Stygian Mage

BAM!!

BAM!!

“Wake up. We need to leave for the mission.” Ward banged on Phil’s door trying to wake him up.

The others were already up and ready to leave. Soren was carrying the backpack on his back, his gun holstered on his waist and the wooden staff in his hands. He was wearing the same black survival clothes with boots.

He stood in the open area below the residential building, waiting for others to arrive. Kyle was standing beside him, leaning on the wall with his hands crossed in front of him.

Ward came down with Phil, who still looked quite light-headed, and soon they set out with Ellie following them.

“We need to clear the first area today. It is infested with ‘Kleboons’. They are known for their speed and mainly attack with their sharp claws. They have made their lair in a cave not so far from here. They pose a threat to us if we were to move in their area carelessly, so we eliminate them.”

Kyle described the beasts and showed them the details on his communicator.

Soren was suddenly reminded of his desperate fight as he heard the description of the beast from Kyle’s mouth. It was the same beast that had pushed him to the edge of death. He hadn’t seen the beast before as he was already unconscious at that time but now, he could finally see it; as the description had a picture of the beast. The black colored beast, with a strip of yellow fur on its spine, looked somewhat like a beaver, except it was much bigger in size, had deadly and sharp claws, and two sharp fangs were visible on both sides of its mouth.

Although Soren was much stronger now, he still felt a shiver go down his spine as he thought about that time.

………

They didn’t take the jeep today as their destination was not that far, so they had to walk.

Ellie moved in front of them, scouting ahead. Ward took the vanguard position, Phil and Soren in the center with Kyle assuming the rear position. They moved in this formation, trying to steer clear of any useless skirmish.

They had to walk a few miles before they reached their destination. They hid in the bushes, observing the dark cave in front of them. They scouted for a while, checking the surroundings carefully.

“Move in. Maintain the same formation.” Kyle gave out his orders as they started to move towards the cave carefully.

Phil casted an illumination spell and produced a ball of light which brightened the dark cave. They moved forward with quiet footsteps, guarding against any sudden movement.

Soon they met a lone Kleboon ahead.

It looked like it was munching on something.

Ellie scouted around it to check if it had any of its brethren around. Kyle nodded upon getting Ellie’s confirmation and nocked an arrow on his bow. His pupils suddenly transformed and became something that resembled a bird’s eye.

He focused on the beast and before the beast could let out any sound….

Swoosh!

Its head was pierced by the arrow, taking its life.

Soren was not surprised as he already knew from Ellie that Kyle’s Soul Form was an ‘Animate’ type Soul Form—Hawk. This kind of Soul Form generally gave Initiators the ability of the animals their soul had materialized into.

“Let’s move up,” Kyle said while taking out the arrow from the beast’s skull, cleaning it and keeping it. They didn’t take the Beast Core right now as they couldn’t afford to waste time.

“Rank 0: Layer 6.”

Soren had scanned the beast already and knew it was even stronger than the one he fought last time. He had found out about that beast’s level later on when he was selling the Cores. He was slightly surprised. But after thinking about it, only that difference in level could push him to the edge of death.

He moved forward with the team after giving the dead beast a glance.

……..

They moved through the cave, fighting with these small but fast beasts. They utilized their formation very well and took care of every beast without getting any serious injury.

Ward did his job as a tank; Ellie did some sneak attacks while using her speed to her advantage. Kyle and Phil were the main attackers while Soren sometimes used his guns to shoot them.

Their Soul Forms also complemented them well. Kyle’s Soul Form was a ‘Hawk’; Ellie’s was a pair of pale red crystal bangles; Ward’s Soul Form was rather common—a Shield; and Phil’s was a golden crystal orb which floated in front of him.

From what Soren knew, the golden orb of Phil gave him a boost in ‘Light’ magic which included healing spells.

Soren was concerned about using his spells as he didn’t know if the others would recognize his cultivation level with the power of his spells or not. He also couldn’t control the power of his spells properly so if he somehow killed a beast that was supposed to be ‘stronger’ than him…..

