8

  “We’re going to have a discussion about definitions,” Santi said as he used [Air Manipulation] as a poor telekinesis substitute. Shambling, rotting, corpses were picked up with a flex of his willpower and mana and thrown high into the air. They came down in silent showers that popped across the street in a spray of gray diseased bone and rotten flesh.

  Reanimated Corpse lvl. 16

  “Why are you so grumpy? They pop like water balloons,” Naomi said chortling. She was staying behind Santi, letting him splatter the waves of reanimated corpses that came after them. None of them were above an Initiate tier, but there were a lot of them. The closer they got to the island the more of them there were. Hundreds of shambling monsters that Santi was forced to pick up and send crashing back into the ground.

  “They stink. And give no experience,” Santi fired back. The levels were creeping up as they got closer, but Santi didn’t think they’d reach the levels he needed to start leveling again. He had only gained one level after wiping out Mercy and Duncan and he had been hoping their sprints through the monster dens would allow him to gather a few more.

  Issue was fighting in a group split the experience and the majority of the dens they hit were much too low level on average. They had allowed them all to practice their teamwork and acquire large quantities of natural treasures to feed future [Alchemists] or even [Blacksmiths].

  “They should get stronger the closer we get to their base. They’re reanimated, not zombies or natural undead. That means something must have reanimated them. These are just the rejects.”

  “They feel like rejects. Things can hardly stay together they’re so deteriorated,” Santi complained. He had a thought as he looked at the mass of stumbling creatures and of his newest skill.

  [Air Pressure] was a large area of effect skill. He just didn’t know if he could increase the pressure fast enough to crush the creatures. There was no reason not to try though.

  He cast the spell and started to push his mana, filling the spell and stretching it out further and further until it covered the bridge and the horde of corpses. He took a deep breath and filled the spell with as much mana as he could. Excess poured out of him until it began to taint the air all around them, even to the point Naomi looked at him quizzically.

  “Trust,” Santi said through grimaced teeth. With a moment of thought he increased the air pressure, scaling it as high as he could. This wasn’t like what he had done earlier where he had increased the pressure and caused the goblins to collapse. He was increasing air pressure to the point that the world wavered in front of him as he held everything in a long rectangle still and increased the pressure. Light was the only thing that was moving in the rectangle.

  Bodies crumpled as the pressure exceeded anything naturally seen on earth before. Corpses exploded in a wave, flesh liquefying as he became lightheaded and staggered.

  “That was a major working. Twisted that spell of yours quite a bit,” Naomi said as she grabbed his elbow to hold him up. Air didn’t move like that, it hadn’t wanted to respond the way he had forced it to and the amount of mana it had taken was astronomical.

  “Yeah, that wasn’t fun,” Santi said. There was the hint of mana exhaustion there in his core. A thinning he could feel, an emptiness that ached in his sternum and gut. The fact he had gone from nearly full to this weakened was startling. The efficiency he had with his spells really hammered home how much mana that had taken.

  “Should have just used [Windblade] over and over. Would have been much more efficient,” Santi continued.

  “Yes. We can work on that. Spell and skill manipulation and combination. I’m sure you have a bit of training, but I doubt the knowledge trickled all the way down to you,” Naomi guessed.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Lots of campfire gossip mainly,” Santi admitted as they started to walk further down the bridge. The mess he had made of the squished corpses was avoided as much as possible, using [Gust] like an overpowered leaf blower to clear a path for them.

  “Your Champions didn’t disseminate information to you? Weren’t you an elite for their army?” Naomi asked, genuinely puzzled.

  “No, not really. Maybe with their closest companions, but I was never part of one of the cliques. I was good at what I did but never attached to a specific Champion for long enough to develop a relationship like that.”

  “Much more close lipped than I thought. You do know some of what to do?” Naomi asked.

  “I have some experience with spell modification.”

  “We get a few more spell slots open and I can guide you through it. Our group worked together to work on our knowledge base and pass it along with each other. It works better than hoarding secrets for just a little extra piece of power,” Naomi’s tone had taken on a note of superiority.

  “I’d appreciate that. I think we’re getting close to the island,” Santi said, pointing with the morph weapon toward the exit. Hordes of reanimated corpses were between them and Naomi waved a hand at them and smiled. Santi’s mana had regenerated enough that it wasn’t a strain for him to cast a series of [Windblade]s that burned through the horde like wheat before a thresher.

  “Still just trash. But getting closer to Acolyte levels,” Santi observed. Naomi just grunted at him as she drew her sword. They pushed closer toward the island. Santi was forced to continually cast [Windblade] to carve their way closer toward where the horde originated for.

  “Just got the first Acolyte level undead,” Santi said as he looked at his own list of kill notifications.

  “Getting close to the island. Whatever is making that den will be a magic based monster.”

  “If it’s a monster,” Santi muttered. He cast again and for the first time his spell didn’t rip apart a horde of monsters. It just cut deeply into the thick flabby flesh of an abomination of stitched together corpses. Animals and humans tied together with dark black thread, a half a dozen jaws gaped open and closed as it groaned. It staggered forward using feet, hooves, and paws.

  “That’s really ugly. Want to kill it?” Santi asked Naomi, waving in a mirror motion she had given him. She just grinned and shot forward in a burst of speed as a red glow encompassed her longsword. The creature was nearly ten feet tall and just as wide with arms and limbs that protruded from every angle. The blade cut once and the creature fell in half, dead in an instant.

  “Happy? It wasn’t that tough,” Naomi laughed loudly as she walked past the split apart amalgamation. Santi followed behind her and saw nearly dozen more of the creatures coming down the street, each as large and wide as the one Naomi had just killed.

  Corpse Cluster lvl. 42

  “That’s a jump in level. Think they’ll be stronger opponents on the island?” Santi said as he started overpowering a [Windblade]. He couldn’t go as extreme as he had defending the pillar, but he needed a bit of extra juice in this spell. It did bite at his ego that Naomi could kill one with a single skill use.

  “Of course. They might actually start being a challenge down there,” Naomi admitted.

  [Windblade] sheared across the bridge in a moment, howling as it sliced through the first of the amalgamations. The power in the spell was enough that Santi could visibly see the spell by the warping of the air all around it. Two more of the monsters split apart in bursts of necrotic black blood.

  “Not bad, not bad. Want to have a little contest of our own?” Naomi asked.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Whoever gets the most kills on the bridge has to cook dinner?” Naomi said with a sly smile.

  “Are you going to throw the fight so I have to cook?” Santi asked with a quick chuckle.

  “Never. You do cook well though.”

  “How bout a natural treasure of the appropriate affinity?” Santi countered.

  “I can do that. So, clean slate or do we count the ones we’ve already killed?”

  “Clean slate then. There’s ten left on the bridge. First to six?”

  “First to six,” Naomi said as she took off at full speed without giving Santi a moment of notice. That ghostly red aura had already started over her sword again but Santi wasn’t far behind, using [Windstep] to keep up. She had plenty of skills that she could spam to get kills, but she had forgotten that Santi had his own close range abilities. Santi couldn’t help but feel a bit of a smile cross his face. He did enjoy the challenge.