Chapter 6: Strange Company
Valens stumbled away, sweat dripping down his chin. He was already off balance, relying only on his sound-vision to find his way through the path, stones digging sharp into his feet. He twisted about and turned a corner, passed over the burnt bones and came across the gaping hole on the ground, skirting unevenly around it, breath hissing in his throat.
I can’t believe I’m being chased by an animated corpse, clad in perfectly crafted plates and a giant sword! Where is the logic in that?
The sanity was indeed in short supply as of late, as the creature still lumbered after him, armored feet pounding on the ground, sword clasped lazily in its hands. It leapt over the hole and landed clumsily to the ground, the mossy floor exploding under its feet as it kept pressing forward.
“Stop running!” it growled, voice thumping in Valens’s ears. “My bones aren’t made for this. Shit! I didn't have the time to change my legs. My legs! Stop. Running. You little shit!”
“Stop. Chasing me. You mad corpse!” Valens returned as he gave a look over his shoulder. He saw the undead jabbling onward, dragging its left foot. Beyond the visor, its emerald eyes seemed to be furious at Valens for making it work like that.
But what did it expect? For him to present his head like some sort of prize? An animated corpse was a shock in itself, and now there was an intelligent pile of bones clad in gleaming armor coming for his life.
He couldn’t stop. Master Eldras hadn’t risked a death sentence for slipping him into this world just for him to give up on this precious second chance.
Valens focused on the apathy as he returned to the veil of greenish fog, the one he’d used to handle those Skeletons digging the ground, and yet something told him that fog wouldn’t be enough to stop this new abomination.
So he decided to get creative, and focused on the spell formula. His fingers glowed with fiery tongues, fire mana responding wildly to his call. He kept the Resonance tight over his hands, letting the frequencies build slowly at the tip of his fingers. Making a move for the ceiling was too risky, and the undead seemed too heavy for wind magic to affect it.
Fire, on the other hand, had worked on these corpses. Worked well, to Valens’s experience. He just needed a bit more than a Fireball, something that would melt that armor and seep into the bones underneath.
The air vibrated, its song blooming in Valens’s head. His focus was a blink away from slipping from his hold, so he kept his eyes open and ears perked up for the frequencies around him.
He released fiery threads from his hand as he kept scrambling away, weaving them indiscriminately over the walls around him, making sure to leash them all to the tip of his fingers with delicate focus. Some of them bounced from the undead’s armor, straying toward the walls and the ground. Others brushed silently at the gauntlets, the visor, and the chestplate, the undead paying them little heed.