Legacy of the Fallen

by Luke Chmilenko

  An [Ætherbound Specter]’s [Psychic Scream] hits you for 128 points of damage!

  An [Ætherbound Specter]’s [Psychic Scream] hits you for 114 points of damage!

  Then, what seemed like hours later, the mental scream vanished as if it had never been, allowing me to reopen my eyes and gaze back in the direction of the Specters. The two spirits still hovered in the spot that I had last seen them, their mouths having returned to their normal shapes. Looking through them, I couldn’t help but notice that during their attack’s duration, several of the bodies had managed to rise to their feet, and were now steadily plodding forward toward us. Sensing what my eye was focused on, the game wasted no time in assigning a tag to one of the risen creatures, identifying it for me.

  [Ætherbound Revenant] – Level 14

  A Revenant? I thought numbly, still reeling from the aftereffects of the scream as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing. The creature’s flesh appeared to be completely dry and appeared as if it were stretched too tightly over its bones. I could see tears in the flesh and exposed bone underneath where it wasn’t covered by the damaged armor that hung loosely from its body. In its hand, I saw that it clung to a tarnished sword, its gleaming emerald eyes staring mindlessly forward as it strode towards us.

  A flare of magic from the Specters caused my attention to shift back towards them, as they both began to conjure large azure orbs of energy in their hands, the Revenants now steadily rising from the ground without any apparent effort on their part.

  “They’re casting spells!” I shouted in a panic, trying to warn everyone while simultaneously forcing myself to my feet. “Everyone get up!”

  No sooner were the words out of my mouth than the Specters let their attacks fly, the two azure orbs speeding from their hands. Flinching from one that seemed to have been targeted directly at me, I braced myself for pain, only to have the orb prematurely explode, its energy washing away from me as a shimmering wave force filled the air before me.

  “Shit that was close!” Halcyon gasped from behind me as other bursts of magic echoed through the chamber, followed by cries of pain. “I think I only got the one though…”

  “Better than nothing!” I exclaimed with sudden relief as I realized that Halcyon had managed to put yet another timely Force Shield in front of me to save me and the others from an attack.

  “We need to get in there, Lyr!” Drace grunted from beside me as he pushed himself to his feet. “More Revenants are rising by the second.”

  “Got a plan how to manage that?” Constantine’s voice shouted from the other side of Drace.

  “Attack the Specters to keep them focused on us and take out what Revenants you can,” I said while casting Lesser Shielding on myself. “We need to make a path for the casters to the bodies that haven’t risen yet, so they can thin them before they rise. If we don’t do that we’ll get swarmed!”

  “We can do that!” Caius added from behind. “But we need to move! The other group took a beating from that spell!”

  “Then let’s go!” I barked, Halcyon taking my words as a cue to drop the Force Shield in front of us.

  Rushing forward as a group, I focused my attention back onto the two Specters and saw that the pair had begun conjuring yet another round of azure orbs and by my best guess were moments away from unleashing another volley.

  We won’t be able to get to them before they finish their spells, I realized, seeing that nearly a dozen Revenants - about half of the bodies lying on the ground earlier - were now directly in our way. They’ll slow us down too much…unless I jump ahead.

  “Meet me in there! Going to try and disrupt their spells!” I called out to Drace in warning, a heartbeat before I triggered Blink Step, angling my teleport towards the far side of the room where I still had a clear line of sight, and nothing would block my spell.

  In an all too familiar blur of colors, I reappeared barely an arm’s length away from the sealed doorway on the far end of the room, which was thankfully an area free of any Revenants. Pivoting on my foot, I used the momentum I had teleported with to angle myself towards the twin Specters, having appeared nearly adjacent to them.

  My unexpected movement attracted the attention of the Specter closest to me, causing her head to turn in my direction just as I closed in on her floating form. Moving on reflex, she twisted to throw the azure orb that she had conjured at me, but my charge had already carried me in far too close, and it sailed cleanly over my shoulder as I ducked under it, before it impacted on the far wall behind me with a thunderous crash.

