After setting up his temporary teleportation pad at the edge of the marsh, Rino could recognise this foul stench of death. This was definitely the work of the necromancer!

Rino followed the smell of rotting flesh and death further into the marsh territory. The number of wisps loitering in the air became more, and many of them were close to invisible.

Rino wondered vaguely how long this necromancer had been cultivating his army of undead because the number of the wisps in the air was more than anything Rino had in his army. Thankfully, these wisps were not staying here under a soul contract. They were simply lost souls attracted to false light. Rino would soon change that. For now, he had a necromancer to locate.

As Rino strolled leisurely through the forest, borrowing some air elemental magic so that he did not dirty his well-made boots, he heard a groan from behind him.

Looking back, Rino saw a half decomposed body ambling towards him with uneven steps. This had to be one of the necromancer's minions on patrol duty. If he destroyed this weak foot soldier, the necromancer would know of an intruder.

However, Rino could not just let this poor sod be. He was stinking everything up badly, and Rino hated how it was ruining his clothes with the rotting smell, coating everything in its surrounding like a perfume. Hence, the lich killed the zombie on a whim. Its only mistake was not taking a proper bath and maintaining proper hygiene.

It was slightly funny watching the zombie try to crawl even as its innards and brain was falling out. Rino did not kill it in one strike. He forgot that zombies were rather different from skeletons. His water slicer cut it into vertical halves, and while that would kill regular skeletons, zombies wouldn't die from that. The clumsy undead creature simply tried to continue moving even as its organs were falling out.

There were only two real ways to kill a zombie, even if they were slow, stupid and not very powerful because their bodies were constantly breaking down. Rino liked to think of them as high expense liabilities. You used one for a few weeks and discarded them because they couldn't even lift a spoon after a week when their arms started to fall off.

The first way to kill a zombie was using holy magic or sunlight. It was a generic undead slaying method that Rino wouldn't use now that he was one.

The second method was a little messier. Zombies will only die when they have their brains scrambled. Bashing a zombie over the head with a blunt object was usually a good idea, and Rino looked at the zombie struggling to hop while holding onto its brain on each severed half body. Alternatively, if Rino set fire on this poor scout, the zombie will eventually die.

The choice was obvious. With a snap of his fingers, the zombie burst into purple flames, groaning in agony as Rino's fire ate away at its body, leaving only ashes as it tried to reach for the lich miserably.

Rino watched the last of the zombie's body crumble in ash two steps away from where he hovered. It died valiantly but pointlessly, and Rino decided to spend the rest of his time strolling around in the marsh. The necromancer who owned this zombie would be alerted to his arrival by now, and Rino did not feel like entertaining them in a chase now that his element of surprise was ruined.

He would wait for the bog master to come for his skull instead of expending so much energy to find them.

Soon after he thought about it, Rino heard more disturbing groans from all directions, with the permeating pong of rotting meat coming closer.

Rino chuckled to himself. Did the master of this swamp think that he had an advantage in numbers? Seeing how this necromancer only had zombie puppets, Rino summoned his private army of shadow warriors.

Goblin Lord Gnut did not come personally. However, his shaman responded to Rino's summons and brought a few strong hobgoblin warriors.

"My king, you summoned us?"

Rino looked at the warty shaman goblin and nodded. "Take care of the small fries," he told the aged goblin and flew upwards to get a better view from the top. There were a little more than eight goblins that he thought there were initially. More zombies were slowly making their way over, and Rino wondered if these goblins would be enough to take care of them. He told Mutt to work with them for insurance and provide assistance if it looked like the zombies were too much for these hobgoblins to handle.

Rino was flying towards the centre of the swamp where the fairies reported seeing a magic cypress tree. He was still a few kilometres away when a powerful blast of arcane magic forced him to change his trajectory mid-air.

The true boss of the bog finally decided to intercept, and Rino smirked victoriously even if the expression could not be seen on his skull.

"Come out," he taunted with his telepathic projection skill, casting it over a few kilometres in radius to flaunt his power.

Instead of cowering away, the master of the bog returned Rino's challenge with a message of his own in a murderous fashion.

Rino did not dodge the three furious waves of arcane blast imbued with blood sacrifices. He met them head-on and deflected each wave breezily with his wall of flames. The flames of hell danced to his command and devoured everything without leaving any scraps behind. Fire was still his best servant, and Rino relished in how exciting this battle was becoming.

"Is that all you have?" he asked and projected his voice, pressuring his intent onto the whole swamp under this necromancer's command. The weaker creatures pissed on themselves and fell unconscious while the stronger monsters buckled to their knees and laid on their bellies.

Rino did not feel sorry for them. In fact, he wasn't going to feel sorry for anyone who chose to reside in this dumpster when he set the whole marsh in purple flames if the sneaky bog boss did not wish to show his ugly mug.

Sensing his intent, the magician behind the shadows replied using telepathy, and Rino had to laugh at the pretentious choice of words.

"You dare challenge me, young one?"