The Amber Sword-volume 1 - Chapter 9

CH 9 – The battle against the necromancer

TL: There’s a mistake I made. Bone wands are now Bone staffs.

A lower ranked necromancer was well versed in two different magic, shadows and debilitating spells.

In the game, black magic was brought about the Miirna race. They were the servants of the twilight dragon, and had lived in the icy plains of northern Kirrlutz a century before the Era of Chaos.

The Miirna shamans were well versed in spirit and dark shamanic spells. These spells later on, along with all unnatural spells that affected the mind or attacked the body, were classified into black magic.

After the holy crusade, the King of Fire, Gatel, drove these citizens of darkness into the cold north, and it was said from then on no one ever saw them again.

But the Miirna definitely existed. In the Bible of Darkness, the black magic had been passed down to the Shadow Lords of Madara from these demonic race.

But to call the shadow spells as Black Magic was a little undeserving of the name. It was merely a type of magic to aid in concealment, and the spells used were able to cover the tracks of a small squad of undead troops.

The skeleton soldiers were not invisible or vanished into thin air, but a mere trick to hide them under the dark shadows.

It definitely did not make their sounds, scents or other sensory senses other than sight disappear. It was also limited to a certain radius.

During the dark night, these spells naturally became the best cover for Madara’s undead troops, and it was the main reason why Madara’s army had chosen to only move during the night time in history.

As for the debilitating spells, Freya and the other militia had already experienced this frightening black magic at the Pine forest.

The evil assault spells were necromancers’ primary means of attacking, which relied on negative energy to invade the minds of the enemies. The stronger the negative energy from the enemies, the weaker their wills were, the more damage the spells would do.

Until the enemies’ deaths.

The debilitating spells were similiar to various other black magic that relied on negative emotions to cause damage.

With such mysterious black magic at the necromancer’s fingertips, with its cunning and deceptive nature, leading skeleton soldiers that were stronger than the average human, it appeared as if the necromancer was an enemy that was exceedingly difficult to defeat.

But Sophie knew their secret. Necromancers did not have the ability to cast magic. Its true source of power came from the bone staffs in their hands. The bone staff was a powerful magic artifact that belonged to its own individual owner, and once it left their hands, it would become an ordinary stick.

With this knowledge at hand, Sophie prepared a strategy to defeat the necromancer.

Following the next defeated skeleton soldier under Sophie’s supervision, the strongest sword fighters, Freya and Irena marched towards the necromancer on both sides.

“Attack its hand! The dark shamanic spells are not as mystical as you think,” Sophie pointed out the undying monster’s weakness from behind: “Did you see its gesture? Hinder him from completing it and knock the bone staff out of his hand…”

That necromancer abruptly raised its head and met Sophie’s eyes, the viridescent flames quivering in hatred. Sophie choked up, his throat drying up as though it was being burned. He knew that the necromancer was starting to focus on him, but he tried to shrug off the unnerving feeling quickly, as he knew it was impossible for the necromancer to bypass the militia and attack him.

Nevertheless, the terrifying chill from the creature’s gaze forced him to halt his instructions, and he waited for Freya and Irene to rob its concentration away.

The necromancer gave a ghastly laugh and shook the bone staff. Darkness covered it completely as if it was being submerged by a wave of water. When Irene’s long sword pierced into it, there was nothing but thin air. The necromancer had vanished at the very same spot.

“Huh?” The girl was stunned.

Sophie’s expression did not change at all; he was too familiar with what it can do: “To your left, Irene!”

She did not react to his voice in time.

But Freya who rushed over slashed through the air with her sword, a straight silver line that seemed to illuminate the inky night, and when it reached the place where Sophie had directed, the necromancer stumbled backwards in dismay.

Everyone saw the shadow-like figure revealing itself after retreating.

“Human!!! Who are you! You are not a militia at all!” The screaming voice was of a frenzied rage, and its expression appeared to be in utter agitation.

It was impossible for a militia to know this much, and part of what Sophie said only circulated amongst the Madara’s undead necromancers.

