Demonic Magician

Dear ‘Lady’

I appreciate your previous correspondence in relation to my Guardian powers.

At this juncture, I will have to decline your mentorship - as I have had a better offer from the Eternal Wardens. Down here in the south, I am even further from your desperate stench!

Break? I’ll allow you one if you need, but I have yet to even reach my peak.

I do not gamble, I just win.

Yours insincerely,

Max, the Magnificent

Tanya had a courier item, so we had sent off a polite message to the Lady in Red before leaving our place of rest. I wasn’t entirely sure she would take the bait, but trying to place us in the southwest might give us the element of surprise when we suddenly turned up at the necromancer’s place in the center of the area.

We could use any help that we could get.

The gloom of our impending fight covered the sky from one side of the horizon to the other. Pensive, and full of potential rain - yet staying dry at this juncture. Dark enough to dim the usual daylight that would illuminate our trail through a patch of woodland. Now shaded greens and muted browns lined our silent procession.

It turned out that yes - Roger could inhabit my fake corpse. Seeing my own body being used in this way was a lot more awkward that I had first imagined. Doubly so when Ren came out of the house and pulled a face.

Not to mention the act of dying hadn’t hit the notes of amusement we were aiming for. Quinn still looked a little queasy, and I think Tanya regretted asking the question in the first place.

Still, another note taken. Something else I could use in my acts. The time taken for us all to get cleaned and prepared seemed to blur past, my mind rearranging thoughts and preparing tricks or possible scenarios taking up the majority of my brain power. Roger went away before my corpse expired, as I didn’t want to find out what happened after the ten minutes just in case it was something the System didn’t like.

Ren was calm as she walked beside me. More relaxed than I’d seen her possibly ever, but focused solely on the task at hand. Which was - getting us to the site of the necromancer without issue.

I’d sent a quick message to Fiona to let her know what we were up to. Received some well wishes from their group - they had faith in us. If anyone, it had to be us…

And it would be. The plan? Go and kill them all. Couldn’t put it any more simple than that. Even with Tanya’s previous knowledge, we didn’t know exactly who would be there, how things were arranged, or what we’d have to face. Sometimes improv was just pushing the right dominoes into position, and I had a whole handful waiting to be placed.

We knew it to be a small trading post with a handful of buildings. What the Crimson had done to it in the absence of normal proceedings was anyone’s guess. Another fortress seemed unlikely. Tanya had raised the point that a large undead army like we had seen would take up a lot of room. Any ramshackle structures built would more than likely be pens or ways in which to store and coral the raised zombies until they were needed. Probably a watchtower or similar, if they were smart.

They weren’t. But we’d give them the benefit of the doubt so that we were prepared.

Ren had several throwing knives on her belt, alongside as many glass bottles of water we could affix to her. I had plenty in my Inventory that I could hand over too - the power of her smite shot turning the liquid into something holy being a huge boon against the walking corpses. Despite her usual role being at the back of the group, she had made the decision to keep up with me and my bullshit.

There were still nerves within me about that prospect, but I gave her my blessing. We had proven we could work well together against the smugglers - it was time we cut our teeth on something with higher stakes.

Wolf had the zombie-curse immunity idol and his show outfit on. He didn’t really need more than that - and was content enough to know his role in proceedings. Getting stuck in and dismantling anything in his way. Any defensive skill or potion we had available would be going toward his performance. After Tanya ran some numbers with him, she had called his defensive capabilities beyond her understanding. That meant good.

The fateweaver and Quinn knew the supporting roles they had to play, and would actually be staying as far away from main stage as their skills would allow. They weren’t built to be the same kind of powerhouses as us original trio were. While the magicians took the main stage, they’d give their support from the shadows, keeping safe behind the curtain as much as activities allowed.

As for me? Other than spending the last hour or so arranging my Inventory over and over, I also had three wands and scrolls loaded in the holders we seldom used. Ren was equally equipped, the majority of any such magical equipment shared across between the two of us. Other than that, what else did I need? I’d practiced everything that I could have. My demons were primed. Every mote of strength I had available was spent and ready.

Ren nudged me. “What shall we do after we crush this, trickster?”

I raised an eyebrow at her and smiled. Amusingly enough, the cliche thought of celebrating at a tavern didn’t fit exactly well with this adventuring Party. None of us drank alcohol, which made sense for most of us - although Quinn was a surprise. He said a misspent youth vomiting up the stuff had all but washed any desire to imbibe it further. Ren had never said why she avoided it, but I filled in the gaps with whatever I felt was acceptable.

“A day or two back at the cottage sounds like bliss,” I replied.

“That was my pick as well.” She stuck her tongue out at me before focusing back on our surroundings.

One day, that might be our continual state. No conflict or struggles. Just peace and the soft comfort of love and friendship between us. Shame that nugget of our future was buried beneath so much muck and bloodied corpses. Still, my shovel had been sharpened, and I was prepared to put in a good day’s work to reach what we craved.

A quick to the Map, and we were getting closer. Several hours of trekking had gone by like nothing, our nerves and apprehension too shaky to have a firm grip on the passage of time. The sky had darkened further, yet no rain had fallen so far. Something else adding to the tension.

Wolf stopped ahead of us and waved his nose in the air. “Stench of death is strong.”

