Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

Most goblins were some shade of green, however the assassins' skin was a lot darker. Once I raised one of them as a zombie it became almost completely black. Sadly it lost the natural ability to become translucent but it did give me an idea: What if I enhanced their skin?

"How much do we know about goblin assassins?" I asked.

"They have their natural ability to hide, which does make them dangerous but they aren't full mages like shamans. They are a bit more like monsters, to be honest. Since goblins refuse to cooperate with us our information is limited." Gronir replied.

"What if we tried to enhance the skin during the raising?" I wondered.

"You can certainly try that but I fear death magic isn't going to help, although it's also called dark magic at times. Shadow powers are not unheard off but they would mostly help at night and true shadow magic is actually a rare dark and light combination. In the end invisibility always comes back to light magic in some form." Gronir stated.

"You said true shadow magic, is there something similar?" Rose asked.

"Well, you can create a death cloud, or some form of necrotic mist, some identify such things as shadow. Actually, if you don't rely on your eyes, fighting inside a cloud can be quite beneficial and if it's a death cloud it might even kill your opponent in time, depending on their defences." Gronir said.

"Maybe we should add a water affinity to those assassins." I mused.

"You want draugrs?" Rose asked.

I shook my head. "Draugrs seem to have ice-related inborn abilities but I am leaning more towards pure water here. Maybe they could create some form of cloud?"

"I could see Kaito being even deadlier inside a cloud with a bunch of tier two assassins." Rose said.

We spent the remaining day experimenting with the assassin corpses and I was pleased with the results. Adding a bit of water mana to them seemed like a good plan and a few of our experiments could create a small cloud. Overall I had 13 usable assassins with decent enhancements, 6 of them could create a cloud while the others were mostly just quicker.

The next day Kaito reluctantly stayed behind to get a feel for his new squad and to test their abilities, while I was in the sewers again. Garm finally stayed at the academy as well, since he was just a bit too large to be comfortable down there. Helena and my other tier three were with me again, except for Kasai and Ivy.

While Hatsumi lifted the sewer cap a group of people walked towards us.

"Can we help you young ladies?" A man asked.

I studied the group, there were four men and all of them were armed. Two wore chainmail while the other two had leather armour and it looked to be of decent quality. All of them had an arming sword at their belt and the one who spoke carried a two-handed axe as well.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Thank you but we are fine." Helena replied.

"Are you sure? The sewers can be dangerous. None of you wears armour and while I can see swords on your belts you even have a maid with you. We are experienced, we can help you deal with whatever problem you have. For a small price, but we are reasonable." The man said.

"Adventurers?" I asked.

The man nodded. "I am Barny and this is my group, we were just on the way to the guild and are looking for any jobs."

"We are good but if you come across any corpses I might be interested." I said.

"Corpses?" Barny looked confused.

"Boss, she's got a skeleton." The other man in chainmail pointed at Nyx.

"Ah, you are a necromancer. That cat is quite cute but it won't help you if you run into a true monster." Barny said.

"I believe my Mistress knows a lot more about monsters than you." Hatsumi said, while giving him a smile and showing her fangs.

"Kinky." One of the men in the back muttered.

Barny didn't get the hint and moved closer as we prepared to go down into the sewers.

"We really don't need your help." I told them as I prepared to take a step onto the ladder. I also prepared for a potential confrontation.

As the man got dangerously close Hatsumi acted. Faster than he could react she grabbed his arm, swiped his feet and had him face down on the ground with her knee on his back. He dropped his axe in the process.

"Ouch! Hey, get off! What's wrong with you?!" Barney shouted.

"Stay away from my Mistress." Hatsumi hissed.

"Alright, alright!" The man said and Hatsumi let him up, while watching him carefully.

"That maid is a freak, could she be a vampire?" One of the men whispered but I still heard him.

"No way, but look, spellblade runes." The other replied.

Barny massaged his bruised arm as he studied Hatsumi again. "Spellblade, huh? Guess you don't need us after all. We will be on our way then."

He collected his axe and left.

"You know, without Kaito and Garm our group does look a lot less dangerous." Helena said.

"Meow!" Nyx disagreed.

"You could always grow if you wanted to deter people." I suggested, Nyx didn't comment.

"I almost jumped that guy and I would have bit him." Rose said as we all descended into the sewers.

"I am almost surprised that they weren't assassins." Helena said.

I sighed. "Do you have a bet going with Skadi and Cassie?"

Helena grinned. "Maybe?"

"They could have been assassins who just tested how far they could go." Hatsumi cautioned.

I shrugged. "Or they actually tried to be helpful, or wanted a job. We will just have to be careful, as usual."

"What would an ambush in the sewers look like? I mean it's dark in here and you could hide around a bend in the tunnels or something, but there isn't any real cover." Rose wondered.

"They could pretend to be workers, or guards and approach us." Helena suggested.

"They could hide inside the sewage." Hatsumi said.

"Ewww." I replied.

"Our enemies might sink that low." Helena said.

"Ok, we just hit anything moving inside the sewage, something we are already doing anyway." I said, as I placed my hand on the first rune we had to recharge. As I was channeling mana into it something felt off.

The runes glowed brighter than they should and before I could react lightning hit my hand. I briefly screamed but the pain was short, then I felt nothing.

"Koyuki!" Helena shouted.

I stared at my blackened hand in horror…

"Ssssss."

I blinked as my hand slowly turned back to normal and I realised something. Kyan was curled around my hand and he had bit me. His bite had briefly turned my hand into black stone and stopped the lightning, now my hand was turning back into flesh. There was some reddened skin but it only hurt a little.

"Sssorry. The bite was necessary to act fast." Kyan apologised.

"Don't apologise for saving me." I replied, while still processing what had happened.

Helena touched my hand gently and inspected it. "Seems like you are ok…"

Hatsumi touched my hand as well and channelled some healing into it. Soon the pain was completely gone.

"We have to find who did this." Rose said, sounding rather angry.

"Meow." Nyx agreed.