Chapter 100 - Direct Hit

Professor Kal looked over the small battlefield unfolding just in front of him. His undead knights were routing the vicious insectoid monsters, completely overpowering them in every aspect of the bout. He looked over to one death knight that had just lost his sword arm, nothing but a jagged stump remained. Instead of screaming in pain, or falling back to be healed, the death knight simply grabbed ahold of the slashing monster and began to slam it repeatedly into the ground.

Even as the monster's deadly limbs flailed and stabbed at the armored undead, the death knight continued to slam it down, over, and over and over again. After a few minutes of the barbaric assault, the insect lay motionless and broken on the cold, stone ground. Not missing a beat, the victorious death knight immediately sought out another target, finding it more difficult to do so as time went on.

Professor Kal nodded his head, he was pleased with how everything was unfolding, although a little disappointed as well. He was hoping for a bit more of a challenge, it had been a long while since he last stretched his magical muscles and had yet to find anything that would scratch that itch. The demons back in Swayzee were a nice warm up but was far from what he was looking for. His eyes settled on the towering behemoth charging toward him at breakneck speeds, maybe the source of all this death would prove to be a worthy foe.

…..

Seeing that the ferocious monsters had stopped their unyielding charge, Royal Mage Gustave Kӧrner dropped the Inferno Wall he had deployed. It was a risk that he had to take, his mana was getting dangerously low, and the amount of mana potions he had taken thus far was borderline fatal. He was pushing his body to the absolute edge just maintaining the powerful spell and needed a moment to rest, even if it opened them up to attack.

He had never seen such monsters before, even while delving deep into the many dungeons spread across the Kingdom, he had never witnessed such abominations. Word about a monster rampaging through the city spread to the palace quickly, and the king saw it fit to have him accompany the Royal Select in subjugating the wayward beast. They hadn't known what kind of monster they were dealing with but decided it best to put a stop to it quickly, thus the King's own forces were mobilized to cull it.

Upon arriving at the scene, he was immediately beset by a deep dread as his eyes fell upon the hundreds of corpses littering the once splendid plaza. What was even more upsetting was the 'monster' slaughtering so many of his countrymen. Just looking at it made his stomach churn, its uncanny humanoid face caused an instinctual fear to well up within him, making him want nothing more than to flee and hide away from its large, dull eyes. But he had a duty to uphold, so, he swallowed his fears and set about using the most powerful spell in his arsenal in order to end its life in a single strike.

It was a spell passed down to him from his mentor, the previous Royal Mage, which he had gotten from the Royal Mage before him. It was meant to be a hidden trump card, used only for when the country itself was in danger. It had the power to consume everything within a given area, the only restriction on its power was the amount of mana poured into it. With the help of his assistants he had brought along with him, he was able to encompass the entire plaza with the spell and watched in horrified astonishment as it failed spectacularly.

With his initial attack bearing so little fruit, he was forced into the defensive, barely managing to slow the tide of monsters as they hatched from their vile eggs and set upon the knights. He felt absolutely useless as the number of deaths mounted higher and higher, with the only thing he was capable of was barely maintaining the spell that only delayed their inevitable demise. But as fate would have it, the monsters abruptly changed course, giving him and the knights much needed respite.

Now that he had dropped the wall he had erected, he could see what it was that grabbed the monsters' attention. An unknown force, twice the size as their own, was handily dealing with the ravenous monsters that were giving them so much trouble just moments before. He watched in slack jawed amazement as one of the towering, armored knights took the full brunt of an insect's attack to his chest, its sharp bladed legs jutting from his back. Instead of toppling over like any other being would, the knight wrapped his arms around the bug and started to squeeze; even as the monster struggled violently, the knight continued to crush it against himself until eventually, the beast stopped its struggling. The highly trained Royal Select in front of him were also intently watching their reinforcements, not believing their eyes as the knights fought on, even after losing limbs or being skewered by the bugs' spear like extremities.

"Men!" The knight commander barked. "Reform ranks, take any potions you have now, this isn't over yet!"

Immediately doing as they were told, the Royal Select hurriedly moved the bodies of their fallen comrades and guzzled the potions that they had brought with them, healing any wounds that were not overly grievous. The others also followed suit, taking this moment to collect themselves, knowing that even though the mysterious knights had the upper hand at the moment, that all could change at any time.

