A Sunday Dual release! Or is it monday now? Anyways, here's Chapter 18!

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Chapter 18: Bone and Steel

Walking through the long corridor filled with mana crystals, the six members of the hunter-killer squad began to feel uneasy.

“Hey Karel, what are these rocks? Although they’re mostly yellow, they have some slight variation in color. See, that fat one over there is has a slight greenish tinge to it.” Unable to stifle his curiosity, one of the hunters in the middle of the squad asked the point man something.

“Shut it. We’re not here to be on vacation. Karel, how much farther until we reach the cavern?” Befitting a true professional, the sergeant quickly brought the minds of his men back to the task.

“We’re not far. It’s actually quite easy to tell the distance that we have to travel through this tunnel since the crystals get larger towards the cavern. I don’t really know what these crystals are made of, but the atmosphere within this tunnel is definitely different than outside. I just don’t know how to describe the difference. It’s almost as if there is an electrical charge in the air, but not quite.” Sounding slightly more anxious than before, Karel quickly briefed the squad on the details of this weird tunnel.

“Hmph. As long as there isn’t any immediate danger, we’ll be fine. The atmosphere is probably just a side effect of being extremely stale. I doubt that this tunnel has had any visitors besides us and the rogue magi in at least a century.”

Moving silently, the hunter killer squad eventually saw the soft glow of light at the end of the tunnel leading to the cavern. In the distance, they saw a single crystal like the ones that littered the tunnel floor. Only, this single crystal was much larger than anything of the crystals that they had ever seen. Dwarfing the crystals in the tunnel, this central crystal emitted a soft light that illuminated the entire cavern.

“That’s….a really….big...crystal. I guess we found out why our rogue magi didn’t need additional torches. If he’s in here there’s no need for additional sources of light. If this level of light never decreases, it’s about the same as the amount of light given by the full moon on a cloudless night.” Bringing up his bow in front of him, Karel started to look out for dangers.

“.....oooaaaaoooooooo……”

All of the hunters trained their weapons in the direction of the moan. Almost imperceptible, the hunters were only able to hear the moan because of their Canis enhanced senses.

Slowly approaching, a single red ghost stared hatefully at the six hunters raising an otherworldly sword, it howled as it charged at the six hunters.

“Not good! Take evasive action and attempt to attack.” The sergeant, as a veteran of countless fights, started to make decisions based on the judgement born of a lifetime of warfare.

Splitting from each other, the hunters separated themselves from their previously packed formation. The red spirit paused only slightly in response to this, and it once again charged at the sergeant.

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The moment that the hunter-killer squad changed their formation from packed to loose, Kaz realized that he was dealing with a much more experienced squad than he had previously.

{Huh. These particular hunters seem to be more capable than the previous lot. They rightly understand that the correct way to kite a single powerful opponent is to split in different directions and wear it down with ranged weaponry.}

“Unfortunately for them, reaper spirit’s ethereal bodies are extremely resilient to conventional steel weapons. Only magic weapons, silver, and certain types of magic is effective against the ethereal body of a spirit minion.” Signalling for the rest of his spirits to attack a single soldier, Kaz focused all of his spirits onto a single hunter.

“AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

Howling like the damned that they are, Kaz’s spirits flew straight down from where they were floating in the air. Clawing at the unfortunate scout that was in the rear, Kaz forced the rest of the hunter-killer squad further into the cavern as they reacted to the new threat behind them.

The target scout was taking heavy damage from spirit’s assault. Long having discarded his bow, the scout had drawn his tomahawk and shortsword. Wielding one in each hand, he was making a valiant attempt to keep the spirits at bay. Unfortunately for him, his steel weapons were doing little if anything at all to the ethereal bodies of the spirits. Fortunately for him, the ghostly hands that were grasping at him did not possess much lethality.

Bleeding from many lacerations where the spirits had slashed him, the scout tried to maneuver himself around the edge of the cavern. Seeing his weakened foe, the red spirit took this chance to attack in earnest. Gliding along the floor like a the personification of Death, the red spirit slashed viciously at the bleeding hunter with its mana sword.

