I could tell I should have died here with its attack, but at that moment, I felt something odd in my forehead pulse, and the wraith started to scream. It wasn’t a yell of rage like it had been doing, but rather it was one that was pure horror on its part. I turned my head to see fear in its eyes. It wasn’t happy with whatever was going on as my body started to heat up. I saw the legs of the wraith begin to get pulled into itself as it looked like it was collapsing into me. Then it vanished, and my body got warmer.

I staggered the few feet over to my pack and got it back on my shoulders. I wasn’t doing well. I didn’t know what was going on, but my legs weren’t working right, and I felt sad. Everything was wrong. My vision started to narrow in as I made it into the room. It wouldn’t stop something like the wraith, but everything else my door would stop.

Once I heard the door slam shut, I fell to the ground and curled into a ball. There was just a feeling of loneliness that flooded my heart. I was alone even with Blink here; there weren’t others that I genuinely cared for, and no one cared for me. I started to cry for a few moments before I thought to check my stats.

I checked my stats, and my health was showing that it was full, but I had a Debuff of spiritual strain. I had no idea what happened, but the pulse occurred right where the seed had gone in. Perhaps that had something to do with defeating the wraith. What did worry me was that the wraith could only function a mile from its anchor point, so that meant whatever or whoever was hunting me was close.

Blink pushed through our bond. “Hunts master. Finds kills”

I let her through the door, knowing that she was leaving me as everyone did. She wanted to go, and she wouldn’t come back. No one did. I couldn’t count on anyone but myself. They all would turn on me as they always did. They might be my friend for a while, but I needed to keep an eye even on her.

Then I started to cry again. I wasn’t sure what I was feeling, but I knew that these thoughts were ones that I always dealt with, just that I pushed them away. They weren’t true. They were just thoughts and fears. Yes, I had been abandoned before, I didn’t even know my parents, but I had a few friends.

I breathed in deep, and then I took a look at what I still had with me that would help if I got in a fight with the undead again today. First, I was in a defensible location. Unless they sent another wraith, I should be good. After that, however, I wasn’t in a great spot.

My standard was out of power, and so was the totem. It worked great for crowd control but not much else, and the way these hell dogs were hitting me was different. This group of undead was more intelligent.

It was late when I felt Blink come back to the room. “Opens hunts good.”

I got up and opened the door for her, and then we settled back in for the rest of the night. The following day I woke up feeling much better. The debuff was gone, and so the strain that I felt inside was also gone. Blink was sleeping soundly when I got up and took care of my morning needs. By the time I had breakfast ready, Blink was up and ready to go as well.

When we opened the door, there was the body of what looked like a human man. I saw that its throat was missing, as was its right hand. In addition, there were noticeable claw marks across his body that looked like they had been from claws about the size of Blinks. It also looked like she hadn’t gone for the kill very quickly but rather took pieces out of the guy until he was close to death and then got it over with.

I searched his body and came up with a few small pouches on his belt. One had several small gems and a hand full of coins, another had human finger bones (those I dumped right there) the last, which was the largest, had several scrolls which I could feel magic on and a book that when I looked at it asked me if I wanted to learn fireball.

He had several rings that felt like they had magic, so I pulled them off. One of them was a testing spell to see if there was poison in the cup. Another one was a linked mana stone which would increase the wearer’s mana pool by 5 (that one I put on). The last one was a skull-shaped ring that, when I looked at was called soul anchor 0/1. It looked like the soul had been removed from this one. I checked over the necromancer once more and noticed that he had a pair of matching opal earrings. They didn’t show that they were magical, but I was betting that I would be able to do something with them.

I was about to walk away when Blink went over and picked up an ugly short walking stick. It wasn’t much larger than a cane but was black and gnarled. On the top of it was a large black stone, and the tip was metal. I looked at it and the interface called it the “Necromancers Cursed Focus” This would increase the practical level of all necromancy spells by 2.

This could be a game changer for fighting the undead as I would have more range to pull mana. I didn’t like some of the other implications of it though. It felt dark and cold, and I almost felt like I heard voices when holding it. I slipped the cane into my bag, planted a tree growth stake in the heart of the necromancer, and linked it to a nearby young oak tree. After that, we headed out.

We would need to take care as we moved. If there was one group hunting me, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were more on my trail. Making something that would let me stay hidden from the undead might make sense, but I wasn’t sure what that would be or how to do that. I had no real idea how they found me before other than just the tracking of dogs. Perhaps now that this necromancer is dead, they will have a more challenging time following.

Blink and I made good time after we left the necromancer rotting in a field of Lay-to-Rest. I was content knowing that he was dead and not coming back. I wasn’t, however, carefree. I already had one hunting party come after me so I was worried that we would get another. I also was a little worried about what else was out there.

Blink and I encountered a few fights with wild animals and larger monsters but after fighting with the Wraith things seemed to move faster for us. She was in the habit of letting me attract the attention of anything, and then she would launch herself out of hiding and kill it. If there were a large number like a pack of dogs she would take out the rear ones while the rest were watching me. It was nice to see that things were working much better for us now. We made short work of the one vextoad that crossed us. A stone sphere and the vextoad was on the ground, then Blink finished it off.

The day that I got to my room under the bush, it started to rain. I hadn’t had much other than light showers for the whole time I had been gone, but this day changed it. We were rained into our hole. Blink wasn’t opposed to going out because of the rain but rather just didn’t want to go out. Or at least that was what I gathered from her humph when I asked if she was going hunting.

We had some bad lightning, and several of the trees nearby were hit. All the trees above my room were hit several times as the night went on. The river level also rose considerably because of the size of the storm. Then, when I thought that it was winding down, it all started again. There was at least one tornado that blew through. I could tell that from the damage that I found when the storm was over. All around me, the trees had been broken and thrown in different directions. Trees were ripped out by their roots, and it even appeared that some were picked up and then hit with lightning.

On top of the rocks that were above my room, there were trees piled high. It was the oddest thing. While there was a large amount of damage everywhere in a line heading up river. All the debris within about two hundred feet was dumped on top of my room. The boulders were the only thing that made it so that I could exit easily, and they were also the only thing that appeared to have stopped the lightning. They were covered with strike marks. There had also been a fire with this mess, as I could smell the smoke and see where it started. I felt like I had been targeted for something and or by someone. It made no sense for the pile to be where it was. So I wanted to get a move on it before the other shoe dropped.

* * *