by Aleron Kong
“My fatheeer,” Krista said gleefully. “I have learned so much! I want to show you. To thank you! For all the long years, I, and the other villagers, continued to be tortured and torn apart.” The flames around her intensified and Jorgen’s wails of pain increased proportionally. “That pain taught me, fatheeeer!” Her voice was stronger and sounded not unlike a gale whistling through mountain peaks. “I want to share what I learned! We aaall do!”
Krista released one hand from her father’s back and spat magical words in a rapid string. Her hand contorted and with a last, shouted, “Sugidettt!” ethereal green light shot towards the bones of the other sacrificial victims. The light bathed all of the bones, and spirits began to rise. Only ten seconds had passed since Jorgen had foolishly embraced his daughter. Richter would have left the man to their judgement, but the newly arisen spirits did not seem to only be interested in punishing Jorgen. A horrible moan that that stole the heat from Ricther’s bones came from their collective spectral throats, then more than one hundred spirits attacked everyone present!
Alma rose in the air with a scream of defiance and cast Weak Life Bolt at one of the specters. Having learned from the last battle, she then quickly cast Minor Life Aura on herself before continuing her attack. The ghost she had attacked flew towards her while the others attacked whatever being was closest to them. That happened to be the mist workers. The scant seconds that it took for the grey figures to be ripped apart let everyone else begin to counterattack.
Richter analyzed the spirits to know what he was facing.
Name: Tortured Spirit Disposition: Hatred
The spirits of these simple villagers were betrayed in a manner most foul. Their torment did not end with their deaths, however, as a powerful Death mage bound their spirits to their remains. They continued to be tortured on an ethereal plain and their suffering fed the magics and life force of the evil necromancer. The once pure spirits have been corrupted and twisted with foul magic until little remains of their original selves. Their only motivation is to share their torment with the living.
Level: 14
Health: 220 Mana: 30 Stamina: 110
Strength: 16
Agility: 18
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 22
Endurance: 11
Intelligence: 3
Wisdom: 4
Charisma: 1
Luck: 6
Richter checked a few more spirits quickly and found that their levels ranged between eleven and fifteen. The one notable exception was Krista. The small ghost child was a whopping nineteen. Richter scanned the information again and his eyes locked onto ‘bound their spirits to their remains.’ “Destroy the bones!” he shouted.
Everyone else was already in action. A few villagers had come to see why a new hole was being dug. They all ran away screaming at the sight of over a hundred screaming spirits. Richter didn’t begrudge them that. He was just glad that he wouldn’t have to deal with trying to save them as the fight commenced.
“Make the war party,” Sion shouted. He was firing an imbued arrow at the mass of spirits attacking the mist workers. The blast would damage the workers as well, but large rents had already been created in their grey bodies. The specters’ claws were mercilessly raking across their bodies, and wherever they were struck, mist flowed out to dissipate into the air.
Richter nodded and selected Sion, Terrod and Beyan. No one else from his main war party was within his sphere of influence. He would have added others, but at the last minute he remembered the challenge he had to complete, Leave No Man Behind I. He had already been through four of the five war party battles required to fulfill the challenge, but if he added anyone new to the war party, he would fail. Besides, other than Sumiko, there weren’t too many others at the grave site. With that thought, he whipped his head to check on the healer, while he cast buffs on himself. A smile broke across his face when he saw her. She was doing fine!
Sumiko had immediately ordered her young healers to retreat to the path that led down to the village. Far enough to be away from the battle, but close enough to help anyone wounded in it. After that, she proved the validity of her earlier boast. Her opening salvo was so impressive that Richter no longer had any doubt that she should accompany him to attack the undead lord.
An unbroken string of arcane words spilled from her lips as her arms moved in tandem. Even watching for a moment, Richter could see that she was dual casting. Five seconds after she started her incantation, she finished by slapping her hands together. A ball of golden light shot from her fingers towards the spirits. It did not impact against any of them, but instead stopped in midair. A second later, the spirits started being pulled into the ball of light. They struggled against it, but their bodies stretched like water going down the drain. More and more spirits were pulled into the ball, and as each disappeared, the light grew more dim. More than twenty spirits were consumed by the luminous ball before the light died completely. The ball winked out of existence. Sumiko was already working on her next spell.
