Chapter 11 The cursed and the cure

Alianna doesn't waste any time and rushes at you with 10 power strong attack using her black, wolf-like claws. You swirl your sword and slash at her claws with a 12 power strong attack.

The power difference of 2 overpowers your opponent. Both of your attacks land on each other and your attack was much stronger. Your sword deflected her claws and you manage to cut her chest with your sword, but you were left speechless by the outcome. Alianna was pushed back and took 5 damage from the attack, but the wound on her body soon began healing. Alianna the undead has 20/20 stamina and 5/10 power left. You have 7/15 stamina and 7/14 power left.

"How is this possible? Her body can regenerate the damage I do to her with minimal effort. How am I supposed to defeat such a creature?" You wonder exactly what kind of monster this Alianna girl is exactly. She can heal indefinitely heal all wounds, effectively rendering all your physical attacks incapable of killing her.

What can you do to stop a creature with the ability to heal any injury in seconds? You look to the stars and hear Alianna laugh at you from where she stands. You get confused by this, but you soon realize her reason for laughing.

LIV is as dominant over the Meddiki Forest as REZ, so you can cast it from anywhere, but you don't feel any connection to the constellation. You can see it shining down upon the entire Meddiki Forest like it has before, but you can't establish a link to channel the stellar energy required to cast the LIV spell.

Alianna looks at you with her black and empty eyes, with a mocking grin, and says "This is my house area! You think I wouldn't make countermeasures against my own weakness in my own house?" The devilish smile kept looking at you in ridicule.

Is this the day you die? She is an almighty creature with infinite stamina and no weaknesses. What can you, a mere mortal with limited knowledge on advanced sorcery, do against such a creature? "I can use my brain and outsmart her! The question is, exactly how is she doing this? I am fairly certain there should be a grimalkin involved. This house should-" a huge body of a flying female attacks you with a 3 power charge(jab).

You barely manage to react and use a 4 power skillful attack to bat Alianna's claws away and even manage to cut her right hand off her wrist. Alianna tries to swing at your head again, but you kick her in the stomach and dodge her attack. Alianna took 5 damage from your mighty kick and her lost hand.

The hand you managed to cut off doesn't bleed and neither does the cut wound on her hand. A weird whip made out of what looks to be black bold or some kind of tar comes out of her right wrist's veins and they attach directly to the hand you just cut off and drag it back on to the wound, forcefully. The wound soon heals and it is as if she never took any damage. Alianna the undead has 20/20 stamina and 5.5/10 power left. You have 2.5/14 power.

"You didn't think I would give you enough time to make a plan, did you? I know you are a sorcerer as well and I can see you also know the LIV spell. My house is specifically protected from it. You won't be able to kill me or cast a single spell no matter how hard you try!" The devilish woman continues to glare at you and says "I may not be strong enough to take you down on my own, but I don't have to!"

A few drops of the black, tar-like liquid cut through Alianna's arteries and she splashed them into the ground next to you, but she stares in amazement as nothing happens. She looks at you with eyes of horror and says "How is this possible?! How can you not even have a single evil spirit haunting you? You brutally murdered the Warlock trying to save the Meddiki Forest. How could he not even hold a grudge against you after you killed him?!"

You smile at the small blunder Alianna made "So, this REZ(evil) spell requires someone to have killed one person and that person's resentment. Thank you for teaching me that."

The amount of creatures with resentment towards you are few. The goblins you killed at such, but you have already killed the evil spirits of the 4 strongest goblins, so they won't be coming back any time soon. The Cyclops zombie has also been killed by you. You have no spirit with enough resentment or strength to come and haunt you.

The spell REZ(evil) is completely useless against you, but and idea suddenly comes to your mind. You need to collect some of Alianna's blood to try your idea, though. "This woman kills people to create armies made out of the dead. She must have hundreds of resentful spirits surrounding her. If I can get a bit of her blood and cast the REZ(evil) spell onto her. This will be large enough to distract her while I try to find the edge of the grimalkin and destroy it with my sword."

You take a defensive stance and ready yourself to get hit with the fist of Alianna, but Alianna also decides to defend. You both stand there with your guards up and ready for the other to attack. The turn passes with the two of you doing nothing. Alianna the undead has 20/20 stamina and 10/10 power. You have 7/15 stamina and 9.5/15 power.

Physical power is extremely important in combat. Your body's power determines how much power you regenerate whenever you defend. People with higher physical strength regenerate more power than others during combat. That is the reason Alianna regained 5 power and you regained 4.5 power when defending.

Alianna has the absolute advantage in this fight. While you two were standing and resting, you observed the stars above you and an idea came to your mind. The spell WAL is available. Casting the spell WAL uses 1 stamina point to create a barrier made out of stellar energy at any location the caster desires. You can use this to trap Alianna in case you want to run away, or you can use it to trick her.

The world suddenly felt slowed to you. Your senses have become sharper and you observe Alianna in grate detail as she charges at you with a 10 power strong attack. Her claws are glowing red and you are 100% sure you won't be able to block this attack without your sword being damaged or you taking a serious injury.

The devilish woman approaches you in slow motion and you stab your sword into the ground next to you. Alianna is confused by your actions, but continues smiling and rushes at you. Her claws look even more dangerous now.

