The hissing pile of scales that was the wyvern lunged at us again. This time it didn’t make it to the stone air. Blink slammed into it, and the two large lizards went down in a tumble.

The roar from behind, however, helped to address that little line in the description. Wyverns hunt in groups. I turned to see 6 more coming at us. One attack had knocked about 4 percent off the standard. This meant that even if all 6 of the others hit with the same power, we should be good to go.

I pulled my totem off my belt and walked it forward. Then I backed up and pulled my bow off my back. I knew that we were going to have problems if they got through, but it appeared they needed time to recover.

They started to hit the dome turning it white. The amount of energy that they transferred was amazing. Each impact sounded like a car hitting a wall. The major downside to my standard was not being able to see through it when I took big hits.

However, the totem didn’t have that problem. So it started to spew out its poisoned smoke. By the time the dome cleared up, the totem had already put toxic smoke all over that side. But I could still make out the shape of one of the lizards.

I pulled back my ice arrow and let it go. The first one sailed through, and I saw it hit the shadow in the smoke. My second one hit as well. I drew back the third, but the wyvern took to the air. It was coughing from the smoke and had two small patches of ice. It struggled to gain altitude as one of the arrows was in the front wing joint.

I let loose with the third arrow as it tried to pass overhead. The arrow found the same wing, and the wyvern took a nose dive. It was only about three feet from the dome when it went down, so it didn’t take much damage from that. It did, however, take damage from the second strike of another wyvern.

That other one had climbed up to dive in again. It likely would have hit my dome right behind the one I downed. However, because of the crash, the second wyvern missed my dome and broke the back of the wounded one.

Now the force transfer was still enough to cover most of my dome with a whiteout. The surprise of not hitting the target, however, slowed it down just enough that Blink was able to engage. She had changed targets, either finishing off the last one or letting it go. I had 3 ice arrows left and at least 4 more monsters who were dive-bombing us.

I thought that the next would attack with another dive. However, it just flew over as it did. Yellow liquid came out of its mouth in a stream. As the liquid hit my stone air, I saw my mana start to plummet.

I readied an arrow just as the next was flying over. As it opened its mouth, I let the arrow fly. The arrow passed through what I could only assume was a stream of acid. The ice arrow plunged into the roof of the wyvern’s mouth. The stream of acid stopped as the beast tried to shake the arrow free.

Two arrows left as the next two came in. Neither one tried with a breath weapon. They both impacted the now much weaker shield. I saw my mana fall down to just over 10%, and the whole dome blocked my vision once again.

The totem started to fire, so I turned in that direction. As my view cleared up, I saw that one of the two wyverns had damaged its wing on the attack. So I quickly fired my last two arrows at it. They both hit the same knee, and the monster toppled over. The totem started to spew directly at it as it was the only target in range.

I was down to the box of twenty normal arrows in my pack. They were hard to get at and weren’t likely to help much in this fight. So I dropped my bow and the pack as well. I pulled my throwing spike of pausing out.

I glanced back to where Kasidy was standing. “Get the arrows out of my pack. They might not do much but better to try.”

Kasidy sprung forward and started to open up my pack. As she did, I kept scanning the sky. I knew there was the one that I put an arrow in, and there should be one or two others.

I kept turning about until I heard a roar from above. Three wyverns were diving almost directly down. They were firing out the acid spray as they came down. The standard flickered out. The beasts on the sides peeled out. The one in the middle started to throw its legs forward like a diving bird.

I flicked my Throwing Spike of Pausing at it. The spike hit, and its movement stopped but not its natural speed. I dove to the side, taking Kasidy down with me. There was a massive crash as the wyvern slammed neck-first into the ground.

I tried to get up, but so was Kasidy. Our arms were getting in each other’s way. It didn’t help that she was holding the pack when I tackled her out of the way. My arm was through the strap that she was holding.

There was a screech from above, and I saw acid flying at us. I tensed, knowing that it was going to hurt. Only for my new sword belt to activate. The acid stream pools just a hair above my skin. I rolled to the side and dumped most of the liquid onto the ground.

As I got to my feet, I saw the other passing overhead going in the other direction. As it did, however, it doubled in weight as Blink landed on its back. I hoped that the last one would just fly away, but my hope was in vain.

I watched it bank towards us. My standard was out, and so was my sword belt. I might could recharge it a little. However, I figured it was time to see if I could hit a flying object with my stone spheres.

Almost like a plane coming in for a strafing run, it lined up and came right at me. I stood watching it for half a second before the stream of acid started to come out. Then I fired. The wyvern dodged to the right just a bit. My second one caused it to dodge a little more. Then my third came out. It stopped with its acid and was just focused on dodging.

Creatures that move as fast as wyverns should keep track of objects around them. As this one was too focused on dodging to see the tree that it got too close to. The tip of its left wing made contact with the giant tree, and it tumbled out of the air.

I charged forward as it got back to its feet. My next two spheres both missed as it was nimble enough on the ground to dodge. Then I was to it. I drew my sword as I did, I activated Room to Draw. The pulse of stone air hit the downed wyvern and knocked it back a few feet.

Its wings acted like there was a gust of air, and it lifted up just a bit. But because of that, its snapping teeth missed me. Then my blade cut into its already damaged wing. It had been using its wings almost like additional legs when dodging, and now it didn’t have support on the right side.

