Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

My friends all watched as I used my magic. Raising a chicken skeleton was not really that difficult. I briefly debated making it only tier one but decided I had enough capacity for a tier two. It might need the slight boost to properly understand its orders, depending on how we made the bombs.

“Whooooo!” Helena cheered as the chicken stood up.

“Now we can design the bombs!” Cassie said. She approached the skeleton and lifted it on a workbench. Then she began studying it. We all stood around her and watched.

“Hm. We might have to order something with the right size and form to hold the potion.” Cassie said as she poked the skeleton.

“Could we use something softer? Like a waterskin?” I wondered.

“Technically yes. But we could not shatter that. So we would need a different way of triggering the bomb.” Cassie answered.

“If you use something that explodes in contact with air you would only need to open it.” Skadi suggested.

“A waterskin might not be airtight. That would be rather dangerous. No, with that we would need something different to trigger it. Like two compartments.”

“Maybe a hard bottle is the way to go after all.” Helena mused.

“Probably the easiest way to do it.” Cassie confirmed.

I observed the skeleton. Skadi had done a great job and even got some heads from a butcher. So it was mostly complete. I think the neck locked a bit too short. It was clear that not all bones came from the same chicken but it was functional. I gave it a command.

“What is it doing?” Helena asked.

The chicken was moving its head downwards towards its ribcage. It tried to shove its beak between its ribs.

“I thought maybe it could just peck the bomb to trigger it.” I explained.

We all watched. It looked awkward but kind of worked. Having only bones gave the creature a certain mobility.

“Hm. That could work but how fast can it do that?” Cassie wondered.

“What if we attach something to the beak? Like a needle.” Helena suggested.

“It would make it look like the chicken is armed. It might even distract from the bomb.” Skadi mused.

“I am gonna go to the city next week and order special bottles. Then we can run some experiments.” Cassie suggested.

“What about the wings?” Helena asked. “It can move those.”

“Maybe it could crush something with them. Hold on.” Cassie grabbed a bunch of glass tubes. “Ok, have it try to break one of those with a wing. Try the beak as well.”

Skadi held the tube between the chicken’s body and wing. The undead tried to crush it. Some cracks appeared but it did not shatter.

“Maybe I can make the wing stronger?” I wondered. Crushing glass did take a certain amount of strength. Especially since we needed it thick enough to not break by accident.

“What if it just pulled something? Like opening the vial and letting air in?” Helena wondered.

“You mean attach a rope, or something? Cassie asked.

“Yes.” Helena answered.

“Might work. We would need to experiment with the design. Let’s see how well it can peck first.” Cassie said.

We tried the beak next. It needed a couple of hits to break the glass.

“We would need a needle or something. That takes too long.” I reasoned.

“What about a small armoured helmet for the chicken with a spike at the beak?” Helena suggested.

“Sounds cool but also expensive. We are going for a cheap bomb delivery.” I reminded her.

“It needs to be better than a needle, we are revolutionising warfare here!” Helena proclaimed.

“Um… What are we going to use those for anyway? It’s not like there is a war currently.” I asked. It was a topic we had not actually discussed. What would we do once we had our chicken army?

“We can use them at the next field exercise!” Helena said. “Just imagine if we had them against the spiders.”

I imagined the scene in my mind. A sea of spiders moving towards us. And an army of undead chickens charging them. I imagined a dark night illuminated by exploding chickens. Parts of spiders flying around, flames swallowing our enemies… Ok, I was sold.

“Maybe we can dip the beaks in metal, or something.” Skadi suggested. “We would need a forge but it should not require much smithing. We just pour some metal over the bones.”

“Can bones withstand the heat?” I wondered.

“Just animate them first and learn the healing spell. I am sure you can keep it whole while the metal cools.” Cassie suggested.

“Is there a forge nearby that we can rent?” I asked. “How much would that cost, or the metal?”

“The academy has one actually. The metal… we would not need that much. Especially since we don’t need the best quality. All we need is a sharper pointy end on their beak. I think we could learn to do that ourselves without a smith.” Skadi said.

“Maybe we could just file the bone first. Then we would not need metal. Wait, is a beak even made from bone?” I wondered.

“Who cares, let’s go for the metal!” Helena exclaimed. We all looked at her. “We can even use it in the name! The order of the iron beaks! That is a great name for our army!” She was getting really enthusiastic.

“You want to name our exploding undead chicken army the order of iron beaks?” I asked.

“Yes.” She responded.

“It does have a nice ring to it.” Cassie said. Skadi nodded.

“See! We need to rent a forge and try this.” Helena said.

It was hard to disagree with her enthusiasm. And hey, the idea might be worth a try. Maybe we could even use the metal to create sparks or something and ignite the bombs that way.