ALIANDRA

Looking up, Ali met the necromancer’s gaze, and felt a chill run the length of her spine. He’s smiling?

“You whelp! Did you think it would be that easy?” he shouted.

He raised a fist and a dark, seething magic appeared within it. All around him, the chains connecting him to the immobile slaves pulsed. Each wore a collar that glowed with the same black mana, and each of them had eyes filled with terror.

“Look out!” Ali yelled.

The seething magic formation pulsed once and shot out toward one of the collared slaves. A ghostly outline of the man appeared briefly, struggling against the force of his magic, but to no avail. The apparition let out an unholy echoing scream as it was torn from the body before being drawn toward the necromancer and sucked into his chest. The corpse of the man hit the ground with a sickening thump, writhed grotesquely, and then his entire skeleton stood up, ripping itself out of the now-dead flesh before joining the fray.

Alexander Gray moaned in profane ecstasy as he absorbed the essence of the slain man. The necromancer’s dark mana surged exponentially, and his aura pulsed, rippling outward from him in ever-widening rings that brought death to everything they touched. Plants withered, and even the ground blackened as the blight consumed everything that was not already undead. As it reached Ali’s Guardians, their dense vines and thorns withered, dying even as the Elementals’ powerful regeneration magic fought to replenish the plants. Caught within the deadly aura, even the Guardians themselves began to decay, chunks of their bodies blackening and rotting and falling away, to be slowly regenerated by their auras.

“Back up!” Calen shouted.

The black pulsing blight grew stronger as the Necromancer reached forth and consumed another bound slave. Rapidly, the blight clawed its way up the legs of a Forest Guardian, blackening and rotting its wood and withering its strength till it crumbled under its own weight and collapsed.

“Back up,” Ali commanded, echoing Calen’s cry as she scrambled to regroup her Guardians so that their regeneration auras would overlap. But in the press of undead, they were too slow, and she lost a second Guardian to the inexorable blight emitted by his powerful spell.

“Ali, can you hold him off for a bit?” Mato called.

“What…” Ali exclaimed, hearing the unexpected voice of the Beastkin. She snapped her head around and found him standing there untransformed.

“I will try to deal with the blight,” Mato said. Then he reached out his massive hand and pointed, “You will need to handle that…”

Ali glanced in the direction he pointed and quailed a little inside at the sight of the giant troll zombie bearing down on them, great rotting gashes leaking putrid goo down its torso. Ali nodded, marshaling her remaining Guardians to intercept the enormous undead creature as she struggled to keep her stomach under control.

“Whatever crazy thing you’re doing, hurry it up!” Malika yelled.

Mato’s body stretched, growing rapidly broader and taller as his Tree Form transformation took hold. His roots dug into the blighted soil as Malika and her Acolytes healed him. Ali had no idea what he was planning – his tree could not move, let alone fight – but she trusted him and charged the giant zombie with her remaining Forest Guardians, knocking it back so that it could not reach Mato while he was vulnerable.

She flew her Lux Drifters in, raining acid down on the necromancer, trying to distract him while she defended Mato’s transformation. Skeletons and zombies surged, trying to reach his position, and the potent Chain Lightning ripped through the ones unfortunate enough to cross into the range of the powerful mage on the battlements.

The blight pulsed stronger and stronger, slowly encroaching on her Guardians. She could see it take root in their wooden bodies and feel how the regeneration magic struggled to banish the damage. Blackened patches grew up their legs and began to infect their armor with monstrous ease, digging deeper and rotting away their power and strength.

On the far side of the sea of undeath, Alexander Gray cackled and ripped the essence from another of his slaves.

“We’re losing,” Ali whispered as the black blight surged once more. One of her remaining Guardians stumbled, and an entire leg rotted away in seconds. The skeletons swarmed over it, stabbing and slashing with their rusty weapons while it thrashed around in a futile attempt to rid itself of them.

“Switch to Firebolts,” she commanded. She desperately needed to reduce the damage to her Guardians. But without the power of her area damage fireballs the skeletons and zombies began to overwhelm their perimeter through sheer force of numbers. “Mato… any time now!”

A pulse of viridian green mana flickered from behind her. Then, with an enormous surge, it exploded outward, rippling across the battlefield with the sudden rushing scent of leaves and forest glades. Waves of black blight crashed against the rippling verdant green, a titanic clash of nature against death magic unfolding in Ali’s mana sight as Mato’s Sanctuary ballooned to an enormous sphere around his majestic tree transformation. But, although the forces of death and growth appeared matched at first, Mato’s aura shimmered with the power of Vitality Rejuvenation, and the blight began to dissolve. As the Sanctuary aura pushed back the blight, it washed over her Forest Guardians, and the black claws of the blight’s grasp loosened and began to recede. Rot faded as vitality and vigor rushed back into the Guardians, bolstered by their regeneration and the potent magic of Mato’s tree.

