First chapter of the week!

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Chapter 25: Kazimir’s Gambit, Part One

Late into the night, the door to one of the village’s grain storerooms opened. Spreading his mage sense, Kaz checked to see if there were any people around. Although it wasn’t a new moon, its recent passing caused only a sliver of moonlight to be casted upon the village. Seeing that the coast was clear, the necromancer quietly snuck into the storeroom. Closing the door behind him Kaz’s eyes softly glowed as he took a look at what was inside. Felis-enhanced eyes sweeping across the room, Kaz found a large number of wooden boxes in a corner of the room. Moving just enough so that he can hide behind them, Kaz sat down on the ground.

The Inquisition team should be coming tonight to my temporary hut. I have my reaper spirit keeping an eye of them while the blood spirit is hidden on the roof of this storeroom to keep watch. I don’t think that the Inquisition would risk overturning the entire village in the dead of night to search for me, but I need to take all the precautions that I can. There’s nothing for me to do now but wait.

Spreading his mana sense as far as he could, Kaz waited for his enemies to come.

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Travelling swiftly through the silent plains, the Inquisition team approached Abaza from the northeast. Although normally they would have noticed anybody that was following them, not even Oksana thought that they would be tracked from the sky. Chekov had sent a raven to his superiors in the Arcane Library, but he did not know that Kaz’s reaper spirit had slain the raven the moment it was out of sight of the Inquisition. Nothing was left of the messenger bird except for a few singed feathers, but only the necromancer knew about that.

Stopping half a mile away from the hut, on the other side of the copse, Chekov signalled for Oksana to proceed. Nodding, Oksana and four of her scout-rangers broke off from the main Inquisition strike force. Riding along the outside of the copse, the scouts nocked arrows to their bows. Stopping right outside the hut near the outside pit, three of the scouts dismounted and stealthily approached the front door. Oksana took position a bit away from the door with her bow half drawn, while the last mounted scout waited outside the back window of the hut.

Frowning, Oksana waited for her scouts to make contact with the suspect. This is odd. It’s too quiet here. Unless this Kir, or Kazimir, is an extremely deep sleeper, there is no way that he did not hear our approach. Soldiers can only be so quiet on horseback. Could this be a trap?

The lead scout took a deep breath, then drew his baselard, and kicked in the front door violently.

*CRACK*

The thin wooden door slammed into the hut without any resistance since there was no lock on it. Rushing in the three scouts had their weapons up, and were confronted with nothing. Puzzled, the scouts paused for a bit, then started to search the hut’s interior. The lead scout found a piece of paper on the desk. Flipping it over to look at the backside, he saw that there was a single word written.

“Surprise!” Frowning, the scout was about to drop the note when the dirt floor of the hut exploded in a shower of soil. Three huge masses broke out from underneath the floor and attacked the scouts viciously. What appeared to be a huge rotting claw flew out from the dust and slammed into the lead scout’s chest. Blood exploded from his nose and mouth as the man’s chest caved in. It all happened so fast, he didn’t even have time to scream if he wanted to. The other two scouts didn’t get much further, as they were maimed by powerful claws before being dragged below the earth.

Outside, Oksana and her remaining scout jolted into action the moment the dirt floor exploded with movement. The scout quickly moved from the back of hut to the front, stopping next to Oksana. With grimaces, both of them let loose a single volley of arrows dead center into the dust where the lead scout stood a moment before. Cautiously backing away from the hut, both rangers drew another arrow from their quivers and prepared to fire at any provocation. Fortunately, or unfortunately, they got their wish.

A single mass popped out of the ground in a similar shower of dirt directly in front of the two rangers. Not taking any chances, the mass within the dust was promptly shot several times with arrows. Seemingly unaffected by the arrows sticking out of its chest, the mass shot forward on all fours, aiming for the scouts.

“Gods above! Is that a giant groundhog? Since when were those fond of ambushing soldiers in the dead of night?” Using his legs to prompt his horse to retreat, the last scout and Oksana shot off in opposite directions as they sought to confuse the creature. As the groundhog started to chase the other scout, Oksana was able to get a good look at what was attacking them.

“Shit. This thing doesn’t even look alive. What kind of a groundhog could remain alive after being cut apart like that? It’s not even making a sound, which is unnatural. The situation was actually much more serious than I had imagined. I need to signal for aid.” Reaching into the quiver on her back, Oksana quickly identified the special arrow that she needed. Pressing a small switch on the arrowhead, she waited for four seconds before shooting it directly up into the air. The arrow shot into the air, spewing a bright red trail as it split the night sky. Riding in a semicircle back towards the other scout, Oksana felt for another special arrow in her quiver.

“Shit. Shit. Shit. How does this damn thing move so fast?” Panting as he barely avoided another swipe from the groundhog’s claw, the last scout let loose another arrow. “This thing doesn’t seem to be alive, it just keeps on coming even after its common vital points have been shot.”

