Chapter Sixteen
With that, he sent me back to my dorm. The first thing I did was open the book and start to read. An hour later, I had charmed with a spell I had learned form it” the book so only l could read the book. The next day, as we were returning to class, Brent came up to us in the halls. “Hey there nobodies, what happened to you to miss class for weeks? Did you have to go help mommy and daddy at the farm?”
I growled. Back in the prison something broke in me, and now it showed. I waved my hand, and a skeletal hand launched from the ground and grabbed Brent. The wristband on my wrist, that I had almost forgotten about, began to glow. Immediately, I knew this was Necromancy. “Lance! What are you doing? And how do you know that spell? Physical manifestations are extremely high level necromancy, and almost no blackmages get that far! How do you do it?” she asked amazed.
I shrugged. Then I watched, fascinated as the skeleton crawled out of the ground, still holding Brent. When it finally got out, I heard something in my mind. “Master Lance, I am the Skeleton Kings Elite Guard. By summoning me, you are now the most powerful necromancer in ages. Go to the place you call the “Ancient Library.” In it, tap the second black book on the right of the door. Enter, and receive the book of Death. I will take care of this scum.”
The skeleton bent down, and its chest opened. Then, its chest slammed shut around Brent. It then slowly shambled down the hall, towards Brent’s room. I didn’t see either of them for the rest of the day.
At the end of the day, I had Bakar teleport me to the library. We half ran to find the second black book, and when we found it, I tapped it. The Earth shook, and the bookshelf toppled backwards, revealing a long and narrow passageway paved with obsidian and blood red rubies. Our mouths dropped. “Whoa! This place must have cost a fortune!” Bakar said.
I numbly nodded. “I don’t think we could build this, even with our dukes’ fortune.” I said.
We continued through the passage way, and came upon two skeletons with their halberds crossed. We went to pass, but when Bakar tried to go through, the skeletons stepped forward and pushed him back. He almost screamed, but he managed to hold it in. shaking, he said under his breath “Guess I can’t go”
He said in a whisper, “Lance, you go on. I’ll wait here for an hour, and then return to the dorm. If you’re not back in 3, I’ll call the headmaster. Ok?
I grinned. “Ok.”
I turned, and walked into a large circular room with a small black book on a pedestal. I strode up to it, and went pick the book up. As my left hand neared it, black lightning jumped from the book, and fried my hand. “Yeargh!” I cried.
I sat down and thought for a moment. Suddenly, I had an idea. I looked around the pedestal, and finally, I found what I was looking for, a small indentation, on the front of the book. I took the snake wristband off of my wrist, and placed it in the slot. There was a flash, and the band sank into the book. I hesitantly reached out and grabbed the book. When nothing happened, I sat down on the pedestal, and began to read. “Chapter 1: Summoning necromancy, Chapter 2: Necromantic weaponry, Chapter 3: Empowering Necromancy and it went on and on. There were almost 30 chapters in the small book. As I read, the knowledge seemed to seep into my head. Then suddenly, I snapped out of my stupor. My head was against the book. And the book was sinking into it.
I yelped, and yanked on the book as hard as I could. But it didn’t budge. I continued to yank on it, until it completely disappeared into my head. A second passed. Nothing changed. Then suddenly, there was a crashing wave in my head, and all the necromantic knowledge was at my disposal. I hesitantly reached out with my mind, to speak with the so called “King of Skeletons”.
“Hello Your Majesty.”
I thought.
“I see you have learned the Necromantic secrets” The king replied.
I growled over our connection. “Why didn’t you warn me it would sink into my head? You almost gave me a heart attack!”
The king chuckled. “Well, almost…so it’s all good.”
“But… you know what you must do right? You have to connect to the other two kings, and make peace with them to become a supreme Necromancer. Now go, we will speak again in the afterlife, or if you summon me. I accept you as the necromancer of skeletons.”
And just like that, my personal audience with the king was over. Next, I contacted the Zombie King. “Hello sir.” I thought at it.
“Sir? You called that old bag of bones a king!” the Zombie thought to me.
“Sorry, your Highness, but you know what I am here for.” I thought back.
