The paladin grunted and staggered forward, unsteady on his wounded leg. I sprang up and spun around, grinning as a heady rush of combat-triggered adrenalin blasted through my veins.
“Come on, holy boy.” I tossed Grave Oath casually from hand to hand. “You wanna dance? Let’s dance.”
Limping on his injured leg, the paladin turned to face me and dropped his greatsword into a more conservative guard. The smug smile had been wiped off his face, replaced rather quickly with an emotion I was all too accustomed to seeing on my enemies’ faces: fear.
“The Lord of Light will infuse my sword with his holiness and enable me to vanquish you, serpent of the shadows,” he snarled. “I will send you back to hell, demon spawn.”
“See,” I said with a smile as we circled each other, “you’re doing it again. You’re trying too hard. ‘Serpent of the shadows,’ ‘demon spawn.’ I mean, I’m flattered, I really am, but you gotta try not to lay it on too thick. Subtlety, man, subtlety. Go find a sage and ask him to explain the word to you.”
“Your arrogance will be your undoing, evildoer!” he roared as he lunged at me with a vicious stab.
I sidestepped, and the razor-sharp blade whistled through the air mere inches from my chest. I ducked a follow-up slash that would have taken the head off a slower opponent, then, rather than jumping backward like a less experienced fighter would have done, I darted in, closing the distance between the paladin and myself and trapping his sword arm in the crook of my elbow. I flipped my dagger into my left hand, then arced it around in a backward stab that would have sunk the blade hilt-deep into his neck and ended the fight.
But I didn’t kill the paladin. I had plans for him.
I stopped the point of Grave Oath a hair’s breadth from his neck.
“I move half an inch, and that’s it; your soul gets sucked into my dagger,” I said.
I could feel his blood turning cold in his veins, and I could taste his fear.
“Then do it, fiend. Kill me,” he challenged in a shaky voice, faking bravery. “The Lord of Light will take my soul, not you. He is far more potent than the black magic of your demonic weapon.”
I whisked my dagger away, gripped his arm with both hands, and swiveled my hips, hurling him over my shoulder and to the ground in one smooth motion. The fall left him winded.
Why hadn’t I killed him right away, when I had the chance? Well, an interesting thought had crossed my mind at that precise moment, when my dagger had hovered above him.
Calling up a skeleton to fight alongside me worked well, but there was something that might be even better. What if I could fight as a skeleton? Controlling it, like a puppet master pulling invisible strings; not just letting it flail about like some strong but dim-witted cave troll but actually controlling its movements with my own speed, skill, and precision?
I’d heard that, before the Death Goddess had grown too weak to tie her threads to those of mortals, necromancers had been able to do exactly this. And now, since I had become a necromancer, I figured I might as well give it a shot. The paladin was the perfect guinea pig, and I could easily vanquish him if he didn’t want to play along.
I stepped back, keeping my eye on him as he gasped futilely for breath. Secure in the knowledge that he wouldn’t be getting up right away, I turned my attention to the closest of the dead soldiers at the bottom of the stairs.
A jolt of dark power surged out from my heart, coursing through my nerves, veins, and muscles before pooling in my fingertips. It was beginning to feel a lot more familiar—and controllable.
Once more, I heard my lips whispering an incantation. It was as familiar to me now as the common tongue.
“Rise again, and serve me.”
As the other one had, this soldier’s corpse exploded in a mess of tattered meat and coagulated blood. From the resulting lifeless heap sprang a man’s skeleton: my new slave—my new gladiator slave.
Or gladiator puppet? I was about to find out.
“Hey, Mr. Holy, your holy holiness,” I said.
He struggled to his feet. “Why spare my life? What dark bargain do you wish to strike with me?”
“One I think you’re going to like.” I gestured at my skeleton, and the paladin’s eyes widened before he reached for the sigil on his chestplate.
“Uh-uh,” I said with a shake of my head. “You could defeat my skeleton with the same trick you used earlier, but then, I would have to kill you. You know I can do it, right?”
“I will not become ensnared in your web of lies.”
“You have only two options: play along, or die.”
“You will simply kill me after you are done pulling your infernal strings.”
I nodded. “Maybe. But you don’t really know, do you?”
The paladin seethed. “Speak your bargain.”
“You’re going to fight this skeleton.” I motioned to my new minion again. “But you don’t get to use whatever magic it was that killed my first two bony buddies, got it? You fight him with your sword only. If you can defeat him, I’ll let you walk away. If you can’t… well, I think you already know what happens then, right?”
He picked up his sword. “Fiendish imp. I’ll send both you and this blasphemous revenant of yours straight back to hell!”
“No magic, holy boy. That’s the rule. Otherwise, I step in and suck your soul out with Grave Oath. And you know I can beat you.”
“Arrogant devil! First, I will hack this abomination limb from limb. Then I will do the same to you. I need no magic for this, only the Lord’s blessed light to guide my sword arm! Have at thee!”
“Just a moment.” I raised my hand, and the
