I focused all my attention on the incoming threat. It was a horde of flying magic beasts, or what used to be magic beasts. Their movements were mechanical and stiff, making them seem more like automatons than living creatures. They also exuded an aura of death so strong that it made me shiver, even through my divine sense. It was obvious to me that these creatures were no longer alive. They were corpses animated by Dark magic; the undead in other words. We had a horde of undead magic beasts flying in our direction.
Necromancy was a particularly vile form of Dark magic. It reanimated corpses, turning them into undead minions under the necromancer’s control. The ignorant wouldn’t see the problem with it, since they viewed corpses as little more than empty shells without a soul, but they were wrong. Necromancy, like all forms of Dark magic, violated the natural order of things. It corrupted the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Anything touched by necromancy spread death and decay, a corruption from which no new life could spring, leaving the land cold and barren. The undead were a blight upon the world.
That was about the extent of what I knew about necromancy. I hadn’t exactly studied up on the subject. I hadn’t needed to before this. The ones who usually did were either those who hunted down Dark wizards, such as the Inquisition, or the academic types that joined the Tower of Magic. Tsk. That was my mistake. Not for the first time I cursed my ignorance when it came to wizardry. Studying in the Stone Corridor helped, but there was so much more to learn.
At first, I only noticed a few of the undead flying magic beasts. However, it wasn’t long before there were hundreds of them within range of my divine sense. Most were First Circle and Second Circle magic beasts, but there were several dozen Third Circle magic beasts. This horde was powerful enough to devastate the Icefall Region and turned it into a desolate wasteland.
However, after a moment, I noticed that the horde of undead wasn’t heading for our airship. No, it was heading for the House Solaria airship. I didn’t know if that was better or worse for us. Regardless, we needed to warn them. Thanks to my powerful divine sense, I noticed the horde while it was still pretty far out. The Sun Guard aboard the House Solaria airship were all in the Third Circle. By the time they noticed the horde, it would be too late to mount an effective defense.
Magic beasts, as a whole, were already stronger than wizards at the same Circle. If nothing else, they were physically stronger and tougher. Undead magic beasts were even more powerful than their living counterparts, thanks to the Dark magic that animated them. It didn’t help that it was night. Sol despised the undead. As a result, the sun’s rays weakened them by half. Without that advantage, the horde of undead would tear the Sun Guard apart. After that, it would come after us next.
These thoughts passed through my mind in less than a second.
“Wake everybody up!” I told Lorelei. “Tell them that we’re under attack!”
“Wha-What?” she stammered, thrown off by my sudden change in attitude.
“A horde of undead is heading towards the House Solaria airship,” I said in a firm voice. “If we don’t help them, they will all die. Wake my mother up, and then get the others ready. Once we make ourselves a threat, the undead will come after us.”
Lorelei studied my expression for a split second, realized that I was serious, and nodded. She ran towards the door leading to the decks below. As she did that, I hopped onto Sky’s Dream and sped towards the House Solaria airship. Even as I flew off, I heard Lorelei’s voice ringing out in warning, despite the wind in my ears. Strong lungs on that one.
As I flew towards the House Solaria airship, my mind buzzed with questions. Where had this horde of undead come from? Who made it? Given that they numbered in the hundreds, it was either one very powerful necromancer or a group of weaker necromancers working together. Regardless, it took a lot of time and effort to create an undead horde of this size; years at the very least.
Why attack an airship under the protection of the Sun Guard? That was effectively declaring war against House Solaria, which was suicidal.
Still, the current circumstances favored the attackers. We were currently flying over an uninhabited area. If the people responsible for the horde of undead cleaned up their tracks well enough, it would be difficult for anyone to figure out who was responsible for the attack. Magic could only do so much, and divination had its limits. Even if those responsible were found out, they could go to ground, which would make it even more difficult to hunt them down.
Of course, this only worked if the necromancers killed all witnesses and covered their tracks. Once the horde of undead killed the Sun Guard and destroyed the House Solaria airship, they would come after my loved ones next. I would not let that happen.
