Stygian Mage

Soren woke up and opened his eyes slowly. He had to go out on the mission today, so he had to get ready soon. He opened his eyes and tried to get up from his bed but…..what greeted him was dark and cold water. Water was everywhere around him and all he could see was darkness.

He suddenly found that he was drowning, sinking, slowly in the water. He kept sinking, moving towards the depth hidden in the darkness. But he couldn’t reach the bottom, no matter what.

He just kept sinking in deep towards the darkness but somehow, he wasn’t suffocating. He could breathe easily and no matter how deep he sank, he never felt the suffocating pressure. Instead, he felt comfortable, like he was at home. The cold and dark water felt nostalgic to him and breathing inside water felt normal to him.

As he slowly sunk down, he started forgetting about everything. All his memories were slowly fading and disappearing…..

BAM!! BAM!! BAM!!

“SOREN, WAKE UP!”

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Soren suddenly opened his eyes with a startled expression and saw the somewhat familiar ceiling of his room. He was panting hard, trying hard to breathe, and his clothes and hair were totally wet from sweat. His hands were clutching the bed sheets tightly and his toes were ice cold.

He tried to focus and after a while, he noticed the loud banging on his door. He then realized that he just had a nightmare and that it was already morning.

“I'm coming. Give me a few minutes.” He shouted in reply to Ellie who was still banging on his door.

“Alright. You were not replying so I thought something had happened.... Sorry for knocking so loudly.”

“It’s fine. You go ahead, I’ll be there soon.”

Soren cleared his head and got up to get ready. He had to go on the mission today so he hurried up.

He cleaned himself, geared up, picked up his backpack and the staff and then went down to meet the others. As he got down the stairs, he saw the others already prepared to move out.

“You're here. I will repeat today’s mission once again then. We have to clear the area infested by the creatures known as ‘Gulon’ today. They have a fairly large appetite and can eat almost everything that is edible. They are high priority targets so we can’t fail this one.” Kyle explained once again for Soren.

The others had already heard it once so they were not paying much attention.

“Were you having a nightmare before Soren? You sounded like you were in a lot of pain.” Ellie asked Soren after the explanation was over. They were going to take the jeep today, so everyone put their luggage inside and took their seat.

“Yeah, I think so,” Soren replied to Ellie while putting his backpack in the back seat of the car. He had already forgotten what his dream was about as soon as he woke up, though.

Everyone got in and Phil started the vehicle.

“Soren, this is the beast we are going to hunt today.” Ward took out his communicator and showed the information on the beast. The communicator had many functions and storing information was one of them.

This one looked like a glass slab with the thickness and length of an adult’s palm. When not in use, it was completely transparent. Soren had also seen some another type in the town before, though, and was thinking of getting one.

Soren saw the image of the beast and memorized it. It had a body and hind legs similar to that of a canine but its front part with its face looked like a large feline, completely gray in color. It had large hair around its face like a lion’s and its claws were extremely sharp.

……….

The Jeep kept moving on the dirt path through the jungle towards their destination.

They drove for half a day before reaching the area. They stopped the car half a mile before the main area so as not to damage the car in the fight. After covering the car with a camouflage cloth, they moved on. They got into the same formation as before and moved stealthily.

The place where the ‘Gulons’ were living was a deep valley. They didn’t have a colonized system but were also not dispersed around in the jungle. Most of them could be found in the place they had chosen to make their home. The valley they lived in was surrounded by three sided by cliffs and the only opening was from the east side. The whole valley was filled with green trees and plants.

Soren and the others slowly moved towards the valley and entered it after Ellie scouted ahead for any danger. They soon reached the deepest part of the valley where one group of the beasts were living.

The ‘Gulons’ also noticed their presence and soon, low growling sounds echoed in the valley. They had to make sure that they wouldn’t be surrounded by the beast, therefore, they chose a tactical place to have the fight.

The Gulons got into the battle position, one after another. There were around 8 of them, which slowly moved towards Soren and the others while growling and snarling, baring their dirty teeth with their saliva dripping off.

Soren quickly did a scan and found their levels. 2 were Layer–8, 4 were Layer—6 and 2 were Layer–5.

