Screw this. I wasn’t about to let Eric’s plans take another of my friends. Charging forward, I drew one of the legacies of Melnon. Its aura would give me away, and Eric would definitely know it was drawn but I didn’t care anymore. “Drink deep, Bloodsong.” I muttered the incantation as the bone white blade appeared in my hand from the ring on my finger. Bloodsong. The enchanted longsword that made Melnon feared on the battlefield. Strengthening enchantments made the bone as hard as steel, and it could absorb bone outside of battle to repair itself. It drank the blood of those it cut and used that energy to attack. It could store the blood for up to an hour before it deteriorated, and as far as anyone knew it didn’t really have an opposing element. I drove it point first through the heart of the wolf that was holding on to Nick, leaving it in as the corpse swiftly dried up as Bloodsong absorbed all the liquid within.
The sudden death of their fellow had the wolves backing off, and Sheila dropped down to examine Nick’s arm. “Where’d you get the sword?” Nick asked.
“Live first, answers later.” I answered curtly. “You able to fight?”
“Not really.” He replied. “Thought I could hold on ‘til reinforcements got here, but that damn mutt managed to pull something in my elbow.”
“That’s fine. You sit back with Sheila here and protect each other. I’ll put the mutts down.”
“You can’t!” Sheila said, but I ignored her.
“Drain the life of those foolish enough to cross you. Death Barrier.” I snarled, fully embracing death mana and its strengths for the first time in far too long. All my life I had shied away from it for some reason. I didn’t know if it was fear of death, fear of the power it could give me, or just a lack of ambition. All that didn’t matter now that I had someone to protect. Nick. Sheila. Ellie and Scott. Even that little kid that tried to help by giving me the massage from Hell. If I had to embrace the legacy of death to protect them? Well. I would happily leave a wasteland behind me. As I crouched there, a grey barrier fully encircled us. I could feel the icy air of an abandoned crypt flowing off it, but to me it felt welcoming.
Turning to look at my friends, I smiled even though I recognized the utter terror in their faces. “You’ll be safe in here. Don’t touch the barrier unless you are me. It doesn’t play well with others.” Standing, I walked forward and glared at the remaining wolves. “Let the web of life alert me to my prey as they brush against it. Detect Life.” I muttered and activated the spell so that I could locate all the wolves as they surrounded me.
“I doubt you can understand me but I don’t care. You’ve felt a necromancer’s aura before and chose to keep attacking my friends. It’s too late for regret. Your lives end here.” As I finished, the leader and its two companions that had held back charged towards me. I let them get about 20 feet away before I slightly crouched and swung Bloodsong in a flat arc in front of me. “Bloody crescent.” I snarled, the activation phrase for another enchantment. This one took the stored blood energy and shot it out in an arc of red energy in front of me, slicing through whatever it came across. The leader of the wolves had just enough time to leap over the energy, vaulting off one of his own subordinates as the blade severed the front legs of the other two, sending them face planting and sliding to a stop as they swiftly bled out. I continued my swing, dropping into a crouch as the detect life spell told me that there was a wolf approaching from behind and to my left.
“Pierce. Bone arrow.” From the bottom of the hilt a small shard of bone fired. It was a one shot spell that would need a day to recharge with a new bone as a replacement, but it did its job. I missed the face, but managed to hit the wolf in the shoulder, throwing off its charge as it stuttered. I stepped partially past, swinging my blade vertically and slicing into the neck. “Drink.” I ordered it, getting a small dose of blood. What was more important was that the wolves saw the bleeding wound send a small stream into the blade until the injured wolf got out of the way. I watched with cold eyes as they regrouped a small distance away.
Targeting one or two would be nearly impossible as they kept in constant motion. That was fine though. I had plenty of spells to crush whatever plans they came up with. They would learn the error of attacking mine, and it would be their last lesson in this life. “Pierce all defenses with the cold grasp of the grave. Death spike storm.” Four magic circles appeared in front of me, and from them flew spikes of death mana. Six inches long and three inches wide at the base, each death spike had minimal killing power. Unless it struck a vital spot, all it would do would be kill an area of muscle that it pierced into. Simple, easy to cast, and it could cover an area. It was a debilitating spell, and I needed to slow the wolves down.
