Chapter 128: Dullamen

Author Warning: Murder.

"What's gotten your undies in a bunch? You look like you saw your dead mother," the bandit who was downing his ale guffawed at the patrolling guard.

The group inside the vault simply assumed that it was time for someone else's shift. Why else would their comrade return?

Exasperated at their carefree attitude when there was a monster wolf and a warlock on the loose in the mountains, the bandit tried to explain when he suddenly saw the world spin sideways and downwards. He could not understand why he was watching his comrades making merry upside down or understand why he was on the floor now when he was standing previously.

However, the other bandits who were previously laughing and counting the loot froze. Scarlet liquid covered the precious stolen goods and splattered all over the dusty ground. Rino did not appear immediately. He gave these fools time to arm themselves.

Outraged that there was an intruder in their hideout, the bandits lost all mood to laugh at their haul. Instead, they geared up for battle as trepidation settled in their bones. For some reason, they knew that this would be their last battle and nobody was prepared to die. Their unlucky comrade was first but anyone could be next.

With only shabby iron sabres and wooden shields, the bandits prepared to take on whatever decapitated their friend in one silent move. The bandit chief shouted commands to huddle together on all sides and Rino took that as a sign to make his grand entrance.

Whatever monster these bandits were expecting, they were not expecting to see a skeleton. The undead monster had no weapons but that only instilled the fear into their bones deeper. Whatever this monster was, it did not need weapons to kill cleanly and quickly.

Realisation dawned on them that they had no chance against Rino and the magician offered them a chance to struggle before he snuffed the light from their eyes.

With the last courageous charge, the bandits leapt towards Rino all at the same time only to see the exact thing that their comrade did before he died. Their worlds spun and the sight of decapitated bodies in the vault transformed the screams of false bravado into one of true terror before silence reigned the vault.

Rino counted eight heads as they dropped onto the floor like deflated rubber balls. The sound was accompanied by bodies flopping and blood fountains. Rino simply used his cape as a shield for the blood as a rusty odour filled his nose. Too much blood but only nine bodies in total. He expected a little more for his labour-intensive productions. With a slightly disappointed sigh and heavily mixed feelings, Rino wondered if he should be happy that there were lesser crooks in this world or sad that he was still rather short-handed.

Settling with happiness, for now, Rino gathered tier shadows and enforced his will upon these souls.

"Kneel."

The command brought the fresh corpses back to life without light in their eyes. Initially, the lich was slightly concerned about summoning the dead who had been decapitated. Must a corpse be whole before he could summon them? Technically, he could affix the head back to the bodies because all the pieces were still here, right?

Thankfully, magic didn't work that way. The decapitated heads were registered as part of the corpse, but healing magic did not join the heads back to their original bodies. If anything, The bodies carried their heads under one arm and kneeled as Rino commanded.

It was slightly creepy, and the closest thing to what Rino was looking at had to be a Dullahan monster. The headless horseman legend back in his old world was famous among commoners as mothers often tell the story to their children. There were several versions, but the one Rino knew was how the horseman would look for heads at night once the sun goes down and cut the heads off victims found travelling late at night.

Originally, the story was meant to discourage people from travelling at night. Many wild beasts, bandits and terrible crimes happened at night. The witching hour was also a tale created by the kingdom to scare commoners into remaining indoors at night. It made underground dealings easier among syndicates and for dirty businesses that the kingdom needed to take place. In some ways, Rino saw the rumour as a necessary evil. Ignorance was bliss, and the commoners who were brought up to be superstitious remained pious to the ways of the church and listened to the magicians' advice.

Now, Rino looked at the nine headless bandit undead. He had no idea what they were, but it would be inconvenient for them to work in the tannery with one arm occupied and loose heads. Hence, the lich thought long and hard for a solution.

The Dullahan, in a variation of the story Rino knew, carried its head under one arm when riding a black horse made from shadows. It would decapitate anyone it saw out of jealousy for those with attached heads. However, the powerful monster had a terrible flaw and could be immobilised if its head was stolen and locked away. Without the head, the Dullahan's body did not know where to go and would leave wanderers alone. 

Likewise, these decapitated bandits that Rino would refer to as Dullamen for easier references had similar weaknesses. Sewing their severed heads onto their body took skill, and Rino did not have any threads suitable for stitching heads back on. However, he couldn't possibly let them carry their heads under their arms,,,,. It was too distracting.

The glowing purple soul flames in the decapitated heads gave the lich an idea. The body was now part of his shadow, but the soul of Dullamen resided in their heads. Technically, their bodies could not be harmed physically because shadows cannot be pierced by normal means. However, that also meant the bodies were malleable, just like how Rino could shape his shadow tendrils differently.

"Stop carrying your heads under your arms. Use the shadows to wrap around them and leave the eyes for seeing," he told them, and the Dullamen paused, wrapping the shadows around their heads differently.

One man wrapped it where his torso was, leaving two glowing purple eyes. Another bandit tried to hold his head in place using shadows where it once was and left two glowing eyes, looking like a bandit with a headscarf. However, there were some more creative individuals that Rino couldn't fathom. Why would anyone wrap their heads at their groins or at one side of their waist? Heck, one of the bandits wrapped it backwards, and Rino had no idea what they were thinking.

Thankfully, this new arrangement solved the immediate concerns about not having enough hands to work with. In fact, seeing that these shapeshifters could grow new limbs and control them, the magician decided nine workers could handle the tannery without additional help.

Making himself comfortable on the creaky wooden chair, Rino decided to interrogate his new subordinates for information about this region. It was time for answers.