Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 39

After a couple of weeks, the dumbs jocks had entirely forgotten about Mortimer. They’d moved on with their lives, and seemed quite happy to be bullying other freshmen. Mortimer saw this happen several times, but he didn’t care. He was a bit curious that nobody really fought back and they never seemed to get in trouble. They seemed like the kind of people who would get in trouble, since they weren’t very subtle.

Eventually, everything went back to school as Mortimer was accustomed. Everyone ignored him, and he ignored everyone. Well, except Angela and Solara.

At least, that was how it was supposed to happen. However, there had been an addition of another variable into his class schedule. That is, the skinny person who was maybe a girl. The one Mortimer had knocked over bumped into during the first day of school. Alex had started sitting next to Mortimer, because apparently they were now friends. So much for him being polite.

Not that Alex was necessarily a bad friend. For one, Alex was mostly quiet. When Alex talked, it was mostly about Royal Road, which Mortimer didn’t mind. Interestingly enough, Alex also seemed to be friends with Angela and Solara. At first, Alex had asked Mortimer to sit together with them, but had to give up when Mortimer refused to budge. One person was bad enough, being with three other people was asking a lot. Especially with one of them being Solara. Not that Mortimer didn’t want to be closer to her, but it was… awkward.

In the end, Mortimer sometimes sat alone, and sometimes Alex was there. Either way was fine with Mortimer.

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About a month into the semester, Angela, Solara, and Alex were walking down a hallway to go eat lunch. It had been very easy for Angel and Solara to become friends with Alex, especially since they were technically already friends. It turned out that Alex was Maratis, the cleric with whom they adventured often. They’d been surprised to find out that information, since the chances of meeting randomly in two worlds, Royal Road and the real one, were extremely low. Any random person was more likely to be from a different country than the same, and even less likely to be in the same area- or go to the same university. Still, coincidences like that could happen.

The hallway was empty, except for them. Then, a group of boisterous people could be heard. Well, perhaps it would be better to call them loud or obnoxious. Either way, each of the group of five were all well muscled individuals.

One of them pointed at the group and said, “Look, a group of freshman chicks. Not too bad.”

The rest of them started heckling the group, but were ignored. However, two of the group moved ahead and cut them off.

“Why don’t you stay and talk a while? I’m sure we can get to know each other better.”

They stared lecherously at the group. They moved closer, and eventually backed the three against the wall. The apparent leader leaned against the wall with one arm, cutting off Angela’s path back down the hallway. Those that appeared to be the number two and three lackeys moved towards Solara and Alex, respectively.

Number three asked, “This one’s a chick, right?”

The leader looked over, “Sure. Could be.” He looked back at Angela. “So, it looks like you’re not interested in hanging out with us. Too bad.”

Angela looked at him calmly, but inside she was planning how to get out of this situation, waiting for an opening. Sure, there were five strong jocks here, but she could fight at least well enough to escape. Probably.

Then, the leader’s other hand started to paw at her. That was enough, and she gave him a swift kick to the nuts. It seemed she’d have to go for it. However, at the same time that her knee connected, there was a loud snapping sound.

Angela looked at the elbow next to her head. Wasn’t it supposed to bend the other way? Then, suddenly, the person was out of her view, although it wasn’t hard to tell that he was heading rapidly for the floor. There was another loud crack. She looked down to see a leg on the back of his head, which was facing the floor.

The leg, apparently, belonged to Mortimer. She just stared at him blankly.

Mortimer, however, had other things to do. First, there was the surprised jock behind him. A swift kick to the jaw from below seemed to help that situation along some. Mortimer was surprised at how much more flexible he had become. Before, he would have been lucky to get to waist height. Mortimer didn’t wait for the guy to go down before throwing another kick to his knee.

At this point, the other three looked over towards the loud, unexpected sounds. The one in front of Solara instantly regretted turning his head to look, and fell over on the ground clutching between his legs.

Mortimer walked over and kicked him on the side of the head to incapacitate him. This crack was quieter than the others, but still sounded painful. The other two immediately charged Mortimer. Although they played football, they weren’t really used to actual fighting. The first one found his arms empty, and then he saw the ground head first, as there was a weird snapping sound in his shoulder at the same time.

The last one pulled out a knife. Then, he lunged at Mortimer. There was the unpleasant sound of a knife going into flesh. Something like a squelch. At the same time, there was a cracking sound of the type that was rapidly becoming familiar.

“Mortimer!” Angela screamed. Mortimer turned to look at her.

“What?” he said, as he stepped out of the way of the person who was now falling to the floor. There was another of the unpleasant noises as it happened. Mortimer looked down at his hand. There was a tiny trail of blood on it. He hadn’t performed the move to stab the guy with his own knife perfectly. He knew there would be more drills.

