by Sarah Lin
As Raigar began to hurl spells at him, Bloodwraith calmly evaded and waited for his chance. He'd been analyzing their first struggle in the stands and thought he knew the correct strategy. The biggest obstacle was that his opponent had effectively infinite mana, while Bloodwraith had only 12 remaining, according to the boxes. Four weaker attacks or two stronger ones.
That would be enough. Because while Raigar had taken to throwing spells easily enough, he still thought like a brute warrior. Overwhelming his opponents with sheer force had always been his strategy, even in his past life. No doubt it came from being an Outsider and seeing the world through endless boxes. He increased his numbers until they were bigger than his opponents' numbers, then he won.
Such simple fighting would not serve him well in the body of a lich. Bloodwraith saw an opening and released his first burst of force. It clipped Raigar's shoulder, throwing him off balance, and in that time Bloodwraith lunged forward and hit one of his arms.
Immediately Raigar retaliated with fireballs, as he always did when he panicked. Bloodwraith simply dodged to the side and back, observing that the arm had been disabled. Good, that was what he needed. He kept dodging, letting Raigar fall back into his usual patterns, then he struck in truth.
He swept his sword through the air, releasing an empowered slash. The force swept through the sand directly toward Raigar, who bellowed and sent a fireball against it. Both spells met in midair and the fireball overwhelmed his force, but that wasn't the point.
While the flames still flickered in the air, Bloodwraith used the last of his mana to send a burst of force into the sand in front of Raigar. It scattered upward, hitting him in the face hard enough to send him staggering back.
More importantly, it blinded him. Bloodwraith lunged forward, dodging the predictable wild attacks, and drove his sword into Raigar's chest.
That wasn't enough to kill him, of course, and he had no intention of doing so. Instead Bloodwraith pinned his opponent to the sands below and put a boot down on his neck. Finally, he'd recaptured his real body. If he could combine the power he'd gained from the boxes with everything he'd had before, that would b-
"Fuck you!" Force crackled up from Raigar's body and Bloodwraith let out a scream as the necromantic energy coursed through him.
His body convulsed violently and he collapsed backward. Even as he fell, he realized what had been cast on him: a life-draining spell. Though Raigar had shown no sign of using it before, either he'd been holding back or he'd figured it out just now. It was the perfect spell to use against an opponent that relied on physical force and Bloodwraith found himself on his back, gasping for breath as his muscles twitched involuntarily.
"Totally fractured spell." Raigar grinned as he got to his feet, filled with new strength. He reached down and grabbed Bloodwraith by the neck, lifting him into the air. "Alright, now I just have to figure out how to get you out of that body. Hmm, where's that artifact?"
He began fumbling in his robes, but they were both distracted by a loud cry. In the center of the arena, the undead ogre crashed into the sands, one of its legs broken. Danniah seemed to have dealt the blow, but she couldn't retreat fast enough.
One of the ogre's paws closed around her, tripping her to the ground. She struggled to get her shield into position as the ogre raised its other fist and drove it down toward her.
Without warning, Izilthor let out a screech and leapt onto the ogre's arm. Not only did its blade stab out over and over, Izilthor bit down into the ogre's flesh, tearing away a large portion of it. The ogre let out a loud cry and let Danniah go, instead reaching up to grasp Izilthor and tear the smaller undead off its arm.
Then it gripped with both hands and tore Izilthor in half.
"No!" Danniah let out a cry of rage and threw herself at the ogre. Her shield smashed into its head with such force that the beast's skull slammed back into the sands. She leapt on top, gripped her shield in both hands, and rammed it down into the ogre's neck, over and over again. It thrashed and tried to swipe at her, but she managed to avoid the clumsy blows and kept striking in a furious rage.
"Huh, she's tough." Raigar watched with an odd expression on his face. "Friend of yours? I'll be sure to make her into an undead after we kill her, so she can serve me forever."
