Dim Prisons and Drakes, chapter 47. (Patreon)

I swear when I started writing this, it was winning the poll. I'll get that chapter of WHW out in a few, but for now, have this. The thrilling, yet not so thrilling conclusion of yet another village siege arc. Please enjoy.

We had to stop doing this sort of thing - it was beyond old. We'd managed to get the village warded, and were currently staring down the somewhat lacking hordes of undead surrounding it from the main road. It wouldn't be long before the numbers greatly increased, but for now, we could break out if we wanted.

The issue would be where would we go? Everywhere else was out in the open, and there was far worse out there than skeletons or zombies. That death knight on his ghostly charger, for example, trying to stare through me with his glowing red eyes. He must really hate mages, but he hadn't tried anything yet. He was just waiting there. Making sure we weren't going anywhere.

To my left, off to the West, there was some kind of specter. Also waiting, silent and still.

I knew what they were doing. Keeping tabs on us, so the necromancer could find us. We all knew, I think, but none of us said a word to the villagers about what was coming. We were afraid of being thrown out and left to our own devices - and the fact that we didn't know for sure was a convenient fiction. Even if I at least knew. I guess believed would be a better word, since we had no evidence.

"How is it?" Karl called out.

"They have us surrounded, and more are coming," Thom yelled down calmly from his perch atop a nearby roof.

Nothing we didn't already know.

"Are they trying the thing yet?" Thom should know what I meant, digging up our charms.

"No, not yet. They are all staying out of range, and out of easy bow shot. Same old shit, different day." The sighed out response didn't really ease my mind of give me hope, but every small delay gave us more time. We couldn't repeat our charm trick, but Les was active sanctifying the ground around us, and that would give us a good advantage when push came to shove.

I only wish I could help him with it. The only thing I could do right now is patrol the area with Poe, looking for any surprises. None so far.

Phil was working with the woodsmen of the village, setting up more mundane traps. I was going to stay places I knew were safe, because nothing would be more embarrassing than running from say, that death knight still staring at me, and tripping over a wire and breaking my fool neck.

Besides, if the necromancer was behind this, and he was coming, I wanted him to see me. If he saw me, he'd focus on me, and that was preferable to having him just flood the area in death magic.

Still, I felt like I should be doing something. Something more to prepare for what was coming. Others were gathering barrels of oil, torches, and other weaknesses of undead. Garlic was hanging everywhere, and many were carrying silver just in case.

What could I even do, that wasn't being done? The only possible help I could give before any festivities kicked off, was to provide magic weapons or something... and I couldn't do that trick just yet. Les was better for it than I was.

Preparations were happening everywhere. Buckets of water and sand for fires, in case of fireballs or fire arrows, ditches and banks everywhere to slow down intruders, archers on almost every roof armed with both sharp and blunt arrows (for breaking bones and destroying skeletons) and redoubts and field hospitals, plural, all for this one village.

We had made a few of the suggestions, but it was clear that a few of the villagers themselves knew a thing or two about warfare, past or present. Truly, everyone here was in good hands.

Provided I could at least blunt the caster we knew was coming. I was stronger, with more magical resources; how good was he now? I'd be assuming the worst, and that he had the firepower to kill most of us here with a word or two.

He wouldn't be using it, though. If it was who he thought, he'd want to kill us up close and personal. He'd want to kill me up close and personal. That alone would give us the chance to live, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. It was silly, of course, but I knew it'd happen... if it was in fact, the necromancer we'd faced before.

The thing is, I'd need to try and stay hidden to get in that crucial first strike. And there was a death knight over there staring at me, his not eyes following me wherever I went. Which meant that once the caster showed up, whoever they were, they would be able to drop a fireball right on me.

It made my back itch.

Poe, floating high above the soon to be battleground, was an rough attempt to counter that. I'd see any large group approaching us, or any group with light, but a lone caster clad in dark robes lurking in the dark would be an issue. I could counter the issue with some elementals, but those were my trump cards, and I'd have to get the timing right or be without the power to summon them once the crap hit the fan.

This sort of thing really needed to stop happening.

Even if we got the jump on whoever it was, if it was who we thought it was, he could teleport himself. Which meant making the blow decisive could be difficult.

