THE CHASE

Currently, Bori was in a terrible situation.

His face was bleeding, his right leg was missing, his back was aching and his mana was almost depleted. The necromancer was exhausted to the point where he felt he would fall to the ground and pass out at any moment. He did not feel he could go on anymore.

Yet, he forced himself to keep flying. This was the only thing he could do if he wanted to survive.

Taking a quick look behind, he caught a glimpse of his pursuer.

He was about thirty with deep brown hair. Standing at nearly two metres, this pursuer wore polished silver armour with a two-handed greatsword on his back. Everything about him reminded the necromancer of a knight from stories; his demeanour even matched those fabled characters. The most amazing thing about this man though, was the fact that he was chasing Bori on foot and still managing to keep up with him.

What horrible luck! The necromancer cried internally as he watched the man close the gap between them.

When he left his tower two days ago he had not foreseen this was where he would end up. If he had he would not have left.

His journey had started off simple and uneventful. From the Trenton Highlands he had flown all the way to Tiih. On foot this was a four day endeavour. However, by flying one could make it in a matter of hours. That was of course if they had a large pool of mana or a dozen spirit potions. For Bori, he had to stop once every few hours to eat and recover his mana. Because of that the journey took him an entire day.

He had managed to get into the city without any trouble, spent time visiting the magic shops he usually frequented, met up with old acquaintances and managed to get his hand on the 7th Order spell model that he had been after. At that point things had been looking up.

If he had left the city back then he would not have landed in his current state. But, being a mage he just had to be greedy and decide to look for more spell models on the black market.

This was his mistake.

It turned out that after the last time he visited the city, Tiih got a new Captain of the Guard. Unlike the old one, this one was intense. After taking up his post he had vowed to clean out all unsavoury elements from the city. Often, when new Guard Captains were installed they made similar claims so no one paid much attention to him.

It turned out this new Guard Captain was serious. The City Guard raided the black market venue that night and Bori had been one of those unlucky sods that happened to be present.

When the City Guard arrived the Guard Captain had declared that they were all under arrest and demanded their surrender. Almost everyone resisted. In the wake of this the Guard Captain ordered the City Guard to cut down anyone who struggled.

What had followed was a bloodbath.

Many people died in the aftermath. Some scattered but the majority were those who had surrendered or were caught.

Bori had been in part of the group that managed to get away. To do so he had cast [Raise Mass Dead] to resurrect multiple zombies and then used them to cause a distraction while he escaped through a [Dimension Door].

What he had not accounted for was that, by performing this action he would become the main target of the Guard Captain.

The man seemed to have a particular hatred for necromancers and he was tenacious enough that he managed to track Bori down after he had escaped. A fight had ensued when they met.

As it turned out, another difference between this Guard Captain and the previous one was that this one was incredibly strong. Bori had been completely outmatched. The fight had even cost him his leg and gifted him a huge gash on the back.

Realising that he was no match for the man, he chose to run away and- much to his dismay- the Guard Captain followed.

That was how he had ended up in his current predicament.

"Dammit," he swore through gritted teeth as his flight became sluggish.

The blood on his face was going into his eyes, obscuring his vision. The gash on his back stung excruciatingly while the throbbing of his new formed stump was a constant distraction from what he was doing.

He had cauterised it with magic to prevent himself from bleeding out. That process had been, to say the least, extremely agonising. He had almost passed out from it. However, he had forced himself to continue. After all, what was the pain of losing a limb compared to being caught and killed?

Still, the pain from the two wounds was such that the fact that he had not fainted yet could be considered nothing less than a miracle. Even so, it drastically reduced his flying speed.

Taking another look behind, he saw that the Guard Captain was still chasing after him on foot. At the speed they were going he did not seem phased at all, a testament to his amazing physique.

How do I get rid of him? Bori thought.

Previously he had tried [Dimension Door]. However, the man had been able to find him somehow. A couple of attempts to get away with the 4th Order spell, all ending in failure, he had abandoned that tactic and decided to just fly away.

