A Big Favour

Kai reached his sharp fingers towards the female necromancer, suddenly finding himself wanting to pierce her. He felt his hand go through warm flesh and go out the other side, just as he felt his head clear up.

He looked at the person in front of him, yet it was a man this time, not the woman. One of the necromancers seemed to have sacrificed himself for the girl, just when the decisive blow would be dealt.

His sacrifice brought Kai back to the present. He suddenly realised none of this was actually a game. He had likely killed a man this time. He would puke, if he could. He looked at his bloodied skeletal hands in shock.

"Big bro!" the female necromancer yelled as another two necromancers brought her away, while some more undead approached to intercept Kai. As his enthusiasm died, Kai suddenly noticed the immense lack of energy in his body and found his body not reacting as it should.

When Kai opened his eyes again, he seemed to be back in the City Lord's mansion. He could see the UI somewhat booting up in front of his eyes. Notifications from earlier also poured in at this time.

*39:21:01*

"Meh, I didn't even level up," he mumbled under his breath, and momentarily remembered the events of a few hours ago in their entirety. "Wait, did that even happen?" Kai questioned himself as he scratched his head, or rather, skull. The unfortunate answer had revealed itself soon after.

There was a notifications bar in the UI, he had killed tens of undead and one necromancer, it seemed, before he blacked out.

"Kai!" a feminine and welcome voice rang in his ears. Alexandra rushed to his bed with worrying eyes.

"When I heard what my father had done…" she could barely get the words out. She had promised her father would help him, and as she had learnt, Kai was put through incredible pain and then sent away as cannon fodder to fight the undead armies.

"It's all right, your father WAS helping me, after all," Kai said with a soft voice as he masked his deep contemplation. "I still have around 39 hours left."

It was already odd he had blacked out. His vessel didn't actually require sleep nor meals, but he was able to do both. He had yet to understand his circumstances. Furthermore, he still remembered the sick feeling of ripping apart that necromancer. The worst of it was the fact he hadn't cared at the time. Was he turning more and more into what he looked like, or was he simply a twisted creation with an unstable mind?

Kai remembered how he could justify himself to kill those bandits when he saved Alexandra. Sure, he had played the hero and had to constantly live with the fear of turning into a pile of bones, ironically enough. He thought just a couple of days ago he was at his home eating chips and streaming some movies. Those were simpler times. So close, yet so far away.

"What will you do?" Alexandra asked worriedly, breaking the silence. She was even more worried now as Kai had just stood there in silence for around a minute after replying to her.

Kai shook off his current mood and replied in a happy tone once more, "I need to talk to your daddy, first. I may need more of that black goo that hurts like hell."

Alexandra nodded and stayed quiet. It was now obvious to her Kai was simply putting on a face. Even though death was constantly around her, she had never taken a life nor took to battlefields. She figured it was best to leave Kai some time to think for now.

Alexandra led the way quietly as the 2.5-metre-tall giant of a skeleton followed her without making much sound. Kai was in deep contemplation again, but his serious mood brought with it a dangerous feeling to others. It was only Alexandra almost getting used to it.

What shook Kai out of his stupor, in the end, was the joyous laughter from the City Lord. Even though he did think the City Lord had helped in the end, he was almost furious that Lloyd was in such a good mood while he was combating the feelings of taking a life.

Alexandra stopped next to the door to the great hall and spoke softly, "My father seems to be celebrating with the high-ranking officials of the city. It may be better if you stayed-"

"The man of the hour, gentlemen!" Lloyd suddenly spoke up with a chalice full of hard liqueur in his hand as he pointed at Kai. "And accompanied by my precious daughter, Alexandra!" said Lloyd as he laughed. He seemed to be at least tipsy from where Kai stood.

"What did I do?" Kai scratched his skull. He was unsure whether it was sarcasm since he had blacked out in his first battle. Compared to Gort who mowed down his foes in a spectacular fashion, he was rather pathetic.

"This is the first time they retreated before they had to!" Lloyd said and guffawed, "And it's all thanks to me, in actuality!"

One of the city officials who looked at the end of his 30s, sporting a large gut and wearing high-end clothes, asked, "You claim this irregularity is of your doing, then?"

"Of course, they were terrified by my new weapon, so they now have to make adjustments to their plans for attacking," Lloyd replied and locked eyes with Kai's eye sockets, which also happened to be his eyes, and added, "They will focus their efforts on destroying our new ally in the next battle, for sure."

"Great, good luck to you in the next battle!" Kai said shyly, taking a step back this time.

Another city official who looked to be in his 70s meekly pointed at the giant skeleton and yelled in a horrified voice, "It really speaks!"

Kai felt disgruntled. "I can even juggle, old man," he said and took a few apples from the table, started juggling them like a professional.

"Hey, who knew? I never could do this before!"

"My friends, before Paltos has a stroke, let's call it a day. It seems our ally is in dire need of some words with me!"

Next to Kai, Alexandra stood and explained, "The old man is called Paltos, the richest man in the city."

"Who is the fatso?" Kai whispered. However, it seemed without lips and such, he wasn't quite able to whisper as much as he'd like. The fat man's eyes shot daggers at Kai as he got up from the table and left quickly without so much as another word.

"Oops."

"The, well, big-boned gentleman is called Felix, son of Paltos," Alexandra explained as he slapped her forehead.

Paltos soon followed Felix and the remaining city official followed without a word. He was a man in his 20s, didn't seem antagonistic nor supportive. He simply followed the others.

"I assume you want a word," Lloyd said with a sinister grin on his face and pointed a chair at the opposite of himself for Kai to sit. "Unless you would like to juggle some more?"

"I do. I have a favour to ask," Kai said as he sat down.