A week passed in a flash. Tom spend it helping out around Town, learning English and starting his lessons on magic. The progress of the lessons though was rather slow as he had to teach all students some basic magic theory first, their lack of knowledge on even the simplest of arcane concepts hindering the process. Of the towns mages only 17 attended his lessons but all of them where enthusiastic and practiced relentlessly in their free time when Tom gave them exercises. All of them had already mastered the three spells Tom had originally given them. These spells where rather simple of course, but Tom thought that every mage should know the basic Magic Missile, Mana Shell and Simple Counterspell spells.

“… so, you shouldn’t use Counterspell against larger shields but instead try to use piercing or area dispelling spells.”, Tom lectured the room of mages when suddenly the door burst open and a messenger entered. “Goblins approaching, about 600 we need everyone who can fight in the towers.”, the messenger panted after giving his report, having obviously run here from the central tower. “Alright class dismissed we’ll finish some other time.”, Tom ended his lesson and with a burst of mana teleported to the top of the central tower.

The watchmen flinched as he appeared but resumed their duty, looking at the approaching mass of goblins and giving reports to their superiors on the ground.

The signalman manning the phone line connecting the tower with central command gave a signal to the other watchman, and those armed with precision rifles started firing at the goblins. He then turned to Tom “It’s not looking good, they have at least 50 hobs and we’re pretty sure they have some shamans too. Is there anything you can do?” Tom looked at the approaching mass of bodies, gauging the distance before nodding, “I’m going to fly up a bit, I need the room”

The signalman informed the leadership before giving Tom a thumb up.

“Wings of blackest night,

Gliding on despair and dread,

Fueled by the death of those who oppose,

Carry me so that I may bring them dismay,

Flight of Lolth”

The chant rose from Tom lips, increasing in volume and with the last line, wings sprouted from his back. They almost looked like oversized raven wings, but they seemed to drain color from the world, sheeting them in an aura of monochrome.

He flapped them experimentally before taking of, hovering a good ten meters above the tower.

Black mana started to gather in his hands, forming two black orbs which steadily increased in size until they enveloped both his hand completely. Raising up his hands he looked at the oncoming horde and pushed with his mana.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Writhing tendrils shot out from the two orbs, trashing wildly as they sped in the direction of the swarm. They reached the goblins a split second later and their writhing increased. Where they touched flesh, it started to rot, necrosis spreading through the injured foes. When they touched grass or other plants, they died, leaves blackening and wood rotting away.

Yet the goblins did not stop, the attack only slightly reducing their numbers. With each passing second, they drew closer, even as the other mages and gunmen started their attacks.

Suddenly, bolts of green energy started flying towards Tom from the back of the goblin horde, the shamans finally making there move. He recognized them as rather nasty curse bolts, but easily avoided them, dodging in midair.

30 seconds after his initial attack, he cut his attack of, sending a different spell at the enemy. At first nothing seemed to happen, besides two spell circles forming in front of his hands. Tom pushed with his mana forming connection with the corpses of those he and the others had already slain. The aura around his wings flared up, a monochromatic nova obscuring all color around him for a moment. The next instant the dead goblins started moving again, falling upon their still living fellows with undead vigor and strength. There were a few seconds of confusion where the undead where unhindered, but the goblins soon fought back. One of the strongest hobgoblins neatly sliced one of the undead in half and activated the second part of Tom’s spell.

There are a lot of spells which can raise undead. There are the simple ones like “Raise Undead” and “Infuse Unlife”, then there are more complicated ones like “Mass Raise Undead”, “Summon Necrotic Amalgamation” and “Corrupt Soul”. However, the spell that Tom used was “Mass Raise Corpse Exploder”. Like the name suggests this spell raises undead, which explode when certain conditions are met, in this case, when the undead dies.

Which brings us back to the fight Tom is currently in. One exploding undead wouldn’t really have done much to the army, sure it would have killed maybe two or three and wounded others with bone shrapnel, but overall there wouldn’t really be much of an impact. But there wasn’t one exploding undead, there were a few dozen, some even in the detonation range of some of the others.

All around the horde undead exploded. The front rows where mostly fine, having left the dead behind themselves, but they were only cannon fodder. The hobgoblins and shamans where safely in the back, usually a good idea but in this case, it made them only more vulnerable.

In seconds the horde was devastated, their elites and magic support tuned into paste or pincushions. The places where multiple undead had been to close together where now small craters. More than half of the horde was now either dead or incapacitated.

The surviving goblins panicked and started running, their fighting spirit broken. Tom went into a dive, flying after the routed horde. From his hands shot out beams of decay as he went after the last of the attackers.

Congratulations User

You have unlocked new achievements:

Aspiring Mage 5

Cast 100 spells

Aspiring Necromancer 4

Summon 50 Undead Minions

Aspiring Summoner 4

Summon 50 Creatures

One-man-army 1

Defeat an army of at least 500 creatures single handedly

Goblins Slayer 1

Kill 250 Goblins