Chapter 2: Shambling Mounds (Edited)

The only problem with having living flesh, was that it behaved as such. Khorag was starting to sweat, and he didn't like it. He'd been walking for a few hours, his stamina was infinite, so at least he wouldn't grow tired. He cast low grade ice armor around himself, forming a thin layer of flexible ice on his skin that looked like scales. It was an elementary spell; most mages would learn first thing. It provided good defense at a very low mana cost, helping to keep them alive. The chill from the ice armor cooled his living body down enough to stop sweating.

He could have changed the makeup of his artificial body to just not have sweat glands, but each individual thing he changed would cause unknown side effects on other parts of his body. If he edited out sweat glands, then his skin would look unnaturally smooth. He didn't want that, so could only cast the ice armor spell.

While walking, he took in his surroundings. What was wide open plains before, now was a lush forest, full of wildlife. Tall trees were dominant, towering over him at hundreds of feet tall. He figured that a forest this size would need at least a few hundred years to grow. He was certain that the war would be over by now, he just didn't know who had won. The undead winning or losing didn't concern him, he really just cared about his research and finding new things to study. Although the undead winning would make his travels much easier.

After walking for a few more hours, and not finding any signs of civilization, he decided to cast a life detection spell hoping to find some clues. An invisible pulse radiated from him in the shape of a sphere. Be it buried in the ground, to flying high in the sky, any living thing within one mile would be revealed to him, at least that was what was supposed to happen. The sphere expanded much further than one mile, continuing on for twenty miles until he willed it to stop. He didn't know how far it could reach but decided to evaluate his new potential at another time because he had found what he was looking for.

He quickly summoned a skeletal horse, emerging out of the ground, pushing out a large mound of dirt as it did so. Its bones still had bits of flesh and fur clinging to them like macabre tassels swinging with each movement of the nightmarish horse. Purple flames were licking the edges of its hollow eye sockets, standing out against the ever-approaching darkness of night.

Khorag pat the skull of the undead mount, eliciting a snort of flame that lit up the surroundings. He mounted his summons and started off in the direction of the lifeforce he sensed. He found several humans about ten miles away, they were stationary, most likely setting up camp for the night. The only odd thing he sensed was the minute number of magical beasts.

Magical beasts, or 'monsters' as humans called them, were any creature that had been mutated by mana. They ranged from goblins to dragons, from treants to fairies. He sensed a gaggle of goblins deep inside the forest, a few treants here and there, but that was all. Before he started his research, you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a monster. Now, there seemed to be very few, at least around here.

After galloping through the forest, he was approaching the group of people. He dismounted his steed, dropping onto the forest floor. He wanted to walk up to the group, if he rode in on his nightmare steed it was certain to cause problems. He smoothed out the wrinkles on his black robe before blending into the night and making his way over to them.

There were more than twenty people, mostly sitting around a fire, some setting up tents. Several carriages were parked nearby and the horses pulling them were eating out of feed bags around their snouts. Some of the people had on armor, and swords were hanging from their hips, they were the ones that were mostly setting up tents or patrolling the area. The others looked like merchants, with fancy clothes and accessories.

"Halt, who goes there?" A guard said, unsheathing his sword as Khorag approached from the dark forest.

Khorag put on his biggest, most sincere smile, trying to ignore the sensation of his skin stretching. He held up one hand and waved, disarming any hostility.

"Hello there, friend. I'm just a lone mage, trying to find the closest city. I was hoping you fine people could help me out." He said, his voice cracking slightly.

He chose to reveal himself as a mage, they were highly respected, and would allow him to receive preferential treatment. In his time, mages weren't rare, almost anyone could become one, it just required a little effort. Unsurprisingly though, many people couldn't stick with it, limiting the number of mages. Either way, once you were one, people would respect you.

"Mage my hairy ass." The man said as a few more of his comrades joined him, surrounding Khorag.

The smile instantly disappeared from his face, this was his first human interaction, it wasn't off to a good start.

"If you're a mage, what are you doing tromping through the forest at this time of day? Mages are holed up in their ivory towers, sucking the life out of us common folk." The man asked, anger clear in his voice. The others were nodding in agreement, their hands on their weapons.

"Things must have really changed." Khorag mumbled to himself, furrowing his brows.

"What'd you say? Huh? We don't need you here, you can walk your happy ass back into the forest." He shouted, the other men unsheathing their swords.

"Haaaa, it can't be helped." Khorag said, faux disappointment on his face.

