Time passed, undead fell and undead rose, once we had noticed that any undead who fell disappeared in black smoke and that more undead kept appearing we realized they weren’t going to end until we stopped the necromancer, so we decided to almost completely ignore all the undead around us and focus solely on looking for the cause of all this.
““GIIIRIII!!””
I heard a cacophony of loud screams and screeches coming from above, the others seemed to occupied to notice, or maybe it had to do with something else, however when I looked up I could see figures, they had the shape of a various creatures’ upper torsos.
They were on fire.
The fire was blue.
They were falling.
Once the burning ghosts hit the ground they ignited any nearby undead, the fire kept spreading for a short while before it started disappearing faster than it could spread, and above us, where the ghosts had previously been, was a bright blue, almost white ball of flames, below that was Cathy who was falling and frantically digging through her bags looking for a specific wand.
The ball changed shape and unfurled, revealing what looked like a giant bright blue flaming bird of prey which flew around over everyone, and with every beat of its wings blue sparks fell down.
Whenever these sparks touched any of the creatures below they were set ablaze almost instantly, however unlike the previous flames these did not spread, and whenever they touched any of those who still lived it only lightly singed their clothing.
‘Ow!’ Though that didn’t happen to me for whatever reason, when they hit me they luckily didn’t start burning, however they did hurt. Actually hurt. it was the first time I had felt real pain ever since I came to this world, and I only have a ghostly disposition, so I can only imagine what it feels like for full on undead.
Cathy was caught in mid-air as Red had jumped over four times her height to catch her, when they landed Red jumped from undead to undead with agility and dexterity that made you wonder which one was supposed to be the cat of the two as Cathy was sitting on her shoulders and shooting flames.
“I found the necromancer!” Shouted Cathy from atop Red. “I saw him when I fell!”
We all started following them, this was made a lot quicker now that whatever Shiona was doing had ended up making the deaths of the horde more than rival the speed of which new members rose, letting us clear out a path more easily as we approached the place where Red was.
*BOOM!*
In front of us a large explosion or purple flames appeared, the shockwaves forcing us to get down on all four to stay still, unable to advance for a full ten seconds.
Once we got back up we saw that we weren’t the only ones who had been affected, Shiona’s… whatever it was had been reduced in size while the ground around us was devoid of undead, filled only with black smoke.
In the centre of the now empty patch of ice stood a single robed figure.
“You insufferably insects refuse to get out of my way!? I’ll just have to force you then!” It shouted with a voice so hoarse it sounded almost like the wind itself as it started waving and spinning around its staff, the ends of it glowing brighter and brighter in a purple light with every motion.
“Take this!”
With one last gesture it looked like the necromancer was about to throw the staff, however he stopped it so fast that it would’ve looked like time had stopped if it weren’t for the giant purple flaming skull which shot out of it.
I tried to dodge.
I tried to run to the side.
We all tried to escape.
However the black smoke below us which had been left after the undead had solidified around our legs, trapping us where we stood.
We heard it.
The shouts fear.
The screams of pain.
The laughter of madness.
The crying of heartbreak.
All these sounds spewed out from the skull as more fire pulsed out of its eye sockets, nose and open, grinning mouth.
With every new wave of fire came more sounds.
Everyone felt pain, it started out as something minor, however the closer the skull got the worse it became.
I didn’t feel the pain, my skills made me unable to, however even I couldn’t move through the smoke which bound us no matter what I tried.
The skull approached us at the speed of someone running and reached us within few seconds.
It passed through us, leaving us covered in the purple fire, for a moment I was worried, scared and shocked.
‘What’s going to happen!?’ I thought.
However this was soon answered as I heard screams erupt from all around me.
Everyone had dropped their weapons and fallen below the black fog.
And then, while the necromancer was cackling and about to turn around-
*FWOOSH*
Shiona who was still covered in the blue flames had dove down and passed right above use, the blue sparks which had previously decimated the undead now caused embers to erupt on the black smoke, the fires spread and before the necromancer was able to separate the fog to isolate the flames the smoke was already gone and everyone was uncovered.
I ran up to them while the necromancer was trying to sling smaller but faster spells at Shiona who was distracting him.
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I went to Cathy first since she had some of her own magic gummies so she could help me help the others once she got up.
I tried both the healing, energy and antidote jellies at once since I didn’t have the time to experiment.
Once the liquidized potions fell in her mouth she shot up with wide open eyes, at first she looked around in both confusion and horror, however once she saw Shiona distracting the necromancer and looked at me and nodded before getting up as she ran to Red to help her get up while I went to Hugh.
“That fucking Prick! Just you wait until I get close to you!”
“Wait Hugh! If you attack him before everyone is up he’ll realize what we’re doing, wait until everyone is conscious!”
He looked like he had an objection but seems to realize I was right as he grabbed the three jellies I handed him and went to Grizz while I want to Kosei.
I was troubled over what to do with him however, due to the way his armour was built I couldn’t access his head and whenever I tried to phase the jellies they melted as soon as the energy entered them.
“Move!” Said Grizz as he pushed me aside, he then used his clawed gauntlets to force open the armour and expose Kosei.
I fed Kosei the melted jellies and he soon got up, we were now all prepared and ready, we looked over to the necromancer and saw that only small patches and mounds of black smoke were left now and we started trying to sneak up on him as close as we could get before he noticed us.
“Ha!” Laughed the necromancer as he turned around and launched the spell which we thought he had been preparing for Shiona towards us.
“Did you forget!? I can feel where you are little cursed creature! Whatever you did before may have prevented me from seeing you properly, but you still feel just the same!” He then bent backwards and started cackling as we dodged the magic he shot while.
