Chapter 6

  “I am not riding that,” Drew said firmly.

  “I do not understand your distrust of these majestic animals, Drew Wright,” Spock said with a shake of his head as he finished latching the saddle onto his mount.

  “For one, they used to be my chickens. Amber and I raised them from chicks and collected eggs from them every morning. Chickens are not something you ride. Ever.”

  Spock nodded sagely, “I agree, attempting to ride a chicken would be most unwise. However, these are Dickens. They have more in common with emus than their original heritage.”

  “And that is the other reason. I refuse to ride anything with the name of Dicken, and Demonic looking or not, this is not a video game from the east where everyone happily rides them off into the sunset.”

  “I do not understand that reference, Drew Wright.”

  Drew turned to his wife, “Why aren’t you up in arms about this?”

  “Who me?” Amber smiled smugly, “Freya just gained to a new ability to increase her size on command, I can ride on her back like she’s a giant dire wolf.”

  A dire wolf is much cooler than a Dicken… but Freya isn’t exactly mount material either. Still, I guess I would choose that over an oversized chicken.

  “I happened to like those games, so I’ll happily be taking Spock up on his offer,” Mark said before adding, “Besides, it’s not like you have a lot of options.”

  Drew glanced into the pastures that lay before him and sighed. Mark was right. There were Dickens aplenty, as they had been reproducing, although a fair few were still ‘chick-sized’, two donkeys, and about a hundred head or so of cattle. Cows were out of the question, and the donkeys had likely never been ridden, especially by someone of Drew’s size, so it really did only leave the giant birds.

  The scouts and diplomats joining the party had their own horses, which had been purposely set aside for people of their position, and Drew could have taken one of them, but that felt like a dick move. What kind of leader, or even person, would he be if he took a decent mount from someone he was supposed to lead and left them with a stupid chicken. And the necromancers…

  Wait a minute! Drew’s head careened as he looked over his shoulder. The undead commanders were still at the gate, each of them looking supremely out of place amongst the diplomats, scouts, and various living people wandering in and out of Sanctuary and going about their business. The undead didn’t need living mounts, they had raised their own.

  Bingo. Drew smiled in self-satisfaction.

  “Why do you look like a smug asshole all of a sudden dude?” Mark asked with curiosity.

  Drew brought up his minion templates and filtered the huge list to only show ridable mounts. He scrolled and scrolled through various options as vague ideas and information filled his brain when he glanced at each one. Several of the templates held promise, but only one had him smiling with excitement.

  [Undead Nightmare]

  Nightmares are frightening steeds born of fire and horror. It is rare to find one tamed to use as a mount due to their fiery and sometimes explosive demeanor, but the ones that are make for fiercely loyal steeds that are deadly to their enemies and strike terror in the hearts of living beings across the cosmos. This undead variant is equally as striking, but its temperature has chilled in death making for much calmer riding experience for the aspiring Necromancer on the go.

  Excellent. Drew steepled his hands while smiling at the thought of having such a badass mount. He wouldn’t be riding a dumb chicken today, no sir.

  Drew cast his arms about and glowing blue lines of light etched themselves into the ground. The lines stretched and grew, flowing into each other and creating runic symbols. The air grew heavy and Drew felt a noticeable amount of weight pressed against his shoulders. As Drew went through the esoteric motions, he ensured that the mount would be a construct, one with more animal-like instincts rather than an artificial soul.

  Mark, Spock, Amber, and indeed even the Dickens and Freya backed away from the growing circle of runes. The glowing runes split into more runes, and then separate circles, each of which had even more of the strange etchings. The air itself seemed to quake with so much magic being pulled together into one area. The magic and the pressure kept building until it reached a boiling point and everything snapped into place.

  Blue light and flame shot out from the runic diagram directly towards the sky, and quickly exploded outwards while remaining within the diagram’s perimeter. The very ground cracked and bones flew upwards through the vents in the earth, snapping together with loud cracks that sounded like far-off thunder, and kicked up dust and dirt in the process.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Drew’s hands shot straight upwards and he felt a sizeable chunk of his mana pool drain away. A shriek-like neigh pierced through the air and a heavy thud upon the ground sent a shockwave of air that cleared away all the floating dirt and debris. Standing there where the etchings used to be was Drew’s new mount. His [Undead Nightmare].

  Walking up to it, albeit cautiously, Drew was blown away by its sheer size. His head was barely taller than the tip of the creature’s shoulder blade, and he was not a short man. As for its undead features, there was a distinct lack of them much to his surprise.

  The Nightmare was black as night, with azure flames licking off where its feathered lowered legs were, and the same flames flowed from the creature’s mane. Across the black coat thin blue etching, much like from the runes of the summoning, occasionally pulsed with power. Like most undead, it had blue piercing eyes that glowed.

  He had only lived in the rural area for a few years, Drew hadn’t grown up around horses nor did he know much about them. But what he did know was the creature standing in front of him was an impressive specimen indeed.

