Chapter 16: Chapter 15- Brutality

Flying is one of man’s oldest desires. Alright, maybe not one of the oldest, but my point still stands: a lot of people would love to fly. Now, you are here for one reason: to learn how to fly. Other than us, the only others who can fly are metamages who spend decades deriving mana types to finally unlock the trick of gravity or something like that. 

Actually, tamers can tame flying monsters, but they don’t count.

So, instead of spending decades on metamagic, you decided to take matters into your own hands and chose [Back WIngs] as your Trait. But when you tried to fly, you found your wings lacking. That’s normal. For now, I will guarantee this: you will all be proud winged fighters by the end of your stay here. Welcome to Filus’ Flight Academy!

-257 P.C. Orientation speech for Filus’ Flight Academy

 

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“Hey,” Mori called out, “I think some of them are flying…” she said. Staring out into the horizon, she saw a dozen armored silhouettes ascend from the boat-like skiff and make a dash towards them. “So… what should I do? Burn them out of the sky?” 

Fara squinted and stared at the oncoming flying pirates, “If you want, but they might have a flying mage with them; they’re quite rare, but you never know.” Mori nodded and held up her palm. A simple sigil appeared on her hand and filled with mana, shooting out after a moment. A fireball sailed over the sand and into the small crowd of flying warriors, barely missing them and sailing over the pirate’s skiff. Grumbling, she created a new sigil and fired it out towards the pirates. A beam of light shot towards the flock, but missed once more. Another beam shot, and clipped one of the pirate’s wings. The armored figure began to fall, but slowed themselves enough to land on the approaching skiff without being lost in the sand.

In response, the flock of fighters rained inaccurate bullets around them. Mori scoffed and created another sigil on her palm. A thin brown barrier formed around them and slammed into the few bullets that were about to hit them. The bullets slowed and fell to the sand, trampled under the skiff’s movement. Mori held her other hand up and decided to try and stretch her limits. Three sigils appeared around her bony hand and sent beams of light into the flock of gunmen. 

Two were hit dead on and a third was clipped, all of them falling only to be caught by the ship. “Mori, you’re going to have to get in close…” Fara said nervously.

“Yeah, no,” she refused, “They have a full broadside of cannons and until we take care of that, then we're outta luck.” Another three sigils appeared around her hand and shot another trio of beams at the flying fighters. Prepared for the attack, they all dodged out of the way and let the beams pass them by. Finally realizing how bad of an idea grouping up was, they scattered and approached Mori and Fara from all sides, firing their guns wildly as they went.

Growling, Mori raised her hand above their heads and let the brown shield envelop them. Bullets pinged off the shield one after another as they went, but it held firm. Fara eventually looked at Mori, “Hey, can I shoot through it?” she asked, “You know I’m a pretty good shot, so…”

“Gimme a minute,” she said, creating a second sigil and bringing down the first one. She recreated it, adding many more elements, and casted it. Just as she did, a system message popped up.

[You have cast your first spell with 7 or more components. Experience has been awarded.]

“All set! Fire away!” Mori shouted, laughing. Fara nodded and pulled her rifle up to her shoulder and aimed down sights. She pulled the trigger and sent a round flying out of the shield and into the forehead of a particularly annoying flying gunman. The man recoiled from the force and fell a few dozen feet to the sand dead. “Bring me close to him for a second! Let’s give these bastards a taste of their own medicine!” The skiff veered off and ran right by the dead flying man. Now closer to the man, Mori took notice of his reptilian wings, scaly arms and legs, and vertical slit eyes. With a wave of mana, she reanimated the corpse, receiving the normal system message, but mentally ordered it to stay down and wait.

Unfortunately, she was not telepathic and could not give the newly raised zombie orders before it leapt up and took to the skies. Echos of terrified cries rang out across the sand, shouts of ‘necromancer’ following them. “Not what you wanted, I’m guessing?” Fara asked, amused. 

