Plus Ultimate

by Simon Archer

  The whirling spiral of glowing daggers appeared in front of me and spun forward with exactly the effect I wanted. They spun through the spectral foes, tearing specters to shreds and spraying their incorporeal essence around. As before, though, the specters drew essence from the ground and whatever foul magics bound them here, so they began to reform, but then my companions caught on and began their own songs, summoning up their lower-level dagger spells. Soon, the entire area with slashing, stabbing, angry magical daggers.

  “Okay, go!” I screamed to Freyja and Ishida. With a twist of my song, I led our little orchestra into a new refrain which directed our storm of blades to cut a channel through the wraithly vanguard.

  With the way temporarily clear, the forest elves charged through, along the edge of the cliff across from the face etched in the mountain to evade them. Bernsten and Marinka followed closely behind them, doing the same, though much less nimbly than the forest elves. I nodded curtly to Nadeine, and she left now, maneuvering around the specters ably. Though there were more specters, our approach to fighting them was better this time, and it was much easier to get around them in this open space than it had been in the tight, enclosed cave that first evening.

  Godfried and I were the only ones left now, meaning that our field of the blades was thinning out, making getting away more difficult. But with my advanced spells as an ultimate mage, I could pick up the slack easily, and the kid was pretty talented as well. Though some of them were reforming swifter in their fury, we still had another firepower brought to bear that they were still off balance.

  “We won’t have a better chance!” I shouted over to the kid. “On three?... One, two, three, go!” With that, I dropped my cello, the instrument dissipating into stardust as I grabbed Godfried’s arm. We charged together towards the gap in the ranks that was swiftly reforming. If Godfried froze this time, we’d likely be dead.

  But the kid kept it together this time. All my time building him back up since our last battle with the specters paid off, and he didn’t falter once.

  Once we rushed past the edge of the town, as I expected, the reformed specters that had rushed after us once again seemed to slam into an invisible wall. As I skidded to a halt, I spun around, looking back to see Bill staring at me with big, sad eyes. I quickly drew another mage’s circle and began to play another spell, a C major spell to lift heavy objects. I focused intently on the horses and conjured up a platform made of golden light beneath them, lifting them and carrying them safely over to us. I sighed with relief and wrapped my arms around Bill’s neck.

  “Don’t worry, boy. I would never have left you behind.”

  We quickly mounted our horses and rushed away into the distance, the sounds of the specters’ screams echoing behind us.

  28

  Over the course of the next week, we ran into several more incidents like the one in the ghost town. Our attackers were always specters like the ones we had seen previously, but they varied in number and location. We ran into them in three more ghost towns like the first one which Marinka always wanted to explore for scholarly purposes, as well as what had been an established campsite by a small lake.

  By that point, we had figured out how to play the specters, using our magic and their ties to mountain elf sites to our advantage like we had the first two times, but their continued reappearances were still a bit concerning. One morning, when I had woken up early while Freyja was standing watch at our campsite in a forest-like area by a small swampy pond, I sat down next to her and voiced something I had been wondering about for some time.

  “These new attacks have happened after we crossed that creepy face or sculpture-thing on the side of that mountain,” I said as I pulled out my canteen. “Every time we come across a new mountain elf site now, they show up, so… I’ve been wondering, what if that was him?” I whispered the last part, afraid one of the sleeping kingdom elves or our enemy himself would hear.

  “I’ve had the same thought.” Freyja sighed and took a sip from her own canteen. “Its eyes were just so… eerie. I felt like they were following me.”

  “Yeah, me too,” I said, taking a long swig of my own water.

  “It just doesn’t make a lot of sense, though.” The fox-elf shook her head slowly and looking out across the pond. It was covered in some kind of dark green moss, and when I drew near to the water, I could feel heat emanating from it. Bugs and frogs buzzed and hopped about the surface. It was like something out of a storybook.

  “What doesn’t make sense?” I asked absentmindedly as I followed her gaze across the pond.

