Galerius leaped to the ground, landing with a soft breeze.
Now calm, Galerius took a moment to absorb his surroundings. His eyes widened in horror. "What... What happened to the city!"
He kept looking around—the city already in ruins, weirdly desolate. Not a single soul roamed the area.
"Galela."
A small ball of vibrant green mana with tiny wings sprouting from it flies out of him.
"Go search for survivors."
The fey speeds away instantly.
Just then, a stench of blood and iron hits his nose, causing memories of the necromancer's evil undead dinner party to run through his mind. His stomach gurgled as liquids spewed from his mouth.
The necromancer smirked at this standing up, brushing himself off with one hand while the other reached behind his back for his staff.
"You know, I would appreciate it, if you could be a tiny bit more gentle. These are new clothes, you know."
After Galerius recovered from being sick, wiping his mouth, his face turned grim and determined as he stared down the necromancer.
The necromancer looked back at him. "Uh... you got a problem?"
Galerius took one step—disappering in a burst of wind and appearing—right in front of the necromancer, and swinging his right fist, gale mana coated him.
The necromancer saw the incoming attack and swung his staff to stop it.
They clash together. The force of Galerius's punch cracked the ground under the struggling necromancer, but he stayed firm in his grip.
Galerius wasted no time: swinging his left forward and pulling his right hand back, he tried to blast the necromancer point-blank with a burst of gale. But the necromancer caught on, the crystal ball on his staff vibrated with power as it sent out a burst of mana in the form of telekinetic blast.
Both bursts expelled each other out, but the force of Galerius's attack forced the necromancer back. His feet skid across the ground.
The necromancer stood still, on guard, still smirking.
Galerius flexed his right hand. That staff—it's a problem. I imbued my fist and it still hurt my hand. If I were to swing at it normally, it would probably break my hand completely. Not to mention he can actually react to my attacks. Either way, it doesn't matter because it seems that staff enhances his mana output to the point of contending with me... Got to get rid of it.
Galerius takes another step, leaving Gale burst behind. The necromancer's eyes searched but couldn't. As Galerius appeared in front of him again, already lunging for an attack with his left hand. The necromancer held his staff in a high block, but Galerius dropped low mid-dash and unexpectedly gut-checked the necromancer. In that moment, the necromancer felt a jolt of intense pain, his eyes popping with red veins as Galerius's fist sunk deep into his gut.
The pain caused him to let go of the staff. Galerius seized the opportunity and with all his might placed a gentle palm beside the mid-air staff, then sent a strong burst of Gale point-blank at it, launching it high into the sky and across the city.
That should be far enough. Just to make sure he can't call it back, if he can. He thought while standing straight.
His attention returned to the necromancer who was standing bent over, while his body shook excessively, holding his stomach in great pain.
That was full force with my bare hand and he's reeling in pain? I doubt he's ever taken a real hit like that before... hmm.
As Galerius pondered, eyes fixed on the necromancer. The necromancer spewed clear saliva all over the ground, breathing heavily.
Yeah, definitely not.
Galerius got closer to the necromancer and stood over him. The necromancer struggled to lift his head up; his body shook more unstably the more he forced himself but he managed to lift it up enough, just for Galerius to see his twisted grin, saliva dripped from his chin as he defiantly stared up at Galerius.
Galerius's eye twitched as he swiftly right hooked the necromancer in the face.
The punch was so strong that it partially dazed him. The necromancer wobbled back trying to maintain his balance, as his eyes dimmed from the punch.
Galerius grabs his shoulder, stopping the necromancer from falling back.
The necromancer's glazed eyes met Galerius's resolute ones.
"Necromancer, hear me..." His grip tightened. "Today I proclaim that as the strongest of this region and a warden of this city, you will die by my fist."
The necromancer merely grinned at this, soft giggle left his teeth.
Galerius let go of the necromancer, who stumbled back a bit and caught himself from falling fully, head hanging down, still giggling.
Galerius strided powerfully forward.
The necromancer caressed his jaw, and lifted his head with a grin already painting his face. His eyes slowly coming too as a purple glint sparks in them. "Hehe, that was a really cool speach—" Both his laughter, grin and glint was snuffed out by another swift punch to the jaw.
However Galerius this time didn't stop, instead he continued to punch the necromancer—left to right, consecutively, ten times.
The necromancer gets pummeled, his face bloodier with each punch, saliva mixed with blood spraying everywhere as he slowly loses consciousness with each strike.
On the last punch, the necromancer was no longer conscious at all. His purple glint snuffed out, his eyes now dulled completely, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. His head lolled to the side, his body drifting, about to tip over.
Galerius then imbued his fist with gale and uppercuts him—shutting the necromancer's jaw on his own tongue, cutting half of it completely off. This jolt of pain, along with the bone-shattering gale uppercut, brung the necromancer back to consciousness as the attack sent him high up into the sky.