  Leading with Splinter, I thrust out with my newly crafted sword and drove it through her ethereal body, catching her just above where her hip would have been, had she’d been a physical entity. I felt only slightest tug on Splinter’s edge as it passed clean through the spirit, leaving me wondering for the briefest of moments whether or not my attack had any effect.

  The scream of pain that followed seconds afterward banished any doubts that I had.

  Continuing my charge forward, I saw the second Specter flinch at its twin’s cry, and it instinctively twisted its body in the direction of the noise, the slight movement giving me the perfect opportunity to sweep my blade straight through its chest. For a second time, I only felt the barest resistance as Splinter passed through the second Specter with hardly any effort on my part. A second, even louder scream greeted my ears as my momentum carried me past the two now screeching spirits, leaving no doubt in my mind that I had achieved what I had set out to do and successfully distracted the pair.

  Unfortunately, I hadn’t given a lot of thought to what I would do afterward.

  What’s your plan now, Marcus? I shouted mentally as I focused my attention forward and saw myself charging directly towards a quartet of Revenants that were heading towards the party.

  I glanced around in a momentary wave of panic as I tried to find a way to avoid the impending collision with the Revenants, but no matter where I looked, the situation didn’t look any better. There were far too many of the undead creatures on either side of me to have a clear line of sight to Blink Step out of the way, which meant that I had only the least worst option available to me.

  Which was plowing straight into the four Revenants ahead of me and just plain hoping for the best.

  This is going to suck! I shouted internally while tucking my head down into my shoulder and bracing Splinter on my hip as I readied to crash into the first Revenant.

  The impact rattled my teeth as I blindsided the Revenant with the crunch of breaking bones, who up until this moment, had no idea that I existed. Stepping into the creature, I was surprised to find that it was much lighter than I had anticipated, the collision sending it sprawling to the ground, where it then crashed into a second Revenant and took out its legs from under it.

  Seizing the unexpected opportunity, I ran past the two fallen Revenants and used the last bits of my momentum to chop Splinter into the side of yet another Revenant’s head, caving half of it in and causing the undead creature to stagger to its knees from the blow. With my advantage spent, I spun to face the fourth Revenant that I had momentarily lost track of, immediately feeling the price of my failure as something sharp thrust itself into my hip, piercing deeply enough to grate against the bone.

  Three for four isn’t bad! I thought through clenched teeth as I twisted to face the Revenant and knocked a follow-up attack away, mindful of the two Specters that I knew were right behind me. I had only seconds to either find a clear line of sight to Blink Step somewhere safer or come up with a way to somehow prevent myself from getting turned into the magical equivalent of a pincushion. Swinging Splinter in a short chop, I caught the Revenant’s blade and drove it backward, momentarily pinning it against its chest. The maneuver gave me an opportunity to cast a quick glance upwards towards the ceiling, checking to see just how much vertical room I had available above me, which to my disappointment, turned out to be very little. Damn, the ceiling is too low! If I use my Jump spell in here,
I’ll just end up giving myself a concussion!

  Starting to feel panic rise from within at the prospect of being trapped, I released my hold on the Revenant’s sword and exchanged a pair of blows as I worked to circle around the undead creature, hoping to put it between me and the two Specters behind me. Accepting a bruising chop on my elbow as part of the price for the shift in position, I managed to trade places with the Revenant and found myself with my back to the wall, spotting the two spirits hovering in the air where I had left them.

  Only this time, their attention was focused entirely on me, and they were both holding bright azure orbs of magic.

  Oh, this is going to hurt, I realized in a perfect moment of clarity as the two spirits prepared to cast their spells in my direction, only to have a hail of magic suddenly lash out from beyond the crowd of Revenants and splash across one of the Specters. Letting out a wail of pain as its spell came apart in its hand, the spirit instantly shifted its attention away from me and towards the source of the attack, a panicked voice cutting through the chaos of battle.

