Tomb Templar [Undead]Level12Hp[210/220]Sp[Na]SkillsStabbing damage resistance [Passive]
Dark magic resistance [Passive]
Spear mastery - Apprentice [Passive] [Level 12]
Death regeneration [Passive]
Death Mark Spreader [Passive]
That's what happens when somewhat skilled fighter is turned into undead OR you let average Skeleton rank up.
These creatures posses ability to actually cooperate their movements, also skills they learn during their life isn't completely rusty either.
Oh, one more thing. They usually protect SOMETHING. Maybe a treasure? Maybe monstrosity even worse then they?
The flame was dancing in my palms, getting denser and warmer. First it was spinning slowly, yet as time was passing, it was accelerating, making you got dizzy from mere looking on it. If I know anything about undeads, it is that they are not big fans of fire.
I throw the spell aiming between them. The idea was for the exploding bolt to get in their formation and break it, damaging and possibly knocking off. But creatures reacted. As if they were one soul in many bodies they moved together forming a wall of shield in front and above them. Spell hit one of tower shield and exploded. Fire bended its target passing the guard and raining one of zombie like creatures with fire. Rest of the shield forming a wall simply let the shock wave to disperse, dealing almost no damage to rest of enemies.
Only one fell dead… or dead again, as he was the one who took whole spell on himself. It almost looked as if they knew how the spell works and one of them offered his life to reduce possible causalities! Was it conscious decision? Or more like instinct? Both possibilities are equally terrifying!
* “Didn’t go as ya planned, huh?” Gisele said from behind me “… No problem for me. Mind trying my plan?”
* “Just say it!” I yelled as undeads were no longer just staying in the corridors, but moved in our direction.
* “Old fashioned way!” she chuckled pulling her spare sword from sheath “…Just, keep them from surrounding me, key?”
She is insane. No, not because she is about to charge into group of heavily armored zombies. I am pretty sure that one of us is more than enough to deal with them. Because about hour ago she was all panicked and forced me to raid this tomb without preparation to [save yet another woman]. And now? If I would ask her about that she would answer [what woman?]! She completely lose herself in desire to battle!
She charged in wielding two bastard swords, with her whole body low on legs she dodged two simultaneous attacks, and started dancing yet again. Two fast strikes into one of shield forced the creature back, she turn around and repeated it on another target, she took two steps back avoiding yet another strike just pierce in counter.
The creature got hit – stabbed into arm wielding weapon, but undead couldn’t care less about such wound. This strike didn’t even lower its fighting potential. I joined in.
Turning D’iabel into scimitar with serrate edge I took position behind one of zombies that was about to attack Gisele’s side. She saw him, she could react, but noticing me she focused more on rest of enemies. Creature was about to pierce her side, but my blade found a spot in his armor’s plate, burrowing inside of his flesh. In next move I put my whole body weight and start moving blade inside him, trying to cut through bones and muscles. Sword met spine, I pulled the blade back letting the jagged edge do most of the work, slashing spine in half.
Creature feel dead once more. Two down. Six more to g…
Gisele, as she got some space and found herself in one on one situation with another guardian, begun to smash the shield in thunder of blow. It wasn’t any fighting style, it wasn’t’ any particular skill, for now her arms turned into mill, she was simply raising her blade above her head and letting it down on tomb guardian, as her first blade was down, her second arm was about to strike in same manner.
Strike after strike was pushing creature deeper into corridor, separating it further from its allies. Also, each strike made its shield bit [smaller], as wooden and metal parts were send flying. Finally, it gave up breaking in two pieces. Dragoness wasted no time, she shortened the distance, and pierced zombie’s left side with blade she held in her left hand, she did same with her second sword. Her blades were burrowed in flesh of creatures making [X] sign with her crossed arms. And then she cut the creature into two separate parts.
But, doing so she showed her backs. I charged into corridor after her to get the creature that was following her. As result, I was the one that ended surrounded. I threw D’iabelt into approaching guardian, mostly to get some space. Then I started charging my fist with mana. I needed five seconds.
One. Mana started focusing in my heart. The zombie that got pierced with scimitar pulled it off his guts and throw it to the side. Sword turned back into ring.
Two. I felt as mana, just like electric impulse, left my heart and started traveling to my shoulder via mana veins. Gisele dashed back in to aid me, she jumped in the air flying over my head and landing on one of the undeads, focusing their attention on herself.