“Yes, Yes I do. I pledge you my alliance and whatnot. Now go and leave me alone.” The Zombie terminated the connection. I sighed. According to the books knowledge, the Ghost king was the most powerful, and evil. I summoned up a connection with him. “Hello your Excellence.”
“Hello Lance Starfinder. I know what you seek.” It rasped out in a low moan.
“I shall give it to you if you do me a favor.” It continued.
“What kind of favor?” I asked.
“I want my people to be seen as equals to humans. We are blamed for all the problems the corrupted monsters cause, and I want to right that wrong. You will know when the time comes.” It rasped.
“Do we have a deal?”
I thought a moment. What could I lose? “We have a deal” I returned.
Suddenly, I felt woozy. I sat down on the pedestal. The pedestal suddenly came alive. It turned into two hands with rubies on their wrists. The hands reached up and grabbed mine. There was a searing pain in my wrists. I screamed until I could no longer make noise. There was a red flash, and they went back to being a pedestal. I rubbed my wrists, because they now felt like a truck ran over them. Suddenly, a rush of knowledge came to my head. All types of dangerous and powerful spells rushed into my mind. Also, as I rubbed my wrists again, I noticed they were rather hard, not at all like skin. I looked at them, and saw on both of my inside wrists, there was a small ruby.
I walked back to my dorm thinking about them. The second I wondered what they did, the though from the Necromatic book came to my mind. “They can be infused with any spell you like, and will do it instantly just by you thinking about it, and they will not tax your magical strength.” I grinned.
I fused the first one with a new spell I learned, Bone Sentence, from the Necromantic book, and the second one I infused with lightning rod. I wondered if I could get more. “Any gem touched by a necromancer in the desired spot will become a spell holster.” The thought came to my mind.
I left the library, and headed towards the swordmage dorms. I walked over to Max, the Swordmage. “Heya buddy! Long time no see!” he said.
“Hey max, do you have a small gem you could spare?” I asked him. He grinned. “Sure! Anything for you! He went into his workshop and returned holding a small opal. He tossed it to me. I thanked him earnestly, and left to my dorm.
On the way there, I discreetly stuck my hand up to my chest, and imagined the gem fusing into it. Immediately, the gem sank into my chest. I smiled. I knew just the spell for it. I returned to my dorm room, to see Cynthia and Bakar waiting there for me. “Lance! What happened!” they shouted at the same time.
I explained what happened, and told them about my new power.
The next week passed peacefully, with us studying for the finals in a month. But one day, there was an announcement over the intercom. “Attention! Attention all powerful mages and units! There is an international magic tournament where all types of people and monsters meet up and fight in team and single battles! If you are interested, there is a form in your Lake! Thank you for your time.” The voice quieted.
We looked at each other. “Let’s do it.” We said at the same time.
We signed up for the tournament. It was a day away, so we spent the day preparing for it. When the next day
came, we went to the headmaster’s office. Brent’s team was also applying. We were the only two from our school. Brent saw us and smirked, but said nothing. Wyat sent us off to the tournament after a brief pep talk.
My unit signed up as a unit fight, and I signed up on my own as well.
We took our seats as competitors. The one man fights went first. Brent was called up to fight a lizard like humanoid. He did his best, but the lizard man quickly bested him. “And the battle goes to…Salsathar!” the announcer roared. The lizardman glanced right in my direction. Slowly, a grin spread across it. It shimmered, and was briefly see through. “A ghost!” I thought.
I could barely hide my grin. Of course Brent lost; he couldn’t even hit the ghost.
It looked like our foes were much more skilled than we were. I watched a few more matches, but none were very interesting. Finally, I was called up for my fight. “Lance! Come up! You will be fighting Arid!” the announcer called. I walked up onto the arena. Arid, my opponent walked up confidently. He smirked at me. “You’re going down!” he said.
“Battle…Start!” the announcer called.
Arid launched a weak fireball at me. I nearly laughed. In return, I simply sent a weak lance of light. He barely dodged it. I snickered. This guy was a joke.
I decided to finish the fight and conserve my energy. I summoned a rock hand around his leg as he jumped out of the way of a weak spell I launched at him. The hand caught his leg in the air, and he cracked his head on the floor. There was no serious damage, but he was knocked out. “And the winner is Lance!” the announcer screamed.