Terrod had started running towards the spirits, sword drawn, but Richter ordered him to protect Sumiko. The captain hurried over to do as he was told. Sion continued to fire imbued arrows, but he had now attracted the attention of several spirits. The sprite fired into the collection of bones, but it had no effect. Richter didn’t know if his theory was wrong or if the whole skeleton needed to be destroyed, but the moaning wail of the specters continued. It mixed with the haunting sounds of Jorgen’s odd screams and his daughter’s sadistic laughter. As he took in the whole scene, Richter decided that this was some major league creepy shit!
Surprisingly, Beyan was somewhat useless in the battle. The Death mage’s low level spells focused on summoning and direct attacks. Because his attacks utilized Death magic though, they would only make the spirits stronger. “Richter!” the gnome shouted in frustration as his lord ran into the fray.
Richter saw the helpless look on Beyan’s face and he just shouted, “Do what you can!” Then he ran towards Sion. Only an abnormally high Dexterity was keeping his Companion alive as he narrowly dodged the ghosts’ attacks. Sion couldn’t take the time to fire another imbued arrow, beleaguered as he was by five spirits. His thorn-like rapier would also be of no help. The ethereal nature of the ghosts would have made them immune to such attacks. “This way!” Richter shouted. Past the sprite, he saw Sumiko let loose her next spell. Whirling blades of golden energy cut down another ten spirits.
Sion ran directly towards him. Before he had even reached the sprite, Richter swung both swords. His friend dove under the strike and then Richter was in the middle of the spirits. The time he had taken to cast Minor Life Armor and Minor Life Aura served him well. The ghosts shied away from him. They were too strong to be greatly damaged or fully repulsed by the spells, but it still let Richter use his blades to devastating effect.
The accuracy penalty of wielding two blades made Richter feel off balance again, but being in a swarm of ghosts meant that he didn’t need to be precise. His sonic short sword swung through a spirit. When the blade passed through it, Richter felt a resistance similar to pushing through thick spider webs. The ghost wailed in pain. Richter swung his short sword of freezing through another, earning a second ghastly cry of agony. He stood in the center of the group moving both swords as quickly as he could, putting on a better show than the Benihanna World Series of Ginsu, and anyone who doubted that was thrilling hadn’t watched ESPN 8 at three in the morning!
One spirit attempted to flee his attack, but Alma appeared, her body still glowing gold and she dove through the spirit, claws extended. It fell back towards Richter with a cry and he plunged both swords upward into its body. The ghost faded to nonexistence.
The moments of respite had allowed Sion to knock another arrow and imbue it. The magical attack flashed forward and struck a spirit. Immediately afterwards, two more blue streaks struck the same ghost and it dissipated into the true death. Richter’s heart cheered even as
he continued to lay into every spirit he could reach. The sprites guarding the Quickening had joined the fight!
Despite the efforts of Richter and the sprites, the real show stopper was Sumiko. Terrod had engaged several spirits with his enchanted blade to give the Life master the chance to cast her spells. He bled from several places, but still was able to aggro most of the spirits. A few had flown past the captain to attack Sumiko directly, but they were foiled by the bright golden sphere of protective magic she had erected. The spirits moaned and wailed in frustration, but she didn’t even waste time gloating at them. Instead, she finished a third spell. A golden disc appeared above her head, horizontal to the ground. A raucous cry filled the air as more than twenty large birds flew through the portal and into the meadow.
