.

When the Daniels family recruited them, Rafama was known as Skinner Rafama.

He didn’t want to become the next example.

“Report the situation with these necromancers and George to the lord. The reward will be far greater than looting a small village.”

“Gold coins are precious, but being recognized by the lord and becoming his henchman—how many gold coins is that worth?”

A gleam flashed in Rafama’s eyes.

When he saw the army of controlled corpses, he had planned to flee with his subordinates.

The Daniels family’s mill was more like a fortress compared to the village’s wooden walls, making it easier to defend after concentrating forces.

He believed that Yara at the North Gate would make the same choice.

With just over ten guards, defending the gate against hundreds of pain-insensitive, death-defying controlled corpses was nearly impossible.

Unless half of them were seasoned knight’s squires, it couldn’t be done.

However, before he could give the order, George charged alone into the dense horde of necromancer-controlled corpses, wielding a spear and shield.

There were human remains, as well as large beasts like bears, wolves, and tigers—especially a controlled armored knight among them.

Rafama initially thought George was courting death, but when he saw George wielding his oak spear, slicing through the undead as if cutting through tofu, he realized how wrong he was.

Using an oak spear as if it were a sharp greatsword, he effortlessly cleaved through the controlled corpses.

Even beasts more ferocious than in life couldn’t bite through his skin.

Most astonishingly, he could pierce through a knight’s armor with his oak spear.

He touched the stripped armor, noting a perfectly round hole in the chest area.

This level of strength was beyond imagination—there had to be some mysterious power at play.

Rafama was aware of mysterious powers; he even knew that the Elbert family worshipped an object imbued with such power.

“Then, boss, should we take advantage of the chaos to abduct that Yara chick?”

“Fool! Fool! Why are all my subordinates idiots?” Rafama slapped him.

“She’s just a woman. Once we have money, we won’t lack women!”

“Eliminate outsiders from the team, then gather weapons and equipment. We’re heading to York Town now.”

…

Lori Village had two gates—south and north.

The South Gate was larger and thus faced stronger attacks, led by a controlled knight.

But they happened to encounter George.

‘Help the weak,’ ‘be courageous,’ ‘face evil,’ ‘wield the oak spear and oak shield’—meeting all these conditions, George was empowered to an exaggerated degree.

He felt an endless surge of power within his body.

This was the Lord’s blessing.

The Lord was watching over him, George thought.

Only the sounds of fear and screams reached his ears.

Those corpses controlled by necromancers felt no pain and couldn’t die again; they had to be chopped into pieces.

George saw a controlled wolf corpse biting a villager, whose struggles were weakening.

Gripping his oak spear, now stained with black filth, he charged forward and slashed down, cutting the wolf corpse in half.

The bisected wolf corpse still struggled, its jaws snapping, trying to bite George.

He stomped down, crushing the wolf’s head, leaving only its forelimbs flailing with unnatural energy.

“Sorry, I was late,” George bowed slightly, holding the cross.

The villager’s neck had been torn open, breathing ceased, eyes closed.

Suddenly, George was startled.

He saw a faint blue glow spreading from the bitten neck, coiling upward into the skull and downward into the limbs.

Before he could comprehend what the blue glow was, the corpse twitched, eyes snapping open, blue light streaming from them, and it raised its arms to grab George.

“Is this blue glow the secret behind the necromancers’ control over corpses?” he thought, simultaneously smashing the corpse’s arms with his shield, leaving them limp.

He glanced at the bisected wolf corpse, still twitching, but now he could see the blue glow filling it, slowly dissipating.

“This is the Lord’s revelation,” he was certain.

He stomped on the corpse’s chest, a cracking sound echoing as he broke the sternum.

Drawing his rusty sword from his waist, he decapitated the corpse.

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