Loremaster of the Amaranthine lands

The dark elf could only look up at the tall creature for a moment before it stomped him in the guts, sending him rolling on the ground. Regis fought the urge to vomit out what little he ate before as he grabbed his bladestaff and rolled to the side out of need. The undead in front of him was a hulking brute about the same height as Amanda, but it was much bulkier and wore a bronze breastplate and pauldrons. It swung a wide bladed two-handed sword towards him that Regis barely managed to dodge before he answered with a heavy slash. His attack managed to cut into his opponent’s rotting leg, but it didn’t stop the abomination from slamming into the dark elf with its heavy shoulder.

Regis could feel some of his ribs cracking as he fell back, but that was the least of his problems. As he lay on the ground and looked up, he could only see the giant blade falling down towards him. At that moment he was quite sure that his enemy was out to cut him in half. He shut his eyes tight as he prepared to die, but the expected pain didn’t arrive as a flash of golden light flickered on his closed eyelids. When he opened his eyes, the bronze sword was floating a couple inches above his stomach. It got stuck in what seemed to quarter metre wide and half a metre tall earth wall that wasn’t there when he closed his eyes.

Not having the time to question the wall’s appearance, he rolled aside and jumped on his feet, crushing his bladestaff into his opponent’s head as it was about to yank its weapon free. The next couple of smashing strikes resounded with a sickening sound of bones fracturing. The bulky figure slumped back on the ground, while the root covered crystal of his staff was dripping with dark blood. Regis was about to check on his wounds when a dark red light trickled through the corpse’s body. It gathered into a plum sized red orb that floated above its chest. He didn’t even have to touch it for a description to flicker into his vision.

{Lesser orb of physique}

{The remains of a strong body’s essence gathered into a single point. Absorbing it will increase one’s physique attribute by 1. Lesser orbs can only increase your attributes up to 20. Do you want to absorb it?}

“Yes.” The young elf wheezed as he touched the red orb.

It burst apart like a balloon filled with red smoke that ran along his arm and got absorbed through his mouth and nose. He could feel the pain in his chest lessen as his body became more resilient and his health increased, but he was still quite sore. Regis looked at Amanda in the near distance as she crushed another one of her opponents before he checked around for nearby enemies. His low-light vision revealed dozens of corpses moving about in the dark not far ahead of them.

Most of the undead shambled towards the other defenders, leaving him enough time to do a quick search on the corpses. The armoured brute only had 3 useful items on it, which had decent stats even in their current state.

{Simple bronze pauldrons (scratched)}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Durability: 79/100}

{Armor type: heavy}

{Armor Value: 17/20}

{Simple bronze breastplate (worn)}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Durability: 73/100}}

{Armor type: heavy}

{Armor value: 22/25}

{Bronze two-hander (worn)}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Durability: 71/100}

{Damage: 21/25}

Both the armour pieces and the weapon would have been a fine addition for any heavy warrior’s equipment, but they were useless for him. A short breather later charlatan’s wisdom revealed his opponent’s power as well.

{Fallen Squire}

{Level: 5}

{Attributes}

Allure: 5

Deftness: 8

Erudition: 6

Luck: 6

Might: 10

Mind: 5

Physique: 9

Spirit: 4

Willpower: 6

{This squire of unknown origins was brought back from the dead through the power of foul magic. Its original attributes had been halved by becoming an undead. It retained some of its capability of using its ingrained special skills and items.}

The stone spike slinging wizard’s corpse however had more promise as Regis himself was admittedly biased towards magic. He quickly harvested his hard earned Amaranth and crouched next to the wizard’s remains, prying its torn satchel open while identifying the corpse.

{Fallen Earth Mage}

{Level: 5}

{Attributes}

Allure: 5

Deftness: 6

Erudition: 8

Luck: 6

Might: 5

Mind: 8

Physique: 6

Spirit: 9

Willpower: 7

{This spell caster of unknown origins wielded the powers of earth and was brought back by a dark priest using foul magic. Its original attributes had been halved by becoming an undead. It retained some of its capabilities of using its ingrained special skills, spells and items.}

Inside the dead wizard’s satchel he found what seemed to be a vial made of thick and uneven glass filled with a light blue liquid.

{Potion of lesser arcana regeneration}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: waste}

{This watered down potion restores 30 points of arcana in 1 minute.}

‘One man’s waste is another’s chance for survival.’ He hummed in his head as he continued his search through the items stuffed into the small satchel. Soon he found a faded leather bound book as thick as his thumb and a few bronze coins along with a sealed inkwell and a bronze fountain pen. Once unbound, the book turned out to be the man’s journal. The ugly scribble filled pages detailed the wizard’s experiences with… enchantments?

