Hunt for the Necromancer- The Complete Series, page 13
part #1 of Hunt for the Necromancer Series
“This was our last arrow!” The guard who shot it yelled, a grievous look on his face. “I’m sorry we couldn’t be of much help!”
“Thank you!” I voiced breathy, the straining activity robbing me of stamina, even though I had plenty. Punishment was about to reach its end and I pushed on one last time, trying to hit as many wolves in those last seconds as I could. I slashed as a newbie, desperate to hit as many as I could, piles and piles of carcasses as my level went up.
My skill time ended as I whirled around, watching the last set of wolves. One of them was particularly nasty - a wolf boss? It was definitely larger than the rest, long fangs glistening with spit by the firelight. My heart was on my throat and I tried to swallow it down, stepping back slowly as I watched their movements.
As I moved around, my stamina recovered a bit, but overall I was alright. I actually managed to kill almost an entire pack by myself, and I hadn’t used any health potion. The levels I gained before so I could take on Faye without taking damage were handy now and I relaxed as I studied the wolf boss and it studied me back. I couldn’t wait for Punishment to be ready to use again…
It flexed its hind legs, preparing to jump on me when I remembered I didn’t have only one skill - I had two now, and Holy Strike had been waiting for me to use it. I ducked the first attack, quickly motioning with my hand to open the menu and blindingly going for the skill.
A pillar of light deals 250% damage that passes through defense, cooldown of five minutes
This was going to fucking save me.
The starking white light exploded in front of my face, forcing my eyes shut. An astonishing sound reverberated in my ears as the light seemed to burn the grass under my feet for a moment. I covered my eyes with a hand, trying to look up to where the pillar came from, just to see it descending directly from the dark sky as if a god sent it.
Gone a moment later, it left no sign of it ever existing - no burnt ground or smoke, at least. The two wolves that flanked the boss lay dead by each of its sides. The boss seemed confused as it shook its huge head from side to side.
I grinned, taking my chance and stepping up with my sword risen skyward.
The wolf still needed another couple of slashes and it managed to dodge one of them. But I was incredibly lucky - the pillar seemed to have effectively left it confused for a moment. It had almost been an one hit KO. I watched the huge, gray body drop with a thud. Its death gave more experience than the others, so I believed I was right about it being a boss. I turned to the group of elves with a smile, anxious to sit down and rest for some minutes.
I expected a range of emotions across their faces - happiness and relief and gratitude - but not fear. Not the desperation I met when I turned to look at them.
“What’s wrong?” I called, looking over my shoulder but without seeing much beyond the ring of light the lanterns made.
“Can’t you hear that?” One of the women said, taking a step back. Their glances fixed somewhere in the distance and I turned, squinting but finding only darkness. I also couldn’t hear a thing.
Damn elves. Obviously, I wasn’t hearing nor seeing as they did.
As I unlocked my jaw to ask her what the hell was she hearing, the sound reached me too - a long, spine-chilling howl. And it was not far away.
“The fuck-” I speedily opened the menu, taking a potion and re-filling the health bar. “Where the fuck are these wolves coming from?”
“I can’t say where, but I do know why,” the archer who saved me spat, a frown on his face. I frowned back, confused, to what he rolled his eyes. “A pillar of light in a night as dark as this? You pinpointed our location to anyone who wants to come and kill us all.”
Some others muttered their compliances. Fuck. Did I just doom all these people to death? I did lit a beacon of light but I had no idea there could have been more wolves - I mean, I must’ve killed some twenty of them. That’s a shit-ton of wolves!
There was even a boss!
Why the hell would the boss come to attack me if there were more wolves in their, I don’t know, lair? I was fucking frustrated, from hero to zero in a single action.
But if it was my fault, I had to make it right again. Even if none of my skills were ready yet. I had some potions, and they’d have to do.
So I breathed in, clenching my jaw and raising my sword. I activated another experience boost potion.
“Run!” I roared. “I’ll hold them back as long as I live.”
I heard a good number of footsteps rustling as they turned around and ran. One pair of steps moved in on me. “Are you sure? You won’t survive long,” it was the archer. The one that saved me then crushed me. His opinions about me seemed easily swayed.
“I probably won’t,” I crooked a smile to him. “So you better run fast.”
He still seemed to think for a moment, but eventually turned and ran with the others. I watched the timer of my skills’ cooldown, hoping they’d run faster. I didn’t know how many foes there were and if they’d be harder than the previous ones, and even if it was a game, I feared the idea of dying.
The sound of a large number of paws hitting dirt and grass drifted to my ears, and I swallowed the knot on my throat. There was nothing else I could do but hope I would come back to life in a close-by save point. Hope the wolves would keep themselves entertained with destroying me and leave the elves for long enough so they’d reach the woods. But of one thing I was sure.
I wasn’t going down without a fight.
2
I knew I was fucked from the beginning, but it still made me grit my teeth when I used the last potion.