Instead of taunting, Bloodwraith struck his opponent's arm hard enough that he heard the bones break. Not a disabling blow, against a lich, but enough that Raigar's grip loosened. Bloodwraith grabbed his sword and tugged it from his opponent's chest, then retreated to a safe distance as Raigar unleashed another wild rush of fireballs.
Yet when Bloodwraith tried to play the same game as before, he found himself faltering. Drained by the spell and weakened by injuries, his body couldn't respond as quickly. He tried to drink one of his potions, but dropped it as Raigar intensified his attack.
Worse than that, Raigar had learned from his mistakes. He'd used the drained life to restore his damaged arm, now holding it with a spell in reserve while he attacked relentlessly with the other. Bloodwraith found himself staggering in the shockwave of another fireball and realized that it was impossible.
When he had been at his best against a naive opponent, he had been able to bridge the raw gap in power between them. But now the gulf between them was simply too wide. If he had ended it earlier...
A necromantic ray speared through his chest and Bloodwraith dropped with a cry of pain. Raigar immediately rushed forward, grabbing him by the neck again and lifting him into the air, so Bloodwraith tried his last strategy:
Grabbing the Scepter of Annihilation.
Yet his hands had barely touched it before another life-draining spell ripped through him. Bloodwraith tried to keep struggling, yet his body sagged. He hurt everywhere and he just had nothing left. Desperately he pulled up his own box, hoping that it would offer some hope.
[Health: 16/201
Mana: 1/24
Weapon Mana: 0/6
Stamina: 0/142]
There was simply nothing left. Raigar grinned at him. "If I could see your life bar, I'd bet it just has a tiny little sliver left, huh? You did pretty good, but in the end you're just an En Pee Sea. This world is mine, not yours."
He then began to fumble for another artifact in his robes and Bloodwraith knew that would be the end of it. The worst part of it all was that this was his fault. It had been his own arrogance that made him try to capture his opponent instead of destroying him when he had the chance.
Raigar might be a single-minded fool, but that was also his strength. Bloodwraith had split his energy between multiple goals, trying to have everything. In the end, it wasn't his opponent's strength that had defeated him, but his own mental weakness. As he hung there from his opponent's hand, Bloodwraith mentally begged Meara and Danniah for forgiveness.
A bolt of lightning sheared through the air between them.
Suddenly Bloodwraith was collapsing into the sand, too drained even to catch himself. But he could still move his eyes, so he sought out the source of the bolt. It had come from higher in the stands, near the three raised chambers.
Within the left-most, he saw Gharavi, but she had transformed. Instead of barbarian rags, she wore black leather armor. As he watched, she lifted her axe from her back, and it shifted as it moved. The blades came together as she raised it oddly, propping the base of the handle against her shoulder and aiming the head of the axe forward.
As she sighted along it, Bloodwraith realized the truth. Not an axe, a staff.
Another bolt of lightning crackled out, this one even more intense. It would have torn through most fighters, but in his current body Raigar managed to endure it. "What the fuck?" He pulled out the Scepter of Annihilation and released a blast toward her position, but Gharavi was already gone.
Just as Raigar started to turn back toward him, holy magic closed in on them. It still set Bloodwraith's teeth on edge, but he was no longer undead and it did him no harm. Raigar let out a cry and clawed at himself, trying to tear a
way the binding magic but failing.
If he had been capable of using his body's full strength, he could have broken the spell in several ways, but brute force wouldn't be enough. Another ring of power descended on them, binding him further in place. Bloodwraith was still exhausted but managed to push himself up and saw that several mages and priests had arrived, adding to the spells.
They focused their efforts on the arm that held the scepter, preventing Raigar from using it again. But they couldn't do enough to stop him from reaching deeper into his robes. He pulled out a gem that glinted darkly and Bloodwraith braced himself for a new weapon, but instead of using it immediately, Raigar turned to him and grinned mockingly.
"Fine, you win today. But now you know that you don't have a chance against me. One day I'll be back and I'll take what I want."