But Sophie kept his silence, and Freya’s sword followed up again. The green lights in the necromancer’s eye sockets danced wildly, it raised the bone staff to parry the sword in hatred.

A necromancer possessed 1.7 OZ, and Freya did not have a higher strength than Brendel, thus her attack was easily steered to one side, and she stumbled forward a few steps before she was able to stop. She subsconsciously held against her left shoulder and grimaced.

The injury from the arrow earlier seemed to be reopened.

“Boss-neesama, let Mackie do it, your injury……” Irene shouted out as she defended against the necromancer.

Mackie and little Fenix charged over to them.

“Little Fenix, I want you to back off!” But Freya cut off his path and shouted at that inexperienced brat with a fierce command.

“But I’m also a soldier!” The adolescent shouted in defiance.

“Back off, did you hear what I said!”

Little Fenix’s flushed red with fury, but he did not dare to go against Freya’s order. She had always been the leader amongst them, with a kind heart and resolution in her actions. Everyone was actually content with her as the leader.

Sophie shook his head in disapproval. The battlefield was not a place to have a squabble. But Freya’s insistence had raised his favorable impression of her, it was rare to find a girl like her back in his previous world. (TL: Really? Haha.)

“The four of you attack the necromancer together.” He said simply.

“Mister Brendel, you!” Freya was lost for words as she looked back involuntarily. The young Romaine stood beside the youth who was lying on the boulder. She looked at Freya innocently and blinked.

[This damn girl, she defected already to his side already?!]

Freya fumed inwardly.

“A necromancer is an enemy that is hard to deal with, and the four of you are just sufficient to cover each other’s back.” Sophie answered in a serious manner.

“But little Fenix……”

“He’s also one of the militia.”

Freya bit her lips. When she turned back to look, Mackie and Irene were steadily losing ground from the necromancer’s attack. If the undead creature found a chance to cast a spell, the squad would lose another member.

It was something that she could not stand for. She nodded reluctantly as she thought through the possibility.

“Alright.”

“Praise the Gods! Brendel, you’re too amazing!” Little Fenix cried triumphantly and drew out his long sword immediately.

But Freya grabbed his cuff from behind and ordered him solemnly: “You are going to follow closely to me, and never go out of my sword arm’s radius. Do you understand?”

“Oooh……” He replied with disappointment.

The situation was reversed when both Freya and little Fenix joined the battle. Irene and her were outstanding sword fighters in their militia batch, and surprisingly little Fenix was not any weaker. He was decisive and accurate with a strong inclination to attack, and unlike Aouine’s military swordsmanship which pursued balance in both offense and defense, he seemed to resemble Kirrlutz’s aggressive sword techniques. (TL: Military batch… Erm, my mind is failing me, is there any official term out there?)

Sophie gave a high evaluation to him. He thought to himself, when little Fenix reached Brendel’s age, he would probably be as good as him at using the sword.

Sophie mused over the possibilty where Brendel did not die. If he continued to grow in the upcoming battles, he would have most likely became as brilliant as Freya. It was as if he was born to fight and his flexibility was even better compared to little Fenix.

Unfortunately, there was such a thing called fate, and there were no ‘ifs’ in history.

The battle between the militia and the necromancer relied heavily on Sophie’s input. It was as though Sophie saw through every move of the necromancer, and even the smallest plan it had was pointed out.

What was the necromancer going to do?

Why is the necromancer doing this?

Was it preparing a spell?

When should it be interrupted?

The necromancer grew more and more appalled. The undead did not feel fear, but it could also be unsettled. At the very end it was screaming: “Who are you! An undead shaman! Or a black knight!”

The uttered sentences were exchanged for Freya’s unforgiving strike. The claw-like fingers that were gripping the bone staff flew up and it gave a shrill scream. The green fire in its sunken eye sockets dimmed like it was a candle flame in the winds.

“Wretched humans……..”

