Chapter 37
A flying lizard dove at me, mouth full of razor teeth open wide. I jumped aside and lobbed one of its wings off with my blade-staff. The creature crashed to the ground, and before it could recover, my blade stabbed into the back of its neck, severing the spinal column.
More incoming! Damien shouted, and a barrage of black energy fired into the incoming horde.
We stood on the slope of a volcano, an emotion wed detected somewhere within. We did as much as we could with our battleship to clear the area, but now we had to fight our way to the dungeon entrance. Waves of small flying lizards along with large firing breathing salamanders rushed us, appearing from dozens of holes in the ground wed missed.
Ilores magic surrounded me and my perspective of time shifted ever so slightly as I accelerated. My job was to hold the front line while Damien and Ilore did the real damage. I spun my weapon like a windmill, blocking incoming streams of fire and cutting down any lizard that got too close.
One of the salamanders gave up using the flame attack and moved in to tear into me with its hundreds of needlelike teeth. I didnt see it in time and it clamped down on my leg. Fortunately, I was still mostly a skeletonmy legs remained black bones. The needlelike teeth had nothing to puncture, only glancing off the hard surface.
The salamander began to twist like an alligator, and its superior weight started pulling me over. The weakness of the blade-staff was in fighting enemies close to me. I struggled to bring my blade to bear. In a flash of inspiration, I changed the shape of the blade to a scythe and widened my grip. The curve made for an effective tool to attack at close quarters, and the razor-sharp tip bit into the back of its neck.
The salamander twisted again and hissed, just as I yanked the blade out in a vicious arc, cutting its head off. The jaws of the salamander didnt release, the head remained attached to my leg, still hissing.
You good, Zeke? Ilore asked.
Yeah. These bloody things just dont want to die.
I didnt have time to dislodge the salamanders head, so I left the dog sized thing there and reformed my blade into a long straight blade. Streams of fire licked out and began to burn away at my robes. I hissed in pain, the scorching heat searing my skeletal body and the small amounts of regrown black flesh.
Tendrils of black energy leapt out past me and into the corpses around me as Damien cast a powerful raise undead spell. All around the downed monsters rose to a false life. All were maimed in some way, and hindered by those wounds, but they provided a good meat shield as they rushed the incoming hordes.
I used the undead distraction to land killing blows, and any creatures the undead killed were turned thanks to Damien imbuing his minions with a special ability.
Use of the spell caused Damien a lot of manna, and he could only do it once per large engagement, so hed waited until there were enough bodies for it to be truly effective. Our army of undead quickly grew into an unstoppable wave that washed across the volcano.
Once the momentum was gained, the undead were all but unstoppable, and I fell back from the front line and rejoined Damien and Ilore.
Should we head to the cave now? Or do you two need a bit longer?
Im good to leave now, Damien said, chugging a mana potion. He winced at the taste. By the time we get to the entrance, my mana should have restored itself.
Ilore nodded in agreement, finishing off a mana potion of her own.
The three of us headed out across the hellish landscape. One of the preparations wed made before assaulting this place was creating rings that gave us immunity to the hot, dry air and ash.
Damien directed much of the undead swarm in front of us with the single order to kill everything they came across.
The mouth of the cave was about three-quarters of the way up the slope, and deceptively wide and tallwider than the three of us standing in a row, arms spread out. It looked like a crack in the side of a mountain that had been turned into an entrance. The sides were all but vertical and worked into a sharp peak high above us.
Damien directed his undead to flood into the volcano ahead of us. Howling monsters pushed and scrambled over each other as they clogged up the entrance.
Seeing the zombies begin to pile up, Damien and I had a similar idea. There was barely a word of communication, and we both cast a necromantic spellmy spell serving to amplify his own. Twisting necromantic energy from Damien shot into the horde of undead. My own beam joined a moment later.
The spell didnt affect every zombie, and many of the ones in front stormed in, but it was still a horrendous sight to behold as all of the zombies caught in our spell were pulled together. Ilore gasped in horror, and when I looked at her, shed already turned away. I didnt blame her. Id seen things like this before so I was more jaded to it, but it was rather disturbing.
Blood, bone, and flesh splattered, twisted, and cracked as the zombies were fused together. Before long, they were reshaped into an undead oriental dragon. The dragon let out a roar, black flames billowing in the back of its mouth, curling around black, razor-sharp serrated teeth.
This was the power of necromancers. We werent front line fighters. Given the right materials and the right support, we could create monsters that were all but unstoppable to anyone who dared oppose us. Damiens strength never failed to impress. Even at my peak, I hadnt been able to create something like this.
Before Damien had a chance to command the monster, gray magic surged out from Ilore and rocketed toward the undead dragon. Tendrils of the gray magic wrapped around the dragon and sank into it. The flames in its mouth slightly changed in hue, with flickering strands of gray woven through the black flames.
With a mental command, Damien sent the dragon into the cave mouth following the zombies that survived. The spell had drained both Damien and I of most of our mana. We waited for it to recover while the dragon pushed the advantage. Roaring scarred the air in the clash of monsters. Flares of orange light lanced through the depths, only to be swallowed up by blackness.