“Halt!” a sharp voice rang out when I neared the House Solaria airship. It belonged to one of the Sun Guard sentries keeping lookout. “Do not approach any closer, Lord Gabriel. If you do, we will be forced to attack you.”
I halted, since I didn’t want to get attacked by the very people I came here to warn.
“I’m here to deliver a warning,” I called out, using Air magic to enhance the volume of my voice. “There is a horde of undead magic beasts flying in from the southwest. We’re about to come under attack!”
The sentry frowned at me.
“This is no time for jokes, Lord Gabriel,” he said, his voice cold and hard. “Please leave.”
Agh! For fuck’s sake!
“This isn’t a joke!” I said, letting some of my frustration bleed through. “My mother saw them with her spirit sense.” A lie, but he wouldn’t believe me if I said that I saw the horde. “We have minutes at most before they’re upon us!”
The sentry opened his mouth to say something, but the door to the lower decks opened and a burly man walked out. He was in the Third Circle, and had affinities for Air and Fire. From the way he carried himself that he was an officer of some sort.
“What is all that commotion?” the newcomer barked out.
The sentry saluted.
“Captain Summers,” he said. “Lord Gabriel-…”
“A horde of undead is about to descend upon you,” I said, cutting the sentry off. “My mother saw it with her spirit sense. There are too many for you to handle alone, and once they’re done with you, they’ll come after us. We need to work together.”
The sentry threw me a hateful look and opened his mouth to say something, but the captain forestalled him with a raised hand.
“If this turns out to be a joke or a misunderstanding, will you take responsibility, Lord Gabriel?” Captain Summers said, looking right at me.
“Yes,” I said with a nod.
The sincerity in my voice must have convinced him, because he raised his head.
“Prepare for battle!” he shouted, using Air magic to enhance his volume. “We’re under attack!” He looked at the sentry and spoke in a normal voice. “Tell the crew to slow down so we’re closer to the House Icefall airship.”
The sentry looked like he wanted to argue, but he saluted and ran off to follow Captain Summers’ orders. Even as he did so, the House Solaria airship became a hive of activity. I had to admire the Sun Guard’s discipline. Seconds after Captain Summers gave his orders, they were ready for battle. Only a few of them wore their enchanted armor, since most of them had been asleep, but all of them carried weapons and other offensive magical items.
I used my divine sense to check in on the House Icefall airship. It looked like Lorelei had succeeded. Everyone in our group was awake and ready for battle; Mother, Caitlyn Walters, my personal disciples. Even Lady Calla was up and about, though she looked scared and worried. I didn’t blame her.
While I was sure that she received training from her parents, and Guildmaster Sinclair since they were kin, this was likely her first battle. Talk about bad luck. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the luxury of letting her sit this one out. This was an “all hands on deck” situation. The numbers weren’t on our side. Even with Mother’s help, this wouldn’t be an easy battle.
Even as I watched, the House Icefall airship sped up to rendezvous with the House Solaria airship, while the latter slowed down to let it catch up. I let out a sigh of relief. While the odds were still against us, we had a better chance of surviving if we worked together. Arguing with the sentry had cost me some time, but it looked like it would still work out in our favor.
My relief was short-lived, however. The aura of death surrounding the undead grew stronger and flared out. The undead sped up. At this rate, they would reach the House Solaria airship before the House Icefall airship could catch up with it. It looked like the necromancer, or necromancers, controlling the undead was burning up the Dark magic fueling them in exchange for a burst of power and speed. We had a minute before they arrived.
Fuck!
From the look on his face, Captain Summers must have noticed this as well.
“Form a shield!” he barked out.
Several of the Sun Guard cast shield spells, merging them together in order to create a shield large enough to encase the entire airship. Wow. Blending spells together like this wasn’t easy. It required a lot of practice and training to pull off as smoothly as this. No wonder the Sun Guard was as famous as it was. While this merged shield spell wasn’t that much more powerful than its component spells, it covered a larger area.