Well aware of the imminent danger, the rest of the hunters aimed their bows and launched salvo after salvo of arrows towards the red spirit. When each arrow hit the reaper spirit, it ripped a small part of the spirit’s ethereal body apart, but only a tiny part. It seemed to have too little of an effect, but there was nothing else that seemed to have an effect on the red spirit what was charging towards their wounded comrade.

Gritting his teeth in pain, Harken braced himself for the red spirit’s attack. His reflexes heightened to near superhuman levels, Harken was well prepared to react as the red spirit swung its sword down at his shoulder. Raising his weapons in a cross block, Haken accurately predicted the motion of the mana sword.

A split second later, Harken jumped backwards as he screamed miserably. For any conventional weapon, the cross block that Harken used would have been enough stop the enemy’s weapon. Unfortunately for the hunter, the mana sword easily passed through the scout’s steel weapons and slashed at his shoulder. To his credit, Harken’s alchemically heightened reflexes had allowed him to jump backwards before the mana sword completely went into his shoulder.

His face pale, Harken snuck a peek at his left shoulder to survey the damage that the mana sword had inflicted. Tears nearly welled in his eyes as Harken saw that the surface of his shoulder had blackened considerably. Oddly, the pain that he felt wasn’t a burning sensation, nor did he smell his own flesh burning.

An icy sensation gripped Harken, and slowed the movement of his left shoulder. Caught off guard by physical sensations that he did not expect, Harken was unable to avoid a second aggressive slash from the red spirit. This time, the mana sword passed through Harken’s right thigh, slowing once it hit flesh. Immediately, Harken lost feeling in his right leg, and crumpled to the ground. Wildly slashing at the red spirit in an attempt to ward off the apparition, the scout did not see the mana blade as it slammed into his head.

Watching in horror as the red spirit made short work of one of their comrades, the rest of the hunter-killer squad was in shock.

“Retreat for now! We go deeper into the cavern, and regroup once we’ve escaped the apparition.” Giving up Harken as a lost cause, the sergeant made the decision to attempt to escape and think of a backup plan. Finally given clear instructions, the remainder of the hunter-killer squad quickly ran in the direction of the central mana crystal.

“Not good! They’re unintentionally coming directly at me! Maybe I can get away quietly before they spot me.” Anxious that he was going to be discovered, Kaz tried to back out of his hiding spot into another direction as quietly as he could. In a stroke of luck for the hunters, their heightened hearing instantly detected Kaz as he tried to move to a new hiding spot.

{This sure is heating up. Hey Kaz, how fast can you run? It looks like these hunters can give you a run for your money. Or run you down. Heh heh heh…} Sadistically laughing at Kaz, Ahriman’s voice annoyed Kaz as he tried to put enough distance between himself and the hunters.

“There’s the bastard! Hurry, if we kill him we can make our escape. Fire your bows at will. Just make it count. I don’t want to lose any more men on this miserable chase.” Bringing his longbow to a full draw quickly, the sergeant shot an arrow that travelled at a blistering speed towards Kaz.

Barely avoiding being impaled by the longbow’s payload, Kaz was still unable to evade the arrow completely unscathed. The arrowhead slashed a Kaz’s right forearm as he disappeared within the maze-like passageways within the cavern.

Gnashing his teeth at the miss, the sergeant barked orders sharply at the rest of his squad.

“Karel, you take Bogdan and try to encircle him from the right. Russak, you take Slack and try to encircle him from the left. I’ll stay behind to distract the red spirit since I have the most experience. Don’t worry about me, just make sure that the little bastard dies. For the Empire!”

“For the Empire!”

The four hunters went their assigned directions, and the sergeant looked over his shoulder at the red spirit.

“If it’s a game of cat and mouse you want, I’ll give it to you!” Firing an arrow at the red reaper spirit in order to get its attention, the sergeant darted into a nearby passageway with the red spirit hot on his heels. Not being given any additional instructions other than to attack the hunters, the red spirit gravitated towards the one who had attacked it. Howling loudly, the red reaper spirit flew towards the sergeant.

