[Spell Unlocked: Sanguis Nocturneal Skeleton:-???- ???]
Holding the Nocturneal blade with both hands over his chest like a carving on the top of a stone coffin, Typhus stared at a distorted sky from below the clear water with his lungs screaming for air. Releasing a massive bubble he burst from the shallow pond coughing out water throwing the Nocturneal greatsword to the side.
Grabbing his silver sword that laid less than a meter to his right he scanned his vicinity shakily waving the silver weapon around in front of him splashing water aggressively as he struggled to find solid footing. Drenched in water his clothes were heavy from somehow sleeping under the water. Typhus could feel his soggy fingers and feet with every movement.
Clicking of teeth sounded directly behind him making Typhus do a power roll forward, hitting his head on the stones under him with a loud thunk stopping his momentum. Standing three meters or so away from where he laid a fully purple undead skeleton tracked him with its empty eye sockets. Above its head Typhus saw a text box similar to his [Dark Robes].
[Nocturne Sanguis Skeleton Level 1]
HP:200/200
DM:98/100
Interesting…
Still unmoving Typhus wondered what exactly had made this skeleton rise? Was it like a weapon where anyone could claim it? Was it a wild undead? A reward for destroying the Orb? Or was it undirected?
Pondering, Typhus wished he could grab the Nocturneal Blade and escape without having to destroy this monster that left so many unanswered questions. Deciding the threat was too much if the undead could spread itself like an infection he moved to dust it with his silver sword.
'Wa- Weig- Wait'
Stunned Typhus faltered in his forward steps. "Did you just say something?" staring dumbfounded at the unmoving skeleton Typhus was sure it was some kind of hallucination due to trauma from the day before.
'Have d-d-done something wrong, c-creator?'
The voice was echoing with a delay, inhumane and grating. "Creator? I didn't create you?". Typhus spoke to it firmly with malice.
Its first step forward made the skeleton slump its shoulders hanging its head like a child who got told no for the first time.
'All I know for certain is I want to serve my creator, and you are my creator.'
Well, it would be such a waste to lose a potential weapon against 'new world problems'. Along with that, was it a variant? Do skeletons have variants? Before jumping to conclusions he should perform some tests. Typhus was understandably distrusting of the non living after last night.
"Pick up the Nocturnal sword and throw it on the dirt"
Without hesitation the creature took clunky awkward steps towards the black weapon, carefully bending at the waist the bony hand gripped the red handle and tossed the weapon with entirely too much strength.
Spinning violently the sword flew faster than Typhus could see before deeply cutting into a tree vibrating with a wobble sound like a washboard from the sudden stop.
'N-n-o I will t-try again, please c-c-creator'
Panic filled the horror movie demonic voice like a small child who tried to impress a narcissist parent. A confusing mix of emotions filled Typhus,
"If you ran across another human, what would you do?"
Reading a skeleton's reactions proved surprisingly easy to Typhus as the monster showed confusion as it looked into the water.
'What would you want me to do, creator?'
Its voice echoed in his mind as he thought things through. Maybe that strength could be useful, Typhus moved the water with his foot sending gentle ripples through the surface while weighing pros and cons keeping a boned bodyguard. Clearly it was capable of attempting commands, but it appeared to be unable to execute them if the order was above its scope of abilities.
Would Typhus be able to take the monster down if it came down to it? What did they eat? How could he become a caretaker for this undead? Could he risk not having all the power he possibly could accrue?
"Get the sword back"
'Y-yes creator''
"Stop calling me creator"
Splashing sounded out immediately as the monster fell forward into the water. It took two steps before falling, then three, until it learned to reliably walk with its knees resembling a baby crawling. So the trade for strength was dexterity? Or does it learn and grow? Can it do that ideologically?
Shaking his short wet hair Typhus made a wildly uninformed decision he knew he would probably regret, "Pick that sword out of the tree and let's get moving then"
Hoping the peak couldn't be that far upwards Typhus would get to a vantage point and try to get a lay of the land and distinguish landmarks to be able to have at least some sense of direction.
