Chapter 3

"It's a bad joke, kid. Wizards don't look like beggars nor like wildmen."

"Is it a bad joke as well?" Vito said and forced the elf to levitate the same way he did with himself not so long ago.

"Put me down you rascal!" Nuvian screamed in fear.

Now, Vito was laughing heartily as well at the elf's expense.

"Look, the boy is teaching the elf how to fly!" Orc said and laughed even harder. Other members of the group couldn't help doing the same.

A couple of seconds later Nuvian fell on the ground and grunted.

"Do you believe me now, or do I need to show something else?" Vito said with a scoff.

"No, that's enough" The elf said standing up on his feet.

"Fine. So, will you tell me where you are heading?"

"Isn't it obvious? To the Big Dwarven Mountain." Nuvian snarled.

'I surely wounded his pride. I should apologize, I guess... nah, it's not worth it.' Vito thought.

A couple of seconds later, he noticed that all mercenaries except for their leader were sleeping. 'Are they working for food or what? I would never hire such awful guards.'

Soon, Vito felt sleepy again. He immediately remembered about his interrupted rest.

"Can I sleep in your wagon?" He asked yawning.

"Sure, you can." Nuvian said with a sly smile.

"Thanks." Vito said and jumped in the wagon. Inside of it he saw a pile of goods and nothing else.

'Okay Treatise, it is your time to shine. Show me defensive runes for such occasions.' He said and opened the book.

'Conditional runes...' Treatise told Vito about special runes allowing him to make spells follow certain conditions. Like, cast a fireball when someone enters the indicated area, cast fireball after casting thunder and so on.

'Well, at least it never refuses to answer questions about magic.' He thought.

After choosing what elements to use, Vito set up a trap in the case someone attacked him or the elf decided to take revenge.

'What a pity that my skeletons are not here. I hope the spell will work as expected.' With this thought he fell asleep.

Thankfully, nothing had happened during the night. On the next morning Vito was woken up by Nuvian.

"Get up, little wizard. Show me that I have reasons to help you." he said with a slightly angered voice.

Vito yawned and sat next to the elf who was holding the reins. Mercenaries had already woken up and got in their saddles. They were around the wagon waiting for Nuvian's order to move. The elf was still avoiding eye contact.

'I thought he would forget it after a good rest. Okay, I need to pretend that I am sorry, at least. It's no good making an enemy out of the only person who can give you a ride to civilization.'

"Hey, stop acting like that. I am sorry, okay? I didn't mean to hurt you. I promise not to do that ever again." He said.

Nuvian did not say anything, but his expression softened.

After making sure that they had not forgotten anything, the elf started moving and so did his guards.

'Why do they call it a road? It seems to me to be a path, surely not a road... And why do I feel dizzy all of sudden? I haven't drunk anything...' Vito was thinking out of boredom.

Vito had never been riding in a wagon before, but it didn't excite him at all. It surely wasn't a breathtaking experience nor a pleasurable one.

'Let's see what the Treatise has to show me.' He opened the book and almost immediately closed it. 'What a disgusting feeling, I am about to vomit. Is the book the reason for it?'

"Do you feel unwell?" Nuvian asked.

"How did you know and why are you asking it all of a sudden?"

"Well, as for the first question. It wasn't hard considering your expression. As for the rest - you are my guard, isn't it obvious why am I interested in your well-being?"

"Good point. Yeah, I feel dizzy since the start of the trip." Vito mumbled with a pitiful-looking face.

"Looks like you have motion sickness. Try to look forward and don't make unnecessary movements."

"Motion what? ...ah, it doesn't matter. Thanks for the tip." Vito said and fell quiet.

The rest of the trip was very unpleasurable for him. He was bored, but everything he could do without making his own condition worse is looking at the road and hills. Usually, he could admire their beauty, but not now. Minutes lasted hours for him and hours seemed to be an eternity.

All of a sudden, Vito heard an explosion so bright and loud that he thought he would go deaf and blind the very same moment they occurred. He felt sharp pain throughout his body and felt to be flying, a moment later another wave of pain swallowed him. When the ringing in his head had stopped he heard someone shouting.

"Brainless bastard! I told you not to use your stupid magic, you must have destroyed the goods!"

"Shut up! Last time I didn't use it you got beaten up! Now instead there is no one to fight us." Two men whom Vito didn't recognize were arguing.

"Shut up both of you and help me to pick up what's left of the cargo." A third voice said.

'Fuck, looks like we have fallen into a trap. Is everyone else dead? Should I raise them or is it better to play dead?' Vito thought and decided not to open his eyes.

"Look, what is that shiny thing next to the kid?"

"Seems to be a book. Was he protecting it with his body or what? It looks brand-new."

A man picked up the Treatise and Vito felt an unexpectedly strong burst of rage even without seeing the book being touched. Vito poured a lot of mana in all of the surrounding bodies and they started moving instantly. They knew their master's will without any vocalized orders.

"Turn back!" One of them alerted another.

"What the-" A looter wanted to say, but was interrupted by a sword stuck in his chest.

"You ...ll n... see ...e ... ...f th... ...ay" The undead orc croaked, swallowing most of the words because of his broken jaw, and pulled out the sword out of the looter's body who fell on the ground immediately after this.

Vito instantly started pouring his mana into a new ready-to-use body without even thinking if it was necessary. Looters were terrified at the sight of their dead comrade standing up on his feet.

"Kill them all and return the Great Scripture!" Vito opened his eyes and shouted in anger his new order, and had a sudden outburst of cough followed by pain in chest. He tried standing up, but his feet couldn't bear his own weight.

He saw six looters around him and four zombies.

"Shut up kid." That was the last phrase Vito heard before losing his consciousness.

Three zombies charged at the man who dared to steal the Treatise and hit their master. The man instantly regretted his actions as his knuckles started trembling. It was the fear that no living could overcome, it was the fear of death itself.

He was willing to scream in terror, he was ready to run away and abandon his teammates, but he couldn't take a step nor make a sound, seeing those he considered dead sprinting in his direction. The only action he was able to do before death is to throw the cursed book at its owner. Immediately after, he was beheaded and slashed from two opposing directions. It was surely an overkill, but undead couldn't stand seeing their master being hurt.

"Return to your grave!" The wizard-looter shouted and a bolt of lightning hit undead.

"Fuck!" Unfortunately for them the only result he got was a smell of barbecue.Luckily for the wizard, undead were choosing targets that were the closest to their master. So he had the time to cast another spell, while they were running towards his comrade.

A couple of seconds later, two zombies were ripped into many little pieces along with their victim by the wizard's fireball. The bloody rain turned the whole battlefield into a picture that could be drawn in only one place - hell.

A mercenary who was far enough from the wagon to survive the explosion stood up and ran away in fear immediately after seeing the bloody mess and being gazed upon by both undead and looters.

Zombies were outnumbered, but it wasn't enough to defeat medium undead. Without realizing it, Vito had summoned half-intelligent servants instead of regular ones. So they had enough brains to understand who posed the most threat to them. Looters weren't fools either, they surrounded the wizard and got into a fighting stance.

Undead charged at the improvised formation trying to reach the wizard with their swords. Unfortunately, they were stopped. Men started stabbing and slashing undead. Undead themselves dropped their weapon and started biting their enemies' faces and arms.

Humans were screaming at zombies, zombies were growling at humans.

Looters got the muscles of their faces bitten off, whereas undead got their spines broken.

While everyone was busy killing each other, the wizard moved to a safe distance and finished this battle with his last spell - a big and rapidly flying boulder, which happened to be big enough to kill both his allies and enemies alike.