It took Reud barely a moment to process the situation on the other side of the gate.
There was Rachel, fallen on her back with eyes wide, a crowd of Seekers with blades drawn behind her. Further along was Lilia, lying on the floor as well, two mages standing over her. And further, in the square, was what seemed to be the rest of the villagers, running in all directions in panic as Seeker soldiers did their best to corral the panicked people.
Not for the first time, Reud wished he’d found more suitable souls to raise as minions. Only Bo and Tel had managed to join him at the village, the rest of his undead still being deep in the forest hours away. And beyond those, only one other creation had the potential to make it here in time, the one that still slumbered beneath Srinaber. But waking that was not worth the risk.
He certainly had no intention of annihilating every living thing in the province.
KILL THE SOLDIERS
Reud sent the command to Bo and Tel, directing them towards the Seekers behind Rachel. Then he leaned forward, holding onto the stag’s spine tightly, and spurred it onwards.
They had more dangerous foes to deal with.
The stag’s hooves clattered on the ground as it launched into a sprint, taking a wide arc around Rachel’s fallen form and the Seekers looming over her. It certainly wouldn’t do to accidentally kill the woman by trampling her.
Besides, the skeletons would be more than enough to deal with her aggressors.
The mages standing over Lilia took a step back, then another, as they watched the great skeletal beast charging towards them. Lightning flashed from the electromancer but splashed harmlessly over the stag’s skull, dissipated by the aura of mana pouring from its bones. Reud threw out his own magic from its back, the resonance of recently departed souls calling to him like a giant beacon.
The perfect target for his magic.
Mana flowed through and from him like a great river, connecting each of his minions to a nearly inexhaustible supply of mana. Each zombie that he raised connected itself to that same source, greedily drinking in the spell-fuel to overcome the drain of the magebane the corpses were lathered in.
The Seeker kinetomancer shouted a warning to the other, gesturing at the fallen body of a soldier to their side that twitched, then stood, blood still flowing from the stump where its head had once been.
Reud commanded the stag to slow enough that he could throw himself off, smashing into the ground and tumbling along towards Lilia. Something cracked in his arm but he ignored it, simply tugging on the connection to his phylactery and restoring his body. He couldn’t keep regenerating himself forever, the phylactery recharged slowly after all, but there was more than enough stored for him to rebuild himself many times over yet.
“Lilia! Lilia, are you okay?” He said, lifting her head and cradling it gently.
She let out a gasp of pain, but pushed him away, sitting up without his aid. “I’m fine, bitch zapped me. Your timing is impeccable, as always.”
Reud smiled. “You know me, I do love an entrance. What's the situation?”
“Three mages, these two and one on the platform. Between thirty and fifty soldiers, all with magebane covered armour.”
Reud nodded, his eyes darting around to confirm her words. Behind him, he could feel soul after soul being torn free of bodies. Almost without thinking, he raised each one the moment it died, adding more zombies to his horde and giving each the same order.
KILL THE SEEKERS
“The free mage!” A shrill female voice screamed. Reud snapped his head around to look at the source, the red haired mage, her body crackling with sparks. A great arc of electricity sparked between her hands, growing brighter and brighter.
Then it discharged right into him.
Reud slammed onto his back, the world vanishing into agony. As quickly as it had arrived, however, it faded. Reud gritted his teeth in irritation, rolling over onto his feet, glaring at the electromancer.
That was enough of that.
With a thought, he diverted two of the zombies harassing the Seeker kinetomancer to place themselves between the woman and Lilia and him, using the undead as an unliving shield. With their complete disregard of injuries, and the magebane armour that still clung to them, she’d be lucky to break through.
“Leave the villagers, get the mages!” A deep male voice roared from further beyond the two mages. The Seeker leader, Reud surmised.
Three spellcasters, against one. This was now a true magical battle, with all the awful escalation that entailed. He’d seen it so many times during the war, what happened when two forces threw every last scrap of mana they could muster at one another. The horrors those fights had unleashed, they’d scoured the land of life for centuries. Even a mage would be hard-pressed to escape from one of these fights alive.
And anyone without magic stood absolutely no chance.