A second goes by and she is already within reach. A few more seconds and those blood red claws will pierce your chest directly. You look at Alianna calmly and move your ten fingers in strange ways. Such a hand motion is foreign to Alianna, so she thinks you are bluffing and continues with her attack.

You open your mouth and say a single word "WAL" as three stamina drains away from your body and a barrier of stellar energy builds itself up from the ground. The barrier makes contact with Alianna's forearm and stop expanding. Alianna smashes into the barrier and is about to jump backwards, but another barrier comes down from the top and sandwiches her arm between the two of them. Her arm is being squished by 2 dense walls made of stellar energy.

Alianna cries in pain and is about to cut her arm off to get away from you when your third barrier appears behind her and squished her entire body onto the 1st and 2nd barriers. Alianna is firmly stuck and can't move a single muscle. You quickly grab your sword and swing it with enough force to cut a human being in half.

Your sword makes contact with Alianna's forearm and it gets directly cut off. Alianna is physical unable to scream or make any discernible sounds because of her predicament, but you can tell by her panicked look she has figured out your intention and wishes to run.

You pick her arm up and cut it directly into two halves. All the veins explode out with the black-tar like substance and it is sprayed everywhere around your barriers. You look up into the stars and copy the hand motions the Warlock used to cast the spell.

"REZ(evil)!" You say a single word, but the power behind that word completely stumps Alianna. She realizes it is over for her and looks at you with anger and a bit of remorse. A single second goes by and the ground begins to tremble. Hundreds of small dirt holes appear all around you and the dirt rushes up to form over 200 skeletons.

You watch in stunned horror. Just how much resentment had this woman accumulated over her life? How can there be over 200 creatures willing to come back from the dead to kill her? The skeleton's around you are very diverse. You can see packs of wolfbeasts slowly regenerating their flesh. There are tens of humans, goblins, dwarves and even elven. There are also creatures like armored higs, bears and many small animals like squirrels, rats and rabbits.

An entire hoed of angry beasts and intelligent creatures stands around you with a single goal in all of their minds. A minute goes by and the zombies finish regenerating all of their flesh. The entire army stands in front of Alianna and a man dressed in black sorcerer robes steps forward.

Most zombies have no intelligence and only follow their wish to get revenge, but you notice intelligence in the eyes of this one zombie. You look at the zombies face and realize who he is. He is the Warlock you killed when you saved Alianna. You look at him and he looks back with a smile.

You feel a slight sense of shame and say "I wish to apologize to you. I was blinded by my own beliefs and made a mistake." The Warlock locks at you with a smile and mumbles out "Don't worry about it. Thanks to you, I have learned how this woman got her almost immortal body."

Your eyes widen at his wording and ask "Almost?" The Warlock nods with a smile and says "Go! Find the LIV spell and disable the Grimalkin around her house. It gathers the stellar energy of the REZ constellation. This makes her practically immortal within it, but so am I! We two are the same type of creature now and will both receive the same effect, so neither I or her can kill the other. I will hold her off while you go and do what needs to be done!"

You nod your head and sheathe your sword. Without wasting any time, you run away from Alianna's house as fast and far as you can. Your WAL spell quickly becomes undone and you can hear the sound of hundreds of angry unintelligent beings stomping on the ground in hatred. The Warlock said he would hold her off, but you think he was being a bit dramatic.

Why would the Warlock need to hold her off when you have hundreds of angry beasts and human-like creatures doing it with overwhelming results. You continue running until you finally leave the confines of the grimalkin and your connection with the LIV constellation becomes restored.

You weave the stellar energy of it with your finger into the LIV spell and you feel a huge difference from the usual amount. The energy of life contained in your ring right now is enough to probably age back a human or revitalize a dying man, but you don't need it for such grandiose things.

You jump up a small distance and thrust your right fist into the ground in front of you with all of your strength. You hear a cracking sound and feel the massive amount of stellar energy, that was contained within the grimalkin go wild and rush back to the REZ constellation stars.

You quickly rush back to the place you left Alianna at and see a pile of corpses slowly turning into dust, while Alianna and the Warlock are fighting. The Warlock notices you and says with a smile "You might have killed me, so I ask for a favor from you. Complete my life's work. Kill this woman and cure this Forest of her!"

You nod and the stellar energy of LIV on your blade intensifies as you get closer to Alianna. She tries to run away, but the Warlock catches her in a bear hug so tight she can barely move. You jump at the two of the and your sword directly pierces the skulls of both of them. No blood is spilled, but the Warlock's body begins to dissipate and turn into dust, while Alianna stares at you with resentment.

"You! You! You! You just had to butt in and destroy everything I have worked on! You horrible creature! I will make sure you don't leave this Forest alive today!" The crazed woman rushes at you with her claws and you stare at her. You swing your sword one last time with a 9 power strong attack and manage to chop off her head before she can even come close to you.

Her body falls to the ground and begins to dissipate along with the Warlock's body. You have rid the Meddiki Forest of the creature plaguing it. Now everything can become much more normal. The occasional undead might spring up from the concentrated amount of stellar energy of REZ in the Meddiki Forest, but there is nothing you can do about the stars. You have lost 4 stamina, decent fight.

You finally get back onto your way and head out of the Meddiki Forest. And head for your next location, the town of Dhumpus.