Zarba's group finally arrived as they could see the blockage where the mercenaries were going to ambush them originally and noticed an eerie silence in this place, as the jungle seemed to be unnaturally still and the air was thick with the scent of death. They also see the undead mercenaries standing motionless behind fallen trees blocking the road, weapons slack in their hands, their glowing green eyes tracking the riders' approach with eternal hunger in them.
Behind the zombified mercenaries, the two undead chimeras were long gone—only the occasional rustle of foliage on both sides of the road from their agile movements could faintly be heard as they prowled like predators in the dark jungle.
The distance between the two groups shrank with each heavy hoofbeat of the two skeleton horses, while Xin's fingers' grip tightened around her magic staff, and her nose wrinkled slightly as she caught the first whiff of necrotic flesh in the wind.
Zarba's group stopped twenty meters away from the zombies, with the skeletal horses slowing down as they slid on the dirt road until the two summoned mounts were finally standing still.
"I don't see the necromancer around…" Nadia muttered, pointing her greatsword at the ground by her side while she looked around with caution.
"Be careful; the necromancer is probably hiding nearby." Zarba said as he rode forward with Xin slightly ahead of Nadia. He observed the undead waiting silently in front of them and noted that their movements were pretty coordinated, indicating that the necromancer was not some noob, as a necromancer that was skilled enough to puppeteer a horde of more than a hundred zombies with precision was definitely a formidable magician.
'We are probably going to face an experienced magician...' Zarba thought while he took a deep breath to address the zombies' horde in front of him.
"Well, well, it's pretty bold of you all to be blocking the road. Aren't you guys afraid that someone will send you all to hell for your public misconduct?!" Zarba's loud voice carried across the clearing, but the zombies didn't even twitch before a crisp, dry chuckle sounded from the treeline behind the horde. They hear the old woman's voice, but she remains unseen.
"Please, they are actually doing a public service here," the voice said back to Zarba with an amused and sarcastic tone. "Your head carries quite the bounty, spawn of the mad emperor! I'm sure the citizens of the empire will celebrate their heroic service, hahahaha—!"
"Funny, but aren't you a necromancer? I'm pretty sure the gold will hardly do you much good when the bounty giver will likely be hunting you down instead of paying a necromancer like you, don't you think?" Zarba retorted, his hand grabbing his bow as he grew quite suspicious of the necromancer's motivation.
'There's no way she's after the bounty reward, as she couldn't go get the gold from the Duke without risking being found out that she is a necromancer.' Zarba thought as the Duke will definitely kill the necromancer rather than let such a dangerous individual go on their merry way with the gold coins to do who knows what.
The conversation died as the necromancer went silent, while the jungle seemed to hold its breath as something massive shifted on both sides of Zarba's group behind the treelines.
"Mmh?" Xin's long ears twitched at the faint squelch of flesh dragging through the leaves and foliage coming slowly towards them.
"Something trying to flank us…" Xin warned Zarba as she raised her glowing magic staff that was humming with magic energy, ready to cast a spell, while she tracked the movements with her ears through the trees deep in the jungle without turning her head.
The stitched chimeras were coming—one on their left, one on their right—their childlike giggles becoming audible as they crept closer and closer.
"Be ready." Zarba hummed before he turned to Nadia and gave her a nod as the muscular woman immediately shifted her posture into battle mode, ready to lunge at the enemy any moment.
"Come on…" He muttered as the moment the word left his lips, the two large undead chimeras lunged out from the treelines, their elongated arms scything through the air toward them with a high-pitched screeching roar.
But the two monsters' paths were blocked by a group of legionary soldiers that suddenly popped up into existence in front of the undead as Zarba summoned them at the perfect time while their red shields quickly interlocked into a shield wall against the charging monsters.
The chimera crashed into them with the force of a charging bull as the summoned units were pushed back, but their shields held strong, barely, under their collective effort.
The two undead chimeras' maws were snapping, and their claws were cutting at the shield wall, breaking some before they were hurled back by a coordinated push of the legionary soldiers, who quickly grabbed their javelins behind their shields and threw them at the undead.
Some hit, some missed as the undead chimeras agilely slithered out of the way with no reaction of them being hurt since they are undead, but they are not like the usual undead since they are actually trying to minimize their damage.
"Haaaaa!" Nadia is not standing around doing nothing either as she quickly lunges from horseback at one of the undead chimeras on the right as she swings her greatsword down on it.
The chimera sees her coming as it jerks its body backwards while putting its arm to block the blade. It believes that its thick muscles and bone will be enough.
But it is in fact not enough, as the undead didn't account for Nadia's strength; her greatsword cleaved through its rotted flesh and hard bone with ease, severing the chimaera's hand at the wrist in a spray of blackened blood.
The creature hisses not in pain but in annoyance, its childish voice twisting into something feral as it scrambles backward on its serpentine tail, clutching the stump where its hand used to be while glaring at Nadia's smirking face beneath her helmet.
The chimaera roars with a high-pitched voice before it spews out a black viscous liquid from its mouth towards Nadia, who senses the incoming danger by instinct and quickly jumps out of the way as the black liquid misses her and splashes on the ground with a sizzling sound and rising smoke of corrosive acid blood on the dirt where it landed.
"Tsk, what a filthy bastard…" Nadia feels annoyed, as now she couldn't get too close, or she would not be able to dodge that wide-range puking attack, but fortunately she is not alone.
The footsteps of the legionary soldiers were coming from behind her as they charged at the undead chimera with their shields and short swords.
The chimera hissed as it punched with the other still intact fist at one of the legionary soldiers' shields and sent him flying with both the broken shield and the arm holding it, but the other two summons ran past him and slammed their shields against the undead's body before they started stabbing it with their swords while it was grabbing one of the summons and throwing him at the other incoming legionary soldiers.
"Heh, now I feel bad for calling them weak…" Nadia chuckled before she joined in as she took advantage of the distracted undead chimera and slashed its flank, spilling its black blood.
But when she turned around, she noticed that the wounds on the body of the monster were repairing themselves slowly, not quite at the level of regeneration, just closing the wounds, thankfully.
"It can heal itself too, huh? How annoying…" Nadia huffed as she prepared herself to fight a long battle with this thing.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the other chimera with some javelins sticking out of its body screeched as its elongated arms flexed grotesquely while it crouched low and coiled its serpentine tail behind it, preparing to pounce at the legionaries' shield wall that was closing in on it.
Zarba watched the ongoing battle on horseback with Xin as he nocked an arrow on his bow while Xin wasn't watching as her ears twitched toward the zombies that finally moved from their position as they ran towards them on all fours like beasts with a bestial growl.
"Can you take care of them?" Zarba asked as he also noticed the charging zombies while he was aiming his arrow at the undead chimera. The fact that they were actually running also surprised him, as he didn't expect a runner type of zombie in the medieval fantasy world.
"Yes, yes, leave them to your slave-wife, my husband." Xin said with a smile on her lavender-shaded lips as she raised her golden magic staff towards the incoming zombie horde.
But before she could cast any spell, she felt the mana concentrate behind the horde as a shine of a green magic circle materialized, catching the half-elf's attention.
'Is the old woman finally making her move…?' Xin narrowed her eyes before the magic circle spewed out a large cloud of green smoke towards them from behind the horde of running zombies like a smokescreen…