《From the Ashes》23. He went that way.
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Around half a day’s journey ahead of him at the very bottom of the mountain range he was heading for, in the low foothills Kadin saw a light flash, he was still too far away to see what it was, but it was where he was heading and he did feel like it was his target, as he slightly adjusted his course towards where he seen the flash and as he moved there was another, a flash tinged with green, then another and another as this was happening there was also a bolt of blue tinged lightning the struck the ground in roughly the same location, it was then he started hearing a light echo of the boom and crash of destruction spells being used. Kadin pushed himself forwards eyes locked on the spot far ahead, for a good few minutes there continued to be flashes and booms and there was even lighting strikes hitting the area around there, green lightning, then a pink bolt then an echoing boom of what looked like two bolts hitting each other, then a completely silent ‘boom’ from a black bolt surrounded by a white halo, it wasn’t so much a boom but more of a complete absence of all sound even the wind and his footsteps were silent as he felt the force of that strike reverberate through his chest. After only a few moments the flashes and lightning dimmed down and were gone leaving only a small black scorch mark on foot hill and a small string of black smoke raising above it.
Kadin pushed himself forwards again heading for the little black scar on the hillside he assumed it was the necromancer and that he was attacked by some of the wild animals of these lands, he had been worried about the increased magical energy here and that the necromancers powers would be massively increased like his own, but Kadin was a mixed fighter not just relying on his casting abilities. But his target seemed to be purely magical focused so that would put him at a disadvantage, but with the lightning being attracted to magical energy’s he should have the advantage. Plus with him pushing and unlocking seventh tier magic his magical energy got stronger too if it did come to a situation where they needed to trade magical attacks.
Seventh tier, Kadin had been trying for years to push himself there, with seventh tier magic he could learn flight magic, as well as some extremely powerful attack spells. His sixth tier spells would also be fifty percent easier to cast and only require half as much mana, one to forth tier casts wouldn’t cost anything. He was quite exited, already planning to go to Aurora and learn some seventh tier spells and look at a progression path for eighth tier, it would take years but it was something to work towards. He snapped himself out of it, his current mission comes first not only did he need to kill the necromancer he needed to make his way out of the blasted lands without being killed himself, he couldn’t afford to lose focus now. So he pushed himself on , the land and area around him was bare and quiet, he still kept his senses sharp looking for threats, but without being able to use his long sense he didn’t let himself relax or lose focus.
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He was getting closer and closer to his destination, by his estimate he should get there within the next hour, he was no at the base of the hill the land started to rise in front of him a gentle sloping rise. At first what was a little black scar on the land seemed to grow and grow until now he could see the blackened charred ground was several meters long and half as wide. He still couldn’t detect anything – and as he got closer he decided to risk it – he pulled his mana and focused his sense and let out another long sense pulse, surprised as there was no reaction from the storm clouds above, he felt as it passed over the charred ground and a little beyond and still nothing in its full range no life anywhere.
Now only a hundred meters or so away he slowed, he let out long sense pulse again nothing from the clouds above, nothing withing the blackened land or around it, still no signed of life.
As he approached he started to see shapes amongst the blackened and burnt ground little mounts that were black or ash white, with little patches of browns and greens, what looked like a boulder as tall as Kadin was and four or five times as wide. He focused on the one closest to him and made his way towards it , a little patch of green and a few scraps of cloth and a small rusty sword still held in its hand, he turned it over and seen the large vacant eyes of a goblin.
It was about four foot tall with a skinny frail looking body, still covered the few scraps of cloth around its waist and a light brown leather patch on one of its knees and what looked like rough wooden shoes tied with leather cord. Its arm and legs long and thin, its head almost looking too big for its body with large eyes and a wide mouthing. Its other arm missing just below the shoulder leaving a withered looking stump. He moved on to the next one, another goblin it was a pale grey and looked as if all the moisture in its body had been removed – ready to crumble to dust at the slightest touch, then the next one, then the next. The next mass was larger a darker green and bulging with muscles - an orc. Where goblins are used as cannon fodder and/or emergency food rations, the orcs were to soldiers better armed and armoured and much tougher, they had to be in there infinite battle with the dwarfs. A dozen goblins could hack and stab and slash at a dwarf all day and not even brake their skin an orc on the other hand could almost cleave a young dwarf in two not quite – but they did like to try, young dwarfs; Some of the older dwarfs skin was as tough as diamond and have no end to their stamina. This orc though was about as tall as Kadin himself he had on good leather armour, and an old cutlass still clenched in its fist. Its entire body bulge wit muscle and its arms were as wide as Kadin’s torso, this one had long slightly curved tusks, large bat like ears that had various piercings of gold, iron and bone. A top knot around a shaved head with long braided tail the would have dropped more than half way down his back, which also had a blade at the tip so it could be used as a whipping weapon. It had a large bulbus upturned nose but the most glaring fact of all were the two empty sockets where its eyes use to be, there were only a few drops of blood on its face but other than the missing eyes the orc looked normal, its body was closed and it was clearly dead – but Kadin couldn’t see a cause other than the missing eyes, he was about to move on to examine the next body when something caught his eye a pouch tied to the leather armoured skirt around the orc, Kadin took the pouch and looked inside, there was a couple of potions a health one and one that was a dark slime green, a few pieces of gold and a small blue soul gem, he took the items and moved on to the next body. The last body he seen was the largest a dark grey body with toughened scales of a darker grey. A hill troll, about eight feet tall and strong enough to rip an orc in two, this one had a fabric skirt around its waist and what appeared to be a small tree as a club, its back was grey and scaly its chest was a lighter almost orange colour, its head looked like a clump of misshapen clay a long slit of a mouth a small almost flat snout and small black eyes. The cause of death for this one was easy find it had a hole the size of Kadin’s head burnt right through its chest, like it had been hit with a flame beam blackened and charred edges on the front and back. All in all there were twelve bodies around the ground six goblins, four orcs, the troll and one that was just blackened set of bones, once Kadin checked the bodies he had a look around – looking for tracks and after a few moments of searching he found some, rough dirt displacement that he could tell was a footprint, a human boot print heading on a slight tangent further up the hill. There was a slight dip in between two peaks that was in a straight path of where those boot prints were heading.
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He had made up time the tracks were only a couple of hours old, this was where he would catch up – this is where he would fulfil his contract and kill this necromancer who infected the people he came across like a virus, Kadin set off towards the dip; he made it three steps before the arrows began to fall around him.
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