Megumi's blood golem sprung into action immediately after she sent the command for it to kill. It closed the gap with the creature that was once Ignis in an instant and smashed one of its spiked shoulders into the enemy, sending it tumbling backwards. Blood spewed out of where the golem had hit and she watched as it flowed into the golem. Her constructed minion began to glow with a deep red light in its center and it let out a horrible screech as it pounded its fists into the enemy.
The chimera managed to shove her creature off and sent it tumbling through the wall leading to the dining hall. The enemy creature didn't give chase and instead charged straight at her. She cursed under her breath and cast Magic Skin on herself just in case her golem didn't make it back in time. The chimera got within three feet of her before the blood golem grabbed it by the back of the neck and smashed it into the staircase. Megumi took a few steps back and then cast Eldritch Blast at the man in black who stood at the end of the hallway watching the fight.
He managed to move around the corner before her attack could connect and she cursed her bad luck. The two monsters brawled in front of her and it was hard to tell who was winning. Her blood golem was siphoning off strength from the enemy, but it seemed like the chimera had more raw power behind its attacks. The wicked claws of the enemy pierced the shoulder of her creature and it performed a body slam which made the room shake from the impact.
The blood golem was down for the count and once again the chimera charged her again. She cast Decay on the oncoming monstrosity, but the curse failed. She found herself flying backwards through the open door and the world spun around her. She slammed into the ground a dozen feet outside the door and coughed up a little blood. Her mana had been completely drained, and what was worse, the creature was already heading out the door after her.
Megu can't believe how much fucking magic resistance this thing has! Get up! Get up or you're dead!
She scrambled to her feet as quick as she could and downed a mana potion she quickly retrieved from her bag. She recast Magic Skin and she fired Eldritch Blasts at the thing, which were, as before, ineffectual. The only thing they did do for that matter, was slow the advance of the beast.
Magic Skin had undoubtedly saved her life, and she knew that she couldn't take another blow like that and survive without major bodliy damage. The chimera leapt for her and she barely jumped to the side, avoiding its long claws. She tried casting Decay again, but it failed. She was running out of options, and time. The blood golem seemed to have finally recovered in the time she had been outside and charged back into the fight. It jumped onto the chimera from behind and its spikes stuck it to the enemy like it was some kind of pincushion. The chimera wailed in agony and tried to reach behind itself to remove her golem, but it couldn't seem to get the job done.
Meanwhile, her golem drained the life essence of the enemy and only grew stronger. The golem then did something that surprised her and shape shifted, forming its head into a sharp hammer-like spike which it impailed into the head of the chimera. Silence filled the night air and there was no light other than the deep red glow that emanated from her blood golem. She breathed a momentary sigh of relief.
Where is the man in black?
She kept an eye on the doorway and downed two more mana potions in quick succession. It had been odd that the man hadn't come after her when the beast knocked her outside. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Was he in there slaughtering the children? Was he awakening more chimera? She cast Magic Skin for a third time and dashed inside, having her creature take point.
She only had another minute or two before the spell powering the golem ran out. There wasn't any more blood to summon another one, either as this one had absorbed everything.
He would have gone to the lab in the basement. It's clear that the man in black is an alchemist. If Megu can kill him off before he sends more of his creations after us, we might just have a chance. I have to hurry!
Megumi quickly, but carefully headed in the direction of the forbidden area Lydia had pointed out to her earlier. Her time was almost up. She dashed over towards the stairs leading to the dark basement, and hesitated. This could very well be a trap. Good thing she had a disposable pawn to use. She sent the golem down the stairs and as she predicted she heard a loud crash as the monster encountered the enemy. It appeared that the enemy was holed up in the basement, she did the only logical move left to her. She commanded the golem to block the exit for as long as it could and she began casting Eldritch Blasts down into the basement and all around her, setting the dilapidated building ablaze.
She ran back towards the entrance of the house while continuing to set fires everywhere she could.