While all this was happening, Kaz was busy trying to circle around to the entrance of the cavern. Having explored some of the passages near the entrance, Kaz was somewhat familiar with the layout of the cavern’s passages. Turning a corner, Kaz ran straight into Russak and Slack.

The three men stared at each other for a second, before Russak snarled and charged forward at Kaz with his tomahawk raised in the air.

Leaping backwards as he gathered his mana, Kaz slowed Russak with Bitter Grip as the scout charged. His eyes widening, Russak tried to block Kaz as the latter swung a stolen tomahawk at the scout’s face. Too little too late, the front blade of Kaz’s tomahawk slammed into Russak’s face before the scout was able to block. Choking on his own blood, Russak writhed on the ground as Slack was able to sink his shortsword into Kaz’s left upper arm.

Hissing in pain, Kaz kicked at Slack in an attempt to get the scout off of him. Smiling grimly, Slack easily avoided the untrained kick from Kaz. Slamming his knee into Kaz’s stomach, Slack brought the young necromancer to his knees. Before Slack was able to finish off Kaz, however, two of Kaz’s basic spirits flew in the scout’s face with their claws outstretched.

“Gah...once I get past these stupid ghosts, you’ll rue the day that you were born, wretch!” Annoyed by the lacerations that the spirits were inflicting onto his torso, Slack’s face was a mask of hatred.

Rolling backwards until he was out of reach, Kaz surveyed the situation in front of him. His life no longer in immediate danger, Kaz calmly watched as Slack struggled to deal with the two spirits. Sending one spirit to keep watch high above, Kaz felt that he had all the time in the world, relatively, to deal with Slack.

With a savage grin, Kaz decided what he wanted to do. A quick Soul Harvest replenished Kaz’s mana pool from Russak’s death energy. Casting Rigor Mortis on Slack, the scout could only watch in horror as the two spirits descended upon his paralyzed body.

His face twisted in a silent scream, his eyes crying out for help, Slack could do nothing as the two spirits ripped his body apart.

{Yikes. Who know you were so cold blooded, Kaz? That’ll leave a stain for sure, not that I care.} Approving of Kaz’s choice in eliminating his opponent in a gruesome manner, Ahriman’s sadistic voice praised Kaz.

Grunting in pain, Kaz ran his hands over his injuries. Deciding that they weren’t worth using mana to heal at this point, Kaz quickly gathered Slack’s death energy. Bracing himself, Kaz selected one of the two spirits in front of him, and casted Soul Infuse. Screaming silently, the spirit unwillingly entered the ruined body of Slack.

With a wet squelch, the undead minion brought itself to a standing position. What stood in front of Kaz was best described as a hunk of animated flesh. Still bleeding and carrying a tomahawk, Kaz’s new undead minion was ready to do his bidding.

“Hmm it’s not exactly what I expected, but I think it’ll do for now.” Looking towards the slightly better off dead body of Russak, Kaz’s eyes glittered.

“Waste not, want not. I’ll take this breather opportunity to raise a second physical undead minion.” Gathering mana from within himself, Kaz casted another Soul Infuse using the body of Russak and the second spirit that attacked Slack. Before long, Kaz had two silent, bloody minions in front of him. Viewing the cavern through the eyesight of the floating spirit above him, Kaz quickly pinpointed the location of Karel and Bogdan.

Mentally commanding his two undead soldiers to intercept the two scouts, Kaz urged the red spirit to redouble its efforts at attempting to kill the sergeant. The sergeant had proven himself to be particularly adept at avoiding direct contact with Kaz’s reaper spirit. He seemed to be just within reach so that it would not lose attention, but just outside of the range at which the red spirit could attack him. Having led the red spirit on a wild goose chase, the sergeant was buying valuable time for his scouts to hunt down Kaz. Little did he know, however, that two of his scouts had already been taken out.

