Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 75

Quietus pulled his dagger out of the first wizard on the wall. He looked around through the dark fog that covered the castle. He had no issues seeing through it because of his darkvision spell, though it cost some mana. However, it was not significantly draining at this point, so he could keep it on indefinitely. Especially since at the current time, his mana regeneration was very high, with the effect of his sadism stat and the dark fog causing damage to an entire castle full of people. The effect for each additional person wasn’t as great as the first, but it was still significant, especially with a few hundred people affected.

There appeared to be no others on the wall who could see clearly. Though the archers had various vision related skills that would help them somewhat, it seemed from their faces that they didn’t have anything particularly suited to seeing through darkness, or especially magical darkness. Quietus didn’t think that there would be no one among the entire guild who could see in darkness though. He would have to watch for them and take them out quickly.

In absence of threats, though, Quietus would attack those he could kill in a single hit. Preferably, mages and clerics. These were also some of the most dangerous professions in large scale fights, so it was best to take them out if he could.

The members of Gods of War were quite competent, so they quickly formed into small groups, calling out to each other to determine their relative locations. However, they weren’t fast enough for Quietus not to take out two more of the wizards on the walls. He didn’t have to worry about being seen, but he had to be cautious to not make noise.

The only remaining wizard on the walls had formed up with a small group. The others were either dead, or had retreated inside at the first sign of the dark fog. However, Quietus didn’t plan to let something like a hastily made group stop him. Certainly, he could be seen if he approached into range to strike with his dagger. The members of the group were all facing outward, so they would be prepared to strike him if he approached too closely. So, he didn’t.

Quietus wasn’t sure of the level of the mage. Therefore, he decided not to hold back, in case he was high enough level to survive a single attack, his counterattack could be dangerous. Thus, Quietus first quietly chanted a spell. None of this warlock spells required chants, but they were also weaker. This spell was one he hadn’t gotten much use out of, Demon Spear. Although it was just an upgraded version of Dark Spear, so he didn’t worry he’d have issues using it. It was his most powerful ranged attack.

He wasn’t sure if it met the requirements for what he wanted, but he could throw it from enough distance that he would be safe even if his plan failed. There was no reason not to try. He threw the spear, which made almost no noise, and couldn’t be seen, since it was made out of the same darkness that surrounded his opponents. The spear approached toward the wizard’s unknowing neck. However, just a demon spear would not be enough to kill him if he were near Quietus’ level. His magical defense would be high enough to let him survive. Thus, Quietus attempted to activate Perforate Artery.

The results were quite clear. Demon Spear met all the requirements for perforate artery. An attack at the neck, or more specifically the jugular veins. Though the Demon Spear was somewhat less precise than that, due to its size, it still fell well within the requirements. Thus, the wizard died instantly. Demon Spear was a powerful magic, but when it was a critical hit, it was even more devastating. Quietus had several abilities that improved critical hits, especially in the condition of a sneak attack where the enemy was unaware of his presence. Though they technically knew someone was out there somewhere, they couldn’t detect him and predict when and from where an attack would come, which was the important part. The bleeding damage was irrelevant in this case. Quietus still wasn’t sure of the level of the wizard he killed, but it didn’t matter.

The only people on the roof at this point would be harder to kill, since they were dressed in leather or heavier armor, and were from archer and warrior type classes, which had much better health than a typical mage type. If Quietus had been able to kill them in one hit, they would not be high enough level to bother with, so he moved on. He didn’t want to waste the currently disorganized state of the keep.

He found a door to the inside of the keep. When he opened it, dozens of spells and arrows flew out. It was definitely enough to kill a heavily armored warrior, not to mention a necromancer with only average health. Quietus didn’t die, though. In fact, as far as the people inside were concerned, the door may have opened on its own. Which it had, in a way. At the very least, Quietus hadn’t been next to the door when he opened it. Instead, he had used his spectral hand skill. Doors were the bane of the assassin’s existence, so he’d learned some ways to counter it. He still couldn’t avoid opening the door, but he wouldn’t be there to be seen or attacked.