Galerius propelled himself into the air along with him. Imbuing himself again with gale mana, he punched the necromancer downward. The necromancer tumbled through the air, landing straight into the ground a distance away.
Galerius instantly propelled himself toward him. As he landed, he looked down on the necromancer, who was trying to crawl away with one hand clutched over his mouth, blood seeping from under it.
"Face me, necromancer," Galerius said, standing with his arms crossed.
Galerius stuck his palm out, getting ready to finish the necromancer off.
Mana seeped out of the necromancer's hand that grasped his mouth—then he turned on to his back, facing Galerius, and with one of his fingers parted, he slipped his restored tongue out to speak.
"Gladly, warden," he said, his tone slight.
Immediately puffing his cheeks out, and with the hand on his mouth he guided it, a large purple cloud spilled from his mouth and enveloped the unbothered Galerius, who crossed both arms again.
Taking this moment to think, A necrotic cloud. It would destroy any normal warrior. Good thing I'm not normal. His eyes quickly flared with an outline of green mana.
Looking forward, he can see the necromancer dashing away through the smoke. "Tsk..."
Running now, huh?
Suddenly, many copies of the necromancer jumped out and lashed at Galerius from all sides.
"It's meaningless." he said, as an immense spherical shockwave of gale exploded outward from Galerius's body, eviscerating every necrotic copy and whisking away the thick necrotic cloud.
All that's left is the ground and Galerius, leftover gale still swooshing in the air around him.
Galerius stood confident as one abnormally large soul like fireball came toward him.
He simply outstretched his hand, As his palm touched the fireball, it dissipated outward.
Then as another came, he thought Pure mana makes me immune to any attack against the soul, so infusing fireballs with your soul necromancy is useless as I can just neutralize it. You're better off sending normal ones...
As long as I can stay calm, I can easily bat these away.
All Galerius does is lunge and swipe his hand, dissipating the fireball.
Then he bursted forward, leaving a great gust behind him, speeding toward the necromancer with his fist at the ready.
The necromancer kept running, he also had his book floating in front of him, he glanced back as Galerius got close, smirking, purple glint back in his eye—Then, just before Galerius could hit him, he disappeared. In his place appeared a bone walker.
Galerius is surprised but still committed to the attack.
When he swung, the gale-infused punch came out as a burst of pressure. With the momentum he's built up, it eviscerated the bone walker and created a large crater in the space, destroying buildings.
Dammit, where did he go?
Galerius instantly propelled himself high into the air. As he briskly drifted up, his eyes flared up again with green mana.
Looking for the necromancer, he spots loads of necrotic auras in a big, long hall. "There—the Grand Hall!"
He repositioned and propelled himself forward toward the Grand Hall's entrance....
Once he arrived, he brushed his hand across the door and looked up at it.
This thing took a lot of resources to build. I must minimize the damage as much as possible.
He opened the enormous door gently with one hand. As it creaked open, it was pitch black at first, but then gradually loads of blue flares ignited out of the dark—loads of them. He can hear metal being scraped off the ground and faint echoes of scuttling, scurrying, and giggling.
It's like a nightmare... but too bad I'm here.
He opened his palm, directing it inside. As all the undead lunged at him, he let out a quick, controlled burst of gale, which took them all out in one fell swoop and filled the whole Grand Hall.
"Mmm."
He walked to the side and placed his hand on the wall.
"Let me turn on the lights first." Galerius muttered.
Instantly, a magic circle rotated on the wall around his hand.
Long runes on the ceiling light up in response and instantly flood the room with light all over the empty Grand Hall, illuminating the place completely before all the runes dim.
Bones and metal weapons are everywhere, along with furniture and debris.
I'll fix it later. Now where is...
As his eyes scanned the room, a body caught his eye—a middle-aged man lying motionless, face down on the ground. He hastily rushed to it. "Oh no!"
He turned the man onto his back. Looking at him, Galerius gritted his teeth. "Connor... damn it all!"
"Show yourself, NECROMANCER!" he said
The necromancer's voice echoed. "Beg and I might!" he teased
Galerius yelled in rage. "I SAID NOW!!!" Gale began flaring up around him.
"Alright!" the necromancer said excitedly.
A large magic circle appeared underneath Galerius. Eyes shifting below him, face in bewilderment "What?"
The necromancer's voice echoed again, his tone joyful.
"Now—!"
Galerius looked around, as each ring in the magic circle rotated in opposite directions like clockwork.
"Remember—!"
Galerius tensed up, eyes flared up. Where is he dammit! he thought in panic.
" —You asked for this! HAAHAHA!" the necromancer cackled crazily.
Galerius saw him up above—he's in the attic space between the roof, just above him.
Galerius wasted no time and flew up.
"AAHAHAHAHA—" the necromancer laughed as Galerius bursted through, punching him straight in the face.