  “The whole thing,” she said, returning her attention to me. “I mean, that first night we were attacked, I thought maybe he knew we were here, but then we weren’t attacked anymore for a long time, but then we were. It just doesn’t make sense.”

  I turned to meet her inquisitive eyes. “Yeah, I thought that at first, too, but then I thought that maybe we were right the first time and now. Like, he left those specters there in the first cave a long time ago to stop Viktor or anyone else who stumbled upon it, so he didn’t know we were there, but then when we passed that statue, he realized we were here and started sending more coordinated attacks after us.”

  “That’s possible,” Freyja said, nodding slowly as she mulled over what I had said. “But it’s also possible we’re wrong and just letting that sculpture thing get in our heads, and he left more traps in a lot of different places. Like Marinka said, it seems like their society was more concentrated closer to the middle of their realm and before we were traveling further out.”

  “That’s all true,” I said slowly, thinking about what she had said now, too, “but I just can’t shake the feeling that something changed when we passed that face.”

  “Me neither,” Freyja said softly and sighed.

  We sat in silence for a few minutes after that, watching the waning flames of the previous evening’s campfire, sipping our drinks, and thinking about those eerie eyes that seemed like they were following us. It certainly seemed to me like more than just eyes were following us now.

  “Well, we certainly seem to be alone now,” I said finally, looking around to make sure our companions were still asleep and then meeting Freyja’s eyes again.

  “We are,” she agreed, shooting me a sly smile.

  I gave one last glance around, closed my eyes, and leaned in to kiss her. She returned the kiss, pressing her firm lips against my soft ones. I pressed further towards her, pushing her down against the tarp spread across the ground.

  She reached up under my robes and took my cock in her hand. She ran her fingers up and down my shaft, and I felt myself stiffen quickly at her touch. She wrapped her whole hand around me, then, and moved back and forth on me, jerking me off. I groaned into our kiss, making sure to keep my voice low so as not to wake our companions.

  Freyja had no such concerns, and when I reached around her wooden armor and under her leather pants, she cried out at my touch, her back and neck arching as she broke our kiss. I kissed her neck now and reached with my free hand under her shirt to cup her small, perky breasts. I ran my forefinger up and down her labia, then pressed against her cervix, and she groaned again. I smiled at the sound as I continued to fondle her breasts.

  I glanced over at the pocket watch sitting by the campfire. We didn’t have all that long before the others would be waking up. I pulled down her pants a bit more and pressed myself into her without much ado. She groaned and arched back even more.

  “Faster,” she instructed, and I obliged, pushing myself as deep into her as I could manage. I always forgot how tight the elves were. It felt so good that it was difficult to remember properly. I let out a loud grunt when I felt her pressing around me, my cock throbbing with pleasure inside of her.

  I moved in and out of her quickly now, and she let out a series of little cries as I did. Finally, I felt as if I was about to blow my load, and I moved even faster, upping the sensation for both of us. When I came, I filled her complet
ely with my seed, and she cried out loudest of all this time, gripping my shoulder with her clawed hands. I could feel her breaking the skin, but I didn’t care.

  This was the good kind of pain.

  We lay there for a few moments after we both finished, breathing heavily together until Freyja’s own eyes darted over to the pocket watch, and she pulled herself back up into a standing position, pulling up her pants as she did so. I followed her, my hand still on her hip.

  “Time to wake everyone up?” I asked in a low voice, my face still lingering close to hers.

  “Just about,” she murmured. She was still facing me, her back to the pond, and my back to the trees. She grinned up at me slyly. “You made quick work of me this morning, Leo. We’ll have to savor the moment next time.”

  “Ah, I thought you wanted me to move fast,” I said, grinning right back at her.

  “Oh, I did,” she said. Then, she pressed her hand against my cock through my robes one last time. “But hopefully next time we’ll have time for a bit more.” She pressed her face up even closer to mine.

