The misadventures of the necromancer

"Master!!!" cried her fellow apprentice in alarm. He had evidently realized what was happening as well, even grabbing Master Eran by the arm as the old mage stood frozen in shock.

"Wha..." he began, only for his own voice to suddenly fall silent.

Enola could see the stunned expression on his face.

Meanwhile, one of the guards remarked,

"Look, he's still trying."

That made her turn toward the necromancer's raised hand, realizing he must have just silenced her fellow apprentice.

"What's wrong with all of you?" Deha called from behind them.

The question reminded Enola of the group's scout, who had remained at the rear with her bow since they were on a well-traveled road just outside the city.

Turning toward the voice, Enola saw her master and Gurt, still too shocked to react, struggling to understand what was happening.

Finally, locking eyes with Deha and seeing the confusion on her face, Enola realized she had to warn her.

She had to warn all of them.

"Quick, he can still..." she meant to say use magic.

But she never finished.

Halfway through the sentence, she heard the familiar, ethereal voice command,

"Silencio."

And immediately understood. She and her fellow apprentice were probably the two people in the world with the most experience being under the effects of that spell. Between their master repeatedly casting it on them so they could better understand it, and their own practice sessions using it on each other...

Even so, the shock of finding herself under its influence, cast by a complete stranger who should himself have been silenced, made her snap her attention back toward the mage.

On his face she saw a playful smile after successfully silencing them, rendering them useless while the guards continued approaching him casually, completely unaware that the situation had just been reversed.

At least, that's what it looked like.

For she herself believed the battle had just ended.

That was until his smile disappeared, replaced by an expression of pain.

He grabbed at his shoulder.

Where an arrow had suddenly buried itself on.

The other guards stopped, looking at one another in confusion.

Nero staggered before dropping to one knee.

His companions cried out in alarm,

"Nero!"

Strangely, the young man in the dark robe pushed the two girls backward, as though trying to shield them.

Finally, Enola turned toward where the arrow had come from.

There stood Deha, holding her bow in one hand while reaching for another arrow from the quiver on her back with the other.

Enola sighed in relief.

Deha had just saved the situation.

Then a series of startled cries rang out.

"What the hell?!"

"Magic!"

Once again Enola looked toward the suspected necromancer.

What she saw left her speechless.

Nero was still kneeling with the arrow lodged in his shoulder.

But now both of his hands were pointed toward the ground before him.

There, two summoning circles glowed.

Lagart wisely shouted,

"Go around!"

He already understood they couldn't simply cross the active summoning circles.

Within them, two white figures were beginning to take shape.

Judging by the reports from Pinetop, they could only be Nero's skeletons.

But what truly shocked Enola, and judging by Eran's open mouth, shocked him as well, was the fact that Nero had managed to cast two spells simultaneously.

Although those watching a spell being cast might assume all a mage had to do was speak its name, the reality was very different.

A mage had to focus completely on the magic they were weaving, visualizing in their mind exactly what the spell would accomplish.

Depending on the spell and the mage's own skill, this could be mentally exhausting.

Those learning magic routinely complained of fatigue, without realizing that it was primarily mental exhaustion.

With that in mind, casting two spells at the same time was theoretically possible.

But it would be an extraordinarily difficult feat, requiring the mage to divide their concentration equally between both spells.

Something Enola herself couldn't even imagine.

What drew Enola's attention again was the clank of another arrow striking the shield of one of the newly formed skeletons, protecting Nero as he remained half-kneeling behind them.

With Deha's latest attack having failed, the remaining guards tried to deal with the skeletons by attacking them from opposite sides.

"Drop the spears!" Lagart ordered, clearly realizing they would be useless against the undead. As he had explained to Enola many times before, fighting undead required either the ability to outlast them or to inflict overwhelming damage. Spears excelled at neither.

Under normal circumstances, they would simply stall until the spell sustaining the skeletons expired. But that strategy depended on the assumption that, thanks to Eran, the mage would be unable to create more. Since that was no longer the case, Lagart needed another approach.

Nero, meanwhile, stood up while gripping the shaft of the arrow lodged in his shoulder and began pulling it free. The silent expression of agony on his face, as though he were screaming without sound, made Enola think he was still under the effects of 'Silencio'.

"He's insane", she thought. "Pulling an arrow out in the middle of a battle."

Once he finally yanked it free, he seemed to murmur something, and a pale, almost imperceptible glow enveloped him, confirming once again that he was using magic.

As he rolled his shoulder, another arrow struck one of the undead's shields, revealing that despite the guards' assault, the creatures were still primarily focused on protecting him.

"Lagart, get ready!" she heard Deha shout from behind.