Their yelps of pain and panic were music to my ears. Especially seeing a pair of wolves limping from getting their thighs pierced multiple times. “Bloody crescent.” I called again, sending a wave of energy towards the two that were limping. Their pack abandoned them, having seen the power of that strike before. This one was much weaker though as it didn’t have the full blood supply of a wolf empowering it. It still tore savage holes into their flanks, and I focused on the rest of the pack as I knew they would be dying soon.
“I shall don the energy from beyond the door. Let those who dare touch me pay the price. Death armor.” I felt the barkskin spell shrivel as a half inch thick barrier of death mana surrounded me. I would trade wound for wound. The wolves had no choice if they wanted to hurt me. But what animal would willingly sacrifice itself to kill its enemy? These wolves didn’t have that amount of spite yet.
I had the defense, now I needed the offense. It would be doubtful if they would kindly give me an opening for a devastating blow even though they were down half of their numbers, so I had to make each nick count. I had just the mana to do it. It would uncover another of my secrets, but oh well. We were long beyond that point now. “My blade shall hasten thy return to the earth. Fester and rot. Necrosis blade.”
Necrosis blade was an enchantment I had created myself, though I had never used it as it seemed to walk the line between good and evil. The idea had come to me as I had helped some of the farmers with their compost bins. Fusing spirit mana and death mana, you could both empower the little critters that broke down food scraps as well as hasten any rot already present. Now that energy mix, that we had named rot mana, was coating my blade.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Nick! Can you toss that body out of the barrier? I need it.” I called over my shoulder as I backed up towards the barrier, giving the wolves one less avenue to attack through. They spread out, coming at me in a wide wedge formation. I took the same stance I had when I opened the fight, assuming they would be smart enough to recognize it.
“Bloody crescent.” I snarled, swinging the blade even though it didn’t have any energy. Sure enough, the wolves all dodged, exactly as I had hoped. “Death bolt.” I fired off the lesser version of the death spike spell at the front elbow of one of the wolves. The death bolt didn’t have any penetrating power, instead it worked best if it could seep into a joint area instead of penetrating the muscle. The wolf yelped and limped back at the same time there was a thump to my left. Looking over, I smiled as I saw the desiccated body of my first kill.
“Thanks Nick.” I said, glad that he still trusted me. The barrier had destroyed the hair, leaving behind just the flesh. That was fine, I didn’t need it for much. “Rise to bear your fangs at your former allies, for death severs all connections. Raise lesser zombie.” A ball of what looked like was green flame dropped from my hand and soaked into the body of the former wolf. Undeath mana had a unique color and would never be mistaken for any other type. The zombie slowly got to its feet, standing there and waiting for orders.
“Kill that wolf.” I ordered, pointing to one of the uninjured ones that had regrouped. The leader was by itself, as was the injured one. Not wasting any time, I launched myself at the injured one. It snarled at me, and I let it bite down on my left arm so that I could slice its uninjured front leg. It immediately let go after it started biting, but couldn’t do much once I slashed its leg. As the rot quickly took hold, it whimpered before collapsing to the ground as it tried to retreat.
“Gaaaah!” I cried out in pain, as the leader had taken that moment to run past me. It didn’t get close enough for my reflexive swing to cut it, but one of the neck tentacles was moving much slower after it slashed across my back. I backed away from it as it rejoined the other three remaining wolves, helping them tear apart my zombie. Damn thing didn’t even manage to injure any of them, but it was fine. It did its job of distracting them.
“Drink deep.” I muttered, having put the injured wolf between myself and its friends. It had tried to bite at me, but couldn’t get any adjustments because of its legs. Putting it out of its misery, I stabbed straight down through its back and let Bloodsong recharge.