After a moment, no more spells or attacks came through the doorway, and Quietus took the chance to look inside. It appeared nobody in this group could see well either. Nobody was directly inside the door, but there were many people watching it. In addition, they had lit some torches, slightly fending off the darkness around them. Quietus wouldn’t be able to get through easily, since there were enough pairs of eyes that they might luckily spot him. However, this wasn’t the only entrance into the keep.

At one of the other entrances, the door creaked open. This time, the fireballs and other attacks struck the figure who opened the door, lighting them up briefly. Then, the figure fell over, dead.

“Did we get him?”

Someone moved forward to check the body. Nobody else was close enough to the doorway to notice a figure slip behind them.

“Yeah, he’s dead.” If there hadn’t been so many spells, they may have recognized the body as one of their members. However, now, the corpse was unrecognizable charred. “Be careful, there might be more.”

They were not wrong. Moments after the scout said that, two more figures stepped out of the darkness and attacked. Though, it may have been better to say that they swatted at him. There is only so much a zombie can do when it has a mage as the base, with the worst physical attributes available. “It’s a necromancer, everyone be careful!” Everyone was on the lookout for more magical attacks, but nobody considered the fact that they might not see who they were looking for, even without the cover of Dark Fog.

Quietus, meanwhile, was nicely inside. Fortunately, nobody had managed to obtain light sources on this side, so he could sneak in. He subsequently set about sewing chaos. Anybody he could quickly kill he did, then he turned them into undead and had them move about randomly attacking players. This was so that they could not find his location and surround him. Unlike the previous guild he’d fought against, the Crimson Ravens, this guild had a stronger average level of players, relative to himself. In the Crimson Ravens, the only real threat had been the guildmaster, but there were more competent players in this guild.

He dashed between rooms, at the fastest speed he could quietly move. He could have turned into an undead to eliminate the need to conserve stamina, but he didn’t have anything that would allow him to stay at the same level of mental attributes and move quickly. Ghouls were strong and fast, but had low mental attributes. Skeletons were only slightly reduced in mental attributes, but were still lower. Mummies were fine on mental attributes, but slow. Thus, he had to stay in his normal form and watch his stamina. Though, instead of being careful with it, all he really had to do was recognize when it was time to chug a potion. He might end up using a lot of them, but his stock was decently built up.

Enough time had passed in the Dark Fog that people had to start drinking health potions and receiving healing from clerics. Though the damage was weak, it was continual. Some of those who weren’t cautious about keeping their health up were killed by Quietus, since he could approximate the state of their hit points. At least, enough to get a general feeling of whether he could kill them.

Inside, there wasn’t enough distance to kill anyone with Demon Spear. However, he still managed to pick off a few of those gathered together. He could get close enough to do a single strike before they could react. Thus, he would use Perforate Artery on someone vulnerable, then immediately use Backslide to slip back into the shadows. Then he would have to quickly leave to avoid retaliatory attacks.

Eventually, the remaining members of the guild gathered in a large hall. Quietus had only been able to pick off maybe thirty players, less than a tenth of their numbers. Not that it was insignificant in any way, but it wasn’t quite satisfactory yet. After all, almost no warriors had been killed, and Quietus didn’t think he’d yet taken out any top players.

Inside the large hall, there was a cleric who had created a large source of light. It seemed to be resisting the Dark Fog, and thus everyone in the central hall was able to begin regenerating the health they had previously lost without issue. Quietus imagined they had enough people there who would be able to see him to split into new groups and hunt him down quickly. He could just leave, but his tactics wouldn’t work again. Besides, he wasn’t done yet.

Quietus grinned from his position up in the rafters. He was glad that they had a sufficiently big central hall that it needed rafters. In addition, the light didn’t completely reach up here. Though he had no hope of defeating an entire guild, he certainly wasn’t about to leave yet. After all, he hadn’t even taken damage from them yet, though he certainly would soon. Once they knew where he was, there would be spells flying and sword attacks coming from everywhere. He would inevitably die if he confronted them. Quietus thought it sounded like fun, and dropped directly into the middle of the group, dagger stabbing into the cleric who was maintaining the light spell.

End Chapter 75