Past the interesting foliage around his pond was beautiful light purple barked willow trees with dark red roses growing on their leaves. Giving the surrounding forest a haunting visage but it was serene and quiet. The wind even seemed to find this too peaceful of an area to disturb as the silence was unnatural in a way Typhus hadn't experienced before.
The path they followed ended at a dried river. Walking into the dried mud Typhus waited for the skeleton to catch up with his relentless pace. Bushes shook to his right while Typhus wiped the sweat from his forehead from hiking multiple kilometers at this point.
Drawing his bright metal weapon Typhus encroached the bush, bright green fist sized grapes hung from the vines. Reaching his hand to the vine his stomach growled as he ripped the grapes from the bush.
Beneath him the mud broke in small fissures all around his feet. Sinkholes started to pull in the mud all around him. His shoe sank suddenly, stuck under the mud. Large mud covered fingers wrapped around his ankles.
"fuck"
His feet got ripped out from under him landing him flat on his back in the mud. Hands and arms burst from the mud wrapping around his body, arms, legs, and neck. Breaking the grip on his sword arm Typhus cut a large slice out of the forearm choking him over his neck. Black ash erupted from the arm crashing into Typhus's face making him spit it out. All at once the other limbs loosened their grip and the mud shifted like creatures were swimming away within it.
That didn't stop the sinkholes, pulling Typhus in with its under toe current. His arms outstretched as the flow of the mud stole his legs in its path.
Typhus held his breath while trying to fight against the current of mud. He knew he wasn't too deep yet and if he could avoid the sinkhole long enough he could-
The world went black.
A memory of two giant red moons staring down uncaringly on him as black murky water crept over his eyes, flashing in his mind while being enveloped by the mud. Typus appeared in his memory as a ghost-like entity, he floated evenly above his unmoving body below the water. Unnervingly, memory Typhus had his eyes open underwater unmoving. Yellow spread from his pupils covering his entire iris, the white of his eyes turned black.
The world snapped black for an instant.
Two giant red eyes of the wolf slinking into the darkness appeared in front of him. Past Typhus in the memory had long lines of dried Death tinted water covering his face while his nose hovered above water like an alligator. Instead of the terror he felt at the time past Typhus's glowing yellow eyes showed defiance, utter resistance.
"Just let the air out, save yourself the suffering of prolonging."
His mind snapped back abruptly as a bone hand gripped him like a hydraulic press almost breaking the arm that protruded from the mud above his head. Typhus was ripped out of the mud gasping for breath and coughing. Standing with an awkward pose the Nocturnal skeleton was immune to the strength of the current and lifted Typhus out with one hand.
'You're okay?' It asked in the awkward almost invasive mental voice, Typhus coughed out some mud, "bleh, yeah… Thank you for saving me"
Continuing onward past the trapped river the sun began its descent making Typhus pause to consider their options. It took them all morning until noon to travel what felt like 5 or 6 kilometers, and after running in the military daily. He was certain it was one or the other.
Travel time without the skeleton would have been a third of that but Typhus patiently waited as his new companion did their best to maintain control of its limbs with uneasy steps.
Could he leave it? Yes of course he could but at the end of the day that could become the greatest scientific discovery in all of humanity. Necromancy, could it lead to immortality? Typhus nearly drooled at the concept, if knowledge was power and ambition was limitless. What could that person learn? How much power would they hold?
As he finished the thought the purple trees stopped with gravel leading to a flat peak. Laughing aloud he turned his head, "almost there buddy, and this time I mean it!". Met with the skeleton having absolutely no reaction. He wished the skeleton came with a manual… like the technical manuals he had used religiously for fixing vehicles.
Typhus slowed in his ascent up the gravel that slid out beneath him occasionally causing a small scale rockslide each time. Forced to be stooped over in a dog-like posture he heard the clanking of bones as the skeleton tumbled back down to the bottom for the third time. A manual for taking care of undead? Like 'Necromancy for simpletons like me'? That was a fan-fucking-tastic idea. Why stop there? A bestiary, what he's discovered with death magic, all of it could be vital for others to know.
Reality came back to him when reaching the peak, Typhus covered his eyes with a hand to get the sun's setting glare out of his vision. Reaching a steep drop off on the other side of the flat mountain top gave an awe inspiring view of a 10 kilometer stretch of vibrant green grassy plains with a town sized group of buildings halfway to the horizon. Too far away to see what they exactly were but big enough to see from a vast distance.