Still not making any noise, the filthy groundhog continued to chase. Although the scout’s horse was getting tired of running at a breakneck pace, the groundhog’s speed never seemed to slow down. Finally, a flaming arrow came from Oksana’s direction and lodged in the groundhog’s mangy fur. The creature turned out to be extremely flammable, and started to burn immediately. Yet, no squeal of pain or any other sound was heard from the groundhog. Fortunately for the scouts, the flame seemed to slow down the creature enough for them to get a good look at it.

“Gods above, that’s not a living creature.” Her eyes wide, Oksana unconsciously started to motion for her horse to move away slowly. The once hefty groundhog’s body was half gone, chunks of its flesh were missing. Horrifyingly, there was no blood coming from the creature at all. The only evidence that blood once ran through this abomination was due to the caked blood all over the creature’s now flaming fur.

Standing on its back legs now that it was on fire, the groundhog glared at its two adversaries with pale blue glowing eyes. Slowly, the fire began to burn through the undead creature’s body from the inside. As its body burned away, the groundhog turned to Oksana and attempted to give a crooked smile. Shivering uncomfortably, Oksana almost missed the second groundhog that popped up from the ground.

Her senses on edge from the creepiness of the first undead groundhog, Oksana was able to jolt her horse into motion mere moments before the ground where her horse was exploded. The other scout wasn’t nearly as alert, and as a result he was only able to jump off of his horse as a third explosion blasted his horse apart. Moving forward rapidly, Oksana let loose a second flaming arrow at the groundhog nearest her. This time, the groundhog seemed to be aware of the dangers surrounding flame, so it used a decaying paw to intercept the burning projectile. As the arrow sank into the paw and started to burn it, the undead groundhog slammed its paw into the ground to put out the fire. Hissing to a fizzle, the groundhog turned to look at Oksana before charging forward on all fours.

As Oksana was trying to keep out of her groundhog’s reach, the unlucky scout without a mount was scrambling to get away. Looking back in horror, he could see that his horse was bleeding out with huge gaping claw wounds all over its body. Before the dust settled, two baleful eyes could be seen staring at the scout. Somewhat slowly, as if savoring the scout’s fear, the groundhog approached. Standing his ground, the scout clenched his teeth as he quickly but accurately shot a flaming arrow at the groundhog. As the other one did just moments before, this groundhog stepped aside with a speed surprising for its bulk and slapped the flaming arrow out of the air. The scout stood still for a split-second before attempting to run. Running away in terror, the scout didn’t anticipate or feel the fourth groundhog as it bursted out of the ground near the scout’s feet and crushed his head with a single paw.

“This isn’t good. It’s been less than a minute since I fired the flare arrow to alert Inquisitor Chekov of my distress. I need to get away now.” Urging her horse in the direction of the Inquisition strike force, Oksana didn’t see the groundhog throw the last scout’s decapitated body at her. Even after death, the groundhog’s monstrous muscle strength remained, or perhaps it was strengthened after the animal died and was reanimated. Oksana didn’t really know, but what she did know was that the scout’s dead body slammed into her horse’s legs and sent both rider and horse crashing down onto the ground. Rolling forwards for a bit, Oksana ended up pinned beneath her now crippled horse.

Cursing, the scoutmaster tried to push the shrieking animal off of her so that she could make a run for it. Seeing that her efforts were in vain, Oksana quickly pulled out a brown flask from one of her armor’s pockets, and downed its contents. With a beastial snarl, the lithe woman’s muscles bulged visibly under her armor as the Ursus potion took effect. With a single smooth motion, Oksana pushed her horse’s convulsing body off of her and managed to stand up just as a groundhog’s paw slammed into her back. With a grunt, she was knocked forwards ten feet. Skidding to a stop, Oksana felt that her upper back was ripped open as the mud stung her open wounds. Shakily standing up, she drew her baselard in a seemingly last show of defiance.

The three undead groundhogs approached slowly, as if they were instructed to toy with their prey. One approached Oksana, and it’s decaying body gave off a rancid smell that caused her to wrinkle her nose. Sighing, Oksana prepared for the worst. Pausing for a moment, the groundhog look a long look at the bloodied scoutmaster before charging forward. As she was about to close her eyes, a bolt of lightning lit up the night sky as it passed by Oksana’s side and slammed directly into the charging undead abomination. A crack of thunder rang across the previously silent plains the moment after, and the undead groundhog was blasted back from the force and power of Chekov’s spell. The battlemages on either side of him finished casting their spells at this moment, and twin fireballs flew across the plains. Unable to avoid the Inquisition’s spells, the last two undead groundhogs were set on fire and blasted apart by the force of the fireballs.

