Birth of a Necromancer 017

"Bah! We're meant for greater things than this!".

The one complaining was the adoptive daughter of the De La Pole family, which was the family governing the town of Elcrada. She had just finished looking through the quests, which were posted on the bulletin-board, where the people's requests were put on display. Usually, there were many different quests to choose from, but currently there were only goblin-extermination-quests. The easiest of the easy.

Clearly disheartened, the party leader, Robinia, sat down at the table the party always used.

The sun was shining outside. The weather had been fantastic lately. No rain, no fog, and no storms. Every day was perfect to hunt any type of monster, which usually was a good thing. However, in this specific party's case, it was horrible. All of the good requests were already taken by stronger parties.

Annoyed at his leader's constant complaining, Fang, who had been sitting next to, Robinia stood up and walked up to the receptionist. That man usually kept some extra requests lying around. Requests that no-one else wanted, or dared to take.

"What can I do for you?" The receptionist said, even though he probably knew the reason for Fangs appearance at his desk.

The trapper pointed at the drawer, where he knew the extra requests were kept. Weak as he was, the receptionist was easy to pressure into handing out said requests.

"Right, I think I have some lying around. Just a moment".

It seemed like the young man wasn't even interested in arguing today. The small party was in luck.

The receptionist returned with a single piece of parchment, and a grave look on his face. Maybe this was exactly what they had been looking for?

"I have this one request, but I have to warn you. It won't be easy, and can only be done at night".

"We'll take it!" The party leader shouted from the table, where she was sitting. She hadn't even considered what the objective of the quest was. Not that Fang had the authority to argue with her anyway.

It had been settled. The quest was theirs, so the party went out to kill time, until the darkness of the night fell upon the world.

Many hours passed before the time to complete the quest eventually came. Nighttime. The time of the day when most people are tucked in their beds, sleeping. Most people will have someone watching over them, making sure nothing bad happens to their loved ones, who're sleeping, completely oblivious to the fact that the night is long, and full of terrors.

To adventurers, the night wasn't necessarily a time of slumber. At night, extermination-quests gave twice the amount of money, they normally would, so newbie adventurers would often go out of their way to hunt goblins and the like at night. The reason this was necessary, for the guild to do, was that most monsters were nocturnal. While it may be possible to stumble across a few goblins, maybe even an orc, during the hours of daylight, the forest wouldn't truly become dangerous before nighttime, when hundreds upon hundreds of monsters were roaming the forest.

In order to stop the monsters from banding together, adventurers were hired to keep them split up, or preferably, dead.

For this exact reason, the small but strong party of four, were adventuring together in the woods, looking for any and all monsters. Since their party-leader was a noble, they didn't care much for the money, but more about the boost to their reputation, the experience and the potential rank-up, they would gain from slaying a large amount of monsters.

Even though Elcrada was known as "The Town of Adventurers", it wasn't the only place where the services of mercenaries were needed. There were many towns and villages, where monsters would strike, if given the opportunity. Lack of military presence in a town could also be made up for by hiring adventurers, who would keep the peace in town with their, usually superior abilities, which was quite the lucrative ware.

Robinia's party's goal, was to end up working in and around the Imperial Capital of the mythical Northern Region, where the ancient evil, only mentioned in legends, had once resided. It was a foolhardy goal, really, but that didn't stop eager upstarts, such as themselves, who had still only gotten the smallest taste of life.

Even though, he was technically the weakest link in the party, Fang, the trapper, was holding most of the party's kills during nighttime. Because of his skills as a trapper, he was a splendid hunter at night. In some cases, he was superior to the otherwise nocturnal residents of the forest, such as goblins. Goblins were easy targets for him at night, because their night-vision only was comparative with a human's. That was, however, also one of the reasons they were dangerous to villages and such. They functioned both during the night and day.

Fang got most of his kills by skewering his foes on his spear, which he would throw from a safe distance, almost killing the target, before walking up to it and twisting its neck. It was quite the brutal way of fighting, really, but as brutal as it was, it was equally efficient.