“Yes! Mato!” Ali whooped.

“What!” the necromancer roared. “This is impossible!”

Well, we got his attention. That may not be a good thing –

“Fireballs, now!” Malika yelled.

“Back to fireballs!” Ali redoubled her bombardment. Now that the field could benefit from Mato’s regeneration aura, she ceased controlling the damage or conserving her mana and simply unleashed all her slimes, Kobolds, and the Lux Drifters upon the skeleton army. The acrid stench of the acid made her cough, but it left swathes of skeletons melting and smoking in its wake. Intensely shining balls of white energy lofted up over the battlefield, fired like artillery magic from the Sparkling Slimes in the rear to land in blinding detonations among the monsters. And from her barrier platform, angry red roiling fireballs seared forth with a steady thump, thump, thump of fiery blasts.

“Ali!” Malika yelled out from a crush of undead monsters where, somehow, she was tanking the giant troll zombie. Several skeleton mages lobbed fireballs and ice lances at her while she dodged frantically, but it was the enormous, rotted arms that flailed at Malika’s acrobatic speed that scared Ali the most.

If that thing connects… When the zombie missed and struck the ground, corpses bounced and lesser undead stumbled and fell, and the thuds and thumps of the impacts were probably felt across the other side of town. She knew well the legendary might of the giant trolls, and this one was a zombie that couldn’t feel pain.

“Fireball those mages,” she commanded, and her Kobolds immediately responded. She wished she had had enough mana to make a group of shamans, but her Guardians had been far too expensive, taking the bulk of her mana pool. And now they were tied up, tanking hordes of zombies and skeletons each.

“Drag those skeletons back,” Ali commanded. One of the Guardians immediately backed up, drawing a veritable horde of undead with it. “More.” It complied. Suddenly, a deafening crack split the air, leaving purple afterimages on her retinas and flying chunks of smoking bone.

“Nice one, Ali,” Calen said, not even slowing down his stream of arrows.

With all her other minions being pressured or busy, Ali fired two long barrier shards at the zombie giant troll. Both shards impaled its dead flesh with a disgusting squelching noise, punching clean through the monster’s torso and out the other side. She shuddered, reminded of the sound of Roderik’s gruesome death. The giant troll swung its great arm again, ignoring the sharp shards of golden magic piercing its ribs and chest – she couldn’t tell if it even noticed.

“If I can levitate Mato, I can pick you up,” she muttered, straining with her shards against the vast bulk of the giant troll. But although it began to lift, she had vastly underestimated the incredible weight of the giant monster, and instead of lifting it, her shards ripped through the flesh and out the side of its ribcage, spraying putrid black fluid everywhere. The monster continued pursuing Malika, but its torso flapped open from the two cuts she had made that severed through almost the entire right-hand side of the ribcage. So violently foul was the reek of rot and death, that Malika doubled over in a fit of racking coughs and choking as the stench billowed out as visible miasma from the ghastly wounds like smoke from a roaring bonfire.

“Ugh,” Calen said, wrinkling his nose.

Ali doubled down, firing new shards into the monster, ripping and tearing great rents in its flesh until the top and the bottom half of the monster finally separated. To her horror, the monster continued attacking unabated, dragging itself along the ground, ripping the roots and vines that grasped at it.

But Ali’s gruesome work seemed to give Malika enough of an edge, so she tried her new technique on something much more manageable. Her barrier shards pierced the chest of a human-sized zombie, and she hoisted it into the air with ease. Looking around quickly, she levitated it higher and higher, until she dismissed the barriers, sending it crashing down on top of one of the catapults. The putrid rotten flesh burst into a rain of chunks and a splintering crash, cracking the catapult support beam in the process and triggering it to fire prematurely. The weakened siege weapon tore itself to pieces from the impact.

Grinning, Ali cast about for more likely candidates, spending a while catching stragglers that were trying to mob Mato’s tree, tossing them into the catapults whenever she could, until all the catapults lay in ruins. Well and done! Ali didn’t need to look far for some corpses to deconstruct so that she could refill her mana pool. She heard herself screech, “Try knocking our walls down now, Alexander Gray!”

