by Aleron Kong
While his initial dagger strike had caused damage, it was nowhere near as much as when the beast drove the blade deeper into its own body by slamming its jaws shut. Once again, it reared back, shrieking in agony. Richter continued to hear screams from behind him, but he couldn’t help them until he brought a true death to his enemy. While he stood, Richter used Analyze again and saw that it only had forty-eight health left. He quickly cast Soul Trap and then started to dual cast three spells in a row: Weak Lightning, Weak Life Bolts and Weak Flame. “Fulgit! Virteas! Igni!” Richter’s mana dropped at a prodigious rate, but his magic got the job done. Ten seconds later, the lugash had been stunned, blasted, seared and most importantly, slain. A rainbow-colored ribbon of light swirled into the air before disappearing into his bag.
CHAPTER 7 – Day 140 – Kuborn 30, 15,386 EBG
Richter barely noticed trapping the monster’s soul. His mind and soul were bound to this battle, and he would find no rest until it was done. He rushed forward to pick up his two priceless blades and turned around to view his war party. After months of fighting, the chaos seed took in the scene in an instant. What he saw made his stomach drop.
Four more of the creatures were attacking his war party. The guards had clustered together and, for now at least, were holding off one of the monsters. His adder had risen up behind it and was preparing to strike. The other three monsters were preoccupied… with ripping apart the goblin captives and the mist workers that had been holding them. It was the bound, green-skinned prisoners that had been screaming. In the back of his mind, it occurred to him that once upon a time he might have judged his soldiers for sacrificing helpless prisoners to save themselves. Now, though, he was just hoped it took the monsters a long time to tear the goblins to bloody bits. Anything to buy more time. A darker part of him wished that he had captured more goblins. Then there would be more for the undead to eat.
A moan drew his attention back to the elf that had been savaged by the now truly dead lugash. Richter reached into his bag and mentally selected the items he wanted. A moment later he held five potions, three blue and the last two red. He quickly downed the mana potions and one of the health potions. His pool of available MPs swiftly started refilling. The forty-five points of Wisdom he had and his Ring of Flowing Thought let him regain thirty-two points of mana per minute. It was nothing to scoff at, but it still wasn’t fast enough.
Luckily, his mana potions were no weak tinctures. They each restored one hundred and ninety-six magic points over seventeen seconds. Between the three potions, the regen should be enough for the next round of combat. The health potion closed his scalp wound and restored the full amount of health he had lost during his brief fight with the powerful undead.
The last potion he fed to his elf guard. The man was delirious with pain, but still followed his lord’s directions and swallowed the red solution. Richter looked at his face and remembered that his name was Tovar. More screams and shouts echoed behind him, and the chaos seed knew he couldn’t think of just this one man. Still, he could do one more thing, though. Tovar’s mangled hand was continuing to bleed freely, despite the health potion. The chaos seed cast Weak Stabilize. The blood flowing from the elf’s ruined hand slowed to a trickle.
Richter silently prayed that Tovar would be safe until the fight was over, but he couldn’t waste any more time. Both swords went back into their sheaths on his back, and he started running towards his war party. As he ran, his hands started weaving into a dual cast spell form. During his training over the past few weeks, he had tried to cast spells while moving and had found it greatly increased the chance of a spell miscast. This time, though, his skill and familiarity with the spell proved equal to the task. A green disc appeared in the air in front of him, and a moment later, a forest elemental appeared. The saproling took the form of a stag this time, five feet tall at the shoulder. Its horns were wickedly sharp and were a lacquered brown. After making eye contact and forming a mental bond, Richter gave it a psychic command. The elemental sprung ahead of him to join the fight. His mana pool dropped again, but it was worth it.
One of the monsters was wrapped tight in the coils of the adder’s body. Its left arm was relatively free, but the other was trapped tight against the lugash’s body. It clawed at the tamed reptile with its free hand, but lacked an angle to do any real damage. Conversely, the shale adder squeezed as tightly as it could, but did no real damage to the undead’s body. The snake’s main attack was not suited for use against creatures that did not need to breathe. The two monsters were in a stalemate. Despite this, the snake was having more luck than Richter’s guards.
