"I was wondering who was making the noise," a man with pale skin and large bags under his eyes muttered in a hoarse voice. He frowned at all the uninvited guests, then clicked his tongue. "Blue Rose, now I understand how you got through my army of the undead so quickly."
- Be careful, he is apparently an adept of the Zuranon cult!
"Death worshiping fanatics," Evileye muttered in disgust, preparing to attack with magic at any moment. I could already roughly tell from her movements when she was preparing to attack.
- I know you two, as for... - the necromancer, clutching his magic staff tighter, looked intently in my direction. - Although, the name of the future dead does not bother me. Each of you will soon greatly regret daring to interfere with our ritual. I am Khajiit, I promise you this.
He doesn't look much like a Khajiit. He lacks a cat's tail, sharp claws and a crazy love for skooma. However, it must be admitted that the necromancer chose a funny name. If this world has an ad from the game - "Hey you. Are you awake?", it will be doubly funny.
- I am Bondrewd. A researcher of life. People call me the Lord of the Dawn. - Since they decided to introduce themselves, it wouldn't hurt to respond to politeness with politeness. Even if it wasn't asked for. - Judging by the remarks of my friends, you study the question of death? I am glad to meet a colleague in a related craft.
- A related craft, you say, - the interlocutor licked his lips, smiling nastily. - Yes, life and death are always close. But today, on this wonderful night, all past research will sink into the abyss of history! Research of life or death - it doesn't matter at all. Everything has already been decided. And even the Blue Rose will not be able to stop us!
Amazing!
Everything happens with precision, as in the most interesting quest, leading to different branches of the plot. The main thing here is to choose the best path to fully explore the complex web, and find all the clues leading to the denouement.
Perhaps we can apply deduction:
My friends had met his cult before. The enemy had reached the peak of his research. And most importantly, all the events with the undead happened when I appeared in this city. Definitely, if you pull an owl onto a globe and rose-colored glasses onto the bridge of your nose, then all the events begin to resemble some kind of solo game.
While I was admiring the situation, my companion did not stand idle. He raised the pearl-shaped orb to the level of his wrinkled face. The object began to pulse from the magic poured into it, immediately after which something unexpected happened. Khajiit attacked his allies with an acid spell; all the adepts around him suffered an unenviable fate, but a fairly quick death.
It seemed like a stupid move to deprive yourself of your living shields, but it was actually a smart move. The orb absorbed the negative energy from their deaths, thereby receiving the necessary power boost.
"Bastard, crystal spear!" Evileye sent a magical spear at the traitor of her comrades, which he was able to stop with a magical barrier.
"It's too late, you've missed your only chance to win," he said loudly, smiling maliciously: "Show up!"
A bone dragon fell from the sky to the ground with a roar. Only three meters tall, which indicated little danger. Of course, it is woven from human bones, has strong paws and powerful wings, but in fact, the material for its creation was not the best. Human bones are quite fragile.
Also, as a creator of chimeras, I find it unpleasant to look at a naked dragon, without flesh and organs that give various bonuses to characteristics. Due to the long and pointed teeth, protruding jaw and fish tail, the animal looked stylish, but nothing more. Looking into the empty eye sockets of the dragon, it was difficult to feel anything but indifference.
"Hahahaha!" Khajiit laughed hysterically. "Treasure of Death! Behold true despair!" Immediately after these inspired words, he almost completely emptied the charge of the negative energy storage, creating a second bone dragon that crawled out from under the ground. The remaining pitiful crumbs of negative energy went to activate the skill of enhancing two individuals to guarantee a greater chance of victory.
"Two at once?" the blonde was surprised, standing half sideways to the two dragons. It's easier to counterattack with the black sword if there's a threat.
- Ha-ha... Don't think that I am not able to correctly assess my chances of winning.
"Should I kill them?" Kurumi asked, raising an eyebrow and slightly interested.
"The strength of bone dragons is determined by their size and the amount of negative energy they have. Even after being strengthened, such weak specimens pose no danger to us," the two bone dragons casually shrugged their shoulders and turned their bony snouts towards us.
- What?! I've been collecting negative energy for two months. Their power is incredible!
It's hard to look at someone with a skeptical gaze when their face is hidden by a helmet. But unlike me, our interlocutor had it all written on his face, which was flushed with anger. From the outside, it looked as if the best surgeon in the world had been accused of fraud, and of buying a medical degree to boot.
"Mr. Bondrewd, no, Lord of the Dawn, can you hold off the dragons while we deal with the necromancer?" Layuks asked me quickly, holding her sword tightly in her hands.