“Not at all,” Mori grumbled, “I swear, I’m going to look for a way to quickly order these guys around as soon as I can. For all the system says about Unio, he’s pretty smart. Smarter than little dragon over there, anyway.”

Fara laughed, “Little dragon? What, the winged lizard-human hybrid? Also, you finally decided Unio is a he?”

“Yeah, I know, but he’s like an affectionate puppy sometimes. Whatever. For now, let’s go on the offensive. Bring us closer to the next flier and I’ll raise ‘em,” she ordered.

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“Whatever you say, boss!” Fara laughed as she steered them entirely around and aimed at the next flying pirate. The next one, a woman with a reptilian face, panicked and tried to flee. A blast of light from Mori pierced through her chest and brought her down to the sand. Mori raised her bony hand and raised the woman’s corpse, letting her take flight and follow the first zombie in making strafing runs on the remaining flying gunmen. 

Seeing their comrades getting picked off, the ship-skiff that had began to circle the two women turned and let loose a broadside. Balls of stone flew across the sky and hurtled towards the women, but Fara was ready. She turned the skiff, drifting across the sand, and shot towards the boat, “Mori, you want to board?” she asked.

Mori eyed the woman with concern burning in her eyes, “Will you be alright?” 

“Of course, I will. Just get out there and kill some of them. Get ready!” Soon, they were upon the ship and Mori took a final look at Fara before whispering to Unio. The slime hopped off her head and stuck to Fara’s undead helmet just as Mori shot her grappling hook at the side of the pirate skiff. The lich wasted no time in reeling herself in, launching her body over the side of the railing and landing on an unfortunate pirate. With a small blast of fire she burned his head down to the bone, killing him in an instant. 

His death throes were not quite, however, and the other pirates already saw her and Fara approach. All of them aimed their rifles and revolvers at Mori and fired, sending bullets flying at her. She used her shield to block the bullets, stopping them in midair and slowing them down. After a moment, the crew got a good look at her and, no matter if they had human skin or lizard scales, paled. “I-It’s a lich!” a young man shouted, firing his rusty revolver at her. She dodged and took cover behind one of the masts of the skiff. 

As she began to craft a sigil, the voice of an older man called out from the group of pirates, “Lich! What’d you want!? You bust ont’ ma ship, kill me crew, and raise ‘em as undead, and don’t even give yur name! So, what’s a crazed lich doing on ma boat?” the confident voice asked.

She snickered, and laughed out loud. She heard many of the pirates step back in fear at her laugh, but she found it enjoyable, “You attacked me first, cutthroat. I just came aboard to return the favor!” she proclaimed, launching a full-speed death bolt around the corner. She heard gasps as she followed, and wanted to grin when the pirates stumbled back in a panic. As her mana sunk into the corpse of the pirate, she pulled her revolver from her gauntlet. Speeding her mind to its limit, she looked around at the pirates that surrounded her. 

In all, around 40 pirates surrounded her. Most of them wore no armor, the best piece being scrap armor worn by the presumed captain, and they mostly carried poorly maintained rifles, pistols, and shotguns. A few carried swords and shields with the captain, a large reptilian man likely in his forties, brandishing a well maintained, clocksteel halberd. 

Thinking quickly, she weaved a rune in her hand and slammed it into her revolver’s first chamber. With a flick of her wrist, she shot the runed bullet, letting it fly at the head of the captain. The man saw it coming, raising the axe blade of his halberd to block the bullet. Before it struck, the bullet burst, sending shrapnel into the pirates around the captain. A few were killed, immediately raised by the wave of mana Mori followed the bullet with. 

Some of the pirates stumbled back in fright, but others like the captain immediately began to hack into the newly risen zombies. Their captain’s bravery inspired the pirates, some of whom attacked the undead while others focused on Mori. While the pirates were rallying Mori had gotten in front of a shotgun-wielding pirate, ready to kill. Holstering her revolver once more, she turned her fingers into sharpened spikes and drove her hand into the man’s eyes. He screamed in pain, but fell silent a moment later when she crushed his brain into pulp. Running her death mana into his head, he immediately stood tall and aimed a shot at the closest crewmember, firing a blast of lead.

