Guilt and Punishmen

by Sophia Schmidt

  The Tox Spitters of the second wave were supposed to do the heavy lifting, weakening the defence forces during the two following nights and making them reveal their aces in the hole.

  Alas, the remaining four academies had foiled his plans by allying themselves with the beasts.

  It was still the second act, yet Balkor was already forced to employ his strongest soldiers, the Valors. The silver lining was that after the fall of the two academies, he had a lot of Tox Spitters left that had almost half of their life span left.

  He placed the memory crystals in the center of the array, awakening the sleeping warriors from their stasis and infusing them with all the techniques and spells learned during the first two waves plus a little something of his own.

  All Valors had human appearance. They had been crafted to resemble Balkor, were animated by his very life force and now shared with him all of his hatred for the Griffon Kingdom.

  The undead knelt to their master, eager to carry out his revenge.

  "Let the Spitters be your meat shield. Do not risk your lives. Tonight is just a rehearsal for tomorrow's grand finale." Balkor instructed them while handing them the best equipment money could buy.

  "Your goal is to force our enemies to reveal their hand and get rid of that annoying bear Wraith." His voice was feeble. Empowering them had added another grey streak to his hair. He had no idea how much life was left in him, but it couldn't be much.

  "If the task proves to be too dangerous, do not hesitate to retreat. There is just ten of you for each academy and I'm at the end of my rope. If you fail, there will be no second chance. Now go."

  The Valors nodded in unison, walking in the Warp arrays ready to inflict to others the pain that was ravaging their hearts.

  ***

  "I'm sorry, Scourge. We have to end the lesson here. We'll continue it tomorrow, if both of us are still alive." Kalla tapped her paw, making the shadows swirl into a portal.

  "Wait, why you didn't teach me how to do that?" Lith had been so engrossed by his first lesson of true magic to almost forget about the shadow gates.

  "Teach you what, exactly?" Kalla was confused by his words.

  "How to merge with the shadows and use them to move across space." Kalla laughed out loud, almost scaring Lith to death. It was the first time that he had ever seen her expressing any emotion.

  "That's just a Warp Steps. I just mix it with light and darkness magic to make impossible to predict my exit point with Life Vision (*). Only a non Awakened one can afford not to. Otherwise, it would mean to throw yourself in the opponent's maws."

  Lith lowered his eyes in embarrassment. He had only recently mastered Warp Steps and Blink. He had yet to find the time to convert them into true magic. Also, he had never even considered the possibility of covering his tracks while using dimensional magic.

  "Damn. I forgot that, unlike me, you had no mentor." Kalla sighed. "I'll teach you dimensional magic first thing tomorrow morning. Now go, I have much work to do before dusk."

  After Lith left, Kalla started modifying her Deathbane array. She was certain that Balkor expected her tricks to not work anymore on his thralls, but he was in for a surprise.

  ***

  Kalla's Warp Step brought Lith back in the middle of the group, making them flinch.

  "Kalla is right, it's dumb to always open a Warp Step vertically. I should have thought about it by myself, but I always have too much on my plate. I'll think about it as soon the crisis is over." Lith thought.

  "By my maker!" Solus was brimming with joy. "Finally you are accepting your limits instead of whining for not being perfect. Today is a red-letter day for you."- She wasn't even being sarcastic, which made her remark even more annoying.

  "Where the heck have you been all day?" Yurial grabbed Lith by the shoulders, shaking him like a maraca.

  "Yurial, have you lost it or what?" Lith angrily pushed him away.

  "After your disappearance, Phloria almost drove us all insane with her nagging!"

  "I don't nag!" Phloria's embarrassed look made her retort sound fake like a three dollar bill.

  "Yes, you do." Friya sneered. "We resisted the temptation to knock you out only because none of us is strong enough to carry you around in case the enemy attacked while you were still unconscious."

  The group started quarreling, giving Lith the time to think of an excuse for his sudden leave.

  "I'm sorry to have made you worry, but Kalla and I had some unfinished business." Lith lied through his teeth.

  "She confirmed my hypothesis." He winked to them, referring to the undead's hive mind, hoping it wasn't all in his head.

  "Also, she told me that Balkor is likely to target her from now on, so she asked me to take care of her children in case something happens to her."Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

  "Why you, of all people?" Quylla asked.

  "She is afraid that because of her evolved form, other beasts could ostracize them and I'm the only human she trusts." Once again, he chose to mix together truth and lies to make his story easy to remember and play their feelings like a fiddle.

  The always lingering fear of death and the sobbing story Lith made up about the cruel fate that would await Nok without his help, prevented them from asking questions he wouldn't know how to answer.

  The mood turned gloomy, but even Solus agreed it was a small price to pay for lessons about true magic.

  They had barely finished eating, when the alarm resounded, prompting the students to go back to the town plaza.

  Soon the array was visible again, making them realize that Balkor's undead had already entered its perimeter. Lith trusted Kalla's judgment about Scarlett's strategy, but he reminded everyone about their contingency plan, just in case.

  "I don't know what the master plan is and honestly, I don't care." Lith said.