“The enemy approaches. Let Reagan unleash her anger and strike swiftly. Stone shard barrage.” As the wolves were staring me down, Sheila finally decided that she was going to be a part of this too. From the safety of the barrier she sent several shards hurling towards the group, but there was an unexpected interaction between her spell and the barrier I had set up. The barrier shattered, but the residual energy coated the shards and utterly devastated the wolf that had its side to Sheila.
“Nice!” I called out, taking the moment to charge. As the injured wolf’s innards were ravaged by the death energy covered stones, I kept my eyes on the leader. I smiled as I closed, sliding to a stop a few yards away from the pack. As I stopped, several arrows peppered the remaining wolves. Reinforcements had arrived! Seeing their death, the least injured wolf charged me with their leader following close behind. The first would give its life to take mine, creating an opening for the leader to injure me.
“Dax!” Sheila cried out as the blur of a dog slammed into the side of the wolf with the momentum of a charging bull. Both animals went tumbling over each other in a swirl of fangs and claws.
“Bloody pierce.” I smiled as the leader suddenly found itself in front of me with nothing to stop any of my blows from landing. What it didn’t expect was that Bloodsong could send a ray of energy from the tip, it didn’t have to use it as a crescent attack. The mutt’s reflexes were good enough to save its life, but the beam tore through its eye and along the back of its neck, severing one of the tentacles. I took a half step to the side so I wouldn’t get hit full on by the charging animal, and simply let its momentum carry it past as my blade gave a slice along its flank. It wasn’t deep, but it didn’t need to be.
I turned to see it flop to the ground at Nick’s feet, just in time for him to slam a stone encased fist into its head. Not much can live through a shattered skull, and this wolf monster was no exception.
“You guys all right? We got here as quick as we could.” One of the villagers said, panting as they jogged up.
“I’m fine.” I said, looking around. Dax had latched on to the last wolf’s throat, and gave it a death jerk to end the fight. “Sheila? Nick?”
“Arm hurts, but I’ll live.”
“I’m fine.” She said, but her look at me let me know she wanted answers.
“Thanks for the save.” I said as I quietly returned Bloodsong to my ring. “We wouldn’t have lasted much longer. I hate to do this to you guys though, but could you clean this up for us? We really need to report what happened to Father Tomas.”
“Not a problem.” They said, heading towards the bodies. “We’ll take it from here. You guys deserve a break anyhow.”
“Thanks Mike.” Sheila said as we were leaving. We had gotten halfway back to the village before she spoke again. “So. Care to explain all that?”
“I will. Can you wait until we meet up with Tomas? I don’t want to have to explain this twice.” I said, stopping to look at her. She nodded, and I noticed something strange. “Hey guys. How long do eagles usually hang around looking at the meadow without hunting for anything?”
“They can go for a couple hours, why?” Nick said, looking up at the sky to see the same eagle I was looking at. One that I had noticed earlier today, and possibly yesterday. What kind of eagle doesn’t stop to hunt? An undead spy.
“Come on. We need the Father, and we can’t let the others know just yet.” I said, hurrying back to the village. I had to assume that Eric had seen everything that just happened, and was making plans to counter all my strengths. Nick and Sheila were silent through the trip, and we found Tomas teaching the little ones in the church.
“Sorry to interrupt Father, but we need a moment in private.” I called out as we entered. Tomas looked worried to see us all, especially at this time of the day.
“Can it wait a bit?” He asked hopefully. Not wanting to waste any time and to convey just how serious this was, I conjured a bit of undeath mana in my hand.
“Whoah! Green fire!” One of the kids shouted. I quickly shut off the fire once I saw several of them getting to their feet and straining to get a better view.
“Awwww.” Several chorused when they realized the fire was gone.
“None of that now children.” Tomas said at the same time. “Come, let’s head over to the bakery so Auntie Helga can watch you. As a special treat, for today only you can gently close your books and leave them on the floor.” While he ushered the excited children out the door, we started tidying up a bit. By the time he had returned, everything was mostly in order.
“Nick, can you arrange the chairs? I’ll grab us a few glasses of wine. Something tells me this conversation is going to require a glass.” Tomas said, heading back toward his office.