Chapter 48: The Outbreak of War

"Throw."

When the monster came crashing down, Ryûji gave the order.

The skeleton soldiers, who had been prepared for a long time, hastily hurled the items in their hands. These were all vials of poison and alchemical potions that Ryûji had brought with him.

As the bottles shattered against the monster's body, a deluge of multicolored liquids splashed all over it.

Spider silk materialized across the creature, binding its arms together, while the poison seeped through its skin into its body, wreaking havoc from within.

That was the main drawback of dealing with the undead: the vast majority of poisons had little to no effect on them. Among the numerous poison formulas Ryûji possessed as a poisoner, only three were effective against the undead. This time, Ryûji could be said to have pulled out all the stops, pushing the effects of these three poisons to their absolute limits.

Yet, even as the poisons and alchemical potions rained down upon it, the monster let out a roaring bellow and lunged toward Ryûji.

Such fierce aggression took Ryûji slightly by surprise. Cross-shielding his Death Staff and slender rapier in front of him, he unleashed a wind sphere crackling with lightning straight at the monster's face.

This was the very technique Ryûji had once used against demons; its destructive power went without saying. Striking the monster squarely in the visage, it actually knocked the creature back by a considerable distance.

However, Ryûji felt no joy at this outcome. He noticed that while the monster's face and chest had turned slightly blackened, the attack lacked the devastating slicing effect that could chop a person into fragments.

From this, he could deduce just how thick the enemy's hide was. Ryûji suspected that the creature had soaked in the swamp for so long that its flesh had practically turned to sludge, yielding such a resilient defense.

Having delivered his opening strike, Ryûji naturally refused to hold the front line any longer. He stepped back a few paces as the golden skeleton troops swiftly closed in, forming a tight and protective barrier around him.

Following this, other units emerged around the monster and initiated their assault.

The Fate-Weaving Spider-Woman and Videnina under Ryûji's command also made their move. The Fate-Weaving Spider-Woman continuously spun webs, repeatedly binding the creature's arms together.

Videnina engaged the monster in close combat head-on. Encased in heavy armor, she paid no mind to ordinary attacks and was fully capable of withstanding the creature's blows.

Yet Ryûji did not take the situation lightly. Had he encountered such an enemy in the real world, he might have judged the foe to be of this caliber alone. But since the adversary had entered the Underworld, the circumstances were entirely different. Anything could happen in the Underworld, and Ryûji suspected this entity possessed a threat level comparable to the mechanical monster he had encountered earlier.

Therefore, he commanded the battle with utmost seriousness, wasting not a single drop of his mana. Aside from casting *Vampiric Touch* on Videnina's four longswords, Ryûji refrained from using any further magic.

Instead, he directed his troops to attack in alternating waves. He did not exhaust his efforts to desperately rescue units targeted by the enemy; rather, he allowed those forces to fight independently.

At this moment, Ryûji could be considered to have truly matured into a seasoned necromancer. He understood that a necromancer did not belong on the frontline. While a necromancer certainly needed personal combat prowess, their army was equally a part of their capability.

Strengthening his troops and reinforcing his cities—these were also duties a necromancer must fulfill.

A necromancer could not shoulder every single burden alone, leaving his subordinates pampered and entirely helpless.

Thus, Ryûji issued precise, methodical commands to his subordinates: when to attack, what objectives to achieve, what actions to take once the objectives were met, and at what threshold of casualties to retreat.

Under these commands, Ryûji gradually cultivated a profound sensation: he seemed to stand high above, playing a massive game of chess. Every attribute of his subordinates, everything about them, was entirely within his grasp, allowing him to control the battlefield at will.

Though this feeling lasted only for a fleeting moment, Ryûji understood it was no illusion. Rather, it was a defining characteristic of a necromancer. When a necromancer commanded vast numbers of the undead, it was naturally impossible to issue verbal commands to each individual unit one by one; it was at that juncture that they naturally embarked upon this path.

However, Ryûji had not yet reached that level of mastery. Shaking off his brief trance, he raised his Death Staff high. "Tiered assault! A necromancer's way is to flatten everything in our path."

At Ryûji's command, the skeleton archers unleashed a volley of arrow rain, immediately followed by a phalanx of spear-wielding skeletons charging directly toward the monster.

These spear-wielding skeletons wore no armor, carrying only a small round shield and a spear. In truth, the small round shield was merely for show; their actual combat utility lay entirely in their spears.

Sheltered by the arrow rain, the spear skeletons surged toward the monster, thrusting their weapons directly into its body.

By this time, the monster's limbs were entangled in spider webs, and its body was compromised by the poison. Under such conditions, the spear skeletons' assaults actually yielded some results.

Ryûji observed everything unfolding before him with intense concentration. He discovered that the combat effectiveness of sixty spear skeletons paled in comparison to Videnina alone. The iron-tipped spears plunged into the monster's body without even managing to pierce its hide significantly; a few skeletons that exerted more force thrust deep into the flesh, only to have their spears wedged immovably within the muscle, unable to be pulled back out.

"The enemy's defense is formidable. We need to weaken it further."

Having made this assessment, Ryûji waved his hand once more. A contingent of golden skeletons holding shields surged forward, swinging their flails with dizzying speed. Upon reaching the monster, they smashed downward. Compared to the spear skeletons, their attacks proved even less effective; the heavy flails bounced off as if striking some sort of non-Newtonian fluid, generating nothing more than shockwaves before rebounding harmlessly.

"Blunt weapon attacks are ineffective. Only slashing and piercing work. Let's try something else."

Noting the enemy's traits, Ryûji swapped in a fresh batch of troops. This time, the assault force consisted of skeleton soldiers skilled in the Dark Night Fencing technique.

They ought to hold a certain degree of effectiveness against this type of monster. After all, Dark Night Fencing specialized in stabbing motions executed at high speed, which should be capable of wounding the creature.

Yet, just as this squad of skeleton soldiers closed in on the monster, the creature finally stirred into action. The multiple heads on its front abruptly gaped open, spewing forth a torrent of foul matter. Amidst the yellowish-green fluid, white, corpulent parasitic worms were projected outward, snapping viciously at the charging skeleton soldiers.