Malika gave a snort of grim amusement and signaled rudely in the necromancer’s direction. “You heard her!”

Alexander Gray let out an incoherent roar of frustration. “Fine! Nevyn Eld will just have to be satisfied with your corpse!” he yelled, glaring at Ali. With a sudden vortex of dark mana summoned from his hands, he fired a black ray of energy that shot out across the battlefield.

Acting on reflex, Ali blocked it with her golden barrier, briefly grateful that it didn’t pass through the transparent magic. But the force of the death magic blasting into her barrier continued unabated and she heard several sharp reports as cracks appeared radiating from the impact. Her barrier suddenly shattered into a cloud of golden sparks, and just as the beam struck her, she selected one of her Forest Guardians and teleported, switching locations with the enormous creature. Mato’s magic whisked the damage away from her, but the beam bit deeply into her Forest Guardian, causing it to roar with pain. Several tons of wood and bellowing rage hung suspended in the air at her prior location. Ali immediately summoned a barrier and flew sideways out of the way as its massive bulk fell to the ground, crushing several skeletons in an enormous ground-shaking thump. The Guardian rose to its feet amid the destruction and clouds of dust as its companions’ auras repaired the serious damage it sustained from the fall and the necromantic beam.

“You ok there?” Calen asked.

“Mato got me,” she said calmly, but it had been far too close for comfort.

Ali flew back up into the air as the dark necrotic wound Mato had sustained from taking her damage slowly repaired itself. Alexander Gray was quick to pick her out again, firing a second beam, and she was once again forced to pour mana into her barrier to hold back the powerful necromantic attack.

I need a distraction. She glanced about, but Calen was already shooting at the undead trying to reach Mato, and Malika was darting through the enemy horde picking off the most dangerous skeletal mages with ruthless precision. Ali left her Guardians to deal with the remaining skeletons and redirected all the rest of her minions to attack the necromancer directly. Firebolts and light bombs smashed into a sphere of magic surrounding him, only visible as a dark haze whenever it repelled an impact. Is that a Mana Shield? Ali teleported again, switching with a Kobold Fire Mage this time as her barrier shattered into sparks. The mage didn’t fare nearly as well as the Guardian and the necromantic energy blasted clean through its torso with a destructive power that decayed its flesh in an instant.

Suddenly, a glowing white arrow smashed into the necromancer’s Mana Shield and Malika charged in with a flurry of rapid punches, her magic flashing the same blue color as her eyes. Ali watched in mounting astonishment as the unusual blue version of Malika’s magic seemed to consume portions of the death magic shield before they quickly reformed.

Her mana attack can work on the shield? Alexander Gray was clearly restoring his shield, but he glanced at Malika with a worried expression. But it was the view in her mana sight that told the true tale. Ali’s view of the shield was a black pulsing formation of magic, but whenever Malika’s fist hit it and her soul magic flickered blue, chunks of the formation disappeared, as if she were eating it bit by bit. “Malika! Keep at it!” she screamed.

Alexander Gray reached out and consumed the soul of one of his few remaining bound slaves, causing his blight aura to pulse out much stronger, fighting against Mato’s Sanctuary imbued with Vitality Rejuvenation. Malika stood in the middle of the blight, dodging the beam attacks as she kept up her relentless assault. Within her body, Ali could see the invasion of death magic, continuously pushed back by Mato’s aura, and then re-healed by the constant flicker of Malika’s own healing magic. She could not imagine how much agony Malika was feeling, and yet, she continued to attack with unbroken focus and precision.

Finding herself ignored for the moment, Ali quickly deconstructed several more skeletons to refill her mana pool and then joined the assault by firing barrier shards at the pressured necromancer.

“What is that? It’s blocking my arrows,” Calen asked. “Some kind of shield?”

“Mana Shield,” Ali said. “Try shooting where Malika punches.”

“Aah,” Calen said, a tight grin flickering across his lips.

I think those gaps are taking longer to close, Ali thought, squinting at the holes Malika’s strikes left in the Mana Shield. A shining arrow zipped by, barely a centimeter past Malika’s ear and threaded the needle right through the rapidly shrinking gap. Alexander Gray hissed in palpable fury as Calen’s arrow punched through his left thigh. Perfect, Ali thought, conjuring a couple of barrier shards and spending the next several minutes of battle aiming to follow Calen’s example.

“I can’t believe I have to use my most powerful magic on you weaklings!” Alexander yelled; his face red with rage.

