《Kinda Real Online》45. Knowledge is Power
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So, killing all the zombies did not bring out a boss. instead we got to sit on the wall watching as the sun set. There was still an alert telling us that the siege was happening, but there were no enemies. It even had an enemies remaining thing that said 0. So, we were fairly sure that something else was coming, but it just wasn't here yet.
While we waited Bjorn went around and talked to the rod guys, and the refugees who held defend my castle, just to see how they were all doing. I was going to go with him, but Marcus approached me to talk about his experiments.
"I just thought you should know, those zombies were a little weird."
I raised one eyebrow, "Really? They looked like normal zombies to me."
"I guess I should say, they weren't like other zombies in the game. Game zombies have an ability to see through illusions, unless you use light instead of mental manipulation, which I did at first. But then, I realized that normal illusions worked on them too. The theory behind that is zombies are basically minions of some necromancer, and don't actually have a mind for you to manipulate with illusions, or any mental magic, so you have to change what they see, and sometimes what they hear and smell. So basically when I realized they weren't normal I started trying anything I could think of. Normal... let's call them game zombies, are harmed by healing magic immune to mental magic, and rely on the control of a necromancer, or some kind of powerful undead creature. They take more damage from divine power, and fire, and once you give them a mission, they go until they can't anymore. They are animated by some kind of evil spiritual force, so that's why they have all the weaknesses to holy stuff, but these zombies..."
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He barely stopped to take a breath, just talking nonstop, so when he did pause for a moment I tried to help, "Siege zombies?"
"Yes, siege zombies, they were actually healed by normal healing magic, and the more repaired their bodies were, the stronger they became. On top of that, holy magic did nothing to them. In fact, magic that requires a soul, did nothing. Which probably means that spiritual healing would do nothing either. They are more like constructs, except with a mind. Mental magic works on them. So, siege zombies don't have any of the weaknesses of game zombies, but they don't have the advantages either. They're like rotting bodies that are animated like you would animate a puppet, but they can think. Not a lot, but it's enough that mental magic works on them."
"So, basically siege zombies are like some kind of better, but not better zombie?"
"Not better, just different, and maybe, not quite dead..."
"What! They're zombies, how can they be not dead?"
He took a deep breath, "I don't know, but I'm guessing, whatever it is keeps the body moving while controlling it in some way, and surpressing the mind. It's like drugs, but magical. Maybe even a magical disease. I don't think I want to get bitten by a siege zombie."
When he mentioned bitting, I remembered something, "That sounds like the zombies from Brogan's world. They were all worried when I was bitten. They thought I was going to turn into one of them."
Marcus' eyes widenned, "Where is Brogan?"
"Somewhere? I don't know."
He looked like he was looking through menus, then he took off running. I followed, because I was sure he was on to something. It didn't take long before we found Brogan. He was on the wall, and he had a quiver of arrows and one of the bows. When we got to him Marcus had to take a moment to catch his breath, so Brogan talked to me.
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"Hi Bwyd. You two rushed over here."
I chuckled, "Yeah, when Marcus gets an idea, he doesn't slow down."
"I've noticed. He reminds me of a less mature doctor Shival."
"Who?"
"Doctor Shival? The man who was working with you?"
"Oh, that's his name?"
He grinned at me "How do you make any friends if you can't remember their names?"
"That's a great question, they just keep showing up, and then they don't leave. I don't need to know names."
"Do you even know mine?"
"Uh, pillow guy?"
He looked shocked, and maybe a little hurt, "What?"
I smiled sweatly at him, "Oh, wait, I mean Brogan."
At that point Marcus was ready to speak. He waved a hand between me and Brogan, "Hate to break up the flirting, but we have more important stuff to talk about."
I think I blushed a little, "We were not flirting, that was just normal conversation."
"Riight. So, Brogan, what do you know about the undead from your world?"
"I know a fair amount. Working with Doctor Shival I was working with the research teams."
Marcus then explained everything he just did to me, and asked Brogan to describe what they knew about their undead.
"The undead that plagued us, were caused by a curse. It was a curse that devoured the soul, and turned the body into a minion of the Haka. That's the ancient elven high counsel. They created the curse and unleashed it on the world. We don't know exactly how it works, but the curse sustains the undead effected by it, and they sustain the curse. Normally when a person is bitten by the undead they change within an hour or two. There are ways to purify someone, but it must be done almost immediately. Other than that, the longer something is cursed the more powerful it becomes. I could tell you about some of the experiments we ran, but that's the summary of what we know. Oh, and Bwyd is immune."
"So, the siege zombies are not dead, they are just cursed, and souless. They are kind of braindead. It's like all they have are instincts, and an unending will to survive, and the longer they exist, the more they learn. So I think the person who gets cursed is still killed, their body just keeps moving and is reborn as some kind of monster."
He paused for a moment, while we digested what he just said. Brogan had a thoughtful look on his face, and I probably had a confused look. I mean, they're still walking corpses, right? So that still means they're zombies. We just can't kill them with divine retribution. I was about to say something along those lines, but the boss decided to show up.
There was a loud screaming sound. Not like a person screaming, but like a rocket. Or a giant metal cylinder pinecone thing. Just like the ones that we saw in Brogan's world. It fell out of the sky, and landed right outside the gate. Then it openned, and out walked three large creatures.
Alert!
The final boss of the siege has appeared
Kill the boss or keep it from claiming the keep before the time runs out to win!
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