And now, because of the constant drain of [Flight], he was almost out of mana. Once it completely depleted he would drop out of the sky and straight into the Guard Captain's hands; that was if he was unlucky enough to survive the fall.

"You cannot get away necromancer!" the thunderous voice of the man perusing him called. "Your kind are a blight upon society. Scum like you should be wiped off the face of Aran! I will make sure you perish today on my honour as Guard Captain!"

Bori did not bother with a response. In his current condition he probably was not even capable of it. Lastly, he did not want to respond to the Guard captain. All he wanted was to get away from this man.

Unfortunately, there was only so much he could do when running on a near empty tank of mana.

Soon he dropped from the sky, crashed into a tree and hit every branch on the way down. This managed to cushion his fall; unfortunately some of his bones were broken in the process. Both his arms were twisted in directions they would not normally be able to, bring him new sensations of pain. However, his brain was too fuzzy to take full note of this new.

It seems I was unlucky enough to survive the fall, he thought, using his whole body to prop himself into a sitting position.

He learned against the tree trunk and closed his eyes.

I guess I have no choice, he thought to himself.

Then he began the familiar summon.

The beauty of contracting a familiar or undead was that you could summon them no matter how far they were from you. The best part about the process was that it used only a minimal amount of mana, such that even someone with an H aptitude would be able to summon their familiar, if they were capable of getting one.

The downside of this though was that it took a while. The greater the distance between the familiar and the mage, the more time was required for the summon to be completed. Unfortunately, Bori did not have that time. He would have to stall for it.

And so he waited for the Guard Captain to catch up.

It took the man less than ten seconds to get to where he was. The Guard Captain stopped in front of him and gave him a stern look.

"I told you you cannot escape necromancer," he said in a strong voice. "I will be dragging you back to Tiih, where your will sentenced and hung before the people."

"And what crime have I committed to deserve that sentence?" Bori asked weakly. "I haven't done anything other than trying to defend myself."

Hearing this, the man sneered. "As if your resisting arrest was not bad enough, you defiled the dead when you disturbed their slumber and made them do your bidding while you fled. Such an act is a sin against humanity and the Bringer of Life herself."

This comment made Bori scoff.

"A staunch believer I the Goddess of Life I see. Shea's worshipers are usually protectors of life, not destroyers of it; like how you wantonly slaughtered those who resisted at the black market."

"The Goddess stated the law should be respected and those people were taking part in illegal trade," the Guard Captain said righteously. "It made them criminals by default. When they were told to surrender and refused instead they were going against the law, which is an act that is punishable by death." His gaze became sterner as he gazed down at Bori. "If you don't want to face the same fate I suggest you give up and come along quietly."

Bori closed his eyes and sighed. "Fine, I surrender. Unfortunately I broke a lot of bones just now so you will have to carry me. Or you can wait for me recover enough mana to cast [Flight] on myself. If you cannot wait that long perhaps provide me with a spirit potion to recover my mana faster."

"There is no need for that," the Guard Captain responded. "I will just drag back by your leg. If you die on the way it would be unfortunate, but your corpse can still be displayed to the people to show them the fate your vile kind."

The Guard Captain reached for his remaining leg, but just as he was about to grab it three bright circles suddenly appeared, instinctively causing him to back off and put distance between them. His hand went to his greatsword and drew it from behind his back. His face looked grim as he prepared for what Bori had summoned.

The circles flashed even brighter and suddenly they were gone. Where they had been stood the undead girl and Bori's two warrior skeletons. Sage was wearing clothes that she clearly had obtained from outside the tower, proof that she had left it.

But Bori did not have time to think about that at the moment.

He opened his mouth to order the skeletons to attack the Guard Captain and ask Sage to grab him and escape. However, the words got stuck in his throat. The appearance of the skeletons was so bizarre he did not know how to react. Looking at the Guard Captain, he saw that even he was confused by what he was looking at.

Instead of carrying battle axes, Bori's warrior skeletons were carrying a roasted and skewered giant pig.