  “Well we have its attention now! Now what?” I could just barely make out Ransom’s shout as the Specter glided away from me, leaving me staring at the other spirit as it finished casting its spell and threw the orb it was holding in my direction.

  Okay, on second thought, maybe this won’t be so bad! I thought as I stared at the oncoming missile which appeared to move with glacial slowness in my heightened state of awareness. Acting on pure instinct, I reflexively tried to duck in front of the Revenant that I just traded places with, desperately hoping that its body would provide some cover from the coming attack.

  I had barely begun to move before a bright azure light filled my vision, followed a heartbeat afterward by a thunderous crash of sound as the orb detonated and vented its magical fury on everything around me. I felt something hard crash into me and knock me backward, my back slamming into the wall. At the same instant, a brief, yet searing sensation of pain washed over me, causing the skin on my face to blister and burn. Passing as quickly as it appeared, the azure light vanished, my vision returning with several alerts flashing in the corner of my eye.

  A [Ætherbound Revenant] hits you for 58 points of damage!

  An [Ætherbound Specter]’s [Arcane Orb] hits you for 163 points of damage!

  You are low on Health!

  HP: 267/792

  “Ugh,” I let out a low moan as the weight that had slammed into me fell away from my body, leaving me staring down at the charred husk of the Revenant that I had taken shelter behind. It had taken the worse of the blast for me, but enough had still managed to get through to send my health down to critical levels.

  A screeching wail along with a surge of adrenaline brought me back into the moment, causing my head to snap upwards and temporarily banish the pain coursing through my body. With a new orb growing in its hands, I saw the attacking Specter soar towards me with malice on her face, a clear, Revenant-free path now directly between us.

  Something tells me that trick isn’t going to work twice, I thought, desperately glancing for a way out. While the Specter’s blast had inadvertently killed or knocked down the Revenants immediately around me, it did nothing to provide an avenue of escape, short of me somehow running straight through it. I was a sitting duck with nowhere to go and didn’t have nearly enough health to survive—

  Wait a second! My eyes widened as I replayed the last thought in my mind for a second time, it should be possible for me to pass through the spirit ahead of me! After all, it was a ghost, and I had done the same before to the Slave-King when I had fought him! Why would this occasion be any different? All I had to do was get close enough so it couldn’t hit me with its spell…

  With a snap decision I pushed myself forward off the wall, well aware of all the qualifiers I had attached to my desperate rationalization. Putting as much power as I could into my legs, I managed two large steps forward to build up some momentum, then triggered a short Blink Step, using the spell to teleport me directly point blank in front of the advancing Specter, my third step taking me directly inside the spirit.

  Passing through the ghost felt as if I had plunged my entire body into an icy river of pure rage, an unearthly cold washing over me as I moved. I felt a maelstrom of alien emotions whip through my mind as I charged through the spirit, lasting until I erupted from the far side of the Specter, exhaling a deep breath of relief as I continued to put space between me and the spirit.

  L-let’s not do that again! The thought pounded through my mind as I shook off the unsettling cold that I had experienced and angled my sprint towards the relative safety of my friends. Distracting the Specters had turned into a hell of a lot more than I had anticipated, and I knew I was damned lucky to have survived, something I had to credit to Ransom and the other spellcasters timely intervention.

  “Lyrian!” Helix was the first to spot me as I rushed towards their line of battle, his head towering over the Revenants between us. “This way! Make an opening! We’ll cover you!”

  Trusting that I would have somewhere safe to end up, I angled my sprint towards the lizardman shoving past a pair of a Revenants in my way and sending them staggering to the side. As I ran towards safety, I saw the familiar figures of Freya, Cadmus and Myr race past me, the three of them headed in the opposite direction as they continued to press the attack forward, passing by me in a blur.

