Luke left the building and ran toward the gate with Captain Amara right on his heels. Between puffs of breath, he said, “Betray us…and you die again…got it?”
“Understood,” Luke said as he reached the gates, which were open, and dashed out onto the cleared field that was just shimmering with morning dew of the refracted rising sun. He drew his sword and kept running toward the forest edge.
Fog creepers were pursuing people: people carrying bags and sprinting for their life. Luke glanced back and saw that the crossbowmen on the wall were holding steady, and then looking forward, saw why—there were painted-red stumps set out equidistant from the fortification.
Range markers, he thought, they’ve sighted the whole town, I bet, and those tell them when something is in effective range.
The people he was running toward didn’t seem to care that an undead warrior was running toward them: they were just fleeing, terrified, from the creepers. Luke saw one of the people at the back caught by one of the monsters, but instead of killing the person—which is what Luke expected—the fog creeper retreated with the still-screaming, now-impaled-through-the-leg woman back into the trees.
Time to try this out, Luke thought.
He activated Marrowsteel Plate and Chill Field. The stark, white bone that dripped and oozed blood coated his body. The new effect, the Gravefrost-based power, that surged from him, was far from what he expected. He thought perhaps it would be some type of ice field, but what he saw instead was a spherical bubble ‘pop’ into place around him, and then the area within was filled with sparkling crystals of deep, dark blue that left behind a trail of grey smoke. He felt the very minor acceleration as he moved ever-so-minutely more rapidly across the field.
[Health: 120 / 120 {Barrier: 12}]
[Mana: 70 / 90 {120}]
[Stamina: 86 / 101 {116}]
The first people passed him, and Luke clashed with one of the fog creepers: easily the size of him, with claws the length of daggers. This monster had an appearance like the others he had fought before, but its body was covered with bark that overlapped and looked like armor plates. Luke brought his weapon in a horizontal swing, and the monster tried to intercept the blow, but Luke’s weapon sliced clean through the raised forearm and gouged deep into the torso. The monster dropped down, and Luke spun to release his blade from the corpse.
Glancing about, he saw another one within a few strides’ distance, which had almost caught up with a young man who was running, but favoring his right leg. He was slow, and Luke made to help him, but was forced to stop and react to another one of the fog creepers came from his left and bowled into him. Luke barely got his sword in the way, holding it with two hands, and managed to deflect the headlong charge, sending the monster careening to his left while he stumbled back a bit on his right.
“Gyah!” the young man screamed out as the fog creeper caught him and began dragging him back to the forest line.
Luke let his left hand come off of the hilt and fired off a Pale Flame Bolt, which slammed into the monster and set it ablaze for a brief moment with the white and blue-flickering light. The monster dropped its prey and immediately rushed for Luke.
But he couldn’t focus on that one, as the first who had charged him had recovered and slashed out with several claw swings. Luke parried one, deflected another with his forearm—feeling claw cut through Marrowsteel but did not break through the whole defense—and then riposted, managing a cut across the torso.
The monster let out a mix between a shriek and howl, and to Luke’s surprise, all of the fog creepers—eight of them—rushed to his position.
What is going on? he thought.
He spent more mana and stamina to stack another use of Marrowsteel Plate, and committed both mana and stamina to activate Black Guard. The shield of black metal formed onto his left side, and he willed it to be the size of a huge, body-covering barricade: a tower shield. It would easily be able to protect his left flank.
[Mana: 40 / 80 {120}]
[Stamina: 81 / 96 {116}]
The fog creepers descended on him, coming in from all directions in an arc covering his front one-hundred-eighty-degrees. His back was to the town, and as the scything, ripping claws came in, he did his best to just let his tower shield tank the hits from the left, and tried to parry the ones coming from the right. His Marrowsteel faded rapidly from the continuous assault, and he began to feel the slashing, injurious appendages skate off of the metal of his armor. Some slices were head-on, and were not rebuffed by the protective encasement.
Instead, those ones cut into his body, and that familiar tingling hit his body once more. Luke was pressed backward, and he wanted that. He was backing up toward the town, toward being in crossbow range, and fine with being pushed back as he was. The only downside was the pain he was now experiencing: even being undead and having dulled senses, he still felt the incredible itching pain that came from the wounds being inflicted upon him, and he had to use Pale Flame Bolt on himself as he saw his health start to dip.
[Health: 112 / 120]
[Mana: 30 / 80 {120}]
[Stamina: 81 / 96 {116}]
I could really use some offensive area-of-effect ability right now, Luke thought.
