Defiant Necromancer (Book 2 stubbing July 3)

A Dark Hole opened in midair, between Tybalt and the dragon.

Even if you are an ancient dragon, it’s rude to ignore one of the people you’re fighting, Dero thought.

A second Dark Hole opened behind the dragon, and as the flames entered the first, they simultaneously exited the other and then struck their originator in the back.

Oldest trick in the book.

The mana cost was massive, she had known already, but perhaps worth it.

The dragon let loose his first actual cry, not of surprise or irritation, but of pain.

The enormous head whipped reflexively behind him to see what was attacking him, and Dero used that moment. She grabbed Tybalt and teleported once more.

“Where- ?” The necromancer looked around, blinking, trying to get his bearings.

“Best way I could think of for us to hide and catch our breath,” Dero said grimly.

We’re still fucked, though.

They were in a town, one of those they had visited before to spread Tybalt’s plague. She had inspected the walls at the time and thought this was a place of more recent and lower quality construction, one that might not have an anti-Teleport rune anywhere on the walls. She hadn’t seen such a rune when she looked over them either.

So she had risked both of their lives to buy a short reprieve. People milled around on the street. The dragon hopefully wouldn’t be able to spot them instantly if it suddenly popped into the town. Or it might be cautious itself, if it recognized that its quarry had just teleported into a settlement. Even if Dero and Tybalt were desperate enough to risk their lives by possibly going past a defensive rune, that didn’t mean the dragon was.

And what about the bitch riding on his back? Dero thought. She… looked familiar, didn’t she?

But she couldn’t place where she might have seen the girl before. She’d only gotten a very brief look at her.

Dero and the necromancer would have to use any advantage, any vulnerability they could come up with, though. If the girl was riding on the dragon, maybe she’d be a good hostage if she could be separated from him.

Truth be told, the dark elf already felt that she was almost spent. She had teleported dozens of times already, used her Anti-Light Screen to conceal her and Tybalt’s movements - but the most tiring thing she had tried was Dark Hole. When she transported objects, whether living or otherwise, the mana content of the object was a significant factor in how difficult it was.

She had never tried to move a dragon’s breath before, because once, she had been a sensible person who wanted to live out her natural lifespan - and she had therefore never fought a dragon.

But it was the best trick she could think of in the moment, to save Tybalt before she could get close enough to Teleport him. She had also thought - correctly, as it happened - that the dragon’s flames might hurt the dragon himself. She had never known a mortal who had killed an ancient dragon, but she had heard of them killing each other. Which meant that surely their most potent weapon, their breath, should be effective.

It wasn’t worth it, though. I couldn’t tell how much damage it did, but I know I can’t do that again. I’d collapse. If I could have just grabbed Tybalt and teleported away, that would have been better. Her eyes darted to look at Tybalt, whose expression was focused. What is he thinking? Does he have a plan? She shook her head. Since when did I trust him to be the one to make a plan? I should be the one-

“Take me back to Whadesport,” Tybalt said.

“What?”

The fuck?

“At least if we’re there, I have an energy source. I can drain health and mana from my undead. Here, we’re too far away. And I think I have a plan.”

“Oh, another one? Great!” She didn’t know why she became sarcastic. She had just been hoping he would come up with something.

He put a hand on her shoulder, and she glared at it. He didn’t remove it, though. After a moment, she softened her gaze.

He is at least trying to be constructive.

“I’m going to try my Undying Transformation. It’s my best move. It could change the whole fight. We didn’t have enough breathing space earlier for me to think about it. But- ”

They both felt the ripple in the air and the sudden increase in pressure as the dragon teleported into the space just overhead.

Dero teleported them away without waiting to see what would happen next. They had survived teleporting in, so they would survive teleporting out. Probably.

Thankfully, the pair landed in one piece just outside Whadesport’s walls. That town, Dero suspected, almost certainly did have the runes. At least, she wasn’t ready to risk their lives on it not having them.

