Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

"What's a draugr, then?" Irmond asked.

They sat in the back of the wagon. It sat in the same spot as it had when they'd arrived, though now that the sun was dipping, the horses were getting a little antsy. They plodded at the dirt and whinnied.

Night couldn't come soon enough. Wulf just needed to get this over with, so he could get out and finally start learning to bond with his scissors.

And when he thought about it that way, it just sounded all the more insane.

Still, he occupied his time by preparing his golem. He'd kept a tincture ready, so that when he needed to dilute it, pour it over his golem's head and activate the beast, he could. As he worked, he said, "A draugr is just a regular monster. Well, an undead monster, but they have no masters. They awake at night and wander around, hunting for anyone's flesh to eat. And they can get quite large, especially if they've been terrorizing an area for a while."

"Like this one has?" Seith asked.

"Probably."

"Don't worry," Kalee replied. "I've been looking for an opportunity to test out my staff. I won't let it live past tonight, if it even does show up."

"You seem awfully eager," Wulf said.

"Hunting draugr was a Threnian ritual, and a bit of a pastime. I wouldn't mind killing my first draugr."

"You've never killed one before?" Irmond asked. "Can you like…even kill them if they're undead?"

"I've never destroyed one," Kalee said, "but I know how. We just go after its head and reduce its function until it can't move, then we tear it apart and burn it as best we can."

"That fills me with confidence…" Seith muttered.

"Just stay behind me," Wulf said. "I'll take most of the hits and dish out damage as best I can, but I'll need some support. Undead can still get nasty if they're too powerful. And even if not, we don't want to underestimate them. I don't want anyone getting hurt before we even reach Clegghold."

He activated his potion, then used [Arm of the Alchemist] to open it. As he climbed inside, he registered a few eyes watching from around the ice-oak's stump. Some mousefolk guards were peering out the trapdoor, watching to see if their hired hands would actually destroy the draugr.

A faint voice, which sounded like Sir Till, called, "Good luck! It should be coming any minute now!"

Wulf gave a casual wave, then said, "Seith, when the draugr comes, take the horses over to the tree, then come back to join us. I don't want our only rides getting hurt in the chaos."

"Got it," she said.

"Guys…I don't think we'll have to wait long at all," Irmond warned. "What's that?"

A bulge had appeared on the muddy banks of the river. At first, Wulf would've said it was just a stone covered in silt, but it kept growing and growing—even as he watched. Bubbles seeped out from the dirt.

Wulf rammed his legs into his golem, then slotted his arms in. "Alright, Seith. Go, go!" As the golem was closing up, he jumped off the back of the wagon and snatched up his scissors. Seith snapped the reins, and Irmond and Kalee jumped off as well. The horses trotted off, and Seith steered the wagon back toward the tree.

Ahead, the dirt bulge burst, spewing river silt and mud all the way up the shore. A few specks landed on Wulf's face, but he blinked his eyes clear and wiped the mud off his helmet with the back of his hand.

A lumbering beast nearly twice Wulf's height rose up from the shore. It was the shape of a man, but with decaying, gray skin, long hair made of riverweeds, and rushes growing from its back. A single antler poked out the side of its head, and its gouged out eyes turned right toward them—looking without looking.

Mud sloughed off its body as it lumbered up the shore…and the smell. If Wulf hadn't been used to nausea by now, he probably would've lost his supper, but it was exactly how he imagined rotting seaweed would stink. He hadn't ever smelled rotten seaweed, but the odour was briny, faintly salty, and deathly.

The draugr craned its head back and let out a deep bellow, then charged forward. It moved surprisingly fast for a beast of its size, and behind it, it carried a riverboat's anchor on a chain—probably a weapon.

Sure enough, as Wulf stepped back, it swung the anchor—a couple tons of rusted steel—like a flail.

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Wulf ducked away from the swipe, then held out his hand and scanned the beast, trying to identify how strong it was. He willed the stones of his golem's gauntlet to part, allowing him a view of his enchanted parchment.

[Draugr – Low-Bronze]

The last monster he'd fought was the widowlob, and it was only a tier weaker than this. And back then, he'd only been a Middle-Coal. Besides, now, he had his team with him.

"Alright," Wulf said. "I'll keep it busy. Kalee, Irmond, see how much damage you can do before Seith gets back. You think she'll be mad if we kill it without her?"

"Probably until she smells it!" Irmond exclaimed. Still, he drew an arrow and nocked it in his bow.

Wulf darted to the side as the draugr dragged its anchor back. It bellowed again, making the stench worse, then reeled its anchor in.