Slowing down, Chekov stopped in front of Oksana. His face was dark with fury, as the presence of the Inquisition strike team was made known just now. If there was actually anybody watching for them, there was a miniscule chance that nobody had seen the magic flying through the air just then.

“Report.”

“Sir. It appears that our rogue magi is a necromancer. Or that there are two rogue magi, but the one that is here is most definitely a necromancer. Nobody was in the suspect’s hut, so he must be hiding somewhere. He animated dead giant groundhogs to fight for him, and we were caught off guard by the unexpectedness of the enemy’s powers.”

“He must be in the village or around. Send some of your scouts to secure the village outskirts. The rest of us will go to the village and force a search of their buildings. The rogue magi must not escape us this time.”

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Deep in the one of the village’s storerooms, Kaz’s glowing eyes opened nervously. Taking a moment to compose himself, he started to take deep breaths.

Ah, that didn’t go as well as I thought it would. I didn’t realize that there would be battlemages among the Inquisition strike team. They were dressed like regular knights, so I didn’t anticipate that they would be able to use magic to such a degree. Thinking about it, their mastery of combat magic is definitely greater than mine. I need to scout around with my spirit minions, every single minute is important if I want to escape. I don’t think I’m going to be able to escape if they restrain me with a mana sealing device.

Keeping the reaper spirit on the Inquisition team’s trail, Kaz kept it just a bit higher than usual now that the battlemages have revealed themselves. Merging his own vision with the blood spirit’s mentally, Kaz saw something curious.

There appeared to be another group of soldiers coming from the southwest, from the direction of the swamp. Frowning, Kaz moved his blood spirit closer to get a better look at this second group.

If this is another Inquisition strike force then I’m definitely trapped. Eh? Their armor looks very different from standard Klavan styles. Those swords...should be scimitars? Those are never used by Klavan soldiers either. Moving his spirit closer and closer, Kaz was able to get a good look at the riders from the sky.

There were about twenty riders, riding towards Abaza moderately quietly. All but one of them were dressed in thick black leather armor. The rider in the absolute middle of the group was wearing robes of pure white. He also carried a metal staff, which was at odds with the scimitars and throwing weapons of the other riders.

Is that a Janaroian priest? What the devil is he doing here? They must have seen the flare arrow that Oksana shot into the air. Even so, I have no idea what they are doing here in the first place. But...I think there may be a way for me to get out of this mess despite all of my reanimated groundhogs being destroyed.

Kaz’s blood spirit had an extremely translucent body when not attacking. If one did not know the spirit was there, it was nearly impossible to see with one’s own eyes. Magical sense could detect it, but only if the mage was scanning for it in advance. I remember Ahriman saying that the priests of Janaro hate all things unnatural like monsters and the undead. Thinking silently for a moment, Kaz smiled in the dark. I normally don’t like to take too many risks, but this whole situation is rapidly going out of my control. I guess I’ll just have to take this one huge risk myself.

Hearing his master’s mental command just a split second later, the blood spirit took a nosedive towards the Janaroian group. It happened too quickly for any of the soldiers to see, much less react to. The blood spirit’s right hand, black with infection, swept across one of the riders on the left side of the group. Shrieking, the man fell from his horse and started to convulse on the ground as rapid septic infection induced organ failure nearly immediately. His face red from fury, the priest started to quickly chant a spell. Raising his staff a few moments later, the priest sent a ball of soft white light into the fallen soldier. The soldier’s convulsions stopped, but one of the other riders dismounted and checked the injured ones vitals. Looking at the priest, he shook his head as he drew the scimitar to put the grounded soldier out of his misery.

Curiously, the blood spirit did not take advantage of the priest not paying attention to it to flee, but rather floated in the air just out of reach of the rider’s weapons. Although normal metal weapons were not capable of inflicting great damage on it, the priest may have imbued these soldier’s weapons with some power beforehand. Seeing the priest look up at it furiously, the blood spirit gave a macabre grin as it spoke.

“The Inquisition sends its regards, scum.” Cackling, the blood spirit rose and started to fly towards the village of Abaza. However, it did not get too far before a multi-colored beam of light clipped the spirit’s left side. Fortunately, the priest did not manage to get a direct hit with his spell, otherwise the blood spirit might have perished. Nevertheless, its job was accomplished. The damage to its body barely slowed down the spirit's flight. It flew just as fast as before, but remained low enough so that it could be seen by the Janaroians.

“Chase it down. We must purge this unnatural abomination before anything else. The Inquisition might actually be in the village, which means that we must be careful. Remember our mission, we need to acquire those curious colored flasks that contain potions which grant enhanced abilities to the drinker. The Cardinal of Mezzio himself gave us this order.”

Silently fuming at the pointless death of one of their own, the rest of the soldiers rode even faster towards the village in the distance.

Sitting back against a heavy box, Kaz nervously anticipated the clash of the Inquisition with the Janaroian forces.

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