This chapter had a bit more action, and begins the second part of the book. This will be the main topic for the rest of the first book, so if I decide to change it, it will not be far into the future.

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[th_0tive.gif] This goes here cause yeah.

Chapter 6-Expansion

A month had passed since Sear had first raised a dead fox. He had spent entire days and nights expending his energy and getting stronger.

He looked around and looked at all the corpses around him. He had wolfs, hawks, foxes, tigers, anything that could die he had with him. Every morning when he stood he would awaken them for the whole day to see if he could handle their numbers, but at the stage he was at, raising them was as simple as raising his hand.

He could summon hundreds of thick, dense tendrils of light that could either enter the corpses, or could be used as some type of weapon. He could use it like a tentacle, just letting it flop around with momentum. He could thicken it with more energy and make it hard and sharp, using it to slice things.

He could make it dense and add a large mass of energy at the end, propelling a ball of black power as if shot from a slingshot.

By now he could notice many changes through his body. His hair seemed brighter, he felt lighter, and he also had dark runes carved into his very arms from the constant exposure to the magic.

He left the corpses behind and decided that it was time for him to begin making his way to the mountains. He knew that he still had at least 100 kilometers to travel before he reached the wasteland surrounding the mountain. After that it was most likely another 50 to get to the beginning of the ridge.

After all this time, Sear finally used his dark energy to increase his speed, stamina and strength. He hadn’t used it at all this past month, wanting to be able to see a difference. Once he was done summoning the magic, his body convulsed and he fell to the ground.

He had so much power!

It was hard to control himself at that point. Sear picked himself back up and began to run, trying to see how much he had improved. Instantly he felt a difference. He was basically flying compared to his old speed.

He was jumping over trees, crushing rocks in half, and running faster than he ever thought was possible. He continued running till dawn, trying to use his new found power to the most.

He felt the mountains coming closer, and for the first time, felt power. He felt as if he could take on the whole world with ease. Now he could sense the power that lay near the mountains. They seemed to spew out energy like a volcano.

He thought back at how simple it was for him to reach this point. In only a month he had gone from not being to correctly summoning a simple fox to being able to command an army, but that wasn’t what he was after. Being a necromancer just seemed like a waste of power. He continued on until he found that the grassland was slowly turning into a cliff dotted valley.

Anyway he looked, he would see cliffs that stretched upwards for hundreds of feet. He took a step towards the ravine and looked town, to find that the bottom was pitch black.

It would be impossible to get down and back up. He looked around and realized that there wasn’t a connection anywhere.

And being the reckless idiot he was, he decided to do the stupidest thing he could think of. “Get to the top of a cliff, run, and jump to the other side. Sounds simple enough.” He was serious with doing that and he began to look around for a cliff to climb.

He spotted the highest cliff and began to run towards it, almost falling off the edge while doing so. His foot slid while he was running due to all the broken up gravel around the edge. He continued to run until he reached the cliff’s face. He looked up and realized it would still be hard to climb this.

Determined, he grasped onto a small hole in the wall and began to pull himself up foot by foot. You could see his back muscles bulging as he pulled with all his strength. If it wasn’t for the effects the dark powers gave him, he would have fallen long ago.

Hell, he would have been dead years ago. He couldn’t survive in this world without his powers. He was just glad he hadn’t ran into any other magicians in the city. It seemed that this country had very few people who had magical powers, and those who did kept it secret in case they were taken and exploited.

After a while, he had finally managed to climb to the top and got a good view of the surrounding area. He took in the sight while resting for a few minutes. He could see the sunset in the distance, the tall, looming mountains waiting for him, all the small animals and birds moving around in their own world, the view of the area from atop this cliff.

The area around him looked like a place someone like him would love to live in, a perfect place in solitude, away from everyone else.

Once he had regained his strength, he used his magic once again, and prepared to take a leap of faith. Due to his powers, he jumped tens of feet into the air and he almost felt as if he was flying.

He was already half way across when he began his decent. It started slowly at first, but picked up speed extremely quickly. He realized he wouldn’t make it. He would be close, but he would most likely slam into the wall of the crevice about 15 meters from the top.

He tried his best to keep himself moving, but he continued to fall like a brick. He braced himself for the impact he was about to receive.

He slammed into the wall of the ravine with enough force that the area around him cracked. Instead of grabbing on like he wanted too, all the broken stones around him caused him to bounce away from the wall.

He looked in fear as he began to fall down into the ravine. He turned around to look into the pits of black below him. He could no longer see the sky, and he realized it was getting hotter.

“Where am I going?” He couldn’t think of anywhere where a man could fall for minutes without hitting anything. As a turn of “luck”, he saw something. There was a large red spike poking out of the darkness.