“Master Lilia! Master Lilia, are you alright?” Rachel’s voice came from behind him.
Reud turned to see the woman running towards them, flanked by two skeletons, a wall of zombies shambling along behind her.
“Rachel, what are you doing. I told you to get out!” Lilia said, pushing herself to her feet.
“But-”
“No buts. I gave you an order.” Lilia sighed and turned to Reud. “But in this case, you may be of help. Reud, we need to get the villagers out of here, before the final mage joins the fray. They’ll be caught in the crossfire.”
Reud nodded. “Alright, but only if you get out of here too.”
“But-” This time, it was Lilia’s turn to protest.
“No. I can handle them, but only if I know I don’t have to worry about casualties. Take Bo, follow the stag, and get out of here.”
Lilia looked like she was going to argue, but then stopped. Shrugging, she smiled. “Fair enough, it’s a good plan. Rachel, you stick behind me, don’t drop back, no matter what you do.”
“Yes Master Lilia.”
Reud pulled Lilia in to a quick embrace and kissed her. “Follow the stag, it’ll clear you a path.”
“Oh yeh, where is it-” Lilia said.
The huge beast raced past them, the wind of its passing buffeting them back, its head lowered and the vicious barbs of its antlers trailing chunks of flesh and the torn remains of fabric and armour. Whilst they’d spoken, Reud had sent it at the ranks of the soldiers, tearing a great swathe through their ranks.
And now it barrelled straight towards the blonde mage.
The kinetomancer was surrounded by zombies, expertly cutting through the surrounding figures with this mana-rimmed blade. Still, with the undead ignoring anything but completely debilitating wounds, he was making no headway at escaping the melee. It was a full stalemate, neither side able to overwhelm the other.
The perfect target for the stag.
The huge skeleton smashed into the group, tearing through zombie and Seeker alike. The man barely even had time to scream before a barb tore into his waist, hooking him and dragging him along with the stag’s charge.
The man beat at the creature's head with his weapon, screaming in mortal agony, his body pouring out blood as each step tore him open further.
And then the stag shook its head, and his body tore in two. His torso fell to the ground with a wet thud, bouncing along the cobblestones to crash to a stop against the boxes making up the stage. The glow faded from his body, his eyes dimming, the scream dying on his lips.
One down, two to go.
“Go!” Reud shouted, springing forward in time with Lilia. The red haired mage would most certainly attack again, and he wanted to make sure the bolt hit him and not Lilia. Just as expected, the moment he cleared the zombie wall, white-hot pain sent him to the ground. This time, however, he was ready.
Forcing his muscles to respond, Reud tucked his shoulder and rolled. Then the pain cut off, and he was back on his feet, calling to his phylactery to restore his frazzled nerves. Lilia, Bo, Rachel, and a wall of zombies raced past behind him, following hot on the heels of the stag as it plowed a path through the Seeker soldiers. The villagers, too, seemed to have seen the dangers of staying in the square, the panicked people streaming out towards the northern and western gates.
Which would make Lilia’s task much easier.
Suddenly, a flash of intense light sent lancing pain through Reud’s eyes. Recoiling, he put a hand in front of his face, blinking away the after-images filling in his vision.
As his sight returned, he found a square bathed in a blue radiance, emanating from the stage. The final Seeker mage stood tall upon it, his body clad in flickering azure flames.
Reud glared at the man, painful images of the war resurfacing. That was classic Lightire pyromancy, eschewing the controlled burn of more traditional fire magic in favour of widespread destruction. And the man had clad his body in it, a spell known as an avatar, a technique only the best pyromancers could accomplish.
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Those villagers had better get out of there, fast.
“My name is Sar!” He bellowed, his voice laced with the crackling of flames. “And this ends here, mage! By my holy fire, you will be purified!”
He raised his hand, an orb of blue fire bursting into existence above it. Then, with a gentle tossing motion, he flung it at Reud.
The orb shot towards him, far faster than it had any right to move. Reud threw himself to one side, a wall of intense heat prickling his skin as the orb brushed past him. Behind him, the orb detonated with a dull whump, accompanied by the sound of popping wood.
That was close, far too close. If he’d moved a fraction slower he’d have been toast.