Arrogant. The thought flickered through Ali’s mind as she summoned another barrier shard. After all, we’re beating you. Besides, even she understood that withholding your most powerful magic out of pride in a real battle was a poor strategy. Still, she readied herself for anything. She would not make the same mistake of arrogance.

The mana and necromantic energy swirling around Alexander Gray roiled violently as he consumed another slave, leaving only one remaining. Intense dark energy condensed within his chest, building in power and size until it appeared as if he had swallowed a dark star. What spell is that? Ali thought, urgently studying the magic formation, trying to divine its function. Suddenly, every single skeleton on the battlefield collapsed, as if a giant scythe had cut their marionette strings. The mana animating them recoiled, snapping back into the necromancer and Ali felt a bad, bad premonition.

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Slowly, bones from the dead skeletons began to levitate and swirl around, speeding up as they closed in on Alexander Gray.

“Careful!” Ali called out, “It’s some kind of avatar spell.” She didn’t know quite what, but she could tell its general purpose was to enhance him in some way.

“Hit him quickly!” Malika hissed from between clenched teeth, her fists blurring with speed.

The bones rushed in rapidly and stuck to his body as if seized by a strong magnetic force. More and more flew in, striking the giant bone construct around him with loud cracks. It accreted bone with growing rapidity until Alexander Gray was lost under a pile of bone larger even than the giant troll zombie, fully four meters tall and almost as wide. The entire pile crackled repeatedly with violent dark magic as he began to laugh, his amplified voice echoing from the battlements. It twitched this way and that, and then bone arms and legs as thick as tree trunks with giant claws instead of fingers reached outward and it stood up.

The avatar of bone took a thunderous step toward her. Ali gasped at the sheer bulk and power of the creation. Tight-fitting bone plates slid and shifted past one another as the black energy from the dark star powering his profane transformation leaked out from between the narrow seams and gaps.

“Over here,” Malika called as she took three running steps up the side of the construct and landed a powerful kick to the center of its chest, right over the spot where Ali could see the pulsing kernel of death mana. Her magic flashed blue once again and Ali saw the green nature mana of Mato’s healing helping her against the ever-present blight that still poured off him. To her horror, she noticed that Mato’s tree was full of dark blotches of necrotic rot, but on closer examination, she saw them rapidly healing under the continuous pressure of his aura and the soft glow of her Kobold’s healing magic.

He's sharing Malika’s damage. It had to be the only reason she was able to stand there at the center of the blight, dishing out endless punches and kicks. Several times Malika attempted to maneuver him, trying to entice Alexander Gray to chase her back into range of the Chain Lightning, but just as clearly he was having none of that.

Malika’s cool response brought Ali’s mind back to sharp focus. Quickly, she organized her creatures. Circling the Lux Drifters overhead, she began to rain acid on the abomination of bone, observing that the magical shield was no longer in effect. She flew her Kobolds closer and added their firebolts to the assault, reasoning that they would need every last point of damage. Finally, she began firing her barrier shards, trying to pierce the tough exoskeleton the necromancer had built, and carefully directed her slimes to place their explosions where Malika would not get hit. Her four remaining Forest Guardians became her melee attack force, and Malika began using them as platforms to launch her powerful attacks.

With a huge swing, the necromancer’s bone arm swiped at Malika but missed as she deftly dodged the blow. Instead, it struck a Forest Guardian, knocking it rolling across the ground. Shocked at the raw power of his avatar spell, Ali watched her Guardian roll to its feet and charge back into the fight.

I hope Malika doesn’t get hit.

Just as the thought crossed her mind, a giant bone arm connected with Malika’s back, knocking her flying through the air. A rapid series of healing flashes erupted as she and Mato reacted to the brutal strike. Ali summoned a small disk barrier next to Malika. Her friend immediately executed a neat flip and pushed off the barrier, taking several steps in thin air, supported only by her magic, before throwing herself back into the fray.

As Malika announced her return with a shattering front-kick to that mighty bone skull, Ali attacked with every Kobold and Sparkling Ooze, covering the necromancer in a giant inferno of white and red magical explosions. With a huge roar, the necromancer reacted by firing necromantic energy rays and bolts in quick succession, blasting her Kobolds off their flying platform. Ali threw up barriers to protect them, but he destroyed two of them instantly.

Malika re-engaged with her blue flashing soul magic. Calen flared with the light of the sun, casting harsh shadows on the ground as he activated his Righteous Fury skill. Each arrow he shot sought out chinks in the necromancer’s armor with uncanny accuracy. Ali shaded her eyes from the intense glow of his flying form and the hail of arrows he rained down on the necromancer, his hands moving so fast they were a blur. Shards of golden barrier magic materialized around the heavy avatar, lashing down as Ali sought to punch through the bone being shredded by Calen’s heroic efforts.

