Chapter 365. Undying.

  That had been a difficult fight, and those teleporting mages were deadly. If this had been a real life-or-death situation and they had teleported around me instead of my minions, I might not have survived. It was a shocking reminder that I had to always be aware of my defensive options. I could reposition myself using Switch and Replace but I had to keep the presence of mind to activate it the moment the threat occurred.

  “Hey Rico, I just caught the tail end of that fight, not bad, Abax Custinov and his mages are no joke. I’m not looking forward to the day they enter my bracket,” Melody said as I left the field to wait for the next match.

  “Thanks Melody, when do you go again?” I asked, wanting to see at least one of my friend’s matches.

  “As soon as I get there, we’re at the other end of the same field your minions are using. I have a tough foe for this semi-final match but I’m going to give it my all,” Melody said before waving and heading toward her match. The field on my side was still being setup for the last semi-final match, so I had some time to kill.

  The last semi-final match for my bracket was going to be Islis and her slimes against Gullywallow and whatever his minions were. I had little doubt that the favored contender, Gullywallow, would win, and I was curious to get a peek at his minion lineup before our match. I was pretty sure that Professor Gullywallow had already gotten a peek at my two minions, but now that I thought about it, knowing what my opponent was bringing to the fight wasn’t all that much of an advantage with the tournament’s rules.

  I couldn’t cast spells, buff my minions, or change out my lineup. Other than giving a warning if there was some mechanic like the teleporting mages, my minions, and those of the other contenders, were on their own once the match started. It was possible, and perhaps probable, that many of the contenders could rotate their lineups, but I was stuck with my pair of minions, unless I wanted to risk Clancy in the fight, which I really didn’t want to do. The miniscule boost he would add to my combat power wasn’t worth pulling him and losing out on the gold and items he was out there earning for me.

  Melody’s forces were also a bit of a mystery. I’d only seen two of her minions, the woman warrior she usually used as her persona, and the dwarf that she’d met me as once. The dwarf was a bit of mystery, as he’d only worn instructor robes when she’d been using him, and I didn’t see any skills or abilities on display. I also wondered what she would do during the fight, was she hampered by the need to feed off one of her minions, requiring her to keep one out of the fight?

  A quick check of the section of the field my bracket was assigned to showed that neither competitor was even there yet, so I jogged over to catch some of Melody’s fight. I was able to find a spot close to the action and gave Melody a thumbs up when she glanced in my direction. My question on whether she needed to pilot one of her minions was answered when another professor that I hadn’t met summoned a gnoll for Melody to use. I caught a short glimpse of her spider-like body as it disappeared beneath the coarse fur of the gnoll.

  It was only a second later that the gnoll shook its head and I could see the familiar gleam of intelligence in its eyes as Melody used it like a puppet. Her previous ride, the warrior woman, was now fully equipped in her gear. She wore plate armor and had a huge two-handed sword that was as long as I was tall. The dwarf was summoned next, but just like the last time I’d seen him, he wore robes, not armor like I’d expected.

  Around Melody’s dwarf, others of his kind appeared, two warriors in chainmail with shields and axes, as well as one dual-wielding hammers. A final dwarf, this one in leather armor, had a crossbow over his shoulder and held the leads for a small pack of war dogs in his hands. There were four massive hounds, each protected in studded leather barding that covered their sleek, black fur.

  It was quite a team, and I wondered about the woman warrior, who seemed the odd one out in a full party of dwarves. Maybe she was just around because it was the form Melody preferred to present herself as. Whatever the reason, at least the human warrior looked like she could hold her own against whatever Melody’s foe might bring to the fight.

  Her opponent was Professor Damrax Hillborough, who I was scheduled to assist with in his necromancy class, but not until next week. Damrax Hillborough was a halfling man, who wore his instructor robes and waited until Melody summoned her army before beginning to bring his out onto the field. It was no surprise when the instructor that taught about necromancy started summoning undead creatures around him.

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  More numerous than Melody’s army, Damrax soon had a dozen odd-looking ghouls out on the field. Through the barrier protecting the spectators, I was unable to get the system to identify exactly what type of undead these were. When the last of the ghouls were summoned, the entire pack began to stare at their potential prey, each of the undead drooling long strands of gore-stained saliva at the prospect of the coming feast.

  Unlike any other ghouls I’d fought, these had oversized hands and longer claws. Their skin was also enhanced, and had hardened growths over it that I’d estimate gave them the same protection as leather armor. When the one-minute preparation timer counted down, the ghouls charged toward Melody’s minions. The robed dwarf began to chant and his hands glowed with mana as he channeled power into a spell.

