“Violet, this isn’t funny!” Kenrich said. He was hoping with every fiber of his being that she was playing a joke on him.
Kenrich put his hand on his sword and looked around the best he could through the surrounding darkness trying to spot the necromancer, but all he noticed was that Sophia was closer to them than he remembered her being. Close enough to touch them…Everything clicked in Kenrich’s head and he jumped back away from Sophia. He was hoping that he was incorrect, but part of him knew that he was not.
“Sophia…you’re not…”
“I’m not what?”
Sophia’s voice was no longer soft and sweet like it had been before. It was dark and grating. The stuff of pure evil. It was apparent that Violet’s intuition was spot on. Kenrich readied his sword and prepared for what might be coming. He had no idea what tricks a necromancer might have up their sleeves, but the one thing he did know was he could not let her touch him. Violet had always told him that the blade was an extension of a warrior’s body, and in this case, that was the only part he could touch them with. Sophia(?) thrusted her hand towards him at a speed he could barely track. He was narrowly able to dodge by throwing his body violently to the ground. Dazed from the impact with the stone floor, he was slower to react to her second attack. He had no time to dodge. His only choice was to block it. He closed his eyes, and thrust out Violet’s sword. He kept them closed for a moment, then opened them to see that the necromancer was on the floor writhing in pain. In his lap, he saw a severed hand. Realizing that he had the advantage, Kenrich got to his feet and got into his fighting stance. He took a vertical swing at the necromancer, but they jumped back at such a speed that it looked like they teleported. Kenrich realized that this speed was going to become way too much for him to handle when his visibility was so low, so he turned and ran as fast as he could towards the entrance of the cave. The necromancer was fast but the entrance was close enough where he felt like he could make it. He spotted the orange light from the outside but heard a set of very quick footsteps behind him. He made his way into the field outside the cave and saw the sun was setting. He quickly turned towards the entrance and saw the necromancer standing there. They raised their remaining clenched hand into the air while chanting some unintelligible spell. A group of ten zombies started coming out of the entrance and heading towards Kenrich.
Now that they were in the light, Kenrich saw the disturbing truth. The zombies were dressed in the same clothes as the frozen villagers that they saw in Forge. There were men, women, and even children who were hobbling across the field. They had already begun the first stages of decay. Kenrich was horrified. There was a man who was stumbling around with broken legs, a woman was tripping over their own intestines, and a young girl was missing both of her eyeballs among the many horrible sights. He could barely look at them now. He felt such disgust and rage towards the necromancer for putting these people through this. He got in a fighting stance but he was not sure he could bring himself to strike down the zombies now that he knew that they were who he was trying to save. He decided to try and dodge their attacks and make his way to the necromancer, who was trying to stay behind their horde.
Kenrich had an even easier time dodging now that there was light and easily made his way towards the necromancer who seemed taken off guard at how fast Kenrich was able to move. He took another swing at the necromancer, who again dodged easily by bending their body backwards under the blade’s path. The necromancer tried to perform a sweeping kick to finally make contact with Kenrich and immobilize him, but he was able to jump over their leg just in time. Kenrich knew he was too close and started retreating to gain some distance from the necromancer. He knew he should not turn his back to them but that thought gave him an idea. He kept running away from the necromancer and focused his ears as much as he could on their quick footsteps. They got slightly loud, and louder, and louder, and…swing!
Kenrich had spun around and swung his sword horizontally straight at the neck of the necromancer. The blow landed. The necromancer’s head hit the ground and their body slumped over. All of the reanimated corpses went limp as well and spread out evenly amongst the battlefield. Kenrich fell on his rear and looked out at the carnage. Sophia’s pretty face and hand had been separated from her body, and the villagers desecrated corpses lined the path back to the cave. Another absolutely horrible view for Kenrich’s eyes. The second most horrible yet on this journey (with Violet’s corpse taking first place). He caught his breath, got back up, and went into the cave hoping that the curse on Violet had been broken. He started to jog towards the cave, but before he could enter, he saw a familiar face pop out.
“This is quite the mess,” Violet said. “I knew something was off about that girl. Why keep a single prisoner out of the hundreds kidnapped?”
Violet walked past all the villager corpses and made her way to Kenrich.
“I would’ve thought that pretty face was just the work of a copy stone or something, but it looks like it’s the true face of our necromancer. It’s a shame. Pretty girl like her could’ve definitely found a different line of work…You okay?”
“No. I don’t think I am.”
“I guess not. I can’t say I don’t understand. Sights like this aren’t exactly what normal people get used to. Nice work taking her down though! You saved the village…or at least what’s left of it.” She said while looking over at the corpses.
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“Maybe I can use the Ring of Life on them!” Kenrich said suddenly with enthusiasm.
He took his place next to a young girl who was without one of her hands and gripped the ring while laying his fingertips on her cold forearm. Nothing happened.
