Chapter 123 - Unexpected Ally

  I didn’t know where that blast of energy had come from, but I wasn’t in any position to look a gift horse in the mouth! The bolt of black light slammed into Lyonius, knocking him away from me. He sailed briefly through the air before crashing back to the earth a dozen feet away, bouncing twice before he came to rest.

  What spell was that? I had no idea, but I definitely wanted to find out! That was a powerhouse of an attack spell. It looked like it had done a lot more damage than my Drains did, so I was a serious fan.

  Whoever cast it was in the woods just north of me. I didn’t have time to wonder about our Good Samaritan friend out there, although I hoped whomever it was would continue to pitch in. We needed every ounce of help we could get. I was back on my feet before the Forgotten King was, already gathering power back to me for more spells.

  I was short on mana and health—not a good thing. But I had just enough health left to risk casting a Health to Mana. I figured he was probably one good hit away from killing me anyway, so I might as well refill my mana pool some while I waited for the Drain Life timer to reset. I cast the spell, feeling a wave of weakness crash over me as it took effect. I was hanging on—but barely. Reaching out with my magic, I called for help from my undead.

  They answered.

  Lyonius snapped upright, bounding back to his feet, and started toward me again, but before he moved three steps he was hit by a Fireball from Sue. That sent him staggering back again, and before he could recover from the blow a series of smaller flame bolts rocked him, peppering him with little blasts of damage as my fire skeletons added their magic to the assault.

  “Enough!” Lyonius cried, sending out a wave of pure necromantic mana. I recognized it; this was the same power he’d used to force down the flames before. It swept outward from him like a wave, knocking down the nearest zombies. Even his own troops weren’t wholly safe from his power.

  When the wave hit me, it was my turn for some airborne action. I was tossed sideways through the air, and I felt more ribs crunch under the strain when I hit the ground. Each breath hurt, and each wheezing inhalation barely got me any oxygen, but I was determined to stay in the fight. My timer was up—I cast Drain Life on him again, the blow sending the King to his knees.

  “Selena, look out!” The familiar voice came from the north—my new ally? Whoever it was, I recognized his voice, but couldn’t place it in the moment. I whirled at his warning, looking for threats, and spotted the attack almost right away. Lyonius’s horse was bearing down on me, fanged mouth open wide, sharp hooves ready to grind me to dust.

  Fortunately, I now had a little mana again. I took to the air, flying up high enough to avoid the attack just in time. The swift animal dashed past, directly below my feet. As it flashed by, I hit it with a Drain, which flooded me with health, knitting deadly wounds back together and restoring me. I wasn’t back to full health, but I was further from death’s door, which was a start.

  “Missed me!” I called out in a singsong voice. The horse snorted and whirled around, trying to come back after me. Maybe I’d pissed it off when I went and cast Control Undead on it earlier…

  Something slammed into me from behind, interrupting my Flight spell and sending me sailing back toward the dirt. I reset Flight, barely managing to stay aloft, and tried to figure out what was attacking me this time. It was one of the wraiths. I’d gotten lucky, and it hadn’t landed a sword blow on me, instead just ramming me with its body. The other two wraiths were diving at me to join the fun, though. Three of them on one of me was a bad scene, but the situation on the ground wasn’t much better.

  Talk, dark, and ugly had reactivated his zombie horde while I was in the air. They marched again, moving straight toward the defensive line where my friends waited for them.

  The zombies resumed their march with slow, lurching motions, but they picked up speed as they moved. Their ranks surged toward the battered remnants of our defensive line. The crude spike barriers we’d thrown up earlier had held longer than they had any right to, but they were already broken in places, trampled by corpses and clawed apart by too many undead hands. My fire skeletons turned their attention to the horde, peppering them with blasts, but they were outnumbered a hundred to one or more. The ratkin archers still loosed shafts with dogged determination, but they were clearly outmatched. Alfred and Farnsworth had somehow dragged themselves back to our troops in spite of the terrible wounds they’d taken. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder with our remaining fighters, weapons ready. We were all exhausted, but nobody was giving up.

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  The line would break, though. There was no way for it to hold, at least not for very long. The numbers arrayed against us were just too extreme, and that was without Lyonius and his wraiths. Speaking of whom, I didn’t have time for me to play tag with three flying horrors.

  It was time to take some chances and hopefully come up with something brilliant.

  I whirled in the air, flipping into a dive that brought me within spitting distance of the wraiths. Their greatswords gleamed in the moonlight, even as their black armor blurred their bodies into the sky. They were fast, rising to meet me as I dove, but speed wasn’t everything. I twisted midair and dropped a Drain Life on the nearest wraith, evading the others as I dropped altitude fast.

