With a group of walking corpses blocking their way back, the wolf pack erupted into chaos.
There were only ten walking corpses. Behind them, some bodies still remained.
These bodies looked no different from the walking corpses; the only difference was that they had no Soul Fire. Rhode had turned them into walking corpses by using Soul Summoning to kindle their Soul Fire.
It wasn't that Rhode didn't want to kindle the Soul Fire of every corpse. He had simply run out of mana.
Before kindling the walking corpses' Soul Fire, Rhode had changed his title to [Necromancer]. His Soul Summoning skill had risen by one level, equivalent to an extra skill point invested in Soul Summoning.
With Intermediate Soul Summoning, Rhode had spent only one mana point to raise each walking corpse.
Normally, creating Undead Creatures through Soul Summoning consumed a great deal of mana. Most of it went toward altering the corpses' flesh and turning them into an undead race; only a small portion was used to kindle their Soul Fire.
Here, however, the tomb contained ample Death Energy. The corpses' flesh had already been almost completely transformed, so all it took to turn them into walking corpses was to kindle their Soul Fire.
Rhode guessed this was also why Alot had so many Undead Creatures. The Death Energy provided by the tomb helped him complete most of the Soul Summoning process. All Alot needed to do was provide corpses and kindle their Soul Fire.
Of course, the transformation inside the tomb took time. That was why, when Rhode had first awakened, he had seen only corpses that were nearly transformed—and no Necromancer Apprentice.
The Soul Fire of low-tier Undead Creatures couldn't produce any special effects. It only gave them the instinct to kill the living. Combined with the boost from Intermediate Soul Summoning, this was how Rhode had managed to awaken each walking corpse at the cost of just one mana point.
Even so, after awakening ten walking corpses, Rhode had run out of mana.
If he didn't use Soul Summoning and instead let corpses kindle their own Soul Fire, then even if their flesh reached the standard of an Undead Creature after being nurtured by Death Energy, it would still take a long time for Soul Fire to appear.
Amid the wolf pack's commotion, the Wolf King quickly surveyed its surroundings. After confirming a few things, it turned its gaze back to Rhode. It had realized that the enemy before it was the one controlling everything.
The Wolf King howled, and the wolf pack immediately fell silent. As if they understood what the Wolf King meant, they all turned their eyes toward Rhode, then charged at him.
The Wolf King meant to take advantage of the opportunity to kill Rhode. If they could take him down, they still had a chance to escape the tomb.
When the wolf pack moved, Rhode issued a command through his Mental Mark. The Skeleton Warrior beside him immediately stepped forward, raising its shield to meet the oncoming wolves.
Rhode himself stood behind the Skeleton Warrior with his sword in hand, waiting for a chance to strike.
Rhode had no intention of charging forward and fighting the wolf pack head-on. With Undead Creatures at his disposal, doing so would be no different from facing the wolves outside the tomb.
By his estimate, leaving out the Wolf King, ten walking corpses would be enough to deal with the rest of the wolves. He only needed to hold the wolf pack here until the walking corpses arrived from behind.
The walking corpses had fallen behind because of their slow speed. They could only trudge after the wolf pack, and Rhode had no idea how long it would take them to catch up.
The main tomb chamber wasn't spacious. To reach Rhode, the wolf pack first had to get past the Skeleton Warrior.
Normally, the Skeleton Warrior fought on instinct, and its instinctive reactions often left it open to attack. Now, with Rhode controlling it and its own powerful attributes to rely on, its combat ability had improved considerably. At last, it could make full use of its superior attributes.
As soon as they clashed, the Skeleton Warrior at the front held back the wolf pack with ease.
Under Rhode's control, the Skeleton Warrior kept its shield in front of its body, focusing on guarding its vital points. It only brought down its sword when the wolves tried to bite its leg bones.
The Skeleton Warrior felt no pain and was undaunted by injury. The damage from wolves biting its leg bones wouldn't be enough to kill it anytime soon.
Although the wolf pack outnumbered the Skeleton Warrior, the tomb chamber was cramped. To leave room to dodge, only a few wolves could attack it at once.
The rest could only crowd around the chamber's entrance. They wanted to attack the enemy in front of them, but for the moment, they had no way to do so.
As they watched the walking corpses draw closer, the wolves at the back began to panic. They didn't know whether to keep obeying the Wolf King or focus on attacking the enemy in front of them.
Rhode focused entirely on controlling the Skeleton Warrior. With Rhode's combat experience guiding it, the Skeleton Warrior fought like another fearless Rhode, holding the wolf pack back at the front.
Under Rhode's control, the ordinary wolves not only failed to threaten the Skeleton Warrior but were repeatedly struck and wounded.
Seeing the walking corpses closing in on the pack from behind, the Wolf King knew they couldn't afford to delay any longer. It had to find a way to deal with the enemy in front of them quickly, so it began gathering magical energy.
It waited for the moment after the Skeleton Warrior swung its sword, then spat out a Magic Arrow at it.
The Skeleton Warrior had few vital points. Since its Soul Fire was contained in its skull, the only blow that could kill it was one that struck the skull. Rhode had kept its shield raised over its upper body, preventing the Wolf King's magic from hitting its cervical vertebrae. Even if its other parts were damaged, the Skeleton Warrior could keep fighting for a while.
At the beginning, Rhode had sent a Skeleton Warrior to stop the approaching wolf pack, but it hadn't lasted long before being killed. The reason was that the Wolf King's magic had struck its cervical vertebrae, just as Rhode had killed Skeleton Warriors by decapitating them.
If the wolves' bites hadn't hit a vital point, the Skeleton Warrior could have held them back for a long time.
The Wolf King had apparently noticed this, too. With the Skeleton Warrior's Iron Shield firmly protecting its cervical vertebrae, the Magic Arrow didn't aim there. Instead, it shot toward the Skeleton Warrior's lower abdomen.
The Skeleton Warrior couldn't recover from its attack in time and was struck by the Magic Arrow. Rhode might have had a chance to dodge if he had been in its place, but a Mental Mark alone couldn't make the Skeleton Warrior evade in time.
Thanks to its skeletal nature, the Magic Arrow passed through where flesh should have been and struck the Skeleton Warrior beneath its spine.
There was a loud bang, and the Skeleton Warrior fell to the ground. Its spine connected to its entire lower body; when the Magic Arrow struck, the spine snapped, and the Skeleton Warrior lost the ability to move.
With a single spell, the Wolf King had badly wounded the Skeleton Warrior.
The passage was rather narrow, so the Skeleton Warrior alone could keep the wolf pack out of the tomb chamber. But it also blocked Rhode, preventing him from joining the Skeleton Warrior in attacking the wolves.
Now the Skeleton Warrior had fallen, with very little health remaining. As soon as the other wolves saw the Wolf King's magic strike it, they rushed to attack the fallen Skeleton Warrior.
Just as one wolf was about to bite the fallen Skeleton Warrior's cervical vertebrae, a flash of silver cut through the air. The wolf's head fell, blood splattering across the pale bones on the floor. Rhode had made his move.
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