Regis had to swallow his dry saliva as he hastily stuffed the cheap journal into his own satchel along with the inkwell and the pen before emptying the coins into his own spare pouch. Any amulets or rings the dead wizard once had were now nothing, but scrap metal. The young dark elf thought that they could have been soul-bound items; hence they’ve destroyed themselves with the man’s death. With those accessories unsalvageable, the only item of interest to remain was the wizard’s weapon.

It looked similar to a mace, except that its head was smaller and it had a star dotted black stone set in the middle. It was a third in size of the dark elf’s fist and it was locked in place by thin bronze straps that had intricate symbols carved on them. With the fumes of his remaining arcana reserves, he cast charlatan’s wisdom on it, his eyes growing wide a moment later.

{Apprentice bronze sceptre (worn)}

{Item rarity: ??}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 2}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 84/115}

{Damage: ??}

{Arcana cost reduction: 5%}

“It’s an actual enchanted sceptre!” He stuttered in excitement as he looked at the carvings and the star dotted black crystal.

His happy moment got crushed when he heard a familiar voice and turned to see Amanda kick back one of the newly arrived undead as she smashed another one in the chest with her hammer.

“Stop gawking at your new toys and start killing!” She shouted at him.

“Another wave is coming!” A scout yelled after her burning arrow got stumped out in the distance.

Regis tied up his spoils and tossed them towards the foot of the ramparts before turning towards the shambling corpses that walked into light of the torches. There were numerous infantrymen and swordsmen, but the one riding the undead horse was the scariest of them all. Regis felt his heart racing as the defenders charged at the enemy, his hands sweaty as he held his bladestaff.

A heavy slash from his weapon cut through one of the infantrymen’s arms, but he had to dodge a sword from his left before ending his opponent. As he wanted to cast his crystal shot spell to take down the intruding enemy, his spell fizzled out due to the lack of arcana. As he stared at his hands dumbstruck by his own inability to keep his resources in check, the fallen beside him got smashed in the head and fell on the ground unmoving.

“Want to team up?” Amanda asked huffing as she stomped on the corpse’s chest.

“Can you keep going?”

“I should be the one to ask that. I saw you run out of magic juice.” She laughed as she swung her hammer at her next opponent.

“Phrasing.” The dark elf stuttered after hearing the innuendo as he quickly gathered any Amaranth he could.

Regis took a deep breath before he moved toward another undead, severing its head with a heavy slash. He then stabbed it in the skull when the flames didn’t die out in its eyes. Once he took the abomination out, a sense of warmth ran along his spine and down his arms. It was refreshing and the bladestaff felt just a bit steadier in his hands.

The scream of a refugee however pulled him back from his musings and he saw as the undead horseman stabbed a thin man in ragged clothes right in his chest. A single jab pushed the large bronze blade through the man, killing him in moments. Next the horseman turned to slash at another defender.

“We have to take down that thing before it kills more people!” He said to Amanda who watched restlessly as the undead mowed forward, reaping lives from left to right.

“That thing is an arrow sponge. How are we supposed to kill it?” She asked as she smashed another infantryman with her hammer.

“Can you get it off from its horse?”

“I should be able to break the horse’s legs, but if that bastard gets back on its feet, I doubt we’ll have what it takes to get through that plate armour.”

“Just let me get close enough to stab in the face or something.”

“That’s not a reassuring plan, you know!”

Amanda wasn’t a hesitating type of person. Regis watched as she ran near the horseman, swinging her two-handed hammer at the undead animal’s hind leg. An unearthly neigh filled the air along with a loud crack as the right rear limb of the horse shattered at the knee. It barely managed to keep its balance and before the abomination riding atop of it could react, another hammer strike broke the left knee as well.

The horse plummeted backward and the heavily armoured undead fell on the ground with a thud. The dark elf didn’t waste a moment as he ran beside the armoured abomination and stabbed downwards with his bladestaff. His attack missed by an inch as the undead rolled aside on the ground.

“What the heck?” He stuttered as he watched his opponent move in an unexpected way.

It rolled for a moment before it jumped up onto its feet. Regis watched in horror as his enemy stood up with a speed that even the living couldn’t manage, aiming its two-hander towards him. A red glint ran along the blade while a white one shone on the armoured thing’s legs as it burst forward in a bull rush.