After that he crushed the gem, releasing a surge of magic. It went straight through the binding spells, spreading to touch every undead in the arena. A moment later they all vanished, slipping away in a complex teleportation spell. There was no way of knowing where they had gone, but Bloodwraith was sure that they had retreated to a safe distance where they could recuperate and plan another attack.
Surviving guards and adventurers all around the arena let out a cheer, but there was no victory. What little strength Bloodwraith had regained gave out and he fell face-first into the sand. Only shame and defeat waited for him in the darkness of unconsciousness.
Chapter 15
Bloodwraith slowly became aware of the darkness. He thought his eyes were closed, but he was too weary to open them or even summon a box to determine his current condition. His entire body ached, though it felt as though he had received magical healing. Then his physical condition was probably fine, he was just still recovering from the life draining spells.
Gradually he realized that he was lying in a soft bed. It was so comfortable that he could have just stayed there, but then he remembered all the horrible memories from the battle. That made rest impossible, so he forced his eyes open.
He lay in a small room that wasn't their inn. Meara sat on the side of the bed and noticed the instant he opened his eyes. She met his gaze and her face transformed from sadness to relief.
"Mea..." His voice rasped and failed. Meara put a finger to his lips.
"You still have a lot of recovery to do." She flicked her wrist and a potion appeared in her hand. He was too tired to take it, so he just stared at it.
[Failed Potion
An improperly brewed potion.
Unassigned Stamina: G
Combat Skills: 7 silvers]
She held the glass to his lips and helped him drink. Though the potion would no doubt have had a negative effect on most, for him he began to feel better the moment he tasted it. As he finished drinking, Meara spoke softly.
"I'm so sorry... I'm supposed to be your ally, yet there was almost nothing I could do..."
"No." Bloodwraith struggled to sit up and meet her gaze directly. "No, I'm the one who needs to apologize. I couldn't fully commit to defeating him because I wanted my old body. If I had been more decisive..."
"We can all forgive you for that, this time." Meara touched his forehead gently and pushed him back against his pillow. "But if Raigar has weapons of such power, we can't afford to be uncertain again. The next time we face him, you'd better know exactly what you want."
He nodded, but the truth was that he was still uncertain. Life had seemed clear enough before, when his goal was to regain his necromancy in his adventurer's body and establish a new sort of life with Meara and Danniah. But the idea of regaining his old body and power... it was a temptation he hadn't known existed before and he found himself in turmoil.
But regardless of that, he still had other concerns. "Is Danniah okay?"
"She's fine. In fact, she'll be overjoyed to see you." Meara smiled and rose from the bed, heading through the small door.
Where exactly were they, anyway? It didn't look like an inn room, more like a small bedroom of a well-off family's house. He found himself wondering what the city of Manascas had decided to do and how the rest of the aftermath had gone, but those thoughts were interrupted when Danniah rushed into the room.
"Bloodwraith!" She dove into the bed and threw her arms around his neck. He could feel her tears against his chest and raised a hand to rub her back. "I was so worried about you... the priests said there was too much death energy and you stayed unconscious..."
"Don't worry, Danniah. I'm used to death energy." He kept stroking her back, but looked up to Meara. "What about Izilthor?"
Meara smiled and left the room again. To his surprise, Danniah let out a choked giggle. She pushed back off his chest enough to look at him. "He's fine. That part is actually kind of funny. When I saw the ogre tear him apart I was so upset and I attacked it in a rage. But... well, I didn't know that getting torn in half isn't that big a deal for a skeleton. I guess I should have known, since he was just a skull before."
At that moment Meara returned, bearing the upper half of Izilthor. The skeleton wriggled in her arms and then lunged at him as well, wrapping its arm bones around his neck. "Dada!"
Though he still wasn't pleased about that development, Bloodwraith was glad to see that Izilthor was okay, so he patted it on the back of the spine. Meanwhile, Meara smirked at the odd trio. "It was actually funnier than she described. In the aftermath of the battle, there were a ton of people torn apart in the center of the arena. The only person left there was Danniah, sitting on the ogre's corpse, holding a skeleton and screaming."