There wasn't any way to make this particular part of the battle easier for me, short of trying to scry for my opponent, and that could be sensed, so it'd likely just end up being a waste of power. If I brought Poe any closer, my familiar would be vulnerable to just about any ranged attack or spell, and while he was a bit stronger than a normal crow with my protections added in, he could still die.

The sensory feedback from that might very well sideline me at exactly the wrong time, so that was out.

I was driving myself crazy; just like the last time. I needed to work on that. Idle hands and all that.

Maybe I could help with a few things?

I took two steps and Karl called me back. "Muse, stay with us."

He was with Matt, George the village leader, and two boys who were all of thirteen at most, who would be playing the role of runners. All the men with more growth, and a fair number of the women, were manning the makeshift walls or the rooftops.

"I was just going to see about helping...." Matt was pointing behind me.

I turned, and there was the woman I was going to ask about carrying water or sand to the more distant points in the village. She was looking at me with an apprehensive, almost fear-filled gaze, that she quickly dropped along with her head as her steps picked up.

Three steps later and she was almost running, which was impressive with two heavy water buckets hanging from your shoulders. She wasn't spilling any, either. Now I had another question I wanted to ask her, but that wasn't going to happen.

Matt sidled up with a smile: "Stick close to me, okay? I'm counting on you to keep me safe."

Having my best friend try and eat whatever first strike a death mage would send my way didn't sit well with me, but I couldn't argue. Waiting sucked, but this was the best vantage to defend the village from. At least, once we factored the buildings in.

"Fine. Waiting sucks."

Matt nodded. "I'm with you. I'd much rather be out there thinning the herd, so to speak."

He'd pointed directly at the death knight, which was something he wasn't even close to a match for. All of us together might not be a match for that thing - that person. Ex-person. I wonder what that undead had memories of... cars and skyscrapers, or villages and horses?

It didn't matter; some things were clearly enemies of all that lived. It could never be more clear cut than right now.

There were more zombies, and more ghouls now. The difference was easy to spot: the ghouls were more spry and more juicy than the zombies. I hated that I knew that.

I knew the idea was to wait, but the temptation to try and kill the strongest undead, the one staring at me even now, the one that could probably kill the necromancer if it wanted to... it was strong. Because if that thing came at us full force with a bunch of other undead and a death mage besides, I didn't like our chances.

I never liked our chances. I was getting used far too used to it by now. Just once, I'd like to fight an enemy with even odds or better, but such things just weren't in the cards for us.

Still, I had the potion. If I needed it, I had the potion.

It mocked me, really, sitting in my small belt box designed for holding such things, glowing away so that anyone could see it the moment I opened the lid.

I wanted to something, anything, even read my books... but I had to pay attention.

The moon slowly rose, and Poe got tired, despite his thermal riding. To bring him in, or keep him up there, risking him falling from the sky like a stone later?

It didn't matter. Poe didn't see it, but I did. A lone heat signature, among all the cold motion out there. Bobbing and weaving among the corpses, a life form existed. There was only one way such a thing could happen, and I'd need to play it cool. I can't believe I almost forgot how good my own eyes were.

"Karl."

"Yeah?"

I carefully did not point or look directly at that life, currently sidling up to the death knight. "He's here. Near the death knight."

Karl's eyebrows rose through his hair. "That's a death knight? I thought it was a skeleton on a horse."

....He had to be screwing with me. "Can I hit them or not? Are we ready?"

It was George who answered: "Ready as we'll ever be, mage. Have at it."

The best way to attack was a slow starter. "Right, starting, but it'll take awhile to see the effects. Wait for the commotion if you have something planned."

An earth elemental was just what the doctor ordered; I'd have it go directly under the life sign, then pull it down. Most mages wouldn't have any defense against that, death mage or not, and it'd be hard to hit the elemental with something while it was under the ground. Even for a death knight. I hoped. That sword looked very dangerous to my more unusual senses.

Whatever, focus. I gathered my power and opened the way. The elemental came, as expected, and it was too far away for any enemy casters to notice or feel it. I impressed my orders on it immediately, to entomb the life form I still had eyes on without any air, then to come up and kill undead. A simple plan.

