The water was frigid and excruciating to the senses. A numbing cold engulfed my incorporeal form and chilled me to my core. After the chill settled in a stream of water started creeping up my finger traveling through my ethereal body and toward my mind. The water traveled faster the closer it got to my mind, leaving a frosty shell in its wake. Once the stream completed its journey and my entire being was covered in its frosty embrace it stabbed directly into my mind. My mind burned from the glacial bite and I reeled in pain. My incorporeal body flickered slightly as my focus wavered. I immediately attempted to regain my focus and clawed my way through the torment plaguing me.
Roaring with determination my body stopped flickering as my complete focus was recovered. I discovered shortly after that the pain wasn’t going to lessen so I pushed it to the fringes of my awareness. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds and it turned into a constant war of attrition. Amidst the struggle, a mass of information poured into me. Unfamiliar knowledge, from the human held by my Golem, assaulted me rapidly. The stream of information filled me with new understanding as my mind devoured it all like a ravenous beast. I was exhilarated at the sheer amount of knowledge being absorbed. I’ve… I’ve learned their language. This is insane! The spoils of invading a mind are wondrous!
Sifting through the flow of knowledge grain by grain was quite a colossal task but the rapidity of absorption was incredible. What took the human fool decades to learn, I acquired in hours. His personal knowledge of the world, the settlement, the humans around him, and his studies of magic were mine to ponder at my leisure. The thrill of consuming so much knowledge at such a fast pace was indescribable. The stream of knowledge abruptly cut off and vanished as the screams that had been so loud ceased completely. My ethereal goblin form was forcibly ejected back into the green sphere as the red sphere turned to dust and was swept away by an unknown force.
The green sphere started to tremble as it was blasted by the cerebral recoil. The trembling increased until the sphere shattered and my consciousness ricocheted back into my body. The sheer force of the recoil knocked me off my feet. For a long, while I lay there staring at the cave ceiling, the wind utterly pummeled out of me. My chest rose and fell expeditiously as I struggled to catch my breath. Before long I had recovered and risen back to my feet. Between the new knowledge I pilfered and the stinging irritation from the mental recoil, my head was pounding. My reverie was interrupted by a system notification.
It was only after the system notification grabbed my attention that I realized that my command of the mental invasion skill was still lacking. With my unrefined and brutish use of the skill, I had pushed his mind to its limits and beyond. I had killed a man by breaking his mind. Seems like I need a little bit of practice with this ability. Especially if I want to steal all of their knowledge instead of just bits and pieces. I’ll keep that in mind for next time. Shrugging my shoulders I realized that the corpse was still being held in the hand of my Golem. Before I could vocally order my Golem to drop the body my thoughts were instantly conveyed through the mental link. The Golem promptly tossed the corpse aside casually.
Well, that was neat! I can now give orders faster and have them obeyed faster. I mean who wouldn’t want faster-acting minions? Hahaha! It would also prevent situations like what just happened. Even if I’m magically incapacitated as long as my mind still works I can direct my minions. The information on the settlements' defenses and how many inhabitants was incomplete but incredibly useful nonetheless. Now I know part of what I’m up against at least. They have more magic users than I thought but it doesn’t matter. Since according to the recently deceased the magic they know doesn’t lean towards the destructive side. That’s a relief but still, I must be careful. Who knows if they have some hidden tricks?
I looted his corpse throwing everything into one of the packs before animating his skeleton and heading deeper into the settlement. With the basic knowledge of the settlement I easily avoided the traps, the enemy had set up. Soon enough I came to the last obstacle keeping me from freeing my people. A huge iron door barred my way and because of my stolen knowledge, I was aware of the large fortress that lay beyond. With a quick thought, my Golem lumbered forward to batter the door. The demolition of the door was bound to alert everyone to my presence but luckily for me they already knew I was coming for them.
Shortly after the demolition of the door started the Golem had completely broken the iron door apart. The skeletons rushed into the area behind the door violently attacking these pathetic humans. The Golem followed my orders and lumbered into the room, wading through the enemies, straight toward the fortress gate. It quickly turned into chaos as these foolish humans succumbed to their intense fear of my undead army. Exploiting their fears I waltzed into the battle enveloped in green energy and with a guttural roar summoned a multitude of spirits. It was a terrifying sight to behold judging from the dread in my enemy's eyes.