The birds looked similar to hawks, but each had a wingspan of three to four feet. Their feathers were pure white, but when they opened their mouths gold light welled up, like seeing magma at the bottom of the trench. Some of the birds attacked the spirits that were near the Life master, but the rest flew after the spirits that had left the immediate combat area. The Life creatures worked in tandem, flocking around one spirit at a time. Their mastery of the air was obvious as they evaded every counterattack. In turn, wherever the bird’s talons or beaks struck the ghosts, ethereal rents appeared in spirits’ bodies until they faded away, leaving only a pile of dust behind.
The battle was almost done when Richter heard a scream of rage. His head turned to the right and he saw Krista advancing on Beyan. There was no sign of Jorgen’s spirit. The gnome quickly wove his hands and a cylinder of purple-black light sprung up around him. The spirit girl shoved both hands forward, talons out. The shield began buckling immediately. Beyan cried out and placed his hand forward, feeding more mana into the shield, but her clawed fingers kept creeping closer. Richter started running.
The booms from imbued arrows continued to echo against the other spirits, but Richter’s attention remained on the Death mage. Beyan fell to one knee and a line of blood traced out of his nose. There was a silent explosion and the cylinder collapsed. Richter felt a faint splash of energy wash over him. Beyan dropped to the ground bonelessly, overcome by the spell feedback. Krista loomed over the Death mage, hand raised to slash out his throat. Only Richter’s thrown blade saved the gnome’s life.
Krista screamed in rage as his weapon passed through her insubstantial body. The magic of the blade harmed her and she turned her ire on the chaos seed. The ghost flew towards Richter, both stumps of her legs trailing slightly behind the rest of her ethereal body, her claws outstretched. He shouted back at her and kept running. One hand wove into a spell form. A brief one-second cast was all he had time for, then they were toe-to-toe. So to speak.
Krista swiped at him, but his Life magic-enhanced chest plate stopped the blow. He swung his short sword in the form The Lady’s Fan Opens. The defensive move forced the ghost back and Richter flowed into the next, Forest Wind. His blade swung across at shoulder height, the tip swiping through the young girl’s spirit.
Richter’s free hand contorted into the specific configuration of another spell. Red light surrounded his hand and flames shot forward. The fire bathed Krista’s form, doing further damage. The ghost shrieked and flew directly up into the air and over Richter’s head. He tracked her as best he could, but lost sight when she flew in front of the sun. The chaos seed squinted trying to see her, but then was hit directly in the chest by the quick ghost. He fell back, his Fire spell ending, but he managed to keep hold of his sword. Richter raised it defensively from his prone position, vainly hoping to ward off the dangerous spirit. He needn’t have worried. Before Krista could strike again, Alma launched an attack of her own.
The dragonling clawed at the spirit’s face. While normally this attack would do nothing, the magic from her Life spell still made her body a living weapon. Krista cursed and swiped at Alma, driving the familiar back, but the damage was done. Richter had been able to recover. He rose and smoothly extended his sword up and out, executing a near flawless Crane’s Neck. His sonic short sword penetrated the spirit’s body and, with a final wail, the ghost fell to dust.
Richter looked around, panting, and saw that all of the spirits had been dispatched. Even Sumiko’s summoned birds were flying back. Her cadre of young healers were right behind them. Richter nodded in approval. He wasn’t sure how proficient they were at Life magic, but they were well-trained. The group had followed Sumiko’s orders without hesitation and now that the danger had passed were rushing back to help however they could. The ones in the front of the pack were even running.
He moved over to Beyan’s motionless body and cast Weak Slow Heal. The gnome didn’t wake up or show any change. Richter bent down and was about to pry one of the mage’s eyes open when he felt a hard poke in his back.
“Move out of the way! I hope you now see what happens when you play with dead things.”
Richter looked back to see Sumiko’s furious expression behind him. He decided it might be a good idea to get out of the way. The older sprite cast a spell and Beyan’s body glowed gold. After a moment, she harrumphed and said, “He is merely stunned. That does not change the fact that this should never have happened! You were lucky that I was here. How could you make such a stupid mistake? What were you thinking bringing such horrible creatures into the village? Your people could have been killed!”
“I was only trying to help,” Richter said quietly. It wasn’t a protest because he knew she was right. “I brought these bones here so that you could lay their spirits to rest. I was trying to do something good. There is no question that I am responsible for this, but outside of that, how can you help me to avoid making a ‘stupid’ mistake like this in the future?”
Sumiko glared at him, but then said, “You are right, Lord Richter. I should have tested the remains myself as soon as I saw them. I knew that they were anchors for the spirits, but I did not know they were also conduits the spirits could use to re-enter this plane. I won’t make that mistake again,” she gazed at him intently, “and neither will you.”
The Life mage placed one hand on Richter’s head and another on his heart. Energy flowed into him and he knew!
Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Weak Detect Hostile Intent! Casting this spell will reveal if any creatures within ten yards have an active, deadly intent towards you. This is a spell of Life, level 8. Cost: 38 mana. Duration: 1 minute. Range: 15 feet. Cast Time: 2 seconds. Cooldown: N/A.
Though it had happened several times before, the sudden explosion of knowledge still filled Richter with awe. He wasted no time casting the spell. His fingers contorted into a specific configuration, golden light suffusing them. He finished the spell and looked around. Everything looked the same except for the bones, which now had a sinister, red glow.
“The bones are still glowing,” he exclaimed. He rushed over to pick up his thrown sword and then rushed towards the remains with a blade in each hand.
“Stop!” Sumiko commanded. Her voice was like a whip. Richter briefly wondered if she was related to Mama somehow. “You can break those bones to pieces and it would most likely work to destroy their bond to this plane, or you can just let me put them to rest as I intended.”
“Those things tried to kill us,” Richter protested.
“Yes, because they were corrupted by evil, torment and,” her face twisted, “eldritch magic.”
Richter looked at her in confusion.
Sumiko looked back sternly. Her gaze shifted to Beyan’s unconscious form and then back to Richter. She leaned in and spoke softly as if not wanting to be overheard. “Death magic has a high likelihood of corrupting the user, in my experience, but, I admit, it is not inherently evil. Life and death need each other. Eldritch magic is something else entirely. It is not one of the Basic Elements. It is a parasitical magic that only manifests by corrupting something else. The green flames that the girl spirit controlled were clearly born of this foul energy. Be careful and do not let t
he gnome stray from his element. Death magi may be foolish and selfish, but they are nothing compared to a practitioner of the eldritch.”
Richter’s face became more and more concerned as she spoke. The neon green color of the magic she had just seen was the same as the magic used by the undead mage. Richter had felt reservations about attacking a Death mage in his own lair, before this conversation. According to Sumiko, though, he would be attacking a user of an even more dangerous magic.
Sumiko continued, “Let me return to my work. I will separate the souls bound to the bones from all concerns of this plane, including the wrong that has been done to them. They will have at least a chance to find peace. This story can still end well.” She started to turn away, but then looked him in the face again, her expression fierce, “You were an absolute gyoti to bring them here without properly assessing the danger. Let me be absolutely clear on that point! Your foolishness stemmed from a good sentiment, however. Look to your friend, the Death mageling. He is waking. The ghostly manifestations of the spirits will not be able to coalesce again before I am done cleansing the bones. Believe me, the danger has passed for now.”
Richter looked at her, his nerves still frayed from the battle. He took a deep breath though, and tried to let the tension go. “Sumiko. I don’t know what I would do without you. Thank you for winning us this battle, and even more, thank you for your wise counsel.”
Sumiko harrumphed, “That is the first smart thing you have said all day! As for what you would do without me? You would most likely die horribly. Everyone would sicken and the smell of this place would be enough to kill an ogre. I won’t even get started on…”
The Life mage kept up a running monologue as she walked away. Richter smiled, knowing that if she was happy enough to scold him like that, then everything was okay between the two of them. He did as she suggested and walked over to Beyan. The gnome had propped himself up on his elbows and was blearily looking around. Richter reached down and extended his arm. After a few seconds, the Death mage oriented on his hand and reached out with his own. Richter pulled him up.