In the marble temple in the silent void Volana was throwing a small tantrum while Clarion, being his usual self, was having another laughing fit at her expense.
“Why? Why, of all beings dead and gone he could have summoned, did it have to be Malveleonix?” Volana screamed in a huff.
“What’s wrong? Don’t like the old cat? He was always kind to me.” Clarion said, poking at her obvious sore spot. After all, he knew exactly why she disliked the lion.
“That’s because he played against you in whatever new game you came up with, you know he always loved a challenge.” She sighed, “But me? He only saw me as an overly compulsive annoyance. Constantly messing with anything I balanced just to get a rise out of me. Always saying some old crap about war being chaos and I should get used to it.”
“Well he was not wrong, and it did help you in the end, right?” Clarion said, chuckling a little as he did.
“Well yes,” Volana said in barely a whisper before nearly yelling “but still, why him!” She huffed, frustrated at her champions summon.
“Well I think you should be happy. That old cat has more combat experience than even that twitchy old war god claims to, should help your champion considerably.” Clarion pointed out.
“Ugg, I guess you have a point. I still don’t like it, surely there were others he could have summoned, right?” Volana pleaded.
“You know that’s not how summons work, it’s a roll of the dice. You get what you get and I happen to think he rolled rather high here.” Clarion clarified.
“Yeah, yeah, well let’s see it goes, I guess.” Volana quirked a slight smile. “Oh? That little group that’s been following him finally made their move? Well, this should be interesting at least.” Volana said.
Clarion just smiled and teased. “Hmmm? You’re starting to sound like me there Voly, maybe I’m a bad influence on you.”
“Oh hush, it’s starting” was the only response he got.
***
Lug Looked on as the strange skeletal creature before him was performing some kind of weird ritual, Jodrak still firmly in his grasp. The Ratkin was stiff as a board, from fear no doubt, not that Lug could blame him, the sight before him was enough to scare a dragon, let alone a rat.
The skeleton chanted in some unknown, probably ancient, language for the better part of a minute as Lug gazed on with trepidation. The rest of his party was in position and he was supposed to toss the Ratkin now. However, the shaman of his tribe warned him that interrupting a ritual could cause some serious problems. The kind that needs maps redrawn. So even Lug, as dim as he was, would not be interrupting this ritual. He would have to hope that Stelvia would arrive at the same conclusion and praise his caution.
Soon the ritual was over and a very upset looking giant cat skeleton rose slowly from a runic circle. It was a feline figure with all kinds of nasty sharp things and wiggly things, where there should not be sharp things or wiggly things. Looked very dangerous to Lug, a good opponent.
Lug was confused when the larger undead growled at the now tiny looking human skeleton. Lug thought the skeleton summoned it, (don’t summons have ta obey da one who summoned dem?) Soon a stare down was in place between the oversized cat and undead man. An uncomfortable silence fell over the area for quite some time as the boney beast just glared at the skull of the skeleton.
After what seemed like an eternity to Lug. The beast finally moved, in a flash he was rushing the undead man. It was not an attack, as it first seemed, but was only to place a large skeletal paw in its shoulder. Thinking that things had finally settled down, Lug said quietly “now’s probably as good a time as any, off you good little rat boy.” With a heave he tossed the still frozen in terror Jodrak over the rubble like a grenade and straight at the two undead creatures.
With a final goodbye he half saluted the flying creature. “Good luck, hope dey ain’t evil an all dat,” then rushed off to take up his position.
***
Claire shouted into my head, alerting me of incoming danger. I reacted immediately, so did Veleon, who reacted on instinct. Or he could hear Claire, I couldn’t be sure.
We turned toward the threat, a thud was heard right in front of us where a cloud of dust arose. A pained groan followed from the cloud, and a shadow slowly rose in the dust. As the dust cleared I was met with the sight of a curious creature, it was shorter that me by a head and a half at least and was covered in patchy grey fur, it sported a long snout with whiskers and a pink nose. It had long semi round furry ears that seemed to twitch separately, and big black eyes. Behind it sat a lengthy pink tail. Its hands and feet, looked human, except for the black claws, and the lack of a pinky. It wore a filth covered shabby draping that seemed to serve as it’s clothing. It also had a leather belt with a pouch and dagger strapped on.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The odd thing twitched and fidgeted as it looked on at me. I asked mentally to Claire. “Is this an enemy? Is it dangerous?”
Claire soon responded with “The creature is currently marked as neutral, I detect three more creatures lying in wait, and their status is unknown. They are currently engaging in stealth. This one could be bait for some kind of trap, be cautious,” she warned.
I did not like the sound of being ambushed, but also, what if this was not a trap? “Could it be their speaker?” I asked.
