Wild Era 3, Ch 26: Necromancer

As the necromancer crossed the waves, more bones flew up to surround him in a cloak that trailed out across the sky. Wraiths and specters appeared as well, howling as they flowed in a dark wind.

The force crossing the distance was incredible and it was enough to make the weather change, even here on the Ocean of Storms. Clouds began to form and tear apart again, twisting in chaotic streams as mana lashed angrily around the shore of the island.

Waves rose higher, slamming into the side of the ship, and screaming winds raged between the masts, tearing at the sails. Only the ship’s enchantments kept it from tilting over.

The Third Evolution was vastly stronger than the Second. 

The Second focused on a mana field and controlling the area around you, but the Third was sometimes called the Unity Realm. 

It was where your attributes and overall energy began to merge together, so that there was less distinction between mana and stamina, health and strength. Weaknesses began to disappear as your stronger attributes covered for the lesser ones. 

It also meant that you were capable of channeling more force into a spell or an attack, filling it with your entire power, including parts that you weren’t able to reach before.

Despite that, Kelin’s expression was calm as he assessed the necromancer’s mana.

The Third Evolution was strong, but the changes were mainly preparing the body for the Fourth Evolution. It was only at the Fourth Evolution that the foundation of the earlier Evolutions would form a Concept and tap into spatial energy. 

The Third Evolution had power, but it wasn’t intrinsically different from the Second in terms of its mana field or overall abilities, and power was something he could deal with. 

He had plenty of it himself.

If this fight had happened before he had his own mana field, it would have been almost impossible to handle, but with one, he was confident. 

He might not be able to kill this necromancer, but he wouldn’t lose too badly.

Protecting the ship would be the hardest part. Unless he did something, it was going to be torn to shreds.

Gaius, he sent. Come back. 

A moment later, golden runes glowed across his skin as the elemental infused him with durability. Gaius also brought the Soulfire Sigil with him, which would be critical, and Kelin tucked it back into his robes.

At the same time, he sent a message to Esla down in the hold. 

“Take your family and teleport,” he said. “I’ll find you later in Highmist. A Third Evolution necromancer from the island is attacking. The pirates were planning to sell you to him. Most of the people here would have been sacrifices for whatever he’s up to. I’ve already sent some messages to the guild, but tell one of the captains in Highmist what you’ve seen. ”

He left out the rest of the information, since it wouldn’t help.

“What about the ship and everyone else?” Esla asked, sounding worried. “They don’t deserve to die.”

“I’ll do what I can to protect them,” Kelin said. “Go now, unless you want to risk your children.”

He might not be able to save everyone, but he could at least help her. 

As for the rest, he would try.

A moment later, he felt the wave of spatial energy as the teleportation scroll activated. A quick scan told him they were gone.

That left him with the problem of saving the ship, but he had a plan for that.

He reached into his storage and pulled out the Shard of Dark Ice and several high-quality Darkness elemental crystals. Then he began to cast the spell that went with it.

The crystals dissolved into a wave of dark energy that swirled around the shard, but it wasn’t enough for what he wanted, so he added more. 

Then he pulled out some Water elemental crystals and dissolved them as well. His Water affinity wasn’t very high, so this would speed up the casting and improve the result.

He didn’t have long, but movements were quick and perfect. 

The Spirit of the Dark Ocean spell was powerful, but at heart it was a simple summoning. With the shard to act as a core and the crystals to provide the energy, it was fast enough.

The shard absorbed all of the mana in an instant and he hurled it over the side of the ship.

A whirlpool of dark water appeared off the side of the prow, spreading until it covered a hundred feet. It was so powerful that it dragged the ship toward it, pulling it in a curving line.

Runes hummed along the sides and the deck, trying to straighten the ship out and match it to the path it had been holding before, but they couldn’t break the pull.

The water swelled upward, turning into a towering humanoid figure. Sheets of water cascaded around it, twisting and falling in curtains that sent a spray of freezing cold droplets in every direction.

The elemental was twenty feet tall and made of swirling black water. There was some definition of powerful shoulders and muscles that formed the arms and legs, but the lines came and went in raging currents that didn’t stay for long.

As the elemental formed, the whirlpool at its feet calmed and the energy that had been in it leapt upward, making the elemental grow another ten feet. Its shoulders broadened and its body turned even darker.