  “Amen to that,” I murmured, and pressed my lips against hers once more. I closed my eyes and leaned deeply into the kiss, savoring the taste of her. She wrapped her arms around my neck, enmeshing her hands in my dark brown hair. I wrapped one of my arms around her in turn, running my fingers through her long, silky fox-like red hair.

  I heard a rustle behind me that I assumed was a rabbit or maybe even a deer. We had seen several of each in this forested area. I ignored it and continued to kiss Freyja. But then, the rustling sound grew louder and closer, and I released Freyja and turned to see several humanoid creatures descending upon us from the trees. My eyes widened in alarm, and I stumbled backward, my right foot ending up in the shallow end of the pond.

  “What?” Freyja cried out in surprise, stumbling back with me.

  I looked carefully at the nearest figure and realized that it was, shockingly, a forest elf. My eyes darted around at the other figures, and I realized that they were all forest elves… but they weren’t normal forest elves. There was something… wrong with them. Something out of place. With a shock, I registered what the difference was. These forest elves were… dead. Their eyes were lifeless, their flesh decaying. And yet, here they were, attacking us.

  “They’re… they’re dead,” I stammered.

  “I know,” Freyja said, her mouth hanging open in horror. She was just standing there, her eyes wide as the corpses approached us. In a burst of energy, I grabbed her and pushed her back away from the pond with me. My foot was cold and wet, my leather boot dripping with water from the pond.

  We were off to the side of the tarps now, a few feet from the campsite, and there were what looked like nearly a dozen, for lack of a better word, zombies descending upon us now. I quickly drew a mage’s circle in the soft mud beneath my feet.

  “Attack!” I yelled in the direction of the two tents to warn our companions. “We’re being attacked!”

  Nadeine was the first to stumble out of her tent, her eyes wide with adrenaline, though she still had sleep in her eyes. “What?” she yelled back, looking around wildly. “Where?”

  Then she saw the walking dead. She cried out in surprise and shock, but without much hesitation leapt into action, rushing over to the other side of the campsite and making her own mage’s circle there. Marinka, Bernsten, and Godfried were all outside of their tents by then, staring blankly at the corpses until they registered what was happening and rushed to create mage’s circles of their own. Ishida also stumbled out of her tent and ran over to join Freyja and me on our side of the campsite.

  “Those… those are our people,” she stammered to Freyja.

  “I know,” Freyja said solemnly. They both just stared at the corpses, which were nearly upon us by then. Those few moments had felt like an hour as the horrific, rotting things lumbered towards us.

  By that time, my cello had flown into her hand from whatever mystical realm it hid in, and I set my bow to my strings. I began to play, and a giant golden sword appeared in the air in front of me. Two of the corpses were right in front of Freyja, Ishida, and me by then, but my forest elf companions were still gaping at the corpses and had yet to move to defend themselves. I focused on my sword and led it to swipe at each corpse in turn, knocking them down to the ground. No blood gushed from their wounds, considering they were already dead, but they remained lying prone on the ground, twitching.

  Ishida loomed over one of them and stared in shock at it. “I know him,” she whispered, her voice small. “I know him. He was always nice to me.”

  I looked closer at the corpse and realized that I knew him, too. It was Misho, a deer-like forest elf who had helped us briefly on our first quest to save the forest. My stomach sank, almost all the way to the ground, it felt like. Whoever this enemy of ours was, the kingdom elves were right. He was sick and had to be destroyed.

  Freyja grabbed Ishida and pulled her back as another corpse descended upon us. Freyja pulled her jagged sword from her belt and swiped at one of the corpses uncertainly. But with my eyes wide, I realized it was Marius, another one of Freyja and Ishida’s friends who had helped us. His once-friendly bear-like features were now fierce and ferocious, more animal than elf now.

