My shout of warning arrived at the last second, because a moment later, twelve figures donned in black robes stepped into the opening, their hands already glowing with necromantic energy. The stirrings of the array increased while twelve webs of energy spread, each centered on a necromancer. Then, they connected, creating a cage with a domineering presence, impossible to escape even someone as formidable as the librarian.
Meanwhile, the one that had been escaping from the librarian had stopped just outside of the cage, showing, a blob of purple energy coalescing around him, with a distinct sense of aggressiveness that the cage lacked. However, despite all, it wasn't satisfaction in his eyes but anger. "Kill the intruder!" he shouted even as he pushed his energy to the cage, his attack amplified greatly by the array itself.
However, the attack flickered, its structure losing its balance halfway thanks to the destruction of some of the nodes. Combined with my early warning, the librarian managed to react in time. She raised her hand, and a wall of light appeared between the attack and her.
My eyes widened, because I didn't know what she had used, not just the specific spell, but the category of the spell itself. It wasn't arcana, elemental, or life energy, but something completely different. Whatever it was, however, it was far more potent than anything I could achieve. Even with some of the nodes destroyed, the necromantic attack was enough to erase me from existence just by a glancing touch, but the wall managed to resist its presence just with several deep cracks, protecting the librarian behind completely as well.
Even more impressively, a wave of her hand transformed the wall into an arrow, which slammed onto the cage mercilessly, making it shimmer dangerously. Unfortunately, the cage was too strong to be destroyed in one move, and it recovered after a momentarily dimming.
I wanted to watch more, as even a glance at such a high-level confrontation taught me a lot about magical combat. However, the sound of arrows cutting through the air took precedence, forcing me to turn away, only to see almost a hundred skeleton archers aiming at me with a second volley. I cast a wind wall, knocking the arrows away. Then, without lowering my hand, I flicked my fingers, and sending a low-level fireball in the middle of the formation. It wasn't strong enough to destroy the skeletons, but the same couldn't be said for their bows, their strings turning ash instantly, removing the danger from the stray arrows.
[-35 Mana]
Too bad that the skeleton archers were the smallest of my challenges. Behind them, I could see seven figures already casting spells, their bodies burning with necromantic energy. They didn't feel as strong as the ones currently managing the array, but they were strong enough to be a threat. Though, they weren't as scary as the three hulking figures appeared next to them. Three bone dragons.
Under the threat of a combined magical and melee assault thick enough to overwhelm me, the solution was obvious. I slammed my hand on the floor, triggering an earth elemental spell, raising a huge dust wave. I was already casting a second spell as the dust rose, creating an identical copy of my life signature, then a third spell to hide my own, before I started running away.
[-26 Mana]
[+3 Biomancy]
As I departed, several of necrotic energy passed the space I had been occupying just moments ago, but one of them had a worse aim than the others, and his bolt of energy moved wide, hitting my shoulder instead.
[-147 HP]
I couldn't help but wince as a horrible pain pulsated in my body, and I lost a tenth of my health, but I gritted my teeth and continued to run away. I didn't cast a spell to hide its effect, afraid that they would notice the discrepancy between my life signature and the mana flare. It was the same reason I had been relying on my physical power only to escape.
The curtain of dust was thick enough to cut their sight for a long while. Unfortunately, they were smart enough to realize the problem in just a few seconds. "It's a decoy! Find him!" shouted one of them even as their attack shape changed, using wide waves that swept the floor instead of bolts.
Luckily, I was already next to a large stone. With my agility and speed, it took a second for me to rapidly climb through its rough surface, avoiding their assault. And if there was one good thing about being in the middle of a necromancer camp, I didn't have to worry about any living creature. Their defenses had since long secured the area.
A sudden downpour of rain suddenly appeared in the opening, suppressing the dust, but it was too late for them. I was already hidden from their view. "Where is he?" called one of them.
"He is clearly hiding! Find him!" shouted the leader once more. I continued running away, confident in my success not only because of my stealth skills, but also thanks to the blanketing effect created by the battle between the librarian and her ambushers.
I stalled for a moment, trying to decide what to do next. I had underestimated the presence of the enemy. Even with a dozen of them locked in a battle with the librarian, they still had enough in reserve to completely overwhelm me. I could escape easily under the coverage of the librarian's battle, but its final result was still in doubt. The librarian was stronger than I had estimated, but so was the ambushers with the support from the arrays. If I ran away, there was no guarantee who would be the victor.
However, facing them directly was not an option either, not when I had to defeat seven necromancers, three bone dragons, and numerous other critters… Luckily, they had other points of vulnerability, and I was thoroughly concealed. I stopped for a moment, using my perception to identify the location of the other nodes, which was shining distinctively in their active state.