“Stop. Stealing. My. Mana!” the necromancer roared, his voice distorted and loud coming from deep within his armored bone avatar. Ignoring all attacks, he launched a frantic attempt to crush Malika.

Ali felt a surge of pride watching Malika stand there calmly dodging his furious swings and stomps, relying on her dexterity and continuous healing to keep her alive while her fists blurred and flickered with her ultra-rapid precision punches and the elegant footwork that Ali recognized from their training together. Even bone backed by the power of death mana could not withstand the fury of their combined assault, chips flying from every blow and cracks jagging across the individual segments.

Amid the hail of sizzling firebolts and buzzing arrows hammering into the heavy bone carapace, Malika twisted, spinning around as she leapt nearly two meters into the air. Her arms blurred with speed, delivering a near-instant flurry of jabs into the smoking ruin of crushed and burnt bone covering his torso. Intense flashes of blue mana strobed against Ali’s mana sight. And then… the dark, pulsing necromantic energy within the vault of his bone chest flickered. Malika’s spin reached its peak and she finished the combo with a heavy knee-strike to exactly the same spot. Her magic flickered once more, and the necromancer’s energy sputtered and died.

Malika landed lightly on the ground amid a rain of bone chunks as the Bone Avatar spell unraveled. A volley of incandescent light bombs pierced the disintegrating armor, detonating like grenades in a pile of woodchips. Chunks of shattered bone clattered off Ali’s hastily erected barriers as firebolts and Calen’s radiant arrows rained down unabated on the necromancer’s suddenly exposed body. An inhuman scream rose from the necromancer’s throat as his hair ignited like a torch and his limbs spasmed in agony.

With the remainder of her barrier capacity, Ali summoned a needle-sharp blade of gold and rammed it home through his chest.

A soft chime sounded in the back of her mind, and the body hit the ground among the shattered chunks of his bone armor.

Your group has defeated Blight Summoner – Human – level 73 (Death)

“Ran him completely dry,” Malika said, a smug smile on her face.

“Wow,” Ali said, gazing at Malika as she realized just how devastating her mana attack must have been for the necromancer.

“Well, that was certainly effective,” Calen nodded, joining them to inspect the corpse. It looked like a shriveled, charred rag lying in a blackened half-cage of bone, a shattered vessel altogether too small and frail to ever have contained the horrific power of the man who had called himself Nevyn Eld’s servant.

Ali floated down and began to refill her mana pool from the remains of hundreds of corpses and skeletons. As Mato’s aura progressively erased all remnants of the necromantic blight, Ali became aware of distant cheering and shouting from the people on the south wall of the town. She let out a sigh of relief and returned to the bones and her tedious deconstruction. As she approached the corpse of a skeletal Ice Mage, though, her eyes were drawn to a glimmer of white frost clinging to the tattered blue rags it still wore.

That’s odd. She drew closer to examine it. Is it… growing? She shivered as an icy breeze tickled her skin. Looking up, she found the forest in front of her rapidly freezing as frost and ice crystals appeared growing on everything.

“Uh, guys?” she called as unnatural tendrils of dread began to raise the hairs on the back of her forearms. “Guys!”

“What is it, Ali?” Malika asked, glancing up from her inspection of Alexander Gray.

“Oh, shit!” Calen said. “Ru–”

A dark figure emerged from the forest. A shrouded face turned toward her and two intense icy blue flames of magic in its eye sockets seemed to bore right through her soul. Ali shivered, not from the icy bite of its aura, but from fear and recognition.

Death Knight! she screamed, but her mouth refused to form the words. It was the very same monster that she had faced with her mother fleeing Dal’mohra on that fateful day.

“The master will have his prize.” The ethereal voice echoed everywhere, as cold as its magic, seeming to come from far away and yet whisper to her from right behind her ear. A wave of dread washed over her, borne on the back of the icy tendrils of its mana, fixing her in place with terror as effectively as if she were literally frozen. Her friends stood, immobile, staring at the monster. Without her mother’s hand holding hers, and without her magic protecting her mind, she railed powerlessly against the relentless aura of fear.