The Shard of Dark Ice was faintly visible where its heart would have been, a sliver of darker energy at the center.

The ship was turning toward it now, the prow pointing directly at the elemental, and it turned to look at Kelin. Its eyes were whirlpools of spiraling darkness. 

There was a wave of angry will that washed over him, tearing at his mind and testing his resolve, but Kelin waved it away, letting the impact shatter on his soul wards.

The force of its will was powerful and if he’d been weaker, it could have broken his mind, but it wasn’t enough to disturb him.

That was the problem with regular summoning contracts. The elementals that arrived were not always happy to be there. They’d been pulled away from other business and there was no way to tell what their reaction would be.

Even if they were interested, it didn’t mean they would do what you wanted. They had their own will and would easily turn to other pursuits, whether that was attacking you or leaving, unless the contract spelled it out.

A backlash from summoning was common.

Fortunately, this summoning wasn’t too bad, which was partially due to the Epic tier of the spell and partially due to the strength of Kelin’s soul, but the elemental still had a trace of irritation at being interrupted. 

It tested his will again and when it found he was unmoved, it settled down.

He analyzed it to see the result.

Spirit of the Dark Ocean. Elemental. Level 245.

That wasn’t too bad. Level 245 wasn’t enough to fight the necromancer for long, but the power from the elemental crystals hadn’t gone to waste.

“Orders?” The elemental’s voice rumbled in Kelin’s mind like the roar of a tidal wave.

“Catch,” Kelin said as pulled the trident he’d just obtained from the pirate captain out of his storage and tossed it across the distance to the elemental.

The elemental grabbed the trident easily. As soon as it did, lightning flared from the trident and became a crackling layer across its body. Leaping bolts wove in and out of the dark water that made it up.

The swells in the ocean around it grew larger, like a brewing storm.

Lightning and water went well together, so even without both affinities, the elemental could still use the trident. The lightning wouldn’t harm it.

“Protect the ship,” Kelin said as he added a burst of information to the elemental that had far more complex instructions. “Guide it away from here to the southwest. There’s about to be a fight.”

“Acknowledged.” The elemental raised the trident and moved forward, looking like a dark god of the sea.

Waves rose beneath him as he took up a position in front of the ship, sending up a spray of mist in every direction. The droplets hung in the air, creating a defensive shield. 

Then the elemental pointed its trident to the southwest and the water below the prow shifted, changing into a massive current.

The ship began to turn.

What would have been difficult for Kelin was as easy as breathing for the water elemental.

The necromancer was already closing in, so Kelin leapt off the front of the ship and walked higher in the air until he was a hundred feet above the waves.

His mana field supported his levitation now, making it easier than ever. It wasn’t true flight, but it wasn’t far off.

A storm of discarnate souls, wraiths, and dark specters filled the sky as they approached, howling like a wind of madness, and the waves below his feet began to turn pale. 

Bones appeared in the water, tumbling like foam over a reef, and drifting patches of water pulled away, revealing ribcages and spines. Some of them were human, dwarven, and sylvan. Others were from beasts of a thousand types. 

There was a spine from a wyvern, wing bones from a drake, the tail and spine of some giant serpent, and other things. 

There were so many it felt like reality was warping. Mana hung heavy in the air, mixing with an elemental essence that tasted of dry bone and dust.

It made Kelin’s bones ache and his teeth felt like they were turning into needle points and stabs of pain ran along his nerves. Bits of soulfire flared around those spots, fighting against the effect.

This power was so dense it was almost a domain, far beyond what a Third Evolution necromancer should have been capable of. 

It was power borrowed from somewhere else, probably the ruins on the island. They had to have something to do with the Lord of Bones or perhaps a related Lord of the Undead. 

Gaius’s energy flowed through Kelin, reinforcing him with even more durability, and he shoved the effect aside. 

“You dare to come here and kill my servants?!” A shout came across the air as the necromancer closed in. He had a bone staff in one hand and was pointing at Kelin with the other, his expression furious.

“You think you can challenge me and take what I have built here? You’ll never have the chance. Just die!”

A wave of pale shadows swept across the sky toward Kelin. It was like a massive hand that was reaching out as its fingers closed around him. Each of them was like a giant pillar capable of blotting out the sun.