He tried to aim himself that way, but managed to only get further away. And then he saw what was beneath him.

There was a blood red river flowing in a mountainous area. The ground was made of rocks the shades of red, orange, yellow, purple, and some dark blues. He was falling straight into the river.

He slammed into it, and he realized that it was not a river made of water, but a river made of a much harder substance, for he felt like he had fallen against metal. All breath was sucked from his lungs as he descended downwards. He closed his eyes, and blacked out.

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When he awoke, Sear could not see. He kept his eyes closed and realized he was still alive. He could feel the blood flowing through his body, his ragged breaths, and could hear people talking around him.

“What should we do with his sire?” He heard an almost deathly raspy voice speak to someone else. “Leave him here. If he awakes call me. If he tries to escape, kill him on the spot.” Instead of a voice like the last, this man’s voice showed power, and something else that Sear couldn’t detect. This man’s voice sounded very human like, and was deep, even though it sounded as if it was home to an old man.

He kept his eyes closed and tried to use his magic to figure out where he was. During the past month, he had learned how to use to magic to create a “picture” in his head of the surroundings. What he received was not what he expected.

Instead of an image of his surrounding area, he felt pain like he had never before. He felt himself being thrown at a wall, and when he collided, he was forced to open his eyes to see. He saw a short man with long brown hair. He was pretty sure it was the raspy voice he had heard. For some reason he connected the man’s bad posture to his voice.

The other man looked extremely angry. It was a taller man, with slick white hair, dark eyes, and a long dark robe that covered him from neck to toe.

“You think you can fool me? I could sense your magic from miles away. Though it’s not every day that I find another dark user.” Sear opened his eyes at, another dark user.

“You can also use dark magic?” Sear tried to sound courageous, but his messed up throat disobeyed him and instead he said it while wheezing.

“Not only can I use it, but I am quite proficient at it. Now I ask, why are you here? I might kill you if I don’t trust you.” Sear felt as if the man was staring into his very soul. It was like being a mouse surrounded by hundreds of cats. There was no place to escape.

“I was making my way to the mountains, but I fell into this damned ravine.” The man, or actually mage Sear realized, laughed at Sear remark. “Sounds about what I expected. You seem like the type that would try to reach the mountains. Now if you want to live, you will have to do something.”

Sear felt a pair of magical hands grab hold of his neck and pick him off the ground, throwing him towards a circular indentation at the ground. Sear saw that he had fallen into a sizeable pit.

“If you want to live, fight these and win.” The man pulled a lever, opening a large cage door behind Sear. When he turned, he saw a huge 3 large things. Monstrosities. That’s what they were. They were like wolf except bigger and each had 3 heads. They were like the hydra relatives of wolves.

Sear put his hand by his back and tried to search for his blade. He found nothing. Upon looking up, he could see the man smiling, while holding his weapons.

“Damn that man, I’ll kill him if I get the chance.” Sear moved back, and the wolves charged. One of them attempted to tackle him, but Sear moved out of the way, and right into the path of another one. It slashed at his chest with razor sharp claws.

Sear looked down and realized his clothes were ruined. There were 3 large blood covered scratches where the claws connected. He barely had enough time to look back up and see the last wolf charge at him, and attempt to bite his head clean off.

He had no idea what he could do in this situation. He had no weapons, so there was nothing he could do against these monsters. He continued to attempt to dodge them, but to no avail. In less than a minute most of his clothing was tattered and he was bleeding from over 10 spots.

He could feel the adrenaline and fear begin to take control of his body. He got slammed into the walls by the beast. The three surrounded him and he knew that it was the end. He looked up and saw the old man, looking at him in disappointment.

He gave the type of look you would give someone when they forgot something simple. Sear thought, and then he was pounced upon by the monsters.

At the last second he remembered, the thing that could save his life. He concentrated, and produced a large wall of dark energy in front of him. The three wolves touched it and parts of their body burned off.

Sear got back up with new determination, and began to summon balls of black hell fire around him. He launched them at the wolves at speeds that made them impossible to dodge. They all hit their targets, and the monsters became aflame.

He summoned a large tendril dark energy and began to weave it around his body, and finally it had joined with his body and he now had a marking along his arms and legs. He extended his arms, and felt the dark energy form into large swords that could be controlled with a singular thought.

He rushed forward, and slashed his swords like an x, decapitating one of the heads of the wolves. It screeched in pain, causing the other 2 to go protect it. It seemed that the worked as a pack, but it would make no difference for Sear.

He realized this was taking too long, so he decided to end it quickly. He summoned hundreds of other swords that floated all around him. He aimed them at the wolves, and with the lowering of his hand, they all pierced and killed them.

He looked up, and blacked out once again due to the blood loss he had gotten.