Reud rolled along the ground, ordering the zombies around to stand between him and the pyromancer. Though the electromancer was a threat, all she could do was cause him pain. The pyromancer could incinerate him, which was not an experience he wanted to endure.
Even if he could regenerate from it, burning to death was something he wanted to avoid at all cost.
“You cannot hide from me!” The man shouted, and the next ball of flame detonated on the zombie wall, burning one to the point the spell animating it faltered and failed. Though the magebane armour adorning the zombie’s bodies weakened the pyromancers magics, it also weakened the mana Reud could push into them, making them actually susceptible to destruction.
An annoying limitation of the materials he had to work with.
“Coward!” The red haired woman shouted from his side, running around to clear the wall. Raising a hand, she let loose a bolt of crackling lightning, only for a diving zombie to take it instead of Reud. A distraction he could not afford if he was to deal with the pyromancer.
So it was long past time she died.
Raising a hand, Reud pushed power into Tel, filling him with a great glut of mana. The skeleton veritably glowed with power as it cupped its hands, a ball of orange flame spinning into life before it. The ball swelled, then contracted, crushing itself down to a single point.
Then a ray of brilliant fire blasted out.
It took the electromancer in her chest, exploding out to engulf the woman in flame. She dropped instantly with a shrill scream, beating herself into the ground in a futile attempt to extinguish herself.
Tel walked forward, the ray cutting off but an unending gout of flame taking its place. Flames that Tel kept focused on the burning woman until her screams petered out, and she went still.
Two down, one to go.
Glancing around the wall, Reud checked on the evacuation. The villagers were out of sight, either out of the village or close to it. Only a few Seekers were left, engaged in desperate combat with a whole horde of zombies, the undead outnumbering the living four to one. Which meant the stag was not needed any more.
With a thought, Reud redirected the great beast towards the stage, urging it to charge the final mage and end this fight.
“Futile.” The man roared, hopping down from the stage towards the stag, cupping his hands just as Tel had. “You call that pyromancy? No, I’ll show you true pyromancy!”
An orb flashed into existence between his palms, swelling then shrinking down to a point. A point of dazzling blue radiance, so bright it stung Reud’s eyes. The mana in the air rushed towards the man, a great whirlpool with him at the centre.
Then, with a vast roar, a blindingly bright beam of blue fire blasted out of his palm. It engulfed the charging creature, a pair of zombies, a living Seeker soldier, and then blasted on to cut into a house.
Reud felt his mana immediately dip as the animation spell on the stag struggled to combat the damage. The flames ate away at the bones, overcoming the magic's best attempts to keep it anchored. Bones snapped in two under the onslaught, then four, then ten, then a hundred, then ten thousand. And then the spell faltered, unable to find enough left to bind to.
And then the stag collapsed, nothing remaining but dust.
Chunks of flame broke off the main ray, forming into little flaming whirlwinds that spiralled out, setting light to wood and cloth alike. The temperature of the square skyrocketed, the very air burning Reud's lungs as he breathed in.
The blinding ray flickered out, leaving behind nothing but an acrid burnt smell. The building it had hit collapsed, a shower of wood and stone tumbling down, sending a great billow of flame to wash out along the ground.
"Now that, that is true pyromancy!" The man roared, turning to face Reud with his arms spread wide.
Reud stared at the devastation, his face covered in sweat, his eyes wide in shock. That was… a lot of damage. A huge mana expenditure, sure, but he couldn't fault its effectiveness.
And this fool had wasted it all on a minion.
Reud wanted to laugh at the stupidity of the act, the sheer arrogance of turning a spell like that on a minion instead of him. This man was a powerful mage, but power was worthless without the wisdom to apply it well.
And he was going to take full advantage of this man’s hubris.
Raising his hands, he urged the closest zombies into a charge towards the man. Immediately, the mage burst into action, flinging fireballs this way and that to engulf the onrushing horde.
There were always more, though.
Reud smiled grimly as he directed the undead. Most of the minions were charging from the front, but he also took one from behind the mage, having it move with as much stealth as a half mutilated corpse could.
Luckily, it seemed to have gone unnoticed.