Death Knight – Undead – level ??? (Ice)

It began to stride forward, heavy sabatons crunching as ice sprang from its footsteps. Sensing her terror, her remaining Forest Guardians roared and charged, but as they approached, they slowed and stopped, ice growing up from the ground through their bodies coating them in a thick layer of rime. The Death Knight raised a gauntleted hand and drew a greatsword from its back, its movements unhurried and deliberate. The sword shone with an intense blue flash as it connected, and the frozen Forest Guardian shattered into heavy blocks of ice that crashed across the ground. Ali’s mana reservation snapped painfully. Slowly picking its way across the battlefield, moving on a direct line towards her, it dispatched the Forest Guardians one at a time, pausing only to examine the corpse of Alexander Gray with frosty disdain before making it vanish into some storage enchantment.

Unable to move, nor even think, she was forced to watch as the Death Knight stalked across the battlefield, easily deflecting the long-range attacks of her slimes using a conjured shield of ice. Her heart hammered fit to explode inside her petrified chest as it slowly drew closer, freezing all around them.

Suddenly the being hissed, head snapping to the left.

A brilliant figure rose from the blighted forest on wings of fire and lightning. Drawing a bow, it unleashed an arrow imbued with magic so powerful the flare overwhelmed Ali’s mana sight. With a howling roar, a stream of arrows leapt from the bow, closing the distance to the Death Knight in an instant. The crash of the impact shook the ground, and the wave of heat bowled Ali over as the secondary detonations left craters and a rain of ice and dirt. The Death Knight was knocked sprawling, and the hail of lightning and fire magic followed it relentlessly, as if hunting with a mind of its own. But it rolled to a crouch, behind an intensely glowing shield of ice. Still, the incandescent fury of the unidentified archer hammered down, driving the Death Knight into an undignified retreat as it clawed deep furrows across the field in a vain effort to withstand the onslaught.

“Cursed Elf!” the Death Knight snarled; its echoing voice filled with icy fury. “This is far from over… I will return for your head.” Abruptly, the oppressive aura of ice and fear vanished. Ali stumbled to one knee as if suddenly released from her bindings, and as the fiery onslaught faded, all she could see was glowing slag and blackened bone. Of the fearsome Death Knight, no trace remained.

What was that? Her eyes leaped. Who…

Ali stared wide-eyed at the sight of their rescuer alighting gracefully on the battlefield. Her wings of fire and lightning dispersed, and her bow vanished, but the remnants of her incredible power were still visible in the intense white runes of lightning mana slowly fading along the left side of her face and down her neck. Her eyes smoldered with the fury of a firestorm, but they too began to dim as she touched the ground, leaving the image of an elegant elf with the darkest ebony skin Ali had ever seen. Her dark hair was bound high in tight braids, and her smoky eyes turned to study Ali where she knelt in the mud and scorched dirt.

Archer [Pathfinder of Legends] – Night Elf – level ??? (Fire / Lightning)

A Night Elf? What is she doing here?

“That Death Knight was… looking for you, Fae girl,” she noted calmly, addressing Ali in Elvish. Her elegant voice perfectly matched her exquisite leather armor and carried an undercurrent of power – not quite a question nor a demand.

Awkwardly, Ali scrambled to her feet and bowed, greeting her in formal Elvish, “Thank you for saving us, Hunter of the North.”

The Elf’s piercing eyes scanned the corpse-littered battlefield and the giant pile of bones, steam already rising from the thawing ground strewn with the corpses of the undead and the blocky chunks of Ali’s Forest Guardians. The eyes flicked to each of her companions, pausing briefly on Mato as he shifted out of his Tree Form. Calen’s low gasp carried to her hearing. Ali reflexively brushed off her clothing, trying to process their victory over Alexander Gray and then… this unexpected help.

“You all killed Alexander Gray?” the Elf asked, switching to Common.

“Yes,” Ali blurted out. The Elf seemed cautious, and Ali wondered if she had been explicitly hunting the Death Knight. She seemed more than capable of it.

“Good work,” she said with the barest hint of surprise making it past her controlled composure. “I have business to take care of before I track that Death Knight down. I suggest you take cover inside the town walls in case it returns.” A sour twist of her mouth accompanied her mention of the Death Knight. And with that, her wings reappeared, and she shot off towards the town, leaving cracks on the ground where she had stood and trailing shockwaves behind her.

“Who was that?” Ali asked.

“That was Lyeneru Silverleaf,” Calen answered breathlessly, eyes wide – awestruck.

The legendary Pathfinder, Ali recalled. And Calen’s idol. What is she doing here?

SETH

Seth cowered in terror. But his body refused to show it, standing immobile in the remnants of the circle. He had been forced to watch, unable to even move or even speak, as Alexander Gray had ripped the souls from each of his companions, one by one, while the heroes tried desperately to fend off his endless horde of undead minions.