We approached him, Hugh internally laughing at the necromancer for having looked away from us in the middle of battle.
Suddenly all the black fog around us approached the necromancer in the centre, forcing us to jump high or turn around in order to dodge it, and when we looked back the fog had formed four pillars around him, the fog then disappeared, and where it had been were now four stone pillars.
The necromancer kept laughing as we got to him, everyone were preparing to attack before the necromancer could do whatever he intended to, however I recognised those pillars.
“Stop!” I shouted as loudly as the bangle let me, however it was a bit too late.
“GAH!” Red who had jumped at the necromancer was unable to stop herself as she fell on the invisible barrier which had formed outside of the pillars, electricity running through she was shot away in a small explosion.
The necromancer kept laughing.
Shiona swooped in right above the barrier, raining down blue sparks on it, however they fizzed out of existence as they touched it.
“Your pet phoenix won’t be able to help you now!” He screamed, letting us know why he had been laughing so much.
Kosei tried shooting one of the giant crossbow bolts at the barrier, however it ricocheted off of the barrier and into the air, bouncing a few times before settling down.
Cathy tried launching various different spells at it, but they all evaporated as they touched it.
I heard a loud zap and saw a bright light from the bottom of the barrier as I heard Cy speak.
‘That’s fine, I’ll think of something.’
It was then I noticed something, through the purple barrier I could see another colour.
Blue.
From the pillars the blue light of energy was seeping out.
The same blue light of energy which the book of knowledge was made out of.
‘I think I have an idea! Lizz, can you hear me!?’
‘Where are you!?’
‘Please tell her to come pick me up, I need to get back to the island!’
I didn’t hear a reply but a few seconds later I heard Shiona… Cawing?
She flew down next to me and I grabbed on after covering my entire body in an orange shell, thanks to the shell I didn’t directly touch the fire however I had to spend a lot of energy replenishing the solidification as it was burned away.
I could see the Necromancer behind us look after me as we left to the now fairly distant island, the necromancer screamed at us and started throwing a multitude of spells we had never seen him use at us, making it apparent he had only been holding back and toying with us so far, most likely certain of his victory, however this would prove to be a mistake.
We travelled towards the island while being followed by spells that would change their course to always stay on our tails, they kept getting closer and closer however we were approaching the island much faster than they were approaching us.
I climbed towards the head of Shiona’s fiery form, due to her flames making her as large as a cottage this was a tough thing to achieve, however achieve it I did.
“There! That way!” I told her while clinging on to her right next to her eyes so she could see where I was pointing, as i showed her the way to the where the books page was being kept.
She started flying low, mostly just gliding at this point, and I jumped off of her right next to the blue page and its barrier, Shiona didn’t stop but kept going and took the tracking spells with her as she started trying to shake them off.
In the few seconds it took to fall to the ground I saw burning remains of other undead, I didn’t know what kind they were but they looked to be horrid creatures, some amalgamations of tens of various undead creatures, some looked like moving piles of flesh and some looked like large centipedes made out of a large number of ribcages which had been put together, they had most likely been put there to guard the page, however whatever they may have been before was reduced to almost nothing by Shiona’s blue flames.
I looked at the page, and just as I had hoped the four pillars around it were absorbing the blue energy that the page was releasing, presumably somehow sending it to the necromancer to fuel his spells.
I walked up to the barrier, tried to take a deep breath, however that failed which made me start missing my lungs, and I touched the barrier with my right hand warily.
At first the barrier was solid, I wasn’t electrically shocked like I would have been from the other barrier, however I was unable to pass through it as well.
But then after I had been basking in the blue light of the page for a few seconds the book of knowledge started to stir.
The book undid the straps which had held it to my back and fell on the ground, it then opened and reached out a giant blue hand from within. The previous blue hands it had made were the size of my hands, this one however? Its arm was as thick as an A3 sheet of paper and had a hand to fit, the arm moved through the barrier, diminishing in size the further it went, before finally reaching the page when it was just as thick as it normally was, it then grabbed the page, and once it did the barrier was undone and the quickly retreated along with the page into the book.
I looked up into the sky, Shiona had turned around and come back and I saw the spells which were following her grow weaker and weaker with every passing second.
The necromancer was no longer able to fuel his spells.
We could win now.
I quickly out the book back on as it had closed and recreated the straps, I then grabbed onto Shiona again as she passed by launching myself into the air by phasing into the ground and we flew back to the battlefield.
As we approached the battlefield we were surprised to see that there wasn’t one anymore, all the undead were completely gone, and more surprising than that was that the ice was gone as well, the entire lake was yet again filled with water.
“Are you guys okay!?” I ask everyone who I found swimming in the water.
“We’re fine, just go chase the necromancer! He’s flying that way trying to escape! We’ll swim to the island since it’s closer, there are boats around the island so we’ll take one of those home, now hurry up!” Answers Hugh.
I see a fluttering robe flying off into the distance above the water and we start chasing after him, while Shiona approaches the necromancer I see Kosei swimming and wonder how he’s able to do that with his armour.
We get closer to the necromancer, he must’ve heard us as he turns around and starts flying backwards while shooting at us.
“...”
Both Shiona and I are amazed as the spells which had previously been able to decimate our entire group had been reduced to purple sparklers.
We kept gaining ground, however just like the spells which were chasing us while we went towards the island we weren’t able to catch up by the time he made landfall.
*THUD*
“GAH!”
“...”
We reach the edge of the lake and look at the necromancer who had flown himself backwards head first into a giant boulder and fainted from the impact, I get off of Shiona as she perches herself on the boulder, I sit down next to the necromancer and start using Lulling touch to keep him unconscious while neither Shiona nor I know what to say.