Danniah flushed. "I thought Izzy was dead, okay? It's not my fault everyone thinks I'm crazy..."
Bloodwraith chuckled as he imagined what that would have done for her reputation, but he had a different question. "Why did you think it was dead? Shouldn't Izilthor have told you it was still functioning?"
Izilthor drew itself up proudly. "Play dead!"
"That's right." Danniah smiled and patted the skeleton on the skull. "It was rough on me, but that was the right choice. After Raigar ran away, only the broken undead remained, so Izzy had to pretend to be broken too. There were a lot of people moving around - priests and guards and adventurers - so things were really tense for a moment there."
"Play." Izilthor made its eyes fade out, but then made a flickering wink.
"You're actually a bit of a hero," Meara said. "Not a 'meet the Governor' hero, but some of the guards said they'd buy you a drink if you recovered."
Feeling slightly better now that he knew his failure hadn't cost him anyone else, Bloodwraith sat up in bed with new focus. "Tell me the current situation. Where are we now? No, more importantly, has there been any sign of Raigar since the fight?"
"No Raigar at all. We were offered lodging at the arena, but I found a more hidden place for us instead. I was thinking that Raigar might come back and look for us, plus there are a lot of forces going around, asking questions. Right now everything is in chaos, but eventually someone will wonder why you got attacked first. Figured you'd want to avoid that."
"Indeed. Well done." Part of him wanted to sink back into despair, but with Danniah looking at him hopefully and Izilthor still clinging to his neck, he couldn't let himself do that. Adding another failure would do nothing to erase the first. "As I see it, Raigar is a serious threat on his own, but that threat is multiplied by the fact that he has possession of powerful artifacts."
Danniah nodded and frowned. "Where do you think he got all those? Everybody was talking about how that wand thing he used was more powerful than anything they'd ever seen before."
"I think he must have collected them during his first life and stored them for his second. Exactly why, I don't know. But the biggest threat from them isn't raw power, but utility. Just having my old body gives him plenty of destructive power, but the ability to teleport and potentially do many other unexpected things renders him truly dangerous."
"So... what do we do?"
"I'm not sure. But we start by re
covering fully and gathering information to plan our next move."
The room outside his bedroom was a small kitchen, confirming that they were in a house. Meara left to find food, leaving him to monitor himself for a time. According to his box, he must have been awarded around 30,000 EXP for the battle in his sleep, because he currently sat at [64,056/86,400]. That meant Level 12 wasn't so far away, close enough that several more simple quests could get him there.
Not that he was likely to get a chance. And what did one more Level matter, facing an opponent like that? Before Bloodwraith could slide into gloom again, Meara returned with a mountain of food. His body immediately communicated his hunger loudly, so they set to work.
He tore through mountains of meat, eggs, and fruit without slowing down. Meara left them to it, of course, and Danniah ate nearly as fast as he did. Izilthor was propped up on another chair and chewed on a piece of meat before making a sad rasping sound and spitting it back out.
Just filling his stomach did wonders for his mood - fleshly bodies could be so inconsistent when it came to such things. But he wasn't about to let that stop him, since his mind had been working on potential solutions. What he needed was less power than new capacities, but which ones he would need depended entirely on how the situation developed.
Before he could begin speaking, something released a booming sound overhead. He thought it was an explosion at first, but it transformed into rolling thunder. They rushed outside to see what it was, and by the time they got out, they saw the giant figure forming in the sky and thundering out words.
"People of Manascas!" The enormous ghostly Raigar glared down over the city as if he could crush it with one hand. "I have no problem with you! But if you stand in my way, you will feel my wrath!"
An explosion sounded from near the center of town. They couldn't see anything of it from their position, but Bloodwraith could guess what it was: a single undead with an explosive spell, destroying a significant building to send a message. Clearly, Raigar did not have the patience to search for them, so he was turning to coercive terror.