“I’ll handle the 2 big ones. Ward, you try to control 4 of them while Phil will take them out. Ellie, you take out the rest with Soren.” Kyle quickly issued his orders and assigned them to their enemies.

It was soon followed by a combined ‘Understood’ sound as they all got in their positions.

Soren was assigned together with Ellie and as he was already used to fighting together with her, it was no problem for him.

He quickly drew his gun and aimed towards the beast. He aimed carefully while Ellie ran up to the beast and started the ‘Hit & Run’ tactic.

BANG! BANG!

Two shots were heard as the two bullets went through the first beast’s right leg. The beast stumbled while running, as Ellie went in to finish it. The other beast took this chance and dashed towards Soren to finish him. Soren slightly frowned and took a step back.

He rejected the idea of stopping this beast using the gun, so he quickly released his Grimoire and did an almost instant cast. A Shadow chain appeared from the shadows and went towards the beast at an extremely high speed, pierced its legs and entangled it.

The beast fell down and slid because of inertia. It roared loudly towards Soren while struggling hard to break the chain, but was unable to even loosen it a little bit.

Soren’s ‘Spirit’ had increased quite a bit as his cultivation level increased, together with his ‘Intelligence’. His spells were much more powerful than they were when he had just bought them.

Before even a 3^rd layer Goblin could break his chains if given enough time but now, he could even hold down a 7^th layer creature easily for a while. Soren moved towards the tied up beast as he saw Ellie taking care of the other one. He looked down at the beast and…

BANG! BANG! BANG!

He put three bullets in its skull.

Kyle had also finished his fight. Ward and Phil had two left but soon were killed easily as the others joined the fight.

“You were quite good, Soren, finishing off that beast by yourself,” Ellie commented on the strength he showed by taking down that 5^th Layer beast. In their eyes Soren was still on Rank 0: Layer 3 and it was quite amazing to see a 3^rd Layer Initiator killing a 5^th Layer beast like that.

Soren thanked her for the compliment.

“Yeah, it was quite good but for a ‘Traveler’, it was average at best. You should practice with your spells more.” Phil also chimed in but his own way.

“I’ll make sure to add some more practice time. Thanks for the advice.” Soren replied calmly like he didn’t notice the insult mixed in that comment.

“You are the one who needs more practice.” Ellie got back at Phil in Soren’s stead.

“Ok guys, let’s go.” Kyle gave the order to move on, killing the fight in its bud. They moved on forward, quickly changing their focus to their mission. They met more groups of Gulons like before and killed them before moving again.

Soren was running low on bullets by now so he started using his spells in concert with his gun. Although he bought the gun as a backup weapon, it had become his main weapon on this mission as he wanted to hide his spellcasting ability as much as he could.

……….

“Stop” Ellie stopped the others as she was scouting ahead. “There are at least 12~13 Gulons ahead.” Everyone stopped and went on full alert.

“But they seem injured.” She continued her report.

“Again!” Kyle frowned after hearing her words.

They had encountered the same thing before with the Kleboons. Although it was not rare for the beast to be injured, it was also not that common for so many beasts to be injured at the same time.

Most of all, they hadn’t found any high-level beast in the Kleboon’s lair. Soren was also concerned about it before but after thinking about it carefully, he let it go.

He was not that much concerned about the mission success. He was here with these guys because he had no other choice. If possible, he wanted to do his own stuff alone.

“First, let’s finish them.” Kyle soon made up his mind and gave his orders.

………

KABOOM!!

A fireball tore through the air and exploded upon contacting its target. The Gulon died without even being able to shout out in pain. Phil quickly cast another spell and attacked another beast. He waved his staff and a Fire Pillar erupted below the feet of an injured Gulon.

It howled in pain and tried to break through the fire pillar but as soon as it got out, a Dark Bolt came crashing on its face. Its body was burned by the fire pillar and its face and the skull withered and decayed by the ‘Dark Bolt’.

Phil glared at Soren, his eyes were simply saying, ‘Don’t take my kill’. Soren smiled apologetically and focused on another target.

