Chapter 40
Chapter
Forty
The undead pulled the sword from his stomach, and he grasped it in a vain attempt to keep everything in, feeling the warm sensation of blood spilling through his fingertips. He staggered under the expectation of pain, but none came. He felt heat, burning hot and glorious, urging him to action.
He raised his head and met the rotting eyes of his would-be assassin. The undead flinched back into a guard position.
The System had some things to say. He didn’t have time to read millions of messages, and luckily, the System seemed to realize that.
Abridged messages activated.
Level up!
Level 1 -> 6
Combined attributes from your Class and achievements:
+20 Strength, +20 Vitality, +10 Dexterity, +5 Mental Control, +5 Will, +5 free attributes.
Congratulations!
You have upgraded achievements.
Disciplined I -> II, Dexterous I -> II
He threw all his free points into Vitality. Right now, his survival depended on healing and durability and not much else.
Congratulations!
You have earned a new Skill! Please select from the following three choices.
He selected on instinct, not even reading the choices. He knew what he needed to stay alive.
You have selected: [Mana Scarring]
The blood seeping through his fingers slowed to a trickle, then stopped, and he felt the strange sensation of his internal organs sliding back to their original places.
Hogg recovered from his shock and grabbed a brass handle from a pocket on his forearm. He swung it, and a whip of golden fire sprung from the handle. He twirled it in one long circle, somehow leaving Brin untouched but burning straight through all the circling undead.
All but one. A tall figure in dark blue armor was also unharmed. His helmet covered his eyes, but when he grimaced Brin saw white, healthy teeth. Not an undead—a human leader.
Hogg disappeared, his illusion magic rendering him invisible, but the armored figure thrust out his sword and a noxious wind cut through the forest to cling to Hogg, rendering him visible.
Suddenly there were hundreds of Hoggs and hundreds of wounded Brins, all of them running in every direction. One of the Hoggs was real, though, and that one grabbed Brin by the collar of his leather armor and threw him over his shoulder.
Hogg ran at full tilt, blisteringly fast, but not as fast as that time Lumina had hastened him. Brin could see undead rising from all around, cutting at all the mirror images.
“[Scarred One], huh?” asked Hogg.
“Self-healing tank. Only way to survive,” said Brin from atop his back.
“Take [Inspect] yet?”
Brin checked.
You have 1 free general Skill. Please choose from the following list:
Animal Husb—
You have selected General Skill - Inspect.
Suddenly a bright and pure light erupted throughout the forest, and Hogg’s illusions faded away. The Eveladis, what Hogg had described as the death of [Illusionists]. The alchemical reagent was in the air, and there was no stopping it. The undead had come prepared.
Hogg changed course, aiming away from the rapidly expanding circle of anti-illusion alchemy, but another one exploded in front of them, then more from the sides.
Of course. Hadn’t he just told Tawna this? None of this was about him. The undead army was trying to sneak through the Boglands, and the one thing standing in their way was an irritatingly persistent [Illusionist].
All this time, it was Hogg whose existence doomed the town. Yes, Brin had been the start of it, because without Brin’s Quest, Hogg never would have learned about the existence of the army. But then Hogg had returned here and spent all his days desperately combing the Boglands with his illusions.
In their eyes, all they needed to do was kill Hogg, and the army’s secrecy would be secure. They’d drawn him out, and now they meant to destroy him.
This wasn’t a war. It was an assassination.
Something black slammed into Hogg, and they both skidded to the ground.
Hogg was on his feet an instant later, smoking slightly from the back. His hands blurred as he quickly picked items from places in his pockets and activated them.
Magical bolts, blazes of fire, streaks of lightning, and sparks of light all flew from him in a dazzling array of destruction. Each of them burned through dozens of undead.
Gold flowed like water as Hogg unleashed his consumables. That wand, twenty gold. That stone, two gold. That crown, thirty gold. More and more came from his pockets, and each of them wreaked destruction.
More undead arrived to replace the fallen each second, and some of them started to survive the attacks. A huge, armored undead with a shield larger than a barn door blocked a shimmering flame in the shape of a phoenix.
An ugly, shriveled, robed undead threw a handful of powder at a group of neon butterflies, causing them to go dim and turn to ash.
An archer shot an arrow through a ball of lightning, making it explode. Then he changed his aim and—oh no! Brin tried to dodge out of the way. The arrow punched into him, lodging itself in his thigh.
Level up!
You have reached level 7.
+4 Strength, +4 Vitality, +2 Dexterity, +1 Mental Control, +1 Will, +1 free attribute.
Congratulations!
You have upgraded achievements.
Lively II -> III
The archer nocked another arrow. The robed undead turned to Brin, and the armored brute lifted his shield.
Hogg shouted in dismay, then threw a smoke bomb to the ground.
