by Sarah Lin
"This is for your own good." Herskeh shook his head as he made the undead push Raigar and Bloodwraith down to the sand, facing each other. "You're still a genius, Bloodwraith, but your fleshly body has clouded your mind. I saw that you had become weak, so I planned to save you from yourself. Perhaps we can restore you to your true body, but if not... better a new undead than this mockery of yourself."
"You really think I'm weak?" Bloodwraith forced himself to stare directly at Herskeh instead of looking behind him. Meara was floating through the battle in their direction.
"Of course you are. You've become distracted by fleshly desires, and even worse, notions of goodness. You were an excellent mastermind, Bloodwraith, a villain who did not care what anyone thought of him. This heroic version of you is just pathetic."
"I'm not a hero. Danniah, now!"
Herskeh swiveled toward Danniah's position, ready to defend himself, but that wasn't the point. Danniah pushed Izilthor into the sands and dove on top of her, shielding her body. That made Herskeh realize that something was wrong and turn back, but it was too late.
Meara hurled a crystal of shining light to the ground.
The flood of light that exploded sent a wave of horror through Bloodwraith, but in his new body, it did him no harm. He was more concerned for Izilthor, but the light rippled over Danniah's body and it didn't touch her. The same could not be said for the many undead around them, who dissolved into shimmers of light. It even scorched Raigar's heavily-defended body, setting him alight before he crashed to the ground, smoke rising from him.
Herskeh's body endured, but he was left ruined, body still smoking from the holy magic. Bloodwraith rose to his feet, brushing off the ashes that had been the undead holding him, and put his boot down on Herskeh's skull.
"I knew you would betray me, Herskeh, it was just a question of when. You were still useful to me, so I made use of you. But you're wrong. I'm no hero, I've just become much more efficient at getting what I really want." With that, he stomped, shattering the weakened skull.
Satisfying as that had been, Bloodwraith knew that he had no time to waste. Yet when he turned to finish off Raigar, he discovered that the adventurer was gone. No, he was partway across the arena, wildly swinging the wand at surviving undead. When he saw Bloodwraith approaching, he stopped and glowered at him.
"Fuck this shit. You think you're so hot now, but you'll regret it when AdventureCorp hears about this." Then he touched an artifact within his cloak and he vanished, along with most of the undead around him.
The last few skirmishes in the arena ended as the remaining undead were destroyed. For a time it was almost silent, though that only meant he could hear the cries and flames from the city beyond. But it seemed that all opponents had fallen, and the Governor and Herskeh had no one left to oppose him.
[Victory! You received 83,490 EXP.]
More than he had expected - perhaps Herskeh had been worth more than his strength would suggest. Yet Bloodwraith realized that relaxing was the wrong decision. His mind reeled from all the combat, but he struggled to piece together the threat his instincts screamed was obvious.
None of his companions were in danger. Gharavi was walking towards them. Danniah was pulling herself up and Izilthor was crawling from underneath her, screeching happily. Meara was walking closer... with a hard look on her face.
"Did he say what I thought he did? He's going to AdventureCorp?"
"No..." Bloodwraith remembered where he had heard that name before: the messages the boxes sent him about connections between worlds. Those suggested that for the Outsiders to contact their own kind or return, they needed... "He's going to the nearest Return Point."
"To escape and warn the other Outsiders?"
Bloodwraith nodded grimly. They had won the battle, but all they had inherited was an even worse disaster.
Chapter 28
Though his first instinct was to rush away, Bloodwraith realized that would be foolish. They needed to know where Raigar had gone before they could act. Their methods of determining that were extremely limited, but they did have a few options.
"What's going on?" Danniah approached with concern in her eyes. "Where did Raigar go?"
"He's trying to send a message and we need to stop him." Bloodwraith turned to Izilthor and gestured toward the fragments of Herskeh. "Eat Herskeh's body and see if you can't get any whiff of Raigar. We'll need to track him over a long distance, so any kind of magical signature might help."
