The Undead Whisperer

Edric continued his slaughter, with every undead slain another coin was added to his coffers, and slowly but surely, greed began to stoke the once-embered flames that he had lost in his youth.

~How much do I have now... 8 system currency maybe?~ he thought to himself in satisfaction, as he slashed yet another zombie.

However as their numbers dwindled, he began to grow suspicious. What had once seemed like a dangerous horde had turned out to be nothing more than a mere inconvenience, something that didn't make sense even when considering his enhanced body.

Sure the creatures were very sluggish and had no special attacks to speak of, but still their initial numbers alone should've been enough to threaten him quite a bit.

~Where did all my precious coins go?~ he thought to himself, as he scanned the battlefield, noting that there were only 10 zombies left -at least 3 dozen less than they should've been.

"Can I open my eyes now?" Afina asked as he moved to slash yet another zombie.

However before he could even hit it, it turned to smoke.

~What's going on here?~ he thought to himself, realizing that unlike all the times before, there was no golden coin floating at the centre of the black cloud.

~Did something steal my kill?~ he realized, his eyes darting around the battlefield to find the culprit.

He hadn't seen a black bolt, so the hunter was out of the question.

So then who?

It didn't take long for him to find his answer.

Now that there were only a handful of zombies left, he could hear the hurried whispers that had been hidden beneath their moans all this time. His attention turned to the very end of the village, where a lone zombie stood, staring at him intently.

Unlike all the other zombies, this one stared at him with a sort of gaze that could only come from an intelligent creature. 

A moment later, the smokey remains of the zombie in front of him trailed towards the odd creature, before entering its body through the mouth.

~This one is... different,~ he realized, noting that it was way bigger than all the others, and had a glowing horn coming out of its right eye. 

~And is that... billow?~ he wondered, squinting his eyes to see if the black smoke around its mouth was indeed similar to the sort of magic he and Edrea had been using.

All the while, the creature continued its rapid whisper of incomprehensible gibberish.

Edric quickly redirected his attention to a zombie that had gotten dangerously close, his knife already swinging in an arc towards its head. However, just like before, his kill was stolen.

His attention once again fell on the creature.

~That's it, I need to kill it,~ he thought to himself, slightly annoyed that it had stolen two of his precious coins.

His leg still hurt, however he had gotten accustomed to the pain, so he could at least walk towards the creature at a moderate pace, which was still faster than the zombies could ever hope to move.

As he approached it, it began to move as well, mimicking his exact wobbly gait.

~It is copying me?~ he thought to himself, immediately halting. The creature halted as well, its gaze not moving from Edric's.

"Wait, now that I think about it, had any of these zombies even tried to attack me?" he tried to recall. Yet, he could not remember a single instance where a zombie had raised its hands to attack him, despite a few of them getting close enough to do so.

~What exactly is going on here?~ he wondered as another zombie approached him.

This time, however, he simply gripped his knife and allowed the creature to get closer. Once it was just a step away from him, he lifted his knife towards its head, just in case he was wrong, though it seemed his worries were for nothing.

The creature stopped its advance right there and simply stared at him.

Right then, the odd creature standing at the village leader's house stopped whispering, and all the remaining zombies turned to smoke.

~What now?~ Edric thought to himself, as their smokey remains began drifting towards the odd creature.

However it seemed that was not the only thing he had to be worried about, as just an instant later, he heard a whistling sound come from directly behind him.

On instinct, he ducked, and a black bolt of energy went hurtling right above his head.

~The hunter's back?~ he realized, already hobbling towards one of the buildings closest to him. Not three hops passed before another black bolt came hurtling towards him.

He launched himself forward, using all the strength his single non-injured leg could provide, but still, that was not enough. The black bolt struck him right in the hip, temporarily stunning him.

He fell to the ground, and let out a rough grunt, his breathing exaggerated as he tried to ignore the pain.

"Mister?" Afina called out from just a bit in front -the momentum from the fall having flung her closer to the building.

~This is turning out to be a bad investment, perhaps I should cut my losses,~ he thought to himself as he tried to crawl towards her.

"Ignite!" 

~What?~ Edric thought in shock, his head instantly turning towards the source of the sound.

It was the odd creature, and it had a gaping hole at the centre of its torso. It seemed that the hunter had mistakenly hit it with its missed energy bolt.

A bright purple fire had begun to eat up the black smoke that surrounded it and in an instant, it was gone.

"Wait are they going to-"

Before he could even finish that, the odd creature let out a moan. The bone-chilling sound came out as a visible sonic wave, that travelled at incredible speeds towards the forest area where the black bolts had been coming from.

"-fight," Edric finished, as the fungus on the zombie creature's body began to morph and change colour. Until eventually, it was a mirror copy of him, magenta scales and all.