Nick’s Sonic Bullet, which so far was known to sometimes turn grey, sometimes become sharp-pointed at the tip, was right now showing shades of purple. This was the result of adding the knowledge of ‘Cyanide’. The purple hue corroborated the successful application of knowledge as Nick created the ‘Poison Sonic Bullet’.
Nick was thrilled when this new version of the bullet was created but without losing himself in savoring the moment or contemplating further, he targeted all the 10 enemies that he had earlier marked at the entrance of the Underbroom Cave.
“Sonic Bullets.”
As the words sounded, the bullets shot towards their targets without hitting any obstructions such as trees or the likes in between and hit the heads of all the mages despite the distance of 1200 meters. None of the necromancers died but they had started to bleed out from where they were shot.
“What is this, how did we get attacked!”
One of the older necromancers asked as he looked around in vigilance while trying to suppress the bleeding from his head.
Because the distance was too far away, Nick’s bullets did not have enough power to kill them in a single shot. He could have added more magical energy to propel the bullets, making them deadly as they were, but he was already tired. Using even an ounce more magical energy than absolutely necessary would worsen his condition.
As the 10 necromancers began scouting for the source of the attack, one of them suddenly felt like he was being squeezed from inside out. Within seconds he dropped to the ground. There was no more breath left on him.
In fact, all the necromancers by now had the exact same experience. The old mage who was about the drop dead on the ground whispered his last words.
“The thing we were hit by is not strong and powerful, but it has poison…”
Nick finally let out a deep breath. He was completely drained out of his energy right now, but his location was perilous. He did not know whether there were more necromancers around, but chances are that there would be soon. Without wasting any time, he headed towards the rendezvous point that Rabial had told him about before fleeing.
About half an hour later, Nick smiled on seeing Rabial. Rabial began talking as soon as he saw that Nick was fine.
“Oh, it is great that you are in a good shape. What did you do?”
Nick recounted what happened after they had separated. Once Rabial heard that as Nick escaped, he killed more than 11 necromancers, adding the others to this, his kill count was already at 15 necromancers. Rabial was put in a good mood. He touched the ground as he spoke.
“You are fantastic, Epsilon. Let us return to the base now, you need to rest.”
Nick agreed and followed Rabial to the underground Werfur City base.
— Two Hours Later —
A man with grey hair and red eyes, looked at the corpses scattered around, including the first female necromancer that Rabial had confronted. Behind him, there were more than 50 necromancers, eyeing the forest with vigilance.
The eyes of these dark mages were strong and powerful and seemed to be filled with wisdom. These mages exuded a different aura from the ones that Nick and Rabial had battled against.
At this time, the grey-haired necromancer looked at one of the younger ones and signaled him to come.
The young necromancer looked to be around 20-21 years old. He slowly approached the grey-haired necromancer and respectfully stood by his side.
The grey-haired necromancer voiced his thoughts.
“It appears that using this Underbroom Cave as our base is not the best idea. The Anderium Forest must have some kind of force that could rival us or even threaten us. What are our losses, Farium?”
The young necromancer, Farium, was prepared with his answer. They had already taken stock of what had transpired. He answered.
“My Lord Arkiva, we lost about 15 necromancers including a Middle-Level Captain.
Arkiva nodded and continued with his questions.
“Are there are any suspects?”
Farium thought for about three seconds and informed.
“Lord, if we are not wrong, our intel shows that one of the attackers is from the Werfur race and the other one is a young mage without any name or known identity. They are responsible for killing our people.”
Arkiva reflected deeply and shook his head.
“We can deal with the young mage, but a Werfur is different. A Werfur appearing here means they have some kind of a base in Anderium Forest. Each one of their bases has more than 20,000 battlemages and several kinds of enchanted items. Basically, we are not in a position to deal with even one Werfur base.”
Even as Arkiva had stopped speaking after this, Farium did not budge from his place and waited for further orders that came soon enough.
“Send a notification to the Werfurs and apologize to them. We are leaving Anderium Forest. We neither have the power nor the numbers to fight them right now. Even if we could deal with one base of theirs, they are a race full of mages and powerful warriors with many secrets and allies. We cannot afford to go toe-to-toe with them for the sake of a handful of mages.”
Arkiva did not wait for Farium’s response. Once he was done speaking, he walked away with a thought in his mind.
“I may not have the chance to take our revenge from the Werfurs but as for that young man, things will not be that simple. This magic is more mysterious than it seems. With enough knowledge, one can learn who killed our people using simple spells.”
— Four Hours Later —
Nick opened his eyes and got up from his bed quickly. He had slept for about six hours by now. He was not hurt but was devitalized from the intense use of energy control, multiple spells, and even the use of passive shields amid all the running.
“I must analyze the overall battle and the experience that I gathered. I need to break this down to what I did wrong, what I should have done, and what I need to do now.”
With these thoughts, without even eating anything, Nick started mentally reliving the entire experience. There were two things that in his mind were clear mistakes no matter how he looked at it.