The goblins had been literally torn apart. None of the remaining pieces were larger than a soccer ball. One lugash remained at the bodies, stuffing flesh that dripped with black blood into its ragged mouth. The other two were attacking his people. Caulder had organized them into a block formation, the guards with shields in front. Richter saw one guard swing a heavy blow with a high steel mace at a lugash, but the weapon just bounced off. In a swift counterattack, the undead swiped downward with its claws. The guard fell screaming. One of his eyes was simply gone.
Caulder shouted for everyone else to close ranks. He struck the other lugash with his Quicksilver Spiked Mace of Goblin Slaying. The fluidic metal achieved a much better result than the other guard’s high steel mace, despite the enchantment not having any effect. The monster shrieked in pain. It was about to strike back at the sergeant, but Richter’s saproling arrived.
The stag rammed into the undead, leading with its wickedly sharp antlers. While the monster’s body could resist steel, the hardened magical wood of the elemental’s natural weaponry was enough to pierce its body. The level twelve saproling lifted the undead in the air while it continued to shriek. It lashed out with its clawed hands at the saproling’s head. The attack gouged deep grooves into the leaves and roots that comprised the elemental’s body. In anger, the summoned creature threw its head to the side, and the lugash flew off of its antlers. The undead crashed into the ground, and the elemental wasted no time spearing it again.
The last lugash attacking the guards was swiping at the shields of the guards and shrieking in frustration. Sion swiped at its legs, but his thorn-like rapier just bounced off. Thankfully, the sprite was able to dodge out of the way of the undead’s return strike. Caulder struck it with his mace, but though the monster was hurt, it did not seem critically so. The strike, coupled with Caulder’s position as the war party’s tank, did attract the attention of the lugash and for a few seconds it ignored everyone else. That was all Richter needed.
The chaos seed’s steps were nearly silent thanks to the Silence enchantment on his Reinforced Sprite Boots. The monster did not even notice him until Richter executed the sword form, Samara Seed Falling. The chaos seed bent low, and both of his powerful blades bit into the back of the lugash’s left leg. They did not cut all the way through the tough flesh, but they did most of the work. As it shrieked in pain, Richter straightened and moved past the undead. Almost disdainfully, he kicked out and down.
The strike was enough, and the lugash monster collapsed. Richter tossed his Elementum Short Sword of Freezing to Sion. A quick incantation primed the fallen creature’s soul to be trapped. Trusting in his Companion, Richter just said, “Finish it.” Sion and Caulder both stepped forward with grim expressions, glaring death at the undead.
Richter sent the healers and the other guards to retrieve Tovar. He walked over to his adder, still squeezing the lugash. The part of its sinuous body that the undead could reach had been savaged, but still the tamed creature squeezed as tight as it could. Richter ran forward and grabbed the monster by the wrist. He swung his sword down, once, twice, three times. The arm came free and black ichor splashed on the ground. Muffled shrieks reached Richter’s ears from inside of the adder’s coiled embrace. “Scream all you want, muthafucka. You’re done!” Richter spat.
One of his hands wove into a Life spell form, and Richter cast Weak Sl
ow Heal on his tamed pet. Then he sent a mental command, and it began to loosen its body somewhat. Richter cast Soul Trap again and plunged his sword through the loops. The chaos seed couldn’t skewer it completely for fear of hitting his pet when the sword exited the other side. Instead, he angled his blade and stabbed up into its body over and over until a rainbow of light appeared. Richter drank another mana potion and cast Summon Weak Life Wisp. A ball of healing energy appeared and immediately began healing the snake again. He picked his head up to find the last two lugash. One had run off taking large chunks of bloody goblin with it. Unfortunately, the last one was on its feet. Everyone could see that the saproling had not fared so well.
The undead monster was shambling back towards Richter and his guards. Behind it were the remains of the saproling, looking like so much mulch. One of the deer’s antlers was still sticking out of the lugash’s side and leg. Richter was about to run and meet it, but his sprite archers finally unleashed their power. The monsters had been too close to his guards before. Now, however, the sprites could fire their imbued arrows with impunity.
Four arrows glowing blue with charged power struck the monster in its shrieking mouth. Teeth flew everywhere as one of the arrows detonated inside of its body. It was blown backward and the air was rent with a loud Boom! The lugash slammed against a tree and crumpled to the ground. They all watched for a moment, and it started to move again.
His meidon sprites began to prepare another volley, but Richter called out that they should wait. He walked close enough to cast Soul Trap for a fourth time. The lugash’s body glowed gold for a moment as the spell took hold. It appeared that purple-back light was coming from the undead’s skin for a moment, fighting against the golden glow, but the bright light ultimately was absorbed into the monster’s body.
Defiant to the end, the lugash reached an arm up towards Richter, weak and near true death. With a baring of his teeth, Richter kicked the arm out of the way and stepped closer. His blade plunged down through the monster’s back, in line with where its mouth should be. The elementum blade sank between the bands of grey muscle. A short twist later and the undead lay still. Once more, a rainbow of light spun through the air.
CHAPTER 8 – Day 140 – Kuborn 30, 15,386 EBG
“Are there any more?” Richter asked, looking around. No one responded, still reeling from the ferocious attack. “Are there any more?” he asked again, but with the bark of command.
“One escaped, my lord,” Caulder responded. He had a bruise darkening on his cheek, but was otherwise whole. “Do we pursue it?”
Richter shook his head. He wouldn’t risk his men’s lives to hunt something already dead. “How are Tovar and Chakone?” he asked. The guard whose face had been marred was moaning slightly as he held his face.
“Alive, my lord,” the sergeant replied tiredly and with resignation.
Richter nodded, worn out as well, but now was not the time for rest. He started summoning mist workers, dipping into the thousand-point mana pool of the village for the first time in a good while. As far as the chaos seed was concerned, every moment spent away from the village was a moment that allowed for another attack. These undead were not the strongest monsters he had faced, but their resistance to most physical attacks made them insanely dangerous. They were certainly deadlier than most of the monsters he had encountered in his domain so far. The fact that they were undead, and were attacking during the day, didn’t make him feel any better. He knew that he had to discuss this with Hisako.
Less than two minutes later, the war party was on its way again. Caulder had asked if he wanted to do anything about the remains of the goblins. The chaos seed shook his head. The only thing he felt about the dead goblins was regret that he didn’t get any War points from their deaths. Richter took a moment to retrieve his moonstone dagger from the body of the first monster he had killed and let his summoned constructs carry the bodies of the lugash. Another carried Tovar. The eviscerated remains of the dead goblin captives were left behind.
The party traversed the remaining miles back to the village without incident. All of their nerves were frayed by the time the white stone walls of the settlement came into view. Richter, himself, breathed out a sigh of relief, and a bundle of tension he hadn’t even recognized was there eased in his neck. The battered group of warriors skirted the trench surrounding the village until they reached a bridge. The guards stationed there shouted in dismay when they saw the dead bodies and rushed out to help. Richter ordered one guard to go ahead of them in order to notify the healers that they were back and that there were casualties.
As the chaos seed looked at the guard with the ruined face, it hit him that if Sumiko had been in the village, then she might have saved his eye. Nexus’s practical joke of taking multiple villagers for their Trials at once just might mean the man might be partially blinded for the rest of his life. Instead of relying on his trusted village healer, Richter had to hope that Hisako could, and would, heal the man. It was true that they were allies, but the chaos seed had become more pragmatic in recent days. He no longer simply assumed that another ruler would necessarily take the time to heal his people. He cast Cure Weak Disease on both injured men in the hopes that it would help their recovery, then the entire party started walking into the village.
Richter ordered another guard to find Randolphus, and took a moment to give Caulder his field promotion. The sergeant nodded gratefully to his lord, but his face was stricken. The chaos seed completely understood. Though they had won the day, it had not been without cost. He let the man organize the guards, and then Richter turned his attention to the hill sprite.
The chaos seed ordered a guard to lead Liddle to the healing tent. He also asked the hill sprite to hold off on forming the meidon with his pixie until Hisako could speak with him about the goblin encampment. Liddle looked longingly at his pixie, but nodded in acquiescence. Though the sprite clearly yearned to bond with his meitu’meidon, he understood that what he knew could mean the difference between life and death for the other prisoners. Satisfied, Richter sent one more guard running ahead to find the Hearth Mother and ask her to attend the injured at the House of Healing. He prayed that the Life Master could bring his guard back to full fighting strength.
With all of that done, Richter and Sion walked off together alone. Both men were weary from the battles of the day. It was nearing dusk and the two shared a brief moment of silence as they walked, reflecting on everything that had just happened. Once they were back inside the inner village wall, Sion returned Richter’s elementum short sword. The sprite had held onto it after the lugash attack, needing a weapon until they were safely back in the settlement. “I guess you’ll be wanting this back?”
Richter heard a faint note of regret in his friend’s voice as he proffered the weapon, but what was truly notable was his friend’s use of a conjunction. It was a strange quirk that people of The Land did not seem to use that linguistic practice, though they never seemed to have a hard time understanding him when he did. The chaos seed found it slightly amusing that he was rubbing off on his friend.
He took the green blade back from his Companion. They kept walking but with his other hand, he took a handful of soul stones from his bag. They were all filled with poor and weak level souls. Richter expended the stones refilling the charges on the blade, and each turned to dust as the souls were expended. The Freeze enchantment greatly improved the damage and deadliness of the weapon, but the enchantment needed to be fueled. Each enchanted weapon had a finite amount of charges and each time it struck an enemy, some of the charges were expended.
Since Richter had started enchanting weapons regularly, he had found that the stronger the enchantment, the more charges were used up per hit. The enchantment on his sonic sword, for instance, was much stronger than the Freeze enchantment because he had used concentrated crystal to enchant it. Even though it had more charges than his freeze blade, it was almost continually running out of charges due to that increased strength. L
ike all things in The Land, there were checks and balances. Having enchanted weapons made you a powerhouse, but it was an expensive advantage to maintain.
The enchantment on the elementum blade greedily drank in the soul stuff from the amber gems. Each stone only restored a few charges before crumpling to dust. Given enough time, the charges would have restored on their own, but it could take days or even weeks. That wouldn’t do with what he had in mind for the weapon.
Once the full charge was restored, he stopped walking and asked if he could see Sion’s rapier. His friend’s blade was a sprite weapon. It looked like it was made of hardened wood and looked like nothing so much as a long thorn. There was no denying its deadliness though, and the sprite had claimed many lives with his sword. Still, the weapon was looking a bit the worse for wear.
You have found:
Sprite Rapier.
Damage: 6-9 (Max 14-18)
Durability: 19/53
Item Class: Uncommon.
Quality: Well Crafted.
Weight: 1.1 kg.
Traits: This weapon has been created with Earth magic. It is considered a magic weapon and will give extra damage to Air creatures.
“You’ve kinda been rough on it, don’t you think?” Richter asked with mock judgement in his voice.
“Hmpf. We can’t all have weapons made of fey metal,” Sion retorted. “The flesh of those undead bastards was ridiculously hard, not to mention that parrying the attacks of a goblin Warrior is not exactly easy.”
“But you did it,” Richter said. “You took them both down and you’re still standing.”
Sion puffed his chest out. It was even more comical when contrasted with the exhausted look in his eyes. He still managed a cocky and clear bravado when he said, “Of course I did. That is what we do, right, brother?”