"The only thing you're going to remember is this, necromancer!" Galerius remarked, but at this moment, the circle finished moving and instantly exploded in a pillar, both of them being caught in it. This explosion blew up a large portion of the Grand Hall.
The purple explosion left a large black smoke cloud emanating from the burning Grand Hall.
Everything is calm in the air until one unconscious figure emerged from the top of the cloud, falling back toward the ground, wind rustling his charred and tattered clothes as he fell.
Part of the black smoke cleared due to a gust of wind, revealing Galerius with his arms crossed, seemingly untouched, gale faintly wrapping around his body. He instantly propelled himself forward, shouting, "NECROMANCER!"
His propulsion through the air toward the necromancer cleared the rest of the top half of the black smoke.
The necromancer immediately opened his eyes, widening them in haste. His mage book floated in front of him as he quickly swiped his hand in the air. The pages flip fast, then stop as Galerius reaches him, about to smash his face with a gale-imbued palm.
But instead, the necromancer disappeared. In his place is a thrall.
Galerius, this time, held back his attack and swerved around, looking for the necromancer. His eyes flared up again. He sees the outline of the necromancer waving at him from the hole Galerius made in his own tower.
A vein popped on his face as he propelled himself again toward the necromancer. "Once I get this fool I will make him wish he never came to viscura!" But the necromancer had already jumped down and started running, phantom dashing every few strides as Galerius stopped his attack again.
He floated down. "I'm tired of these games."
He lifted his finger up. Gale formed and coalesced at the tip—a ball of gale. He fired it. Just like a cannon, it hits the necromancer's back, briefly stunning him, but he pushed through.
Galerius fired another and another, each one like a cannon, a gust of wind left behind after each blast. But the necromancer keeps going, even though he's being precisely pelted with them. It's like he's been through this before.
Why is he so physically tough?... And why is he running? He's probably trying to lead me right into a trap. Won't let that happen twice! Galerius thought.
He switched his target, aiming for the necromancer's legs and firing again.
It hits his legs. This time the necromancer lost his balance after both hit each leg, but instead of letting himself fall, he twisted mid-air in a circle while conjuring something, waving his arms about.
Galerius saw this but still decided to rush right in. My chance is now.
When Galerius reached him, the necromancer had conjured a large withering orb with many withering bolts within it.
"I call this DARKLIGHT BURST!" the necromancer shouted.
Galerius hesitated, deciding to stop and block, and imbuing his own body with gale. They clashed. Mana streamed in all directions. The pressure coming from the clash is strong for only a moment.
I can handle this, Galerius thought reassured.
The necromancer fell to the ground, tumbling along until he managed to roll on to his stomach, allowing him to observe the fight.
"I'll toss this thing... Right back at you!"
But unknown to Galerius, that wasn't the full attack as the withering bolt was cracking rapidly.
As he attempted to manipulate it and push it back, it broke, letting all the small withering bolts out.
A chain of big explosions set off.
The whole area smoked, but Galerius just stood there, untouched, gale imbued around his body protecting him from the attack. That attack was not as powerful as I thought... What was the point? And he's not even running this time?
The necromancer struggled to get to his feet. A devious grin formed on his lips again. "Well Galerius, How did you like the first part of the show?"
What does he mean?... First part? Was that a distraction? His face shifted in confusion.
"You are correct!" the necromancer said excitedly.
Something comes from above—cursed mana emanating from its hooves. At the same time, the necromancer lunged at Galerius with his palm outstretched.
As they all got closer, Galerius smiled.
All the attacks draw closer, just shy of touching him.
As he imbued his body with gale, his eyes flared up.
"Hmph... come then!"
His feet leave the ground. As he repositioned himself, the gale made his movement more efficient and effortless especially through the air. He expertly wrapped his fingers around the necromancer's wrist and swung him into the attack while moving out of the chaos.
The horse stomped onto the necromancer, crushing him into the ground beneath. Once the hooves hit the ground, cursed mana comes out in a shockwave outward. Galerius backs away, crossing his arms.
A large crater is left with nothing in it as the horse leaped into view of Galerius, purple necrotic ooze painting its hooves. It simply smeared it on the ground.
An undead horseman?
There stands an undead bone walker with a bone lance, along with his loyal undead steed.
Galerius heard laughing. I knew it was a distraction. Couldn't be the end, he reassured himself.
"Come out, necromancer!" he shouted
Suddenly, the undead pair roar as crimson red mana surged from them, both eyes syncing in color.
This startled Galerius a bit.
They stand ready for battle. Galerius stands with his arms crossed. This undead looks strong, but I can handle it. Physical fighters have never been a weakness. It's just that necromancer not being in my line of sight—that disturbs me more...
The necromancer's voice echoed. "Focus on the battle at hand, warden."
The laughter then ceases.