Then its teeth lashed out at me again. I jumped back, but my leg got snagged. I felt its teeth cut into me, and then I felt burning. Deep burning in my leg. I brought the pommel down on top of its head. The teeth rent a hole in my armor as it was knocked off.

I screamed, turned my sword over, and plunged it down onto the spine of the foul beast. The tip of my sword spread the scales apart as it plunged into the back. As my sword drove deep, the lizard gave one last feeble roar. I smiled as I saw it dropping, but my smile turned to pain.

Somehow I had miscounted wyverns. One slammed into my back, causing me to lose grip on my sword and fling me forward. Its sharp claws dug in as it tried to take off. The talons pierced my backplate and snagged in my chainmail. As it tried to pull back, it couldn’t, and all its weight fell back on me.

I was watching my health drain out. I had a debuff that appeared to be related to toxin, and it was eating my leg. I had bleed debuffs that I knew were from my back. My skirt couldn’t heal me because of the talons still in my back.

I was face first on the ground with a hundred pounds of flying lizard trying to get off of me. I tried to push off the ground but could only barely get a knee under me. Then I pushed and rolled while yelling.

As I flipped over, I felt the wing wrap around me. I struggled against the winged hug as my head was slowly being crushed through my cowl. I couldn’t move to get a weapon, and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to do much.

I felt Blink fighting for her life, and I heard Kasidy screaming from off to the side. I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew right here, right now, I was by myself. There was no one else.

My health dropped again, and I cast drain mana on the monster killing me. Then I cast steal health on it. Then I reached out around me with mana. Seeking the dead. Just a few feet away lay a wyvern sucking its last breath of toxic smoke. Through the pain of the talons digging into my back, I cast turn zombie on the monster.

As I felt my personal mana drop, I felt the success of my first-ever zombie. Then I screamed as I felt my skull start to crack. I called out to the zombie and claimed it. As I felt my will lay over it, I commanded it to attack the wyvern killing me.

My health was all over the place as it was stealing it from the monster, killing me, but he was still doing more damage. Then I felt the mouth around my head get ripped off. My cowl was yanked up and over me. The lower part snagged on my chin, only to be more violently yanked again. It slipped off, and I felt the wyvern under me dying.

I cast to turn zombie as its spasms dug deeper than when it had control. I felt the beast lock up. Then I cast claim undead. When the monster was mine, I had it unwrap its wings. Then I slowly pulled myself off its talons.

As my back was freed from the monster, I fell forward and felt healing wash over me. I heard more wyverns around me and turned to look for Kasidy. She was crouched beside a dead wyvern trying to hide from the others that were flying around.

I didn’t know if it would work, but I commanded my two zombies to attack the flying wyverns. It wasn’t that I had miscounted. It was that we attracted more. My first zombie took and loping run and then jumped into the air. The second one didn’t have a functional wing, so it just charged toward them.

I pulled my mana potion from my shield and downed it. Then I reached up toward one of the wyverns and cast drain mana. As I felt the spell connect, I smiled. Necromancers might have a bad name, but there was a bit of power here.

I fired off a festering wound dart at another wyvern. Then popped another drain mana out. Blink appeared as she landed on the largest of the new wyverns. As they fell to the ground, she made short work of its neck. Then she vanished again.

I headed over to where Kasidy was crouching. As I did, I fired off more festering wounds. Only about half hit, but each one was a damage over time. Each one slowly built up. As I was firing them off, I reached out to a few to steal health from.

Then I saw my ground-bound wyvern fire acid. It covered another, which drew it to the ground. I commanded that wyvern to attack any grounded enemies. And so it jumped onto that one.

As soon as I was in range, I turned to the one that Kasidy was hiding behind. It had good wings, so it should be able to fly. Then once claimed, it went into the air. As Blink dropped another one, I turned it and claimed it.

It wasn’t long before the sky was mine. Eight zombie wyverns were flying above us, and three were to attack anything grounded. None of the wyverns escaped; none even tried.

I turned to Kasidy, and she was looking at me with fear. She had the dagger of pausing out, and it was pointing at me.

I rolled my eyes. “What is it Kasidy?”

“You’re a necromancer!”

“No that’s not my class but I do have a few spells. I didn’t ask for them but they were given to me. Nor have I ever used the spells on people. This was the first time that I ever made something undead.”

“But you’re a necromancer!”

I sighed. I was healed but sore. My armor was broken, and some of it was missing. I had two of the wyverns looking for my cowl. Yet here was the girl that was sent to help me from a god, freaking out.

I shook my head. “No. Just because I have the spell it doesn’t make me a necromancer.”

She shook her head no. “Yes it does!”

“I have the cooking skill does that make me a cook?”

“That’s different!”

I laughed. “Well I also can lay them to rest so how does that work for you?”

Kasidy looked at me for a moment and said. “Prove it!”

I called the most broken of the ground-bound ones over. When it was next to me, I drained its mana and then started to dance. As I finished, a light flashed over the wyvern.

I said, “Done.”

Kasidy sighed and slumped to the ground crying. I headed over and picked up the gear I had dropped. Then I reached my hand out to her.

I coughed a little, and she looked up. “Hey, Kasidy we should go. We don’t want to stay here with all the noise. If there is anything else out here it will be here soon.”

* * *