58. The Tower 9

Novum walked up and he did not want to get to close so he reached out with his sword and was about to push it open. Crystal spoke up. "Rurik was right the evil is hear. I can feel the undead on the other side of this gate. There are quite a few of them." Novum nodded towards her and then used the tip of his sword to push the gates open. As the door swung open the could see the area between them and the manor house was full of a huge group of undead.

"Crystal, these guys are tough but not that tough. Save your divine energy until we get to whatever is controlling them. Only use it if we get in way over our heads." With that Novum tightened his shield and gripped his sword tight as he darted forward. Rurik was right behind him despite the difference in their sizes. Novum was using his shield to lead the way and knock the first row back and scatter them.

Erica saw the numbers and brought out the little ball of stuff she used for fireballs and quickly sent the ball into the crowd of zombies. She sent it far enough back that there was no chance of Novum or Rurik getting hurt. But since she did not know Novum's plan she made things a little harder for him.

Novum saw the ball of fire fly past him and he did not pay any attention to it. He saw that it was going far enough back that it would not be a danger to him. But when he saw the blast take out the second row of zombies it was to late for him to stop or adjust. He easily blew through the first rank but instead of anything to stop his momentum he kept right on running. After not getting near as much resistance as he was expecting he was off balance with all of his weight forward and then he tripped over the second and third rank of burning zombies.

Erica flinched when she saw what happened to Novum and she could feel Berry's glare on the back of her head. She quickly changed her tactics and sent a few smaller scale spells that had no chance of hurting an ally into the creatures. "Erica hold off on your magic for now. They are more than capably of taking care of all of them but there might be something worse alter and we might be crucial at that point."

"Okay Berry." Erica blew out a short breath and the magic energy that she was about to release was pulled back into her body. She did not want to waste the energy. She took about twenty seconds and pulled a nice crossbow out of the bag on her hip. She preferred to do things with magic but she knew the dangers of magic and running out of energy and spent a lot of time practicing with the crossbow. It was not fancy or magically overpowered but it would always be cocked right after she pulled the trigger. With her natural strength it would take her twice as long to use a crossbow without this. Even a light crossbow was hard to set for her.

Berry noticed the crossbow and was a little surprised to see Erica bring it out. She knew that Erica had one but she had never seen her use it. "Erica make sure not to shoot our friends with that."

Erica quickly pulled up the bow and sent an bolt into the eye socket of a zombie that was getting close to Rurik's back. "I think they will be okay."

While this was going on Novum finally got back to his feet. His size and armor were not really hindering him but the fact that every time he put his had or foot down in was on a burning zombie and it would roll around or squish apart made it really hard to get up. Finally he got enough of the parts moved to get some leverage and climbed back to his feet. "That was harder than fighting them I think." He looked to his left and saw Crystal had her mace out bashing heads and to his right Rurik was going to work as well. So he left the ones behind him to the sharpshooting Erica and headed to the big group in the back that was still on its feet.

It took a while but finally the zombie horde was destroyed down to the last man, and again it was all men. They looked through the bodies trying to find a clue or reason behind what was going on but there was nothing that gave any hint as to what was really happening. Crystal had just lowered her mace and reached out to the area of the manor and worry started to show on her face.

"Novum you remember how I said that if there were cattle then more than likely their would not be vampries?"

"Yeah I remember. Let me guess you were wrong and at this reduced distance you can feel them?"

"Yeah. There are a few in that tower to the right and I can feel a few more energies inside the building. Most likely the ones in this tower are only the spawn. Since the sun it out we could deal with them in their coffins if we can rush them before they get all the way out."

About that time a huge cloud seemed to appear out of nowhere and the entire manor was suddenly under darkness as dark as late evening. More than enough to protect any vampires of their spawn. Suddenly the door to the tower burst open and half a dozen vampire spawn came running out. Novum looked up at the cloud and wondered how it could appear just like that. An ability to control the weather like that was only available to extremely powerful mages or druids and if that was the case they would already be dead.

