Knight and Wand

Chapter 13 Living Corpse
In the relatively wide open space in the forest, with the guidance and repeated revisions of the girl's voice in his heart, Leon finally finished carving the interlocking magic patterns and runes in the cleared and leveled mud.

As instructed, he embedded small pieces of various rocks and minerals into the grooves of the magic array in strict quantities and spacings, and then used the ground green stone powder to evenly fill the rune indentations in the array.

The formation has two layers. The inner layer is the nested double-formation ritual core, and the outer circular pattern is the boundary of the ritual range. According to the girl's voice, if you want to improve the capture efficiency, the formation should be drawn as large as possible, and the more nested structures the better. However, due to the extremely pitiful substitute materials on hand and the fact that there is not even a real wizard on site to preside over the ceremony, the ring size of ten meters in diameter is already the limit of the range that can maintain the formation.

Leon stepped lightly on the gaps between runes and magic patterns and came to the center of the core of the formation. He looked back to confirm that he had not left any footprints that would destroy the integrity of the formation.

He had previously asked the girl's voice in his heart whether the patterns carved so nakedly on the mud would be easily destroyed.

The answer is yes. A qualified magician has a more stable and solid way of engraving the formation. Of course, Leon can't be so professional now, so he can only make do with it.

However, she also told Leon not to worry too much. Once the ceremony began, she would call upon the chaotic energy to penetrate the entire formation, and then the solidified formation structure would not be afraid of being trampled on.

Although the temporary reinforcement with magic power can still be easily broken by other spellcasters, the danger to be faced now is either the brainless ghost who has lost his mind, or the angry demon whose intelligence is not particularly outstanding. The Lohak who is possessed and controlled by it is just an ordinary mortal. How can he understand the magic power to break the law and destroy the formation?

Standing in the center of the formation, Leon called out to his companions who were waiting outside the formation.

Azerien looked at the mysterious, complex and beautiful patterns on the ground in amazement. Hearing Leon's instructions, he hurriedly and carefully stepped over the patterns and walked to Leon's side, handing the small wooden cage to him.

Leon took the so-called "Earth Spirit Lamp". The name was very fantastic, but it was also limited by the materials at hand. This thing he made with his hands following the girl's instructions was really unattractive.

The production process is to first use a certain special ore found at the foot of the mountain as the core, wrap it with mud clay, then engrave a bunch of small runes on the wet mud shell, and finally put it into a wooden cage made of branches of a specific type of tree. In this way, a simple spirit lamp that is not much more complicated than a child playing with mud in the field is ready.

Of course, before it was infused with magic power, it had no effect at all. It was just a pile of garbage made of stones, soil and branches. If it wanted to become a "wayfinder" that could guide them out of the cursed land, it still lacked the soul of an intelligent life as a wick.

Leon placed the earth vein spirit lamp into the earth pit at the core of the formation. He tore off a piece of cloth from his already tattered linen pants and covered it on top to ensure that the mud would not seep in and destroy the runes in the spirit lamp, and then filled the earth pit.

Standing up and borrowing the dagger from Azerien, Leon spread out his left palm and placed the dagger horizontally in his palm.

When the time came, he couldn't help but uncomfortably ask the girl again, "Although it may be embarrassing to ask this now, can't I just poke a hole in my finger? Do I have to cut open my palm?"

Leon didn't know what others were thinking, but at least for him, scratching his own flesh was more uncomfortable than being stabbed twice by others.

"Don't talk nonsense. If you know how to use magic, you don't have to bleed to do this step. Okay, don't worry~ I will help you stop the bleeding." The girl chuckled.

Azerien, who was standing next to him, saw that Leon was holding the dagger with a painful expression on his face and was hesitant to move, so he couldn't help but suggest: "Are you going to use blood? Otherwise, just cut my hand."

Leon smiled at him awkwardly and declined his partner's offer: "No, it has to be my blood."

The initiation ceremony requires not only engraving formations and chanting spells, but also the most basic magical drive. Leon certainly does not use magic, so he must use blood to build a bridge between his body and the magic circle for the mysterious existence in his heart. The other party will drive the so-called "chaos energy" in this area on his behalf to maintain the magic circle.

Isn't it just a little bleeding? Even if a grown man is beheaded, it will only leave a scar as big as a bowl. You are not afraid of death, so why are you afraid of such a small injury?
Leon gritted his teeth, made up his mind, and pulled the dagger quickly!
The palm of my hand first feels cold, then hot, and the sensory signals are quickly transmitted to the brain - pain, pain, pain, pain, pain!
Leon clenched his left hand with a grin and threw the dagger back to Azerien. He lowered his left hand, which was bleeding, to the center of the formation. The blood dripped down and dyed the core magic pattern under his feet red.

Taking a deep breath and enduring the pain, he chanted the magic spell of the summoning ritual loudly:

(Gulorelite) "In the name of Yinne, obey the laws of the eternally frozen Dead Sea."

Unlike the ordinary repetition in the previous practice, the moment Leon read out the first sentence of the spell aloud, he felt as if there was some kind of flowing power in his body, slowly flowing along the wound on his left hand to the ground beneath his feet.