  The corpse bared its teeth and lunged at Ishida. I tried to help her, but my own spell was tied up with fighting off yet another animated corpse from eating us alive. That’s when Freyja swooped in, throwing zombie Marius away from the otter-elf, but I could tell she wasn’t using her full strength. I imagined trying to fight a close friend of mine and immediately understood my friends’ hesitancy.

  I disposed of the corpse I was fighting and rushed to help Freyja and Ishida. My weapon, now a giant golden broadsword, smashed its hilt over Marius’ head, and he buckled under the force and fell to the ground. Just to make sure, I had the sword turn over and slice down on him in his midsection. I winced as I did so, remembering Marius’ kind eyes. I looked over at my living forest elf friends and realized that Ishida had been hurt, her leg gushing blood.

  “Splint it,” I yelled at Freyja. “I’ll hold the rest of them off.” Freyja rushed over to our packs, found Marinka’s medical kit, picked up a spare log sitting by the campfire, cut it in half, and ran back over to Ishida to splint and tie up her leg. I would heal her later.

  I glanced over at the kingdom elves on the other side of the campsite to check on how they were doing. I was pleased to find that they were more than holding their own against the corpses, not as disturbed by them as Freyja and Ishida. It looked as if Bernsten had tried and failed to use his magic, and he was now fending off the corpses with his physical sword, but he was doing so ably. Nadeine, Marinka, and Godfried were all using their magic well.

  There were only two corpses left standing on my side of the campsite now. My spell, now a large golden mace, clobbered them each over the head in turn, and they both fell to the ground, twitching like the others. I raised my gaze to the kingdom elves again and found that Nadeine was finishing off their last enemy.

  “Okay,” I called out, hopping up without even waiting for my cello to disappear. “We have to pack up and get out of here.”

  29

  “I will do so,” Nadeine said, quickly transitioning to a new spell, this one for breaking up camp. I ran back to my cello, which hadn’t disappeared yet, and began a healing spell, focusing intently on Ishida’s leg. Tendrils of golden light appeared and wrapped around her leg, which was still bleeding despite Freyja’s best efforts. As I worked, long arms of golden light from Nadeine’s spell danced around us, packing up all of our supplies far more quickly than we would be able to ourselves without magic. When the tendrils fell away, Ishida’s leg was completely healed. She sighed in relief.

  “Wow, it’s all gone,” she exclaimed, rubbing her tan leg where the gushing wound had been mere moments before. “Thank you, Leo Hayden.”

  “No problem,” I said. “As long as you’re okay.”

&nbs
p; “We’re sorry we weren’t much help,” Freyja said, shaking her head in frustration at herself as her gaze lingered on Misho and Marius’ fallen corpses.

  “Don’t worry,” I said, waving away her apology. “I’m not sure how I would have done in that situation, either.” I followed her gaze to Misho and Marius. “I don’t see Natan anywhere. Maybe he’s okay.” I remembered Misho and Marius’ crow-like friend. He wasn’t exactly pleasant, but Freyja and Ishida seemed to like him well enough.

  “Maybe,” Freyja murmured. “I hope so. They always traveled together.”

  “Still, maybe he’s okay,” I said. “There’s no way to know for sure unless we see him.” Freyja only nodded in response.

  “Very well, we should go,” Nadeine said when she finished packing up. “We do not know if there are more or how long these… things… will remain… inert.”

  I looked back down at the corpses. Nadeine was right. Much like the specters, some unholy force was starting to make the corpses twitch, no matter how mangled or crushed they were. They could rise and attack us again at some point.

  “Right, yeah, let’s get out of here,” I said. “Fast.” I walked over to Bill and the other horses, who had been watching the battle and neighing in fear. “It’s okay, Boy.” I patted his head and then yawned loudly.

  “Perhaps now would be a good time to try out that rejuvenation spell on yourself,” Marinka suggested.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” I said. I untied the horses and walked back to my mage’s circle. “I’ll do the horses, too, even though we’re in a forest. The terrain could change. What about you guys?”