That monster was terrifying. Ilore was a little shaky as she watched the monster disappear.
Yet you still gave it your assistance, Damien said.
Because I knew it was on our side Ilore shook her head. I cant believe I have necromancers as my allies. I always thought you were all evil.
Evil? No, Damien said with smile. Morally ambiguousmaybe?
Truly, what is the problem with using a fallen foes body to assist you? I asked innocently. Even an ally. Its not like theyre using it anymore, theyre dead.
I still struggle with the idea. Ilore furled her forehead in thought. Though I do see your pointespecially the enemies thing.
Shall we head in to see what Mr. Dragon has gotten up to? Damien asked. He was quite proud of his necromantic dragon. Its not often you get a create an undead dragon. It would be a shame not to make sure we made full use of it.
We entered the cave, following the trail of destruction left by the undead dragon. There wasnt much to see at first, but as we went deeper, piles of broken undead bodies, burned and torn apart began to appear. The first broken body was a draconic humanoid. They had small wings on their back, were covered in scales down to their tail, and a head reminiscent of a dragons. This one was missing a leg, and a black flame still smoldered on its chest.
Shall we raise them? Ilore asked as we moved past.
No, Damien said. That black flame sucks the life force out of whatever it consumes and feeds it to my creation. Creatures killed by that flame will eventually turn on their own and be bound to my creation. Raising it now will sever the connection.
Thats terrifying, Ilore shuddered.
Damien tightened his jaw, glancing down a side tunnel and continuing on. Whats terrifying is when an undead creature that uses the black flames gets loose when its not under the control of a necromancer. Beasts like that can cause calamities on the scale seldom ever seen.
Why would anyone ever create such a creature if that is a risk? Ilore asked.
When theyre made by a necromancer its incredibly rare for them to break the control. They are only as powerful as their masters, and they tend to be weaker than the one who raised them, Damien explained. The truly powerful undead creatures are those that formed naturally. Such as a bone dragon risen in a dragon graveyard. The immense power of dragon souls often lingers, and when many of them die in one place, sometimes a single soul will build itself a new body or fragments of many souls will merge together to raise a new, terrible creature to a false life.
I remember hearing about a bone dragon, Ilore said.
Most people have, Damien agreed. Thereve only been a handful of bone dragons created naturally throughout the course of history, and every time they have destroyed entire nations, if not continents, as their undead armies consume all in sight.
Whats the difference between a bone dragon and an undead dragon? I asked.
For one, bone dragons are more powerful, Damien said. Not only are they more durable, they also have greater magical abilities. Bone dragons form naturally only in rare circumstances, rarer than the natural circumstances to form an undead dragon. They can only be created if a necromancer has a truly massive number of bones and the soul of at least a drake. Though if the bone dragon is created with anything other than dragon bones, they are much less powerful.
Are there other types of undead creatures as powerful as bone dragons sound to be? Ilore asked.
Yes. Truly, any powerful creature raised to undeath has the potential to be as powerful as a bone dragon, Damien agreed. If you kill the leviathan and bring it back, it could match either an undead or bone dragon in strength. What truly makes bone dragons powerful is they continue to grow. After their initial creation, they can absorb more bones so long as they have access to enough energy to infuse those bones into their own body, making them larger and more powerful.
If this is the power of an undead dragon, I said, examining the broken body of a dragonkin, Im not sure I ever want to see a bone dragon. These dragonkin were quite powerful foes judging by the damage they were doing to the undead swarming the tunnels before the undead dragon got them.
This little dragon? Damien said dismissively. Its nothing. Ive created undead trolls who were more powerful than this creature. Its just highly effective.
I shook my head in wonder. Judging by what Damien said, he truly had been one of the greatest necromancers to have ever lived. Part of me wished I didnt feel so guilty about using necromantic powers in the real worldI was still trying to figure out what or who I wasbut in the mindscape it was a different story.
We came to an area where the tunnels branched, though fighting rang out down both. The dragon continued down the main tunnel, evidenced by the corpses of undead dragonkin. We decide to follow. If we subdued the emotion at the center of this dungeon, everything else would fall in line.
We came across a larger room littered with the broken bodies of several drakes. A brutal fight had taken place, their claws and teeth laden with chunks of flesh. Smoldering black flames streaked with gray consumed them, and shortly after entering, the creatures began to twitch.
Watch, Damien said. Mr. Dragon took the time to make sure these three would come to his assistance soon.
The eyes of the drakes opened and they rose uneasily to their feet, stretching their wings. The drakes had four powerful legs and long wings, though those wings now were torn and tattered. The drakes eyes were dull, and when they open their mouths, wisps of black flame could be seen.
The drakes looked at us and Damien gave them a mental command. Since he was in control of the undead dragon, the drakes would follow his orders. Two of the drakes took position in front of us, while the third guarded our rear, and we headed deeper into the dungeon.
A deafening roar shook the mountain.
I think Mr. Dragon found the boss, Damien said.
The three of us picked up the pace. Our pet dragon would likely be unable to beat the emotion on its own. We rushed past several splitting tunnels, following the sounds of the titanic fight. We finally came to the main chamber, where two dragons were locked in mortal combat.
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