  "If anything happens to Kalla, that's our cue. It's better to run away to live and fight another day than dying an idiot's death." Everyone nodded, agreeing with the plan.

  The seconds turned into minutes, but nothing happened. This time, instead of simply swarming the place, the Tox Spitters slowly marched into the town under the Valors' supervision.

  Back in his lab, Balkor was amazed discovering that despite the modifications he had applied to his creatures, the array was back to full force. Yet it was within his calculations. The Valors had the Spitters positioning themselves in the key points of the array, before forcing them to self-detonate.

  Kalla's Deathbane array crumbled, plunging the town into darkness. Back at full strength, the undead attacked with unparalleled vigor, easily cutting through the enemy lines.

  Without support from the array, beasts and Professors quickly found themselves on the back foot. A single Spitter was nothing compared to their strength, but they were outnumbered over ten to one and every wound they suffered required specialized medical attention.

  "Rise my legions!" Kalla roared, calling forth his undead army once again.

  Two Valors approached her, moving so fast that none of the lesser undead at her command could react quickly enough to even slow them down.

  "Filthy beast, your time has come." Said the first Valor.

  "Filthy beast, your time is now." They both unsheathed their swords, moving in unison. The Valors attacked her at the same time from opposite directions, leaving Kalla no chance to defend herself.

  Two deep wounds opened on Kalla's front shoulder and her back.

  Kalla laughed bitterly, admitting her defeat. If she stayed, she would definitely die. Even if created with fake magic, those creatures were greater undead. Kalla had only recently become an Awakened one, she was still too weak to fight them and control her army at the same time.

  If she left, her army would crumble, leaving her allies without any hope of victory.

  Whatever choice she made, without her guidance, the lesser undead she had reanimated would attack indiscriminately
friend or foes.

  "Well, played creatures." Kalla's tone was sad, but devoid of despair.

  "You have destroyed my array and turned my carefully prepared army into a liability in one fell swoop. It seems I have underestimated Balkor's ingenuity, but alas, he made my same mistake.

  "Your master should have known that a cornered beast is the most dangerous one. I'm really curious to see if his plan can survive losing two of you right off the bat!"

  Having her army become useless, Kalla recalled all the darkness magic she had infused into it back to her body, causing her mana core to overload. It resulted in a silent but massive explosion that engulfed all the nearby undead and briefly managed to cover the sky.

  The collective death throes of the fallen threw both armies into chaos.

  Chapter 218 Battle to the Death

  "Gods, no!" Scarlett and Balkor screamed in unison, watching the scene unfold.

  Everything had happened in just a few seconds from the moment the array had been destroyed, not leaving the Scorpicore the time to even think about sending reinforcements.

  Losing Kalla was a huge blow for Scarlett's army. Despite the fact that she had only recently evolved, she was still the most talented Necromancer they had at hand.

  Balkor had the advantage of experience and careful preparation. Their best counter was true magic's surprise effect and the versatility Kalla's true Necromancy had displayed earlier.

  She had been able to reinforce her troops and change strategy according to the situation, while Balkor's thralls, without their master supervision, could only follow a script. The presence of greater undead had completely upset the balance.

  "Damn you and your information, Linjos. The Valors weren't supposed to come out until the last day!" Scarlett roared.

  "She has only recently evolved and close combat has never been her specialty. I only let her go alone because you guaranteed us that tonight we would face those black things again!"

  "How I was supposed to know that Balkor would change his plans so much?" Linjos tried to defend himself.

  "Look on the bright side, it means he is desperate. By butchering all of his Tox Spitters during the first day, you must have forced his hand. The Valors are his trump card. If we defeat them, the battle should be over. He shouldn't have stronger troops."

  "What if he does? What if¡" Scarlett stopped herself halfway. There was no time for recriminations.

  "We can't afford to keep our cards hidden anymore. We can only go all out and pray that you are right."

  Unbeknownst to Scarlett, Balkor's situation was even worse. Kalla's final move had been devastating to his plans. The massive release of darkness magic had destroyed all the Spitters attacking the north side along with the two Valors.

  Unlike the lesser undead that required only a small spark of his life force, each Valor was empowered by a huge amount of it. It was a double-edged sword. On one hand, it allowed Balkor to share their senses and directly control them telepathically despite the distance.

  On the other one, he would feel their lives slowly slipping away like they were his own. The sudden disappearance of so much of his life force further damaged his already compromised body. Balkor fell to the ground, convulsing and spitting blood non-stop.

  With their mind link temporarily broken, the Valors were unaware of the huge blow their army had sustained. They continued to follow the original plan, going deeper and deeper into the enemy lines until retreating became almost impossible.

  The same thing was happening on all four academy battlefields. The invaders were getting bolder, mistaking Balkor's sudden silence for approval. Despite their high intelligence and extensive combat expertise derived from the memory crystals, the Valors were still newborns.

  By giving them his memories, Balkor had also infected them with his rage, a feeling they were incapable of controlling without their master's supervision.

  Trasque, Nalear, Ironhelm, Linjos, and all the Professors with the richest combat experience finally came out of the headquarters, aiding the royal army and the magical beasts in holding their ground against the swarming enemies.