But even though they would be profitable to kill, the goblins weren't the party's targets. They were hunting a much more sinister foe. There were rumors of a creature called a "Wraith" hiding out in the forest. Wraiths were incarnations of very high concentrations of dark magic, which would take physical form, as an undead with much higher stats and better abilities than the puny skeletons, which were the most common of undead along with spirits.

Pushing a branch aside, Fang scouted a small, circular place, free of trees. If one were to find such a place, they would be sure to encounter goblins, because such places were perfect for setting up camp, but here... There were no goblins. Not even any corpses.

A strange air hung over the silent clearance of trees, making the entire party unsettled. They could feel that something unnatural resided here. Something monstrous. Fang placed some of the firewood, he always carried around in his bag, in the middle of the clearance. The party sat down on some tree trunks, which were conveniently placed around the firewood. There was no doubt about it. This had once been a camp. But where were the campers?

A gust of wind blew the silent trapper's hair aside, revealing his squinted eyes. He was searching for whatever had caused the purge of the camp. There was a good chance that it was their target. Fang was well aware of this, so he didn't move an inch. He knew that if he were to venture outside the clearing, he would be killed, should the wraith be there.

The strength of the wind kept increasing to the point where it made the strong man stagger a bit. There could be no doubt. The wraith was in the area.

"Prepare yourselves" Fang said, tightening his grip around his trusty spear.

His relationship to the party was a strange one. While he was contracted to protect the daughter of the lord of Elcrada, he didn't feel anything for the other members of the party. To him, they were nothing more than swords and staves, ready to protect himself and his mistress. But was that all that was to them? He had started wondering, ever since the elf, Ash, had joined their party. That one seemed to lack any interest in their leader. Sometimes, Fang even suspected him of hating her.

'Hate'. A peculiar feeling to the trapper, who had spent the first thirty years of his life hunting and skinning animals in the mountains. He had lived in solitude, completely isolated from civilization, until his home was discovered by the party of two adventurers from Elcrada. It had been quite strange for him, being taken in by people he didn't know. The first people he had made contact with in years. Now, he was contracted to protect those people, who had ripped him out of his own little world. Although it would have been logical to do so, Fang never hated the people that found him. Hate was an emotion, unknown to him at the time. With fear and thrill being the only emotions known to him, he simply didn't have the capacity to hate.

But this man, Ash, seemed to hate them all. While he couldn't feel the emotion himself, Fang, who had lived in isolation, removed from people, had an outside perspective into the lives of his companions. Even though he couldn't feel their emotions, himself, he could understand them, to some degree. That, he was quite good at. His level of empathy was quite advanced, which was strange, seeing as social skills hadn't exactly been in the cards for him. Therefore, he could clearly see the strong emotions in Ash, who masked them with laziness and indifference.

A man who hated, and had the capacity to kill, was a threat to his lady. Just because they were technically allied with him, they weren’t immune to betrayal on his part. After all, he wasn't contracted to protect anyone.

But that wasn't the only thing that worried Fang. As a trapper, he had a great amount of skill in detecting the presence of enemies. Usually, a single person appeared as "one person", when Fang tried detecting their presence, but with Ash... He sensed not one, but two presences.

The wind, which had been blowing like crazy, suddenly stopped.

'The calm before the storm' Fang thought to himself, while preparing to throw his spear, which he had applied deadly toxin to.

As expected, an explosion of wind could be heard, and leaves could be seen blasted off of the plants, they had once belonged to. It was as if the amount of oxygen in the air was disappearing. Fang was reminded of his time in the thin air of the mountains. In the mountains, he had been on par with what on ground-level would be considered a good soldier. But when brought down from the mountains, he realized that his strength, which had been limited by the lack of oxygen, his muscles had been getting. He far surpassed any warrior, but decided that his survival skills were better used as a trapper.

Remembering his situation, the greasy-haired trapper looked up, and saw a tall creature, wearing a black, hooded robe, which covered whatever was hidden beneath it. Red dots could be seen beneath the hood, indicating where it was looking. Strangely, it hadn't moved since appearing. Instead, it was looking at Ash, who was staring back at it. It was like seeing to old friends that had been separated for a while, stare at each other, trying to recognize each other.

Fang used the opportunity to throw his spear at the wraith, who was busy staring at the elven newcomer.

Completely ignoring him, the wraith let the spear pierce its head. The spear passed through its head, as if there was nothing underneath the hood.

"Flame Lance!" Lin shouted, once again piercing the wraith's head with the cone of fire, which emerged from her outstretched palm.

The attack lit the hood on fire, but once again, the attack merely passed through the enemy, who still appeared to think of its opponents as a trifling matter.

Maybe it realized its situation was dire, or maybe it merely wanted to rid itself of the nuisances, which were firing at it. Nevertheless, the wraith drew a massive scythe. The kind of scythe one would normally see farmers use, when harvesting their crops.

It turned its gaze towards the mistress, who had already anticipated that it would most likely her first, due to her being the most imminent threat.

As if distance, time or wind resistance didn't mean anything, the wraith, which was around twenty meters away from her, reached Robinia in a split second. While speeding towards her, it had prepared to strike with its scythe, which it swung at the elven girl, the second it reached her.

With impressive speed, the mistress blocked the incoming attack, but the strike had so much force behind it, it caused her enhanced blade to chip.

Enhanced weapons were extremely luxurious weapons, designed to never break. One would have to strike a boulder a hundred times, before it would start to dull.

Fang knew that the situation was bad. A wraith was more than capable of wiping out an entire platoon of thirty soldiers. However, the four adventurers it was fighting were far more experienced than a mere soldier, making their individual worth much higher.

Well aware of the dangers of doing so, Fang drew his skinning-knife, and charged at their opponent.

"Hunter's Eye!" He shouted. It was an ability, which exposed the target's weaknesses, making it easy for the user to slay any opponent.

Only one spot was exposed. Its 'face'.

"Attack its face!" Fang shouted, letting the entire party know. Luckily for him, almost everyone knew about the ability, so they were quick to depend on it.

Lin was about to cast her ⌈  Flame Lance ⌋, but Ash was faster than her. He grabbed onto the mage's shoulder, using as a platform to throw himself at the opponent. It was a signature move of his, not supported by any ability, but as efficient as if it had been supported by one.

"Cross Cut!" Robinia shouted, shooting two bursts of wind in the reaper-like figure's face.

Ash didn't waste a second. He used the opening, the mistress had made, in order to get close enough to stab it in the face. For a moment, he was floating in front of the wraith, which, even though it had regained its balance, didn't retaliate. It was strange, but Fang chose to prioritize the fact that Ash was making a difference.

A loud wail was clearly head, as the ornamental knife, the elf was using, was plunged deep into the wraith's face. The attack was so strong that it blew away the wraith's hood.

Underneath the hood, was a face. It was bony and hideous to look at, but the strangest thing about it, was the fact that it was transparent everywhere, except for the front, where Ash had stabbed it.

"So that was why" Fang said to himself, finally understanding why its face had been its only weakness. It was the only part of it, which had a physical form, or in other words - could be hurt.

The elf, who seemed much less interested in the mechanics of his opponent, twisted his knife around, digging deeper and deeper into his opponent’s skull until it shattered a bit. The knife broke loose, and Ash, who had been holding on to the knife, which was stuck in the skull, fell to the ground.

Unfortunately, the wraith remained undefeated. It moved the lower part of its skull, and let out a ghastly voice, no louder than a whisper, and yet it reached everyone around it.

"Death is not the end".

Following these work, it raised its right hand, which wasn't holding the scythe. A circle of purple light appeared around its transparent, bony wrist, which had emerged from under the robe.

A similar circle appeared on the ground. Actually, it was a completely identical circle. A few seconds later, a noise could be heard from underground. Shortly after, the ground inside the circle started moving upwards, as if being pushed by a mole.

The entire party was watching the scene, half knowing what was coming.

"Skeletons incoming, remember to crush their skulls!" Robinia said, preparing to use her chipped sword.

Ash readied his knife. He seemed disappointed that he hadn't been able to finish off the opponent, even though he had been given a great opportunity.

A bony hand emerged from the ground. No bigger than a child's, it had dug its way through the dirt, finally reaching fresh air. Another hand appeared, helping the other hand pull the rest of its body up.

"I guess we found the goblins" Lin said. She seemed sad on behalf of the dead goblins, who were suffering the disgrace of being revived as undead slaves. She shot an ⌈  Arcane Arrow ⌋ at the newly-revived skeleton, instantly killing it.

Unfortunately, seven more had already risen, and more were on their way.

While Robinia, Lin and Fang's own expressions were growing darker and darker, Ash's face, on the other hand, was gradually twisting more and more, until it looked like that of a monster.

Without wasting a second on throwing together a strategy, the elf charged into the skeletons, which now numbered twelve.

His movements became a blur, as he stabbed, hacked, and slashed at the skeletons. Pieces of bone were spraying everywhere, while he was sending the skeletons back to their graves. Fang had to admire his ability to kill, without the use of abilities, but for the same reason, he would have to make sure he stayed away from his mistress.

A minute later, or so, Ash had finished slaying every single skeleton. Their skulls laid shattered on the ground around him.

It appeared that the wraith had stopped attempting to summon more, as it was useless when the elf kept killing them off as soon as they were raised. Instead, it looked like the wraith was focusing its energy on strengthening itself. It was preparing for the assault that was about to occur.

Wraiths were extremely terrifying opponents because of their intelligence alone. While skeletons were dangerous because they would keep attacking, disregarding any and all consequences, wraiths were a whole other breed of monster. It treasured its own life, and wouldn't let anyone take it away easily. It had enough intelligence to be self-aware. It had a 'consciousness', which allowed it to make decisions according to its situation, unlike skeletons, who would always attack in the same way, regardless of the strength of its  opponent, the terrain, or any other factors that might've otherwise helped it win.

Ready to strike, the wraith rushed past Ash, who it still refused to target for whatever reason, reaching Robinia, who was unprepared. The scythe hit her, cutting halfway through her arm. The wraith proceeded to enhance its other hand, using magic, allowing it to hit the mistress.

The stricken elf flew into a nearby tree, denting it. She proceeded to slide down the tree, on which she had landed halfway to the top. The mistress was bleeding excessively.

"Heal!" Lin shouted. It wasn't the first time anyone had gotten hurt on a quest, so she kept her calm with relative ease.

The wound on Robinia's arm started to heal, but healing magic couldn't replace the loss of blood, she had suffered. The party leader was unconscious.

Ash was still standing where he had slain the skeletons, staring at where the wraith had been standing. Slowly, he turned around to look at it once more. He started walking towards it, knife held tightly in his hand.

Still ignoring him, the wraith turned around to look at Lin, who had healed the person it thought it had killed. It stalked floating towards her, slowly, unlike how it usually moved.

Fang realized that this was because it was enhancing itself once again. It appeared that it needed body-enhancements before it could move as fast as it had before.

Ash seemed to have realized this as well, so he took the opportunity to sprint the remaining way to the wraith, grabbing onto its robe in order to swing himself up. He was positioned right in front of its face. Both Ash and Fang knew that this was the decisive strike. The elf took a breath, pulled his arm back in order to gather as much force behind the strike as at all possible, before plunging the knife into the wraith's eye socket.

Surprisingly, the wraith didn't collapse, neither did it dissipate. It exploded into a burst of wind on par with a storm. It blasted the leaves off of all of the surrounding trees, making the area look as if it existed in its own little world, separate from the rest of the forest. Amidst the rain of leaves stood the former slave, so different from how he had once been. Before, he was a victim of oppression and prejudice, unable to do anything about his unfortunate situation. But now... Now he had the power.

Fang could see the distorted expression on the elf's face. This man was dangerous. It was a man that hated the world, and wouldn't mind seeing it burn before him. The trapper didn't know if the others had realized it yet, but this man was far more dangerous than any wraith they would ever encounter.

It would seem that Fang would have to take matters into his own hands, if his mistress's safety was to be guaranteed. This man would have to disappear, and the greasy-haired trapper, Fang, would make it happen.

No matter the cost.

Chapter end