Three. Tingling sensation was traveling through my arm. Gisele was slowly letting her enemies push her back, not, she was not overwhelmed in any way. She simply knew that my spell needs only little bit more time to be ready, and then she would have to leave from spell line.
Four. Gisele looked back. I only nodded as answer for the question that she never asked. She jumped back in a second.
Five.
I drop on my knee hitting ground with my fist. Shock wave spread in cone-like pattern. These undeads may be resistant against all kind of physical damage thanks to their race and armor, but as they lost their footing, this armor is their doom. Oh, they could get up. I am pretty sure that it would take them about five seconds. But they didn’t had those five seconds, as me and Gisele rushed right away cutting their head offs, when one of them was about to rise, one kick in a chest was forcing them back on the ground.
You have slain [Tomb Templar] x3You have obtained117 exp
Your party member [Gisele Redwing] has slain [Tomb Templar] x5You have obtained130 exp
* “You alright?” I asked panting a little
* “Yeah. Sorry, got carried away a little bit.”
* “A little?”
* “Yeah. Last time we were dealing with undeads I activated a trap which transported me fifty floors up the dungeon. Bad memories.”
… if you won’t die in next room, I will probably murder you myself!
* “Kay! Let’s keep moving!” she chirped “Further, further! Oh, forgot, lady first…” Gisele bowed with courtesy letting me first.
* “… the day will come when I would lose my shit.”
The corridor that zombies were guarding was pretty long and was leading deeper under ground. It was getting colder, up to the point when each breath we made created mist.
And then I heard it. Someone cursed vulgarly. And he kept swearing. Wo-ho. That’s creative one… You gonna put it WHERE? Jesus Christ… B…but human’s body doesn’t rotate this way…
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If I would heard such things in a city, I would assume that inn for sailors is somewhere around… Wait, they started opening inns for sailors in mausoleums?
* “We are getting closer. I am pretty sure that our [opponent] will be a human… With quite nice vocabulary.”
Dragoness only nodded, and started walking soundlessly, carefully placing her feet… trying her best to move as sneaky as possible… OK. She was trying to be less clumsy than usually. Aaaand she failed horribly.
We looked from behind a corner. It was a huge room, it must have been deepest part of mausoleums where wealthiest were sleeping their eternal dream. Or at least it used to be this room role, for now most coffins instead of being laid nicely one near another were pushed near the wall, as garbage, to make room for laboratory equipment. Huge table in the middle, glass vials, pots, some makeshift bed and lots of notes. Like, really lots of notes.
* “You fucking piece of shit! Why aren’t you moving! Did your uselessness from the time you were alive somehow passed into your corpse!” man around his 40-ties was yelling at clumsily moving corpse. It once again failed to get up from the coffin.
* “Another failure…” man said in almost crying voice. He snapped his fingers and monstrosity was set on fire “… Ah, you are already here? Don’t be shy! Come on! Come on! Sorry for this little mess with guardians! I just wanted to test you a little!”
What else could we do? We weren’t exactly quiet in our actions.
* “Oh! Please! Tell your woman to put her sword back to the sheath, I know that those zombies in the hall could caught you off guard… Still, you came earlier than I was told… Good… good. Come on! COME ON! I will show you what I am working on…”
… He clearly mistake me for someone. I came closer, as I was passing by Gisele, which was bit dumbfounded, I smack her in the ass with my palm and said through my teeth in, as if angered
* “Didn’t ya hear? Put. It. Back. We are with FRIENDS now. I am sorry for her behaving. It’s hard to find a good slave nowday.” I appraised man quickly. “So… mister Godric. Mind enlightening me a little? I was told only to be as helpful as possible… without any details.”
* “… Really? It’s bit weird. Loge usually is precise in their orders… Whatever. You found this place, you certainly have Chaos affinity and you know my name. Well, in our little society I am know as quite splendid necromancer… Oh, to defeat death! That’s what I desire… Of course, it is not hard at all, becoming a lich, that is. The problem is, I am not satisfied with this form, I am looking for something with bit more… flesh. A vampire to be precise. I already started my researches and, to be honest, they are doing just great! I started with finding a fresh corpse, turn it into ghoul, modified it, let it feast, and eventually promote it into alghoul… nothing spectacular, right? Here is where the fun part starts. Soon mausoleum started lacking corpses – food for my little experiment, so I let it feast in city… AND HERE IS A REVOLUTION IN NECROMANCY! I have treating him with different spells, and then it changed! I pushed a creature over alghoul level! Let me present you, my finest creation… Come, my children, don’t be shy…”
He looked to the ceiling. I followed his gaze, and my blood froze
Directly above a creature, that I have never seen in my life, was standing on rafters. I didn’t sense him! And he was like three meter above me! DIRECTLY ABOVE ME! With his eyes filled with hunger and sorrow pointed in me.