Regis didn’t expect the undead warrior to possess such a skill, so he could only jump aside in an undignified manner to get out of the way. The rush ended in a forced halt as the creature missed him, but it quickly turned around to take another swing at him.

“Watch out!” Amanda yelled as she raised her hammer to strike their enemy’s back, but much to her surprise, the charging warrior tripped on a knee high mound of earth that grew out of the ground in a moment’s wake.

“What? How?” she asked confused as she watched the reanimated corpse burst through the earth mound before falling back onto the ground.

Regis was surprised as well, but for a different reason. He had seen this earth wall before and now it appeared again, albeit smaller. What truly shocked him was that he was the one to summon it. When the undead warrior wanted to charge at him again, he felt scared, wanting to stop the abomination at all cost. His thoughts made his body shiver for a moment as a brownish yellow line glowed on the ground a few steps before the enemy.

Next he felt the arcana leave his body as it always did when casting a spell and the earth moved to form a small earthen wall. As relieved as and confused he was, he still didn’t hesitate to rush towards the undead warrior who tripped over the earth mound and fell flat on its face on the ground. This time it couldn’t get back up as the edge of the blunt end of the staff struck down on its skull hard. One after another, the dark elf swung at the rotting head, his anger and frustration burning with a blaze.

What he didn’t notice while consumed by his rage was that his inner flame did actually burst forward, covering the staff’s tip in a pale orange flame. It only lasted for a few seconds before it vanished and only the voice of his team mate shook him up from his rage.

“Did we just get a combo kill?” Amanda asked excited as she slapped the weary youth in the back.

“I’m not sure if that’s an actual thing here.” Regis huffed as they both reached out to gather their share of Amaranth.

“It does seem to be a thing,” she hissed. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be both able to get the green stuff from the same corpse, right? Hey, look!”

She pointed at the carcass that glowed with a mixed light of red and white. The light turned into a mist that compressed itself into a bicolour crystal. Regis immediately touched the crystal, looking at its description.

{Bull rush}

{Skill crystal}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{This skill allows you to boost your charge with air elemental magic to achieve an attack like a raging bull.}

{Skill prerequisite: 20 Might, air elemental affinity}

“Okay,” he whistled. “This is new.”

“What is it?” Amanda asked, irked by his speedy looting of the valuable crystal.

“Take a look,” Regis tossed the skill gem over. “I’m not interested in specializing in a might based build, so you can have it, if you want.”

“Are you sure?” she blurted out. “These things are valuable, you know. And what’s with this air thing?”

“It’s an elemental requirement. You’ll need to get a wind seed to make it work.”

“Oh,” she muttered. “So this is why you gave it up so easily. You knew I couldn’t use it either.”

“You can keep it and get a seed later, or you can trade it away. And besides; I’m more interested in the path of magic than being a warrior. Bull rush also doesn’t seem to be a good match with my bladestaff, since it would look like some kind of hard to direct spear charge. You on the other hand could definitely make use of it. Now finish off that horse and let’s get back to the others.”

Amanda was speechless for a moment before she turned towards the undead horse and smashed her two-handed hammer into the creature’s head with all her pent up frustration.

“You’re a bit of an asshole.”

“The perk of being a dark elf outlander is that I don’t have to care about what others think.”

“I’m an outlander as well,” she rebuked. “And I’m not afraid to kick your ass either. Magic or not.”

“Yeah, yeah. Get a move on, or the next wave will reach us while outside of the torch light.”

“I call dibs on the guy’s armour by the way.” Amanda stated as she looked back at the near complete plate set.

“Sure thing,” Regis agreed. “You’ll have to craft a new helmet though. I kind of turned that one into a mess.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll loot the gear later, so let’s get back to the others.”

Deciding against the immediate looting of the knight's corpse, Regis used his charlatan’s wisdom on it out of habit.

{Fallen Knight}

{Level: 8}

{Attributes}

Allure: 7

Deftness: 10

Erudition: 8

Luck: 6

Might: 12

Mind: 6

Physique: 11

Spirit: 6

Willpower: 8

{This knight of unknown origins seemed to belong to a heavy cavalry. After its demise, it was brought back from the dead through the power of foul magic. Its original attributes had been halved by becoming an undead. It retained some of its capability of using its ingrained special skills and items.}

Once they’ve returned beneath the ramparts, the nearby line of defenders applauded their victory against the undead knight for a few short moments.