Chapter 10: Into the Heart of the Woods

Travelling deeper and deeper into the forest, Kaz’s vigilance never wavered. Practicing the wilderness evasion techniques that he forcibly wrenched from the memories of his bound souls, Kaz tried his best to cover his tracks.

It’s been about five days since I killed the hunter-killer squad. I need to get as far away as possible while covering my tracks. The harder it is to find me, the better. I can’t travel so far on foot as to avoid their trackers, but I might be able to go so deep into the forest where nobody can find me.

Ahriman was quiet these days, concentrating on preventing the last of his mana from leaking as well as trying to gather it latently from the environment. Kaz would never admit it, but he was glad that the constant nagging had stopped.

In the beginning, Kaz took every opportunity that he got to kill large animals to get them to release their death energy. Using this death energy, Kaz would Death Warp to their location so as to decrease the amount of tracks that he left.

I’m actually glad I thought about it more and stopped Death Warping everywhere. Leaving a long trail of dead animals is probably a much, much, more obvious trail than just footprints. Plus the corpses never actually looked like death was caused normally through predation. A large, perfect gaping hole in a deer’s chest would be cause for concern if anybody found it.

Seven deathly silent spirits followed Kaz as he travelled. Practicing materializing his bound souls as spirits constantly, the budding necromancer was able to exert a much finer degree of control than he could previously.

Never stopping his training even for a minute, Kaz’s control over the arcane increased daily. Instead of sending his magical sense to scout, all of the scouting was now done by multiple spirits. By sending multiple spirits in a circle about a mile across, Kaz was able to view the area around him without exposing himself in any way. Dubbing this sensory information “Ghostsight” elicited a weary groan from Ahriman despite the latter’s silence.

I’m only able to scout with about a mile radius, any distance farther than that and the information gets...fuzzy. Initially, my Ghostsight was only able to feed me information from about fifty feet. My range has increased by a huge margin, but it’s getting harder to increase the distance as it gets larger.

Sensing a pack of wolves ahead of him, Kaz’s face broke into a grin at the prospect of practicing his powers.

Having lived through so many life-threatening situations, I can safely say that I’m only alive because of my powers. Therefore, the best way of ensuring my survival is to become a powerful necromancer.

Getting within sight of the wolves, Kaz broke into a brisk jog towards them as he gathered his spirits. The wolves, curious at the strange man, snarled and bared their teeth.

It seems that they are unwilling to attack, perhaps animals can sense the supernatural? It matters not, they can’t possibly escape from me.

Sending five of his spirits forward to attack, Kaz stayed at a distance, gathering mana in his body should it be necessary.

Wailing miserably, Kaz’s spirits flew towards the wolves and raised their clawed hands. Sensing imminent danger, the wolves charged forward and tried to bite at the ghosts. As the alpha wolf’s jaws clenched down on the leading spirit, there was barely any pressure before the ghost raked its icy claws at the wolf.

Whimpering loudly as the alpha male felt the icy claws rip into its body, the other wolves lost their morale. Becoming easy prey for Kaz’s other ghosts, the wolves soon were badly wounded.

Being raked by a ghost’s claws is like being stabbed with cold knives. The actual damage done to the target isn’t too great, but the sheer shock is what intimidates opponents the most. Besides, the ethereal form of my spirits is extremely resilient to physical damage.

“Kill them.” Commanding his spirits to finish off the wolves, Kaz relaxed his hands as the howls of the wolves became dimmer. Trying to escape, some of the wolves ran through the woods. However, they were not able to escape the searching grasp of the dead hunters.

Flying through the woods unimpeded, Kaz’s spirits quickly caught up to any wolves trying to escape and raked their hands across the animals. Caught and butchered by icy hands, the wolves finally died miserably.

Even as his group of five spirits was attacking the wolves, Kaz sent out his remaining two spirits on a scouting patrol. The hunter’s ambush still fresh in his mind, Kaz was on high alert to any possible dangers. The addition of Ghostsight greatly reduced the anxiety that he had worrying about being caught off guard.

Satisfied with his work, Kaz recalled his spirits. Sensing more wolves homing in on his location with Ghostsight, Kaz readied himself.

These attacks by wild animals have increased lately. The creatures here have not been exposed to humans in a long, long time. That could explain the increased aggressiveness, or it could just be that I’ve been trespassing on their territory. Either way, I won’t say no to chances to advance my skills.

As Kaz forced his way deeper and deeper into the woods, the scenery got more and more eerie. The previously bright forest turned cold and dark. The wild animals grew larger and more aggressive. Sometimes, Kaz felt as if he was being watched even though there was nothing in his Ghostsight. Feeling uneasy, Kaz started to send out his magical sense as well in order to try and sense anything that the ghosts were missing.

Soon, Kaz saw a huge claw mark on a nearby tree.

Whatever...creature made this mark has to be huge. I should be extremely wary, but the claw marks look….old. Perhaps the creature that marked its territory on this tree has long passed away. Either way, it doesn’t pay to be relaxed.

