Chapter 10

Had Baako been brought back to life?

That was the only explanation, he had died and then been brought back by that spider thing. What was it? Everyone was waiting for Seir or Baako to explain what had happened, but they both stood and stared at each other.

“Ahahaha, well should I explain? Or have you got this Baako?”

Seir finally spoke, but Baako was silent. He seemed to be lost in thought. A few moments passed and as if coming to some sort of decision, Baako shot toward Seir at breakneck speed. He was so fast that it was difficult to follow the trajectory of his movement. He pulled back his akrafena and attempted to slice through Seir’s torso again. This time however, Seir did not move, he did not attempt to dodge. He just stood in place, waiting for Baako’s blade to reach him.

Or, that’s what we all thought. Seconds before Baako’s akrafena began to tear into Seir’s formal overcoat, 3 small warp circles appeared. One behind Baako, one under his right foot and one between him and Seir. Unlike earlier, where Baako was able to stop himself mid attack and use his flexibility to avoid whatever came out of the warp circles, this time, he was too far into the attack to halt himself.

As expected, three golden arrows emerged from the warp circles and all three of them impaled Baako in the worst possible places. Once again, Baako stood motionless. Akrafena still in hand but unmoving, with lifeless eyes.

Baako’s body began to excrete black miasma again and the same spider familiar appeared. Strangely, it had one less leg than it did the last time it appeared. The arachnid began to whisper again, the sound was eerie and I could imagine Morgana hiding under the covers in her cottage after hearing it.

The miasma covered the arrows and they disintegrated. A few seconds passed, Baako coughed harshly and life returned to his eyes.

Even after seeing it a second time, I had no idea how Baako had been able to take two fatal attacks and appear to be unscathed. I turned toward Alessia and the geezer for some sort of explanation, but both of them seemed to be fully engrossed in the match and neither of them met my eye.

Baako regained his composure and made some distance between himself and Seir again. Seir shook his head side to side and raised his arms in a “what am I gonna do with you” fashion. Baako responded to this action by showing a small smile and turning toward his vassals. He looked at them and gave them some sort of signal. All ten of them dismounted and started to make their way to the battlefield.

They all walked to the front lines and stood in a row behind Baako. They began to fire bloodlust and pressure toward Seir. The crowd were taken aback and were whispering amongst themselves at this turn of events.

“W-what the hell Sitri!? That’s cheating, how the hell is that not outside interference? If that was me, you’d have disqualified Seir!”

“S-shut up! *clears throat* Ladies and Gentlemen, Marquis Kimaris is well within his rights to summon those men to the battlefield. Although they serve as his vassalls, they have also been listed as his familiars.”

“Wtf! You mean to tell me that this guy has 10+ familiars!?”

Despite my outburst, Stiri had already turned away from my gaze and the crowd settled down after she revealed this information. I looked toward the men that were stood menacingly behind Baako. They all looked strong and each had an equally solid and sharp akrafena. After taking in the threat of this new enemy, I turned toward Seir. He looked as if he had been waiting for this and reconjured the bow made from his demonic energy.

Before Baako and his men made a move, Seir shot 5 successive arrows from his bow. The speed at which he did this, indicated that he had some skill as an archer, or at least had been practicing for a long time. As the arrows made their way toward Baako’s men, they split and 5 became 10. Before Baako’s men could take evasive maneuvers against the now 10 arrows, the golden projectiles disappeared into small warp circles.

Baako wasted no more time. He dashed toward Seir with his men following closely behind. His outstretched akrafena narrowly avoided making contact as Seir side stepped to avoid him. However unlike before, Seir wasn’t out of hot water after evading Baako’s attack. This time, Baako’s men were approaching Seir, they were not as fast as Baako but were speedy nonetheless.

Seir aimed his bow at the incoming enemies and fired another 5 arrows. Baako’s men avoided the arrows easily and made a formation, aiming at various parts of Seir’s body, leaving him little room to take evasive action. Seir laughed cheekily at this outcome and waited for Baako’s men to reach him, he kept one eye on Baako to monitor his movements and the other on his men.

The frontrunners in the formation drew back their weapons to deliver two deadly slices. Before their blades crossed either side of Seir’s body, a warp circle big enough for a person to pass through appeared and Seir fell backward through it.

He reappeared through another one a few feet behind the offensive formation and fired consecutive arrows at back of the men’s heads. Two fell immediately, however the remaining 8 were able to spin in place and block the golden arrowheads by intercepting them with their weapons.

Just as the geezer said previously, in the few seconds it took the men to deflect or cut Seir’s condensed demonic energy, he was able to conjure warp circles in various places and fire arrows into the men, causing them all to fall.

Baako watched as the remaining 8 of his men took arrows in various places and eventually fell to the ground, dead.

Seir drew back the golden string for another shot, this time, aimed at Baako’s head. Before Seir could let go and fire, Baako smiled and evoked his spider familiar. Similar to before, it was missing another leg. I had no idea why he needed its power because he himself was unharmed. Seir lowered his bow and we all waited to see what Baako intended to do. The air thickened, Baako extended his left arm towards his fallen men and spoke.

“Arise fallen Marquis, your heir calls upon the power of the spider Anansi to breathe new life into you.”

The fallen men began to excrete black miasma, it devoured Seir’s arrow shaped demonic energy and one by one, they all rose to their feet. The whole scene was chilling. The entire arena was silent and tense, before the atmosphere became too suffocating, Alessia spoke.

“Necromancy...”

“H-huh?”

“Baako Kimaris, he’s a Necromancer.”