Day 3, Kingdom of Arun vs Britain
Larios vs Ashcombe & Ideford
Rintash vs Albert Village
Yedgar vs Derby
Cailash vs Addington
Fordir vs Barlow
Raravale vs Blackley
Teleported once again, but at least this time I wasn’t mid-meal.
And back to shitty burnt down Larios with a single field of wheat, so defending again, I get it: it's a rotation. Since I’m here might as well feed them.
“KILL THEM” Bursting from the woods is a contingent of farmers, shotguns and pitchforks at the ready.
“YAAAH” Another group pour from the opposite side similarly equipped. Guns cocked to fire.
“STOP” My command stops all in their tracks. Phew that was close, don’t want them trampling my seeds. “You will all fight this woman one at a time. If you manage to kill her I will surrender but if you don’t want to do that I can just kill you all right now”
…
..
.
Oh right, they’re being held by my command.
Releasing it along with a wave of killing intent, many piss their pants but none collapse outright.
“Who is first?”
“I sur-”
Enemies left: 2,351
Allies left: 2
*BANG*
*Ding* and so that begins
“Who else wants to try surrendering?”
A collective gulp echoes across the plains. Ah I hate cerebral explosion, too inefficient.
Casually wiping off the blood trickling down my nose, I stare at my enemies.
“Me. I’ll be first” A burly man, sun-scorched and hands coarse as hemp rope stomps forward, carrying a double barrelled shotgun.
I sit on the ground and give a wave “Begin”
Thessa ducks under the first buckshot, jumping to the right for the second and charges straight at the man, knife thrusting up his chin while he tried to reload.
“Next” I stand up, already seeing how this is going to go and head towards my soon to be growing wheat field.
Shattering the silence is another gunshot, followed by the unmistakable grunt of a dying fool.
“Next”
Placing my hand on the soil, feeling the budding sprouts I wonder what would be best for them.
*Thunk*
“Next”
Hmm, yes I should do that.
Turning back round just in time to see Thessa’s knife sink deeply into a teenager’s eye, I waltz over.
*DingDing* cowards
“groups of five now” hoisting the teenager’s corpse onto my shoulder, I lay him on the soil in the field.
The battle is harder than before, especially as the first group is five shotguns. Smart choice.
A thunderous crackle shakes the plains, and five charred men wail relentlessly at their blackened fingers.
Quickly rushing up to them she cuts their throats with due haste, ending that particular battle.
“She knows magic?” Someone cries out rather stupidly. Of course this is a magic world after all.
“Next”
This group has only farming equipment with enough wood to probably ground any lightning, sort of.
Little do they know that particular ritual was a once off.
Taking out her bow for the first time, she strings it and knocks an arrow before they’ve even made the thirty foot distance between them.
*Ding*
Simply outpacing and peppering them with arrows, all die within a good minute.
“Next”
This may take a while.
Switching her knife hands as a mixed group of shotguns and pitchforks challenge her, she slams the ground with her open palm.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Immediately vines spring out, biting into the legs of the farmers and rooting them in place. Now it’s simply her job to go around where they can’t aim properly and stab them in the back.
Took about two minutes.
*DingDingDing* Oh I hate this noise with a passion.
Hmm, I guess she is a hunter so putting her into fairish fights like this where she’s outnumbered and outgunned isn’t exactly her kind of fight. Still, I’d like to see a little less using my rituals and using her skills instead.
“Next” Ignoring the next fight where she immediately takes out the shotgunner and kites the melee, I begin picking up the scattered bodies earnestly, lying them down in the soil between the furrows.
And that’s a fifth gasp.
This is going to take forever.
“Groups of ten” Thessa gives me the evil eye as she pants, bleeding lightly from a few lucky nicks. It’s only ten people, come on, they’re not even proper soldiers.
Before the next battle starts, she rips the right hand sleeve of her shirt, revealing a small ritual inscribed on her shoulder.
Should have done that a while ago.
Ten shotguns this time too. If they spread fire she’d almost definitely get hit.
*BANGBANGBANGBANG*
And that’s two bullets in her, yes it hurts doesn’t it.
*Ding* Seriously cowards, stop running. It's actually rather painful for me.
After a second almost concerted volley, a bullet shatters her right femur and she collapses on the ground.
You haven’t even killed a hundred yet Thessa, get up.
All of them spend their time reloading, while she scrunches her face in effort, and they inch closer, surrounding her in point blank range. They want to make sure the next ones hit.
…
..
.
VICTORY!
The battle between Larios (Village) and Ashcombe (Village) & Ideford (Village) has ended.
Yeah yea whatever, delete you annoying blue screen.
Idiots…
Wiping brain matter off my face, I see the large radius of bodies blown to bits and strewn around the plains.
Fun fact about inscribing on your skin, blood dries a lot faster, especially due to the wind and clothes. Nowhere near as good as a spell but then again anyone could be inscribed, all they needed was a bit of sacrificed blood to trigger it.
“What…what happened?” Thessa lies face to the floor, entrails slowly sliding down her face.