It moved immediately, down to around a hundred feet of depth, still working the stealth angle. If it moved as quickly as I knew it could, it would just pop up under the life form, grab it, and then drag it down before a single spell could be cast.

I could be damning an innocent soul to death, but I didn't see how; any life form cozying up to the force arrayed against us shouldn't be innocent by any stretch.

The attack went off, and even from here I could tell; the giant hand of the elemental grabbed the life form and dragged, pulling it down. The screams were male, and curses in the common tongue, so they were likely humanoid.

The death knight reacted immediately as expected, drawing steel and stabbing down. The elemental transmitted pain and damage, but continued, and the curses were soon cut off.

Then the undead charged - and there were far more of them then should be here. I caught a glimpse of one of them, standing up in the gloom. In the dark, without heat, it was nearly impossible to see them even in the killing field. Had they commando crawled the entire way in?

Even more just started running from the distance; they would hit us in two, or maybe even three waves. The next wave was maybe ten minutes away, and the first wave would be a small one.

Time for the old stand by, fireball.

Or so I thought. Matt, it could only be Matt, yanked me aside.

Fire washed over us, and it was hot and intense. A moment after, water hit us, and Matt loosened his grip.

There was no time to wait. No time to wonder how bad it was or listen to the screams. I re-established contact with my targets and began my counter. Matt would be alright enough, and pain was nothing. we were now in the act or die phase of this farce, and I wouldn't be caught wanting.

Now was not the time for fireball; time to try something new.

The pure bolt of positive energy hit that undead knight in the middle of its chest, and actually caused it to flinch. I couldn't tell for sure, but I was fairly certain at least a few small bits blew off it. The skeletons around it certainly blew to bits, and the more meaty undead were knocked down like so many ten pins.

Well, that was interesting. It was more effective than I thought it was. Still, it took a lot out of me. No time to stop though, now it was fireball time. A fireball with everything I could put behind it.

The death knight recovered enough to glare at me. Just enough to eat that fireball directly in their face. Everything else in that direction just laid down.

There had to be a follow up, though. I started another spell; lightning would not be as strong against undead as fire, but it was what I had. Rambling through the spell as quickly as I could without fizzling the energies.

Matt moved again, and I could hear arrows hitting a shield. I didn't need sight for this version of the spell, however, so I was ready to cap off.

Those eyes... those fire fueled pinpricks of light and hate... No! I shook it off, a wave of fatigue and sickness hitting me. I barely managed to keep myself together and release my power, rather than have the backlash hit me.

It didn't do much, as expected. The thing shrugged it off as if the spell was just a light show.

Right, time to go with old faithful, and just pump everything into it.

Matt stepped into the way again, and something bounced off his shield.

I still couldn't look at him yet.

This was all fine, as the elemental was on its way back up. Just another fifteen or twenty seconds, and the glorified skeleton would have those hands full.

This time I saw the fire coming, too late to do anything.

It splashed harmlessly against a shield though, a ward of holy power drawn into the very air itself, and reached no one.

Les was here.

I spit the bolts, my old faithful, and they swerved unerringly to our adversary, and impacted directly to its skull. It actually rocked back and lost its seat on the ghostly steed that it had.

Which was perfect.

The other undead however, had hit our improvised barrier. It was stopping several of them, and the villagers and our archers were taking full advantage. Bodies were getting shattered or catching fire right and left. This was good, since we were ready for it, and the fires would offer me plenty of fuel for my next elemental.

The elemental I was currently controlling snatched the death knight before it could fully rise, and busied itself dragging the thing down to its erstwhile master. The death knight forgot all about me, and got in two good strikes at the earth spirit before being dragged down... to a place where it couldn't swing its sword.

I gave the command to drag it down as far as the elemental could, even to the core of the earth if possible. Maybe we'd get lucky and it would get trapped in molten rock, unable to dig its way out. Otherwise we'd see it again in a few years.

Now I could look at Matt. His melted armor, his very red skin that was beginning to blister, and his burned hair. I could feel his pain as if it were my own, and that was bad because I was beyond feeling anything but cold. I'd taken some of that blast myself, I was certain.

Matt's skin flaked as he smiled. "I got you. You're fine."

There was no smile in his eyes, only worry. "I'm fine."

