Chapter 29 - Passing Grade

"Shit!" Ryan cursed

He couldn't help it, he was in a tight spot. His back was to the icy pond, to his front were his five zombies. They were the only things between him and a gaggle of goblins. Were a group of goblins called a gaggle? Or was it something else? He didn't know, he shook his head. Why was he thinking of such trivial things at a time like this?

Regaining his clarity, he focused on the situation. There were twenty or so goblins closing in on him, their sizes varied. Some were taller and bulkier than others, they were leading the way, holding large clubs with spikes sticking out. Behind the wall of larger than average goblins were goblin archers. They were holding short bows and had quivers full of arrows slung over their shoulders.

Where did they even get bows and arrows? There were no trees, only mushrooms. An arrow flew through the air, striking the zombie holding a large sword. He only jerked slightly, barely reacting at all. This brought Ryan out of his odd train of thought.

Ryan quickly ordered four of his followers forward, he wanted to intercept the larger ones, hoping to slow them down. He kept one behind, positioning it in front of him to soak up any arrows that might be fired in his direction. He pulled out his copy of the necronomicon and began to furiously flip through the pages.

The four zombie goblins rushed forward with fluid movements. If he didn't know better, Ryan would have never guessed they were already dead. Professor Kal had told him that the sooner you reanimate a corpse, the more movement they would retain. This was because rigor mortis had yet to set in, keeping the function of the muscles the same as they were before death.

The zombie with the long sword swung hard, aiming for a tall goblin holding a wooden club. Expecting such a simple attack, the goblin blocked the swing with his club. The sword cut four inches deep due to the impact, getting stuck inside the wood. Thinking that its opponent would try to wrench the sword free, the goblin held on to its club with both hands.

In the zombie's simple mind it had seen that its weapon had become useless. Instead of trying to free it to be used again, it simply let go, opting to use its claws as a weapon instead. Being taken by surprise, the goblin couldn't react in time. The zombie pounced on it, rending flesh with its claws and biting deep with its yellow teeth.

Meanwhile, its three comrades were battling as well. They held much smaller weapons, only simple daggers. This allowed them to be much more maneuverable than their foes. They got in close, slashing and stabbing at anything that was alive. The only downside to using zombies was the fact that they were much too stupid to use even the simplest of strategies, not even smart enough to block incoming attacks. They sustained many injuries in the process of fighting.

The four zombies that went forward were now only down to three. They had managed to kill five goblins, and were still fighting. One was missing an arm, the other's head was smashed in, but luckily its brain wasn't too damaged. The last one was still in good fighting condition, it was causing havoc in the middle of the front line fighters, trying to get to the archers.

Ryan was hiding behind his shield that looked much like a pincushion at the moment. Arrows were continuously raining down all around him, some even grazing his robe tearing patches out of it. He'd managed to find a spell that could work on groups of enemies, he just had to time it right. He would cast it when the archers had to knock their arrows, giving him enough time to chant the incantation.

Seeing his chance, he began reciting the chant before stepping out from behind his shield and pointing his index finger at the goblins only twenty feet away. Black lighting shot out from the tip of his finger, zig zagging through the air before striking the first goblin. It seized up, its muscles contracting all at once. Before it could fall to the ground in convulsions, the black lightning leapt from its body and into two more goblins.

An ozone smell spread over the small battlefield. Black smoke could be seen rising from the goblins body. The once green skin was now black and charred where the dark bolt entered and exited its body. This pattern happened once more, in total, seven goblins fell to the Shadow Bolt spell Ryan had cast.

He was ecstatic, the spell was much more powerful than he could have hoped for. He was starting to feel hope for the first time since the start of the battle. Although he had only been fighting for a few minutes, he felt as if it had been hours. The hope was short lived though, the final three zombies had finally been killed, leaving only himself and one lonely zombie.

There were only six goblins left. The Shadow Bolt, combined with his zombie's efforts, had killed fifteen of them. The six remaining goblins showed no signs of retreating, they stopped running but were still slowly approaching him. They seemed to be slightly more cautious than they were before, but still had only one thought on their minds.

Ryan pointed his finger once more at the approaching goblins, chanting the Shadow Bolt spell. A sudden wave of fatigue washed over him, bringing him down to one knee. He very nearly fainted, he was out of mana. Suffering from mana exhaustion in the middle of battle was the most dangerous situation a mage could be in. It not only prevented them from being able to cast spells, it also affected their physical bodies, preventing them from even running away.