"I'll try!" Izilthor lunged down and began scooping fragments of bone into her mouth with her remaining hand. Bloodwraith bent down beside her and tried to restore her body, but realized that due to the Mana Obliviator, he had only restored a single point of mana so far. Instead he gestured for Meara to come and dispense potions.
Meanwhile, Gharavi had reached their group and discerned the situation. She cast him a grim look. "Our only advantage is that the Outsiders don't know what we're doing. If they get word of any of this, they'll come in force. We can't compete with the kind of power that has reshaped worlds."
"I know that!" Bloodwraith paused only to drink the potion Meara handed him. "But I don't believe the Outsiders would place such a critical location too close to a major city. This will not end in a sprint, so we need to regroup."
"That's a reasonable point, but-" Gharavi cut off as she was handed a potion as well. "The bigger problem, even if we learn anything about his location, is that Raigar got a major lead on us via his teleportation artifact. How are we going to catch him?"
It was a good question, and one he had no answer to. Yet as he considered his options and used his new mana to hastily restore Izilthor, he realized something else: they had an eavesdropper.
Most of the survivors of the battle were eager to flee, or at least kept their distance. But one adventurer had begun to approach and now stared. He began to review their conversation, wondering what she would have thought of it, before he realized that it was the woman with the ornate scimitar who had helped him fight Raigar the previous time.
"Look, I won't ask questions." She raised her hands defensively, clearly having seen how lethal their group could be. "I just want him and everyone else trying to destroy Manascas to be gone."
"That's what we're trying to do." Bloodwraith realized that the scene must look strange, since he was kneeling beside a ghoul who was eagerly stuffing her face with bone fragments, but the adventurer swallowed and pressed on.
"There are going to be a lot of guards here soon, and there's nothing I can do about them. But if you need to get out fast, you need magic." She gestured across the arena, where a small party of adventurers was recovering. "They have a mage who uses teleport spells, but they're not exactly my allies. Even if you can get them mana somehow, I don't know if we can convince them to help."
Bloodwraith glowered in their direction. "Oh, we can convince them."
But when he started to get up, Meara put a hand on his shoulder. "We can handle this. Focus on healing Izzy and getting some rest yourself - we're going to need you at your best."
He accepted the truth of her words. The battle might be over, but if they managed to catch up to Raigar, they would be tested even further.
~ ~ ~
As Meara headed toward her target, she gestured for Danniah and Gharavi to follow her. "Both of you, come with me. If we're going to convince them quickly, we need intimidation factor."
"Really?" Gharavi sighed and she fell alongside her, pulling her axe from her back again. "Fine, Gharavi intimidate good."
"Well, the fact that you're the only person throwing lightning bolts after that mana-consuming artifact should help too."
Danniah caught up with them, holding her helm in one hand and trying to get her sweaty hair back into shape with the other. "I'm happy to help, but why do you need me? I'm not very intim-"
"You're the centerpiece of the plan." Meara smirked at her, picked up her helm, and placed it back on her head. "In fact, your bloodlust has hardly
been sated by the fight so far. We can barely hold you back."
"Oh nooo..." But though Danniah whined and fiddled with her helm, she cooperated. The battle had covered her in some blood and a great deal of undead fluids, so with her helm down she really did look quite ominous.
As they approached, Gharavi grabbed Danniah's arms as if she was trying to hold her back, while actually pushing her forward. Meara saw the group of adventurers flinch when they approached, so she stepped forward with a look of terror on her face.
"She hasn't had enough! Please, do something!" Meara then shot Danniah a meaningful look. She let out an unhappy whine that came out as a disturbing keening noise through her helm.
"You'd better help us or, uh, I'm gonna kill just... just everyone."
Not the most convincing performance, but in her blood-spattered armor in the wake of such destruction, it was enough. The adventurers flinched and looked desperately at the others for a way out. Gharavi let go of Danniah, who turned away ominously, though she was probably blushing.