My voice wasn't coming out well. Had I inhaled some of the flames despite myself?

"You two, I can't leave you alone for a second." Les sighed out, calm as could be. He poked me in the forehead with a finger, and the healing magic hit immediately.

Another poke, and Matt's skin visibly closed and smoothed.

Now the pain hit. A subdued pain, but a nice ache that covered almost my entire body. Which was fair, Les was saving the good stuff for when we needed it.

The death knight was still on its way down to a new tomb, being dragged so quickly that the thing couldn't even gather a fist to punch with. The other caster hadn't shown up yet. But there were still other powerful undead running around; and even the weaker undead were still coming, testing the edges, trying to get close.

This wasn't done yet.

Les kept going, healing the others the first fireball had downed. Most of them were alive, and that was good; the women with water buckets had done a heroic job.

My lesser spells would work, at least to anchor this section. The basic plan was for the others to hold while we moved to each cardinal directions, taking out all opposition we could. If we paced ourselves, it wouldn't be a problem.

"The caster?"

We'd discussed the idea of a necromancer summoning all these undead with the villagers, so they were up to speed - not that they couldn't have come to the conclusion themselves.

There wasn't anything very strong here, no more death knights, and I knew the other sides had ghosts and specters. There might even be a vampire running around; I hadn't seen one, but it was possible.

A single fireball was all I could really spare here. Then I'd have to move on.

It had been too easy. My first play shouldn't have won us the fight. Everything felt wrong.

The fireball went off, just at the right place to kill as many as possible, and I moved. Matt fell in as I headed right, through the small maze of alleys.

South was fairly quiet, all things considered. There was indeed a specter, and another ghost besides, both wailing and moaning, both trying to get close to the living who stood nervously behind their barricades. Just like the weaker undead, many of whom were scrabbling at the air and waving rusty weapons.

Weird. Everything had held nicely. I raised an eyebrow at Les, and he raised one back. "The other directions are all like this. Only yours kicked off."

"Why didn't they just... do the thing?" Ghosts could hear and go immaterial; no reason to give them ideas about what to look for and dig up.

Les shrugged his shoulders, ignoring the way the undead all turned his way and hissed at him as he came into view. "I don't know, I'm not the boss of them. But they didn't."

Wait. I didn't really need to do anything here. This could all be Les's show. Good priests could turn or destroy undead, after all. "Do you think you can do your thing?"

"I can," Les replied. "But I don't know if I can destroy the ghosts. Better for you to do your thing with my help and make sure they won't come back later."

That was a good point. "Okay, pick one."

Now the higher undead, both little more than the faces of women with wisps of what appeared to be smoke trailing from them, gave us both nervous looks. Then they stopped trying to chew at the air and claw at people, and turned around.

Too late. "Left." My spell, another cast of the missiles I'd hit the death knight with, shredded the left-most ghost entirely; its last forlorn wail hit my ears as the chanting began.

Les had his symbol of faith out, and was giving a full prayer. The specter had made it another fifteen feet before a rod of white light descended from the darkened sky, ruined my night vision, and hit the thing full on.

By the time my vision cleared there was even less left of that thing than the ghost I'd hit, which was still disintegrating.

The lesser undead didn't care, they were still doing their thing. Les went for it again: "In the name of Minerva, goddess of health and healing, I demand you begone!"

Several just fell to dust outright, and many of the rest fled. Those at least, would pose little threat if they came back later.

"Rinse and repeat?"

Les shrugged. "I'm not detecting anything dangerous around us. Sure, rinse and repeat."

Next direction. We started off, the three stooges, out to save the world. Or a village, anyway.

"You know, I've been thinking... Does it feel like we're getting too used to this to you?"

I had thought that very thing. "Yes."

"Yeah, this is almost boring anymore." Matt agreed.

I felt like I should direct us all, myself included. "Focus up, as old hat as it sounds, this could still kill us. Just a moment of inattention, and wham!"

"Yeah yeah boss, I got it," Matt interrupted. He even waved his sword at us in the universal so-so gesture.

It still felt too easy. I brought Poe in for a close pass, once, and then again. No one took a shot.

