Heart of Dorkness

Scourge Sixty-Three - Blood

Scourge Sixty-Three - Blood

Scourge Sixty-Three - Blood

My wolf monsters jump in and tackle the zombies into the mansion where its easier for them to tear heads and limbs off.

Its a start, but Im willing to bet the necromancer out there has a whole lot more undead than I have monsters or patience.

In theory, I realise that if I stall for long enough the Templars are probably going to come around to see whats going on, but that could be in ten minutes or it could be tomorrow. Im not going to gamble my friends lives on anyone showing up to help us now.

We could also just run.

I glance at my friends, to try and imagine how theyd take that idea.This chapter is updated by

Felix is bouncing on the balls of her feet, staff held loose by her side with the knife fixed to its end dancing near the floor. Esmes thin-lipped, but serious, I can almost imagine her going through her entire repertoire of spells to decide on which one to use here.

Bianca looks a little nervous, but still collected. Shes standing by the back of the room, eyes on the zombies, and when one of them happens to stumble out of my monsters grasp shes quick to fling a fist-sized ball of fire right into its face to send it reeling back.

Lily, meanwhile, looks bored. Its as if shes seen all of this before and nothing about it holds any interest for her. Or maybe Im just misreading her confidence. Its hard to tell.

Get ready, I say. If Getorix just wants to send undead at us, then well help him trim down his numbers. But he might come in himself.

Depends on if hes a coward or not, Felix says.

The doors bang, and I shift into a better fighting stance. Legs spread a little, knees bent to lower my centre of mass, one arm raised in front of me while I summon a small shield of black magic linked to that arm to defend against incoming attacks. My other hand is lower, near to my side and balled into a fist. I split my focus a little and reach for the roiling in my gut.

Its not hard to feel disgusted while watching day-old moving corpses being shredded by my monsters. Maybe thats why disgust and fear mages are so strong in a big battle, theres a lot of both to go around.

The doors bang again, this time theres a heavy crack in the wood, and we all tense.

Then Felix points out the obvious. Are the doors even locked?

I didnt lock them, I say.

Same here, Lily says.

Esme and Bianca shake their heads.

The tentacles get to work. Flesh doesnt so much melt where they touch as it turns to dust. Its really fast. The tentacles only disintegrate a paper-thin layer every second, but theres a dozen of them and when they press into something they sort of flatten out and cover the entire abominations body.

It only takes a few seconds before the disintegration starts to really work, and, best of all, it doesnt prevent other magic from working, so Biancas fire and Felixs windy swipes still tear and burn the enemy apart.

We push the abominations back, then with our combined attacks, rip them apart.

Theyre tough, sure, and against non-cultivators Im sure these things would be awful to fight. They have plenty of limbs, take a lot of damage to go down, and they dont feel pain. One of these would rip through a full squad of guards without trouble, and weaker cultivators, the sort who need to focus and meditate before using their abilities, would be in deep trouble against a group of these.

But were not normal cultivators. Sure, were all young, but Bianca seems like shes basically a natural, Esme is Esme the overachiever, Felix is a genius with her own Joy magic, and Im moms daughter. Even Lilys really, really strong for her age. Im guessing that years spent at an academy where people learn to become Templars has helped her refine her magic.

My tentacles wrap around the last abomination. Felix flips around so that shes off the ground and using her staff as a pole to stand up while she plants her feet on the abominations face and pries open its mouth.

I force my tentacles in, and the effects of disintegration inside of a body proves to be pretty great at taking out even a pretty tough undead.

Felix flips around and hops back. Well, that was easy, she says.

Theres more undead behind the abominations, but theyre slow moving ghouls.

Wheres the necromancer? I ask.

He should have showed up already, right?

Watch out! Bianca screams.

I turn, and am immediately hit by a stupid thought. Why is Bianca the one screaming that when shes the one in the most danger?

The necromancer didnt follow my plan. Instead, he went around, and he brought more of his monsters with him.

Bianca jumps back, and with a gasp, she swings her arms around and changes the course of the flying wave of water that might have hit her if she wasnt so fast.

Her landing is rough though, and she stumbles back and trips on the hem of her skirts.

An abomination jumps towards Bianca, and theres no way any of my spells will reach her.

And then Esme slams Bianca away and I watch, confused and horrified, as Esmes blood splashes out of a massive gash along her back.

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