“Lord Gabriel,” Captain Summers called out. “Head back to the House Icefall airship. We can’t look after you and this airship at the same time.”
“With respect, Captain Summers,” I said. “I’m not in the Sun Guard. You don’t give me orders. Look after yourselves and your airship. I can handle myself.”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
I flew off before he could respond. Well, he called out after me but I ignored him. Flying on Sky’s Dream gave me a lot of mobility, and I intended to take full advantage of that. While I wouldn’t be able to use Sky’s Dream as a weapon, that wouldn’t put me at too much of a disadvantage. I had my fists and my magic.
I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Mother flew after me on her own flying sword. She caught up to me in seconds.
“Be careful, Gabriel,” she said, her voice filled with worry. “Stay close to me.”
That was all she could say before the undead horde descended upon us. Most of them headed for the House Solaria airship, but a sizable group split off and headed in our direction. This group contained a dozen Third Circle magic beasts, and over a hundred Second Circle and First Circle magic beasts. Mother was a Fourth Circle wizard, but even she would have trouble with this many undead magic beasts.
Despite that, a grin spread across Mother’s face. It mirrored my own. Oh, this was going to be fun.
***
Mother gathered a large amount of mana towards herself and used it to create a translucent fiery lioness; Blazing Lion spell, one of House Leone’s signature spells. The fiery lioness that was my mother let out a sky-shaking roar and flew towards the group of undead magic beasts flying in our direction. The Third Circle ones converged on her, while the rest focused on me.
Huh. Okay, I hadn’t known that Mother could fly while using the Blazing Lion spell. Fucking bad ass.
Following Mother’s example, I cast the standard shield spell on myself and charged towards the horde of undead Second Circle and First Circle magic beasts. They converged on me like a cloud of decaying flesh and Dark magic. They reached towards me with claws and talons and open maws, ready to tear me to shreds. If they caught me, I would last seconds at most, even with my shield spell.
However, I didn’t intend to get caught.
[Wind Arts: Roc’s Wings]
I pivoted up, just as wings emerged from Sky’s Dream. My sudden change in direction and speed caught the undead magic beasts off guard; or rather, I caught the necromancer(s) controlling them off guard. They couldn’t react in time as I flew straight up, evading most of the horde. A few, however, tried to attack me. Tried being the keyword there.
[Claw of the Storm Dragon]
Unlike the last time I cast this spell months ago, when I fought the Alpha Inferno Wolf, the claw that formed in front of me wasn’t formed out of storm clouds and lightning. Instead, it looked like a small, translucent version of Shattering Thunder’s claws, one made up entirely of Lightning mana. This was a side effect of the synergy between the divine storm dragon core in my foundation and my body cultivation technique.
A faint dragon’s roar echoed through the air as my claw ripped through the undead magic beasts that managed to keep up with me, Second Circle and First Circle alike. Their torn corpses fell towards the ground below. The stench of burnt, decaying flesh reached my nostrils. Ugh. Disgusting, but necessary.
Since they were animated by Dark magic, the undead were difficult to kill. Even if one tore their bodies to shreds, those body parts would still be animated. Eventually, they would be able to come together and become whole again.
The only way to deal with them permanently was to destroy the Dark magic animating them. This required either Holy magic or Light magic. While my Lightning magic was better suited to fighting demons than undead, it was more than capable of dealing with them. Fire magic was a good substitute in a pinch, since Dark magic couldn’t animate a corpse that was just ash.
For wizards without any of those affinities, disabling them in the short term by tearing them to shreds was a pretty good strategy. If nothing else, it gave them time to run away.
One of the Second Circle magic beasts, a long-beaked monstrosity that looked both avian and reptilian, sped towards me. It tried to jab me with its beak, but I dodged out of the way. Aurora emerged from my body and used her claws to rip the long-beaked magic beast’s head off, before hiding inside my body again. The creature’s body tumbled towards the ground.
‘Good job,’ I said.