Wolves upon wolves attacked me. I slashed and stabbed and dodged and ran, but the number of wolves didn’t diminish. To every fucking over-sized Husky I killed, another showed up from down the road, as if by magic. I cursed the game, sure it was written in the code that today was the day I was going down, one way or another.
Glad their bites didn’t hurt, I gasped, out of stamina for some time already. My tentative dodges were a joke. I was about to fall to my knees and let them finish me, ripping my members apart, when Punishment was ready to use again.
Filling my lungs, I let out a yell, activating the skill as a last resort. I spun, sword in hand, hitting some three wolves at the same time. I went on moving like so, stepping forward slowly as I swung my blade, feeling the bites on the back of my shins before slicing the attacker’s throat. Those were the most glorious sixty seconds of my game. I fought with everything I got, even if it was not much. I pushed on until the last wolf.
Breathing hard, I stared at him, barely able to hold my sword. Though there was no sense of pain, my muscles were strained, and the sword seemed to have become heavier somehow. The wolf blinked red eyes at me for a moment, opening its jaw as if it smirked at me.
Motherfucking cocky wolf. It was freaking smirking at me!
It lunged, and I pulled my sword up to cut through it - but I couldn’t. The blade was too heavy. Huge jaws snapped over my face, the amazing weight knocking me down. The hot breath hit me, spit covering my face. As I fell, the sword tipped up and the wolf got stabbed with it through a side, but just barely. Enough to let my head go at least. I rolled away and over the sword, then tried to pull it up to attack the beast.
But I couldn’t. I couldn’t pull myself to my feet. I wasn’t sure I could roll away again if I needed to. Swiping my hand in the air, I checked my health - I dropped lower than 15%. It was somewhere around ten. I was dead. But I wasn’t surprised.
My heart punched against my ribs anyway as I pulled on the sword again, clenching my teeth and groaning to amass every ounce of strength I still had left in my body. It wasn’t much though and the sword didn’t move. The wolf rose to its feet, slowly pacing to me, another stupid smirk over its furry face.
I was pressing my jaw shut, promising myself I wouldn’t cry out.
Something then, fast as lighting, jumped from the shadows over the wolf. The two rolled off and away from my field of vision, and I heard the wolf yelp twice.
Then there was silence.
Letting myself drop to the floor, gasping for air and thanking the game entities for saving me on the last minute, I looked up. The night sky was awfully weird, I noticed. From the dark purple to pitch black, as if I looked into nothingness. The few stars I noticed before disappeared.
Or was it how you died in-game?
If that was the case, it was a good death. I contemplated the options while my savior approached me. A piece of my foggy mind hoped it would be another hot chick. My muscles were so fucking strained I’d love a massage now.
But the face that gawked at me from above had a hard, stubbed jaw. I groaned, frustrated.
“Are you in pain?” He said, kneeling by my side and pulling something from I-don’t-want-to-know-where. He balanced a potion between his fingers. “It’s a healing potion. Would you like it?”
I nodded, recognizing the color. I had not many options there too. Even after I recovered stamina, my health bar wasn’t going to fill itself up. I’d have to go to a city - the nearest was probably Firesse, but I wasn’t about to risk being eaten again. The only option would be to trek all the way back to Averly.
The stranger handed me the potion and I used it immediately, smiling at my once-more-filled health bar. The stranger smiled back, thinking it was for him. I cleared my throat, feeling guilty. “Thanks, man. I really needed that.”
“Yeah…” He helped me sit, his eyes glanced around the field. It was littered with dead wolves. “But fuck, you hanged on alright. It would’ve been shitty if you died on the last one.” He sat back, twisting his lip up. “I’m Zev. I live in the nearby woods. I came as soon as I saw the pillar of light.”
I rose my brows. So the game wasn’t fucking with me at all? I did wonder why the hell would they give me a skill I couldn’t use as soon as possible. And well… I did level up twice. “That’s surprising. I thought it only brought more wolves,” I started, pausing a hand on the floor to stand up. Zev helped me, then turned around to walk towards the flipped wagon.
“Well, you’re not wrong,” he chortled. “It definitely brought more wolves. I’ve never seen this many together.”
As he approached the fire of the lanterns, I could clearly see him, and I couldn’t help my surprise. He was definitely some kind of crossing between man and wolf, and I had to bite back the urge to ask him which of his parents fucked a wolf.
Zev was clad in what I couldn’t describe in any other way than a piece of fur. It looked like a skirt, but it was clearly just a piece of fur tied around his hips. He wore boots to his knees, hemmed with fur of the same brownish color, and his torso held a nice dark breastplate (lined with fur on his shoulders) that made me green with envy. Though his armor definitely had seen better days, it still looked stronger than mine. I wondered if I would’ve survived by myself if I had one of that on. Zev’s hair was dark, falling to the sides of his face in a somewhat tousled look. He sported pointed ears as the elves, but what gave it away were the pair of fangs protruding under his lips and, well, the tail. The tail was a dead giveaway.
