Lenny On The Loose

Mognog fixed inside his now broken maw, Lenny landed on the ground on all fours in a poor imitation of a four-legged beast. It was too poor to tell what kind of beast it was.

Ritzy and Gerhart still had their daggers gripped tightly and held out as they stared at Lenny and the green-eyed skull in his mouth. Lenny's one red eye didn't blink as it stared back at them for several moments before slowly, oh so slowly, lowering its gaze, along with his head.

Lenny glanced at Ritzy and Gerhart, who were simply watching him as he leaned his head forward and gently loosened his dislocated and almost uncontrollable jaw.

Mognog dropped to the ground, and Lenny's jaw hung open in his absence.

"What the shit."

Mognog's cursing about what had happened startled Ritzy and Gerhart, and they snapped out of their shock. But neither of them moved in case that would invite Lenny to go for either of their heads next.

Considering the state of Lenny's mouth, it probably wouldn't do much damage or give them any severe injuries if he tried to bite them, but it was clearly unhinged behavior on Lenny's part. They weren't confident they could handle that, even if his jaw wasn't attached properly. He still had the rest of his body, after all. And it seemed like his control over it was better than when he had first been reanimated.

"Ritzy."

Gerhart whispered Ritzy's name to get his attention without moving his lips. The slightest bit of movement could trigger Lenny. It wasn't likely, considering he hadn't moved to attack them at all before Ritzy tossed Mognog at him. But that could have been what awakened Lenny's attack instincts, and any movement afterward would invite aggressive behavior.

It wasn't worth the risk of large movements or loud voices.

"...yeah?"

Ritzy didn't want to take a risk Gerhart didn't want to take, at least not in this situation, so he also whispered without moving his lips. Mognog, on the other hand, was silent because he didn't want to be bitten and chewed on by a zombie again.

"That's your zombie, right?"

"Looks like it."

"Can't you tell it to, you know, stand down?"

"I can try."

"But…?"

"I don't think he will listen to me."

Gerhart sighed.

Lenny's fingertip-sized red dot of an eye flickered between Ritzy and Gerhart as they whispered. It was obvious he had heard them talk since it was only a few steps away. But Ritzy and Gerhart still didn't dare to raise their voices, even if Lenny hadn't moved because of their whispering.

"B-but I will do my best."

Ritzy noticed Gerhart's sigh, even if it were muted by his attempt at not making a sound. All the memories of his failures with necromancy flashed through Ritzy's mind. Lenny's reanimation and the odd behavior of the zombie Lenny were just the last in a long line of things that had gone wrong. But Ritzy didn't want Gerhart to think he was merely an unending supply of bad necromancy.

He had to do something about the feral Lenny before Lenny did something about them. It was just that he couldn't even feel a smidge of confidence about succeeding.

"...alright. I've got you. Work your magic."

Gerhart heard the insecurity in Ritzy's voice. He knew what was going through Ritzy's mind. Gerhart readjusted his sweaty grip on the dagger and prepared to intercept Lenny should he react to Ritzy's magic.

Lenny looked on curiously in his bestial half-crouch as Ritzy closed his eyes, and Gerhart shifted and nudged his feet a toe's length at a time until he half-covered Ritzy. If Lenny became aggressive or decided to attack, Gerhart would be closest. And if he decided to go for Ritzy due to Ritzy's necromancy affecting him, Gerhart would be ready to stand in the way and block his path.

Gerhart felt fortunate that Lenyn didn't seem too aggressively inclined. But, at the same time, it was difficult to read the expressions of a face with one zombified eye and suffering from burn scars, mummification, and a severe case of extreme dehydration and starvation. Lenny's body language was also difficult to get read since it looked like something an actor trying too hard to play an animal might do.

But the feeling Gerhart got from it wasn't one of hostility.

It was as Mognog had said. It, Lenny's zombie, seemed curious. Mognog was wrong about the strange forest creature part since it was Lenny's reanimated corpse. But maybe a forest creature's soul had snuck inside instead of Lenny's. It could explain the weird behavior.

Gerhart wiped his head clear of any stray thoughts when Lenny's face changed, and he directed his piercing red gaze at Ritzy.