He brought his blade across two of the fog creepers, scoring injuries, but opening himself up to attack from that right side. One of the monsters darted in and got its massive mouth all the way around his shoulder, completely locking that limb up. It proceeded to shake him, attempting to ragdoll him back and forth.
But then it let go, and went collapsing to the ground. Luke couldn’t hazard a glance to see what had happened, as he was still being slashed at by these enemies. He assumed a crossbow bolt was the source, and he was proven correct as the one directly in front of him had a bolt appear in its shoulder, sending it sprawling.
Down, but not out.
Luke felt pain on his left arm holding the shield, and risking a glance, saw a claw had carved its way through the summoned metal barricade.
[Health: 95 / 120]
Luke didn't speak, didn’t breathe, didn’t panic: he was efficient and didn’t waste movement. His body knew what to do, and he knew something about his own sense of danger was ‘off’. He should have been terrified at the circumstances of being surrounded by these horrific monsters. But, he didn't panic in the slightest. Dismissing the thought, he assumed it was because he was undead, and knew he could repair his form with an Art.
One of the crawlers finally wised up and latched onto his tower shield, ripping it backward, pulling Luke off-balance, and sending him tumbling to the ground. Even though he was able to dismiss the shield and lash out with a strike, the moment was all the monsters needed to gather around him and carve down into his body.
[Health: 62 / 120]
Luke fired off a Pale Flame Bolt into his body, and with a renewed vigor was able to run one of the fog creepers through the chest, sending it collapsing. A volley of crossbow bolts rained down, and as soon as they began coming in, Luke let his sword go and bear-hugged one of the monsters, using it as a living shield which was pincushioned.
The field stilled, and the monster on top of him began to melt. Luke threw it off, grabbed his sword, and stood up. The field was empty—the people had made it to the now-closed gates, and all of the fog creepers had either retreated to the forest line and now stared at him, or had been slain.
[Experience Gained: 567. Current Experience: 567 / 1000.]
[Resistance Increase: Life (-24%) → (-23%). Caustic (1%) → (2%).]
[Aspect Increase: Melee Familiarity (Blade) 1 → 2 (gain +3% damage with bladed weapons).]
[Armor Familiarity 1 → 2 (gain +3% damage resistance when wearing armor).]
[Art Increase: Marrowsteel Plate 1 → 2 (Absorbs 12% of your Health worth of damage).]
[Black Guard 2 → 3 (While active, reduce all damage taken by 3%).]
Luke looked up at the gate. “One of yours was taken!”
The gates opened, and Captain Amara along with a few guards came out. But, it took them a minute to cross the intervening space at their cautious approach, and so Luke had a moment to recover the Essence Shards.
“They’re not this brazen,” she said as she got up to Luke. She then shivered.
Luke looked back at the tree line, which was now vacant, and dismissed his Chill Field. “Do they normally abduct people?”
Amara nodded, face grim. “Their fate is to be a hatchery for the things. Bad way to go.”
Luke looked down at his carved-and-beaten armor, and saw the black ichor of long-dead blood running down his body. “I’m injured.”
She looked him up and down. “Can’t tell.” Her voice was curt and harsh.
Right, then, she’s a bitch. But, I need to make a good impression. I should just offer to help out—
[Quest Available.]
[Title: Save those who need saving.]
[Source: The Blooming Hand & The Last Warden.]
[Trigger: You are willing to sacrifice yourself for the well-being of the living.]
[Objective: Rescue those abducted by the Fog Creepers.]
[Reward: Gravebloom Art.]
[Accept or Reject?]
Luke muttered, “Accept,” and on the inside felt a sense of validation. His actions were being watched—whether getting Quests like this was the usual for the residents of the world or not, he wasn’t sure—but gods were giving him objectives that supported his goals.
“What was that?” one of the guards asked.
“Nothing,” Luke replied. “I’ll go in after them, but I need to wait a few minutes to get enough mana to heal myself.” As he said that, he manifested a Pale Flame Bolt and used it on himself.
The captain looked at him with suspicion. “You’re not going alone—because I don’t trust you, to be clear.”
“I won’t complain about the help,” Luke replied. Then, an idea popped into his head. “Skeletons. Do you have any skeletons? Pack animals, dogs, cats—anything like that?”
Amara instantly replied, “You are not using our dead for your foul schemes.”
Luke rolled his eyes and sheathed his blade. “A terrestrial animal isn’t going to destroy your town. It would make for great bait though, something I can command in front of us so that we don’t get ambushed.”
Amara was about to reply, but one of the other guards said, “Sounds good to me.”
Yet another guard added, “Didn’t Jessie’s dog die recently?”