Oh yeah, Aurora said. Do you know how good it feels to actually be able to do something now, instead of just hiding inside your body all of the time?
I didn’t have time to respond because the horde of undead chasing after me split up, flanking me on both sides. It looked like the necromancer(s) controlling them had decided to try a pincer maneuver. While I could have flown out of the trap with my greater speed, I decided not to. After all, the whole point of doing this instead of running away was to cause as much damage to the undead horde as possible.
I used Lightning Lances to take out any undead foolish enough to get close to me, while also baiting the rest of the horde to keep chasing me. When I was in the perfect position for them to close in on me, I slowed down a little. Not by much, but enough to let the horde catch up. The necromancer(s) took the bait. The undead horde closed in on me from all sides. It looked like I had nowhere to go.
[Whirlwind]
I cast the Whirlwind spell, which the Air wizard working for the Black Wolf Gang had used on me, back when I escorted Lorelei to Rosewood City. However, instead of using it on the undead horde, I used it on myself. A small tornado formed in the air around me. I rode the wind with Sky’s Dream, using the Whirlwind to spin around faster and faster. The undead magic beasts were unable to touch me, thanks to the spell. However, the opposite wasn’t true.
While riding the Whirlwind, I reached out with my Claw of the Storm Dragon and tore the undead magic beasts nearest to me to shreds. A rain of magic beasts corpses fell from the sky. Realizing that it was futile to try and attack me like this, the necromancer(s) pulled the horde back and regrouped. To save mana, I stopped using Whirlwind and took a moment to take stock of the larger picture.
Things were not looking good for us.
Like me, Mother took advantage of her mobility to attack the Third Circle undead magic beasts, while evading most of their counterattacks. She pulled this off to great effect, and I saw that she had already destroyed a third of her opponents. However, unlike me, she had to completely destroy the undead magic beasts’ bodies in order to defeat them, which slowed her down somewhat. The number of opponents she faced didn’t help things either.
When she focused on destroying one undead, the rest took advantage of this to attack. Only a few succeeded, and the Blazing Lion spell protected Mother from harm, but each hit drained her mana further. While she was a Fourth Circle wizard facing off against Third Circle magic beasts, there were limits to her power. She would eventually run out of personal mana.
The Sun Guard weren’t doing too well either. The horde attacking them was even larger than the one Mother and I faced. The magic beasts battered against the shield protecting the House Solaria airship, almost completely covering it up with their bodies. The shield held for the most part, but sometimes an attack broke through a weak point. The Sun Guard repaired the breach almost immediately, but they still took casualties.
Even as I watched, a Winged Lion, a Third Circle magic beast, broke through the shield and grabbed one of the Sun Guard. The man’s screams echoed through the night as the Winged Lion bit him in half, breaking through his shield in seconds. The remaining half of the man’s body fell to the ground.
The Sun Guard attacked through the shield, destroying dozens undead at a time. However, they faced off against hundreds. Not only that, but a good number of them were Third Circle magic beasts. Those were the biggest threat. Without them, the undead horde wouldn’t be a serious problem.
Unfortunately, it took a lot of power for a Third Circle wizard to destroy a Third Circle magic beast. Not only that, but the undead Third Circle magic beasts outnumbered the Sun Guard. It was just a matter of time before the undead overwhelmed them, and then came after us. Even with Mother’s power, we would be overwhelmed.
Despite the frantic battle going on, it was oddly quiet. The undead magic beasts made little sound. Normally, they would roar and snarl and shriek. However, these undead abominations remained silent. The only sounds came from our side.
As I continued to kite the undead coming after me, using Lightning Lances and Claw of the Storm Dragon to whittle them down a little at a time, the House Icefall airship drew close. Corie shot out Spirit Arrows at the undead chasing after me, using her Multishot Bow to fire three at a time. She didn’t target their center of mass. Instead, she targeted their wings, tearing them apart. While this didn’t kill the undead magic beasts, it took them out of the fight. They fell to the ground, unable to keep flying.