The being was sitting at the desk that the man running the manor used in his previous life and looked that the stone on the desk again. The mage that designed the farming manor really wanted it to succeed and so he made a way for the man that ran the farm to control the weather to an extent. He could summon storms and lengthen the days just a little if they were needed. He had wanted it to be natural and most of the time the desk was never touched but occasionally it could be tweaked just a little like a few minutes ago if it was necessary.

The thing realized that this group was a lot more dangerous than any of the people that had come into the tower originally were and he refused to die just because he had not figured a way past the old mages wards on the door. He had killed almost all of the men and boys in the manor in order to test the wards both in life and as undead and he still could not figure out how to get past them. Maybe they would be the key that he needed to unlock the door but given the current situation he would rather kill them to be on the safe side.

With the huge cloud that he brought in and paused over the manor his creations should have no trouble killing them quickly and if he managed to get them to keep one he could use it in another experiment to get them all out of here and he would take the region over. He turned away from the weather desk and towards the mirror that he had watching the group face off against the vampire spawn he set as the second line of defense.

The group kept the same formation as they headed towards the tower where the spawn had kicked the door open but had yet to come out. "Erica do you have another fireball?"

"Oh give me a second. I do have one memorized but I have something that might be a little better this time." She reached in the same pouch that held her crossbow and pulled out a scroll. "This one was made by a guy with a few more levels of spells than I have. It was recently made so it should be stronger than mine."

"How close do you need to be?"

"I can reach it from here. Although it would probably be better if I was a little closer. I can get it there but getting it in the door is not as easy."

"So again how close do you need to be?"

"Two hundred feet it my limit on accuracy. I would be happier with one fifty but two will work."

"Thank you that is what I needed to know. Everyone we will be moving forward until then one fifty mark and then Erica will sent her fireball through the door. Crystal if you feel them doing something please let us know and we will try to send the fireball before they do it. Even if it misses it is worth a shot."

The thing looking at the mirror could not hear them since the image in the mirror was pulled back far enough that he could see the entire area. But he did start to worry when he saw the little girl pull out a scroll. Then like sheep to the slaughter they started walking forward again. He had the biggest spawn kick the door open to lure them in that direction. He wanted them to get close enough that they six spawn could rush out and kill them in one overwhelming rush of power.

The thing readied the table again and got ready. When they group got to about a hundred feet he was going to part the cloud for just an instant and when they were blinded he was going to close it back and then send the spawn out. By the time that they would get their vision back it would be to late.

Erica was confident in her aim and opened the scroll as she walked. It was not a hard scroll and it was a spell that she used all the time. Novum heard her chanting and slowed down just a little and made sure the area where she was walking was free of anything that might trip her. As soon as the chant was finished Erica pointed at the door of the tower and sent the energy of the scroll flying through the air. It went right through the door and after two more seconds exploded.

The thing saw the fireball and knew this creations were in trouble and sent the order to them to get out of the tower and kill the creatures. It felt the immediate response of the spawn and he saw that two of them made it out but a moment later he felt his connection to the other four sever. They were not dead but sent to their coffins. The problem was their coffins were on fire and they would not last but a few more seconds.

Novum and Rurik took off running towards the tower as soon as Erica released the spell and had covered almost half the distance to the tower by the time that it exploded. They saw the vampire spawn and both of them charged towards one. The spawn still assumed that these pitiful mortal beings were no match to them and charged at them recklessly. How wrong they were. Novum's blow hit the creature in the shoulder and almost cut the creature all the in half. It burst into a cloud of gas and floated towards it coffin. The one facing Rurik felt the force of one blow and joined its partner as a cloud. The two of them tried floating back to their coffins but they felt it the moment their coffins were destroyed and but it flames as they floated.

Crystal sent out here energy. "That is the last of the creatures in that tower. Now the only ones left are in the manor itself."