Chapter 14: The Other Mind (2/2)

Ok.

She lifted a finger and the bear stopped in its tracks.

The bolt was aiming right at its torso.

An alien intelligence shone in the monster’s blue orbs. It grabbed a revenant in its paw and threw it like a puppet in the spell’s trajectory.

“Alright then, let’s see how you juggle,” Viv said with a scowl.

The bear fell back, crushing more undead. Its massive form slowed the flow of revenants considerably, so that the three knights moved onto the bridge and started to dispatch the creatures as they came closer. Some of the revenants even fell into the dry riverbed.

Viv sent spell after spell after the retreating titan. It blocked all of them with his freshly improvised personal shield. She aimed for the flanks, the arms, arced one of the projectiles, and cast three spells in quick succession. That one almost worked, but she stopped herself from pushing too hard. She knew that she had to save her strength.

In the meanwhile, her companions were hacking away. They displayed none of their earlier exhaustion, although the flow of undead was manageable.

The bear reached the other side and ran away. Like an open tap, a flood of revenants limped forth into the space it had freed. Viv observed the developing situation with worry. Some of the revenants that had fallen down were climbing up on the other side of the bridge. Cernit noticed as well, and with one word, the combatants started to run. Jor dropped one of the burning bricks on the pile of dead they had already formed. It appeared that no efforts were to be wasted.

They mounted again, and Viv got another surprise. Cernit rode perpendicular to the riverbed until the slope became more manageable. They made their way down.

They were… crossing to engage the necromancer?

“Why?” she asked, surprised.

“Necromancer... army… very small. Good chance.” Benetti said.

THAT was small?

Had they taken leave of their senses?

She grumbled, but what could she do? Jump down?

The horses climbed on the opposite side with some difficulty, and only because they found a practical way. They were, again, in the desert. The second half of the village stood to their right in a loose semi-circle, with its surroundings devoid of revenants in a thirty meters radius. Only a few houses remained standing compared to its southern counterpart, which meant less cover.

They approached it at a trot and stopped at the edge of the main road. The streets were deserted.

She easily spotted the eyes of revenants shining in the dark. One of them had a blue coloration.

“Yoink.”

The light faded as the spell flew, but the revenant still died. Then another, then another. Viv methodically killed those she could spot through broken doors, shattered windows, and crumbling walls. She spaced the spells enough to hit that sweet spot where her exhaustion would only progress slowly.

Then it happened. The necromancer released their hold on their horde and revenants emerged from every nook and cranny. Cernit immediately turned them around and rode completely out of town.

She could not follow his strategy.

He and Benetti exchanged a few quick words, then turned right. They rode to the other side of the half village, having the dry river to their right. Viv finally understood what the crafty lieutenant had been looking for.

A group was leaving the village, using the unleashed horde to keep Viv’s group busy. She saw a few wolf-like creatures with reptilian faces, a gut spiller and the massive bear upon which a thin human form clad in black rags rode. Armored revenants trailed behind them, slower than the larger undead. The escaping group was regrouping as they came into view.

Viv glanced up. Two birds were circling above them. The necromancer had kept a visual on them the entire time.

Whelp, it was too late anyway.

As the knights charged in, she realized that they might have a chance. The necromancer’s control was messy. Erratic. She could spot the moment where individual undead stopped trying to eat them and returned to formation, only for their control to fray again. Now, how to exploit that?

She had a fairly good idea.

The three riders skirted the back of the formation, now firmly in the open. She could see the last armored revenants pull back one by one. Each creature turned its head away as it was receiving orders. She waited, aimed, and…

“Yoink!”

Her spell latched into the last creature, one with a dented shield and furs, as the enemy spellcaster was still inside. She smacked their presence aside with prejudice and moved herself back afterward.

“Haha!” she exclaimed triumphantly as the horde faltered. Her allies used the opportunity to crash through the ranks of the armored revenants, cutting them down as they milled aimlessly. She did not let the opportunity go to waste.

“Yoink!”

Her spell hit the bear and a struggle began as she attempted to overwhelm its conduits.

And failed.

