The Forsaken Legion Part 2

The world seemed to darken even with the sun rising up in the sky. The vampire felt a primal fear invade him when he saw the spell materialize itself : Jack's shadow extended itself, seemingly covering the whole region behind him with a carpet of darkness. Then, hands appeared from it, dragging bodies behind them coming from the depths of earth.

Soon, The Forsaken Legion appeared and revealed its might to their future victims. Around one hundred demons raised themselves from the shadows, looking at the back of their leader with awe and respect in their eyes. All the soldiers were unique yet the same : They all wore a black steel armor covering their bodies, giving off a dangerous aura. All had white hairs, red reptilian eyes and a terrifying smile on their faces.

There were males and females in their ranks and they all had their particular weapon and number of horns. Some had only one and had a sword carved out of a bone in hand, others had many horns while dragging around a war hammer made of the same steel as their armors.

Then, they all knelt as one, facing Jack and said while his shadow was going back to him :

"We salute the Forsaken One !"

"Easy guys, there is only a small part of you summoned here and a small fry to kill." The skeleton said with black fire dancing in his eyes, laughing evilly. Hearing him, the vampire snapped out of his fear and began to cast the strongest spell he knew, taking a few seconds to chant it. During this time, many demons began to talk like :

"Oh, our enemy is only this little child?"

"It's disappointing, I expected better for our fist fight in a few millennia."

"At least we got to get outside, it feels good you know. I'm pretty sure that the others will be dead jealous when they will hear what happened."

"And we got to see the boss too, I truly missed him."

They were discussing casually while swinging their weapons, cutting through the undeads like they were wheat. Jack was simply laughing, joining them in their slaughter when they heard the vampire finish his incantation, finally casting his spell.

"Dark Thunderstorm !"

The clouds above the Forsaken Legion started to crackle and soon, many black bolts of lightning fell down and wreck havoc. It was a spell at the top of the Level 3 which summoned a rain of thunder on the designated area.

The special effect of it was that every bolt would drain some of the target's energy, weakening it and directly killing it after a few impacts even if the electricity didn't do any damages. The vampire truly gave his all on this attack, hoping it would finally take down the one who took back his hand. After casting so much solo target level 2 spells plus this one, he felt that his wounded mana circuits were on the verge of breaking down and puked a lot of blood.

However, the only effect the spell had was that it destroy many of the necromancer's undeads, allowing the demon's squad to walk faster toward their preys. One of them even dared to say "Aaah, it tickles", drowning the vampire in despair and humiliation. A few seconds later, the spell ended and the Forsaken Legion encircled their prey.

Jack walked out of them, looked at the necromancer's broken face and said with a smile :

"Hope you enjoy your trip down there, tell hi to those guys for me."

Then, he gestured to his men to take him down and looked at them slicing the wyvern in pieces before getting to their main course. After a few hits, the barrier broke and left the flesh under unprotected. The vampire soon turned into a bloody mess, way too soon according to the disappointed soldiers and when he died all the undeads followed him except those taken over by Jack. However, he had no use for an undead army now as it would only paint a target on his back and thus he simply let them return to the abyss.

The demons got in formation around the dead body and after a few words, a door opened itself from the ground and shoot bony white chains in the air. They met a writhing and thrashing ghost who seemed to be screaming but made no sound. A few seconds later, it disappeared as it was dragged in the door which closed itself behind its guest.

Looking at his army, the skeleton enjoyed the calm atmosphere them gently said :

"Thanks for the help guys, it was good to see you again. I can't maintain you in this world any longer but know that it's only temporary. Soon, you will get out there for good and then we will take back what those scums stole from us. We will steal from them their happiness, their families and destroy all they hold dear to avenge ourselves. Soon, we will march and set the world ablaze together."

"TOGETHER, WE SHALL SET THE WORLD ABLAZE !" The soldiers repeated as one, some having troubles hiding their tears of emotion. Then, they made a last salute and all turned into a wisp of darkness, going back home in his shadow.

The Forsaken Legion was Jack's magnum opus, the best spell he had ever created in the worst circumstances he had ever seen. When the world tried to get him down and that he was alone, he combined all his abilities and types of mana to give Life to the best army the world had ever seen.

At first, it was merely a spell to create an undead army with demons bodies. Then, when Jack became the primal Lifomancer and mastered this element, he wished to had it to this spell and those soldiers became the result. They were all living inside the skeleton's mana, appearing when he gave them the order to strike his enemies with enough energy to sustain themselves. Lifomancy made a miracle : It gave life to a spell and a whole bunch of soldiers.

Sighing at the reminiscences of the past, Jack shook his head then looked at his hand. It would be the last time in a while that he saw his former appearance and savored it as soon, he would get everything back. Then, he sucked dry his hand's mana and only left the circuits as a base for the other ones. Murmuring his spell, he started to glow he finished it.

"Body Reconstitution."

