Chapter 16: The death of several undead.

Chapter 16: The death of several undead.

After the fight, I focused on my meditation a bit more while I kept my augment active to heal up fully. It was easier to gather mana, now that my muscles also gathered a little passively. Revan played with the bones of the defeated skeleton while he waited. For some reason he couldn't sit still now that we had entered the cave. Perhaps the ambient dark mana invigorated him?

After a few minutes I had gathered myself again, both mentally and physically. I kept my sword at the ready as I advanced deeper into the cave. Revan had decided to do reconnaissance and ran ahead every few minutes to scout out the area. The cave had turned into a standard system of tunnels again, forcing me to head down its premeditated path, which left me feeling like I was walking right into a trap.

I activated my augment and used about 25% of my power output to keep it stable. As long as I was prepared for the inevitable confrontation, I would be able to avoid serious injuries and heal from the rest.

Eventually, Revan returned to me, looking just as agitated as earlier in the day, when he noticed this cave. He had found something. Or someone. I followed him, keeping my footsteps as quiet as I could. After a few steps, Revan stopped, blocking me from advancing as well. He looked down to the rough cave floor and stared at it intently.

I tried to figure out what was scaring him and succeeded after squinting slightly. On the floor was a nigh-invisible line, separating a piece of rock from the rest of the floor. It was a well camouflaged pressure plate, most likely hiding a trap of some kind.

The good news was that we had found it without triggering it, therefore the culprit was still unaware of our presence. The bad news was that there would probably be a number of traps scattered around. I slowly turned my head to stare at Revan. Wasn't he semi-immortal as long as his talisman remained intact?

If Revan could sweat, he probably would have. He was standing over the edge of a pit trap, looking down at a number of stalagmites ready to impale us if we slipped. We were walking along the edge of a wall, with this large pit on our right. There was just enough space for me to put down both feet, but Revan had to claw himself along by climbing the wall to our left, because his feet were planted a little too wide normally.

We had progressed at a slow pace ever since the traps started hindering us, for obvious reasons. So far, Revan had been incinerated by a flame trap, crushed by a boulder and skewered by a spear trap. I felt a little bad for him, but he seemed happy enough when I summoned him again each time, so maybe he didn't really care?

I doubted he was able to feel pain, being undead and all, so that was something at least.Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only

When we reached the other side of the slippery room, I sighed in relief and sent Revan ahead as usual. A few moments later he returned, snapping at the air. I could feel a pulse that meant combat from our bond, and realised he had found some enemies. Well, I needed some levels anyway. They came at the perfect time.

After spending some time recovering mana, I headed forward while sneaking, sword ready. The cave opened up into a mid sized chamber, which was large enough to hold a skeleton or ten comfortably. I knew this, because it did hold ten skeletons. They were just standing there, hunched over slightly, staring at nothing. They didn't appear to be moving at all.

This time, they were armed and armoured with equipment of varying qualities. Most of their equipment looked tier-less, other than one larger skeleton that had a large two handed hammer in his hands. The hammer was shimmering with a light blue colour, signifying an enchantment of some kind. Enchanted weapons were a threat, no matter what the enchantment was, if only because I couldn't know what they would do. I decided to take the biggest threat out early.

I used my shadow apparation to appear behind the hammer-wielding skeleton and swung down, with the intent to destroy it in one blow.

My efforts were thwarted by a blue cover that shimmered into existence right as I was about to strike. It took my augmented blow well, only cracking slightly. Now that I had made that much noise, the element of surprise had been lost. Mentally, I cursed my luck that the enchantment had just so happened to be a shield of some kind. Not wanting to be left in the middle of a pack of skeletons, I spent some more mana to apparate back to the chamber's entrance. From a distance, I could see the skeletons all swinging their weapons at my previous position. Most had the same clumsy, simplistic form as the skeleton at the entrance of the cave, but the hammer wielder seemed to be a little different. He had immediately noticed my disappearance and had started looking for me in the chamber, keeping his guard up in the meantime.

Was this a higher level skeleton? Did it have a skill for hammer wielding? I didn't know much about necromancy, to be honest. It was possible that the necromancer had made this one more powerful, or perhaps this skeleton had been a warrior when he was alive, and that had somehow increased his combat capabilities as an undead.

The enemies soon noticed my new position. The 9 weaker skeletons didn't waste any time and charged at me. I commanded Revan to stay in the backlines and to prepare for the hammer wielder, who had similarly waited a little further away. The inexperienced skeletons continued their charge and swung at me wildly. I backed up a little and parried whatever strikes I could. I didn't dare apparate behind them, because that would allow the stronger skeleton to flank me. Had that been his goal? To limit my mobility? Well, he was in for a surprise, because mobility wasn't my party piece. I started spinning my core a little faster, adding some extra power to my augment. I was still limiting myself, so that I would be able to deal with the hammer wielder. That guy wouldn't expect me to have another trump card anyway.

Some tunnels and a lot of traps later, we arrived near a larger chamber. I could hear people talking in there. The voice of a man was speaking with a child's voice, that was for some reason singing all of its words...

"Rickardo! Where's the tome? Did you steal it again? I need it!"

"One moment master, I believe I have it around here somewhere..."

"Now, Rickardo! Do I look like I want to hear you monologuing?"

"For a man who claims to hate monologues, you sure seem to enjoy your own..."

"Quiet, feathered fool. I was simply practicing my own monologues for when the witch hunters arrive. You can never be too prepared."

I almost couldn't believe it. A necromancer joking around with his compatriot. He had killed and tortured an innumerable amount of people to make skeletons, and he was joking around about monologues? Did he have no conscience at all? Not even an idea of what empathy is supposed to be?

I approached the entrance of the chamber, intending to kill the necromancer with an apparation, but I was out of luck. The moment I stepped through the door to get in range of my target, the room turned red and an alarm blared. There had been no sign of a trigger mechanism. I cursed my luck. This necromancer had been careful and placed runes all over the room.

I could hear his shrill voice as he turned around to face me. On his shoulder sat a small, fat, angelic looking baby with bat wings on its back. A demon.

I summoned Revan again, keeping him hidden behind a boulder, and ordered him to deal with the summoned demon while I dealt with the necromancer. Before we could spring into action, the necromancer spoke.

"Ah, visitors! Finally! I was wondering when you would arrive... Only one person though? Your guild must have underestimated me...Then again, you seem to be dealing with the high concentration of death mana rather well... Most tier 2 warriors would have collapsed by now."

Death mana? Was there a distinction between normal dark mana and death mana? Questions for later. I wanted to get straight into the fight, but stopped myself. This necromancer might have had backing of some kind. I had to find out. Not finding any clever ploy to make him spill his secrets, I decided to just be straightforward.

"Are you here on your own, foul necromancer?"

"Trying to interrogate me, hunter? Hah, I shall indulge you this once. I have come here to create a concoction on behalf of a colleague of mine. Beyond that, there is no further involvement of undesirables. Other than me, of course."

The man followed up his sentence with an annoying cackle, laughing at his own subpar joke. I was about to ask another question when he pulled out a tome and started casting a spell. I saw the dark mana in the air congregate on the tome. Judging from the amount of used mana, this spell would be dangerous.

Making a split second decision, Revan and I charged forward.