He slammed his staff into the ground in front of him then lifted both his hands parallel to the ground on either side of the staff. The staff stayed erect, standing by itself. This scene caused the guards to back off a step, their hair rising up on the back of their necks. Without any more movement from Khorag, the ground to either side of him started to swell. The dirt raising up into two small hills, about six feet high.

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Two monstrosities emerged from the soil. They were over seven feet tall, hulking bodies bent over with their forelimbs on the ground. Their bodies were made of vines and leaves, gaping maws filled with sharp thorns, dripping sap as they opened and closed. Colorful mushrooms sprouted from atop their heads, releasing poisonous spores into the night air.

"Leave one alive." Khorag said in his original voice, booming in the still night air.

Taking large steps forward, the two shambling mounds dug their vines into the forest floor. The guards back stepped in horror, some even dropping their swords in an attempt to run away. The ones that ran were killed first, the vines erupted from the ground, entwining them. Small roots sprouted from the vines, digging into their flesh. They screamed in pain as their bodily fluids were sucked from their bodies.

Their comrades could only look on helplessly as they were used as fertilizer for the monsters. The bodies now devoid of any moisture, were brittle, and began to fall apart. Overtaken by anger, the remaining six guards rushed the monsters, striking at the vines with their swords. The swords cut deep into the vines, severing many of them. Seeing progress, they attacked even more fervently, but with each breath, only brought themselves closer to death.

The spores from the mushrooms growing on the shambling mounds had filled the air. The guards started to strain to breath, soon, they halted their desperate attacks, clutching their chests. Dropping to their knees, coughing, gasping for air, their eyes went wide with pain. It felt as if their bodies were being devoured from the inside out, and that was exactly what was happening. The spores used the warm, moist environment of their lungs to germinate. Growing rapidly, they put significant outward pressure on their bodies.

In synchronizing explosions, their chests burst open from the pressure, blood spewing in all directions. Their ribs spread wide like a bouquet of bones, vibrantly colored mushrooms rapidly blooming from the inside. As the bodies were overtaken by the mushrooms, the vines that were severed had already regrown, putting the shambling mounds back in fighting condition.

There were only a few more guards left standing, shaking, trying to put up a strong front. They were standing in front of the merchants who were trembling equally. The shambling mounds moved closer and closer to their prey, performing the orders they were given.

In a few more minutes, only one merchant was left alive. Khorag decided to question a merchant, figuring they would be more enlightened about the current state of the world. He was kneeling on the ground, surrounded by the withered husks of his friends and guards they had hired. Tears streamed from his eyes, staining the ground as they fell. He couldn't control his shaking, taking short breaths between each sob.

"P. p. pplease...don't...k.k. kkill me." He squeaked out, in a barely audible voice.

"We'll start with an easy one. What year is it?" Khorag asked, completely ignoring the pleas of the sobbing man.

"P. p. pplease...don't...k.k. kkill me." The man repeated in the same tone, clearly in shock.

Khorag rubbed the bridge of his nose, if he could get headaches he would have one right now. The man in front of him was a mess, interrogating him wouldn't tell him a thing. He was also almost positive that the man had defecated in his pants but didn't want to get close enough to find out for sure.

"Eh, whatever." He said in defeat, before placing his fleshy hand on the man's forehead, at arm's length of course.

He started to use magic to read the man's mind. It was much easier than playing twenty questions but could only tell him the man's more recent memories, nothing too deep. The other side effect would be that the man's brain would turn to mush as the mana ripped the memories from the neurons. The man started to convulse, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head, showing the whites of his eyes.

After a minute or so, he got what he wanted. He took his hand away, allowing the man to fall to the ground, dying. Khorag started to rub his chin in thought, he learned a little from the man, but not a whole lot. It had been two-thousand years since he had last graced the surface, quite a bit longer than what he had thought.

The undead king must have lost the war, there were no memories associated with the undead. The lack of monsters worried him as well, the man had never encountered any, at least in recent memory. Scanning that man's sorry excuse for a brain, only gave him more questions than answers. The most useful piece of information was that the nearest city was only a day's horse ride away.

Making up his mind, Khorag looted the corpses of the fallen, taking any coins he could find. He wasn't lacking money, not in the least, but he couldn't go around spending gold coins that had been out of circulation for the last two millennia.

Standing back up and patting his robe to dislodge any dirt that might have found its way onto it, Khorag unsummoned the two shambling mounds. The vines that made up their bodies slowly and silently melded into the forest floor.

Instead of summoning a flying mount, he decided to 'liberate' one of the horses from the recently deceased. The horse was a little unruly, but soon gave in to Khorag's charm… spell.. Without a look back at the mound of corpses behind him, Khorag and horse made their way down the dark and empty road.

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