Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"What a day!" Roan sighed as he walked back home. He was exhausted. In a single day, he had to fight a gorges and then a monster from the pit which inexplicably fled in the middle of the fight. And he was just eighteen years old. His not-so-mature body and mind couldn't handle all the pressure it had been dumped in the past week or so.

His friends dying, him waking up with a chunk of his memory missing and then dreaming of that memory which made him aware of something that he now wished didn't know about. And now, he just learned that The Pits had reawakened and the world might be in danger just like during the dark ages. It was too much stress and on top of that he also had a secret which would make his life harder, he was a Necromancer.

Necromancers weren't commonplace. Even Magus were a pretty rare bunch. Roan himself had only seen them a couple of times and even they were rejects, magus that were rejected by the Imperial Magus Academy which was in the capital city of of the kingdom. The magus was rejected because of their inferior talents which would deprive the rejects of the quality teaching and study materials that the academy provided. So, there was a vast difference between an academy-trained magus and a rejected magus. The Academy only accepted a small number of magus with talents worth nurturing. Others were coldly rejected. So, the number of rejects is huge compared to the number of academy-trained magus which made it spotting an academy magus near impossible in the town that Roan was living in not to mention a Necromancer who was practically a myth.

But even with doubts about their existence, there was one thing that didn't have a shred of falsehood. And that was that church hated them with all their heart. So, now he had to make sure that nobody other than him knew that he had awakened as a necromancer. Otherwise, his fate would be to die at the hands of paladins from the church and he was sure that it would be a gruesome one.

"Hey, kid." A call from behind interrupted his musing. He slowly turned around trying not to give his already exhausted body more stress. He turned around to come face to face with a group of people that were more ragged-looking than any other slum citizen Roan had ever seen. He didn't recognize them. But the more alarming point was that there were five of them which was something that Roan didn't like especially when they were in the border between the slums and the outer district where the town guards never patrolled and there was little to no presence of other people.

He quickly took stock of his surroundings. He was in an alley sandwiched between small wooden houses. It was dusk so it wasn't that bright. A very convenient time and location to rob or even kill someone. And these guys looked like they robbed people for fun.

The five guys approached Roan who was already ready to fight.

"You know anything about George and Sol?" The frontman asked. He was a short guy standing up to Roan's shoulders. But the men behind him were not short. They were quite the opposite, standing a head taller than Roan. It was a problem. Roan could sense that there was going to be a fight as soon as he heard the names George and Sol and he was alone in the middle of a dark alley with strangers. It was a troublesome situation.

"No, I don't," Roan replied trying to shake off the fear and appear strong. He even puffed his chest a little and stood a little taller.

"Don't lie to me, kid. I know you guys went on a mission together. So, be honest and tell me where they are and we won't have any difficulty. Otherwise, there might be some." The short man in Infront said as he took slow steps towards him. They seemed unarmed but who knew what they were hiding? Nobody in the slums was unarmed. Roan was willing to bet his balls that they had knives hidden in their sleeves.

"I don't know. We split up after completing the mission." Roan again said. He couldn't tell the truth. It would spell his doom. But he didn't think the lie would work. It was just a waste of breath.

"Do you take me for an idiot, boy?" The short man shouted reaffirming Roan's thought. He was angered by Roan's response. He waved his hand as he barreled towards Roan snarling, his ugly visage twisting to become even uglier.

Roan was surprised but he quickly reacted by getting out of the short man's way and taking his sword out from its sheath. But the short man quickly chased after him with the thugs behind joining the chase.

Roan was surrounded in minutes by the group. He had nowhere to go. But he wasn't scared like he was before. No, he was the exact opposite, calm. Eerily calm as he surveyed his surroundings for the second time. As if something had just extracted what caused fear from his mind.

There were five of them forming a circle around Roan with short rusty blades in their hands.

A fitting weapon for thugs. Roan thought. He tightened his grip on his sword and slowly tried to feel the heat on his chest.

"Let me ask you again for the one last time. Where are George and Sol?" The short man again asked the same question as he fiddled with the rusty blade in his hands. He had a smile on his face almost as if waiting for Roan to reply with an answer that he wouldn't like. He took a couple of steps and approached the silent Roan.

Roan took a deep breath and said," I don't know." He lifted the sword in hand and got ready to attack as the heat in his chest slowly travelled through his hands to his sword.