The sky disappeared, replaced by the attack. 

The blow was half physical and half ethereal. The physical part was enough to hurl him backward hundreds of feet through the air. 

His talisman shields all shattered, as did the mana barrier on his robes and Gaius’s protective layer of stoneskin. 

Reactive Sigils flared as they ignited from his aura and flew outward, exploding against the fingers, but they accomplished nothing, only leaving scorch marks behind as they dissipated.

He felt the world spinning as the hand tried to crush him out of existence.

Even with his physique, cracks appeared throughout his body, ones that threatened to tear him apart.

The rest of the attack was directed inward. It sank straight through his skin, landing on his bones. 

Shadows weighed down his movements and his bones began to warp until it felt like they were going to explode out of his skin.

At the same instant, however, his bones hummed with a strange resonance. Flickers of soulfire and a pale white energy flowed through them, merging together.

The white energy was foreign, something from the attack. It was forming a thin layer around his skeleton as it tried to force its way inside and rip him apart.

With most people, it might have sunk in easily and shattered their skeleton to pieces, but his bones were different.

The spell had no chance.

His soulfire blazed with force as it fought against the energy, forcing it to condense. Then it used it as a fuel source, sending new flames leaping upward.

As it did, the shaking settled down and his bones calmed. He even felt a small improvement as his bones became harder.

That was from the Tempered Bones trait, something he’d gained from the Lord of Bones’ altar in the Shadowfall dungeon. It granted him increased bone durability and defense. 

The choice was proving itself again.

With that Trait to help, his affinity for resistances was devouring the new energy as it tried to invade and turning it into even more durability.

This necromancer wouldn’t rip him apart so easily.

“What? How is that possible?” The necromancer paused and his words carried across the distance as some of the attack faded away. “You should be dead by now!”

He had continued to chase Kelin as he flew through the air and now he waved his hand, dismissing the rest of the spell. 

The man stopped a short distance in front of Kelin, his expression dark. His eyes were intense, a mix of curiosity and anger.

Apparently, not being able to kill a Level 200 opponent was enough for him to become interested.

His robes were black and silver, similar to his hair, which was pulled back behind his head, and his appearance was fairly young. He looked like he was about thirty, which was rare for a necromancer, since they tended to look older than their age. 

All of that death energy wasn’t good for them.

Despite that, his eyes were pale and deeply set. It looked like they’d been burned around the edges, giving him a look similar to a skull. 

All around him, dozens of wraiths and undead floated in the air and some of the bones that had been in the water assembled into a platoon of skeletal warriors. 

They were inhuman and mangled things with ten arms and legs, all holding weapons made of sharpened bone, some of which had ridges from a spine and jagged teeth embedded in them.

It was a chaos of bones. Clearly that was the focus of his class. Perhaps he’d even gained it from the ruins on the island.

“How are you so durable?” he snapped, looking at Kelin with spite. His burned eye sockets made his gaze particularly ferocious. 

“Tell me and I’ll kill you quickly. You’ll make a good skeleton slave. Otherwise, you won’t even be able to scream as I peel you apart.”

Most unsettlingly, his eyes weren’t fixed on Kelin’s eyes, but on his ribcage and limbs, as if he could see through to the bones beneath.

“You overestimate yourself,” Kelin said. Then he paused as he turned to the side and coughed, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

It was a dark glob that burned with flames, and it was filled with the compressed residue of the necromancer’s mana.

Once it was out, he felt much better and his mana moved more smoothly.

The damage from that blow had been significant, but not enough to kill him. He could already feel his regeneration kicking in.

The worst part had been a disruption to his mana field, but now that he had fought off the necromancer’s spell once, he could work to mitigate it.

“Sorry,” he added with a dark chuckle, “but you won’t be ripping out any bones today. In fact, why don’t you do that again? I was just getting started on absorbing your energy.”

He was being snarky since he figured it would piss off the necromancer and keep him busy.

Hopefully, he could delay long enough to let the ship get farther away. To keep the necromancer from thinking about it, he was careful not to even look in its direction. 

“You dare?” the necromancer snarled as he clenched his fist. “An ant like you thinks he can mock me? I was going to give you a painless death, but now you’ll only wish you could die. You’ll be a lump of spineless flesh that can’t even scream.”