The mana there was concentrated, and much more potent than anything else she had felt before. A presence was feeding the creature power opposite her. It was the other caster. They were…

They were weak.

She felt the other person’s resistance, or presence, buckle under her timid assault. They would break very soon…

But the spell snapped and she withdrew. She was too far.

Viv frowned. The bear was still standing.

The three made another pass. This time, they rode opposite the diminished mass of armored revenants. She took aim at the bear once more, and was propelled to the side.

Jor had turned around and pushed her to the side. The spell went wide.

A moment later, claws lacerated her right shoulder. Cernit yelled an order and they pulled out. Jor was maneuvering with one hand and pushing away a furious undead bird with the other.

[Defiled hawk.]

The necromancer had used his spies as fucking dive bombers.

Viv reacted immediately.

“Yoink.”

The spell exited her back and speared the creature. It disintegrated. She turned around and saw two more flying down. Towards her.

And behind her, a gurgle gave her an ominous warning.

“Nope shield!”

Gut spiller vomit splashed harmlessly against her hastily erected defenses. She gritted her teeth against the pain in her wound and the rapid drain of her resources.

Jor’s axe struck something behind, and she turned to see Cernit cut down the last flyer. They were out.

She gnashed her teeth. The pain was not too bad, but there was something there as well, the same feverish sensation she associated with mana poisoning, only more virulent.

She closed her eyes and focused on her shoulder. The invasive mana…

It was disappearing. Or rather, it was drained into her conduits and transformed into her own. This would probably lead to her getting poisoned again. She preferred that to fantasy necrosis or mana sepsis or whatever it was called that could turn her into one of the walking dead.

Cernit had them stop at a short distance away from their foe. He turned to her.

She rolled her shoulder, then winced. It would be fine so long as the adrenaline kept flowing.

The necromancer was not idle either. They raised two bandaged arms and the armored revenants fell to the ground, twitching. Then, a strange mania animated the surviving beasts. Their orbits shone blue and their movements turned jerky. They moved faster. They were charging!

Cernit seemed to ponder the situation for one second. The necromancer still had the bear, some of those strange dogs with snake heads it had not used, and the one gut spiller.

The officer snapped an order, and Viv was suddenly lifted from the saddle and placed on the ground as if she were but a small child. The lieutenant addressed her.

“Good luck.”

The three knights closed rank.

“For Baran. FOR THE KING!”

And they charged.

Like a bunch of fucking meatheads.

Viv spat and cursed, then followed at a run. What were those idiots even thinking? She was not legging it back alone through a horde of revenants! Those fuckwits better not die.

The trio crashed into the pile of monsters with heroic determination. She heard a great commotion but could not quite process who was winning. One of the horses neighed piteously.

The three knights were alive and… whacking. She had trouble following their fast swordwork.

For one second, she thought they might win, but then the bear broke through. One horse was dead before it hit the ground, Benetti rolling lightly from his thrashing mount. Jor was pushed aside but managed to remain astride. Cernit and his horse fell down, though he managed to slash the creature's jaw away before it could fasten around his head.

Benetti decapitated a snake dog as he ran back. Jor fought two others. The necromancer lifted a hand towards Cernit who was still reeling from the bear’s attack. They were getting overwhelmed.

“NOPE SHIELD!”

Viv’s black umbrella deployed between the bear and his prey. A massive paw swiped the air through the shield’s obscured membrane, making Viv hiss but missing the knight. She maintained it as another paw attacked it.

Her left foot found the horse’s body and she jumped up, using strength boost and slowing her perception of time.

The shield fell as she was casting her next spell.

The bear failed to detect her presence, but the necromancer looked up and… his eyes widened.

He was… a child. No, a dirty, malnourished teen under a mask of grime, and tatters of isolating fabric.

It was too late anyway.

Her body smashed against his, and her knife found his chest again, and again, and again. She stabbed him until they fell from the creature. She stabbed until the thin body smacked the ground under her, until no strange magic or high endurance could possibly save his life.

Cernit rolled away and stared, aghast, as the witch launched herself at the necromancer and stabbed him with the cold rage of a Halurian warborn. They disappeared behind the rampaging bear and he made himself scarce.

