Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

"Why did they meow?" Gronir asked.

"Uh, that's just Nyx being Nyx, nothing to worry about." I replied, while mentally checking my links. Nothing stood out, they seemed to be normal undead.

"Did it work?" Cassie asked.

"I am not sure." I replied. "I can't see anything special when it comes to their connection, so they might be regular undead or something more, we will have to try them and see what they can do. We also don't know what inborn powers they have."

"We should go to a training room to test them." Gronir suggested.

"I have a good feeling about them! They were really cool sitting up at the same time!" Rose said.

"Do you feel anything? Your poison helped to create them." I asked Rose.

"Hm, maybe I feel a tiny bit more connected to them than to your other undead?" Rose wondered.

"Do they crave blood, like Thorn, or are they more like Chariot?" Skadi asked. "Actually, was it Rose's involvement that caused Thorn to be more into blood than your other vampiric undead? Even Ivy isn't that interested, although she does eat other things as snacks, like bones."

"Meow." Ivy said.

"Ok, she is interested in blood, just not to the extent Thorn seems to be." Skadi clarified.

"You know, I have never thought about that." I admitted. "Maybe it's because Thorn is larger?"

"Perhaps Rose has a stronger craving for blood due to the way she has been created?" Gronir wondered. "And that transfers to the undead she helps with, the undead with a blood affinity at least. We should find some rats and see how the goblins react but I also have to add that Thorn is somewhat unusual for a tier two horse. Tier twos retain some instincts but a horse shouldn't eat rats, it would make more sense if it was a cat."

"We can always blame Nyx." I suggested.

"Meow!" Nyx complained.

Meanwhile the goblins shamans just sat there, staring ahead. I hadn't created an accidental tier three, which was probably good.

"Uh, commanding them is a bit weird, or is it just me?" Rose asked, as we prepared to move to a training room and the goblins stood up, still in perfect sync.

"I haven't really tried yet, what do you mean?" I asked.

"They are clearly different undead but if you don't specify they will all follow the same order, even if you send it to one." Rose explained.

I tried that out myself and ordered the one on the left to take a step forward, yet they all stepped forward. Then I specifically ordered only the one on the left and this time only he followed.

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"Interesting, so we definitely have some form of link. That makes it harder to use them individually but will make it easier if we want them to do the same thing. Maybe we will have to design specific commands for them?" I suggested.

"First we need to learn what they are capable of." Gronir stated. "But this is rather fascinating, if it allows them to pool their mana it will make them stronger than one would expect a group of tier twos to be. Not that one should underestimate a vampiric tier two undead."

"Have we confirmed that they are vampiric?" Skadi asked. "Kyan turned out differently after all, maybe your new link has changed their affinity?"

"Ssss."

While Kyan was perfectly capable of talking normally he was a snake of few words and often just made an approving noise, like right now.

"Hey, last time we had an alchemical reaction that I didn't account for, this time nothing happened! Not even a small explosion, or anything." Cassie said.

The left goblin scratched itself with a finger, then formed a small ribbon with the blood flowing from the wound.

"Yeah, they are vampiric." Rose stated.

"Why did you order him to form a ribbon?" I asked.

"It looks nice on Kyan." Rose replied.

"Ssss." Kyan sounded pleased.

"Ok, well let's go to the training room and see what else they can do." I said.

I also ordered some of my normal goblin zombies to join us so we could test the shamans ability to protect others.

"Ok, first let's see how they can defend themselves. Skadi, do you want to attack them a bit?" I asked.

"Sure." Skadi replied and grabbed a training weapon. Then she attacked the group.

I ordered the shamans to only defend themselves and they formed a collective shield in front of them. It looked like it was made from a black fog with some red spots inside.

"Careful!" Gronir warned.

Skadi's axe was already piercing the shield, which provided some resistance but didn't seem solid.

"This is weird, it feels like I am hitting water, or something like that. There is some pressure but nothing solid to stop the blow." Skadi said. "Why did you want me to stop?"

"Step back from the fog and look at your axe." Gronir advised.

As Skadi's wooden training axe looked grey inside the fog but it remained grey when she pulled it back. "Huh, is it rotting?"

"This is a very interesting defence, it's a denser version of a death fog and they have mixed some blood magic into it." Gornir stated as he approached the shield and studied it up close. "I believe this fog would not just rot organic materials, it will also use any blood to feed itself. As far as defences go it's poor against physical attacks but it would work against magic and especially against any living getting too close. It's honestly rather deadly for a defence. This isn't something I would have expected from a tier two."

"Oh, could I learn something like that?" Rose asked.

"Perhaps, I am not familiar with the spell itself. You would need three affinities for this, so this would be a very rare spell among the living. It also works a lot better for undead, since getting stabbed is less problematic for them. That means it's not a spell you will find in many academies." Gronir explained.

"How are they doing it? Is this an inborn power?" Cassie asked.

Gronir's eyes glowed green as he studied the undead while I tried to figure things out through my links.

I scratched my head. "I am not really sure, I think maybe they are combining inborn abilities? Is that a thing?"

"It is now…" Gronir muttered. "I believe you are right. Three of them are focusing on the death fog shield, one is providing the blood component and the fifth seems to be coordinating, somehow." Gronir stroked his beard. "I am not sure if you have created the defensive support you wanted but you have certainly created something very interesting."

"Could you fill an entire battlefield with that fog?" Rose asked.

"That would be…" Gronir's eyes widened. "If there was enough blood to fuel it… Normally a death cloud that big would use too much mana but if it can use blood as fuel…" Gronir remained silent for a bit before he added: "However, a death cloud can be dispersed with magic. There are also some shielding spells, so this would mostly work against normal troops. And I doubt that those tier twos could cover a large area. They formed a small dense shield because it would be too expensive otherwise, I assume."

"Can they shield others?" Cassie asked.

"Let's find out!" I said and ordered them to protect my normal zombies. After some more experimentation it turned out they could shield my zombies, but only if they weren't too far away. And it seemed to use quite a bit of mana, so they couldn't keep it up for long if they shielded a large group. However, if the shield would be fed some blood it would be easier to maintain.

"So, you have managed to raise some tier twos who can create a blood draining death shield for your zombies, in some limited way." Cassie noted. "This would be the right moment for an evil laugh."

"You should have asked Helena to join us, this is a missed opportunity." Skadi agreed.

While I couldn't provide the laugh my tail wagged excitedly. Creating new undead was always fun and judging by Rose's smile she agreed.