Someone shook Viv awake, and she wondered if it deserved the death penalty.

“Mdrglg.”

“Sorry, Bob. Necromancer is here.”

“Fuck!”

It was dawn. She was in a cleared area of the wall, and wrapped in several layers of blankets. Arthur was currently hanging from Cernit’s arm guard, teeth dug deep into its surface. The lieutenant calmly stood up and the small dragon fell back down with an annoyed squeak upon her chest where she had been resting.

She disentangled herself and jumped to her feet. The pale light shone on a field of death the likes of which she had never seen. From the walls to the ramp, a solid mass of carbonized corpses formed a hellish slope garnered with bony protrusion. The soldiers lined the wall in loose order. They had taken casualties. She turned and saw five forms lying horizontal in the courtyard, the remains covered with tarps.

She turned her attention outward and searched for the necromancer. Two gut spillers and two puppeteers creating a protective wall of revenants were making their way up the road at a leisurely pace. She could vaguely see the outline of a pair of feet behind the imposing mass of undead.

“Bet you’re regretting not having a bow,” she complained in a low voice.

“We will be sure to ask for one with the next resupply,” came Benetti’s mocking voice. The banter made a few men smile. The rest remained tense.

Their foe stopped at the bottom of the ramp, a good thirty meters away from the edge of the wall and far from her optimal range. She saw a brief flash of white from behind the gut spillers and they parted, finally revealing her foe.

[Adept necromancer, noble, deposed ruler, extremely dangerous]

She expected a bald man with destroyed teeth, the male equivalent of the Disney evil witch. She saw a handsome man with kind dark eyes and a lopsided grin, made irregular by the burn scar straining his left cheek. She could not see much else from that distance.

“Hello? Ah, it works,” a smooth voice came, as if through a loudspeaker.

Another language. This one she could understand rather easily. It was like old imperial with only minor variations. It was possible to follow if she focused and he spoke slowly, which he did. A bit like heavily accented québécois if one spoke French. Or Scottish if one spoke English.

“You never know with colorless magic. But I digress. You will forgive me for not revealing my name. I cannot take any risk before I complete my task.”

He kept silent for a few moments after that. Cernit did not reply. The kind officer bristled with outrage and barely contained disgust.

“How you must hate me for what I have become. I wish things had been different. Every evil I have committed for an ultimate good has only led to another evil. Now I must see it to the end or it will have been all in vain. I can live with anything but that.”

Another pause.

“If it is any comfort, you are the last fort I shall destroy. I cannot have you warn them of my movement, you see? If they expect me, I might fail. But I digress yet again. It’s this Enttiku-cursed poisoning.”

His voice was powerful and rhythmical, carried to her by magic as if he stood at a polite distance instead of down the wall. It drew her in. It also drew the others as they stood there with rapt attention, eager to know what he would say next.

“I did not come here to say that I was sorry, although I am. I came here to ask which one of you killed my son.”

The raw pain in the man’s voice stole her breath. It must have provoked a reaction in her allies too, because the Necromancer’s gaze pierced her with laser-like intensity. All warmth left her chest.

“So it was you. The mysterious witch. No need to deny it, I was a noble before I was a necromancer. Discerning the truth is a necessary skill for us. The paths we follow never withdraw their gifts, even when we stray.”

The necromancer took one shaky breath. He would look almost vulnerable were it not for the horrors by his side.

“I know we deserve death. I just hoped that I would die before him. No parent should outlive their child, you see.”

She linked the man’s angular face to that of the teenager she had killed.

Aaah shit.

“I cannot really blame you. Just know that I hate you nonetheless. I am too far gone to deny myself one last hypocrisy.”

He looked away then, and when he next spoke, there was steel in his voice.

“Whoever kills her can go free. I swear it on my soul.”

“Merde.”

Viv looked around but nobody moved. Cernit soon made a vibrant oath, quivering with rage. He was the only one to meet her eyes. He gave her a nod and she knew at this moment that he would rather die a hundred times than betray her. Jor and Benetti soon joined him, with the later one speaking in Old Imperial.

“He who would betray king, country, and life itself, will have to contend with us. We will make it our priority to slay him.”

The necromancer turned back with one last, bitter chuckle.

The soldiers remained silent, eyes front. The medic who had helped her with Jor stole a glance in her direction for a quick smile. The cook nodded at her too. Most of the surviving soldiers seemed unimpressed by the necromancer’s promise.

The strange man had regained the ranks of the abominations he now led. She wondered what had pushed him to do so, to fall so low as to use monsters against humans for some obscure goal. It seemed taboo in a world where creatures were mankind’s greatest threat. It probably was.

She shook her head. It did not matter why. It mattered that he did, and that it was far too late for him to redeem himself. She would have to kill him.

“I want to check on Solfis,” she told Benetti. Cernit nodded, but frowned afterward.

“Never alone. Benetti, protect.”

“Yes, lieutenant. Benetti, protect,” the disgraced gentleman repeated in a slightly condescending voice. Cernit rolled his eyes but let it go and she was soon heading down the stairs with dragonette in tow. Benetti’s expression fell to sadness when they passed by the deceased. She looked at him.

“They do not deserve this. They do not deserve to be here. Only I do.”

“Benetti?” she asked, suddenly worried. He gave her a disarming smile. It felt strange to see his foreign traits and greenish skin so full of emotion. His humanity transcended the differences between them. Viv did not like that at all. She did not want to feel too much of anything right now.

