Wary Lead

The search for the undead army had gone pretty well thus far. Michael had learned how to track from Riki, who'd taught him many things from how different kinds of creatures walked, their gate, what tracks they left, etc.

Riki had actually made a point to use multiple hours to teach Michael how to recognise undead tracks. Apparently, he thought that knowing whether he was following undead required far more attention than anything else... Michael knew it was because of the Dead God, but Riki was reluctant to say more on the topic.

Regardless, he was probably the best 'undead-tracker' in the world now. Along with the only person who bothered to specialize in 'undead-tracking'... It didn't really help in this situation either, as he was already aware that he was tracking undead. But, at least he'd know if he was tracking an undead dragon or something, he supposed.

It'd been three hours since they'd left Winterhold, and some of the Apprentices were already getting irritated. On an entirely unrelated matter, these same people somehow also forgot just how cold the weather of Skyrim could get and had only left in their Apprentice robes. They were warming themselves with fire magic, but Michael was sure they'd run out of Magicka before they were anywhere near the undead.

The undead themselves had marched south of Winterhold and then started climbing up a steep hill West of the straight road, forcing the group to begin wading through thick snow under the mountain which held the tall standing statue of Azura.

They'd already had to take a couple breaks since the Mages were so out of shape. Even Tiffania had more endurance than them, which was saying something.

Despite all the problems, the group was quickly enclosing on their targets. The undead didn't move very quickly, and even if they marched through the night, they weren't suited to travelling through thick snow... Michael had even spotted rotten shoes and other articles of clothing that'd fallen off of them.

Just as Michael was thinking that this would be a long job, he spotted a large shambling mass as the group made their way over a hill. "Found them!" Michael states in a voice barely loud enough for the entire group to hear.

The other Apprentices move beside him and gape at the number of corpses, "Wow, that's more than I expected!" Borvir mutters aloud, clearly thinking that he'd bitten off more than he could chew.

"You wanted an adventure, well here it is. I hope you aren't regretting it already, little brother." Rundi says, patting Borvir on the shoulder.

"Bah! I could handle that lot alone!... But-, you guys won't let me have all the fun... Right?" he says while glancing at Michael, stumbling over himself to cover his ass just in case they threw him to the wolves.

Michael shrugs, "I don't know. I'm curious to see if they could turn you into a zombie with a bite..." he says, causing the Nord to suck in a cold breath at the thought.

"D-don't make jokes like that, Michael!" Derflinger whispers from his waist but Michael just taps him hard a couple of times to keep him quiet.

"What do you guys think?" he asks, leaning his head towards Charlotte and Illococoo.

"Had worse." Charlotte states, adjusting her glasses after using a low flame spell to remove the frost gathering on them.

Illococoo nods, "Me and big sis fought a big dragon before, you know! Way stronger than those guys!"

"Hah!? A dragon!? Who are you trying to fool?" a nameless Apprentice from the crowd laughs, but is thoroughly ignored by them, especially Illococoo who is content with ignoring their existence entirely.

Michael turns towards the group and coughs into his fist to silence them, "Alright! You guy's see our target, but before we run at them like headless chicken', we should make some basic plans!" he says and some start murmuring to themselves but Michael continues, "And before you idiots start asking 'why', just look over there! If the hundreds of undead weren't enough, how about the fact that a fairly strong mage is probably living in that cave!? If you guys wanna go and die like lemmings, go ahead, but I'll still be up here watching you die!"

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In the end, his reasoning couldn't really be argued against, even if the undead were weak individually, the sheer quantity of them was evidence enough of the strength of the mage who'd raised them.

A regular Novic Conjurer could only raise a single weak zombie, so they must at least by at the expert or master rank. That, or they had an artifact that increased their strength, which would only make them more dangerous than if they were alone...

After that, it wasn't difficult for Michael to arrange the Apprentices into a makeshift formation. Conjurers would be in the middle so that they could summon, maintain, and protect their summoned creatures.

Restoration mages would be at the back to keep them safe from any stray attacks should the enemy mage choose to fight instead of fleeing.

And everyone else would be at the front lines... Destruction mages, Alteration mages, and Illusion mages were the most suited to being the first to engage as most of their spells were direct, and needed to connect with their target to work.

Of course, this formation was almost entirely made of solely mages, making it incredibly fragile should the enemy actually reach it. Only Michael, Borvir, Rundi, and a couple of other Nords present were actually trained to fight in close quarters. This disadvantage could be alleviated via summoned creatures, but it wasn't optimal, at least in Michael's view.

Regardless, this was the best they could come up with. Their enemy was a bunch of zombies protecting the cave entrance, so there weren't any 'advanced tactics' they could use... So unless Michael wanted to sneak inside and assassinate the mage, they were stuck with a direct assault.

As for why Michael didn't do just that and kill the mage himself? Well, doing so in front of so many witnesses would out him as an assassin, or at least, someone capable of it. Should it become public knowledge, many avenues of attack would be cut off for him as he'd become a prime candidate in any investigation. Plus, he wanted to try out and see how he and the girls had progressed with this world's magic...