  Only eight Valors remained, but each had strength on par with Protector, making them extremely dangerous. They looked exactly like Balkor did the day his family died.

  Red-haired youths, barely sixteen years old with a na?ve visage. They were about 1.67 meters (5'6") high with a skeletal build like they had long suffered from malnutrition. The red light burning inside their eyes and their savage visage revealed their true nature though.

  "Thank the gods that Wraith warned us, otherwise I would be dead already." Professor Trasque had barely dodged the darkness bullet that the Valor had conjured at point-blank range.

  Greater undead were naturally attuned with darkness magic, allowing them to use its true magic form even without being Awakened ones.

  "That Wraith had a name! Couldn't you at least respect Kalla's memory, you oaf?" Ironhelm scolded him.

  He had always considered magical beasts as inferior beings, but after witnessing their bravery and willingness to sacrifice themselves in a battle that wasn't their own, he now harbored a deep respect for them.

  "If you have the strength to quarrel like an old couple, use it to destroy that thing!" Nalear scolded them both. They were three against one and under the effect of the best potions the White Griffon's Alchemists could provide. Yet they were still on the back foot.

  The Valor displayed all the swordplay he had inherited thanks to the memory crystal, using dozens of techniques with such mastery that it was like he had practiced them for years. To make things worse, he was still faster and stronger than them.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

  He was capable of shooting rays of darkness from his free hand, eyes, and mouth with barely a split second notice, easily interrupting their casting whenever they attempted a spell.

  The only reason they were still alive was because of their teamwork.

  "Resistance is futile, humans. Surrender and die!"

  The Valor spread the fingers of his free hand, which turned into a mass of tendrils that whipped towards the trio to immobilize them. Nalear preferred to dodge, while Ironhelm and Trasque cut them down with their weapons.

  Each amputated tendril emitted a shrill sound, like it was alive, spurting a purple liquid with a pungent smell. Ironhelm managed to block the liquid with his shield, but Trasque wasn't so lucky.

  He was wielding dual sabers, so part of the liquid reached his face, turning out to be a powerful acid. Trasque screamed in pain, suddenly full of openings that the Valor didn't miss, focusing all the tendrils on him and piercing his lungs, heart, and stomach in multiple points.

  "Vastor, where are you? We need help! Man down!" Nalear yelled into her communication earpiece, making Vastor Blink to the rescue and bringing what was left of Trasque to safety.

  Without Trasque, their formation collapsed quickly, to the point that their efforts barely slowed the Valor from reaching the students.

  "Where are the reinforcements?" Ironhelm yelled in his earpiece, his body covered in wounds.

  "Sorry for the delay, folks." Protector swooped down from the sky, hitting the Valor with his full weight. Protector was engulfed by flames, his body infused with enough air magic to turn him into a living meteor.

  The hit was supposed to blow the undead away, maybe even injure it. Yet the frost aura the Valor had conjured to weaken his human enemies easily snuffed out the flames. The Valor didn't even attempt to dodge, the strike was too fast for him.

  The impact only managed to push the creature several meters away, leaving deep furrows in the ground. Protector felt the opponent's bones cracking and reforming almost at the same time.

  The regeneration speed of the enemy was so fast it was hard to believe.

  "Filthy beast!" The Valor struck Protector with a fist, making his head turn abruptly to the side with a cracking noise.r />
  "Damn, I should have really paid attention to Scarlett when she tried to teach me how to Blink." Protector realized in hindsight.

  ***

  "If that isn't our cue, I don't know what it is." First Kalla had disappeared, then Professor Trasque had been severely wounded, and now a creature the size of the Skoll was faltering after a single punch.

  Friya had every reason to be scared and so did her group. She focused on the place where she wanted to go, bending space to her will and materializing a Warp Steps.

  "Quick, get in! I have to go last or the gate will close behind me."

  The group nodded, but before they could start moving, another Valor reached the town square.

  "There is no escape for you, vermin!" He unleashed several streams of lightning from his hand that struck everyone but Lith, who managed to dodge thanks to his enhanced reflexes.

  With Friya convulsing on the ground, the Warp Steps quickly disappeared, destroying their hope for survival.

  "Relinquish your useless lives and join us. At least your death will be meaningful." The undead's voice was oozing spite. Lith could see, thanks to Life Vision, that darkness magic was focusing on his fingertips.

  "Thanks, but no thanks!" He yelled, trying to draw the Valor's attention on himself. Lith took his shotel out of his pocket dimension, going all out right off the bat to cut down the Valor's extended arm.

  The undead reacted quickly, but not quickly enough. Infused to the brim with air magic, Lith managed to cleave the arm a few centimeters below the elbow. The limb fell to the ground, while the accumulated darkness magic faded away.

  "How did you do that?" The Valor raised an eyebrow, curious rather than worried. Despite Lith's slash having been infused with darkness magic, black tendrils came out of the amputated limb, reattaching itself as if nothing had happened.

  "That hurt, I'll kill you first then." The Valor promised, rushing for the kill.

  Lith soon found himself in the opposite situation compared to his Professors. The skill gap in swordplay between them was enormous, making him consider for dropping the shotel and fighting barehanded.