“Already?” I brought up the Map again. We weren’t even downwind.

“Stay alert,” Tanya said, as if we hadn’t already been. “With the Guardian’s powers, it could mean Tyler has been able to raise another army already.”

Something we’d planned for. Not that we wanted to - after last time. Without a demon there to goad my Power bar to its peak, I doubt I could woo the undead enough to get my Domain the traditional way. Knowing what we were getting into - and being on the attacking side - we had more confidence in going against a horde.

“Full disclosure,” I mentioned. “My right arm has been feeling restless.”

“Any pain?” Ren asked, concern across her brow.

I shook my head. “Just means we are getting closer.” A little bit of stating the obvious that didn’t quite hit on the dramatic level.

She pulled a face at the statement, but then pointed a finger out at the scenery. “It’s not just the smell of potential zombies.”

The group stopped to look at what she was signaling. Just slightly ahead of us, some of the vegetation was withered and dried. No, it wasn’t just that patch - but several areas in my vision seemed to be in some stage of decay.

“Rotting away at the very land,” Quinn grumbled, his hand on the pouch holding his Class weapon.

“Disgusting,” Wolf agreed.

Our hearts hardened to cutting the cancer of necromancy from the world, we pressed on.

“Scouts?” Ren whispered.

I narrowed my eyes through the foliage we were hidden behind. A small group of zombies, maybe half a dozen. Generally too simple-minded to provide early warnings in the traditional sense, that just prompted more questions. Did the necromancer have some sort of tie to them, like Tanya’s proximity idol? Was this just to dissuade Players or Monsters from getting any closer?

They looked to me to make a decision - I could see it in their faces as I turned back to face them. A glance at the Map said we were pretty close. We had the time to spend circling around and avoiding this group… but if there were similar groups all the way around, then we’d have to bite the bullet, eventually. Didn’t matter how quickly we killed them if Tyler knew either way.

“I’ll distract them over to the right. The rest of you go to the left and we’ll leave them in the dust.”

Some hesitation in their acceptance, but they did agree. I was gambling on them sending notification to the necromancer if they died - so if we kept them alive, then we might pass without a trace. Naturally, if I was wrong, then we’d just have to fight a little harder if we were expected. I had a feeling it was going to be a rough day either way.

On my lead, I emerged from the bushes and ran toward the group. Five pairs of yellow eyes turned toward me, and I flanked more to the right to draw their attention away.

The Party escaped to the left, scurrying past while I kept all eyes on me. It was only natural, of course. Walking backwards, I tried to look past the undead to see when the others had gotten far enough out of range. Looked about-

Right foot caught on an errant tree root, causing me to stumble. Cliche, perhaps, and it didn’t take the zombies long to capitalize on my error. It was only natural for them, of course. A hand grabbed at my arm, preventing me from falling over backward. Before I had a chance to thank the kind gentleman, a second zombie slammed into me.

I hit the ground, the air immediately knocked from my lungs as the decaying corpse landed atop me. Sharp teeth bit into my neck with unexpected strength, a burst of my warm blood soaking through my suit as I squirmed ineffectively against their weight.

From a dozen or so feet away, I used my invisibility to watch the undead eat my fake body for a couple of second, before shivering and moving to catch the Party up. They weren’t too far ahead, and I watched Wolf’s eyes follow me before I dropped my invisibility.

“Should be okay,” I murmured. “Unless it’s not.”

As much as they disliked that statement, they were too focused on the bigger threat to be annoyed at me. Even as we continued, more of the land looked dessicated - dried, as if all life had been drained from it. I wasn’t a gambling man, but… I should probably stop saying that.

I wasn’t a betting man, but my assumption would be that the necromancer needed to draw on life power from his surroundings to summon his zombies. Made some more sense than having to find corpses the traditional way - especially with the amount he had first sent our way.

We headed slightly more to the west, hoping to find some higher ground that the Map seemed to promise. Getting eyes on the trading outpost with being spotted would be a boon. Even using my hell-dove to switch into the air invisibly might draw attention since I couldn’t also hide the demon.

It turned out that such thought was unnecessary.

At an outcropping of dead trees, we stopped and hid ourselves against the browned bushes. I could feel the tension as the group tried to take in our environment.

Finding the high ground was easy enough, as the area before us had become sunken into the terrain. It was as if we were at the edge of a very large dish, or rather, a pond. Gray, murky water swirled slowly around a central area.

Oh, it was not water - but milling zombies.

The central trading outpost had been reinforced with a circular wall of stone to keep the undead at bay. At least twice as many that had attacked us the other day.

Ren narrowed her glare, putting her hand over her eyes slowly to block out what little daylight came from the dark clouds above.

“More than one Party,” she murmured. “Can’t tell much, but more than five for certain.”

Crowds of our hungry audience lay in wait, blocking the entrance to the main stage. There was no red carpet to allow us access to the venue where we could spar with our contemporaries.

We’d have to slog it though, elbow to elbow against the unwashed masses. It wouldn’t take long before we were noticed and a plan against us would be raised. Still, we couldn’t let a group of hecklers ruin the perfomance for everyone else.

I grinned and gave the group a nod.

Our biggest and most elaborate show started now.