I moved to the most distant location before starting to destroy the nodes. Destruction of the first four went unnoticed, but when the fifth node fell apart under my magical attack, a loud cry escaped the mouth of their leader. "He's destroying the nodes in the northeast, you idiots!" he cried in warning, his voice enhanced magically.
Since he was kind enough to alert me, I dashed away before they could arrive, moving to the west section of the array, and destroyed three more until he managed to raise an alarm. "He's attacking the east now, you idiots! He slipped away from your attack. Spread out and prevent him from destroying it!"
I stopped destroying the nodes once again, but this time, I didn't run away, instead, climbed on top of a large rock that was towering above the only feasible path from the northeast section, holding as much as mana as I could without glowing like a lighthouse.
When two necromancers and a bone dragon appeared on the opening, accompanied by a horde of skeletons, I was ready. I waited as the dragon passed and the skeleton brigade started to pass. Necromancers were in the middle, standing next to each other, mana shields shining in their hands, ready to destroy any magical attack, their eyes dancing wildly.
Unfortunately, they trusted the skeletons to guard their immediate surroundings. So, when I jumped down from the rock when they were directly under me, they were too late to react. I swiped the sword once, and one head flew off, blood spraying wildly. "Goodbye," I said even as I swung my sword, ready to decapitate the second one.
That didn't work as well as I intended. I succeeded in decapitating part, but this time, there was no blood spray, just a decayed neck, made of bone and sinews.
"Try again," cackled the flying head even as the body lifted its staff and slammed me with the energy he created by breaking the shield. I threw myself back, rolling with the attack, doing my best to avoid slashes of the skeletons gathering around me, but with limited success. Luckily, I still had HP to spare.
[-97 HP]
I couldn't help but feel excited as I found myself face to face with a lich supported by a significant army. The body of the lich raised its hand and sent a flare, no doubt summoning his compatriots. "Perfect," I murmured. Not only I had to face a full-blown lich, a bone dragon that was currently charging toward me, and almost a hundred skeleton warriors, but also I had to finish it before the reinforcements arrived.
One good thing about it was with my position revealed, I didn't have to pull back. I pushed a generous blob of life energy into my sword, making it glow brightly, enough to make the skeletons around me a step back, giving me the opportunity I needed.
[-120 Mana]
[+2 Biomancy]
I dashed forward toward the lich's head, aware that my makeshift enchantment wouldn't last more than a few seconds. My sword danced like a snake, the skeletons helpless against my master melee skill, especially when a good strike was enough to unravel their cursed existence thanks to the enchantment.
The body of the lich positioned itself between me and the head, its full-frame glowing with the necrotic experience. From the unstable way it glowed, I didn't have a good impression of what was awaiting me. I lunged forward even as I waved my empty hand, desperately trying to create a brand new biomancy spell.
The purple energy was already pulsating as the beginning of an overwhelming wave when I pushed my sword into its heart, using it to inject more life energy into its body.
[-673 Mana]
[+1 Biomancy]
My desperate innovation attempt succeeded only partially, turning its body into a pile of ash, but its spell stayed partially intact, hitting my body violently.
[-364 HP]
Being in the ground zero of a lich's desperate ultimate attack was not fun, I noted. I could see its head a few feet away, unaffected by its area-effect spell, unlike the skeletons, moving with a renewed energy. It was one of the most annoying aspects of fighting against Necromancers, they were free to use their area effect spells without fearing hurting their minions, as the necrotic energy enhanced them instead.
I cast a simple arcana bolt to its head, which fell apart easily, signaling that its soul had used the opportunity to escape. Their ability to send their soul back to their soul container was one of the things that transformed the challenge level from difficult to nightmare.
There was a limit to the range of effectiveness of the soul container, and under normal conditions, though still measured in miles. I might have searched for it under better circumstances, but the sound of bone dragon closing in didn't allow me to chase such luxuries.
Such as running away from an enraged bone dragon. The only good thing about destroying the necromancers was that the bone dragon had no controller anymore, so it was limited to blindly chasing me. I dashed back to the rocky part of the canyon, cutting and weaving through the skeleton warriors, once again using my melee skill to maximum benefit, running to my maximum capability even if I had to take a few blows I would have avoided normally.
It was well worth it, because the bone dragon was just a step away when I stepped into the passage, leaving it to crash violently against the thick stone wall before starting to dig with all of its undead single-mindedness. Secure, I used my biomancy to great effect once more, this time to heal myself.
[-320 Mana]
[+286 HP]
The agonizing pain had turned into an annoying buzz. I was glad to see that I had almost reached a parity between my mana spent and hitpoint recovered. I started running, but not before I left another decoy, more than enough to trick the mindless bone dragon. Then, I created a weaker, but still noticeable decoy, and sent it toward the south, hoping that it would distract the others.
Then, I sent a pulse of biomancy energy to detect their locations, to make a better plan about the next step. I couldn't help but smile excitedly as I realized that in their hurry to protect the arrays, the undead army had moved toward the periphery, leaving the center open.
