It was quiet until dusk. Just as the sun was going down we heard the roar of horse hooves galloping into the parking lot. The werebears grouped up outside the hospital and waited as more and more centaurs massed on the other side of the parking lot. The centaurs seemed to be semi-organized and waiting on something.
The first thing I had done upon going outside was manipulate my soul shield into a large dome covering the two groups of bears. All my practice manipulating the shield to follow along with my moving body to avoid notice was really coming in handy. The pikemen lined to my right and a mass of bears grouped up on my left. The council along with Arto, Eve, and I are standing in the middle of the two groups of bears. Both the centaurs and the werebears seemed to be content to sit there and wait for a leader to step forward. Realizing this I couldn’t help but ask a question that has been bugging me for a while.
“How come I have not met the alpha yet? I would think a leader would join in for a fight for survival.”
“He is a coward that would rather let his pack die than face danger himself.” Arto huffed out a response, obviously not holding their leader in high regard. Hearing this, Eve butted in with a very good question.
“Then why the hell is he in charge of anything? Your tribe seems to value honor above all else, so if your leader doesn’t have any why is he your leader?”
No one seemed to have a response to that and taking advantage of the lull in conversation I began to stroll towards the centaurs. It was surprisingly difficult to concentrate enough to cover the group of werebears and myself in separate shields, but I managed. When the elders behind me noticed my casual stroll, they started screaming at me to stop and wait for the centaurs to come forward first… but I used a made-up skill called ‘ignore the old people’ and it was super effective.
Reaching the center of the parking lot I looked around at my surroundings taking everything in. The north side of the parking lot was filled with Angry centaurs. The south side was filled with proud werebears. Turning to the centaurs I shout at them.
“Why are you just standing there?”
“Well insignificant human…” a large centaur steps out from the crowd and pauses to look me up and down. “It is fitting that such a weak species has a representative from an even weaker one come talk to us. I am Drolath the king of all centaurs, tell me why I should not kill you where you stand!”
Not saying another word, I cast my only offensive spell at him. Soul fire. A ball of eerie, white, ghost like flame erupts from my hand that is pointing at Drolath and flies to him at incredible speed. The soul fire hits the muscular centaur, making him scream out in pain and surprise. The codex’s description of soul fire shows just how potent the spell is.
‘Soul fire: A spell with huge destructive potential. The caster burns some of their soul power to ignite some soul fire and send it flying at a target. This soul fire burns anything it touches as long as there is soul energy to power it. What makes this spell so dangerous is that it can use the soul energy of anything it touches to power the spell. The ghostly flames cause immense pain and anything they touch to crumble in a short amount of time and will keep burning until the soul that is powering the flames withers away into nothingness or the connection is severed. The only ways to sever the connection are to remove the flames physically from the main portion of a body and hope the soul is strong enough to heal, or for someone that specializes in manipulating souls to constantly sever all connection the fire makes to its host’s soul and let it burn itself out.’
I cast the spell two more times into the crowd of centaurs and watch as panic and the ghostly fire spread. Soul fire is amazing, but as a necromancer mine is slightly different than a soul mage. The difference between a necromancer’s soul fire and a soul mage’s soul fire is the type of physical damage done. A necromancer’s fire will cause physical decay into dust and a soul mage’s fire will cause crumbling into sand. The difference was slight, but it was there.
Before I can do anything else a lighting bolt strikes my shield. The strike was surprisingly strong and took quite a bit of my soul power to block. I think to Eve, ‘NOW!’ and Eve throws one of the extra pikes across the parking lot and it slams into the centaur that hit me with the lightning bolt spell. The pike goes through the mage’s chest and gets stuck in another centaur behind the mage.
I calmly walk back to the group of werebears and put a fake smile on my face. Looking over my shoulder I see what is left of Drolath. It is mostly dust and many of the centaurs around him have also caught fire. I shudder a little and look away. Eve looks at me with concern. ‘What is wrong John, why are you not happy that your spell worked so well? You took out their leader and I took out a mage before the fight really even started.’ Centaur screams continued in the background.
‘It is not that I’m unhappy about the spell Eve, I just don’t know when I became so desensitized to killing. That soul fire is burning away the souls of anything it touches, and I created it. Shouldn’t I care more about the lives I am taking? I am helping the werebears for my own selfish gains and because the centaurs seem to be assholes who kill indiscriminately. But does killing them first make me a hypocrite? Should I care?’
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‘I do not know John… I am only a few days old and have not studied morals at all yet.’ She sent a genuine smile at my fake one. ‘Besides, I am glad we get to beat these guys up. They are way too cocky and I don’t like them looking down on you.’