They didn’t get into any dangerous situation till now so it was easy for him to hold back.

…………

Soren quickly removed the empty magazine and replaced it with the filled one. After reloading, he aimed and fired three shots.

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!

A screech followed as the beast fell down. They had killed quite a few of them already and were very close to the main lair.

Soren kept the gun back in his holster and sat down in a clean place to cultivate for a while. They were going to take a rest before moving to the main part.

They ate some dried meat and drank some water, getting refreshed. After getting their energy back, they started moving towards the deepest part of the cave.

They soon reached an exit which led to a large hall.

There were Kleboons lying here and there. These creatures had some kind of a society here. There were small beasts running here and there, playing some kind of games, completely unconcerned about everything else. Some adult beasts were lying, sleeping, some were feeding on something. Few of the adult Kleboons stayed around the kids to pay attention to them.

They also saw small holes on the walls of the cave, most likely being their homes.

Ellie and Ward hesitated a little upon seeing this view as they were supposed to kill all of them. The hesitation soon turned into pity as they looked towards their leader.

Kyle could tell what they were thinking from their faces. He slightly frowned and looked towards his other teammates. Soren was looking at the beasts with unconcerned eyes while Phil had a grin on his face.

Though Soren was slightly anxious, which was the effect of his fight to death last time, he didn’t show any of it on his face.

They were hiding behind the walls so the beasts still hadn’t noticed them. Kyle took another look towards his teammates and said in a cold voice, “It’s a job and we have to finish it.”

Ellie and Ward were a little disheartened upon hearing Kyle’s words but they were, in the end, professionals. They quickly fixed their mindset and started their job. They all took their position as Kyle gave a signal for the attack.

Ward dashed forward with the hammer in his right hand, while a triangular shield formed into his left hand. He charged at them with his shield and swung the hammer, crushing the first beast he met, into meat pulp.

It was hard to imagine that this was the same guy who was hesitating to kill these beasts before.

Ellie also ran around, stealthily attacking the beasts from their blind spot. She sometimes stabbed the beasts in their throat and sometimes in their eyes. The beasts there were not combat ready so they were an easy prey for someone as fast as her.

Kyle stood at the exit of the cave hall to make sure they didn’t miss any beast. He was also providing support with his arrows from time to time.

Phil had gone completely haywire as soon as the combat started as he used fire spells left and right while laughing maniacally.

Soren also took out his gun and started shooting. In the beginning, he didn’t even have to aim as there were so many beasts. He always hit someone with his shot.

It was a complete massacre. Blood and gore flowed everywhere. It was a scene of carnage.

BANG!!

Soren aimed and shot the beast in its eyes taking its life. He quickly did a reload and again started shooting.

He was running slightly low on bullets so, he finally decided to stop using the guns after shooting for a while.

He brought out the staff that he had hung on his back when using the gun. He then cast ‘Dark Bolt’ towards a Kleboon trying to run towards the exit.

A bolt made up of dark fog formed and flew towards its target at a high speed.

Screech!!

A sharp wail followed as the dark bolt hit the target.

The Kleboon fell and rolled on the ground from the physical impact of the bolt as the dark fog quickly covered its body. The beast soon started to wither and decay like a corpse as the light left its eyes.

Soren smiled upon seeing the effect of his spell. He had scanned the beast already: It was Rank 0: Layer 5, the same as the last time but the result was different this time.

Although Soren still couldn’t compare to them with his speed, he was strong enough to kill them using his specialty. His ‘Powered Vision’ had also developed together with him so he could easily see the fast-moving beasts now.

He started using spells sparingly as he was still concerned about something.

The cave-hall had two exits: One was covered by Kyle while other was open. He knew that the beasts they were killing were not the strongest ones. There must still be some strong ones inside.

While thinking, he released the ice arrow floating in front of him and exploded it when it reached its target, making it an AOE attack.