{Why don’t you get a move on instead of waiting for your minions to do it? Your minions are pathetically weak by the standards of any true necromancer. They can’t really be relied on to complete their task unless you’re close by supervising them.}

“Don’t be such a downer. I’m only taking a couple minutes to catch my breath. It could have been really bad back there if my two spirits hadn’t distracted that second scout. I’ll go kill that second set of scouts before I go engage the sergeant since he’s the craftiest of the bunch. Half the hunter-killer squad is dead, but I don’t feel safe since the leader is still alive.”

Pausing only to cast Soul Enslave on the souls of Russak and Slack, Kaz quickly commanded the floating spirit to keep an aerial watch over his surroundings. Quickly counting the spirits that were available to use, Kaz counted seven with the addition of the two scouts. Sending three of these seven ahead of him to harass Karel and Bogdan, Kaz carefully made his way over to where the two scouts were.

Having approached Kaz from the right, the two scouts rushed towards the sounds of fighting when Kaz was busy trying to survive Slack’s assault. However, Karel and Bogdan’s faces grew grim when they heard two bodies fall in quick succession. Rounding the corner, they came face to face with the two undead soldiers that Kaz had recently created.

Yelping, the two scouts quickly backpedaled out of the range of the undead minions. Shuffling forward at a brisk pace, the two undead minions silently brought their weapons to bear.

“Gods above, is that Slack and Russak? They’ve been mind controlled! Karel, what do we do?” Panicking due to the familiar faces, Bogdan’s voice cracked as his fear surfaced.

“I don’t think these two are under the influence of mind control, look at their injuries. It’s obvious that these two are no longer among the living. I guess this confirms without a doubt that the rogue magi that we are facing is a necromancer. I thought they were all dead and gone for good.” Barely blocking a downwards swipe by Russak’s corpse, Karel could feel his arm tingling from the impact.

His arms still sore from the impact of blocking a monstrous blow by Kaz’s undead minion, Karel was wholly unprepared for the attack by the second undead minion. The second minion had begun its attack just after the first minion had attacked, so its tomahawk was mid-swing as Karel blocked the first minion’s attack. Unable to dodge the second attack, Karel’s face was bashed in by the tomahawk’s heavy blade.

Bleeding from a huge grisly wound on his face, Karel was knocked flat on his back. Struggling to get up, Karel could do nothing as the two minions launched a second wave of attacks.

“Oh no you don’t, you undead bastards!” Screaming in rage, Bogdan charged headfirst with both shortsword and tomahawk in hand. Managing to push back the first undead minion, the doomed scout’s fierce demeanor turned meek when the second minion sunk its weapon into Bogdan’s back.

The undead minions had just extricated themselves from the clutches of the wounded scouts when Kaz arrived at the scene. Mentally commanding his undead minions to disarm the scouts, Kaz leisurely walked up to the two men. Spitting out blood, Karel glared hatefully at Kaz while Bogdan meekly looked at the ground.

“You….you’re a monster. It was only fitting that such a heinous criminal like you was exiled from civilization.” Barely managing to speak due to the pain that he was experiencing, Karel started to choke on his own blood for a bit.

“This isn’t real. This isn’t real….I want to go home. I want to go home. I WANT TO GO HOME!!!” Unable to take the stress any longer and mentally anguished by the ruined bodies of his former comrades, Bogdan’s mind broke.

“I take no pleasure in this.” Kaz’s eyes were cold as he signalled for his minions to execute the two scouts.

Raising their weapons up high, the two undead minions unleashed their unnatural strength once more as they slammed the blades of their tomahawks into the skulls of the two wounded scouts.

Sighing, Kaz quickly enslaved the souls of the two newly deceased scouts. Raising them up as undead minions with souls foreign to the bodies, Kaz commanded them to equip themselves with bows and arrows from looted from the scouts. Signalling three of his spirits to help the red spirit chase down the sergeant, Kaz walked towards the sergeant’s location.

Blood dripping from their bodies, Kaz’s four undead soldiers followed him closely as he walked.

“I think it’s about time to end this hunt, don’t you Ahriman?”

{You’re becoming a stone cold killer, you know that?}

“You know of all people I’m never vindictive. They brought this on themselves when they chose to try and kill me. But, I’m getting good practical knowledge out of this, so I have to thank them for that. Let’s go.”

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