What stuck out to Typhus was the amount of scarred landscape and signs of battle that littered the otherwise idyllic plains. Dirt was overturned in large mortar shells like craters. Dark brown moist dirt contrasting against the light green grass that filled the hills of the plains. Wooden carts were broken to splinters in a line. Typhus assumed an ambushed convoy? Since the dirt hadn't been overtaken by fresh grass that also meant this was recent enough for the craters to be relatively new if grass still worked as it did, remembering the large grapes from the river attack made him doubtful.
Spread throughout every couple kilometers, stone buildings collapsed looking like ruins of medieval chapels. Nothing came closer than a kilometer to the town buildings, the grass around the town was pristine, it was difficult to tell from the vast distance between them but it seemed like the town was untouched.
Staring at his skeleton trying different ways to climb, Typhus knew he had to devise a way to make this faster if he wanted to reach the town before the wolves came back out to hunt at night.
The way up to the peak from the pond was less than 7 ish kilometers they covered that using a whole day. His companion was getting better at walking with a rapid learning rate, unfortunately, the pace was still entirely too slow
Having an idea he turned toward his companion, "can you fold your body in a backbend and use your hands to grab your shin bones?". Without words of retort the skeleton did as told contorting its limbs unnaturally. Resembling a backpack in its odd structure.
Picking up the skeleton, Typhus angled the Nocturnal Blade between its collar bones, the skull bit down on the red handle to hold the handle in place while its ribcage held the length of the blade. Truthfully it was intensely uncomfortable for Typhus with its sharp vertebrae poking into his own flesh covered vertebrae with occasional death infused head butts from his running. Luckily, the monster didn't seem to have any complaints.
Utility was more important than comfort in their circumstances, yet no matter how many times he said the mantra, it still annoyed him.
Along their trek down the cliff's face Typhus clung on a hand sized hole in rock as he climbed down a 100 meter drop off, freeing the other hand of the shiny silver blade, he bit down onto the center of the blade… Like an idiot. His lips would cut at the edges, [Dark Regeneration] would heal him on instinct, then it would just happen again with any movement that required a leap or drop.
Taking a break he let blood come back to his arms while his feet had secure foot holds. Near the end of the hellish, annoying, painful, climb Typhus and his glowing purple bony prodding backpack could see the brown dry dirt that led up to the cliff face for a few meters. Past that was a forest semi similar to the willow tree forest they had traveled through on the way here.
From the cliff face well above the tree line Typhus saw the same silver colored bark trees with brown and purple sided leaves for 100 meters, the grass beneath the trees was a deep red giving it a real doom and gloom look.
150 meters past that was just dead trees. With a brighter, more vibrant shade of red grass. Unable to see what, Typhus saw the long grass shift in multiple places before it settled. "Oh why fucking not?" He asked while scoffing. 'That is a confusing sentence creator.' Jump scaring Typhus he shifted his foothold sending small rocks tumbling like bullets from this height. "Let's not talk until we reach the bottom please" his heart felt like it would pound out of his chest at the near death experience.
Past that was a kilometer of boreal forest environment. Reminding him of the near arctic mountains of Canada. The thought of that mixed in with the chill on the setting sun's winds made him reconsider if he should travel overnight. Redoubling his efforts he climbed down to the finish line.
Right as Typhus placed his hands on the wall, screaming and an inhuman shriek exploded from beneath him echoing on the wind.
Jumping off the cliff face two meters above the ground he felt the air pulse in a familiar wave of vibration in the air… Death mana invaded his senses, stopping him in place as he scanned the trees facing the cliff face.
Suddenly, his skeleton backpack unfurled itself using its neck to slide the Nocturnal blade out of its ribcage before delivering an overhand strike behind Typhus.
Turning in a hurry, his Nocturnal skeleton's swing connected loudly into the collar of a white boned wild skeleton. Exploding any bones in its direct arc before the blade slammed onto the dirt sending cracks of earth to spiderweb from the shock of its impact.