-

"Do you think that our teacher is alright ?" Evelyn asked, visibly worried. They stopped after Jack told them and tried to sleep, ready to jump into a fight if he came back with troubles following him. After a night of stress and anguish, they finally got up and started to run again on the road, hoping to find their teacher as fast as possible.

"He's going to be alright as he always did Evelyn, you're worrying for nothing." Laena replied, trying to hide her own feelings while reassuring her companion. They had been together for a small time but it was so hectic that it felt like they knew each other for month and the elf started to see the little girl as a friend.

After a few hours of running and exercising non-stop, they saw somebody on the road and both felt that something was wrong with him. In the distance he only looked like a black dot yet he seemed incredibly dangerous. Gingerly coming closer to him, they saw that he was a man in his forties wearing a black robe.

He looked like a gentle but intelligent man and had sharp figures with his shin hidden under a small, well trimmed black beard. His hair were also raven black, making his ash grey eyes brighter than they truly were. He was around 1.80 meters high and had a quite thin build. The whole thing made him look like a beggar if it wasn't for the dried blood that covered his robe. When the man's gaze ended on the two girls, a small smile appeared on his mouth's corners.

Laena instantly felt that this person was terribly menacing and drew her weapon without even realizing it, noticing it only when the tip of her sword was nearly on his stomach. Evelyn also felt the same dangerous aura but had another feeling like she already saw this guy somewhere. Nonetheless, she still drew her dagger and prepared a spell.

"Who are you and where do you come from !" Laena barked, visibly tense.

The stranger spoke in a language they didn't understand then added while giggling :

"Is this enough for you young one? "

His tone was deep with a rhythm calm and fluid, giving a wise and quiet impression to his listeners. Evelyn lowered her dagger, figuring something while her elven companion was seemingly quite offended by the outsider's comment on her age.

"How dare you say this ! I am a member of the proud elven race, known to live hundreds of years ! I am way older than you puny human." She growled with a hint of pride and intimidation.

However, it only met a fit of laughter coming from the man and it took him a couple seconds to control his breathing again.

"Hearing a child barely twenty flaunting her race's longevity is truly funny, excuse me for my lack of self control."

Laena instantly turned bright red, her ears moving around like they wanted to kill him themselves. She then stabbed firmly in front of her, aiming of the guy's torso. Yet, her sword only met the wind a few centimeters next to his shoulder and she fell down because of a small push behind her. When she was about to get up she felt a hand on her head and heard the stranger saying :

"You should truly do something about your pride Laena, it would be a waste to die this stupidly because you're unable to evaluate correctly your enemy."

Gasping, she quickly jumped on her feet and saw Evelyn burying herself in the man's arms while tearfully saying:

"You are back teacher ! We worried so much.."

Laena just watched and grabbed her arm, feeling a bit uneasy. Seeing her hesitate, Jack simply smiled and said while opening one of his arms:

"Come child, it feels good to finally have some human warmth after so many years."

After a group hug and many tears, Jack explained the group what he had done and faced. He earned a few gasps of admiration when they walked through the graveyard that was the road after their fight and gently mocked his students when they nearly puked because of the decaying bodies's smell. When the sun was the highest in the sky, he proposed his students to do a stop on the border of the road.

He then savored his first meal in a few millennia and even if it wasn't that tasty, it still felt like a wonderful sensation to him. Then, he looked at his companions and said with a playful smile :

"Would you love some sparring to digest our food?" Seeing them getting up with motivation in their eyes, he continued : "You can use everything you know, try to make me bleed once in ten minutes and you win. If you can't, I win and I'll give you supplementary exercises."

They hesitated a little but when they heard more exercises they quickly jumped in position and trusted their teacher. He would never say this if they had a chance to truly injure him after all.

"I like your determination, it's beautiful to see such energy coming from you young people. Now, let's get serious. By the way, did I tell you that I built a magic heart in this body ?" They turned as white as a sheet and his wicked grin enlarged itself when he said : "3,2,1 I'm coming !"

Laena's eyes enlarged themselves when she saw an ice maul coming down straight on her. She quickly rolled to the side and saw that Jack had completely ignored her, going for Evelyn instead. The young girl panicked and failed her spell, only tossing a small fresh wind on her opponent. He then gently pushed her on the ground with his icy weapon and said :

"You loose. Start again."

After many, many defeats the girls sat on the ground unable to get up. The dirt under them had been battered by the many steps they took while training. Fighting for their lives would have been a better sentence since they came way too close to death many times.

'That's not a mage, it's a monster ! I knew that master was strong but this mastery and this power with such a small mana quantity is simply aberrant.'

Jack had defeated them many times with different techniques : Sometimes he drowned them under a sheer volume of attacks, shooting ice needles between sword and dagger strikes. Sometimes he made them trip with a small gust of wind and took advantage of this mistake. Other times, he simply showed them the overpowering might of a magician and summoned a hail of projectile, making them give up.

"Aaaah, this was a nice little exercise wasn't it ?" He said while smiling. In the end, they never managed to hit him once.

"Teacher, you are a monster." The other two replied as one .