Claire responded resolutely, “Undead are not typically known as good things in this world, as you well know, they are seen as a blight if found outside a dungeon. As far as a speaker, I find that situation far less likely, more likely bait.”
As their mental conversation continued, Veleon, butted in, answering my question of whether or not he could hear Claire. “I agree with the strange voice, it seems less likely, especially after you just performed a summoning ritual. Which is normally a hostile action, only done before engaging in large-scale battle. ” The battle experienced lion declared confidently.
“Okay, okay, I will be wary, but is there harm in speaking to it?” I directed my attention to the creature before me. Before any protest could be made I began to voice my words, starting with a simple “Hello.” In my rush to communicate, Claire had no chance to inform me that, with my resurrection, came a few disadvantages.
I did not have a way to speak in my current undead form as of yet. To be more accurate, I had a way; it just took significant practice and concentration to use. This was because undead had no vocal cords so speaking aloud required a manipulation of magic to form a similar effect. I could do so when casting a spell I knew, the knowledge imparted to me for it by the system. However, to simply speak, I needed to practice doing it without skill imparted assistance.
Of course it wasn’t ever that simple, so when I failed at my attempt to say “Hello,” I should have only been met with silence. It seems however, that lady luck did have a bone or two to pick with me after all. So instead of silence, a guttural growl mixed with an unnatural hiss came out, much to the shock of all the beings present, including me.
After the horror inducing noise came from me, all four of the dots that showed on my mini map instantly turned red. (Son of a bitc…) was all I could think before things went south.
***
Stelvia watched on in horror as Jodrak landed before the undead with a loud thud. To her relief the undead did not attack instantly, it stood there considering the ratkin for a while and, much to his credit, Jodrak did not run away (he’s too scared to, probably that,) she thought.
However, her relief was short lived, as the undead released an unearthly shout at the rat moments later, prompting her to instantly declare it as hostile. Giving the signal to start the ambush Stelvia drew her two ebon-steel daggers and began to become shadow itself. Her power, one of the nature’s offshoots, was the closest resemblance to dark powers on this planet, and she, a shadow blade, was often seen in disgust (or lust, depending on the faction) because of it. She never cared though, because this power, it was well, extremely useful in and out of combat. Even her dark elf friend couldn’t match her in stealth when she got serious. Though her stealth was quite draining on the mana unlike the elf’s pure skill.
Upon getting the signal, the dark elven archer Davla retreated backwards, drawing her bow and securing the highest ground she could find, the top of a ruined pillar. Davila’s movements’ were swift and quiet, unseen by all but the most trained eyes. She drew an arrow from her quiver and trained it on the skeleton, ready to fire at an opportune moment.
Lug took a far less graceful approach; he drew his two longswords and charged forward, roaring the whole way. Lug’s fighting style rounded out Stelvia’s team nicely. After all, when you have two members who prefer not to get targeted by enemies, a big beefy orc with two swords, roaring at them worked pretty well at keeping their attention.
In the past, Stelvia once asked Lug why he used two swords rather than a single two-handed weapon. This was after all the traditional weapon of his race, Lug responded nonchalantly, “can put small one in each hand, get twice as many hits dat way.” She just shook her head at this comment. Stelvia tried to argue against his logic for a bit, pointing out momentum and weapon weight, but it proved fruitless. Later she asked why not axes, again an orc favorite. To which he said, “sword has more ouch spots, means I get to make more ouch’s with my more hits.” It was on this day she learned to not argue with an orc.
As Lug charged in, gaining the attention of both the skeleton and monstrous undead lion, Davla loosed her first arrow. Sending a pinpoint shot at the skeleton’s skull. As the arrow flew a shadow flashed when Stelvia leaped from the darkness and dove at the undead man, daggers leading the way. Even the frightened ratkin, reacting as any cornered beast would, drew his pathetic dagger and lashed out, completely on instinct.
Current Status
Name: Alex Samoson
Title: None
Level: 2
Class: Basic Skeleton
HP: 22/22
MP: 4/24
EN: 20/20
Unassigned Status Points: 0
AP: 0
STR: 10
VIT: 11
DEX: 10
INT: 12
WIS: 12
LUK: 4
ATK: 10 DEF: 11
SPELL: 12 SPELL DEF: 12
CRIT: 3% CRIT DEF: 2%
MP5M: 6
EXP: 200/2000
Magic Menu
Magic Name Level
Dark Bolt 1/100
Raise Minion 1/100
Summon Skeletal Familiar 2/????
Skills Menu
Skill Name Level
Baking 3/10
Passive Skills Menu
Skill Name Level
Undead Resilience Max
Consumption Immunity Max
Of light, Dark and Gold Max