We reached the East side. The east side had nothing that immediately jumped out at us... but the nearest guy to where we came out jumped when he saw us, and nearly shot us. His knuckles were white and his bow creaking as he drew down briefly, then stopped.

"Good, you're here."

"What's going on?"

"There's something out there."

I looked again. There were indeed zombies and skeletons out there.

"No, something more than just those weak undead. Look. Listen."

We didn't have time for that... no wait, there. There was something in the corner of my eye for a moment, but when I turned, there was nothing there.

Yeah I could see why everyone here was jumpy; a few minutes of this would have anyone jumping. At the shadows, of course. A type of undead that wasn't quite a ghost, but still drained the life of people to fuel itself and its hatred of the living.

Knowing about them was one thing; seeing them in action was something else. Having them flit around, never giving us a full view of themselves, made them seem far more dangerous than their book entry would lead one to believe.

Les was less impressed. He pulled another "Begone!", and everything on this side just blew up. Les nodded to himself. "Clear. Let's go."

He'd cleared the entire side with that. There might be more undead out there, further out, but still, he'd outdone himself.

Whatever; maybe it was just that easy.

The North side was an open shot down the road here, and the roads were clear aside from the patrols of fire fighters. They seemed less frightened than the guys who we just left.

It was weird, in a way. Why hadn't all these undead mixed together, picked a side, and just tried to brute force us? They might have pulled it off.

The north side was quiet, and aside from the usual suspects, it seemed clear. Not even any corner of the eye shadows running around. The archers stationed here were vigilant, peering out away from us, but seemed almost bored under a facade of rigid attention.

"Anything?"

"Nothing powerful," Les replied. "No wait, there is something, but it's moving away. Out of range now."

Well, that was convenient. "Want to dust these and move on then?" we'd have to make a note of whatever it was, for future reference.

"Nah, no point. As undirected as these are, they won't ever pose a threat here."

Right, then we needed to check the West again, to make sure it wasn't about to get overrun. No one seemed to be running away screaming, so things were probably in hand there.

The road was clear, we were able to make good time. Everything seemed to be pretty much where we left it.

Except the bodies had been removed, out of easy animation range.

George was there, standing next to Karl, seeming to care not at all for his burned clothing or the blackened skin that still coated him. Les had been in a hurry, and this was clearly someone else's work.

The undead were still trying to get in, still surging at us, only to stop short and claw the air. This should not have been so effective. What was even going on? Why hadn't any of their side stopped and checked for the very obvious dig sites?

This whole thing felt stupid. Stupid and pointless.

"The caster? The one behind it?" Karl asked, his roving eyes searching back and forth yet seeing little.

I should check. There was a way to check, and I should do it. A smaller elemental would do the trick. "I'll look now. Poe hasn't seen anything, and the only enemy it could have been that I saw was... well, they were dealt with too quickly."

A minor earth elemental, to check the work of the greater one. I gathered and shaped the energy, imparting the command mentally as I did. It was an unusual request, but easy enough, even for the minor nature spirit.

The ground before my feet would do for a canvas. Soon enough, a face would be reflected there. With luck, it would be a face that I recognized from my nightmares. All we had to do was wait.

"Got to wait a bit. Give the spirit time to work."

We waited in some form of silence, broken only by the moaning of the undead still around us.

It was three minutes and sixteen seconds before the elemental made it to where its big brother had left the one life form amidst the undead in front of us. Through the link I sensed feeble motion; the person was still alive, somehow. I'd have been long since dead, myself. But no, this person was still breathing.

It was a long wait to see whether I'd condemned an innocent to a slow and agonizing death, or my target. I couldn't even take the risk of trying to smother the target, as it might trigger some last second fail-safe or something.

Both far too long and far too short a time later, the face of the person entombed alive took shape before my feet. It was indeed a face I recognized, twisted in a look of pure fear and panic rather than hatred, as it was the last we all saw it. He really had just succumbed to a silly trick that shouldn't have done more than slow him down.

Karl recognized him too. "That's our boy. Guess we're free to wrap this up."

"That was easy," George informed us, his own confusion clear. "With you all here, a fight that should have killed us all became trivial."

"Yeah, we're good like that," Matt answered him. Then he tightened his shield. "Time to wrap things up."

Indeed it was.