Necromancer's Descent

31 - Marcus

Marcus's Point of View - Half an hour ago

I stare at the tense situation in front of me, while playing with a piece of grass. Apparently Lord Johannes decided that he wanted to use the day to try to ride Alger as was planned anyway, stubborn as he is. But after seeing skin and bones Rosalin sitting on a calm and well behaving Alger, seeing Alger struggle and headbutt or bite anyone trying to attach a rope to his halter really screams that Alger has probably chosen a new master. Is this even the same horse? He used to at least be half nice to people handling him.

Even sir Azzo that can usually lead him by holding his halter got his arm bitten as soon as they got to the pen by the fenced training ground, and is getting it cleaned up. Meanwhile everyone else try to get a saddle on Alger. That is, if they can get the saddle on him without getting their hands crushed between Alger's body and the logs the pen is built from.

"Gheeze..."

Slips out of me as Alger grabs one of the poor guys trying to attach the rope and lifts him from the ground like a lightweight ragdoll before rearing and throwing the guy to the side. Three guys on that side end up trying to push Alger back down, so he doesn't fall on the logs of the pen and get hurt or crush the pen. They only just manage to do so, before having to stumble away from the pen as Alger tries to bite them.

"Are you done yet?" Johannes sneers from outside the pen, apparently ignorant of the damages incurring due to his selfishness. Even if the saintess says he has the best intentions in mind, depending how you look at it, doesn't it just look like he's trying to take everything that belonged to his little brother out of jealousy and destroying everything he can't get?

Alger lets out a high pitched scream at Johannes and kicks the logs behind him, making the guys around him jolt away.

Perhaps stealing is a better word to use than taking.

If Alger starts using mana, then those little logs may as well be twigs by the way. The only reason Alger's gate still stands is because he's behaving. You'd think it's probably because he's hoping his master returns, but seeing this, makes me think that Alger might have understood more of our conversation with Rosalin than what we believe is possible, and he's behaving just enough to get Johannes on him so he can kill him. Though, of course it's just my interpretation, or perhaps a wish.

Alger shifts and taps about impatiently in his pen, and then whinnies sharply at sir Azzo, as if trying to demand that he lets him out immediately. To which sir Azzo just quietly stares back at him with this grim look.

Johannes really is an idiot isn't he?

Even with all these warning signs and the complete lack of skills in riding, animal care or animal control skills, he still just strolls over to Alger and climbs the fence to mount him. Even if he's one of the greatest sword masters of this day and age, and can probably avoid Alger's attacks to some extent, it's still brazen. Especially considering Alger is a berserker, which means any physical contact can be amplified with pure chaos in mana form, which is deadly upon contact. It's a walking death trap.

Well, as long Alger isn't using its mana, then I guess it's not trying to kill Johannes.

Who even wants a horse with red mana anyway?

They're not as agile, not quite as fast, have horrible tempers that means they're harder to tend to, and harder to train. The only benefit is that they don't get scared by other berserkers, but it's not like Johannes' brother could even use his red mana anyway.