“You have killed a level 2 zombie (dwarf) 4 experience awarded”
He pulled the pickaxe out and looked towards the other zombie that was pulling itself towards B3 as the badger backed up. Gar put the pickaxe against the floor one hand resting on it then raised his other hand and pointed it at the zombie. Casting rot, he had wanted a chance to test his spell out on monsters and this was the perfect opportunity. The only reason he hadn’t done it before was he had wanted to finish off the zombie before they could call for reinforcement. He had already failed at that the zombies had plenty of opportunities to bring help if they were going to so taking a couple of extra minutes to test his spell seemed fine. Like when he used rot on a pile of waste there was no immediate reaction then after thirty seconds or so the already rotting skin of the zombie started to fall away and one dead eye burst, Gar cast rot again doing his best to focus it on the head then once more.
“Rot levelled up rot level 3”
“You have killed a level 2 zombie (dwarf) 4 experience awarded”
His testing done Gar reclaimed his spear then went to move on. The thought of turning these dwarves into skeletal puppets briefly crossed his mind the idea was not one he liked and he didn’t think any civilised people would let him walk into their town with sentient being skeletons as his puppets. No one would believe he hadn’t killed them. The next problem was he didn’t know how they had been raised to be zombies and if it could be done again that would not be good as it meant his enemies could keep coming back after him. So he took steps to minimise the risk, disgusting steps that made him want to vomit but Gar still thought they were necessary. First he used the pickaxe to put a hole through the other zombie’s skull and brain, for most zombies in fiction the brain was the important part. Gar then used his knife to separate the heads from the bodies and finally he used rot on each corps a couple of times in the hopes of deteriorating it beyond use. He had spent longer on this than he had wanted to so he picked up his pace as he got moving.
As he went he checked his grieves where he got bitten and it seemed the only thing they had to show for it was a few scuff marks. He was glad it held up well it was already showing the time spent making it was worth it, he did not want to have to be dealing with a zombie bite that would be very bad. Gar made it to the hole without any further incidents he did think he saw another pair of death mana signatures down one tunnel but it was a turning he didn’t need to take and he only caught a brief glimpse of it before it was gone so rather than waste time chasing shadows he moved on to his destination.
Once reaching the hole he dropped his bag and like before continued on with the badgers to check nothing was nearby. After taking the first few turns and finding nothing nearby Gar retraced his steps leaving B1 at the final turn before the hole as an early warning system should something be attracted by the noise. Already later than he had planned to be Gar pulled his pickaxe from his bag and started swinging. Soon the repetitive sound of metal on rock was echoing down the cave. He had found a way to improve his mining speed he’d had observe on as he travelled and hadn’t turned it off when he started mining, he found it made it so much easier to find the cracks and weak spots to swing at. Gar wanted the hole large enough to stand up straight in and about the same wide he figured it would make it the easier to be able to go out and start climbing like that and for him to be able to move larger pieces through.
It was hours later and the hole was all but done any more was just Gar fussing. When he felt something from his connection to B1 it was weird he had sent commands along the connection all the time, never had something come back. Suddenly there was and whatever it was it wasn’t good. Gar traded his pick for his spear and went to find out the remaining badgers at his side. It was only a few moments before Gar was at the corner where B1 was stationed.
There was no sign of the skeletal badger. Gar could still feel their connection and still see it with his mana sight. He started moving slow but quickly picked up the pace as he saw the connecting mana stretch and the connection thin. Even as he picked up the pace he couldn’t close the distance. When he was moving at a pace where the badgers could no longer keep up he knew that something had B1. There was no way B1 could move at that speed on its own. Gar slowed his speed so the rest of the badgers could keep up because if he was heading in to a fight he wanted all the support he could get with him. Gar followed doing his best to remember each twist and turn knowing he might be making his way back at a run. Finally whatever he was chasing seemed to have stopped or at least slowed down as Gar could tell he was getting closer. As they got close Gar slowed down even more so as to keep the noise down, he didn’t know what he was running into. Whatever Gar had expected it was not what he saw when he finally reached the cavern.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He was in a large cavern at one of many entrances to it the one he was at high on the wall with a gradual slope following the wall round and down to the floor in front of him. The entire cavern was dimly lit by fires in random places casting large shadows everywhere though with his dark vision other than some flickering as the fire moved he could see quite clearly. What he saw was a village, it was crude with poorly built huts but it was also his first sighting of truly intelligent life. The inhabitants were a mix spread out around the cavern Gar couldn’t tell what they were until observe labelled a few. There seemed to be two species living in that village.