Angela saw that he was okay, and breathed a sigh of relief. The same could be heard from the other two conscious people, except Mortimer. He just stood there looking unworried.

After a few more seconds, an elderly professor came out of a nearby room. “What are you fellows up to this ti- oh my.” He surveyed the scene. The bodies were neatly arrayed around Mortimer.

“You’re going to be in quite a bit of trouble, young man, even if I have something to say about it.”

Angela spoke up quickly. “They started it.” She didn’t mention that Mortimer had gone a bit further than they had… at the time.

“It likely won’t matter. These…” he looked at them, then noticed they were all unconscious, “fools have powerful friends. By the way, has anyone called for an ambulance?”

“Why?” asked Mortimer.

Angela quickly came up and put her hands over his mouth from behind. “What he meant was… why would we do that when there’s a person of authority who can?”

The professor sighed. “Well, I guess I have to. I’ll need to talk to you, so don’t go anywhere.”

After a minute or two he was done with the phone. “Now then… I guess I need to start with asking for your names. I know who those… nice gentlemen on the floor are. I suppose I should introduce myself first though. Dr. Stevenson, Dean of the Sciences.”

“Alex Jennings.”

“Solara Vail.” The professor nodded in recognition of this name.

“Angela Parkins.” At this, he raised an eyebrow.

“Mortimer Perrywinkle.” At that name, he burst out laughing. Mortimer looked at him with a somewhat annoyed expression. The professor kept laughing for almost a minute, then cleared his face.

“Sorry, that was very rude. I’m not laughing at your name, but because of it… I’ll explain after these chaps are picked up.”

It didn’t take long for ambulances to arrive and cart the fellows off. Everyone tactfully ignored the small pool of blood in one place on the floor, and a larger one in another.

The professor started up the conversation again. First, he got an explanation of what had happened. From Angela, who was a bit more diplomatic than Mortimer would have been. “Now, where were we. Ah yes. Do any of you know who those people were?”

“Jerks,” said Mortimer.

“While you are… not wrong, they are also members of the football team. The one with the backwards elbow is Matt Thompson, the leader of that unpleasant bunch. Unfortunately, the head coach and some other people with much influence in the school liked his skills, and thus gave him a lot of leeway to do as he wished. They covered up quite a few scandals in his three years here.”

Mortimer nodded. “They sure seemed like they should have been in big trouble before now.”

Angela spoke up too, “Won’t it just happen again?”

“I’d think this time, it won’t. Unless…” he looked at Mortimer. “Young man, you are in good standing with your parents?”

Mortimer nodded again.

“I’m sure you’d not like to see these fellows again?”

“I’d rather not.”

“Then it should be fine. As both of you should know,” he gestured at Mortimer and Angela, “The Perrywinkle family has made… large contributions to the school. Have you seen the east building?”

“The big fancy new one? They paid for some rooms there?” asked Alex.

“Well, yes and no. They paid for the entire east building. Honestly, does no one read the plaques?”

Mortimer didn’t pay much attention to where his parents spent or donated their money. He hadn’t actually known.

Angela looked slightly embarrassed to have forgotten about what her aunt and uncle had done.

“Anyway,” Dr. Stevenson continued, “With those with such influential family, as well as an honor student,” he nodded to Solara, “I should be shocked if you end up seeing any trouble at all. There will still be a bit of trouble for me in cleaning up this mess, but I have been building up some… resources, in case a situation to expel, and preferably jail, these fellows came up. They have a long and unpleasant history.”

Mortimer nodded, once again. “Are we done here, then?”

“Do you have something urgent to do? No matter. I will likely be in contact with you later to get statements. Perhaps the police as well, but I will be certain to tell them it was in self defense. I have enough evidence to discredit anything they say to the contrary.”

Mortimer left, and Angela watched him walk away. She felt like she didn’t recognize her cousin. Besides the fact that he could do what he did, she was surprised at his brutality. Not that she was complaining about the help. Still, those people would be in the hospital for a long time, except the ones who might get out “early” because they just had a concussion… and probably a cracked skull. They deserved it, but to see Mortimer actually hit someone outside of the context of Royal Road was strange. Everyone who was there viewed him in a new light.

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Once Mortimer got home, he had a small talk with Master Valarao. After summing up what happened, Master Valarao asked, “Are any of them dead?”

“They weren’t when I left.”

“Hmph. I’m disappointed in you.”

“I’m sorry for getting into a fight, but I had to protect my friends.”

“What? No no, I’m just disappointed that you didn’t perform the moves right.”

“Ah. Well, it was my first real fight… and I felt like I’d get in really big trouble if I killed someone.”

Master Valarao raised an eyebrow. “You weren’t worried about possibly killing someone, then?”

“Why? They were jerks.”

“Hmm… Interesting.”

What exactly was interesting about that Mortimer never really found out.

End Chapter 39

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