"We're going to hunt down the lich and the others, but they teleported out. You can follow the traces to pursue them, right?"
The group's mage struggled until Meara handed him a potion, then he nodded. "It was done via some sort of magical artifact instead of a spell, but I can get you close. How did your potions survive?"
"Don't worry about that." Meara next turned to the party's priest. "Can you create a holy bomb?"
"N-not as powerful as the one used during the battle, but..." Her eyes flickered over to Danniah. "I can try."
"Then get trying. We'll be gone soon." Meara then moved closer to Danniah, lifting one hand to her ear and changing her expression to one of horror. "Oh dear... she says that isn't enough for her. We're also going to need some shardwing bait."
Remarkably, with the surviving adventurers scrambling to help them, they got everything they needed in a short time. By the time Bloodwraith and Izzy were approaching, Meara had everything she'd asked for except for the shardwing bait, but at that moment the female adventurer approached and handed her a carefully-wrapped bag.
"This is the bait. It will start working as soon as you unwrap it, if you're far enough from a large group of people." She gave a look of concern, not toward Danniah but directly at Meara. "This... whatever you're doing matters, doesn't it?"
"Yes. It does."
"Then... good luck." With that, she stepped away. Bloodwraith arrived and their group stood together in front of the mage, who swallowed as he kept working the ritual to teleport them out of the city.
As he did, Meara closed her eyes and considered what they had. Four capable fighters against all the undead Raigar had managed to control, plus his artifacts. Things would be difficult unless she could support them, but there was only so much she could do. She couldn't compare to the endless Ultra Rare artifacts Raigar could pull out of his ass, but she could produce normal potions and had the bomb and the shardwing bait.
It would have to be enough. Yet when Meara opened her eyes, she discovered that the ritual was only half-complete... and there were guards in official Manascas armor approaching them, including mages. She glanced toward Bloodwraith nervously.
"Is their mana drained as well?"
"Only their mana regeneration is limited." He turned on the mage and glowered. "Can't you work faster?"
The man shook his head violently, wiped sweat from his brow, and focused on his task. But as the guards approached, the mages among them were beginning to prepare binding spells. One of the head guards stepped up.
"You've gone too far! You won't escape without facing the justice of the city!"
Bloodwraith turned on them, voice booming. "You don't understand the stakes! Step down if you value your lives!"
That was the wrong approach to take with guards who hadn't seen the core conflict. Their mages drew closer to casting their spells and the teleportation ritual still wasn't complete. Bloodwraith grabbed his sword and Meara wondered if he would actually cut them down, but at that moment a shockwave of force tore through the sands.
As the guards were sent tumbling away, spells disrupted, Meara turned back to look. There she spotted a group of warriors, largely huge and muscled. Some of them kept releasing bursts of force, preventing the mages from regrouping, while an old man stepped forward. If this was the Savages Guild that Bloodwraith had told them about, then that must be Kantan.
"We have your back!" He thumped a fist against his chest. "Stop that lich before he can attack again. Show our strength!"
Though Bloodwraith stared at him for a long time, eventually he nodded. "We will leave nothing left."
With the barbarians holding back the city guards, the mage was able to finish the teleportation ritual. After double-checking his work, he activated the spell. The magic took hold of them and Meara felt herself screaming through a haze of flickering pieces of the world.
They reemerged in the countryside after what felt like an eternity, but must have been only moments. Meara still shivered, her being threatening to fall apart. Then a heavy gauntlet fell on her shoulder and she was at peace as Bloodwraith anchored her. Though he gave her a concerned glance, she shook her head.
"We need to hurry and stop Raigar."
Even as they spoke, Izzy was bending to the ground and sniffing. She couldn't be using her nose - her nose likely didn't even work - but she seemed to pick up a whiff of something magical, because she hopped up and pointed. "That way!"
