Chapter 84: 82
Silence enveloped the earth. The snow glistens under the rays of the sun, reflecting the light in different directions. My legs silently sank to the floor, of course, not without my help, telekinesis rules.
Walking through the snow, I heard nothing, not even the whistle of the wind, only the beat of my heart, which was duplicated in my mind, accompanied me. With each step my emotions became more and more intense; I didn't expect this, but I didn't let them get the better of me. Composure and a cool head are what I need at the moment.
Step forward, eyes confidently looking forward. Another step - no reaction from the draugr is observed. Carefully and slowly, I moved my feet, gradually approaching the dead man. The whole time I was walking towards him, he showed no signs that he would notice me, and still looked into space somewhere in front of him with his empty eye sockets.
Not even two minutes had passed before I found myself almost close to the draugr. Up close I was able to get a much better look at him. Not only the dead body, but also the aura.
The dried out figure with bluish skin was covered with a myriad of cracks that could make it appear as if it were covered in cobwebs. His Eyes rotted away a long time ago, leaving the sockets empty. In their place burned a mystical blue flame that "swayed" in the wind. Where does this color come from?
The draugr was dressed in metal armor, or rather in what was left of it: part of the breastplate, a helmet and half-destroyed leggings. Once upon a time they were undoubtedly graceful and beautiful, but time has not been kind to them. As, indeed, their owner.
His aura was strange, as if time had stood still for her forever. Almost the entire "life" of this shell was stopped, only some processes that were not entirely clear to me (I hope this is only for now) continued to occur in it. Like jelly in which something happened from time to time. The entire aura of the once living elf was engulfed by black tentacles of something not entirely clear, perhaps the Lich's spell, but this is not certain. They braided her into an almost impenetrable cocoon. They were so dense.
A couple more steps and now I'm standing face to face with a dead man. There were only a mere couple of meters between us. Cold and hunger—that's exactly what I felt now. Nothing else moved this creature, only these two emotions. I felt a slight chill from his emotions, but having driven away unnecessary thoughts, I focused on the task at hand.
After standing there for some time, I decided to move away from him. Slowly, stepping every couple of seconds, I moved away from him about five meters. All this time I did not take my gaze off the dead figure.
"Professor," I tried to address the goblin floor, but I was stopped by an icicle that flew at me as soon as I activated the artifact.
Dodging and jumping to the side, I rushed at full speed towards the squad.
- R-r-a-A! - The draugr roared and raised his hand. Noticing the reaction of the dead man, Croco, who had previously stood with the others, rushed towards the draugr.
Mana began to gather above the dead man's hand, quickly "painting" on the canvas of reality. For a brief moment, a runic circle of rich light gray color appeared in front of her, but then immediately disappeared, leaving behind a white mist. With a wave of his hand, the draugr sent him in my direction.
It was at that moment that Croco appeared in front of me. Without saying anything, he picked me up on his shoulder and pulled me in the opposite direction from this fog.
With every second, the clouds of fog grew exponentially, covering more and more space. I literally felt with my back how he was gradually approaching us. If I had run on my own, it would have swallowed me up long ago.
The dead man didn't stop there. Snatching the sword (at that moment, in magical vision, the metal began to change color to yellow mixed with red), which had previously hung on his belt, he swung it horizontally. A wide wave of fire burst from its blade and rushed towards us.
What was he up to? I thought at that moment, but a moment later my eyes widened and I caught myself and the dragonite with telekinesis, jumping as far and high as possible. In an instant, giant wings burst out of my back, which I tried to help myself by flapping vigorously.
*BANG* An incredibly powerful explosion came from behind. The shock wave picked me up and, spinning me in the air, threw me hard onto the ground. With all my strength, I tried my best to stop my fall, but I could only slow it down, not stop it. Before the attack, I strengthened my body and organs as best I could.
*Thump* The impact with the ground knocked the air out of my lungs. His back was burning with fire, his wings were numb, perhaps even broken in some places. Having wished, I removed them, there is no point in wasting the body's resources on regenerating additional limbs.