As they appeared, the gates still hung open, and the population continued to flow outward in even greater numbers than they had a minute or so before when they left. Dero didn’t see the Grand Beastfolk Army anywhere around, so it seemed that the retreat Tybalt had ordered had been carried out. Everyone but he and the members of his harem were gone. Smoke billowed up from within the town, a black foreboding mass that felt like a gathering storm.

Man, that fucking dragon did a number on this place… If he was really just after Tybalt and those infected with his plague, this level of collateral damage is pretty severe.

Tybalt and Dero fought the flow of the crowd to get back inside.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” the dark elf said, picking up the thread of their interrupted conversation. “I know this was something you were saving for a tough fight. But do you really think being a vampire or a ghost or something will help you right now?”

He sighed. “I’ll show you exactly what I have in mind.” He closed his eyes, and Dero felt every hair on her body stand on end as his aura radically shifted.

***

Undying Transformation.

Tybalt had known for some time, in his gut, that the way he could take his necromantic abilities to the next level was to become an undead. Not just any undead, though.

A lich.

Back then, he hadn’t known he would get an ability that could let him temporarily become undead.

But clearly now was the time to go for it. Hold nothing back.

He chose the form of what he thought might be the strongest undead, and he braced himself.

Temporary lichification initiated. Please select a phylactery.

Tybalt felt a surge of mana as his unrestrained aura rippled through his entire body. The energy practically rolled off him, pulsing within every part of him, instantly pushing past all the mystical preparations that would normally be required to turn himself into a lich. He chose the storage ring from Lord Mudo as his phylactery without a moment’s hesitation.

Then he felt it. Every cell in his body switched all at once. From alive to undead.

Power and wisdom flowed into him like a river of energy from out of the sky. His mind grew, seemed to multiply in power. His capacity to pay attention expanded. He had always been book smart. Now he sensed a new part of his mind that remembered every word he’d ever heard, every rune he’d ever seen, every skill of every undead he controlled, and everything he’d ever learned and thought forgotten.

And that wasn’t all. A new analytical part of his brain grew alongside that and began analyzing everything. Skills, mana, individuals. He felt the connections to all his thousands of undead. They were less like soldiers now somehow, more like parts of his body that he could control at will. He knew where every single one was and what it was doing.

His understanding of himself, and of everyone else - including the living - seemed to deepen… and to grow a trifle colder.

He felt his will and fortitude grow, swelling to a towering extent and granting him remarkable control over his own mind and mana.

Tybalt was consciously aware of his ego growing as his power and his intelligence did. The feeling of omnipotence was overwhelming. He tried to contain that sense of invincibility, but it wasn’t easy. It was hard to imagine how anything could stop him now.

A shock of pain tore through his skull.

For the first few seconds, his enhanced cognition had just been like a high that he could ride, a wave of intoxicating power.

But now that wave crested - or at least reached a point that was too high to easily endure. With the awareness intensified, his head pounded. His brain was overwhelmed. He realized suddenly that he couldn’t contain all this information. It felt as if his head was actually splitting for a fraction of a second.

Then the split finished.

The pain faded. His breathing calmed. He dimly recognized that he also didn’t have to breathe. Completely optional.

He took a mental step back to assess.

Time seemed to slow down to give him more space to think.

That’s… interesting.

What emerged from the short term pain seemed to be a sort of parallel mind. He could see everything through two sets of filters, and he intuitively understood what each was. One for his conscious, human level of awareness and another semi-conscious perspective, cool and analytical, constantly dissecting everything, only speaking up as required.

Temporary lichification successful!

Defiant Necromancer dropped to level 30!

All magical abilities temporarily strengthened!

Skill, Magic Sense, temporarily upgraded into superior skills, Skill Analysis and Mystic Replication!

Skill: Enervate temporarily acquired!

Very nice.

In a flash, as the notifications swam by his vision, Tybalt’s parallel mind dissected his own capabilities, coolly and dispassionately observing what his strengths and weaknesses were, what his capacity was in different areas. He knew instantly what the new abilities did. More importantly, he now better understood what he did. What base Tybalt was capable of.

Not bad, the parallel mind seemed to say. But this can be improved.