The short man's face lost its smile as he gripped the blade he had been playing with in one hand. "Don't interfere" he said to the thugs and got closer to the cornered Roan.

"You're going to regret this very soon, kid." He added and swung the rusty blade at Roan. Roan sidestepped and dodged the attack. He then took couple more steps back which brought him to the edge of the circle created by the thugs. The short thug quickly followed up with another slash of his blade but this one was also futile. Roan was younger and faster than the thug. The thug realised that too so he ceased the attacks and said "Give me your blade." to his companion beside him.

The guy hesitated but eventually relented and handed the blade to the leader who then abruptly hurled it towards Roan.

Roan's pupil dilated as the fast-approaching blade cut through the air. It was too fast. He wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time.

Why? Roan cried in his mind. It was over or so Roan thought when suddenly time seemed to stop. No, it hadn't stopped. It had just slowed down evident by the fact that the knife was travelling slowly through the air.

Roan was surprised. Everything was in slow motion. But he wasted no time in thinking about this strange phenomenon and quickly got out of the way of the blade and ran towards the short thug who was frozen with a sinister smile on his dirty face.

Roan arrived in front of the thug whose expression had slowly morphed into one of pure horror as his eyes slowly crawled towards Roan.

"Doesn't feel good, huh?" Roan said and without wasting a second swung his sword which gained a dark glow as it travelled. It cut through the flesh of the midget as if it was butter. The severed body landed on the ground and suddenly everything was back to normal. Blood sprayed from the severed body of the thug, dumbfounding the thugs surrounding them hoping to see a good fight. It took one blow from Roan to sever the body of the short man and the thugs couldn't even see how he did it.

Roan stared at the severed corpse below his feet and lifted his head to look at the thugs surrounding him. They were scared. They didn't witness a fight but just a cold-blooded murder. Roan's eyes glowed darkly just like the blade in his hands and darkness seemed to seep out of him covering the already dark alleyway with an even darker shadow than the night. The thugs felt fear as they looked into Roan's dark glowing eyes. He stood there, his mind muddled by something but his face twisted to form a sneer towards the quivering group of thugs.

He slowly lifted his blade with a movement similar to a puppet. But the thugs had no fight left in them after seeing the severed body of their fellow thug.

" So-Sorry." One of the thugs stuttered and fled, the others quickly following behind as they scrambled out of the alleyway leaving Roan with his sword hanging in the air.

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What have I become? Roan questioned himself as he stared at the corpse with its innards laying on the ground. It was severed cleanly. A gruesome sight that would repulse anyone. But Roan felt nothing. It was a person that he had killed. But he felt nothing. It was the first time he had killed a human being. But he felt nothing.

He lifted the sword in his hand, soaked in blood. He stared at it for what felt like an eternity but he didn't feel repulsed by it. He felt nothing. It was bizarre and the only explanation he could think of was him awakening as a Necromancer.

Roan didn't know much about Necromancers. He didn't know anything about it before he awakened as one. This lack of knowledge made him clueless about what he was feeling or rather not feeling. He should have been frightened after realising this but he wasn't.

Roan tore a cloth from the thug's corpse and slowly cleaned the blood on his sword. His hands glided through the blood on the blade. It was smooth. Until he reached the middle of the blade. It had a chip.

It was ruined now. This blade was given to him by Seth, a gift when he had joined the adventurer's guild.

He stared at the sword in silence. His heart should have been grieving after losing a precious item left to him by his family. But he felt nothing. He would have to buy a new sword now.

He slid the sword back to the scabbard on his hip and walked towards his home. The familiar rotting stench and the grimy roads. It was home. He walked past the huddled hut made from sticks and straws. They were what made the slums. The roof that housed the miserable people of this town. And he was one of them.

He reached his hut and opened the flimsy door that had no capability of holding anything back except wind. He put the sword on a wooden table in the corner of the room and laid on the straw heap that acted as his bed.

He faced the ceiling from where he could partially see the night sky through the gaps between the sticks. It was decorated full of stars that shone brightly. Like they were trying to remove any darkness from this world. The darkness that had probably already engulfed Roan. It gave power but with consequences.

Nothing comes free, right Seth? Roan thought as he gently closed his eyes and fell asleep.