Clouds swirled around him, turning into streams of pale white energy that gathered on his hand, and then a bolt of deadly energy shot toward Kelin.

It was half ethereal again, existing both on the level of the soul and the body. Against most people, it would have been enough to rip their soul out of their body, and if that wasn’t enough, it could have leveled a mountain.

Kelin only raised an eyebrow as he let it hit.

It flung him backward as it tore a gash across his chest, one that revealed the bones beneath, and it sent him tumbling through the air.

Pain exploded through him, but he forced it away, holding his mind steady.

Tendrils of the same bone white energy wove through the wound, weaving themselves around his bones and into his blood. They tried to dig deeper, but met resistance.

His soulfire consumed them, ripping them apart one tiny shred at a time. It was slow, but it didn’t stop.

He stabilized himself in the air and looked back toward the necromancer, who was three hundred feet away. 

“Is that all you have?” he asked calmly. “You won’t manage anything with magic like that. Why don’t I give you a few pointers on how to properly use your spells?”

For a Second Evolution mage to insult a Third Evolution one like that, especially on a world like Lareth, staggered belief.

The necromancer couldn’t even speak for a moment as he stared at Kelin in disbelief.

Kelin took the opportunity to pull a stream of talismans from his storage and activate them one after another. He didn’t bother with the shield ones. Those were almost useless here.

Instead, he focused on the Soulfire Infusion and Soul’s Rest talismans. He activated one of each and merged them together, doubling the effectiveness of the healing one, and slapped it onto his chest.

The blood that had been running down his chest turned to flame as the wound began to close.

A shout of rage answered his words and he went flying through the air again as half of his left arm was ripped apart, but he ignored it.

A wave of his hand created a flaming phoenix that began to soar around his shoulders and send more healing down. He threw an infusion talisman at it as well, pouring the energy into the spell.

His Soulfire Sigil was adding its durability and duration improvements to his spells too, enhancing everything.

His chest began to knit back together without needing any more healing, and his natural Soulfire leapt upward, devouring the bone energy from the necromancer that was weaving through him.

As the talismans fizzled out, an echo of them reappeared, returning at 80% of the original strength and emanating an aura of the Law of Returning Flame.

Everything was stacking together, sending his healing through the roof.

He looked across the distance at the necromancer. He forced down the blood in his throat and gave the man a smile instead.

“That was worse than the first one,” he said, trying to sound amused. “It tickled. I’ll give you a chance before you die. Tell me what you’re up to with those ruins and I might not have to rip out your soul and search your memories.”

Another shout echoed out and a moment later, his legs felt a shattering pain as a white ray struck them. This spell was much stronger than the one before and it sent cracks through his knees and femurs.

Despite his taunting, the man was powerful and beating the hell out of him. He had barely seen that spell, but it didn’t matter. 

What did was that he’d tested out the necromancer’s strength and found him wanting. 

The man wasn’t able to kill him in a single hit.

All the Constitution and the abilities he’d developed were coming into play. He had durability, resistances, healing on top of healing, and everything was intensified by his sigil and echoed back again with the power of multiple Laws.

That was enough to give him confidence.

The necromancer was easy to infuriate and if he could keep him distracted, it might be enough to give the ship time to get away.

Even as he was struck and went tumbling through the air again, he was calculating the eventual outcome.

He might not be able to win this, but he had a chance.

His Ascending Flame was already intensifying the effect of the healing spells, making them grow stronger with each passing moment. 

It applied to the Flame of Life phoenix, his talismans, and everything else, and it was carrying on through the echo of the spells as they returned, improving that too.

It was also a good thing this man was a mage and not a warrior. Half of his spells were based on things Kelin had a resistance to.

Another ray struck him, this one with a freezing touch that tried to shatter him into pieces. It stripped the skin from his stomach and broke a rib in an explosion of blood, but he did his best to ignore it.

He’d suffered worse pain in the last dungeon.

“What the hell are you?” the necromancer asked slowly as he flew forward, pausing for a moment. “You can bleed, but you might as well be a block of steel. With durability like that, do you even count as human?” 

The curiosity was back in his voice, but it didn’t stop him from attacking again a moment later.

This time, it was a wave of shadows that reached upward, twisting through a torrent like a black river, that seized Kelin and dragged him through the air.

The shadows pulled his arms out to the sides and held him there as the necromancer flew closer.

The man studied him with a strange gaze, his eyes blazing with a pale light. Tiny flickers of that energy burned the skin around them, slowly turning it to ash.

“Interesting. I’ve never seen a Level 200 mage survive like this,” he said slowly. “Something is hiding most of your details from me, but I can see that much. You’re not as durable as a Third Evolution warrior, but you heal faster. 

“Maybe I’ll save your body. I’ll just torture you and wipe out your memory and then you can be my servant. I wonder what I could make out of you?” 

His words were thoughtful and his gaze became distracted. 

“Maybe two or three undead if I separate your soul and body. A death knight with your durability would be amazing, and a lich that could recover as quickly as you...that would just be delightful. This is turning out to be promising. Maybe you will make up for all of those pirates that you killed after all.

“You’ve resisted some of my spells, but I haven’t even started on poison or disease. Let’s see what you can do against those. And when that’s done, I have a lot of minions who need exercise.”

He glanced over at the wraiths and skeletons that were following him. 

“Your soon-to-be brothers and sisters would love to get to know you by peeling you apart.”

There were dozens of the creatures at the Second Evolution, some as high as Level 280, but none were at the Third. It probably made it easier for the necromancer to control them.

“Those fellows?” Kelin asked, smiling slightly as he looked over. “I hope you’re not attached to them.”

His arms were pulled out to the side by the necromancer’s shadow spell, but it didn’t stop him from snapping his fingers.

The spell was only a physical restraint and it couldn’t stop his mana.

A wave of Soul Paralysis spread outward, flooding through the area.

The necromancer shuddered as his eyes glazed over, but the effect was even more pronounced on the wraiths and skeletons. 

The specters froze as their forms crystallized in the air and the skeletons dropped their weapons as their bones locked up.

Souls grew stronger based on their level, but unless they had very specific defenses or overwhelming power, Kelin was able to tear straight through them. 

Undead were particularly susceptible to their energy being disrupted. It was one of the reasons Undeath had killed him in the first place. 

And even with only a fraction of his old power, he was still an archmage. Now that he had a mana field again, there were all sorts of ways to use it to extend and improve his spells.

“By the way,” he said as the necromancer began to recover. “Do you want to know something interesting?”

He was still hanging in the air as the shadow spell held him in place, but from the calmness in his voice, it was hard to tell who was trapping whom.

“Even bones can burn.”

A sphere of Wildfire appeared in his hand and he flicked it at the undead that were closest. It exploded into an inferno that was fifty feet wide, catching a third of them in the blast, including some of the weakest.

The necromancer’s eyes cleared as the spell approached him and he let out a shout of anger. A dark shield flared, blocking the flames from reaching him as he flew backwards in a hurry.

The undead were not so lucky.

The necromancer’s delay gave the spell time to work and a moment later an explosion of rainbow flames roared into the sky as one of the wraiths succumbed.

Its energy exploded into a pillar of rainbow flames and outward in a wave that washed over the ones nearby. 

That explosion was followed almost immediately by another and then a third.

A wave of rainbow flames raged through the sky as the undead perished and sent the spell out farther. Three massive pillars rose up from where they had been, spreading the flames.

As the Wildfire surged, more of the undead began to die in swathes.

Moment by moment, more explosions joined the first until half the sky looked like the heart of a sun. Ethereal smoke drifted in every direction, weaving into strange forms and releasing howls as the echoes of the souls it had once been gave their final cries.

The necromancer desperately flew backward, trying to avoid the flames that were leaping toward him, but that only gave the spell more time to work.

As soon as the last of the undead died, Kelin called the spell back to him, gathering the flames. 

The Wildfire raged as it condensed. It coiled around his arms and feet and trailed down his back in a rippling cloak. The flames ate away at the shadows around him, disintegrating the spell until he walked free. 

He stood in the air, looking across the distance at the necromancer.

“Let’s try this again,” he said as he raised his hand. “Just you and me.”

A sphere of rainbow flames gathered above his palm, blazing with deadly force.

Wildfire might not be enough to kill this enemy, but it wouldn’t stop him from trying.

An ocean of flame swelled around him as he stepped forward.