My next opponent was a tall, sleek lady. She referred to herself as Whip. The second the announcer started the fight, she jumped forward, and launched her short sword out at me. It was an oblivious attack, and I easily blocked with a blast of magic. She leaned in near me and said “Hey, if you let me win this, we can go back to my room and get to know each other…better” I growled.
How dare she think she could seduce me from winning. And I already had a girlfriend. I totally lost it. I slammed my hand into the ground. Scythes of bone launched out of it and stabbed her in every limb. They then extended, and she flew across the arena, pinned with the bones, they slammed her into the wall, and she was knocked out.
The medic team had to rush in, and pull her off of the wall. I felt no regret.
The next two of my opponents forfeited the matches because they didn’t want to fight me. Then, at the final round, my opponent was a man who wouldn’t say his name. So the announcer just said “Myth versus Lance! Begin!”
Myth slammed his hand into the ground, and a drew a shape. Suddenly, there was a circle eight demon standing there. I yelped. I used my rubies to cast lightning rod. The demon shrugged it off. Before I could use my Bone Sentence, the demon launched forward, and trapped me so I couldn’t move. Since I was incapitated, I lost the fight, but I was still pleased.
Next came the Team matches. My unit was the first ones up. We were put against Brent’s team. We grinned at each other and walked onto the stage. “I’ll take Brent, you two get the goonies.” I said.
Bakar and Cynthia nodded.
“And…Start!”
I jumped backwards, and launched a black spear at Brent. He blocked it with a magic Shield. I frowned. He shot his shield at me, but I easily blocked it. I grinned. Time to test out a necromancy spell. I reached into the necromantic knowledge in my head, and used a medium powered one. I summoned a huge skeleton. Brent stumbled back, horrified. The skeleton raised its hand and slammed it into Brent. He fell the floor, out cold. I dispelled the skeleton. I looked to see that Cynthia and Bakar had also easily dispatched their foes.
We went back to our seats, and started chatting excitedly. Soon, we were called up again, but we beat the next teams just as easily as we beat Brent. Soon, it was time for the finals. We sat down for our 10 minute break. We chatted to pass time. As we talked, a tall form approached us. “Hello
“I am Dusk, your next opponent.” Dusk said.
A wraith… I thought came to me from the book. “Hello Dusk, where is the rest of your team?” I asked.
“I am alone. I seek to set right the wrongs that my kind did, so I am using this battle to see which school I should train with.” He said.
The words vibrated around my head. The Ghost king had said the same things. I knew this must be the one I had to help.
“If you guys beat me in battle, I will join your magi academy.” I will see you in battle soon. Best of luck” the wraith turned and glided away.
Cynthia raised her eyebrows. Well, that was quick. He sure talks fast.”
Soon, we were called up for our battle against Dusk. The battle started, and he immediately shot out shadows from his hands. I barely dodged them. “His power is extremely high, we shouldn’t mess around with this one.” I muttered to my friends.
I used all of my minor and medium necromancy spells, but he shrugged them off like nothing. Soon, the battle started to get weary. He knocked out Bakar with a shadow lance and When Cynthia went to check on him, he lightly hit her with a sleep spell, putting them both out of the match. But Bakar and Cynthia had not been completely ineffective. He was bleeding in several places, and he couldn’t summon anything.
My chances still didn’t look good though. “Lightning Rod” I roared.
The black bolts slammed into dusk, launching sparks everywhere. The audience gasped. But, Dusk just reflected it with a spell. I tried using one of my ruby spells. I called on my ruby to use bone sentence. The bone cage sprang around Dusk, and before he could do anything, ruptured inward, and he was peppered with pieces of sharp bone. The audience roared. There was no way he could still be standing. But he just stood up, bleeding in multiple places. He then copied my spell, and with the same results on me.
The fight didn’t look like it was going anywhere. So I knew I had no choice. I used my third ruby spell. Shadow appeared, along with my laptop in armor mode. “Transmutation!” I yelled. Shadow and the armor both slammed into me. The armor became like my skin, and wings grew on my back. I started hovering in the air. Abbadon stepped forward, and took over. Like a flash, I shot behind Dusk, and hit him in the head. But, we were moving so fast, we hit harder than we had expected, and he flew several feet, before falling to the ground, knocked out. We had won.