  “An Undead Nightmare, what a wonderful choice, Champion,” The Lady’s voice broke Drew’s focus from the mount as it echoed through his mind.

  “Are you always watching me?”

  A light laughter came through the mental connection, “No, not always, but I sensed you were up to something and wished to check in.”

  “So, you were making sure I didn’t blow myself up or do something dumb?”

  “That as well, yes. Remember, for most beings it takes many decades to reach C-Grade unless they’ve faced great challenges or accomplished many things. In that time, they usually have a firm grasp on their power, whereas you have only recently achieved it. But I digress, the Nightmare is a wonderful mount and I have a small gift for you.”

  Drew’s curiosity and caution were piqued, “A gift? Why?”

  “Once upon a time, I too rode a Nightmare. It seemed fitting that I gift you with this as befitting your position as my Champion.

  His eyebrow rose as armor suddenly materialized around the horse, barding of some kind. He had grown accustomed to his armor and its more… edgy aspects, and the armor that formed around the Nightmare had much of the same theme. A chest piece of metal with a large skull, layered grey plate mail around the neck, and a wicked looking helm with spikes covering the creature’s head.

  The azure flames of the Nightmare’s mane leaked through a slot in the neck armor and danced vividly, and strange thigh armor with horned skulls protected the steed’s upper leg joints before coming together to create a saddle.

  “This looks expensive, are you sure it’s okay to just give this to a mortal? Wouldn’t it cost a bunch of divine energy or whatever?”

  Whoever had originally said ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’ obviously never had a supreme goddess of death handing them gifts. Drew was more comfortable with the goddess now than he had been originally, but somewhere in the back of his mind he knew she must have some ulterior motive for helping him.

  “This is a personal item that belonged to me when I was once mortal, the only cost was transportation. Do not worry yourself over that, besides Sindra and her sisters are too preoccupied to act as couriers right now.”

  “Alright…” Drew said with hesitation before feeling the mental line close.

  The Nightmare shook its head slightly which caused the platemail to lightly clank against itself, and then stomped one of its feet as Drew crept closer to the mount. The mental connection that led from Drew to the mount allowed him to feel what the horse was, at least in a muted form, and he noticed that it seemed to like him while being remaining a little cautious towards the people behind him.

  Interesting… so undead of this nature really are more like animals. He seems friendly at least.

  Drew felt reassured as he placed his right hand near the horse’s muzzle and gently patted it through the barding. A happy feeling came through his mental connection and Drew figured everything was going to be okay.

  “Uh, dude… can I take back what I said about the Dicken and get one of those instead?” Mark asked.

  “Sorry, no taksie-backsies. You can stick with your Dicken, and I’ll enjoy this undead hotrod instead,” Drew said over his shoulder with a smile.

  The Nightmare let out a neigh which sounded like a thousand shrieking souls being sucked into a deep pit.

  “Besides, I don’t think he likes you,” Drew laughed.

  ***

  Drew and crew made their way towards Houston in style. Spock and Mark on their dumb chickens, Amber on Freya’s back, and Drew on his awesome looking new Nightmare, which he of course named Shadow. His naming sense and creativity were never his strong suites, besides Shadow was a badass name.

  It took a while for both Drew and Shadow to get used to each other, but the mount quickly warmed up to him, but not in the way one would expect from a horse with blue fire. When The System said that the mount’s temperament had chilled in death, it wasn’t joking. Small patches of frost were left in its wake as it galloped across the concrete interstate highways, and while the flames the Nightmare sprouted weren’t hot to Drew, they did make him shiver a bit if he wasn’t careful and let them flicker by his armor.

  As for everyone else, they seemed to be in good spirits. Especially Mark and, given the circumstances, Drew couldn’t blame him. Finding out his brother was alive was an extremely happy moment. Miranda, Mark’s wife, had decided to stay home though as she had duties to attend to as Hades’ newest priestess.

  It’s a shame she couldn’t come as well, but at least she finally chose a damn god so her class works fully now. Kinda sucks that she’s tied up and going to nearby human settlements to preach the good word of kindness and undeath. Drew chuckled to himself. He did not envy Miranda’s responsibilities.

  Drew was interrupted from his thoughts as Mark came up riding on his pink and purple chicken, his best friend elbowing him in his side and he held a finger over his lips. Drew cocked his head to the side only to see Mark pull a tennis ball out from his spatial inventory and then gesture over towards Amber and Freya.

  Oh boy, he’s going to get himself shot with an arrow if he’s not careful. Drew just shrugged while smiling under his helm. One way or another this would end up as a funny story.

  Mark launched the tennis ball with all his strength, “Fetch!”

  Freya’s ears perked up and her head shot towards Mark and then the ball. The mount-sized Freya shot off into the distance like a rocket, jumping off the overpass they were on and onto a frontage road down below to chase the ball.

  “MARK!!!” Amber’s accusing screams were heard as a distantly retreating promise of revenge as the dog took Amber out of sight and into the trees.

  “She’s going to shoot you, ya know?” Drew snickered.

  “It’ll be worth it.”