He had felt the yawning pit of darkness deep inside, and the lure of madness. The pull to escape his terror was relentless. He knew he would die, and judging by the unholy screams of his companions, that death – if this could even be called living – would be excruciating. And yet, his mind refused the allure of oblivion, clinging to consciousness by the bloodied fingertips of his shattered will.

Unable to do anything else, he was forced to watch the heroes as they struggled. Seth was rooting for the heroes, but as Alexander Gray turned himself into a huge bone construct and unleashed his greatest magic yet, Seth gave up in despair. The necromancer was simply far too powerful. Waves of undead blight washed through him endlessly, but Alexander had done something before the fight and somehow, he was spared from the necrotic damage. But he could still feel its tendrils rooted deep within his flesh.

Suddenly his chime sounded, and the black letters of the notification scrolled across his vision.

Requirements met for class advancement.

Primary class slot available.

Experience threshold reached.

Subjected to large quantities of death affinity mana.

Commanded an undead monster.

Endured undead blight.

Class: Undead Commander (Necromancer) unlocked.

This class will be permanently affixed in one week.

Additional class options may be available at a shrine.

Seth’s blood ran cold. Necromancer? Undead Commander?

The dark text filled him with sudden dread. His most fitting natural class was the same as Alexander Gray’s? Him, a necromancer? He would have screamed if he had control of his voice. Instead, his thoughts seemed to swirl like inky waters every bit as malign as the power he feared.

Don’t worry, you won’t live long enough for that. Inside he chuckled at his fate, wondering idly if he was losing his grip on sanity. He would be saved from a fate worse than death – by dying.

Right on cue, a wave of necromantic power reached for him, claws dragged through his soul to rip and tear, pulling him inexorably, writhing from his own body. His mind shrieked for an eternity. His body spasmed, and he saw his perspective splitting into two as he began to separate.

Suddenly, he found himself on the frozen ground, his soul snapping painfully back into place as he passed out briefly from pain. It was the sudden release of the compulsion collar that brought him back to his senses, and he looked up. The heroes were clustered around a huge pile of bone and a corpse.

The corpse of Alexander Gray.

I’m free… I am? What happened?

With all his will he forced himself up and suddenly he was running – shambling, stumbling – as fast as his ruined body could manage, straight for the gates of the town, ignoring the agony of his blighted muscles, the heroes, the battle, the necromancer, and even the strangely icy wind on his back. Town! Safe!

***

I need a healer. Seth crawled down a dirty alleyway, his body finally having given out and unable to support him anymore. He was blighted, driven far beyond what his body could normally have endured by the cruelty of the compulsion collar. If he didn’t find a healer soon, he was going to die.

And then I need to figure out how to get rid of this necromancer class, or somehow unlock another one. He had no idea how he might do that, but he needed to survive first. He crawled a little further and then suddenly froze at the sound of a voice behind him.

“Oh, look what we have here. Are you lost, boy?”

Seth turned to look, but all he saw was the black truncheon descending and then the lights went out.

MALIKA

Malika strode into the guild hall, frustration and annoyance at the town council threatening to bubble over and disturb her mental calm. Bastian Asterford had delivered a rousing speech filled with particularly effusive gratitude for their efforts in saving the town, yet simultaneously coming across as slimy, manipulative, and insincere.

Fucking hypocrite. He had caused the problem in the first place. If they had marshaled the garrison commander like they had for the Goblin siege, the fight could have been handled far more safely.

It was a particular brand of wealthy entitlement that simply got under her skin. After all, his maneuver of declaring a state of emergency had been a political tool to prevent the other council members from getting involved – and there could only be one reason for that. He had been plotting to sacrifice Ali before allowing Donella, Vivian, and Gerald to swoop in and save the day.

“Aah, Malika, how may I be of service?” Weldin greeted her as she stomped into the guild store. His unique brand of formality and propriety seemed to prevent him from calling attention to her mood, even though she knew how perceptive he was. For some reason, it seemed to ground her a little – perhaps simply a reminder of the sanctuary of the few honest and reliable people in her life.

Matching his mannerisms, she straightened up a little, anticipating the game they typically played. “There was a bit of a disturbance out front, and I somehow found myself in possession of a few extra items, but I find they don’t suit me. Perhaps you might find someone more appropriate for these?”

She had been rather annoyed to discover the Death Knight had made off with Alexander Gray’s corpse, but she had picked up a few decent weapons from some of the higher-level undead, and she enjoyed the excitement gleaming in Weldin’s good eye. But before that, Alexander had actually dropped a few items she needed to dispose of.