With no other option, they began to run. Meara drifted along beside the group, trying to regain her bearings. Manascas was barely visible behind them, slowly becoming lost in the sands. Ahead of them, there were only rolling dunes and a few rocky outcroppings. Though Raigar's group of undead must have left tracks, the wind had already blown them away, so they were running blind after Izzy.
Yet after they had run for some time, they spotted a sure sign of his passage: a small homestead on fire. There were survivors rushing about, trying to put out the flames, get their animals under control, or pick up the bodies. Raigar must have just rushed through, his undead mindlessly attacking around them.
Though she considered it only a sign of their progress, Gharavi grunted something to Bloodwraith and he nodded. Soon he sprinted away from the group toward the survivors, who looked up in fear. Surely he wasn't going to help them when time was so essential...
"These are ours now." Bloodwraith pointed toward the horses of the group. The survivors clearly had no choice in the matter, so they cooperated immediately. Danniah apologetically chucked a few coins in their direction.
It took them some time to gain control of the animals and get their party mounted. Surprisingly, Gharavi seemed familiar with horses, easily calming one and mounting it without a saddle. Meara wasn't that confident, instead getting another one fitted with a broad saddle that could support both her and Danniah.
Izzy proved a bit of a problem, since the horses all reared away from her in terror. After Bloodwraith found a horse sturdy enough to support him, he reached down to lift her. So in the end, with Izzy riding on his back, they set off on their stolen horses.
Though the stop had burned time, they traveled much faster while mounted, especially with Bloodwraith pushing the horses so hard. Perhaps more importantly, they were draining the stamina of the horses instead of their fighters. Raigar and his undead had no stamina concerns at all, so it would not do to catch up to them and immediately be at a major disadvantage.
For a time they simply rode over the sands, leaving Meara to recede into herself. She thought of things she could have done differently, both during the conflict and before it. The repair abilities she'd developed with Gharavi were useless in a conflict like this. Her ability to steal from others' inventories was close, enough that she thought it might be usable, but she didn't dare test it in a situation this dangerous.
Eventually they spotted a small hill jutting from the sands, but the essential sight was beside it: a mob of undead sprinting ac
ross the desert. They started to pursue, yet Izzy flailed on Bloodwraith's back.
"No, no! There!" She pointed toward the hill, where Meara now spotted a lone figure struggling against the wind toward something at the top.
Raigar. And it seemed like he was trying to pick up something.
"Target him!" Bloodwraith gave the command instantly and she took a moment longer to understand his motivation as they sprinted toward him.
The little hill was obviously not the Return Point, or Raigar would have set his undead to defend him. But what could be so important that he would spend time to collect it while they were chasing him? Raigar was not so stupid as to waste time on simple loot, so it could only be something of critical importance.
Then there was no time like the present for their own weapons. Meara pulled the holy bomb from her cloak, but at that moment Raigar saw them. There was a flash of silver, then a beam of solid destruction flashed out.
This one swung through the ground, much less destructive but still tearing up a huge burst of sand and digging a furrow between them and the hill. Danniah and Gharavi shied away from it, while Bloodwraith made his horse leap the gap, but there was still too much distance between him and Raigar.
Raigar was reaching down again. Gharavi fired a bolt of lightning, but it was a hasty shot and Raigar knocked it aside. So Meara stuck to her plan and hurled the crystal as hard as she could.
It sailed through the air, falling several paces short of Raigar. But as the light rippled outward, it was enough: the wall of it caught him in the face, flinging him off the hill. He tumbled through the sands for some time before he managed to bound to his feet and sprint off after his army of undead. Their path had curved now, aiming toward some new location.
Meara saw a spire of rock in the distance and felt the system within her leap. It had to be the Return Point.
Then they were running out of time, yet Bloodwraith had gotten off his horse and was climbing toward the location where Raigar had stood. Was it so important to find out what Raigar wanted? Given that there was a decent chance it might be more artifacts he had held in reserve, Meara decided that it was worth it. But that meant that Raigar was escaping them and closing in on his goal.