  The armed and armored dwarves formed a line of defense, along with the human woman. Melody’s robed dwarf and the one holding the hounds positioned themselves behind the line, and right before the ghouls reached them, the hounds were released. Like greased lighting, the hounds ran around the line of defenders and hurled themselves at the nearest ghoul.

  Gleefully, the targeted ghouls met the hound’s attack with open arms. Oversized claws tore into the hapless dogs, and I almost couldn’t stand the howls of pain from the stricken animals. Three of the hounds were out of the fight, dead already and turned to mana vapor, or paralyzed by the touch of the ghoul. One had done its duty and ripped out the throat of a ghoul which collapsed to the ground.

  Another ghoul went down with a crossbow bolt to the head delivered by the hound master. A beam of bright, golden light flew out from the dwarf mage, burning the corrupted flesh from any ghoul it touched. That left only four foes, which hit the shield wall nearly at the same time. One was cut in half by the human warrior’s blade, and the others were easily handled by the dwarven warriors.

  To my surprise, the match didn’t end when the last ghoul was slain, and instead, Melody’s troops ran back twenty paces as the bodies of the ghouls bulged and warped. I wasn’t sure what to expect and muttered a quiet, “what the heck is going on,” under my breath.

  “You haven’t seen undead with the undying trait in action before?” the man next to me, an older human in instructor robes asked.

  “No, I’ve seen a lot of undead, but nothing like that,” I replied as the ghoul bodies exploded. Tainted flesh rained down upon the area, but other than Melody’s last hound, which was torn apart, her troops had been prepared and were out of the blast radius. Standing from the gore were twelve new undead, each formed from the skeletal remains of the ghouls that had been there previously.

  Without wasting a moment, the skeletal ghouls closed the gap with Melody’s troops. They were met with steel and determination, but this time, Melody took some casualties before the skeletal attackers were hacked to bone shards. The hammer wielding dwarf, easily the most effective against this foe, was targeted first, and the skeletal ghouls clawed open any gap in his armor. One of her axe wielders was also down, and the human warrior had blood from a wound in her side dripping down to the ground in a disturbing trickle.

  “If you haven’t seen these before, the ghouls have one last trick in their arsenal,” the robed man next to me said. He seemed to be really enjoying the match, and I had to admit, I was also enjoying watching two higher tier summoners’ minions in action.

  The robed dwarf, and his surviving comrades once again fled back a few yards, almost reaching the edge of the battlefield. Barely able to hobble along, the human warrior was lagging behind her comrades when once again, the bodies of the fallen skeletons exploded, this time, in a hail of bone shards. Most of the shards pinged off the woman’s armor, but some, too many it seemed, found gaps in her defense.

  With the human warrior fallen, Melody was left with the dwarf mage, an axe wielding dwarf warrior, and the hound master who had traded his crossbow for a shortsword and dagger weapon combo. From the remains of each skeleton, spectral figures emerged, they were translucent but roughly shaped like the original ghouls.

  Moving quickly, they drifted toward Melody’s surviving minions. The dwarf mage cast another beam of golden light, which turned five of the twelve ghostly attackers into mana vapor. With his big spells unleashed, the mage contented himself with hurling small bolts of light at the attackers. A small gleam of enchantment appeared on the axe wielder’s weapon as it hacked through the first apparition.

  The apparition opened its mouth in a silent howl before dissipating into mana vapor. Another ghostly attacker swiped its arms through the dwarf, the attack ignoring its armor. Stiffening, the dwarf collapsed to the ground, soon followed by the hound master. Only the mage remained, and his attacks had felled three more of the foe. It soon joined the other dwarves’ fate when a ghostly attacker managed to claw through his robes.

  All three of Melody’s minions were still living, but she conceded the match. I could see the ghostly figures were already gathering around the fallen, jabbing into their bodies as they slowly drained the remains of their lifeforce. Announced as the winner, Professor Damrax shook Melody’s hand and thanked her for the match. She reciprocated, and I was glad to see there didn’t appear to be any hard feelings with the tournament outcome.

  “Rico, are you ready? Your match is about to start and they’re looking for you,” the satyr, Brielle said as she appeared at my side.

  “Already? It hadn’t even started when I came over here to watch Melody’s match,” I said, a bit concerned that the last semi-final match in my bracket had started and ended so quickly.

  “Oh yeah, Gullywallow’s minions don’t mess around,” Brielle said, dragging me back toward our section of the field. Hopefully, I’d last a bit longer against Gullywallow than this last opponent had.