It jumped down making small mess with notes.
Big, it would have about 1.9 meter if it would stand upright, but it was supporting its body on all four, probably it could walk in bipedal manner, bit like ape. Reddened body, most of it was completely bald, except for head, which was… haired? Furred? Just what the hell was that? Lower fangs were too big and didn’t fit in its mouth, making him resemble in this part an orc. Hands (because these were definitely hands, and not paws) and feet were armored with long and sharp claws.
* “I am pretty sure, that this is a missing link between zombies and vampires. He is… maybe not intelligent, but shown a signs of understanding. For example: zombies, ghouls and alghouls are mindless beasts. You tell them: go eat, and they will eat everything. Man and woman, old and young, they will eat the flesh, suck the blood and smash the bones just to get to the marrow! And he… he picks his preys! He prefers young woman! He never, literally never brought a male, nor children, nor elder. I saw him hunting, he doesn’t jump on victim and make a bloody mess, no! He sneak in the shadows, wait till it’s alone, then he either knock it unconscious, or twist its neck and carry it back! And it feast only on blood!... Ok. Maybe not only, but he eats flesh rarely, the base of its diet is BLOOD! I called it… Ra’s AlGhoul.”
* “Terrifying. I wouldn’t want to meet one on my way home… Yet his eyes… there is intelligence in them.”
* “K…Krgh…” The monster squalled.
* “Oh, don’t mind him. He does it all the time. I have no idea why, but it looks as if he wants to communicate. Maybe by mimicking us he wants to…”
* “Or maybe he has the knowledge to speak, but his vocal cords are too damaged to allow for it… in the end he is still a resurrected mass of dead meat. Even if necrosis was partly undone, at least on outside of its body, but maybe his insides are still rotten?”
* “…B…B…BRILIANT! See?! SEE?! That’s why I was applying for assistant all this time! You, despite lacking basic necromancy knowledge, were still able to find something I missed! Yes, fresh blood in all this madness! That is what I was lacking!”
* “Can I suggest something? Vampires despite being undeads, are pretty close to… living. Maybe you should focus more on reducing dead tissue are replace it with living…. Or at least not completely decayed…” Gisele started coughing
Ah, yes. I am here to kill abomination AND its creator, not to help him making it even stronger. Stupid [Mad scientist], I started helping him because I was hoping that he would let me collect some secretion so I could use them in MY labors… silly me, after killing it I can take all I need.
* “Please, sir, you can start now. I will take my time to unpack and prepare myself. In the end we have lots of work to be done, so I better make myself comfortable.”
* “So eager to work! Yes, yes. Time is important, especially in necromancy! Death may be eternal, but flesh rot quickly, only master necromancer can obtained best quality tissue for his experiments, it’s only a second before it would become completely usel…”
He was not able to finish his last words. As he turned his backs to me and started cleaning table I shifted D’iabel into a dagger and stabbed him multiple time.
In different circumstances I would love to talk with you on the meeting with coffee and pie, but unfortunately, I can’t let you change into a vampire. No, no because I care for citizens, not because [It is right]. I was simply paid to do so.
Gisele waited for my attack, as soon as my dagger met necromancer spine, she quickly pull her sword and slashed at creature. But monster jumped to the side. It’s speed was terrifying.
It showed its back to us, ran toward the wall and climbed on it. As soon as it was high enough for us to reach it, it started running around us. On walls. Really?! Are you, perhaps, related to Peter Parker?! It moved on completely vertical wall as good as we on floor, maybe even better.
It jumped on the ceiling, back on the wall, and then on Gisele, which was in opposite side of the room. Creature probably wanted to kill her before I would manage to help her. He pinned her to the ground, and his razor sharp claws shined as he cut Gisele’s skin. He wanted to bite her, and probably would do so, if fire ball I cast wouldn’t hit him and knock him off her.
* “You alright?!” I yelled
* “All fine! Barely a scratch!”