The zombie raised its arm, a magebane sword held in its grip, sneaking closer and closer to the distracted Seeker. One step, then another, and then it was right behind the man. The zombie raised the blade, preparing to strike him down.
Then the sword slipped from its grasp.
Reud frowned at the undead. Why had it done that? He certainly hadn't commanded it to-
The zombie's hand melted, the flesh running like wax. Then it burst into flame, its exposed skin sloughing off.
Then it collapsed fully.
Reud rolled back behind the zombie wall, thinking furiously. If the man was burning too hot for the zombies to be of any use, he needed to use something else. The stag had been incinerated, but a spell of that kind would definitely not be something the man would be able to pull off more than once.
A detonation drew his attention, burning chunks of gore raining down around him. The mage was doing his best to work his way through the zombie wall, cackling maniacally. Reud needed to use something tougher, something with a resistance to fire, something that could cut through the man's flames and put him down.
Then his eyes fell on Tel.
The skeleton had a natural resistance to fire magic, courtesy of his fire affinity. And one of the magebane swords lying on the ground would be the perfect weapon for him to use. A Seeker magekiller weapon being used to slay a Seeker mage, it was almost poetic. He just needed to get Tel close. If the mage spotted the skeleton, he'd definitely focus him down. Enough pyromancy would eventually overwhelm even Tel’s resistance. So, Reud needed to make sure the mage was thoroughly distracted, and what better way to do that than throwing a true horde at the man.
Reaching out across the square, Reud felt for every scrap of soul aspected material. Every last piece of flesh and bone. Every single body still intact enough to move.
And reanimated it all.
Every corpse, no matter how broken, stood. And then, as one, they charged the mage. Or hopped. Or crawled. A great wave of flesh and bone, torn armour and burning cloth, crashing down on the Seeker at its centre.
With Tel, creeping along in the midst of it all, a magebane sword gripped in his fist.
The mage redoubled his efforts, becoming the centre of a vortex of destructive fire. No zombie could come to within a metre of him, forming a wall of melting bodies that ringed the man.
Until Tel threw himself over it.
Before the Seeker could react, Tel slammed the sword through the man's stomach, driving it in to the hilt.
Instantly, the blue flames shrouding him winked out.
The Seeker knocked Tel back with a wild swing, sending the skeleton tumbling away, and staggered back to bump against the stage. Reud let a smile spread across his face, urging the rest of the zombies forward.
It was time to finish this.
The Seeker looked around the burning square, clutching the weapon impaling him, blood pouring out around his hands. Finally, his eyes locked on Reud's, narrowing with hate. Fumbling around his neck, he grabbed a silver necklace, the ornament the only part of his outfit that had survived his flames. Clicking it open, he pulled free an azure crystal.
A crystal that pulsed with intense energy.
Taking the crystal in his fist, he lifted his hand towards Reud, his teeth bared in a snarl. "Burn in holy fire, heathen."
And then he crushed it.
Azure light engulfed him, a wall of mana rushing out to fill the square. Then the light vanished, taking the man with it.
Leaving in its place an orb of blue fire.
The orb shook in the air, shaking and roiling, the air and the mana in the square sucking in towards it. The suction tugged at Reud, pulling at his clothes and whistling past his ears.
Reud watched it with a sort of detached fascination. The spell was a true marvel, the mana work intricate to an impressive degree. It was a two part working, a complex piece of spatial magic that identified a person, then swapped that person with some preprepared spell and saturated it with mana. Each part held all kinds of ingenious ideas that he'd have to experiment with later.
The orb grew brighter until Reud was forced to avert his eyes, even his fascination with the magic not enough to stand the pain.
Then the suction stopped.
Then it exploded.
The sound reached him first, a noise like the very air was tearing itself apart, mixed with a great roar, the splintering of wood, and the wet crushing of bodies. Then, before Reud could react, a shock wave slammed the zombie wall into him and sent them all tumbling to the floor.
Following on its heels was a wall of white-blue fire, searing everything it touched. It washed over Reud.
Through Reud.
Unbelievable agony shot through him as his clothes and skin vaporized in an instant. Then, the world went dark as the flames burnt through his eyelids. Then his eyes. All sensation faded, blissfully, as his body shut down.
Then, nothing.