My eyes were closed as I took slow, deep breaths.
Three days since I had arrived on the new world and every day since I had been doing raids through the portal to get stuff to sell for rent and food. With little luck, I might add. Mostly weapons and armor, nothing really valuable. I could try to give these people steam power or something, I had the knowledge, but right now, I would much rather keep a low profile.
Sheathing my sword I reached up to put in my earbuds before I pulled my phone from my inner pocket to select a good tune.
You know, I could not help but think I had become a bit jaded in regards to this entire 'fighting for my life and loot against undead abominations to nature and science' thing.
Or just a bit unhinged by all the fighting.
"Winter wrap up, Winter wrap up..." I hummed along to the music as I pulled my sword again and rounded the corner into the wrecked library room filled with armed skeletons.
I ducked below the slow swing of the closest one, slamming my shield into its ribs to drive it back before I stepped backwards, chopping the wrists off the second one.
Blocking the blow of a sword from the first one I stabbed out into its right eyesocket, causing it to drop deader to the floor. Kicking it in the chest I to get it off my sword I pulled back. In the same motion I spun around, taking the legs off the disarmed skeleton behind me, causing it to fall onto the floor instead of trying to beat on my back with its stumps. Skeletons were just dry bone. Fragile.
As second blow destroyed its skull and it to stopped moving.
Fucking strange that destroying the head caused these things to die while a zombie was more than happy to completely ignore decapitations.
I liked fighting skeletons. They were slow and actually went down when you hit their vital spot. The drawback is was that there usually were a lot more of them.
I didn't have time to enjoy my victory as the next group was getting close enough to engage.
Three of them this time. The first one raised its massive battle axe and I stepped close, stabbing it in the face before I brought my shield up to block the one-handed mace of the one to the left while stepping towards the third one to keep it from using its spear.
Spinning I slammed my shield into the head of the one with the spear. It didn't kill it but it did drive it back... just in time for me to catch a bright light out of the corner of my eye.
Reacting on instinct I threw myself aside, hitting the ground hard enough to drive the air from my lungs. Since it kept me from getting a fireball to the face, I considered it a fair trade.
Scrambling into cover behind a bookshelf I tore the earbuds from my head.
Fucking hell! They had a mage! I had never seen one before! I didn't even knew there could be mages, yet alone skeletal mages!
Oh. Shit.
There had to be a lich. I was so not ready for a lich!
A skeleton shambled around my cover and I struck out with my shortsword, taking its legs off at the knees. As it fell, my second blow removed its head off.
I couldn't stay here. Two options... fight or flight. There was a narrow corridor from here all the way to the portal.
If it turned out to be in the line of fire, I would never make it.... if the fucker was even limited to line of sight.
Likely was or I would be dead right now.
Fight it is then. Even if it's a lich, it won't respawn at once. Maybe if I get close I got a shot.
A crackling sound caused me to roll to the side, just in time as a bolt of energy blasted straight through the bookshelf, causing splinters and rotten books to fly through the air.
Oh shit!
Scrambling to my feet I dashed to the side, trying to keep low and quiet as well as out of sight as I moved around the corner of the old library.
A skeleton wandered into view, raising its sword to swing at me. Without slowing I took its head before it was able to bring the sword down. Which was a good thing.
Another bolt of energy blew a hole straight through the bookshelf in the general area where the skeleton had been.
That... that fucker was smart.
He used the skeletons to get a bead at on my location without having line of sight and then he used that piercing bolt to try and tag me.
A single hit of with that and I'd be fucked.
I was right not to try for the portal. If I had I would have died, he would have speared me before I was halfway there.
Worst of all, this guy could actually think. None of the hostiles I had run into before this had anything even approaching smarts.
I stopped running, trying to make as little sound as possible, sneaking from shelf to shelf. I knew what general direction he was in from where the spells came from.
Peeking around the corner I saw somebody stand in the middle of the library. He was pale and had long white hair, wearing a long dark robe, his eyes glowing green.
He had two skeletons with him, both of them armed with sword and shield. They looked fancier than the other ones he had used and stood straighter, a green glowing rune that looked like a triangle with a dot in it on their foreheads.
If that wasn't a lich, it at the very least was a necromancer.
Oh, fucksticks.
I really didn't want to hurt somebody. Undead and monsters were one thing, but he was a person. But then again, he had tried to kill me and was most likely not a generally nice guy.
Most nice guys don't hang around in dungeons surrounded by undead and old, half rotted and dried out stuff.
Besides, he tried to kill me first.
Would it hurt him to put up some curtains? Maybe more than a couple of torches?
Yeah, my mind gets silly when I'm terrified.
Rush? No, all he would need to do would be to turn and fire. Time from when I killed the skeleton to when the bolt arrived had been about a second.
That meant short refire time.
Wonder how many times he could do that? Was it even possible to run out of magic?
Silently I sheathed my sword, pulling my dagger instead. Range was about ten meters. Throwing a knife is a bad idea in general.
For one thing it was not made for it.
Second, I'm crap at it.
But I could throw it over him. Ten meters I could cover in a very short amount of time at a run. If I could just distract him for a moment, I would be able to get close.
Hell, even if he was a lich, a sword through the chest should at least distract him.
Taking a slow, deep breath to steady myself, I raised my arm to throw the dagger... only for the skeleton on my side to turn its head in my direction, causing the Big Bad to do the same, his hands coming together and starting to crackle with energy as he started to say some arcane sounding words.
Oh crap!
I barely got out of the way of the bolt as it pierced through the bookshelf, blowing a big hole.
Throwing the dagger as hard as I could at him, I pulled my sword and rushed towards him.
He raised his right hand, a fireball starting to form to his whispered words when the hilt of the dagger struck him in the forehead.
His spell exploded in his hand, blowing it apart as his concentration was broken and he screamed in pain.
The skeleton closest to me moved, raising its shield and swinging its sword. Fast. As fast as a person.
I let myself fall, sliding along the floor, my feet slamming against the skeleton's legs, taking it off its feet and making it fall to the floor.
Rolling to the side to avoid being grabbed by the undead minion I lashed out with my sword pommel, cracking its skull before I scrambled onto my feet just in time for a spell to slam into the floor where I had been half a second earlier and I was showered with ice shrapnel.
I barely felt it as I rushed the necromancer.
His right hand was missing but it wasn't bleeding, his left hand raised as he roared arcane words at me, his hand crackling with energy and I dove forward, another spell flying above my head as I tucked into a roll, getting onto my knee as I slammed my sword up into his chest.
The necromancer fell with a choked sound, hitting the ground hard.
He looked like he was trying to say something before the green glow in his eyes faded away into nothing. The skeleton that was his other bodyguard stumbled a couple of times before collapsing into a pile of bones.
Panting hard I let go of my sword hilt, collapsing onto my back on the floor.
Holy shit.
...There had to be an easier way to make rent...
AN// *Picks DonLyn up and drop him/she/it into a pool of thanks for betaing this section*