Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

Necromancy could be very deadly, or at least I was hoping for my crawler to turn out that way. It took a whole week after Thorn was raised to get everything prepared and to finalise my plans. Rose had spent a lot of her time with her new horse and she had a permanent grin on her face. That was why I was headed towards the stable right now to discuss our next project.

The castle of House Frost had a moderately sized stable and despite some early concerns Thorn had not caused any panic, nor had he caused any damage.

"Rose?" I asked as I entered.

"Back here!" She replied. Thorn had a box right at the end of the stable, next to Coffee. I had brought a carrot for my own horse since he was such a good mount. He seemed to appreciate the treat, then I moved to Thorn's box.

I stared at the vampiric horse, blood was dripping from its mouth while it chewed. Rose was currently brushing him.

"Rose, what is he eating?" I asked.

"I found a way to give him treats! Small rodents, like rats. Maybe he can team up with the cats and hunt them, although he might be a bit big. Most rats can't identify him as an undead and if they come close they are turned into a snack!" Rose replied.

I looked at Coffee, who was now munching on some hay. He seemed undisturbed by Thorn's diet.

"Ok, but remember he is only a tier two." I reminded Rose.

"I know, he is still awesome!" Rose replied. "Oh, you have been looking for me, right? Did you need me?"

"The crawler preparations are done! I was hoping we could complete it today. Have you learned the runes I gave you?" I asked.

"Yes! I think I have everything memorized. I am still unsure what you are trying to animate though."

"I am not sure what to call it since it's a new creation." I scratched my head. "Maybe a blood draugr? I want to circulate water through the main body, using the fluid pipes crawlers have. I am unsure what sort of fluid, which is not blood, they normally have but I guess it serves a similar purpose. Anyway, we are using water there. But we are going to use blood for the former acid spitting parts. Crawlers are not entirely immune against their acid but the pipe towards their mouth and the sac that stores it are reinforced. I am thinking we are treating the blood like they would acid."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"So you think you can just add a blood affinity that only covers one organ and the spitting mechanism?" Rose asked.

"It's not going to be a true affinity, it just needs to withstand the spells you put in there. My idea is that I repurpose the stomach and the normal mouth to spit my necrotic water and we have a second compartment where you help me to do something similar with blood. Sadly blood can't be as easily created as water, so we might have to load it with potions. That is also the reason why I think trying for a true vampiric crawler would not be worth it." I explained.

Rose nodded. "That makes sense. Blood mages usually use the blood of their enemies and have to be careful using their own since it is limited. Is blood going to help that much though? Aren't your necrotic water spells rather good?"

"I want to see what we can do with different elements. Maybe I can have a fire crawler at some point? I am even thinking we are not going to load the second compartment entirely with blood. Maybe a diluted potion is enough? I need to see what spells you can put on that. Oh, that means I would like you to learn a bit more blood magic." I added.

"Sure, I do enjoy magic." Rose replied. "Hey, if the blood during the raising is simply meant to add some resistance to the former acid spitting part, couldn't you add resistance to the entire undead?"

"Yes! See, Hatsumi is more resistant to light magic because we used Eva's body. We already know that an undead can have some resistance without a true affinity! I am trying to recreate that! Of course, I would have no idea how to infuse anything with light mana, nor do we have a light mage. But if this works it will open new possibilities for my future undead." I said. "Keep in mind that we are talking about resistance and not any form of immunity. I am not sure how much it will help but we will see."

"Sounds fascinating." Rose said as she stored her brush. Then she gave Thorn a few more pats before we left towards the lab.

I was really excited and hoped that my ideas would work. Sadly I did not have Gronir here to discuss my plans but it would be interesting showing him my creations, assuming this worked.

Inside the lab we began assembling the crawler. We had already chosen all the parts before but now we assembled them. The compartments were made from leftover acid sacs which we stitched together. Hopefully animating the corpse would reconnect the dead tissue. Cracks in the plates and the legs were frozen together for now and we left a small port for the experimental blood sac. It was located on the left of the abdomen and I hoped the animated creature could protect it with ice armour. The opening was as big as the top of a vial and any liquid would flow through a hose made of acid sac material.

Once we were ready my friends joined us to watch the spectacle. Rose cycled blood through the future blood sac while I cycled necrotic water through the remaining crawler. My new spell creation was rather complex and it felt like I had to put a lot of mana into it. I almost lost my concentration but thankfully the spell finished in time!

I gasped and Hatsumi caught me as I stumbled. The crawler's armour plates turned grey with some black spots on them. I heard a creaking sound as the crawler stood up and I immediately cast my undead heal on it, fearing it would fall apart.

"Don't overdo it." Helena warned, while putting her hand on my shoulder. My vision was getting a bit blurry as I had really exhausted myself this time, however I could feel the link.

"We did it, Rose." I muttered and closed my eyes.