A trail of undead made their way to him at varying speeds leading to a large cave mouth tens of meters away in the wall. Limping out of the opening were tens more of normal grey skeletons, around half held rusted iron spears and rotting wooden shields. Those with weapons appeared to be much more coordinated than the normal ones taking even longer to reach Typhus and his companion.
Stepping forward, Typhus swiftly moved through their ranks cutting through the closest 5 skeletons in a flurry of slashes while running towards the cave. His skeleton he decided to name 'Nocturne' lazily walked towards the cave as Typhus elegantly fought undead around the fidgeting purple tinted skeleton.
Dodging claws, bites, and the occasional stumbling forward stab from the faster moving undead with various weapons. Learning his lesson from his first encounter with skeletons Typhus ensured every kill was with his silver sword, moving around with enough distance between kills that he wouldn't give his enemies a smokescreen curtain.
Taking only minor cuts and scrapes in return for decimating their forces. Trimming the horde by a substantial amount before twice as many wild skeletons started pouring out creating a formation to defend the cave.
27 unarmed skeletons and 10 spear skeletons lined in a half circle in front of the mouth of the cave. The ten spears pointed away from the cliff with the mass of unarmed monsters filling in the half circle waiting for Typhus to make a move. Nocturne was still a few meters behind clumsily approaching, giving Typhus a moment to consider a counter measurement to the spear wall facing him.
Pushing some mana into [Dark Regeneration] his HP replenished after just a few seconds confirming Typhus had barely been damaged up to this point. His mana pulsed inwardly with healing while an equal opposing force escaped his control outside his body. Making him wonder something…
Typhus's body and blade started dimly glowing purple, before a black hue started to flicker around him. Dirt beneath him turned a dark purple growing in proximity for a meter in an uneven circle of reaching death. Grinning he clenched his weaponless hand and felt the power resonating off. Turning his palm towards the skeletons he aimed using his middle finger as the 'sights' of the attack.
Ambition. Greed. Passion. Fire. Inferno.
Glyphs filled his mind with characters that represented those concepts. He didn't know how or why he knew that's what they meant but he was certain in a similar way to a baby reacting to sound, he didn't 'try' to understand the glyphs he just reacted to what was already a part of him. Black turned to orange mana that shined dimly around Typhus. With enough force to nearly buckle his arm inward and dislocating, fire erupted from his hand like a high pressure water hydrant pushing Typhus back with dirt stacking underfoot from the power of the spell.
Dropping his sword Typhus braced his elbow with his other hand, watching his mana drop. Smiling ear to ear from the majesty of twisting flame until reaching the closest monster causing an explosive disruption to the flow of the flames. Enveloping the skeleton in a cornucopia of heat and releasing the condensed flame spell to spread like spraying water on the ground.
Typhus kept the spell alive until reaching half way through his mana pool before realizing he didn't know how to turn the spell off. Panicked he pulled in his fire mana instead of pushing out, the flames shook for a moment before folding into itself forcing the spell back into his body through his hand. Burnt flesh started to fill the air after immolating his hand to a charcoal black.
Screaming out in pain Typhus fell to his knees on the charred dirt floor. Through gritted teeth he observed the results of his runaway flamethrower, melted skeletons were frozen in place like wax figurines. The spears all bent like bananas from the power of his attack some shields became puddles of liquid making Typhus wonder if they had low melting points or if the flames reached a level of heat that was just unnatural.
*Ding*
*Ding*
*Ding*
Typhus had made the connection with that spell thanks to his [Dark Regeneration]. Death mana needed to circulate within him for the spell to work. Which begged the question, what would happen if he just expelled his own mana freely with the intent of doing damage instead of painstakingly directing it to do something specific like heal himself.
Fire apparently, was his manas base form, the attack was much easier to release then [Dark Regeneration] but he still couldn't think of a way to turn the mana off without the intense blowback. Resolving to test this new capability to hell and back he stared at the carnage a minute more before getting to his feet while wincing.
Moving at a near instant speed a shadow leapt from the cave barreling towards him.
Centimeters from his right eye, 5 thin black nails, each 30 centimeters long, shook violently trying to reach his face. Small grey hands attached to skinny arms with black veins pulsing in a natural pattern, some rising and falling randomly. Large beady black eyes resembling onyx filled with a level of hate he'd scarcely seen.
