Chapter 5

Laran stood still, sweat flowing down his neck. He contemplated his strategy, observing the necromancer, looking for an opening. He knew a glaringly obvious flaw of the necromancer; he was too overconfident. And he would pay for that.

Laran rushed towards the necromancer. He knew the most immediate thing that he had to do, to get into middle ranged combat. Too far and he would get blasted with arcane magic. Too near and he wouldn’t be able to use his two-handed sword effectively.

The necromancer waved his wand in a circle, and Laran saw a faint glittering in the air around him.

The necromancer pointed his wand at Laran, and screamed out, “Shadolt!”. A concentrated ball of dark energy flew towards Laran, who tried to parry it away. However, as soon as the ball made contact with the blade, Laran realized what a fool he had been. The ball weighed a ton! Just to push away the ball, Laran had to strain himself. A lot.

Nevertheless, he continued charging at the wizard. Now in range, Laran swung his blade horizontally. He had to try to fool the necromancer with normal sword attacks, using Tempest Slash only when he had the appropriate window of opportunity.

The blade was just about to slice the necromancer, when Clang! It was deflected off a force field. It must have been that silent spell that he casted! Laran thought. Laran looked up, only to see the necromancer with his wand pointing straight at him.

“Shadolt!” another ball of dark energy flew towards Laran. Laran dropped to the floor, and attempted to slash upwards. The necromancer stretched out his hands, palms facing Laran. The sword hit the force-field again.

“Torolt!” The necromancer cried out. Swords suddenly pierced out from the ground. Laran reacted quickly, jumping back. Now what!? Laran thought anxiously.

Skeletons were rising out from the ground. Some wore army khakis, some wore tattered trousers, and some didn’t even have clothing. A few were wielding axes, swords etc. while others were unarmed.

“Serve me.” The necromancer grinned, pointing his wand straight at Laran. Laran tensed himself. The most efficient way was to go straight for the necromancer. Take down the King and his pawns fall.

“Kill.” The necromancer sent the message to his undead, prompting them to charge en masse towards Laran. The undead charged, sounds coming from the contact of bone against ground. The air was filled with the clattering of armour as a few heavily armoured skeletons shuffled quickly towards Laran.


Laran dashed towards the necromancer, slashing the skeletons with so much force that they crumbled into bones. An axe swiped at his head. Laran focused arcane energy on his sword, and swung so hard that he cleanly sliced the axe into two pieces. The sword continued on its way, smashing the skeleton’s skull into bits.

“Damn. If only I could get to him faster!” Laran thought urgently, punching a skull off the skeleton. Laran suddenly stopped in his tracks. Laran suddenly stopped in his tracks. He held his sword high above his head, similar to his pose before unleashing the Tempest Slash. He started gathering arcane energy again, resulting in the familiar light-blue aura around his sword.

“Tempest Hurricane!” Laran yelled. Instead of releasing his energy into a concentrated wave, he just let it explode.

Rather than explode like the necromancer’s arcane energy did, Laran’s resulted in a hurricane, which swept and cut the skeletons into pieces. Laran directed the hurricane towards the necromancer.

Standing firmly on his feet, the necromancer steadied himself, right before the hurricane smashed into him. Or more specifically, his arcane shield. He grimaced as he took the attack head-on, his shield absorbed the damage, leaving him panting in exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Laran was slowly dragging his feet towards the necromancer. That power of the attack left him badly shaken. He had already exhausted more than half of his arcane energy.

“Shadolt.” The necromancer spoke softly, releasing yet another fully charged dark energy ball. Laran had no way to avoid it. He had to reveal his trump card.

“Tempest Slash!” Laran yelled loudly, slashing his sword and releasing that outburst of blue arcane energy.

BOOM! The two techniques clashed with each other, colliding in an extremely impressive display of power. Smoke erupted, completely engulfing Laran.

“Interesting…” The necromancer scratched his head. A tiny glint of metal sparkled somewhere in the thick smoke.

“Aaargh!” Laran screamed, thrusting his sword straight at the Necromancer. He had activated his Terran eyes, and they were blood red. He was sprinting towards the Necromancer with whatever strength he could muster.

The Necromancer was unable to focus in time, and got stabbed in the arm. No! Laran thought. Although his strike drew blood, the wound was still too shallow. The necromancer did not specially shield that part of his body, but his passive arcane guard still gave him some protection.

The necromancer’s face contorted with pain and anger. How could this worm have hurt him? He would pay. The necromancer swiped his wand at Laran. “Magic Claw!” he shouted in anger, swinging his wand

Dark blue arcane energy flashed from his wand, leaping and biting deeply into Laran. The ferocity in which they slashed and bit into him were as if they were wild animals with razor-sharp fangs. Laran was rapidly pushed back, and he thrusted his sword firmly into the ground, to stop himself from moving back anymore. His face stung, and he tasted copper in his mouth. He looked at his chest, only to see the arcane vest ripped to shreds, and his chest full of bloody cuts.

“Your debt is not repaid yet!” The necromancer screamed, resurrecting the undead, causing them to rise up and continue their death march towards Laran.

The necromancer, consumed in fury, continued swinging vigorously. The blows stung Laran badly, drawing blood. The terran eyes were also beginning to take their toll on Laran, making him weaker by the second. Then he saw it. That window of opportunity.

Laran stood firmly, just soaking in the blows. He felt renewed by the opportunity he now had.

Everything’s fair in War.