The chaos seed swung his sword at its left leg. The clear green metal sliced deep into its calf. Again, the wound was eerily dry. Only a small amount of black blood, if you could call it that, oozed from the wound. Bloodless or not, the monster shrieked even louder before. It turned its body away in an effort to protect its vulnerable mouth from Richter’s conjured flame. While its back was partially turned, the war leader shoved his sword completely into its body. This proved to be a mistake.
The lugash accelerated its simple turn into a spin, and caught Richter with a backhand that sent him crashing to the ground. His short sword remained embedded in the monster’s body. Before he could recover, it pounced on him, pinning his body beneath it. The brute’s claws descended and Richter grabbed the last weapon he had readily available, his Moonstone Dagger of +3. He awkwardly stabbed upward with the white blade while grabbing one of the creature’s wrists with his other hand. The remaining taloned hand scored a vicious cut along his brow before he could yank his head out of the way, but Richter ignored the pain. He focused instead on what seemed to the monster’s only vulnerable spot, its mouth. Forgetting how stupid the move probably was, he jammed the fourteen-inch blade past its teeth and into the flesh on the inside of the monster’s mouth.
The cream-colored weapon sank easily into the soft palate. Unlike the unnatural hardness of its external skin, the inside of the lugash proved more than vulnerable to damage. Richter quickly snatched his hand back, leaving the dagger buried inside of the monster. Its horribly sharp teeth slammed together milliseconds after he had removed his hand from danger. The chaos seed might be bold, but he had no intention of losing a limb to the beast!
While his initial dagger strike had caused damage, it was nowhere near as much as when the beast drove the blade deeper into its own body by slamming its jaws shut. Once again, it reared back, shrieking in agony. Richter continued to hear screams from behind him, but he couldn’t help them until he brought a true death to his enemy. While he stood, Richter used Analyze again and saw that it only had forty-eight health left. He quickly cast Soul Trap and then started to dual cast three spells in a row: Weak Lightning, Weak Life Bolts and Weak Flame. “Fulgit! Virteas! Igni!” Richter’s mana dropped at a prodigious rate, but his magic got the job done. Ten seconds later, the lugash had been stunned, blasted, seared and most importantly, slain. A rainbow-colored ribbon of light swirled into the air before disappearing into his bag.
CHAPTER 7 – Day 140 – Kuborn 30, 15,386 EBG
Richter barely noticed trapping the monster’s soul. His mind and soul were bound to this battle, and he would find no rest until it was done. He rushed forward to pick up his two priceless blades and turned around to view his war party. After months of fighting, the chaos seed took in the scene in an instant. What he saw made his stomach drop.
Four more of the creatures were attacking his war party. The guards had clustered together and, for now at least, were holding off one of the monsters. His adder had risen up behind it and was preparing to strike. The other three monsters were preoccupied… with ripping apart the goblin captives and the mist workers that had been holding them. It was the bound, green-skinned prisoners that had been screaming. In the back of his mind, it occurred to him that once upon a time he might have judged his soldiers for sacrificing helpless prisoners to save themselves. Now, though, he was just hoped it took the monsters a long time to tear the goblins to bloody bits. Anything to buy more time. A darker part of him wished that he had captured more goblins. Then there would be more for the undead to eat.
A moan drew his attention back to the elf that had been savaged by the now truly dead lugash. Richter reached into his bag and mentally selected the items he wanted. A moment later he held five potions, three blue and the last two red. He quickly downed the mana potions and one of the health potions. His pool of available MPs swiftly started refilling. The forty-five points of Wisdom he had and his Ring of Flowing Thought let him regain thirty-two points of mana per minute. It was nothing to scoff at, but it still wasn’t fast enough.
Luckily, his mana potions were no weak tinctures. They each restored one hundred and ninety-six magic points over seventeen seconds. Between the three potions, the regen should be enough for the next round of combat. The health potion closed his scalp wound and restored the full amount of health he had lost during his brief fight with the powerful undead.
The last potion he fed to his elf guard. The man was delirious with pain, but still followed his lord’s directions and swallowed the red solution. Richter looked at his face and remembered that his name was Tovar. More screams and shouts echoed behind him, and the chaos seed knew he couldn’t think of just this one man. Still, he could do one more thing, though. Tovar’s mangled hand was continuing to bleed freely, despite the health potion. The chaos seed cast Weak Stabilize. The blood flowing from the elf’s ruined hand slowed to a trickle.
Richter silently prayed that Tovar would be safe until the fight was over, but he couldn’t waste any more time. Both swords went back into their sheaths on his back, and he started running towards his war party. As he ran, his hands started weaving into a dual cast spell form. During his training over the past few weeks, he had tried to cast spells while moving and had found it greatly increased the chance of a spell miscast. This time, though, his skill and familiarity with the spell proved equal to the task. A green disc appeared in the air in front of him, and a moment later, a forest elemental appeared. The saproling took the form of a stag this time, five feet tall at the shoulder. Its horns were wickedly sharp and were a lacquered brown. After making eye contact and forming a mental bond, Richter gave it a psychic command. The elemental sprung ahead of him to join the fight. His mana pool dropped again, but it was worth it.
One of the monsters was wrapped tight in the coils of the adder’s body. Its left arm was relatively free, but the other was trapped tight against the lugash’s body. It clawed at the tamed reptile with its free hand, but lacked an angle to do any real damage. Conversely, the shale adder squeezed as tightly as it could, but did no real damage to the undead’s body. The snake’s main attack was not suited for use against creatures that did not need to breathe. The two monsters were in a stalemate. Despite this, the snake was having more luck than Richter’s guards.