For a few precious moments I was disoriented, the fog that had developed in my mind had barely cleared up and I was honestly feeling worse than before I’d tried to sleep, but the distinctly unnatural feeling of something being wrong helped me to focus my mind.

Sense Danger feels different, and there’s also a lot of danger to Sense. I should probably go and do something about it.

The door to my room was left unlocked, and I opened it to see Render was standing next to it deep in thought. Or that was what I assumed, it looked more like they had put their armour on a stand and left it here for some reason, but that ‘theory’ was disproved when they turned to look at me.

“Rob, it has only been a few hours. What has disturbed your sleep?” They can’t hear it? But it’s so loud.

“I think the uh- the Necromancer’s here. Can’t you hear them? Their marching is getting louder.” Render’s demeanour shifted, and their tone became more determined than the concern it expressed before.

“I am unable to hear anything of the sort, however I will trust your judgement. You have Sense Danger, correct?” I nodded, “Then I am certain that you are correct. Lead the way, we shall take the fight to them. They will not be taking another life on this day.”

“Yeah, alright.” I stifled a yawn and tried to match Render’s resolve. Getting a sense of direction from Sense Danger was always difficult, if not completely impossible, but here all I had to do was follow the sounds of stomping feet. Curiously the sound didn’t get any louder or quieter, but I was certain that I was getting closer all the same.

I could feel it, though I wasn’t sure why.

I led Render around the outskirts of the village, carefully reducing my speed so that they could keep up, and soon they seemed to hear the sound as well and gained a previously unseen sense of urgency.

Within minutes we could see something shifting on the horizon, something white that seemed to blanket the plains, and soon after Render suddenly stopped moving and started studying what I was quickly beginning to recognise as an army of moving Skeletons. What must have been at least 50 once living corpses, now being controlled by an uncaring master.

Hearing about it is one thing, but seeing it in person… This is disturbing.

Thankfully my high Willpower seemed to come in handy, and I was able to ignore the sense of wrongness that had begun to pervade my mind, instead trying to focus on my magic. With a thought, I began to Charge a Bolt above my shoulder, using just enough Mana that my Pool remained at the same volume.

“The situation is more dire than I first imagined, though it is far from unwinnable. I was able to count three Skeletons- most likely Revenants- that may be able to stand against our attacks, the rest should fall easily enough. Though we should not need to fight them all like this. Subduing or killing the Necromancer should prevent most of them from being able to act. I believe that only the Revenants here should be capable of acting without direction.”

“Alright, sounds good. Should I just go for the Necromancer then? I’m not sure how well Lightning works against bones.”

Render thought for a moment and said, “Yes, I shall attempt to distract the forces. Most of them should be unable to damage my armour, however the Revenants may be troublesome if given enough time so I would appreciate it if you ended things quickly,” Their voice took on an amused lilt, “I am given to believe that this is in your skillset.”

Despite my tiredness, and the emotions that I’d been trying not to notice for the past couple days, I grinned. “You could say that it’s my specialty.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Then let us begin.” And at that Render took off at a full on sprint towards the horde, kicking up chunks of dirt with every step. Hesitant to waste Mana unnecessarily, I refrained from using Lightning Steps and instead took off at a run. The approaching horde rippled as they noticed us, hefting what I could only assume to be their weapons, and increased their pace to reach us sooner.

Alright, battle plan. Should have done this earlier, but I guess I can’t change that now. First, where’s the Necromancer?

I scanned the battlefield and, at first, found only skeletons, but I knew that they had to be nearby because… Well, Render seemed to assume that they’d be here and that was a good enough reason for me.

Just then I noticed something, far towards the back of the Skeletons, I saw a conspicuously clothed figure surrounded by rigidly unmoving Skeletons. As I stared at them they turned their head to regard me, and I could have sworn that I’d met them before. Somehow, they looked distinctly familiar to me.