Then it spoke directly into his brain.

Skill Undeath Drain almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Bone Puppetry almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Hallucinogenic Attribute almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Imbue Intelligence almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Injection Touch almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Mystic Blast almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Osteomancy almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Pathogenic Persecution almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Pathology Purge almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Pestilence Cultivation almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Rot Touch almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Soul Bind almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Undead Summoning almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Undeath Ritual almost acquired. Analyzing…

Skill Zoonosis Attribute almost acquired. Analyzing…

Analyzing unique properties of host’s mana…

The necromancer’s new lich mind seemed to have determined that it could figure out how to use most of the skills Tybalt had been given as options at his last skill selection.

Tybalt allowed it to guide his next actions. He was burning through mana and stamina rapidly to maintain the form of a lich. Roughly ten percent of his base mana per minute, which could make this a short experiment.

But that could be rectified.

He reached out and drew energy from the undead of Whadesport, many of them still burning to death in the dragon’s fires, the vast majority of them still at least functional even if they were burning. The power flowed far more easily to him now. The pull was much stronger, perhaps due to his greater will. This was necessary now He would have use for a surplus of energy.

With the ample resources of his newfound intelligence and capacity to pay attention, the necromancer began considering strategies to deal with the dragon.

Skill Recognized: Undeath Drain acquired!

Hm. Some knowledge seemed to be coming with the energy. Some residue of the zombies being turned into nothingness. Tybalt allowed part of his mind to process that while the rest determined the direction of his next moves.

I should try to acquire the other skills that I’m on the verge of getting. I might not have this chance again. There seems to be an increase in the efficiency of Undeath Drain just from having the skill. Perhaps one percent more energy per second, which could increase the duration of the transformation by…

While his brain contemplated, the necromancer waved his hand almost absently, gathering mana around it in a concentrated ball of energy death. It was denser and more powerful than any fireball Mariella had ever conjured, Tybalt knew. The ball was poison, destruction, disease, and entropy, a certain death to anything that might touch it besides its creator.

He flicked it casually at a mouse he detected in the corner. Tybalt’s Life Sense was sharper than ever with the resources of his lich mind. The energy ball touched the mouse, and it turned instantly to dust.

I will need bigger targets.

And sure enough…

Skill Recognized: Mystic Blast acquired!

Easy.

Tybalt waved the hand in front of him experimentally and drew out a little more mana. He willed the energy to take a different shape, a wall that took its form from the arc of his movements. He ordered it to be hardened to physical attacks and impermeable to any mana but his own.

The deep green barrier formed, almost casually, as he wished it.

Tybalt had known it would. He remembered seeing the lich in the Tower of Death do something similar. Now he remembered every single detail of that fight.

Skill Recognized: Mystic Barrier acquired!

Trivially easy.

Of course, these were only basic skills, ones he should have had already, but this was a proof of concept.

He allowed his lips to curl into a slightly smug grin.

I was too feeble-minded, all this time. Why was I so hesitant? The idea of becoming a lich was repugnant to me. Why? It’s not about losing the flesh. I still have it. But I can see why it would be unimportant to one such as myself. The mind is what matters. So liches lose their flesh over time… because they don’t need it. So what? They stop maintaining it, because it is unnecessary for their true purpose. To wield great magics. Now I understand. Now I understand everything so much better than before. It will be hard to go back to being a simple-minded human after this. My will is so much stronger, my intellect so much greater. Now I know I can be so much more.

He sensed it as the dragon reappeared just outside the town.

About time. I will defeat you. The fear is all gone. The doubt. You’re no threat to me anymore. Just a lizard. A specimen to experiment on.

At those thoughts, even Tybalt’s new confidence faltered - his brain rejecting his assertion that the dragon would be an easy opponent, even now.

Perhaps still a threat, then, but a surmountable one! lich Tybalt insisted. The intellect, the will, these are what matter, not those fleshly assets that the dragon flaunts so proudly.

The dark elf, who had been standing there silently while Tybalt processed his transformation, cleared her throat.