Seeing the chaos my soul fire caused in the centaur’s group, a few of the elders yell out, “They are disorganized! Charge!” But there is a slight (re: HUGE) problem with this plan. The soul fire is still burning. If those dumbasses touch it, they will die a painful death. I had warned them about it when we were waiting for the centaurs to show up.
With a heavy sigh I turn to Arto and raise my voice so that everyone can hear, “I’m glad I told everyone beforehand to avoid the white fire or it will cause a painful death! I wouldn’t want anyone to forget and charge into certain death.” The charge slows and gradually stops before anyone gets to the middle of the parking lot. Walking back to where they had been standing many give me an evil eye.
‘Eve, do you think all werebears are this stupid? I always thought I had average intelligence, but a lot of these bears just seem super stupid.’
‘Arto is a doctor, so not all werebears can be that dumb.’
‘I guess you are right.’
We continue to talk telepathically as we wait for the flames and screams to die down.
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Ten minutes later the fire was out, and the centaurs were very not happy. They were trying to regroup and had started throwing spells and launching arrows at the massed werebears. All were blocked by my shield covering the group, but I was running low on power.
The werebears were tired of sitting around and with the fires out there was no reason to hang back any more. “Alright let’s start walking forward.” The werebears advanced slowly at first. Seeing their enemies advance the centaurs pulled out their lances and spears and started their own charge. I hung back with Eve, keeping the shield up for as long as possible. The crash of centaurs against the mass of bears was loud. Centaurs and bears both screaming out in pain. The pikemen were holding much better than the werebears without pikes. I could tell because I could see souls slowly leaving from the battlefield and floating upwards. The number of centaur souls flying upwards was somewhat constant, but the number of werebear souls going up was much higher on the side without the pikes.
The first werebear soul floated over to me and telepathically spoke to me. ‘I promised that I would come help you if I died in the fighting, but I feel like I need to run from you.’
‘That is because I am not actually a soul mage, I am a necromancer. Souls naturally want to flee when they feel my presence. Necromancers can enslave souls they find, but that seems like a shitty thing to do. I would prefer to make contracts.’
‘Why are you telling me this?’ the soul asked in fear.
‘Well, I don’t want to explain this again. If you will willingly lend me your power and explain to the other souls what I just explained to you, I will use that power to shield myself and boost Eve’s power. With me funneling extra soul power into eve she will be able to finish this fight fast.’
‘Alright, do you swear to release us after the battle?’
‘Yes, as long as you want to go.’
During our chat almost 20 werebear souls had started to gather a little away from me. They were too scared of me to approach, but honor bound to try to keep their word. The first soul started to bind itself to me and I realized that I had complete control of its soul. But instead of focusing on that, I sat on the ground and put a soul shield around my body. Then I focused all my spare soul power into the part of my soul inside of Eve. She started to glow a white color and dashed into battle at insane speeds.
Slowly more and more souls bound themselves to me and I used the power they gave me to boost Eve’s strength and speed progressively higher. She had a soul shield constantly adjusting to her form with small holes built in to let her enemies blood get absorbed. The blood strengthened her even more and she just became a blur on the battlefield. An unstoppable tank in the form of a supermodel. Within a minute of that first soul deciding to help me and willingly submit to me, the battle was over and Eve had decimated the centaurs.
‘John, it is over. You can stop powering me up now and rest.’ Eve sent to me to break me out of my meditative state.
I stopped, but I kept shields around both of us just in case. Next, I started talking to the 24 werebear souls that died in the battle. ‘I am going to release you now, but I would ask you not to leave yet.’ I gently separated their souls from my own. It took a little time but soon they were separate.
‘Why do you wish for us to stay? Our instincts are telling us to run as fast as we can away from you.’ The first soul that approached me seemed to be the spokesman for the group.
‘As you can see souls all run from me. They are a huge source of power for me, but I don’t want to enslave them. What would it take to form a contract with you?’ Having said that, 10 of the souls immediately left. They all said they did not want to stay here anymore and wished to pass on in peace.
The remaining 14 were silent, floating in front of me for a time. They were obviously having a discussion. ‘We have come to a decision. We are willing to work for you for a time on two conditions. The first is that you release us if we ask, and second is that you do not harm any werebears if you can help it.’
‘I will agree to that, except instead of promising to release you whenever you ask… could we make it five year contracts with an option for renewal? That way it protects me from you if you suddenly decide mid-fight you don’t want to help me anymore.’
The answer came when three more left the group of souls in front of me. ‘All 11 remaining have decided to agree to your terms.’ With that they merged with my soul again, increasing my power significantly.
Standing up from my sitting position I walked over to the wounded and began healing the many injured werebears.