Unlike Brin’s smoke bomb, this one was absolute. The world went completely black. He couldn’t hear anything. Even his sense of smell was numb.
He felt Hogg grab him, and then they were running again.
They soon ran through the affected area, and Brin awkwardly broke the arrow off and pulled it out.
“Can you run?” asked Hogg.
“Yes.”
“I could get away myself, but not if I have to protect you. Run when I tell you. Get to the town. Once I’ve covered your escape, I’ll follow you.”
That felt like a lie, but Brin couldn’t argue with the main point: he really wasn’t any help against these enemies. “Got it.”
He saw the blue-armored figure stride through the smoke behind them. He used [Inspect], not really thinking it would work, but it gave him something. Just two words of information. The assassin’s Class was [Anti-Mage].
Hogg held up a glass orb with a frothy clear liquid inside. Two hundred gold. It exploded, but didn’t harm him.
“Quick recharge,” said Hogg. “Use this, and your sword. Now run!”
Hogg tapped Brin with a twisted tree branch and then threw it behind him. It sunk into the ground, and then a heavy fog sprang up from all around.
The whole world was covered by mist, except for a narrow tunnel leading through the forest. Brin got the picture.
He ran down the tunnel of fog. From inside, he could just make out the outside world, where everything was moving in slow motion. Hogg was lashing out with his whip—and then Brin was too far away to see.
It felt strange to run on his wounded leg. It didn’t hurt, but it burned, and that burning made him... angry. Not berserker furious. It was an energetic, yet calmly calculating kind of anger. He felt good. He felt dangerous.
Far ahead, something hit the wall of fog, making cracks appear. An undead a quarter-mile up the path was striking the tunnel. It punched again, and one fist actually broke through.
Brin flipped the switch on his sword, and yes, the recharge had worked. The world slowed down even further.
His legs seemed to double their speed. He sprinted forward, determined to pass the undead before it could get into the tunnel. As he neared, he realized he wouldn’t make it. He got his sword in position and swung with all his might as he ran by.
The undead got a black mace up in time to block, and the collision sent Brin tumbling. He skidded to a stop and looked back. The undead sagged against the foggy wall of the tunnel, its head cloven in two. Brin’s sword was nearby, and he scrambled over and grabbed it again, but the world didn’t speed up when he held it. The speed magic in it was spent.
Alert!
You have defeated: Undead Warrior [19]
Due to level disparity extra experience will be rewarded.
Habit made Brin expect the other, very disappointing message. This time, however, he got to keep his experience.
Level up!
Level 7 -> 9
+8 Strength, +8 Vitality, +4 Dexterity, +2 Mental Control, +2 Will, +2 free attributes.
Congratulations!
You have upgraded an achievement.
Strong II -> III
He smiled. How was his Mana doing with holding him together? There was no convenient display, but he sort of felt… mostly full. He was fine. He could take much worse wounds than this and keep moving.
He put the attributes into Strength.
Another undead climbed over the body of its comrade. This one was clothed in black, much darker than the rank and file, though. It was like he was clothed in the living night. Inspect told him the Class. [Undead Assassin].
Brin ran.
He felt rather than heard the footsteps behind him, and turned right at the last second to block. The [Undead Assassin] cut under his block with a rapier to strike both of his forearms at once. The leather armor showed its worth and slowed the attack enough that it left barely a scrape. Not even enough to get a level out of, apparently.
Quick as a gunslinger, Brin brought out one of the illusion wands and fired. The [Undead Assassin] dodged the fake flame, giving him some space. Brin cheered inwardly that the wands had recharged like his sword. That would have been an embarrassing death, if not.
He ran, but kept his head faced back to watch the undead. He drew out the other illusion wand.
See, he’d learned something in the last fight. He’d used the wands in the wrong order.
He raised it with shaking hands and fired wildly. The [Undead Assassin] still dodged this one, but with a little less haste. It turned its gaze from the fake flame back to Brin, a hint of mockery in its features.
Brin tripped, then scrambled backwards. “Stay back!”
He held up the last wand. The real one.
“Stay back or I’ll use it!” said Brin. Maybe a bit too much? No, just enough judging by the way the undead sauntered forward so confidently.
When it was only a few feet away, Brin activated the wand. A jet of real, non-illusory flame knocked the undead back and through the air.
He laughed. “Fool.”
He turned to run again, but to his surprise, something rose from the ground. The undead hadn’t evaporated in the flame. Oh, this one was tough. That should alarm him, but for some reason, he felt oddly excited.
The undead lurched forward, stumbling and awkward but persistent, the way all good undead should be.
Brin should’ve run. He didn’t want to.
He charged the undead, and went into the combo Hogg had told him definitely wouldn’t work. Right, left, up, down, lunge. The undead parried the first two blows, but the second two left deep gouges, and with the lunge, Brin pierced its monstrous heart.