“Yeah,” the first replied.
Luke nodded. “Go fetch its body—pun not intended. I need to recover mana and health.”
Amara scoffed. “We’re wasting time waiting for you.” She looked at the guards, and grabbed the shoulder of the one who had begun to turn to fetch the animal. “Let’s go. The longer we wait, the less likely we are to save Thorm.” She led the guards toward the tree line.
Thorm must be the one abducted, he thought.
Luke hesitated for a few seconds, then followed at a short distance.
I suppose I can just heal as we go, and wait for my mana to regenerate. He drew his weapon once more, got to the tree line, and followed Amara through the undergrowth. He noted one of the guards was intentionally falling back from the captain, and after a minute matched pace with him. The same guard who had mentioned the dog corpse.
Luke gave him a curt nod. “I appreciate you supporting my plan.”
The man chuckled. “Better some Undead than me.” He then frowned. “No offense to the present company. You don’t seem like the ones from stories.”
Luke kept his eyes peeled and scanned the forest around them as they walked past large trunks, avoided undergrowth that could hide treacherous ground, and walked along thick, knotted roots that twisted and sprouted from all around them. “How frequently are undead seen?” he asked.
“Depends,” the man muttered back, “If there’s people dealing in death, worshipping The Grave Tyrant.” He looked at Luke with a hint of suspicion. “You don’t, do you?”
Luke shook his head. “I don’t worship anything right now. But, I guess, my soul is marked by The Last Warden.” At that, the man visibly relaxed. “I suppose that’s a good thing?” Luke asked.
“Hey, any non-evil version of the gods is fine by me.”
“What’s your name? I am Luke.”
“Percy,” the man replied. He went to hold out a hand, then glanced down at Luke’s gauntlet, and pulled it away, seeming to think better of shaking palm-to-corroded-metal. “You should get some new armor.”
“I agree,” Luke replied. “I don’t like the idea of walking around, flaunting the fact that this body’s prior owner was a Dawnbringer.”
“Oh? Did you go to a temple of The Unmoored Flame?” Percy asked. When Luke shook his hand, the man continued, “Ah, that’s a dream of mine.”
“What is?” Luke asked. He used another Pale Flame Bolt and restored another five-percent of his health.
[Art Increase: Pale Flame Bolt 1 → 2 (Restores/Damages 6% max Health to Undead/Living Creatures).]
Huh, Luke thought. Looks like my Arts and Aspects go up from being used. Handy. I would imagine, though, that I can’t use this while at full health and have it count toward going up in rank. It needs to be meaningful. Otherwise the system would be broken.
“Body transfer,” Percy continued, cutting through Luke’s thoughts and the words in his vision. “I mean, I never heard of someone doing it from person to corpse—”
“Wait,” Luke interrupted. “First off, what deity is that?”
“Oh. The ‘chaotic’ expression of the god of Soul,” Percy replied, raising his right hand and using two fingers to make air quotes around ‘chaotic’. “Lots of folks who aren’t happy with their bodies will just go to one of those temples, find someone else unhappy, and swap bodies with them. It’s…well, it’s not really advised for someone with family.”
Intriguing, Luke thought. Then there is a chance in the future, perhaps, that I could remove myself from a corpse and into someone who wants to die, or craves undeath.
The words of The Last Warden filled his head.
[You are bound to this form.]
“Damnit,” Luke said.
“What?” Percy asked.
Luke shook his head. “Eyes open, we need to make sure that we keep up with your fellows, and watch for enemies. Gotta save that guy.”
“Thorm.”
***
Captain Amara had her crossbow at the ready, loaded up with a bolt, finger next to the lever that would release the round. She had tracked Fog Creepers before, going deep into the Everfog Forest to try and cull their population, or save others who had been taken. But, this was the first time an outsider had come along to help.
She looked back at William—
Damnit, she thought, it’s not him. Stop thinking like it’s him.
Luke. That was the…person, now inside of the Dawnguard she had shared her bed with a few weeks prior, before they went to refurbish Greywatch Fort.
She observed Luke talking to Percy, and heard the chatty guard being very friendly. Part of her wanted to stop, admonish the man, and tell him that the person in that body was not to be trusted. But, the undead knight had rushed out of the gates into a swarm of Fog Creepers, and put his life on the line to save citizens. She knew that an Undead Creature could be destroyed, could be killed, and felt pain despite not showing it.
Still, a deeper part of Amara knew that it was some ploy. Luke had to be up to something nefarious. She leaned over to her companions and whispered, “Make sure you don’t let the undead out of your sight.”