He didn’t want to antagonize anyone unnecessarily right now. He just wanted to kill the beast quickly, so he had used the spell just now. As the beasts were already injured and were surprised by the sudden attack, they were not able to put up a proper fight at all.

BAAM!

Blood and white brain matter splattered as Ward smashed a Gulon’s head and bashed it. He again swung his hammer towards the right, hitting another Gulon’s body, sending it flying.

Everyone had already released their Soul Form now.

Swoosh!

An arrow pierced the flying Gulon’s head, killing it in the air. Kyle quickly nocked another arrow and fired again to support Ellie.

Soren quickly casted ‘Ice Arrow’ and sent it towards the three Gulons aiming for him. He had distanced himself from the others because he wanted to use and test his spells freely. The place had different elevations so, Soren was very soon out of their sight as he moved behind a small cliff wall. Kyle had noticed Soren moving away but he didnt have time to pay attention to him; moreover, he didnt need to worry about him as the beasts were injured to begin with.

The ice arrow cut through the air as it flew towards the beasts. The Gulons easily dodged the ice arrow and dashed towards Soren, wanting to tear him apart. Soren smiled… and snapped his fingers. He hadn’t used this tactic in quite a while.

Boom!!

The ice arrow exploded and the small ice shards shredded the beast, making multiple holes in their bodies. They were already injured before and combined with this, it rendered them immobile.

Soren walked towards them and gently touched their faces his hands. Their faces slowly started freezing….and soon, their expression of despair was frozen in ice which remained even after they died.

Soren stood up and turned back as he heard some beasts approaching him. There were two of them. They moved carefully towards Soren while growling and snarling in a low voice.

They had seen their comrade’s death and were not going to underestimate the human in front of them.

Soren laughed a little as he saw their careful movements. He then spread open both his arms and casted his spell.

Black mist flew around him as a dark magic circle formed under his feet. Soon, the black mist dispersed and the magic circle disappeared. Moments after that, the three dead Gulons woke up and slowly got up on their feet.

Dead Rising!!

Soren was in full control of their body. It was the same as when he created the undeads. His mana became their soul and his orders, their will.

Their expressions were frozen and their eyes were like dead fish but still, they were moving. Soren waved his hands as the dead Gulons rushed ahead towards their former comrades.

The two beasts were flabbergasted upon this turn of events. They didn’t know why their own dead brothers had turned against them but even so, they had to fight if they wanted to stay alive.

Soren just watched them fight each other without doing anything. He was really excited upon seeing the effect of his spell.

The fight was over very soon.

The dead had no hesitation while the living had complicated thoughts running through their minds. The difference in the number and the difference in the mindset confirmed Soren’s victory.

The spell works nicely but to control more than one undead takes a toll on my mana.

He had controlled 3 of them at once which sapped his mana too much. He was almost out of mana and could only cast a spell with a ‘Very Low’ mana cost once or twice. He quickly checked his surroundings for any enemies and finally relaxed upon not finding any.

BANG!!..... BANG!!.... BANG!! ….BANG!!....BANG!!

He then made five shots towards the already dead beasts with some intervals between them, so as to cover up their cause of death.

…………

He went back towards the team and saw they were already finished. Soren had killed 5 of them on his own and this would have been quite suspicious under normal circumstances but now, it could be explained using the beast’s injury. This was the main reason Soren had used his spells freely. Another reason was that he also wanted to do a field test for his new spell.

“Finished?” Kyle asked Soren as he came out from behind the cliff wall.

“Yeah” He nodded. “Can I get bullets at the outpost? I am running a little low.”

“Yeah, they keep ammunitions there. You can get it when we go back.”

All of them gathered together and decided to rest after finding a safe place. They moved ahead for a while and soon found a place to rest. After recovering their energy, they moved in deep but this time also, they saw the unexpected.

Actually, it could be said that it was expected as they had already realized the possibility of this happening from the events that they had encountered today.

The deepest part of the valley was once again filled with only weak female beasts and baby Gulons. It was the same as the Kleboons. They didn’t know the reason behind it but neither did they have the time to think of one. They quickly finished the beasts off, completing the second part of the mission.