The battle finally ended with Mackie’s orthodox strike with his sword. The necromancer had tired considerably before the loss of its hands and bone staff, and it wailed in frustration as the bright sword pierced through its skull.

The Soul’s Fire exploded from its body.

It was the final counter attack from this creature, but Sophie had already warned them preemptively. Only Irene who was a little slow at evading had her right hand singed a little.

The final two skeleton soldiers that remained were destroyed by the rest of the militia, while Freya and the others fought against the necromancer. Only one of the militia got wounded from the skeleton soldiers, and the forest was finally restored to its former peace. The wind blew across the forest, causing the leaves to rustle gently.

Everyone stopped and looked at each other. Their faces were full of disbelief, including Freya. They actually won against a necromancer and four skeleton soldiers.

Mackie’s sword was the first fall onto the floor with a clang, and it set off a chain reaction. Everyone hugged each other together, shouting and yelling, and even some of them cried out loudly to vent their emotions.

To survive from such an ordeal made their feelings ran high.

But Sophie was unperturbed. He raised his head and saw three golden lights flew into his chest from the darkness. Nobody seemed to notice this, even Romaine who was beside him.

The merchant girl also seemed to be relieved.

[Hmm, I’m the only one who can see it?] Sophie felt a little puzzled.

He glanced at his surroundings once, and opened his character window at the same time without thinking. He did the same things like he did in ‘The Amber Sword’, opening his character window once a battle was over.

The green lines of data appeared immediately in his retina.

Strength 1.1, Agility 2.0 , Physique 1.0 Intelligence 1.1, Will 1.3, Perception 1.0

Overall power rating 3.5, Element (Sealed)

Brendel, Male Human, Level 1 (Strength type body: Physical, Close combat; Talent: Unyielding)

XP: 4 (Commoner level 1 ———, Civilian Soldier level 2, 6/10)

Health (Weakened, dying): 10% (Bandaged status, 1 HP will be recovered every day)

Skills (Empty slot skill 1 XP)

Commoner [Basic knowledge (Level 1), Geography Knowledge (Level 0), Local knowledge (Level 1)]

Civilian Soldier [Military Swordsplay (Level 1), Grappling techniques (Level 1), Tactical Theory (Level 0), Military Organization (Level 0)]

He noted the change from his strength and physique. This meant he received the increase from the ‘Civilian soldier’ profession.

The Overall power rating increased by 2.5. The Ring of the Wind Empress granted a 1.0 increase in agility, and the rest of the increase came from his corresponding stats from his militia profession.

Finally in this battle, he gained 4 XP from four skeleton soldiers and one necromancer. It was half of what he should have received. Sophie thought for a while before concluding it was as a ‘Team penalty’.

[This is total bullshit! Why the heck would there be something like this in reality?]

But compared to the fact that he teleported to a parallel world was even more ridiculous.

He tried to think of this fact like a gaming otaku but he felt that it was pointless after a while, because this place was different from that online game ‘The Amber Sword’.

“Mother Marsha, it’s good that my suspension of disbelief is amazing…..” He rubbed his forehead as he felt a little headache.

Sophie stared at the ‘Civilian soldier’ level and hesitated. He truthfully did not want to invest experience points in this profession. The profession was pretty much garbage to him, and he had always viewed it a NPC only profession.

Now in this life here, he could not have thought that he would actually spend experience points on it.

And he even chose the talent point ‘Unyielding’!

The gods above, there were just too many talents useful for a warrior, but this happened to the worst of them all. It was a skill that allowed him to be immune from fatal wounds, but he only had five minutes to bid his will, unless he received a heal powerful enough.

Except he still had not seen any restorative that was stronger than banadaging, and the potions that were in the game were literally everywhere.

Still, Sophie did not regret it too much as it did save his life.

The current situation repeated itself. He was unable to find another profession right now, yet he urgently needed more power, and the only solution was to continue walking down this damnable path of the profession ‘Civilian soldier’. He felt depressed for a few moments.

A veteran warrior turning into a veteran militia? Heck, was the warrior profession not enough of a cannon fodder already?!