Gerhart couldn't feel it himself, but Ritzy was probably trying to regain control over Lenny.

After Ritzy closed his eyes, the first thing he did was to check how much mana he had and see if it was even worth trying to subdue the zombie and put it under his control again. Or maybe if he had enough to undo the reanimation and free the soul inside Lenny's body.

But since the zombie was the closest thing to a success in his journey of necromancy so far, Ritzy was reluctant to get rid of it, despite its more free-spirited thinking and acting. Besides, it had also broken free of his control without him noticing, so it was practically guaranteed to be something more special than simply a reanimated, mindless zombie Lenny.

The only question was if Ritzy could control it or not.

After confirming he had enough mana for at least one attempt, Ritzy began moving it around his body. He still couldn't sense a connection with Lenny, so he would have to brute-force his attempt using inspiration from the Deathbeds.

To establish remote control over the Deathbeds, Ritzy had sent a string of mana to connect them to him. And to re-establish a bond with Lenny, Ritzy was planning to do the same with him. It was just that the Deathbeds appeared in Ritzy's mana sense when he closed his eyes. So he could clearly sense their position and presence. They were like beacons that guided his mana.

Zombie Lenny had nothing like that. It was completely blank in Ritzy's mind where Lenny was supposed to be. So, Ritzy would have to wing it as he tried to reconnect with the zombie.

And for that, he would have to strengthen the efficiency of his mana. Otherwise, it would just get dispersed and blown away by the wind and the rain long before it reached Lenny. And considering their circumstances, there was only one way Ritzy could do that. Breaking through to a new rank was obviously out of the question.

No, the only thing Ritzy could do was move his mana around within his body to try and accumulate power, the same way it did when he cast Deathbed, a spell.

Moving it around his body a little gave his mana more momentum and power. But that had only been enough to make the tether between himself and the Deathbeds. It wouldn't be enough for what he was trying to do now. Ritzy would have to add even more power to his mana if he wanted his attempt at connecting with Lenny to work.

The problem came when he had already moved his mana a few laps around his body, and there was no further increase. Ritzy realized something so simple wouldn't generate enough power. So, he tried using the same movements he did when he cast Deathbed.

But he could sense at once that it would simply cast Deathbed on Lenny. Ritzy considered finishing the cast since, if it succeeded, it would deal with their immediate problem of Lenny potentially being a threat to them.

However, he couldn't guarantee it would work. He knew it worked on dead and undead that weren't necessarily connected to him. But Zombie Lenny had already broken free of his control once, and Ritzy didn't want to use the mana he had left to push up their problems. If he did, he wouldn't have any mana to deal with Lenny if he broke free or wasn't affected by Deathbed.

It might have been a risk worth taking if they had the leeway and only had to deal with zombie Lenny. But since they were also the perpetrators behind the assassination of Baron Michmond's son, they had to take care of Lenny as quickly as possible.

That was why Ritzy discarded his Deathbed and continued moving his mana around his body while thinking about what movements had caused what kind of specific part of Deathbed's power to rise.

Maybe if he could pluck apart purely the strengthening parts of the spell, he could use that to boost his mana before flinging it at Lenny and reconnecting them.

Unfortunately, he quickly realized that different sequences and orders of movements had different effects.

A curve at his elbow would generate power, but only if followed by a U-turn up to his shoulder. If he reversed it, the power of his mana started making Ritzy feel like something ominous was about to happen.

Ritzy felt hopeless at how difficult it was to do what he wanted. But he used his remaining mental stamina to focus and try to piece together a combination that at least brought the power of his mana up more than simply cycling it through his body did.

Eventually, Ritzy found a route and a sequence that somewhat did what he wanted. Ritzy was pretty sure he could also taste something sweet from the power, but he wasn't sure.

However, he was sure he couldn't do anything better. At least not at the moment with how little mana, knowledge, energy, and time he had. So, he let his mana reach the final channel of his planned sequence, his hand, which he had discovered acted as an excellent channel to direct and concentrate the power of his spell.

Ritzy's mana flowed into his hand before leaving his body with all the power it had accumulated.