He didn’t use his ‘Create Undead’ and ‘Fireball’ spell as they came with certain problems. First one—he didn’t want to expose, and the other would sap his mana very quickly.

Another Kleboon took this chance and ran towards the unguarded exit in the opposite direction.

It was also carrying a small Kleboon kid while it ran. It was almost out of the cave hall but suddenly, a black chain pierced it, wrapping around it tightly.

Soren had used his ‘Shadow Chain’ on this Kleboon as he saw it was almost out of the exit. He then cast ‘Acid Splash’ and hurled an acid blob, the size of a human head towards the duo beasts.

The acid blob flew towards its target at a high speed.

Swoosh!

There was fear, anger, hatred, and despair flashing through the Kleboon’s eyes as it saw the green blob getting bigger and bigger as it flew towards them. The last thing it saw was the acid blob and the last thing it heard was its kid’s screams and such, they both left the realm of the living.

The whole cave hall was in complete chaos and therefore, no one had enough time to pay any attention to the power of Soren’s spells.

He continued killing the beasts while keeping an eye on his mana reserve. He was continuously on guard as he was expecting the other Kleboons to arrive for their family’s aid. He was also aware of the situation of other’s battle. It was not because he wanted to help them or that he didn’t want them to die; it was simply because he didn’t trust them yet.

But his expectations were betrayed soon as he saw the last of the Kleboons dying under Ward’s hammer and then its dead body getting burnt by Phil’s ‘Fireball’.

........

The whole hall was silent except for the heavy panting sound coming from their mouths. Kyle furrowed his brows and looked around the cave hall. He was also expecting stronger enemies to arrive while they were fighting and as such was slightly baffled.

They quickly checked all the  small cave holes on the wall but didn’t find any living beast.

“Let’s rest for a while then move on.” Kyle nodded towards his teammates and said.

Everyone tried to find a clean place, if there was any with all the blood and gore and sat down to rest. They had some dried rations and drank water to satiate their thirst. Although they were sitting in a relatively clean place, the smell of death was obvious in the air.

The adrenaline effect had already been over now and the dreadful smell and scene were starting to show its effect.

Soren was slightly used to this smell because of his experiments on undead and yet he felt his stomach retching from time to time. Ellie had already vomited a few times.

They had to force themselves to keep the water and food inside their stomach. They tried to focus on their cultivation as the cave hall was filled with mana. Soren also wanted to use his ‘Devour’ here but decided not to do so. So, he just used the cultivation technique given by the Liston family. He continued for a while and then stopped as he reached his supposed ‘limit’ for his level.

Looking at the ground littered with corpses, he suddenly had an idea. An idea that was fermenting for a while now.

He controlled his mana and slowly sent it into the dead bodies; he was practicing this thing since the day he got three corpses of the Goblins. He wanted to create a spell that he had in his mind. It was based on his ‘Create Undead’ spell with some changes. He had all the recording of his observations from that experiment so he reviewed them again and again and made some changes to what he was doing.

He tried controlling his mana and sent it to different corpses, changing from bodies to bodies, learning in the process. He kept observing the changes that his mana brought to the dead bodies.

Others were completely oblivious to what he was doing as the amount of mana he was using was very minuscule for it to be visible. But still, he kept an eye on other’s expressions while he was doing his work to prevent getting caught.

………

Time passed by and soon they were resting for a few hours.

“Let’s go. We should finish this by today.” Kyle got up and issued his orders. It was almost night time and he wanted to go back to the base today after finishing this part of the mission.

Others also got up and patted their clothes to remove the dust as they all got ready to move ahead.

Soren also followed them after picking his backpack. He had already filled his magazines with bullets and was ready to go. As he moved, a slight smile formed on his face which went completely unnoticed by others.

He had succeeded!!

He had finally achieved what he was aiming for! He focused on the message that he had received.

“Innate Spell Learned. Dead Rising – Level 1/10. Mana Cost – Average”