The dragonite landed next to me, smoothly lowering himself to his feet. And as soon as I could?
-Can you get up? - his voice boomed.
"Dh-ah," he somehow squeezed out of himself and, leaning on his hands, rose from the ground. Looking around, I noticed a crater, two meters deep and fifteen meters wide. - What was it?
— Gas. A combination of two schools: fire and wind," Croco explained, looking intensely towards the dead man, who was not visible due to the rising snow.
"Can a draugr wield fire?" After all, he was resurrected with the help of ice, this contradicts the principle of raising the dead, I didn't quite understand. If you raised him with the help of death and frost (meaning the body is impregnated with this mana when lifted), then he is automatically "cut off" from the school of fire.
— The sword is an artifact. With the help of it, he used the fire spell," nodding, I turned my gaze towards the dead man. How come I didn't think of this myself? This really explains everything.
Gradually the snow calmed down, falling back to the ground. It seemed like a long time had passed. But no more than twenty seconds had passed since the escape.
*Whistling* Something flew towards us. Grabbing his sword, Croco fought off the ice spear. The dead man did not stop there: with every second more and more enemy attacks flew in our direction: spears, icicles, even "ice" flames. Having come into contact with this flame, the dragonite's sword instantly froze, becoming several times heavier.
Raising the sword in front of him, Croco breathed fire at him directly from his mouth. Convenient, what else can I say.
- How are you? - Flitwick ran up and asked us. Everyone else was next to him. With a wave of his wand, he created some kind of protection that was undoubtedly incredibly strong. A steel-colored "bubble" shielded us from the rest of the world.
"He couldn't detect me until the moment I tried to contact you," I explained to them the reason for this epic action.
"So he is much more sensitive to Mana than we expected," the professor said thoughtfully, watching how the steel stakes, fists, and other attacks of the dead man were broken against the "steel" barrier. Wind and fire blades also flew in. - But now we are sure that you, under the influence of technology, will not be detected.
- R-a-A! — another roar was heard from our right. It was followed by two more screams, but from the left side.
"It looks like our friend has guests," said the dwarf, throwing four figures in front of him into the snow. A second later, two trolls and two tigers stood in front of us. "Forward," the dwarf commanded. In a united movement they rushed to the right, in the direction from which a single scream was coming. "I'll deal with one, and you take care of the rest."
Having said this, he left for his golems.
"Since we are convinced of your abilities, then perhaps you should fly into the sky and watch the battlefield from above," Flitwick turned to me. - Well, we'll do the rest.
Nodding, in the blink of an Eye, I turned into a bird. Having taken off into the sky, I began to monitor what was happening below me.
Ogrim coped with his task one hundred percent. A draugr with water and ice magic fought against him and his golems. The trolls went to the breach, acting as a human shield. Water blades, cutters, and waves crashed against their figures in splashes of water. Two tigers tried to get around the dead man from both sides, but the draugr was not so simple and met them with a single volley of water "cannons" from two hands, adding water geysers on top that "emerged" right under the tigers' feet.
Og himself did not lag behind his creations. Dozens of runes hovered next to him, some of them taking on the draugr's rare attacks when he managed to hit the "puppeteer" through his puppets.
The remaining runes were formed into words, sentences, paragraphs. Each action was accompanied by a flash of light, after all, our gnome is not an archmage, he still has a leak when composing spells.
Each golem knew the owl's business, they masterfully distracted attention while Og himself prepared to attack. Finally he finished creating his rune inscription.
Hovering in front of him, the inscription from the runes began to flow into a wave of a point, until in the center there was a ball of black color. Grabbing the ball with one hand and pointing at the golem with the other, Og whispered:
"Ortu lapidis (birth of a stone)," a brown beam burst out from his hand towards the dead man. Approaching him, he split into hundreds of "tentacles" that instantly engulfed the draugr
A flash of light blinded me. Opening my eyes, my gaze came across a chamber statue that stood in the place of the draugr. The mouth is open in a silent scream, the left hand is clutching a sword, and the right is raised in a protective gesture. The draugr finally died, leaving behind only a statue.