He turned and I tried diverting my eyes but wasn’t fast enough. He stepped back toward me, laughter dancing on his lips as he carried a lantern. “Never seen a Lycan?” I shook my head. “That doesn’t surprise me. We’ve been hiding for some time, so we’re easy to miss.”
Pointing at the road, he trod on. Now I could see that there was a place for him to pull the potion from - he carried a pouch on his back, tied around his hips. There was also a short knife, which I believed he used to kill the wolf. Looking back, I watched the countless animals I killed, then looked back at Zev.
Was there any chance that he had… relatives there? He wouldn’t have killed one if he did… Right?
The doubt was possibly written on my face. Crooking an eyebrow, Zev strained his lips, clearly holding back a smile. “Dude, no. They were not my relatives.”
“Oh, sorry.” I laughed, sheathing my sword as I nonchalantly tried to look for the road ahead. “So you live in Firesse?”
Zev twisted his mouth. “I did. The town has been taken. As I said, we’ve been living in the woods these days and there’s not much reason for us to leave it. That’s why I was surprised to see that pillar. We haven’t seen anyone using the road for years. Besides the wolves, of course.”
“I see,” I trailed off, looking at the still-there quest that told me I had to go to Firesse. I definitely couldn’t enter a place that was taken by wolves without potions. “So… Do you think you have any more of those potions back at your city? I actually need to get to Firesse.”
He snickered. “Didn’t you hear what I said? It’s taken, man. By wolves just like those ones you killed. What business would you have with them?”
We walked up to a small hill, following the road. Looking back, I could savor the impressiveness of the number of wolves dead on the field. From this advantage point, I could also see that, by a side of the road ahead, there was a small group of pines.
“I’m hunting the servants of the Necromancer and making them my own.” It was strangely powerful to say that aloud. “I believe there’s one in Firesse.”
Zev’s brows shot up as he gave me a once-over. “You’re hunting them?”
I nodded, suddenly irritated with him for doubting my skill. “I already freed Glennhaven and Averly. If I hadn’t used that pillar, I’d definitely have killed all of those wolves by myself.”
I actually wouldn’t and I knew that. I gulped, feeling stupid for defending my ego when my life was clearly saved by this half-man, half-wolf guy.
“You freed Averly? From the Queen?” He cocked a brow, but a smile stretched his lips a moment later. “That’s why there were elves on the road! Man, you’re freaking strong!” He palmed my shoulder, laughing before he started out of the road. “Come! I’m nowhere near as strong as you are, but I think we can help you out.” I watched him for a moment before he looked at me over his shoulder. “Besides… you’re not staying behind to see if you can kill more of those wolves, are you?”
I chortled, setting out in a jog after him.
3
Zev guided me down the hill through the side road, the pine trees getting bigger by the moment. He held the lantern by his side, glancing over his shoulder here and there at me. It was clear he expected me to drop dead at any given moment. Even though I knew he was doing it out of the goodness in his heart, it also irritated me profoundly. I just killed two whole wolf packs - yes, I almost died in the process, but I did kill them. Why the hell did he think I wouldn’t manage walking down the hill by myself?
Clenching my jaw to hold any irritation back, I tried to be less of a piece of shit. After so long thinking I was useless, I just managed to start thinking I wasn’t all that bad… but it definitely wasn’t the case of feeling instantaneously superior to others.
“So, Zev…” I started, forcing myself to be nice. “How long have you guys been away from Firesse?”
“Some years already. I want to say three, but I’m not sure anymore… We’d have to ask an elder for the exact date.”
“I heard it’s been around three years since Glennhaven started being attacked by demons too… Guess that’s not a coincidence.”
“It certainly is not. We’ve received news from the attacks to Glennhaven before we had to run. The elves still helped us for a while before their Queen changed sides…” He sighed as we walked down a steep bank, crossing a rivulet and entering the woods. “The only ones still hanging on were the people by Kiran, but now…” He tilted his head up, to where we could still see the black inked sky. “I think even they fell under the Necromancer’s power…”
Following his gaze up the canopies, I wondered if the fact that the sky was so dark in this area meant something to him. It did seem he took it as a sign that things turned for a worse. I blinked up, watching the trees. They were not as tall as the ones by Forest Arden, neither got as close as those ones did. Overall, this one was sparser and I believed the lantern was just used for the sake of the dark night. I cocked my head back down, watching where we were going.
The brownish red barks had claw marks on them. Vertical gashes on the wood, as if the wolves tried to climb them to reach something… or someone. I gulped, snapping my head around to pay attention to any sounds around us. By the way the dried leaves crunched under our feet, I was sure I could hear them if they crossed the forest edge.
We took a turn, walking down another bank. This one was littered in tiny yellow flowers that gave off a pungent, sweet smell. I curled my lip at the stench, watching Zev pull a kind of cloth from his armor and cover his nose with it. We crossed the sea of flowers until we reached a stone landing. Right after it, a gash in the ground opened, possibly few feet deep, and somewhat narrow. I was ready to jump over it and move on when Zev dropped inside the hole.