"I've set the house on fire! Everybody run outside!" she screamed over and over at the top of her lungs as she ran. Children of various ages came running out of every room and hallway she passed and soon she had an entire crowd of people running ahead of her toward the exit.
There was no chance that her summoned creature was still around at this point, but it didn't matter. She backed out of the front door and sent a couple more shots inside and watched carefully for movement; there was none.
"Is everyone out?"
Lydia ran up next to her. "Yeah. Everyone's here."
"Great. Take these." Megumi handed Lydia three health potions from her bag. They were her last ones. "Give these to your brother and the others, it should stop the bleeding and keep them alive until we can get away from here. Where is the local cemetary?"
Lydia stared at her for a second before replying. "T-Thanks... It's actually not far. It's on the way to the mines. Maybe two or three minutes walk. Head out the gate and turn left towards and follow the road towards the mines, you can't miss it."
Megumi nodded. "Run ahead and don't stop until you get to the cemetary. Understand? Stay together no matter what. I'll be right behind you! If I don't come soon, then head down the hill and don't stop until you reach Rivean."
Lydia stared at her with a confused and terrified look.
"Go!"
That got her moving and the group of around a hundred orphans took off running as fast as they could towards the gates. She took a deep breath and prepared to run herself, but as she had predicted the fight wasn't over yet and she saw the shadows of four figures climbing up out of the burning rubble.
Some of the children saw what had come out of the rubble and screamed as they continued to run. Megumi gripped her staff hard and prepared to cast.
Damn. Poro-tan, where the fuck are you?
She knew that not a lot of time had passed since the battle had begun, but he had to be getting close by now. She would hold this man and his creatures off as long as she could before the end. It was unlikely she would get out of this one alive.
The figure in a black trench-coat calmly stepped out of the flames, completely unharmed and brushed himself off as he watched the kids run for the gate. The three chimera that were fueled by the souls of orphaned children were made up of various monster parts from what she could tell.
One of the beasts had the head of the same kind of snake that Megumi and Poro had fought on their way up the mountain. One had two heads, both that of different colored lizards, and the third one had the head and wings of a griffin. The man in black stepped forward and stared at her for a moment before reaching inside his coat and pulling out a vial. He drank it and immediately his muscles bulged and he took on the form of a much stronger man.
"You've ruined my lab and destroyed over a dozen of my pets, girl! And you have the nerve to try to take away the fuel for my important research as well? It's time for you to die! I will have those children once more!"
The Chimera with the snake head charged towards her and breathed a gout of flame in her direction. She only just barely dodged the flame, mostly at least, and once again thanked her lucky stars that she had activated magic skin. The flames hadn't drained nearly as much mana as the physical attack on her earlier did. She assumed that was due to her already high magical resistance. She turned away from the enemies and ran with everything she had towards the gate. She felt the warm kiss of flame hit her back, but Magic Skin managed to deflect the attack.
She knew that she had no chance against these things without any minions. She needed to get to the cemetary. She heard the loud flap of wings behind her, but didn't turn to look. She knew she wouldn't have time for that. She dashed out of the gate and headed towards the first trees she could see. Her heart pounded in her chest, but she managed to reach the cover of the trees. At least the thing wouldn't be able to dive on her from the air while she was under the trees.
There was little doubt that the monsters bound to the ground were still in pursuit, but luckily, they seemed to be slower than her. She saw the cemetary now. She just needed to make it a few dozen more feet and she would have all the reinforcements and fodder she would need to continue the fight.
Her lungs burned and she nearly stumbled over hidden rocks in the snow, but she made it to the cemetary wall and scrambled over. She cast Raise Undead several times at nearby graves as she pulled herself to her feet and ran towards the center of the cemetary.
When she got another dozen paces into the cemetary, she turned around and saw that the two beasts who couldn't fly had reached the wall and were in the process of coming over it.