During the short fight, the mist of the tunnel had disappeared. He was back in the forest, back in regular-moving time.
He must’ve outrun most of the army, but there were still a few undead within sight, already moving towards his area.
They hadn’t seen him yet. Brin bent over and lit the body of the undead on fire with his lighter. Luckily, now that it was dead, whatever had been protecting it from flame stopped working and the corpse caught easily. He kicked it over towards some tall grass and then ran.
The undead converging on the scene were drawn to the flame. He could hide, for now. He took a moment to check his messages.
Alert!
You have defeated: Undead Assassin [26]
Due to level disparity extra experience will be rewarded.
Level up!
Level 9 -> 12.
+12 Strength, +12 Vitality, +6 Dexterity, +3 Mental Control, +3 Will, +3 free attributes.
It looked like the third threshold was at sixty-five. He’d already gotten that for Strength and Will, and he wasn’t close to that for anything else. He put one into Mental Control and the rest into Strength.
Congratulations!
You have upgraded an achievement.
Controlled I -> II
Four undead had arrived, and they stood in a circle around the burning corpse. The fire spread into the grass. None were looking towards him, so he figured he had the chance to keep reading his notifications.
Congratulations!
You have earned a new Skill. Please select from the following three choices.
Upgrade - Pain Resistance
Pain will feel even better, like pleasure instead of simply heat and energy.
Upgrade - Ugly on the Inside
Increase healing speed of internal scars.
New Skill - Bloody Vengeance
Increased power and speed proportional to the severity of wounds received.
The increase to [Pain Resistance] was easy to rule out. His wounds already felt kind of good. He didn’t need to turn into a full-blown masochist. It was already going to be hard enough trying not to let himself get hurt on purpose for the free levels.
As for the other two? What he should take sort of depended on what he wanted to do. He was back to that age-old question. Hilarious, that he was back here again.
Hide, or flee?
Flee was the obvious answer, but they’d be expecting that. They probably had the route home swarming with undead. Right now while he was hidden near a fire, the undead couldn’t use their heat sense to find him. He had some time. Not a lot, but maybe enough.
Enough for what, though? Whether it was two minutes or twenty, the flames would go out and his hiding spot would be useless. Hide wasn’t an option.
But flee wasn’t either. He was going in circles. There didn’t seem to be a best option.
How much of this had Tawna foreseen? If she’d known about the army, she would’ve told someone, right? Even she couldn’t be that obtuse. That meant she probably only knew the beginning and the end, the action she could take, and whether or not that brought doom closer or further away from the town.
He ran the scenarios in his mind. He was glad [Scarred One] hadn’t made him dumber. He could already feel his emotions shifting in subtle ways, but his mind was the same as ever.
Scenario 1: Brin does the smart thing and goes home after killing the easy spiders. He wouldn’t have learned about the undead army. He would’ve taken [Illusionist] on System Day. Hogg would’ve kept scouting. Nothing would’ve changed.
Scenario 2: Brin dies in the fight with his undead father. Hogg would’ve gone to investigate. He would’ve killed Cadwy easily, but the ambush afterwards would’ve still happened without Brin to take the first blow. Hogg would’ve died, and the town would never have learned what happened. The undead army sneaks by. The town is unharmed. This was probably the most likely scenario, but that ship had sailed. Brin had survived.
Scenario 3: Brin dies in the ambush, but Hogg survives. Hogg would probably get word to Lumina in time for her to send a rescue. The town might still be attacked, but most would survive. This was the second most likely outcome.
Scenario 4: Hogg dies holding off the undead, but Brin survives. In this situation, the whole town would find out about the army, and Arcaena would have no choice but to massacre them all. Frankly, this outcome wasn’t very likely. Brin would almost certainly die trying to get back alone.
And why should he try? He could hide again, maybe survive, but why would he want to? He pictured Hogg, Davi, Zilly, Perris, and everyone else, all shambling along with the horde while he hid in cellars again. Him, hiding in the cold again with his memories and some new scars. Is that really what he wanted?
No, that wouldn’t happen. The army didn’t know this, but Hogg had already succeeded in spreading word. Rescue would come either way. In the real Scenario 4, only Hogg would die. Brin would be fine.
The choice was smaller. Would he let Hogg sacrifice his life for a beat-up, angry, evil-Classed little jerk?
No. Logically, that was a bad move. This was logic, right? This wasn’t just him trying to justify something he wanted to do anyway?
Brin checked his sword. The magic was gone, but it should still serve to kill some stupid undead. There was no choice, right? No choice at all.
You have selected: [Bloody Vengeance]
With the wounds he already had, [Bloody Vengeance] hit him like a tidal wave. The burning wounds across his body felt like limitless batteries, pumping a sick and intoxicating energy into his soul.
He would try for Scenario 5. Tawna’s plans could burn, and so could the rest of the town for all he cared. He would save Hogg, or die trying.