No one could save her now.

He grabbed his gelding by the harness and dragged him back. The poor beast was at the limit of its strength. Jor joined him soon while Benetti sauntered forth, unharmed despite his fall.

They stared at the melee.

And then, as a dark figure crawled out between two snarling scalehounds. She stood up, brushed dust from her armor and jogged in their direction. It was the witch. She had a weird black fabric covering her armor as part of some spell, no doubt. She was still alive. And the undead ignored her.

He knew that the creatures would not stay confused for long. An attack would come. He pressed onward and helped her up, while Jor recovered Benetti. They ran away.

Meanwhile, Viv was processing.

Finesse +1

Her shoulder was lancing, though that wasn’t too bad yet. The two horses carried the four humans to the edge of the village, behind a collapsed barn, but no further. Cernit’s horse stumbled and fell. She was saved by the knight as he jumped down and dragged her before she could get trapped beneath the beast. The sudden pull tore a muffled scream out of her.

“Sorry,” the lieutenant said.

She could see blood under the horse’s torn leather harness. She raised a hand to try and help, but Cernit pushed it down.

“No. Benetti, Jor.”

Both knights’ expressions were grim. Benetti was the first she chose to help. He had one long gash across his chest. She peeled off the armor and placed her hand before the wound.

The exterior world faded. She had to trust them to hold the line while she worked at saving lives. There were no choppers to load the wounded on in this grim world, but they had magic and it was just as good. She just had to keep them alive. Stable. Instead of an op table and a surgeon, they would have that bullshit life mana. God, how much she would have given to get that back on earth. Twitch your fucking fingers and the wounds close. Maybe even mend shattered vertebrae. And would that not be fucking grand.

She was not ok.

Viv focused harder. The black mana answered her anger with worrying eagerness. It pulled from the wound like a gel, taking blood and skin with it. Benetti mewled in pain.

When it was done, a globule of black and red hovered above her hand. She let it drop.

Benetti’s breath was hard and fast. He was pale, with tears down his face. Cernit was whispering something. There was a pathetic neigh, then the sound of metal on flesh. The lieutenant barked an order and the sharp knight grabbed a vial from one of his pouches. He downed half of it and spread the rest over his chest.

It was as if the wound was washed away, to be replaced by pinkish skin.

Viv had never seen such bullshit before.

Shaking her head, she turned to ministrate Jor who had taken the initiative to peel off the armor where he was hurt the most. A small gash on his forearm was cured in moments, but the one on his thigh was mangled and raw. It took her a little bit longer.

Viv pulled back, pale and exhausted. Running on fumes, this time. Not a good idea. But she had to keep going.

One last person.

Cernit had his back to her. He was bleeding from the side, where the bear had marked him. Speaking of which.

She heard a sniffing sound at the edge of the crumbling wall they were hiding behind.

Viv stood and stepped forward. Her arms would not raise for some reason. That was fine. The black mana escaped from the captain’s flank as she passed him by. He turned to her with an expression of surprise. She grabbed that little ball and made it grow larger. She fed it with her own depleted power until she was wrenched like a twisted rag and there was nothing left to give. It hovered before her, impatient. A real attack hound, that one.

The bear’s ugly mug passed the corner.

Her spell connected to it. It bore through its conduit with ravenous hunger, seeking the power she had lost, consuming all. It broke through everything with such might that black fumaroles breached through the beast’s withered skin. The bear exploded in a torrent of ash.

Focus +1

You have reached a milestone! You have gained the ability to overcharge your spells. Your ability to concentrate is vastly improved. Your ability to recall past memories in greater details is vastly improved. You may now cast more powerful spells.

Intimidation: Beginner 8

Mana manipulation: Beginner 8

She turned to Cernit, who was gawping at the carcass like a fucking moron. Trying to catch flies in his mouth or something.

“Just make sure you grab the ribcage. He needs it. Got it? Ribcage. Riiiiibcaaaaaage.”

When she was done, she nodded once to herself and slowly toppled forward.

Black Hedge Witch (7)