Megu will not go down easy in a graveyard. You are an idiot for giving your little speech. Should have killed Megu when he had the chance.
Wasting no time, she cast Raise Undead over and over and in the span of a few seconds she had undead popping out of the ground all around her. The griffin chimera swooped down in a clear area and landed, it had the man in black on its back. He chucked a potion in her direction and it exploded with red hot flames. She ducked behind a large gravestone as liquid fire splashed onto it. The stuff was potent and melted right through the stone. One thing was clear; she did not want to get hit by that.
Megumi still didn't have reinforcements as the undead would take time to get out of the ground, so she fired off Eldritch Blasts at the chimera with the snake head. She cursed as she realized that the attack didn't do as much damage as she had hoped it would. It wasn't as resistant as the first chimera, but it would still cause her heaps of trouble.
The first of her undead were out of the earth now and her mana reserves were running dangerously low once more. She needed to buy time while her mana regenerated. She sent the undead after the two chimera closest to her and she ran towards some more cover to avoid the various concoctions he had been throwing her way. She waited until her minions got close to the one with the snake head and had them swarm it before she exploded them all in unison, draining her MP to nothing once more.
Her desperate move was rewarded, but not as well as she had hoped. The beast was severely injured, but the attack had not killed it. The lizard one that had been fighting alongside it also took some damage, but nothing noteworthy.
She sent wave after wave of her undead towards the enemies just to keep them busy while her MP regained. The alchemist was tossing deadly potions into groups of her undead and destroying them. She wouldn't be able to keep this up, she wished she had more mana potions, but she was out.
The alchemist seemed to be out of explosive potions as he took out a wicked looking dagger and dipped it into a glowing green vial. The liquid coated the blade and then he corked the thing and put it away before charging in to attack her undead pawns himself.
Great! Just fucking great.
Megumi was in a serious pinch, but it was everything she could do just to stall the enemies as they cut down her undead with relative ease. The man in black looked at her with contempt as he cut down three more of her undead with his dagger. Wherever the blade touched, the skin of her undead creatures' skin grew horrible boils that popped with a sickening noise. They were nothing to him and they both knew it. She lacked the MP to do another mass explosion and she similarly lacked the MP to summon another blood golem from the corpse of the snake chimera's corpse, so she simply retreated deeper into the cemetary.
Megumi continuosly summoned more undead fighters whenever she had enough MP and was hoping to just stall long enough for Kieren and Poro-tan to arrive. After running around for what felt like forever, she had regained most of her forces and was successfully holding her enemies at bay. She sent another large wave after the man in black and his griffin chimera. The man screamed in rage and cursed at her as he continued to cut down her improvised army. She grinned as the fool allowed more and more undead to pile at his feet. The idiot should have kept moving. He had made a huge mistake and it would cost him everything. He was now surrounded on all sides by her undead, both the ones still moving and the lifeless ones on the ground.
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So long, fucker!
She cast corpse explosion four times and watched in glee as the man in black was killed by the shrapnel. The griffin met the same fate as she continued to explode corpses around it over the next several seconds. This left her with only two foes. The two of them had been laying waste to her undead, but at least they were relatively slow.
Megumi was mentally exhausted and she had no more undead left to fight for her. Her head screamed in agony as the lizard and snake monsters continued in her direction at a steady pace. It was no good, she had simply pushed her body too far. Her vision was even beginning to blur. Thinking quickly, she cast Corpse Absorption on what was left of the alchemist and the griffin. Her headache cleared away slightly as she now had 160 MP to work with.
She cast Magic Skin again and hoped that it would provide her at least a little protection against the thing while she figured out what to do. Corpses littered the ground, but she had run out of dead to raise. She continued backing away from the monster and caught her first glance of the orphans who had apparently been huddled up against a stone outcropping near the back of the cemetary.
"Run to the mines. It's slow, without its master it's going to go on a rampage. I don't know if I can stop it... I'll buy you some time."
The kids listened to her without any complaints this time and ran off along the mountainside towards the road. The Lizard-headed Chimera was even worse than the snake beacause of its innate abilities and the fact that it had jaws that could snap a corpse in half. She didn't think Magic Skin would save her against that. When the grey head bit something, it turned to stone, and the second one's bite seemed to resemble the effects of the man in black's green poison. She cast Eldritch Blast at the creature, but it did little in the way of damage.
Damn. I wish they weren't so resistant to magic! Where in the seven hells is Poro-tan?
She suddenly realized her mistake, she had summoned him to the gates of the orphanage, but hadn't given him further instructions. He was probably stuck standing there like an idiot. She cursed under her breath and summoned him to her current location, giving him the freedom to do as he willed once he got here. She just hoped the mistake wouldn't cost her life. The continued keeping her distance and tossing the occasional spell at the enemies. She just needed to hold on.
It was becoming harder and harder to focus the longer the fight dragged on. Even though her MP was recovering quickly, she couldn't keep things up for much longer. Just as the snake headed chimera breathed another stream of flame at her, she saw her two companions arriving at the scene behind them. She was once again saved by her Magic Skin, but she felt her feet wobble beneath her as she collapsed to the ground.
So this is how it ends? No revenge for my family. Dead in a graveyard like some common necromancer. At least the kids will get away. Kieren will see that they get to safety I hope.
Her eyes felt so very heavy. She heard the monsters getting closer, but death didn't come. Her mind was in a foggy state, she heard a voice calling to her and the feel of glass between her lips as someone poured liquid into her. "Megumi? Megumi! Swallow this! Hideki, keep them distracted, I just need a moment!"
Megumi felt the nasty tasting liquid slide down her throat and suddenly she started feeling better. Her vision stopped blurring and she stared up at the face of Kieren, who shoved another bottle into her mouth. The familiar taste of a mana potion was like sweet nectar as she swallowed it down. Kieren layed her head back down gently and stood up. "You're going to be okay. We've got you covered."
Kieren dashed off with his halberd spinning. She lay on the ground for what felt like an eternity.
Megu has to help. Get up! There's so much more to do here.
She pinched herself hard and forced herself to sit up. She saw the two melee fighters carefully moving in and out to land blows on the monsters. They were focusing on the snake chimera and she watched as Poro-tan beheaded the thing. The lizard was chomping at them and she yelled to them, "It'll turn you to stone if it bites you with the grey head. The other one has some sort of corrosive bite. Don't let it touch you no matter what!"
Her companions took her advice to heart and circled the remaining enemy warily. Kieren had reach on the chimera and managed to kill one of the two heads. The grey head hung limp as the huge body of the chimera thrashed around wildly. Poro-tan got caught by the thing's massive tail and was sent tumbling across the ground, his head smashed into a gravestone with a thud.
Kieren cursed and Megumi managed to pull herself slowly to her feet. She could help. She wasn't some helpless damsel who couldn't fight. Megumi cast Decay on the chimera over and over and over again from where she stood. After the sixth attempt, she succeeded and the creature slowed down considerabl allowing Kieren to gain the upper hand again. Poro-tan wasn't back up yet and the chimera managed to chomp onto Kieren's halbard, splitting it cleanly in two.
The warrior staggered backwards, and was now unarmed. Megumi fired an Eldritch Blast, hitting the creature in the face so that he could get out of the way and Poro-tan charged back into battle from the side. He slammed the cursed blade into the side of the green lizard's head and it sunk deeply into the thing's skull. The large beast shuddered uncontrollably and then fell limply to the ground with a loud thud. It was over. They had done it. Megumi sighed in relief as her two companions rushed back to her side. *Ding**Ding*
Congratulations! You have reached level 25!
+1 TP
Congratulations! You have reached level 26!
+1 TP
"What in the blazes happened, Megumi? What about the plan?!" Kieren demanded apparently pushing aside his concern for her now that the battle had been won.
Megumi stared at him defiantly. "Megu couldn't stand to watch that fucking woman do what she was doing for another second! She was going to beat a girl to death in front of me!" her voice broke as she screamed at the overzealous adventurer who stood before her. She hated herself for being weak enough to show her emotions. She tried, unsuccessfully to stop the tears from appearing in her eyes. Tears of rage and hatred over being forced to live in a world where such places existed.
The man's eyes softened and he gave her a slight hug. "I'm glad you're okay. Where are the children?"
Megumi pulled away almost immediately and wiped the few tears that had escaped her eyes from the side of her face. "Megu sent them to the mines."
Kieren nodded. "I'll go get them, I know where the mine site is, it isn't hard to find. Just stay here."
The man ran off into the darkness. "You okay?" Poro-tan asked.
"Megu is fine. This village is complicit in what has happened here. They literally beat the children half to death before sending them back to that place if they escaped. Megu judges them to not be worthy of living. We are going to pay each and every one of those fuckers a visit right now."
Poro-tan surprisingly didn't object as he once might have and simply nodded grimly. Maybe he just accepted that she was going to make him do whatever she wanted anyway, or maybe he agreed with her assessment of this horrible place.
Hopefully, Megu is having a good influence on him!
Her mana had recovered a good amount thanks to the potion that Kieren had given her and she used it to summon another blood golem. This iteration of the creature had been provided with a lot more blood to start with than the last had. Megumi couldn't be sure how long it would take Kieren to find the children and bring them back, but she didn't intend to be here when he did. He would not see reason when it came to the things she intended to do to the village. It would burn to the ground this night.
If Kieren isn't on board, then he can die here like them! Megu will cleanse this mountain tonight one way or another! she thought grimly.
Poro-tan followed her back to the town and they swept through each and every house they found like death incarnate. They killed every single living person they found and she cast Sanguine Infusion upon each corpse along the way. Once they cleared a dwelling, she set the building aflame before moving on to the next.
The group worked with ruthless efficiency and within a short period of time most of the town was on fire. As it was the middle of the night, no one even knew what was happening until it was too late. As they exited the house of the town lord and set it on fire, she saw Kieren came running up the main street towards them with the orphans in tow.
"What the fuck are you doing?! This isn't how we operate, Megumi! This isn't right!"
"THEY ARE COMPLICIT!" she screamed as ash and snow fell down on her. "MEGU WILL NOT LET THEM DO THIS EVER AGAIN!!"
"Not all of these people are guilty!"
"Can you really say that, Kieren? Look at those children. They were treated as little more than slaves here. They will be treated so again if this town is not made to serve as an example. Normally I don't agree with Megumi's.... tactics... but I stand with her on this. These people knew what was being done to those kids, and you know it."
Kieren turned and looked at the frightened kids who huddled in the street staring wide-eyed at the burning buildings.
"We don't know that for sure! We don't get to judge these people, its not our place. We are here for a job, and we have completed that job."
"You would leave those kids in the hands of this village again? The lord and all the people here knowingly let the children be treated thta way! They churned through kids like a meat grinder. Megu will not let you stand in her way!"
Lydia spoke up next. "Megumi is right... the entire village was in on this and profited off of us. You want to act all noble, but the truth is that you're just scared to destroy evil. She isn't."
The rest of the kids chimed in with shouts of agreement. Kieren seemed to be struggling internally with his own moral code, and to Megumi's surprise he slowly nodded.
"Maybe you're right. This is... too horrible though. I can't be a part of it. I can't look at their faces and send them back. I'll get them to safety, but I won't participate in this butchery. Come on kids, we're leaving town."
"We'll meet you on the road." Poro-tan said.
The solemn figure of Kieren bowed his head before trudging off into the darkness with the kids.
"Let's finish this, Poro-tan."
Megumi and Poro-tan continued on their rampage for another half hour or so, and when the entire town was aflame they headed towards the mountain pass. Snow and ash mingled as it fell around them. Megumi couldn't help but think of the scene as beautiful. She had gained 10 TPs from all the kills and she a felt great sense of satisfaction for massacring all the vile people who had lived here. After all, they all had it coming.
Spoiler: Hideki
Name Hideki (Poro-kun) Level 024 (32,999/39,903 EXP to next Level) Class Warrior HP 1250/1250 MP 50/50 TP 1 Adventurer Rank C Attributes Vitality 44 Magic 3 Endurance 31 Magic Resistance 9 Strength 28 Luck 7 Agility 20 Dexterity 17 Passive Skills • Warrior's Essence - Level 5 (+50 HP regeneration/min)
• Sword Mastery - Level 7 (+70% proficiency with swords)
• Tiger Style - Level 2
• Turtle Style - Level 2
• Stalwart - Level 1 (+10% natural defense)
• Fortify Health - Level 3 (+150 HP) Active Skills • Holy Blade - Level 1 (Envelope blade in holy aura for 15 seconds)
• Shockwave - Level 2 (Release shockwave from blade)
Spoiler: Megumi
Name Megumi Level 026 (46,805/49,541 EXP to next Level) Class Necromancer HP 475/475 MP 1250/1250 TP 12 Villain Rank C Adventurer Rank F Attributes Vitality 19 Magic 75 Endurance 10 Magic Resistance 50 Strength 6 Luck 18 Agility 9 Dexterity 10 Passive Skills • Mage's Essence - Level 5 (+150 MP regeneration/min) Active Skills • None Necromancer Magic
• Sanguine Infusion (50 MP) - Level 15 (Absorb life essence of recently deceased, 15% chance to gain +1 TP from human victims [Cap reached. Lvl Requirement for Lvl 16, (50)])
• Corpse Explosion (30 MP) - Level 7 - (+70% damage from explosion)
• Corpse Absorbtion (10 MP) - Level 1 (Absorb a corpse's essence. Recover 80 MP)
• Raise Undead (20 MP) - Level 10 (Raise weak undead to fight for you. Max: 50)
• Summon Blood Golem (500 MP) - Level 1 (Raise a Golem to fight by your side by using the blood of the fallen. Max: 1)
• Soul Trap (350 MP) - Level 1 (Trap soul of a recently defeated foe. Max: 1 [Cap reached. Lvl Requirement for Lvl 2: (30)] )
• Soul Trap Mastery - Level 1 (+1 to all stats of Summoned Soul)
• Spirit Barrier (100 MP) - Level 1 (Erect a barrier using souls of the dead for fuel. Blocks spells and projectiles)
• Magic Skin - Level 2 (Actively consumes MP to negate physical and magical damage. Higher levels lower the MP cost)
• Decay (120 MP) - Level 5 - (25% chance of success. Causes body to rot from the inside out causing extreme pain and slowing movement at joints)
• Eldritch Blast (75 MP) - Level 12 (Unleashes a roiling ball of Eldritch energy that burns its subject on contact for 5 seconds)
Spoiler: Kieren
Name Kieren Level 032 (69,810/76,200) EXP to next Level) Class Warrior HP 1800/1800 MP 150/150 TP 1 Adventurer Rank B Attributes Vitality 72 Magic 8 Endurance 34 Magic Resistance 13 Strength 41 Luck 9 Agility 26 Dexterity 29 Passive Skills • Warrior's Essence - Level 10 (+100 HP regeneration/min)
• Pole-arm Mastery - Level 10 (+100% proficiency with pole-arm weapons)
• Dragon Style - Level 4
• Fortify Strength - Level 3 (+6 to Strength)
• Fortify Health - Level 3 (+150 HP) Active Skills • Last Stand - Level 4 (When health drops below 40% gain +28 to each stat for 5 minutes.)