This monster's ears rose well above its head coming to a point with more black veins bulging from its eyes to spread all throughout its lanky 2 meter tall humanoid head. Malnourished legs bent inwardly like a bird and were covered in what looked like rotten mummy bindings.
Holding the grey creature's attacking arm was a purple glowing bony hand with black smoke rising from Nocturne's grip.
One of its hands was planted into the dirt while its legs were in a lunging pose, its face showing frustration at being robbed of its kill.
'YOU DARE!?'
Squeezing tighter, disgusting rotten blood exploded like a broken fountain from the monster's forearm reinforcing the insane grip strength of Nocturne. If he hadn't just stared death in the face, Typhus would have felt bad for the creature after recently being caught in a similar grip by the back of his head the day before.
Oddly inspired from Nocturne saving him, Typhus grit his teeth and picked up his sword with his uninjured hand. "Hold it still" he commanded Nocturne as he drove his sword into the creature with almost no force, expecting it to turn to dust as the other monsters had.
Instead it sizzled and burnt the skin of the monster as the tip of the weapon penetrated less than a centimeter. Already turning his back after touching the silver to the monster Typhus wasn't ready for the feral return swipe of the non injured claw continuing the arc of its attack to knock the [Nocturnal Blade] from the skeletons hand skidding off the dirt ten meters away.
After striking him across his turned shoulder, long thin lines of blood seeped onto his recently cleaned and regenerated [Dark Robe]. Taking uneven steps back, Typhus felt a pulse of unknown mana shoot through his blood stream, his chest felt heavy and the surrounding muscles stopped responding to his brain's commands.
Grey stone crept from the cuts on his arm, climbing his neck and descending outward. The creature let out a knowing hiss of victory before Typhus reached forward for the monster's body with his sword. His arm rebelled as it hardened until impossible to move, getting to within centimeters of the monster's rib cage. Typhus's rage filled face was fully stone with only his forehead remaining untouched, anger erupted from his ignorance towards the effects, he cursed and kicked mentally wishing. No, Typhus demanded true and total erasure of existence to the monster by any means.
'Understood'
Nocturne ripped the silver sword from the Typhus statues' loose grasp, driving it deep into the monster's chest. To ensure the kill, Nocturne lifted the creature above its head while impaled, holding it in place. Nocturne punctured his free hand's fingers into the flesh of the creature's upper abdomen, wrapping them around the lower ribs of the shrieking and struggling monster. Blackened blood sprayed across the enraged Nocturne sizzling and evaporating. In a single motion Nocturne ripped outward separating the upper body entirely, throwing the corpse three meters away.
A waterfall of green blood erupted over the skeleton and their creator's hardened stone frame. Moments later Typhus burst free from the magical stone imprisonment trying to catch himself only to yelp painfully as his burnt hand braced his fall. Holding his injured hand he checked the caverns entrance for any more surprise ambushes before sitting back on his knees, after a few minutes that felt like hours of preparing he checked his stats quickly to avoid being distracted for longer than necessary in this hostile atmosphere.
[Mage level increased to 3]
[Fire Affinity Unlocked]
[Spell Unlocked: Flamethrower:Common: expel flames from the casters hand]
—————————————
HP: 100/140
SP: 140/200
MP: 54/270
Class:[Mage Level 3]
Strength: 21
Toughness: 15
Endurance: 21
Perception: 13
Agility: 19
Wisdom: 27
Control: 14
Prowess: 31
Profession: N/A
Skills:
[Swordsman-common]
Spells:
[Sacrificial Healing- Common] [Dark Regeneration- Uncommon] [Flamethrower- Common]
Affinities:
[Chaos] [Death] [Fire]
Traits:
[Death magic resistance 3]
Titles;
[Templar]
——————————————-
Boosting his healing he would take the time to absorb Death mana after dealing with this cave and trying to find the woman who screamed earlier. Taking his sword back from Nocturne who was drenched in the green blood with the bisected enemy corpse strewn around them.
"You're the absolute best, thank you Nocturne"
'Nocturne?'