  Crossing the final distance to safety, I arrived just in time to see Helix obliterate a Revenant’s head with his axe, then kick the now twice dead creature to the ground where it lay still for good. Beside him, I saw Abaddon and Thorne in the process of finishing off two other Revenants, their pair clearly eager to rush forward. I had barely come to a stop before Helix grabbed my arm roughly, his gravelly voice echoing through the air.

  “You need healing,” he said in a tone that wasn’t a question as a wave of energy shot up my arm, causing the burns that I had suffered to fade in intensity. “That’s the best I can do. Theia!”

  Letting go of my arm without another word, he then rushed forward to follow Freya and the others, leaving me momentarily standing by myself until Theia came running from behind Abaddon and Thorne.

  “Oh, Lyrian, what did you do?” she asked, her pale grey eyes widening as she saw me.

  “Got lucky, to be honest,” I replied as the lizardwoman raised a clawed hand to my face and began to channel healing magic into me. “I had to keep them from casting spells at the group, so I convinced them to cast them at me.”

  “That was you—” Theia started to ask before shaking her head in resignation. “Of course, it would be you.”

  “I had to do something,” I protested, just before a deafening wail echoed through the chamber followed by another explosion of magic.

  Spinning away from Theia reflexively, I twisted my body to look back towards the two Specters that I had run away from, a sudden panic gripping my heart. I had been so focused on trying to survive and get to safety that I hadn’t even given them a second thought after I’d managed to escape.

  But to my relief instead of the two Specters continuing their rampage, I saw that a handful of group members had finally managed to a clear a path through the Revenants and made it into melee range, their attacks causing the two spirits to howl in pain.

  “Stop moving!” Theia shouted as she grabbed hold of me before I could run off and sent one large surge of healing energy into me. “There! Now you can go break yourself again!”

  “Thanks, Theia!” I called out to the lizardwoman before charging back into the battle, this time not having to deal with any Revenants in the process. In the time that it had taken for me to be healed, Freya, Helix and the others had managed to advance, using their numbers to quickly cut through the handful of undead in their way.

  As I ran to rejoin the fight, I focused my attention on the Specter closest to me, just in time to see Freya slash the edge of her spear through one of the spirits before her, the weapon causing a momentary
stream of magic to bleed out from it before the temporary wound sealed itself. The Specter flinched from under the attack and lifted a clawed hand to strike at the blonde-haired warrior, only to howl in pain as Lazarus’s translucent greatsword interrupted the motion and swept through the spirit’s center mass.

  Falling in line at Freya’s side, I could visibly see that the Specter before me had weakened since I last saw it, appearing more and more translucent as the magic keeping it alive seeped out of it. Not waiting for an invitation to join the fight, I stabbed out with Splinter, simultaneously sending a Shocking Touch into the blade, the Ætherwarped Oak that I had crafted the weapon from easily conducting the magical energy.

  Once again, there was barely any resistance as my weapon passed into the Specter, a flare of magic marking the spot where it pierced into the spirit. Dragging Splinter to the side, I widened the spectral wound that I had inflicted, this time activating my Mana Leech ability and instantly feeling a stream of cool energy travel up my arm as magic began to spill out from the Specter’s body.

  I was right! I can drain mana through Splinter! I thought with excitement, seeing the Specter recoil from the barrage of attacks and attempt to glide away from us, seeking safety closer to its twin, whom I noticed was being similarly pressed by Drace, Constantine and Sawyer.

  “It’s weakening!” Lazarus’s voice shouted as he led the charge to follow the retreating spirit, his large blade sweeping out to carve another line through the Specter’s form.

  Rushing forward, we began to encircle the two spirits as they desperately fought back to back, abandoning their earlier magical attacks in favor of wicked swipes with their spectral claws that left searing internal wounds despite not breaking flesh. But for all their intensity, they gradually began to falter as spells eventually reached out to slam into them as the mages, and the rest of our melee fighters joined the fight, the Revenants that they had summoned now a shattered mass of bone and broken armor lying lifeless on the ground.