Wulf aimed for its legs. Even in his golem, he couldn't comfortably reach its vitals—or where a human's vitals would've been. Whether it had those or not anymore, only the Field knew.

Opening his scissors, he darted around the beast's back and cut through its thighs. It spun, trying to turn and hit him, but when it slammed its anchor down again, it had missed entirely.

Still, he hadn't cut deep, either.

Kalee, standing higher up on the bank of the river, slammed her staff down. She called out a spell in the Mage's language, and lines in her staff lit up orange. Sparks puffed out the top, and a runic circle appeared beneath her.

As if buoyed by a wind current—or, more likely, gravity beneath her feet had just turned off—she hovered up above the ground. Another runic circle appeared beneath the draugr, and an invisible wedge of force blasted down on it. The rushes on its back parted, as it something was trying to cleave them apart.

Wulf targeted its already weakened leg, then, snapping his scissors back together, swung them like a hammer and swept the draugr's injured leg from beneath it. It fell to a knee, but its already damaged leg splayed out backward, now perfectly vulnerable to the meddling of Kalee's magic.

In an instant, the leg snapped. There was no blood, just putrid mud in its veins. The draugr let out another howl, but it was as good as beaten.

Now that it was at their level, Wulf flipped his scissors over and bashed the draugr in the forehead with the handles, sending it sprawling backward in a heap. The enhanced wedge of gravity kept it down, but there was nothing to split it open.

"Irmond!" Wulf called. "Keep its arms busy! Make it protect its head! I'm going to put a hole in its chest, so Kalee can rip it in two."

"Got it!" Irmond fired an arrow at the side of the draugr's head. He activated a skill, and the arrow blasted off his bowstring with such speed and intensity that it split the air and let out a boom. It kicked up a trail of loose snow, then pierced straight through the side of the draugr's head.

Sure enough, that didn't stop the beast one bit. It didn't have anything in its head to function. But still, it raised its arms to protect itself, and at that moment, Wulf rushed forward. He slammed his scissors down, point first, and wedged them into its chest.

Then he kept moving, and just in time. Kalee created another gravitational wedge above the draugr, and the impact split it in two, starting at the wound Wulf had created. It was like cutting a tomato—much easier to slice in half if you made a small incision first. The monster's legs and arms still flailed, but it wasn't going anywhere.

When Kalee's runic circle faded, Wulf approached, splitting his scissors apart, then hopped up onto the upper half of the draugr's chest and, like he was about to trim a branch off a tree, positioned both blades on either side of its neck. In a single crushing quish, he clenched the blade's shut and cleaved through the beast's neck. Its head rolled to the side, and slowly, its body fell still. It still twitched a little, but all in all, they'd incapacitated it.

But the scissors…they buzzed in Wulf's hands. The xerion trembled slightly. He'd just killed a beast with scissors, using the blades how a scissors' blades were supposed to be used, and that had to count for something. The material trembled beneath his hands, and it might have just been his mind, but when he tried to close them again, they didn't feel nearly as resistant and sticky.

Sure enough, the Field agreed: it had to count for something. His bracer trembled, and a message scrawled across the enchanted paper:

[Repurposing] You used a crafting tool to defeat an enemy, when a weapon would have been just as effective. Your strength and speed have increased.

A simple Mark, but he'd take it. Having a slight increase in his strength and speed couldn't hurt anything.

By the time Seith returned, she was panting. She slid to a halt in front of the draugr's split body, then said, "What did I miss? You…killed it?"

"By the Field," Irmond said. "These two made such quick work of it."

"It wasn't that strong," Wulf replied.

"Yeah, only Low-Bronze," Irmond said.

"Not sure if you remember, but as a Middle-Coal, he took out a High-Copper widowlob. Alone," Seith reminded him. "It reeks."

"Undead tend to do that," Kalee said.

"I think we can leave this for the Weavers to burn, don't you?" Wulf added. "We'll have to let it dry out, anyway."

Wulf flicked the mud off his scissors, then marched back to the Weavers' trap door, where Sir Till was looking out the opening at them.

"Evening, Till," Wulf said. "The draugr is no more, so long as you burn its corpse in a few days. Otherwise, it might twitch itself back to the water and wake up."

Sir Till's eyes widened. "That quickly?"

"Indeed. We're good at what we do. Now, our deal?"

"Aye, I'm a mouse of my word." He reached into a pouch inside his waistcoat and produced a leatherbound book with scissors engraved on the cover, but waited for a few seconds. "Though…get your skyhorn friend to carry it, until you wash off. No need to ruin a good big-folk book, now. That'd be such a waste."

Wulf nodded. "Thank you."

They still had a week before they arrived in Clegghold, and that meant there was plenty of time to try learning it, at least.