“Living bomb. Infamous terror tactics used by the Kingdom of Sieis. Fill up a person with magic, then they’ll explode in a crowded market and…” I gesture to the destruction wrought around her. Multiple thousands of people dead, and it was a messy ritual too. If it were a real living bomb…
“That was a ritual?”
“Yes, now focus on pouring into your other rituals or you may die from the giant hole in your back” The ritual was a slightly better version since it usually didn’t kill the user outright, but they needed some sort of mana control…which she doesn’t truly have at the moment.
Sending a small rejuvenation her way to make sure she doesn’t just die then and there, I watch carefully as she wriggles her little snakes of mana to the many bleeding exits of her body, transferring them to the regeneration inscriptions carved onto her body.
As her body runs low on blood to give, the inscriptions quickly dry up and cast. Quickly restoring her body to a stable condition.
“That was way too close to death”
“Yep”
“Why did you give me a giant bomb on my back and tell me it would save my life if i poured mana into it?”
“It did, and it also gave you the opportunity to learn mana control under the pressure of life and death”
“…I still could’ve died” True.
“And you didn’t, congratulations. Still, poor effort on the fighting”
“I’m a hunter, I’m not made to fight in these conditions, let alone outnumbered” She huffs at me. Once again true.
“Well there is only two of us.”
“You, the mage who is scarily strong and me. Why do you even need me?”
“Because it’s boring being powerful, it was way more enjoyable to watch you fight” Well not really but it would’ve been more depressing to just end it myself at the beginning.
“Right. Shouldn’t I be dead?” She looks at her body, which although I said was at a stable condition, multiple organs can be seen from the large holes in the skin.
“About that” I believe may have fucked up a little.
“Didn’t you revive me? Is that like screwing my system or something”
“Well when I cast a full revive on you which brought your soul back as well as fixing your body-
“What’s wrong with that?”
“There was a teeny tiny chance that the spell didn’t cleanse your soul from the damnation that it had entered”
“So what, I’m undead?”
“Technically no”
“Technically” And she’s slightly pissed.
“You’re living and breathing and have living needs. But you also have the constitution of an undead…and if your living side dies, you’ll become a lich”
…
..
.
“Wait a second, didn’t you say liches were the overused husks of mages?”
“As with all rules there are exceptions. One being an undead with innate magical abilities and another being a revived person whose soul wasn’t cleansed from death and has learn to harness their magic” I really fucked this one.
But I was so sure that I properly revived her. Haah this is what I get for force RNGing my spells like an absolute twat.
Can’t believe I made that permanent too.
“I’m an undead”
“Not until you die”
“I’m immortal”
“As long as you don’t die as an undead”
“So I will become an undead no matter what”
“Indeed. But I can always cleanse you before then”
“Then bloody cleanse me now”
“Well I kind of need direct access to your soul, which means I’d have to tear it out your body”
“…Why did you even revive me”
“I actually revived the innkeepers daughter first but she was super annoying and being completely alone is extremely dull”
“Great” She storms off in a huff.
Being a lich isn’t so bad, I mean yeah you have zero feelings and no taste buds, an innate desire to kill all living beings on the earth and no flesh but…yeah there really wasn’t any perks to being a lich.
Grabbing a surviving shovel, I begin scooping up the bloody remains and tossing them into the field.
Takes quite a while, even for me; over two thousand bodies splattered around the area takes quite some time to clean up.
And the perpetrator of the mess is sulking in a corner because she found out that she’s Harrowed.
Guess it wouldn’t help to tell her it was extremely common when I first came here. I died week two, fucking lizardmen.
What an odd fucking life that was; being given the mark of the Harrowed to signify that you must be burnt to ashes if killed again, with prejudice since I had a Lich-Harrowed Mark. Not even your worst enemy would leave you unburnt, probably because it was folk lore that the risen zombie would come for their killer first and make them one of their own.
That reminds me.
“Thessa come here”
She turns to look at me seriously “Thessa’s dead”
“Oh stop being a soppy bitch, you’re alive. Yes you look like you’re on deaths door but you haven’t crossed yet.”
“And then I’ll be roaming around as a zombie when I do” She turns back to stare at the red barrier, hand placed against it wonderingly. I should definitely heal the massive hole in her back…
“Lich, they’re way more important and from there it’s not impossible to become normal again” I guess no one wants to be undead, even if they don't really understand what it's like.
That got her attention.
She turns and simply raises one questioning eyebrow.
“You have to cleanse yourself and then a self revive. That’s putting it simply” Usually a properly done full revive with maximum precautions would’ve done the trick…but RNG spells are my accidental curse.
“…Just who the hell are you?”
“I told you, I’m the Hero, the one and the only”
“Ok so you’re a hero then? Save the world from evil kind?”
“Meh, I’d just stick with saved the world” and well I kind of fucked it up a few times but one thing a time.
“Well Mr Hero” Almost childishly she punctuates “There’s a whole world for you to save, so go on and save it”
“Yeah yeah, how about we begin by cleaning the place" I give her a burning slap at the back of her neck. "If you would”
*Snap*
Ah that’s right, the perk of being a lich.
Total and utter innate control and knoweldge over the dead and undead.
The corpse pieces begin shuffling together as a singular globular mass towards the field.
I just made a lich…shit.