Then something seemed to shift in the air and I realised that they must have been using some kind of concealing magic, magic that they now decided not to waste Mana on.

You Are In The Presence Of Elara Solarius Woodruff, Lord Of The Dead, The Greatest Necromancer.

I startled, wondering whether this was an enemy that we would even be able to defeat, but Render seemed to have a greater understanding of the situation and quickly snapped me out of it.

“Do not be daunted by their title, it is not difficult to be the best at a lost art. It is unlikely that there is even a single other Necromancer that yet lives.” Right, I should’ve guessed.

Instead of responding, I simply nodded and turned my Lightning Bolt towards them. It was unlikely that they’d have much that would protect them from a Lightning Bolt, and it seemed like until now they were relying on being hidden and had a clear line open for me to attack, so if I launched a Bolt instantly the fight would be over just like that.

I began to do so, but I hesitated for just a moment. If I hit them with this, wouldn’t they die? With all my Skills and Stats, they’d probably need to be at least marginally focussed in defence in order to survive, so if they weren’t then I would likely kill them instantly. Did I want that to happen?

And then the line was closed, and the Necromancer was protected from attacks on all sides. I froze. I could’ve stopped this, ended what could have escalated into a disaster even worse than what happened to Saltrock, but I failed.

“Oh.” Was killing them even the right option, morally speaking? What if they didn’t even want to do this, or had to in order to survive? But then, what if they were doing it just for fun, or power? When Render had told me to subdue the Necromancer, did he even mean kill? I accepted the task so easily, but now that I was here I wondered if I even had the strength to finish the job.

“Rob! Look out!” I heard Render shout moments before a spike from Sense Danger warned me of an incoming attack. In the time that I’d been having a philosophical crisis the Skeletons had already nearly reached me, and one was lunging at me with a dull, rusted broadsword.

“Shoot!” I panicked and launched the Bolt I’d been Charging at it, wasting however much time it’d been since we’d first seen the horde, but blowing the Skeleton’s head clean off and preventing it from making any more attacks. Note that I said any more, and not any.

The same mistake I’d made against that first Rat General in the sewers reared its ugly head, and the Skeleton’s arm was somehow able to retain its momentum and spear towards my unarmoured torso. At the last second I used a burst of Lightning Cloak to divert the attack, but only turned what could have been fatal into a painful slash across my flank.

I yelled out in pain, but had to ignore it as another Skeleton reached me. Without being able to Charge it at all thanks to the evolution of Channel Mana, I wasn’t even able to kill this one in one shot. It was at this point that I also noticed that Chain Lightning hadn’t actually worked on the one that I’d already killed.

Did it not do enough damage? Or is there something cancelling the effect? There’s no time, just don’t think about it.

As I tried to step back from the approaching enemies, I realised that maybe thinking about oddities in combat was actually quite important. Something grabbed my leg and caused me to stumble, though I didn’t quite fall, and I looked down to see that what remained of the Skeleton was still moving and it had only momentarily fallen.

It pulled itself upwards using me as support, but didn’t have its sword in hand, so at least the situation wasn’t all bad. It was just mostly bad.

I flared Lightning Cloak but it didn’t seem to have any kind of effect, so I panicked and just tried to slam my arm into what was left of the monster’s ribcage. That seemed to do the trick, and I managed to push it away from me long enough for me to shoot a Lightning Bolt at its chest.

Either because that was a weak point or it was already close from my previous attacks, the ribcage was blown to pieces and the Skeleton fell apart before my eyes. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be capable of pulling itself back together.

But that was only one out of dozens, and another enemy quickly moved to take its place. I began to charge a Bolt in one hand and, after a moment of concentration, managed to split my focus enough to create one in my other hand too.

Maybe I just work well under pressure, but this feels like it should have been obvious.

I glanced over at where I was sure the Necromancer was standing, waiting, behind lines of Skeletons and scowled.

Alright, let's get started.