The numerous flaming skulls rushed to attack in a maelstrom of fire and bone. The spirits raged and humans died fiery deaths. Skeletons wielding varied weapons slaughtered wantonly working their way to the fortress. The Golem barreled through the wall conveniently making a door for the undead to swarm through. Fire licked at the fortress walls as the humans attempted to fight the fire, a Golem, and the undead. Screams of the dying filled the air as I searched for my people. Fireballs rained down from the sky as I discovered the mages defending the walls. Shit! I knew these bastards were hiding something. Running and dodging a hail of fireballs isn’t easy. Skeletons were blown apart as I ran through the battlefield.
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Miraculously I was never hit even with having so many close calls. Barbequed Goblin isn’t on today’s menu you little shits! You’ll pay for daring to destroy my skeletons! On top of the pound of flesh, I’ll extract for enslaving me and my people! Roaring with unbridled rage I summoned as many spirits as my mana could manage and ordered them to annihilate the mages. An expenditure of mana on this level would normally render me severely out of breath and unable to fight, but in my rage, it went unnoticed. Spirits filled with my fury stormed toward the mages with murderous intent. The mages attempted to destroy the spirits, albeit a pointless one, by launching all sorts of spells.
Fire and ice rained down in droves. Lightning bolts fell in short bursts upon the battlefield. I stood amidst the destruction, bolstered by my fury, like an ancient god of death. Reveling in the sweet nectar of death energy filling the air I laughed maniacally. An acrid scent filled the air as the mages felt true terror at the sight of the immeasurable horde of enraged spirits. Crinkling my nose in disgust at these pathetic creatures I smiled as I raised my hands and started to cast again. To drive the terror home even more I spoke to them in their own language.
“See me and despair. For your crimes against my people, you shall be damned! I will tear down all who oppose my righteous cause. You are but lambs to the slaughter now. Feel my wrath! Your flesh will betray you and rot!” I yelled.
Green energy burst out of the ground, enveloping me. The energy continued to flow around me filling the air with a green haze. A grey smoke appeared and intertwined with the green haze. After a while the energy stopped flowing out of the ground, then it flowed into me filling me with an unimaginable amount of power. The energy bolstered my body as pain drilled to my very core. As the pain racked my body I could feel myself getting stronger. The anguish of innumerable dead goblins fortified me. The ghosts of my fallen brethren cried out to me. Vengeance. Justice. Kill them! Be the instrument of our spectral retribution! Unleash our unholy fury! Death! Destruction!
“Witness the fury of your victims, you bastards!” I shouted. “Decay!”
The fury of the damned fused with my magical energy and amplified it a thousandfold. Thick dark smoke flooded out of my outstretched hands. The smoke formed an immense cloud above the fortress that continued to grow as the rage held inside me drained into it. The ever-growing cloud blocked the light and darkened the sky. As the shadow of the cloud fell upon the fortress, the cloud split open. Black droplets fell from within the cloud. Everything that the black rain touched began to sizzle. Decay rained down upon them like acid rain. Inflicting numerous DoT debuffs to the humans and the fortress, without harming a single one of the undead.
These system notifications repeatedly rang through my mind for every human hit by the decaying rain. The sheer amount of them hitting me all at once made my head hurt. A chain reaction of sounds on a loop. When I thought that my head might burst from the noise inside my head, the notifications stopped.
I telepathically ordered the Golem to retreat to my side as we backed away from the rotting rain. Amidst the rainfall, the spirits continued their targeted attacks on all the mages, while the skeletons wantonly destroyed any enemy in their path. Screams filled the air as my minions slaughtered everyone not already dead from the rain. Terrified and beyond broken the humans could do nothing but die painfully. The storm of decay raged on while I monitored the situation for any who attempted to flee my justice. The screams died down as the storm began to calm after unleashing the undying anger of the deceased goblins. The energy fueling the storm slowly dissipated until the storm was no more. The spirits blinked out of existence once their duration ended.
System notifications rang constantly in my head as the battle ended. Max level already? What’s this evolution stuff? Looks like it’s not possible right now. I’ll ask Chooftoof about it after I free my people. He should have enough belief to bring him back from Death’s Door by then. I smiled, completely satisfied with the sheer destruction that was caused. After taking a moment to soak in the beauty of it all I walked closer to the fortress that now lay in ruins before my eyes. Beautiful! Such wondrous and chaotic destruction. Let’s get on with bolstering the ranks and then start searching for my people's prison. I need to find them!