Now on his hands and knees, Ryan punched the muddy ground out of anger. He swore to all the gods above that should he survive, he was going to kill Professor Kal. That bastard had left him to die here, just like when they first arrived. This wasn't training him to be a necromancer, this was actively trying to kill him. How could anyone in their right mind think that this was the proper way to teach someone?

His last zombie stumbled forward, the arrows making it difficult for it to walk properly. It reached out with empty hands, trying to latch on to an enemy. The six goblins worked together to quickly kill the zombie, staying just out of reach before smacking it with their spiked clubs. Goblins might have been stupid, but they could instinctively tell that what they had killed was already dead and shouldn't be eaten. Their real prey was the young man that was still trying desperately to stand.

Finally managing to get to his feet, Ryan back stepped towards the pond. There was no other place to go. The six goblins had fanned out, cutting off any routes that he could use. His breathing was ragged from the side effects of mana exhaustion, his head spun, it was hard for him to focus on the goblins in front of him. He took another step back, feeling the icy cold water rush over his boot, engulfing his leg up to his knee.

He felt something slide past his leg, it was hard to see what it was in the dark waters of the pond. He could tell from what little light there was that it was big. As it broke through the surface of the water he could get a better view of it. The goblins stopped their advance, they noticed the unknown creature as well.

Ryan's skin crawled as he looked upon the worm-like monster. It was over ten feet long and as thick as a tree trunk. It didn't have scales, it was covered in slimy black skin, similar to an earthworm's. It slithered and coiled in front of him, he couldn't tell which end was its head. Now the goblins took a few steps back, their instincts screaming at them to run away.

The first goblin turned to run, dropping his club in order to run faster. The giant worm moved with lightning speed, catching and coiling around the goblin. What must have been its head split open like a blooming flower, revealing a blood red beak. Tentacles surrounded the beak, acting like limbs as they writhed in the air. The goblin let out a shriek of fear before the worm monster clamped down on its head, killing it instantly.

Everyone was frozen in fear, the goblins and Ryan alike. Too scared to move, they all opted to stay perfectly still. Unfortunately, the worm monster had a mission to accomplish. It struck forward once more, latching onto another goblin. It tore it limb from limb, using its beak and tentacles to disassemble it in the blink of an eye.

Blood stained the already damp ground, bleeding into the black waters of the pond. Goblins ran around frantically, striking out at the worm monster the best they could. The worm monster's skin looked soft, but was actually as hard as steel. The blows just glanced off, leaving the monster unharmed.

Soon, there were only the mangled corpses of the goblins that remained, with the worm monster right in the middle of the carnage. Ryan hadn't moved a muscle since the monster's arrival. He couldn't even run away from the goblins, how could he expect to run from such a creature as this. It turned to look at him, at least it turned its head towards him. Ryan couldn't see any eyes, so he wasn't sure if it could really see.

It slithered slowly towards him making squelching sounds as its body moved through the bloody mud. With tentacles waving in the air, it raised its head off the ground, level with Ryan's chest. Ryan squeezed his eyes shut, holding his breath. He was preparing for the pain the moment the monster dug its beak into his body. Instead, he was met with a strange sensation.

The monster's tentacles were caressing his body, gently touching him all over. He opened his eyes to see it rubbing its head against him lovingly like a dog or a cat. It was disgusting. Slime was coating his robe in a thick layer, dripping down and splashing in the water. He nearly gagged from the texture of the monster's skin touching his hand as it nudged him to pet it.

"It seems to have taken a liking to you."

A voice coming from nowhere made Ryan nearly jump out of his skin. He looked over to see Professor Kal standing there, off to the side, with his hands behind his back.

"You son of a bitch!" Ryan yelled out in ire, his voice cracking.

The worm monster recoiled from the sudden outburst, but quickly continued to love on him. Professor Kal started laughing, both at Ryan's anger and the fact he was being slathered in slime. This just made him even angrier, causing Ryan to storm off around the pond, the worm monster slithering behind him.

"You passed if you even care.. I was quite impressed by the Shadow Bolt you pulled off!" Professor Kal yelled out in between bouts of laughter, watching as his student marched off in the wrong direction with a worm monster in tow.