The man fell over dead, his chest shot clean through. Another wave of death mana washed over the man’s body, raising him as a zombie. Mori turned just in time to block the heavy slash of the captain’s halberd, clashing with her gauntlet, “You should have run while you could…” he said eerily, “As soon as I crush your arms and legs, I’m going to get that woman and have my way with her. You’re going to watch while I do whatever I want with her, and there will be nothing you can do,” he muttered, shoving her back. Hearing his words, Mori stopped for a moment, the flames in her eyes dimming. Seeing her, the captain laughed a cruel laugh, “What? Are you afraid?” he taunted, “Are you going to cry? Well, maybe you shouldn’t have-”

“You should not have said that,” Mori stated, her eyes blazing with rage. Her grappling hook shot out to her side, surprising the man when it wrapped around his legs. The line suddenly reeled and the man fell onto the ground. 

Mori took out her revolver and shot him through the knee, getting little more than a grunt from him. The bullet dug into his knee, but shallowly, as he pulled his leg from Mori and tried to stand up. A tug of war ensued, Mori’s natural strength competing with his Traits. After a long minute, she raised her palm and shot a beam of light out and into his chest. Mana flickered as a shroud of darkness surrounded him, absorbing the light and leaving him unscathed. WIth an angry growl, Mori spun another sigil and shot a lance of fire into the shroud. 

Seeing the lance, the captain cut the grappling hook line with his sword and dodged backwards, missing the lance by a hair's breadth. With a shout, the captain charged Mori, shield raised and sword ready to slash her body into two. The lizardman leapt, slashing down on her with his blade. Mori, seeing the prospect of losing an arm for long as worse, took the blow with her skull. The blade cleaved into her head, splitting bone down until her nose. Seeing Mori’s skull split, the captain laughed, “Should’ve just given up…” he said. Before he could remove his blade, she whipped a hand up and gripped his wrist. He winced but tried to pull his hand away, but did not notice the sigil spun on her palm.

Another lance of fire roared out, cutting through the captain’s shroud of shadow like butter and digging into his side. The pain stunned the man, letting Mori punch him in the jaw and send him tumbling to the ground. He coughed, trying to get up, but Mori was upon him first. With a quick movement, she slammed a pointed, bony fist into his eye. He grunted in pain, ready for it but still affected. The man looked Mori in the eyes, “Go on then. Fucking torture me,” he growled.

Mori looked into his eyes, seeing stubborn defiance, and shook her head, “I will not. As much as I want to and as much as you deserve it, I have to stop eventually. If I keep going, what makes me different from you?” she asked, “Either way, I have no doubts that you have done terrible things in your life. For that, you must die.” The man tried to give an angry response, but was met by a dozen fire lances through the brain. 

The lich known as Mori lowered her gauntlet and looked into the man’s remaining eye, glassy and lifeless, but still showing the rage he felt upon death. With the death of the captain, Mori was free to observe the battle she had started. Where the band of pirates once stood, a sea of corpses and death met her. Some were pinned against walls by swords, others were filled with bullet holes, but they were all dead. Only two undead survived, badly injured and with limbs missing. Mori sighed, “'Well begun is half done.’ Does that fit? Maybe…” she mused. Looking out at the open desert, she found every flying pirate, risen or not, dead and fallen onto the sand and Fara speeding over to the still-moving boat. 

With a sigh of relief she, with great effort, wove five sigil spells together and sent five death bolts scouring the pile of corpses. Before long, she had seven undead standing at attention, waiting for orders, “Figure out how to stop this thing,” she ordered, “And bring anyone else on the ship to me. If they resist, don’t hurt them.” With their orders received, the undead went to fulfil their task. “'No peace for the wicked.’ That one definitely works,” she chuckled to herself, “Gotta see what Fara wants to do with scaly rapist over there. I’m not raising him as an undead…” she muttered, “Nah, I’m burning the bastard and leaving it at that.”

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