Sending his spirits out in a search patrol, Kaz carefully walked onwards. After a while, an ancient structure appeared deep in the woods. The structure looked like a fort, with crumbling walls as well as a broken gate. Sending three of his spirits to scout the surroundings, Kaz hid behind a large tree as he sent his magical sense to scout as well.

Sensing nothing, Kaz started to approach the gate. At this moment, what appeared to Kaz and the ghosts to be a large boulder shifted. Bringing itself to a standing position on its hind legs, a giant grey bear made of stone opened its baleful eyes and looked at Kaz.

Gulping, Kaz started to gather up his mana.

“Hey Ahriman, what exactly is that?”

{Oooh, you’re in for it now. That appears to be a golem in the shape of a bear. Golems are magical constructs that are animated with a soul. They’re a bit like an undead minion but more physically sturdy.}

With a primal roar that shook Kaz’s bones to the marrow, the stone bear got down on all four legs and charged at Kaz. The ground shook with each of its steps, and the bear closed the distance between it and its target in an instant.

Before the stone bear had even moved, Kaz slung two Frozen Spears at the bear’s body. Sending all but one of his spirits out to attack the bear, Kaz started to run evasively to the side. Kaz’s spirits raked the stone bear with their claws, but the bear barely slowed down.

As the two icy projectiles hit the stone bear, they barely chipped the bear’s fur before shattering. Eyes widening, Kaz was just barely able to avoid the bear’s paw as it slammed down. Rolling away from the impact, Kaz willed his spirits to harass the bear in an attempt to distract it.

Fortunately for Kaz, the bear wasn’t particularly smart. Easily distracted by the wailing spirits as they flew around clawing him, the bear swatted his paws at them. Not particularly bothered by the huge claws passing through them, Kaz’s spirits cackled as they continued to wear down the bear.

Ahriman said that there was a soul animating that stone bear. Would it be possible for me to attempt to enslave it? With nothing to lose, Kaz casted onto the distracted bear.

The moment Kaz finished his incantation, the bear’s body underwent a change. Various magical sigils appeared on the bear’s body, shining with a baleful green light as the bear’s head snapped to face Kaz.

Not good! Kaz sucked his breath through gritted teeth as he started to run towards the side away from the bear. With an even louder roar than before, the enraged bear thundered towards Kaz. Killing intent poured out of the bear’s glowing eyes as it chased Kaz.

{Did you not think that the magi who animated that golem would have counter-measures put in place in case somebody tried to mess with the trapped soul?} Ahriman sighed as he shook his head mentally.

“You. Should. Have. Said. Something.” Desperately zig-zagging between trees as the bear swiped its paws at him, Kaz was barely able to dodge.

{I thought it was common sense. Why would any magi spend the time to carefully form and animate such a powerful golem if they did not set up a method to prevent it from being disabled easily? I would normally not help you, but if you die here I’m done for too. Try mentally ramming the bear’s sigils. If you do it hard enough you might be able to break it.}

Grimly, Kaz sent his spirits to slow the bear down as he sent his magical sense to attack the magical sigils. There were many different sigils on the bear’s body, each seeming to protect a certain part of the bear’s body. Mentally poking at different spots, Kaz ascertained that the chest sigil was the sturdiest in terms of magical defense.

Although there are many different magical sigils protecting the bear’s soul, the chest sigil is the one connecting the network of sigils. If I destroy that one, the network of magical protection would be likely to fail. Then, I could easily enslave the soul powering this stone bear golem.

Rebuffed time and time again as he mentally rammed the bear’s magical defenses, Kaz’s physical abilities were strained to the limit as he ran in circles around the bear. As he kept up his mental assault, Kaz could feel the bear’s sigils weakening. Attacking just a single sigil time and time again, Kaz could feel the golem’s rage increasing as its protection started to wear off.

Refining his mental attacks as he kept trying to crack open the bear’s soul, Kaz’s mental probe began to take the form of a spike. Anxiously, Kaz increased the speed and power of his assault as the bear’s physical speed got faster the more it was agitated.

Almost there….the magical sigil on the bear’s chest is about a quarter as bright as it was when it was first activated. I just need to keep this up, but I’m getting closer and closer to being hit.

With a singular focus born out of rage and worry, the golem started to ignore the ghosts scratching at him and exerted all of its attention onto the annoying little necromancer.

Pausing about ten feet away from the bear, Kaz put nearly all of his strength into a massive mental spike, and sent it at the bear’s chest sigil.

*BANG*

Finally tortured past the point of its strength, the magical sigil shattered as the bear closed the distance.

Oh shit, shit, shit. I need to subdue it NOW. Kaz felt the mana surge through his hands, casting at the same moment a huge stone paw slammed into his chest. Flying through the air like a stone thrown by a child, blood erupted from Kaz’s mouth and chest. Slamming into a thick dead tree, Kaz blacked out.

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