The strange flowing feeling was very similar to the one when he released the Arrow of Isa that day, but it was not as intense as last time that made him lose strength and pass out.

(Gulorelite) "All the spirits shall listen to my command. You shall return here quickly through the sleepless dust."

As Leon chanted, within the circular magic array with a diameter of ten meters, the mineral fragments embedded in the soil began to emit faint light one after another according to a mysterious rule. Each node of the array made a crisp sound, like the sound of crystals breaking.

Azerien watched the magical scene in front of him with amazement and curiosity. At this moment, he felt as if he was in the mysterious world recorded in books. Although he knew the existence of the spellcaster, he had never seen the magic being released before he met Leon. (Gulorelit) ". I will use my body and spirit as a guide to call the wandering souls. I will grant you the freedom from the bondage of discord, and I will grant you a place for your soul to rest in peace."

In the center where Leon was standing, the location where the earth vein spirit lamp was buried, the blood light suddenly became stronger. The red blood light flowed and gathered along the grooves of the magic patterns outlined on the ground, until with his spells, the entire array pattern was filled with blood light covering the entire array.

Evil winds that rose from nowhere made the treetops in the surrounding forest sway left and right. Azerien, who was standing next to Leon, gradually felt that the surroundings were getting colder and colder. He couldn't help but shivered, as if he was in an ice cellar.

After slowly reciting the spell, the red light emitted by the circles of magic patterns on the ground gradually dimmed. Leon let out a long breath and relaxed his body.

He could no longer hear the girl's voice. According to her, she now had to use her remaining strength to keep the ritual running. No matter what happened next, Leon would have to deal with it on his own.

"Is it done?" Azerien asked nervously, holding the long dagger.

"Well, I hope we can lure the demon possessing Lohak here as soon as possible." Leon nodded and replied. He didn't know where his companion possessed by the demon was wandering now. Now he and Azerien had no choice but to sit back and wait.

Bending down to pick up the crude wooden spear he had made on the ground, Leon couldn't help but miss the pitchfork he had thrown away before.

I just squatted quietly in the magic circle and waited, and time passed by blurryly.

Suddenly, the two heard a noise. They were already extremely alert and looked in the direction of the rustling bushes at the same time.

Leon stood up, holding the spear in both hands and entering a state of alert. In the face of the survival crisis, even the pain in his left hand, which was wrapped in cloth, was reduced a little.

Azerien held the dagger and slightly distanced himself from Leon, ready to cooperate with his companions to attack the enemy at any time.

Finally, the person who came in slowly walked through the grass and bushes and came out. The nervous teenagers finally saw the appearance of the ghost thing.

Sadly, it wasn't Lohak.

It was a huge and strong canine, but its body was dry and black. The reason why Leon did not mistake it for a wolf was that its wide, short and ferocious teeth were more similar to those of the Rottweiler on Earth in his previous life, but its body was more than twice as large as that of a Rottweiler.

Its hair had long since fallen off, and its nose was sunken into a deep bone pit. Its bare, shriveled skin was so tight that the surface of the corpse only revealed its huge skeleton and still exaggeratedly strong muscles.

In the eye sockets of this giant dog, the original flesh eyes disappeared, and were replaced by a strange and terrifying dark red light in the dark eye sockets.

Just by looking at the dead undead hound, Leon couldn't help but instinctively tense his whole body. Even though the body of this big dog had dried up and shriveled, it still looked much more ferocious than an ordinary wild wolf.

"Duwana War Dog?! Leon, these dogs are extremely ferocious, they can bite through armor! I mean they definitely could when they were alive..." Azerien broke out in a cold sweat, he recognized this valuable war dog with distinct features.

This is a precious war beast produced in the western part of the Kingdom of Orland, the symbol of the Rahman family of Duwana. It is expensive enough to rival a war horse, and so ferocious that it is difficult to subdue it without the combined efforts of two or three soldiers. Once it pounces on it, its big mouth full of fangs can easily tear ordinary people into rag dolls.

Leon did not dare to take his eyes away from the huge dead dog. He only had a wooden spear in his hand, which was better than nothing, and he did not have any weapon with enough power. Naturally, he did not want to fight such a big war dog. The girl's voice said that although the zombie-type undead had lost their intelligence before death, in this spiritual land without natural corrosion, the power of the zombies would not be the same as before.

He immediately made a decision: "Back off slowly and lead it to the trap."

Just as Leon finished his words, the ferocious war dog zombie opened its bloody mouth. It seemed that the hunting habits in its previous life were still retained in its soul. It wanted to roar to intimidate the enemy, but from its throat where the flesh and blood had long withered, only a creepy dry hissing sound like a broken bellows came out.

Leon and the other man did not gather together. They retreated separately to two pits that had been set up in the magic circle in advance.

The war dog, which had long since turned into a zombie, had no intention of testing its prey. It suddenly leaned forward and pounced towards the nearest Leon with its strong limbs at an astonishing speed.

(End of this chapter)