The creature get up again. The fire ball was weak, very weak, it’s purpose wasn’t to damage him but to buy Gisele some time. Bah! The fact that he was knocked aside pleased me greatly!
The monster pulled its enormously long tongue hissing angrily, and then dashed in my direction in zigzag pattern. So, as soon as he noticed that I am able to attack from afar, he decided to kill me first? And that bloody necromancer said that it’s not intelligent!
I transformed D’iabel into spear so I would get range advantage. The last thing I want is for this creature to get close to me. I pierced with my spear, trying to pin him to the ground, but he dodged to the side without losing any momentum and jumped at me from the side.
And here the advantage of spear came handy. I wasn’t hoping to hit him with my previous strike, no with its agility, this is why as soon as creature appeared in [blind spot] of spear, I used it as pole and smacked it with all I got.
The creature flew across the room hitting the table.
It was… light! Very, very light! This is why fire ball managed to knock him off! This is why it didn’t attack from the start! He doesn’t run around to fool us, or to make an opening, but to gather momentum! It uses speed to pin its preys… but it would also mean, that balanced kind of warrior like Gisele, or heavily armored – like city guard that died investigating mausoleum, stood no chance.
Seeing creature on the floor I dashed forward, I wanted to finish it before it would raise. But once again, creature proved to be more than mere animal. It wasn’t hurt at all, he was baiting me. When I approached, it rolled to the side and ran past me.
Of course he slashed me in meantime. His claws for a seconds were buried in my calf, making a bloody mess of my muscles. I fell on my knee. But then, I got idea. Stupid idea. Very, very stupid idea. Completely mindless, idiotic idea…
* “Gisele, I am going to do something stupid! Don’t interact!”
* “HEY! Dumb actions are my domain!”
I deactivated D’iabel, moved to the corner, and spread my arms, as if mocking the beast. This act also left an opening. Humans wouldn’t have any possibility to guard or counter from this position. I literally showed him all my vital points. My neck, my heart, my liver, my stomach. Everything was exposed.
Damn, I am really playing a dice with the devil. I haven’t tested those powers yet, I have no idea how they would work or even IF they would work! But, for now all I have is this one shot.
Creature once again dropped from the ceiling and dashed tight at me. Its claws started tearing my flesh, its fang started massacring my shoulder. And then I [hugged] him. And there was no way for him to escape my grip, there was simply no possibility for him to gain momentum.
[Hydra - kin] skill activated [Hydra's regeneration]
In same time I started casting fire magic. He started burning in my embrace. Now, both of us were racing. Who would win? Either he would burn to crisp, or I would ran out of mana, and with no mana, I could no longer cast fire spell no heal myself. My muscles were patching themselves up seconds after being pierced or slashed. Bones of my shoulder were being fixed as soon as its teeth were leaving spot just to find another one. And all this time, monster was burning.
200 mana left, monster was slowly turning into ash, his strikes were slower and slower, but each slash it made was instantly depriving me huge chunks of mana.
150, monster stopped attacking and started twisting its body trying to ran away, yet my grip remain firm.
125. Apparently this undead was able to feel pain, at least to some degree, for squeals it made was almost deafening me.
100. It stopped moving. This was also the moment when Gisele managed to ran across the room.
* “ZARI! DROP IT!”
I did as she told. In the moment body hit the floor dragoness started stabbing it over and over again, then she started slashing, and it the very end she raised her leg and smashed monster’s head.
And then she looked at me
* “ARE YOU FUCKING NUTS! I ALMOST GOT A HEARTATTACK!”
You have slain [Ra's Al ghoul]You have obtained450 exp
* “Stop yelling! It worked…” Wait. There is notification that I killed that creature, but where is the one about necroma…
* “My… creatioooon…” The voice that could be easily mistaken for the blowing wind could be heard “… myyy Vessssel… My… laborsss… You ssshal pay!”
I was so focused on looking with my eyes that I forgot to check the mana flow. All the time we were struggling with abomination the body of necromancer was emitting huge portion of mana. Those quantities… I never saw THIS much being emitted by anything! No, wait. Actually I saw. For a moment when I created Greg. Is this… a soul?
The soul in form of black mist was creeping from the body toward coffin. Same coffin, from which voice could be heard. A skeleton with diadem on its head raised slowly and turned its empty eyes socket toward us.
Can this day become any better?!. We were facing a lich.