Leon could not resist grinning when he heard Adrian curse. The fact that he had left such a deep impression on them spoke a lot, and it made him happy.
“Not happy to see me?” His voice boomed, and along with the distorted grin his skull depicted, he did not doubt that he looked like a nightmare to the poor adventurers.
“What’s this? Have you fought this undead before?” William asked carefully. From how the trio had visibly wilted at the appearance of this undead, he could easily smell trouble.
“What do you want? I know you noticed us the last time, but we steered clear of your path. Why are you following us?” Adrian ignored William and instead posed a question to Leon. From the interaction they had in the past, he knew that Leon was not a mindless monsters, and did things with purpose. There must have been a reason why he was following the trio.
“Hahaha…” Leon chuckled deeply and shook his head. “Believe it or now, I did not follow you three. This meeting was mostly by chance. And also, how did you know I saw you three before?” Leon tilted his head. He was curious.
“We saw your summon, and guessed it was you. Now, what do you want?” Adrian’s eyes began to glow red as he became even more agitated. If he was left to stew in this condition for much longer, the passive rage of his Berserker Class would burst and he would lose control.
“Calm down, now.” Leon decided to take a calmer approach and looked around. He saw that all their supplies were behind them, and there was nothing for him to sit on, so he simply summoned a large Millipede Soldier and sat on its back instead.
“Like I said before, our meeting was mostly by chance. I also chose to avoid you before, but fate made us cross paths again when I stumbled upon someone!” He waved his hand and James was summoned before him, causing everyone to gasp in surprise, then draw in cold breaths.
James stood with his head lowered in subservience before Leon, while facing the crowd. His face was passive and emotionless. He recognized the group, but felt no emotions towards them. He did not hate them, like them, nor feel any regret for his current circumstances.
This was one thing Leon appreciated about his new summon. The skill had made him start out with a relatively clean slate. All of what he had done before becoming a summon was irrelevant, and what mattered was his absolute loyalty to Leon.
p ‘Hmm, maybe I should kill people to keep them loyal to me.’ Leon thought before pushing the train of thought to the back of his mind to avoid getting distracted.
“You killed… James?” William asked shakily.
“Not me, my summon.” Leon gestured at the Royal Millipede that he had kept around. It watched the group with a tilted head and blank eyes.
A shiver ran down the backs of everyone in still living there. If a mere summon had killed James, then how strong was this undead.
“You all look like I said I was going to eat you. Cheer up, I came to make friends!” Leon threw up his arms and laughed.
“…Make friends? Make FRIENDS?! Do we look like idiots?” Adrian gritted his teeth and looked at Leon with his blazing red eyes, already on his last rope. He was doing his best to hold himself together at the moment. “You tried to kill us only weeks ago! How can you speak of making friends so casually?!” He growled angrily.
“Easy, easy. Have you not heard that you only know your true friends in life and death situations? What happened back then was a good enough reason for us to become friends. I spared your lives after all.” Leon wagged a black finger at Adrian like a parent scolding his child. “And besides, if I wanted to kill you all, then I wouldn’t need to stab you in the back.” He said plainly and opened his arms wide.
At that moment, dozens of heads appeared at the edges of the clearing before moving back into the cover of the forest in one smooth motion.
Silence.
No one dared to speak against Leon again. At that moment, they had felt an unimaginable feeling of fear bloom in their guts. There was no way they could win.
This was the advantage of Necromancy and Summoning magic. The caster always had the advantage of numbers in every fight.
Malaki stepped forward, taking the reigns from his green haired friend. Adrian was not in the right state of mind to keep speaking to Leon. He was the one most affected by that fight, so it was much easier for him to lose his cool around Leon.
“Undead, you say you only want to be friends, yes? Well, if what you claim is true, then you are being sincere, and perhaps we can work on it.” The dark skinned Elf said.
(Um, I think there might have been some parts where I mixed up Malaki as a human, but I’m not sure. I just want to clarify that he is an Elf. Sorry for the mistake.)
“That’s great! I hope we can get along well. Also, I have a name.” Leon nodded his head.
“Oh, forgive me. What is your name?” Malaki asked with calm eyes.
“Lex. You can call me Lex.” Leon replied. He liked the name Lex, and he had also thought it up on the spot. He had totally forgotten to think up a cover name for himself while moving around in his true form.
“Alright then, Lex.” Malaki nodded.
“Hmm, as a token of my sincerity, have this.” Leon summoned a large Royal Millipede and gestured to it. The summon opened its maw wide and a golden head-sized fruit dropped onto Leon’s awaiting palm. He then turned around and threw it over to Malak, who dropped his equipment to quickly catch it.