“I here because I did bad things to women. With stupid friends. Only, last woman was someone important. She threw her pain at my head during the trial and my eyes were opened. I deserve to be punished. I deserve to be here. Others do not. We save them together, yes?”

“Yes, Benetti. We save them together.”

“Then, maybe, I am Ir Leias Benetti again. Worthy of my name.”

She was not sure what to think of that. It seemed important to him, that name, and her opinion as well. She decided to say something because he was clearly expecting it and leaving him hanging would be awkward. Thoughtful words cost her nothing.

“You already act like Ir Leias Benetti.”

Some weight was lifted from his tired face.

“Yes, I act like that. First act, then be. Yes?”

That she could wholeheartedly agree. The shared moment made her smile.

“First act then be.”

They arrived at the tower, its doors left open.

Arthur squeaked and categorically refused to step close. She tried to bribe the small creature with food. Nothing worked.

“Squee!”

“It wants fight,” Benetti observed.

Or she did not want to die cooped up in a death trap. In any case, Viv decided to let it go. The little monster was smart, perhaps smart enough to make her own decision. She could not spare the strength.

Solfis was inside, working on its head. The gut spiller’s two horns were now fully engraved.

“How is it going?” she asked.

//The frame is almost ready.

//I only need another hour.

//I had to expedite a few systems that will not interfere with normal operation.

//I can still tweak them later.

//How are things outside? Your condition was briefly concerning.

“Not too bad. I think I killed all his crawlers but two. He still has his heavier creatures, but they need to force the gate open to go through. Only his puppeteers remain a major threat.”

//Good.

//Remember, once I am ready, I will be able to dispose of the enemy caster with great alacrity.

//Then his horde will disperse.

//There is not enough vitality inside of the fort to attract more than a few creatures at a time.

//Take no risks.

“I won’t. Take any stupid risks, I mean.”

Her worry calmed, she closed the door behind her and walked out. Benetti was studiously avoiding looking at Arthur, who was planted three meters away from him in a pouncing position.

“Arthur, no bullying the knights please.”

“Squee!”

“It seems… very protective of you,” Benetti observed.

“Yes, she can be a handful. Come on, let’s go to the walls.”

Benetti exchanged one last glare with the ferocious overgrown lizard and followed after. They climbed swiftly and found everyone’s attention focused south.

A few days before, God that felt like a fucking eternity ago, they had cleaned a village to the north. And now, the southern one was coming to greet them. Another wave of undead flesh was making its merry way to them. It centered around its own core of special undead.

“What the fuck. Is that normal?”

“There has not been a group of necromancers working in concert for decades…” Benetti mumbled by her side.

For one precious moment, she hoped that the two would collide and fight. Of course, they merged peacefully.

“Double fuck.”

Without pause, the elites formed a battle line and walked forth, revenants screening them under the control of puppeteers. Larger revenants climbed on the back and shoulders of gut spillers and other weird animals, including disturbing insectoid things. They had abandoned all attempts at tactics that she could see. They were just going to brute force it.

And it would work.

Cernit barked an order and the soldiers on the side moved away from the edge of the wall until they formed a half circle. There were only ten of them. They would not hold shit. Not for long.

“Do what you can. We hold here. Keep path open,” Cernit told her.

“He means the stairs. We keep the stairs clear then make a run for the tower.”

“Tower, yes. I hope Solfis good.”

She sure as hell hoped so, too.

The mass made good time until they arrived at the base of the flesh slope. The first revenants quickly collapsed as ash and brittle bones gave under their collective weight. The charge turned into an upward slog. The flesh ramp had turned into an obstacle.

Viv raised a hand. She took a deep breath.

Yoink was an absolutely bullshit powerful spell that was so cheated it would kill anyone but herself. It would not suffice here. She had to go beyond bullshit cheating. She had to go for full rule-mangling retardation.

She called to her mind the twisted spiral of the ‘pierce’ rune, the base of the yoink spell. This time, she added the ‘overcome’ rune. Two colliding flat planes appeared before her. The rune looked like someone had punched through a flimsy wall.

She lurched, but did not give in. Her improved ability to cast and multitask showed its worth now, allowing her to visualize the two at the same time. Her vision still turned blurry from the effort. She overcharged the beam and unleashed it.

A bolt of sheer darkness tore through the air. It slammed into a front revenant, which glowed black.

Then another glowed black.

Then the entire row glowed black until the puppeteer shrieked horribly.

They all exploded into black ash at the same moment.

“MASS YOINK!”

Hahaha, that was amazing! It worked! The pride of success gave her a glimmer of hope as the new ash only served to further slow down the assault.

She took three seconds to breathe, then cast again.

“Mass yoink! Hehe.”

Black mana returned to her. It was as much as she had spent throwing the mighty spell, perhaps even more. Once again, her stamina would determine success. She breathed deeply, and prepared to fight.

More creatures made their way up. Viv managed to catch the second necromancer off guard and knock… her control out of whack, if only briefly. Or at least she thought it was ‘her’ control. The aura felt… womanly, somehow. With the puppeteers briefly tumbling, she threw a few quick yoinks to crawlers flanking their position.

A chill ran up her back, and she turned just in time to shield her eyes. A massive dead hawk was descending upon her. She briefly saw the glint of sharpened talons.

“Squee!”

Arthur sprung up and intercepted the flier in a shower of dried feathers. There were others coming.

You have gained: danger sense at Beginner 1.