Big mistake on their part.
Thanks to the limited mental capabilities of most of my enemies, it wasn't much of a challenge to avoid them, though occasionally I had to use some elemental tricks to create shortcuts, my mana surges obscured by the ever-increasing effects of battle in the center of the array.
When I arrived at the center, I met with an amazing sight. The librarian was still trapped in the middle of the array, defending herself with her unique light magic and using the same magic to batter on the walls of her prison instead. She looked exhausted, but it didn't alarm me, because her attackers were in an even worse state, furiously trying to keep the array stable. Even their leader was exhausted, more focused on stabilizing the array rather than trying to attack.
Still, a battle was an uncertain thing, and there was still a chance that the librarian might lose. I decided to tip the balance in her favor more. The necromancers were too focused on the threat she represented, so they failed to notice my presence as I sneaked toward them. My target noticed my presence as I swung my sword, but it was too late. With his focus and his magic dedicated to stabilizing the damaged array, before he could make a sound, his head was already gone.
"It's an ambush," shouted the leader as he looked at me before he sent a warning flare. "Everyone, come back!" he ordered, his voice enhanced. If the supporting army returned from all angles, they would trap me in place, making it impossible for me to escape alone.
Luckily, I wasn't alone. Even better, with the death of one of them, they had to focus all their attention on the ward just to prevent themselves from burning. Combined wards were dangerous when things were going bad. The librarian was smart enough to see the opportunity, and cast a much brighter spell, this time directly to attack rather than a modified defense spell.
The result was spectacular. Her prison shimmered and weakened, looking like it was about to shatter. I cast a fireball to leverage the opportunity, injuring two more necromancers enough for them to lose their control, burning up as a result.
[-65 Mana]
I was hoping that the battle was about to end, but then the leader proved that there was a reason for his post. "Cancel the prison!" he shouted, and before I could take the opportunity to kill another necromancer, the librarian's prison shattered. Meanwhile, the reinforcements arrived in the form of five necromancers and three bone dragons.
Luckily, I had reinforcements of my own. But when I looked at the eyes of the librarian, I could see the exhaustion dancing in her eyes. The trap took more than I had been expecting. I looked around, and detected the east section was the weakest. I gestured her to attack that side, while I turned toward the leader, gathering as much as mana as I could, turning it into life energy.
It wasn't surprising that between the librarian and me, they decided to attack me first, reasonably taking me as the easier target, while sending the bone dragons to delay the librarian, supported by a few necromancers. That was a mistake from their end, because even exhausted, the librarian was able to deflect them without even slowing down.
"You have messed with the wrong person," said the leader as he walked toward me, his hands burning with necrotic energy, his intention was clear. He looked confident, understandable considering I was surrounded by ten necromancers and a lot of skeletons. Unluckily for them, most of them were still exhausted by operating the array.
The leader realized his mistake when he realized the spell in my hands was growing without a limit. He threw a bolt of energy to me hurriedly, but it was too late. I let my spell, the strongest I had cast to date. It was a biomancy nova, filling the canyon with life energy.
[-1230 Mana]
[+5 Biomancy]
Despite almost completely emptying my mana, the spell wasn't as strong as I would have liked. The skeletons were all destroyed, their weak structure unable to resist the area effect spell. The necromancers were, unfortunately, stayed alive -for a given value considering their occupation- but they were distracted, not to mention shocked by my spell. So, when I followed it with another dust spell to hide from their view, their first reflex was to shield themselves, ready to protect themselves.
That gave me the time to follow the opening the librarian had created, saving me from the envelopment. Soon, I caught up with the librarian. "Good, you managed to get away," she said, but when I noticed a slight slurring in her tone, I realized that the escape would be even more difficult than I had first assumed.
We dashed away at the full speed, hoping to avoid our pursuers, at least avoiding them enough to recover some mana, as currently, I was running on fumes. Though, a smile appeared on my face when I received a notification the moment the last skeleton disappeared in my field of view.
[Deadly Departure: Rescue a damsel in distress from a deadly ambush in a great personal risk, impressing her greatly in the process. +2000 Experience, +2 Speed, +2 Charisma]
It was shaping out to be an interesting adventure…
---------
[Level: 17 Experience: 148150 / 153000
Strength: 18 Charisma: 27
Precision: 13 Perception: 14
Agility: 17 Manipulation: 20
Speed: 15 Intelligence: 17
Endurance: 14 Wisdom: 21
HP: 967 / 1309 Mana: 93 / 1683 ]
SKILLS
[Master Melee [100/100]
Expert Arcana [75/75]
Expert Elemental [75/75]
Expert Biomancy [75/75]
Advanced Subterfuge [50/50]
Basic Speech [25/25] ]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration