The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

155 Bone Blades and ten left

Bone Man had walked the path of combat for about ten years... a considerable length of time, when he thought about it. It was about five times the lifespan of a rat.

He reflected upon his past as his mount, a Skeleton Horse made from horse bones turned into an Undead, walked towards his enemy.

"An Undead came out, just like we heard. A Skeleton Knight wearing black armor!"

"There are Zombies and Living Armors behind it; it might be a General! Don't let your guards down!"

Bone Man had been instructed by his master Vandalieu to protect this location, and there were a hundred or so men who appeared to be mercenaries, wearing matching equipment, who had ignored the warnings outside and stepped foot here.

According to the Undead that were once part of Duke Marme's army, this was a mercenary band called the 'Iron Rust Brigade,' known within the Mercenaries' Guild to be a fearsome group of brave fighters that would step onto any battlefield for the right price. There were quite a lot of them, but between a third to half were probably mercenaries that had joined the group temporarily.

The mercenary band apparently got its name from the fact that when they were encountered on the battlefield, they always smelled like rusted iron due to the blood of their many slain foes.

"Kakah."

It was an exaggerated name; it could only be said that they were failing to live up to it. Bone Man's teeth rattled as he laughed at the mercenaries; he could see the spirits of those that they had killed, who looked to be nothing more than civilians.

Kakakah, guguh, kukekeh. The laughter spread among the Undead under Bone Man's command, too.

"Are these guys laughing?" said one of the mercenaries.

"Don't respond to them; they're Rank 4 or 5 at most! With our skills and numbers, they're no match for us!" shouted another.

The Iron Rust Brigade mercenaries didn't live up to their name, but they did possess enough skill to be fairly well-known.

If their abilities were classified by the Adventurers' Guild, all of them would be at least D-class, and the higher-ranking members were equivalent to C-class adventurers.

They were more adept at group battles than anything else, and they were even capable of exterminating Earth Dragons if they made full use of their strengths.

And they were a group that disguised themselves and earned their keep as bandits in times of peace in order to maintain their skills, morale and equipment.

That was why they had accepted a large amount of money for the request to rescue Duke Marme, who had been abducted by the resistance. Even though they knew that they were being used as decoys so that the spies and scouts could infiltrate the area.

They had no intention of doing as they were told and continue fighting as decoys until they were all exterminated. The success condition of their mission was vague; it was the acquisition of the duke himself or significant information regarding his whereabouts. If they just went wild and captured a few resistance members alive, that would be enough.

They were just decoys after all, so their employers were likely not expecting much from them. The mercenaries figured that if they achieved enough to save face, there wouldn't be any trouble.

And they thought that they were capable enough to achieve this.

They knew that a thousand members of Duke Marme's army, including many elite individuals, had already been lost. They had also heard that several other mercenary bands had been wiped out.