Weldin’s excitement vanished the instant she produced the collars and dumped them on the countertop. They were ugly black devices made from cold iron and had been fastened around the necks of the hapless prisoners who had been victims of Alexander’s necromantic sacrifice ritual.

Compulsion Collar – level 12

-12 to level requirement

Will Suppression (wearer is compelled to obey the crafter of the Compulsion Collar)

Geas (wearer is prohibited from interfering with the Compulsion Collar)

Requirements: None

Quality: Uncommon

Value: 25 gold

Collar – Head

“I cannot in good conscience buy those,” Weldin said, his face twisting in revulsion. His expression was firm, and Malika was a little surprised – and encouraged – by his conviction.

“I don’t want to sell something so evil,” she agreed. It wasn’t that long ago that she had been subject to the Cuffs of Suppression. Devices like these that sapped freedom went against the core of who she was. “I don’t want anyone ever using them again. I was hoping you could take them to the Novaspark Academy and find an enchanter to safely dismantle them. Perhaps we can split the salvage?”

“That… that is reasonable,” Weldin answered, nodding. “Twenty-five percent for the guild cut?”

Malika nodded, agreeing easily. She didn’t care about the money, just that she trusted Weldin to properly dispose of them.

She pulled out the last item she had found in the pile of bones left behind when the necromancer’s avatar had failed. A rather strange pendant with a glowing green crystal in the center. It had presumably been a large part of the reason Lirasia had been deceived.

Amulet of Natural Deception – level 52

A delicate pendant with a silver wreath around the rim and an emerald set in the center.

+36 Wisdom.

Disguise. (you appear as a Druid with nature-affinity mana to most forms of Identification)

This amulet Identifies as an Amulet of Vitality when worn.

Requirements: Intelligence 182

Quality: Rare

Value: 63 gold.

Created by Indacus Argyle.

Amulet – Head

“That’s quite remarkable,” Weldin said, examining the piece. “But it is essentially a tool of deception. Are you sure you wish to sell it?”

It was easily the most expensive item Malika had appraised and, while the gold would be quite welcome, she understood what Weldin was getting at. The only people who would be interested in this piece would likely be those who had reason to conceal the identity of their class. Like the necromancer – or more relevant now; thieves, assassins, and the like. The pendant wasn’t inherently evil like the collars, but even if someone reputable bought it, likely it would end up in the hands of those with devious intent.

It would have to be someone I trust. She pondered the problem for a while – none of her friends would get any effective use out of it.

Wait. What about Mieriel?

The guild administrator had done a lot of covert espionage for them during the preparation for the town council trial, and it was abundantly clear that was her main job for the guild. While Malika still hadn’t fully forgiven her, it did make sense – especially considering the twisted devious criminal politics of Myrin’s Keep. Mieriel was probably single-handedly responsible for keeping the guild in business and not beholden to Jax Hawkhurst, destroyed by Kieran Mori, or warped to some other influential person’s agenda.

“How about–” Malika began and then coughed awkwardly, realizing she had almost blurted out Mieriel’s secret. While Weldin was a trusted member of the guild, he probably didn’t know yet – Vivian had kept this secret from everyone, revealing it only when there was no other choice. “– what about Vivian?” Malika finished, recovering from her stumble with an awkward glance at Weldin’s raised eyebrow.

“The Guildmaster?”

“Yes,” Malika said. “Aah… there could be jobs that require concealing someone’s class. At least if Vivian controls it, we can trust it won’t be put to nefarious use.” At least better than the alternatives.

“She might not want to pay what it’s worth,” Weldin warned, turning the pendant over as he examined the craftsmanship.

“I don’t mind a steep discount if I know it will be used only for the guild, and not sold to some random criminals,” Malika answered.

“Very well, let me talk to the Guildmaster when she’s free and see if she wants to purchase it on the guild’s account,” Weldin said, storing the powerful but perhaps dangerous pendant. “Would you like me to deposit your gold directly into your account?”

“That would be perfect,” she said, finishing up her deal and leaving Weldin to his new purchases.

“Malika.” The undercurrent of urgency in Vivian’s voice interrupted her thoughts and she looked up sharply to find the Guildmaster’s long stride crossing the carpeted guild hall bearing down on her with clear purpose. “Not that I think anything bad is going to happen… but Lyeneru Silverleaf left the council angry after Jax Hawkhurst told her Aliandra was a dungeon. I think you should check on your friend, just in case.”

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