“Norker level 16”
“Ogre slug level 22”
And they weren’t even the highest levels he saw. He finally spotted B3 it was in a spherical cage being carried by a Norker that was running through the centre of the village. The Norker was a bluish grey in colour and a little over a meter in height, with a humanoid body shape except the proportions where off longer arms shorter legs. It also had a potbelly a squashed face with pointed ears and long fangs to finish the look. It was completely hairless from what Gar could see and that was a lot as it was only wearing a loin cloth. Its skin looked more like a rock exoskeleton than normal skin. The Norker ran through the village screeching unintelligibly Gar could hear it even from where he was. Gar was frozen unsure what to do next, should he reveal himself? The Norker took the cage to the largest Ogre slug that was sat in the centre of the village eating something.
“Ogre slug level 27”
Gar was sure this must be the leader of the tribe, and that did seem the most fitting word for them a tribe. The Norker with B1 had caused quite a commotion as it approached the large Ogre slug more Norkers and Ogre slugs gathered round to see what was going on. The Norker offered the cage to the giant Ogre slug while jabbering on loudly and gesticulating wildly. Gar was about to reveal himself when he saw the Ogre slug snatch the cage and backhand the Norker away. The casual way that the Ogre slug sent the little Norker flying had Gar trying to make himself more inconspicuous. The Ogre slug was huge two and a half meters tall and easily twice that in length it had the upper body of a grey-green skinned Ogre with the lower body of a massive black slug. Gar just watched as the Ogre slug pulled the cage open. Gar had B1 stay still he did not want to start a fight he would not win. One giant hand reached in plucking B1 up, Gar still had hope he could talk and negotiate a deal to get B1 back, they were smart enough to build a village after all.
The next moment Gars hope was crushed as was B1’s head. Gar felt their connection cut B1 was gone, the mana connecting them sped back to him like a stretched elastic band being let go. The pain of its sudden return could have been ignored if he had known to expect it, Gar hadn’t known. He let out a muffled cry, despite his best effort it was loud enough for some Norkers to notice. The next moment there was lots of screaming and pointing. The large Ogre slug bellowed loud enough to hurt Gars ears even at his distance then gestured in Gars direction. Norkers and Ogre slugs started moving to the bottom of the ramp. Gar didn’t understand their language but could tell enough to know they weren’t just after a chat.
He turned and ran. He looked back to see some Norkers already at the bottom of the ramp and while the Ogre slugs weren’t as fast they were anything but slow. Gar had only taken the first couple of turns and was on a straight section when rocks started flying past him. He looked back to see Norkers throwing stones and what they lacked in accuracy they made up for in power and still the where gaining on him. He needed to move faster or they were going to catch him but if he was to do that he would leave the badgers behind he could carry some but not all of them or they would slow him down as much as just letting them run. A stone whizzed past his head, the stones where getting closer as the Norker’s did and he could see Ogre slugs coming up behind them.
Gar turned a corner and made up his mind, he grabbed up the two closest badgers, Bodger and B2 and he had B3 stop and hide near the corner. Gar sped up to an all-out sprint, he didn’t know if he was opening up space he didn’t look back. He heard when B3 attacked the first to come round the corner, still he didn’t look back he ran as fast as he could, as he tried not to think about what was happening behind him. He felt when the mana connection snapped, when B3 was gone. He wanted to look back, to stop, to see. He didn’t, he put his head down and ran.
He was covering ground fast it wasn’t long before he was back at the hole. He barely slowed down as he dropped his spear out the hole, grabbed his map from the bag then dropped the bag out as well. His only hope would be speed he couldn’t have excesses weight slowing him down. He rushed down the short passageway to where he had to climb down. He didn’t have the luxury of being careful he dropped into the gap slamming his feet and back against the walls a badger in each hand, he let himself drop catching himself every now and then to slow his fall, until he was low enough then he just fell crashing to the ground.