“W-why isn’t anything happening?! Why won’t it work?!” Kenrich yelled.
“There must be some condition to it working that we don’t know yet,” Violet said. “Maybe they have to have all their body parts or something?”
Kenrich tried using the ring on several of the bodies but the ring reacted with none of them. He got up and stood there, dejected. Violet walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Kenrich. Guess there are things we don’t understand about the ring yet. At least we saved the rest of the villagers who were frozen in Forge. Go ahead and get Atlas ready and I’ll go see what stones the necromancer had on her.” Kenrich nodded sadly and made his way over to Atlas to start untying his reins.
Violet went over to the necromancer’s body and started sifting through their pockets. She found three different gemstones. She inspected them and then stuffed them in her pocket. After making her way back over to Atlas and Kenrich, they made their way back to Forge to see if the spell had been undone and to report to the man in the guild and receive their reward.
“What kind of gems did you pick up?” Kenrich asked.
“We’ve got a speed stone and then this black one and this purple one. It’s safe to say that one of these probably gives the power to immobilize people while the other creates zombies out of corpses,” Violet said.
“So, it’s kinda like the Ring of Life, huh?”
“Are you calling me a zombie?!”
“N-no! I’m just saying that because it raises the dead.”
“Choose your words more carefully, jackass. I’m no zombie. Anyway, I’m sure we’ll find some use for these stones eventually, so I’ll keep hold of them.”
Making their way through the village, they saw none of the frozen villagers that they had seen coming in. It seems like the spell had indeed been broken. Satisfied with the outcome, they went to the guild to try and find the man who gave them the mission. Making their way inside, they saw that man talking with a few citizens who must have been part of the group who were unfrozen.
“That’s them! The saviors of Forge!” the man said.
“Hey! Now, that’s a face I recognize!” said a massive bronze-skinned man wearing a black apron.
“Breld! How the hell are ya?” Violet said, walking up to the man and grabbing his hand.
“I’m well now, thanks to you! Who’s your friend?”
“This here is Kenrich. We’re on a top secret mission, so keep it on the down low.”
“Always moving from place to place…So, do I understand that you might be here for me to craft another blade for ya?”
“No other reason to be in this dump,” Violet said. Breld gave her a punch to the arm and they started laughing.
“No better place to get metal work done than Forge, lil lady! What kind of blade are we looking to forge?”
“A broadsword for Kenrich here. He’s begun training under me and we’re ready to start sparring.”
“Is that right?” Breld then put his face to Kenrich’s ear. “Make sure to protect your vitals, young man.” A cold sweat came over Kenrich.
“What did he say?!” Violet asked.
“N-nothing!” Kenrich said.
“Come bring that horse of yours by my forge and we’ll get that sword started for ya! No charge of course for our saviors.”
They made their way to Breld’s shop. The building looked like it was in dire need of repairs but the forge itself in the back of the shop looked brand new.
“Breld does not care to upkeep anything but that dumb forge so watch your step. Might fall through the floorboards,” Violet said.
“Oh, quit your whining! I’ll get to that when I get to it! Now, young man, it’s time to choose the metal and design you’d like for your new partner. Any preferences?”
“Uh…I really don’t know anything about swords.”
“He’s gonna need a longsword that’ll make use of those long arms and muscles of his,” Violet said. “Normally, I’d recommend a lighter metal but I’ll let the kid have his fun. Tell ‘em about the options, Breld.”
“Sure thing. The metals we have available are bronze, steel, carbon, and if you want something really fancy…we’ve got a fire crystal large enough to forge into a weapon if you’re interested.”
“Fire crystal?” Kenrich said.
“It came from a massive quartz deposit I won a bid on back in Darkvent a couple years back. Don’t tell anyone, but…it’s imbued with fireball magic.”
“You’re kidding!” Violet said. Her eyes were lighting up. “You can make a sword out of that?!”
“Most blacksmiths wouldn’t dare to carve a massive crystal into a blade, but I don’t hold that same fear.”
“He’ll take that one! Will it be able to shoot fireballs?!” Violet was jumping up and down.
“That’s the idea. We’ll need to make the hilt out of gold to make it so he can cast while holding it, but I’ve got plenty of leftover gold so it’s not a problem. How’s that sound, son?”
“A gold-hilted, fireball magic-imbued, crystal sword?! Where the hell do I sign?!” Kenrich said. He and Violet were both shaking in anticipation.
“That’s the spirit! Let me get my cutting tools and start smelting the gold. It’ll take some time, so feel free to make use of the guest room while I work. Should take no more than three hours.”
They made their way to Breld’s guest room which was located in a building next to the forge. Kenrich could not believe that his first sword would be something so extravagant. A magic crystal sword was something that the folk heroes in his dad’s old stories would have had. He never imagined he would be able to wield something like that. He never knew such a thing was even possible, and judging by Violet’s reaction, she did not either.