Lagart simply nodded, as though the two of them had already agreed upon a plan.

At that moment, another faint glow surrounded the mage, revealing that he, too, was preparing to act.

Then he stepped forward into an opening not occupied by the guards battling the skeletons on either side of him. A position that left him exposed, especially to Deha's arrows, now outside the skeletons' protection.

But before anyone could react, he vanished without even appearing to utter a word.

Invisibility.

Another one of the spells the caravan members had described.

Ordinarily, that would not have been a major problem in a fight. Before reaching Pinetop, they had already discussed how her master possessed a spell that allowed him to sense living beings. Detecting someone under an invisibility spell at close range was simple.

But in his current state...

Even so, she could see his lips moving beside her, desperately trying to cast the spell. If he could only point out the mage's location, that alone would be enough.

Unfortunately, the result was predictable.

The battle between the guards and the skeletons continued without either side gaining ground. It almost seemed to her as though both sides were merely trying to buy time.

Then, suddenly, she heard a commotion.

Looking back, she saw Nero attempting to throw Deha to the ground. But Deha had apparently reacted quickly enough to smash him across the face with her bow. Enola assumed the sound she had heard was that impact.

Cleverly, it seemed Deha had already anticipated that she would become the mage's target, since she had been his greatest threat until now.

Unfortunately, even taking a bow to the face didn't seem to stop him.

He kept pressing toward her, clearly trying to wrestle her to the ground.

Deha dropped low, let go of her bow, and seized Nero's arms. With the movement, she managed to throw the mage away from her and gave herself enough time to spring back to her feet.

Meanwhile, her opponent crashed face-first into the ground.

He appeared to be half-dazed, and Deha wasted no time. Drawing her dagger, she charged straight at the mage.

But halfway to him, he vanished once more.

Deha spun around on the spot, waiting for the mage's next attack. Then, just as her back was turned to Enola, the mage suddenly reappeared behind her, already wrapping an arm around her neck.

Deha immediately tried to stab him in the side with her dagger. Although she managed to distract him for a few moments as he tried to avoid the strikes, after the blade found its mark several times, he seemed to focus solely on strangling her. For no blood was visible from the possible injuries he had sustained.

Enola glanced toward the other guards, hoping someone would come to Deha's aid. At least one of them tried to break away from the skeleton he was fighting, but the undead kept up the pressure, even ignoring a couple of sword strikes from another guard in order to keep him from leaving.

Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly caught movement.

Turning, she saw Gurt sprinting desperately toward the two struggling figures. He crashed into them, sending all three tumbling to the ground.

Unfortunately, the mage still refused to release Deha.

Gurt immediately began throwing punches almost blindly, while Deha herself tried to kick the mage. The three of them rolled across the ground in a tangled struggle.

Enola stood frozen, staring at the chaotic melee, unsure what to do.

Then she saw her master advancing toward them.

At once, she understood what he had realized.

This was their chance, possibly their only one. Even if they couldn't knock Nero unconscious, they could still turn the battle around. If they attacked together, surely the mage couldn't defeat all of them.

So she hurried after her master.

Unfortunately, Nero quickly released Deha, drove an elbow into Gurt, and sprang away from them.

Gurt immediately turned his attention to Deha, who was struggling to breathe and coughing violently.

The necromancer, for by now Enola believed more and more of everything the caravan had reported, rose to his feet wearing a grim expression, as though he wanted to growl in frustration, all while breathing heavily from the strain of the fight.

By the time she reached her master and the other two, they heard someone shout,

"Wait!"

One of the guards had finally broken free from the skeletons and was hurrying over to help them.

Nero took a final deep breath and stretched both hands toward the ground before him.

A glow appeared in each of his palms.

At the same time, two new summoning circles formed beneath them.

"Gods..." Deha exclaimed, voicing what all of them were surely feeling at the sight of two more skeletons appearing.

Enola couldn't help wondering just how vast Nero's magical reserves were if he could maintain four summoned skeletons after all the magic he had already used.

The young man himself wasted no time. Vanishing once again, leaving them trapped between the two groups of skeletons.

His next reappearance was marked by a sudden attack on Edan. He struck him hard enough to knock him unconscious before disappearing again, all before anyone could react.

"Surrender!" shouted Nero's companion, who had remained out of the fighting until now.

"If he had wanted to kill you, you'd all be dead by now!"

Enola couldn't help thinking that he might be right.

That did nothing to lessen her anger as she hurried toward her unconscious master's body.

In the end, everything went black the moment she felt a sharp blow to the back of her head.

The last thought that crossed her mind was that the necromancer must now be eliminating the easiest targets.

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