Without even looking in the direction of his work, the gnome walked slowly in the opposite direction. The bottle from which he drank reappeared in his hand.
And the magic of runes turns out to be incredibly strong. We need to give her even more attention.
Everyone else was also doing great. Croco and Susan began to fight the very first draugr. While Croco was fighting on the ground with the dead man, Crystal helped him in every possible way.
With a wave of her hand, she summoned dozens of dead hands right in the place where the draugr stood. Together they tried to bind the dead man, but he turned them into icicles with a blast of ice, and then smashed them with a swing of his sword. Croco took advantage of this, cutting off his head with a single blow.
The absence of a head did not bother the dead man at all. With his free hand, with a swing, he drove the dragonite straight into the mouth. Well, he tried, Croco substituted the blade of his sword for his blow, thereby cutting off another limb.
"Otium (rest)," said the necromancer who approached the draugr from behind. She was protected by another draugr, raised by the girl herself.
As soon as the word was spoken, the server froze in place, and then completely crumbled into dust. In magical vision, I saw how the girl's spell destroyed the black "tentacles" that entwined the draugr's ara. With a bright blink, the aura disappeared. Was it my imagination or was I able to see, right through the light, the elf's face? No, it can't be.
Turning my attention to the professor, I caught the culmination of the fight. One dead man was knocked to the ground by Al in the form of a giant wolf. Having torn off his arms and legs, the werewolf jumped away. And just in time, a blinding flame flew at the dead man, instantly burning him.
The professor himself dealt with the second draugr. Having caught the dead man in some kind of chains, he opened some kind of rift with a wave of his wand. A blinding light was born straight from it, much brighter than the sun. As soon as the light touched the flesh of a dead man, it began to decay right before our eyes. Small particles rose into the sky until they completely decayed.
The fight is over. Having descended to the ground and taking the form of a man, he hurried to the professor.
- Oh, how do you like it? Liked? — he grinned with a toothy mouth.
I looked at him closely and nodded. The demonstrative massacre of the dead was demonstrative. Each of the dead could have killed me. I might be able to fight one, but not two. The difference between me, who owns magic, and them, who fight with it, is colossal.
"And what did you find out by watching us?" — the half-goblin asked me in intrigue.
- Each of you, alone, is an incredible magician. The last battle, when most of the dead were under control, was not accidental. Even if not with such a quantity, you can cope with a crowd of elf draugr.
"That's right," Flitwick nodded. — Each of us is at least at the master level in our specialized schools. And we have more than one school. We know the habits of the dead, their weak points, their methods of destruction. And now you," he pointed at me. - You know almost nothing about them. You can handle one, two too, but it's unlikely that you can handle three. So you shouldn't take the risk.
It was at that moment that the light bulb went on in my head. Is he really referring to the time I approached the server during my first reconnaissance?
"You knew that the draugr would sense the signal when I tried to contact you," I said affirmatively, carefully watching the professor's face. "Every action today was "created" for one purpose - to show me that I am helpless here," the half-goblin's face remained impassive. Not a single muscle returned on him, only in emotions I was able to share a slight joy. - How long have you been planning this? Even after my first reconnaissance?
Flitwick looked at me carefully and nodded slowly. A satisfied grin gradually appeared on his lips.
- I knew you would guess. That's right, I planned it. You're right, I knew about the good sensitivity of dragons to magical manipulations. Today's entire outing was created for only one thing - to show that you are helpless. You must follow orders, no arbitrariness. Do you understand? — the professor did not stop grinning, but his eyes were extremely serious. Not a single spark of mischief, just chilling confidence.
"Got it," I finally said after a minute of thinking. - So, what is next? I'm still helpless.
"Well, you learned your lesson about orders," the goblin said contentedly to the floor. — Your equipment works, so it's time to get to work.
- Work?
"Reconnaissance," said the professor, and then threw a package at me. Opening it, I saw a silver dagger. "And also murder in the back," a grin appeared on his face again, but now different. Angry, frightening, filled with something incomprehensible. "You'll have to match your technique." You will become an assassin.
Weekly Power Status
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