The enemies are not dangerous, why such militant requests?
"Don't worry, you'd better deal with the invisible assassin who's five meters away from your backs," deftly changing the subject to the necromancer's ally working with him, I turned my gaze back to the dragons, leaving the assassin in sight.
I wonder if the bone noob dragons have necrobreath? They look very weak, like monsters from mid-level locations. They can destroy a normal city if it is inhabited by normal people, but even that will be difficult for them.
The main tactic of the Bone Dragons is that they must attack with a green beam from the air, since all spells below tier 7 are useless against them. However, if they do not have ranged attacks, then they will be beaten by regular noob paladins with holy sticks the first time they land on the ground.
- Oh-oh, I was exposed so easily. What a pity, - the girl with short golden hair said in a cheerful tone, coming out of invisibility.
She was wearing light armor, which left many areas of her curvy body exposed to enemy attacks. And as a weapon, she used long daggers with the ends sharpened to the limit. The assassin specializes in stabbing strikes from invisibility. Well, I found an imitator of my build at level twenty-five. Back then, rolls were everything to us, so heavy equipment and long weapons were more of a hindrance than a help.
"Dark Mark" - after detecting an enemy, it is best to cast a magical mark on him so that all allies can track the nimble assassin in case of escape.
"Clementine, distract Blue Rose's attention, and I'll deal with this couple," Khajiit gave the order, narrowing his eyes sharply from the instant revelation of his partner.
I understand his feelings. It's a shame to lose the opportunity to kill one or two enemies from invisibility. On his part, the sad face is completely justified.
- These are adventurer tokens! So you are responsible for the mass disappearance of adventurers! - my companions worked hard as my informants. Even their accusations of murder helped me better understand the world around me.
Playing idly with her daggers, Clementine decided to answer their accusation.
- Oh, don't worry. They screamed and begged for mercy... so sweet and cute, hee hee, - Clementine said with lips trembling with excitement. - But to do the same, and with two strong adventurers at once. Mm, it will be oh-so-difficult, - notes of sadism and madness were traced in every word she said. Hm, was she really playing a crazy death reaper? A very interesting role. - But I think I'll pass, bye-bye, - waving goodbye to Khajiit, she retreated from the battlefield, without really entering it.
The assassin took off towards the exit of the graveyard, abandoning the slow spellcaster to his fate. She may be playing a crazy character, but her brain retained enough common sense to strategically retreat away from trouble. Amazing dexterity, he himself often retreated early in his ganking career if things started to smell like kerosene.
Message: "She's quite smart, capable, and beautiful." After contacting Kurumi, I shared my first impression.
Message: "You have bestowed such strong praise on a lower being, I am even envious," the ward quickly responded, not hiding her sarcastic laughter at all.
Message: "It's a shame that all her beauty is interrupted by the disgusting smell of human intestines."
Message: "Are you upset by this?"
Message: "The Umbra Hands are conducting experiments with the crossbreeding of various species of creatures, but they lack strong human women to advance the research. Disable her, and then hand her over to the full disposal of the research staff."
Message: "As you command."
Kurumi walked cutely towards the departed assassin who had a tracking mark placed on him. Any creature that was sensitive or could see mana could track her movement pattern very quickly. At worst, I would find her myself later. First, I had to deal with the two dragons guarding their summoner from the aggressive actions of adventurers.
"My companion has temporarily left on urgent business," he politely informed the others about the reason for his charge's absence. "I am engaged in life research, so it is difficult for me to answer the death spellcaster with his own craft," I took the scroll of summoning the "Royal Dragon of the Dead" from my inventory.
Legendary scrolls were often dropped by Yggdrasil players who played the role of a necromancer. Many of their high-level spells required experience points to raise powerful undead, so they tried to compensate for this with donation scrolls or artifacts.
One of the popular scrolls in the Battlefields was the scroll for summoning the Royal Dragon of the Dead. Unlike the Imperial Dragons, this type of undead could be neutralized in a matter of minutes with tenth-level spells. They were far below the rank of those who posed a true threat, and no one wanted to go out with a party of spellcasters against them. Especially if the group of players had recently used super-level magic.
"Maybe we shouldn't?" Ivilai suggested in a squeaky voice, watching the scroll nervously. As if there were seven seals on the folded sheet of paper. If these seals were removed, everything would happen as in the Bible:
"And the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will descend upon the world."
"Don't worry, it's a pretty weak undead," I kindly explained at the moment that there was no need to be afraid. "Activation."
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