  The spell didn’t kill him, but he was staggered. The wounded one veered off while the other two gave chase.

  I sped toward the ground, moving back toward my friends, where I’d have some support. Sue smacked one of the wraiths with a Fireball, knocking it back, but the other was right on my tail as I came without spitting distance of the dirt.

  Then Hope leapt out of the shadows, clamping down on the wraith’s leg mid-flight and yanking it to the ground. It shrieked, twisting its body in an effort to bring its greatsword into play, but my fire skeletons were there in a heartbeat, unleashing a barrage of flame that forced the creature to retreat, sizzling and wounded.

  I hit the ground beside Hope, panting, and dropped to one knee.

  “Good girl,” I said. My voice came out cracked and hoarse.

  The wraiths hesitated in the sky, regrouping. They were pissed now—but I didn’t think they’d make another attack run, at least not right away. We’d shown them we had claws, and that made them nervous. That was good. I could work with caution.

  Lyonius, meanwhile, had gotten back to his feet. His cloak hung in ragged tatters, smoking from multiple Fireballs, and there was a hitch in his movements. We were hurting him. It didn’t seem possible, but it was happening. Maybe the Shadow Bolt had wounded him more than I realized.

  But the zombie horde was still coming.

  “They’ll overrun the line,” I muttered to myself. If it was just the zombies, we could maybe handle it. Or only Lyonius. But all of them together? “We can’t stop them, not with what we have here.”

  “Fortunately, you’re not alone.” The voice came from behind me—my unexpected ally had finally revealed himself.

  I turned—and stared.

  It was Professor Carver..

  He looked tougher, a hell of a lot more dangerous than when I’d last seen him, the day all this started up. We’d escaped the zombie-filled classroom together, and then he’d cast Animate Dead on a police horse. I was pretty sure that was the same mount he rode, but everything else about him was different. Gone was the professorial outfit and lab coat, replaced by heavy armor. He had a sword buckled at his waist.

  He was flanked by a dozen high-tier undead, and more undead poured out of the trees behind him, in ranks, controlled with calm, commanding precision. Among them were human warriors as well, each with swords and armor similar to Carver’s.

  “How?” I asked.

  “Not the time,” he replied, raising a hand to shut down my questions. “My force will hit the zombies from the north, slowing their advance so your people can take them. But it’s going to take both of us to take down the King, I think.”

  “I definitely won’t turn down the help,” I said. “You ready for this?”

  “Of course. We’ll strike together. He’s strong enough to defeat either one of us, alone. Together, we might have a chance.”

  It wasn’t a command, not an order like he would have given me back when I was his student. This was two professionals agreeing on a plan mid-battle. It was weird, having my old professor treating me like a colleague, but I thought I could get used to it.

  “Works for me,” I said. I turned back toward Lyonius.

  He stood a few dozen yards away, sword in hand, his remaining wraiths circling like vultures above. His eyes, a pair of terrible blue-white flames, locked onto me, then flickered to Carver. The Forgotten King’s gaze was sharp, assessing.

  “More help won’t save you. You will fall, girl,” he snarled. “If not now, then tomorrow. If not by my blade, then by the weight of inevitability. You cannot stand against undeath. We are eternal, and thus cannot be defeated.”

  “Maybe,” I said, stepping forward. “In the end, everything dies. But not today.”

  I cast Control Undead—but not at the zombies. I aimed it at one of the wraiths.

  It was a gamble. A wild, reckless, suicidal gamble.

  The spell flared out, and I felt it land, felt my Will latch onto the thing’s mind. I couldn’t hold it long—like the horse, it was too strong for me. But it shuddered in midair—then turned. Its greatsword arced downward, slamming into the back of its fellow wraith, catching it entirely by surprise. Bone split. The injured wraith shrieked as it spiraled down into the dirt. The crash as it hit shook the ground, and it didn’t rise again.

  The wraith I’d briefly controlled snapped back under Lyonius’s command a split second later, but the damage was done. Two could play at the game of stealing each others’ minions.

  “You bitch,” Lyonius growled.

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” I spat, and launched myself forward. I slid past the place where the wraith had gone down, snatching its greatsword from the dirt where it fell. Pre-Event, I’d never have been able to carry the massive thing, let alone swing it in combat, but tier five Strength was just cool!

  This battle wasn’t over yet, and for the first time since nightfall, I felt something new surge in my chest.

  Hope.