I made a mental note to come back to this area after the battle and clean up any undead that remained.
A group of undead split off from the horde attacking the Sun Guard when they realized that there were more threats to deal with. Most were Second Circle and First Circle magic beasts, followed by a single Third Circle magic beast; it was the Winged Lion from before.
Fuck!
This wasn’t good. That Winged Lion alone could kill our people and destroy the House Icefall airship, even with Caitlyn Walters there. Mother was busy with her own enemies, which meant it was up to me to deal with the creature. I flew towards it, pushing my speed to its limit.
As the Second Circle and First Circle magic beasts neared the House Icefall airship, Corie shot out more Spirit Arrows to disable them. Moments later, shots rang out as Lorelei used her Earth Bullet spell to follow Corie’s example. What was she using as ammo? We were nowhere near the ground.
I looked and saw Lorelei’s comically large backpack sitting on the deck next to her. It was filled to the brim with small stones. Ha!
Lady Calla dealt with the First Circle magic beasts that got too close, encasing them in blocks of ice, while Leroy and Caitlyn handled the Second Circle magic beasts. A gout of fire lit up the night as Leroy used Crimson Fang’s Fire enchantments to burn the undead to ash, while Caitlyn just relied on internal magic and used her weapons. Like Jace Bellamy, she had affinities for both Air and Earth.
My disciples, Caitlyn, and Lady Calla were holding their own for now. Meaning that I could give the Winged Lion my full attention. As its name suggested, the magic beast was a gold-maned lion with a pair of feathered wings protruding from its shoulders. It was about the same size as the Great Horned Wolf that once led the Black Wolf Gang.
Though I had never seen one before, Winged Lions were known to be majestic and beautiful creatures. However, this undead creature was little more than a shadow of its former self. It lacked both majesty and beauty. Instead, it exuded an aura of wrongness.
To see a creature like this turned into an undead abomination filled me with rage.
I launched several Lightning Lances at the Winged Lion. While I didn’t think they would do much, I hoped to catch the Winged Lion’s attention. Unfortunately, it ignored me and continued towards the House Icefall airship. Okay, change of plans. I flew towards the Winged Lion and landed on its back, near its shoulders where its wings protruded. The undead creature’s movements made my footing unsteady, but I used the Spider’s Feet technique to maintain my perch.
Even then, it continued to ignore me. I guessed that it didn’t see me as much of a threat. I felt both relieved by this, as well as insulted.
As Third Circle magic beasts, Winged Lions had tough bodies. Any normal technique or spell at my disposal wouldn’t do much against it. Rather than waste time with attacks that wouldn’t work, I went for a killing blow right away. Thankfully it didn’t have a shield spell, or this wouldn’t work.
I coated Sky’s Dream with my sword mana, which had changed to a silvery blue mixed with violet, burning away fifty years of my lifespan as I did so. This gave me a massive boost in power, at the cost of my life force. A void opened up inside me, as if I had lost something vital to my wellbeing. It was as if a flame that had been burning inside me had been snuffed out.
My sword mana, boosted by my life force, flared up. An illusory storm dragon formed around Sky’s Dream as I swung my blade at the joint where one of the Winged Lion’s, well, wings met the rest of its body. Sky’s Dream cut deep into the joint and almost completely severed the wing off. It wasn’t easy, however. The Winged Lion’s body was tough, it took all of my strength just to cause this much damage. Thankfully, it was enough.
With one wing almost completely severed, the Winged Lion couldn’t maintain flight. It plummeted towards the ground with me on its back. The creature twisted around, trying to attack me with its claws but I leapt away from it.
Heh. Almost cutting off its wing must have finally convinced it that I was an actual threat.
However, before I could get back on Sky’s Dream and fly away, my head swam and my vision started to go dark. My body lost all of its strength and went limp. Oh right. Burning that much life force all at once came with some serious side effects.
Unable to hold onto Sky’s Dream, I let go of my flying sword and fell from the sky.