An infuriated scream spread throughout the plaza, drawing everyone's eyes to the six-armed monster that was running toward the line of black knights still slaughtering its creations without mercy. Every one of the soldiers watching, felt immense fear and anxiety as it closed in on the black knights, knowing that as soon as it was finished with them, they would be its next target.

…..

A wall of solid stone rose up from the ground, casting a dark shadow across the plaza and causing the ground to tremble. Professor Kal was confident that the incoming monster would find the barricade he had conjured difficult to bypass, giving his death knights enough time to finish off the insects. A loud impact sounded from the other side of the earthen wall; large chunks of stone flew up into the air as the wall itself began to shake.

Just as Professor Kal was considering reinforcing his wall, the monster burst through, leaving behind a tunnel that was perfectly round. For a creature as big as it was, the monster was very quick on its feet. Once through the thick wall, it had only taken it but two breaths to close a gap of some one-hundred yards between it and the death knights. Giving up on defense, Professor Kal weaved a new spell, taking but a moment to send a thick lightening bolt down from the heavens and toward the beast.

As the thick smell of ozone filled the air, the monster bulldozed into the line of death knights still hacking away at the remaining insects. Armor, weapons, and body parts alike haphazardly flew through the air, littering the ground with gore up to fifty feet away. As it picked up one death knight in its clawed hands, the lightening raced from the clouds in a zig-zag pattern, creating blinding light and a deafening boom in its wake.

The bright flash of light only caused Professor Kal to lose track of his target for a split second, as his eyes readjusted, he fully expected to see an ugly, twitching corpse being hacked at by his death knights. Instead, what filled his vision baffled him. The monster was still standing, only in a spot quite a distance away from where it was when the lightening had struck. At its feet were several motionless death knights, their helmeted heads crushed flat, and their bodies mangled.

"You're a slippery one, aren't you?" Professor Kal mumbled to himself as his brows furrowed.

He hadn't sensed any teleportation magic being used, although, everything that the monster had done so far lacked any mana to begin with, so it could have been some sort of short distance warp. Then again, maybe the monster was just that fast? He just didn't know.

The monster's dull, white eyes rolled around in their sockets. Even without pupils, Professor Kal could tell that they were focused on him. He could feel its hunger behind its gaze, the overwhelming desire to consume not just flesh and bone, but the very thing that made a being alive, their soul. The first time he watched the beast feed, he could see what was happening. It would suck out the soul of its victim through the disgusting appendages wriggling around in its mouth, empowering itself with each one. By now, he was sure that it had fed on several hundred people, making it difficult for him to accurately gauge just how strong it truly was.

"Be still." Professor Kal said in a monotone voice.

As his baritone voice carried over the plaza, everything slowed to a crawl. The silently advancing death knights froze in place, their swords or axes suspended in mid swing. A few of the last remaining insects hung in the air, the spell catching them as they were leaping through the air, frozen in time. Even the sounds of the knights hurrying to reform their formations ceased to reach his ears, nothing but silence filled the plaza.

Professor Kal weaved through the hectic mixture of death knight and monster, taking care not to soil his robes on the copious amounts of blood and viscera. Making his way to the monster, he stopped just before it. Looking up, he studied its outer appearance, taking note of its unnaturally smooth skin that reminded him of polished stone instead of living flesh. Its hazy eyes were still focused on where he was just as he cast his spell, its six arms contorted in different directions as it was reaching out to strike the nearby knights.

Reaching out to touch it, Professor Kal placed his palm on its shiny, yet dry skin. "I was hoping to capture you alive, oh well, your corpse will still provide me with the answers I seek."

Beginning a low chant in a language long dead, Professor Kal was preparing to use one of his most fatal of spells. It was not showy in any way whatsoever, the only way to tell that the spell was cast was by the end result, instant death. It was guaranteed that, once the spell was cast, the targets very soul would be extinguished, leaving nothing but an empty shell of a body. It was called Mortal Putrefaction.

As his voice rose in a cadence that would churn a normal person's stomach, Professor Kal noticed an irregularity. It was barely imperceptible, he had very nearly missed it if not for looking at the right spot at the right time, the creature… was still breathing.

"Well, shit.." Was all he could say before a heavy clawed hand struck him from above, sending him careening towards the nearby building, cracks forming in the stone pavement as his body tumbled.