76. Necromancy

Serac ignored her [Hunger] in favor of her curiosity. But as eager as she was to turn the fight into an experiment, her test subjects had other ideas. Especially now that they had numbers on their side. With three Ulvknalls all emptying their 'pockets' at the same time, the forest clearing was quickly obscured by thick sprays of dirt.

"Ptoop! Thpfft!"

Blinded by tears and reeling from the sheer indignity of pocket sand, Serac failed to react in time as one bulbous paw sliced down and raked her across the chest.

[221!]

[Wayfarer Status Effect: LESSER BLEED]

A not insignificant damage, accompanied by an annoying DoT effect. Bleed? I thought I'd left all that behind in Naraka! The saving grace was that it was of the [Lesser] variety. It meant the [Lesser Regen] from Froggy canceled it out, which also meant Serac could forget about it and concentrate on fighting back.

And fight back she did, together with her Manusya companion. By now, the two of them had extensive experience as a smiting tag team—enough to have adopted certain patterns of action without the need for verbal communication. One such pattern was their reaction to being outnumbered. Their first priority: reduce the enemy's numbers.

To that end, they promptly ganged up on one of the three Ulvknalls, the most obvious target being the one that had already revealed itself. First, Zacko barged into it with [Pauldron] to knock it off-balance. It prevented the Ulvknall from diving back into the cover of its own pocket sand, which in turn allowed Serac to hit it with the full force of her triple burst.

[124!], [124!], [124!] -> [372!]

She would've laid a fourth bullet into the same Ulvknall, were it not for its packmate jumping in from the side for a swipe at the action. Serac instinctively spun toward the intrusion and blocked with PULVERIZER ([51!]), before emptying Chamber Six into the newcomer's slavering muzzle ([124!] plus a handful of chipped teeth!).

With the first set of Cartridges fully spent, it was time to field-test yet another upgrade to Serac's kit—this one of a more mechanical persuasion. Thanks to Bea Sattva's Speedloader System™, REVOLVER's spare Cartridges sat in neat bundles of six. All a gunslinger needed to do was unclip a bundle and slide the whole thing into the open cylinder—all in one smooth motion.

Full reload, lightning quick. Serac went right back to blasting, with nary a pause in between cylinders, now rolling away from the second Ulvknall to turn her focus back onto the first. Perfect timing. Zacko had managed to Poise-break the target in the space it'd taken Serac to speedload her gun. And its remaining HP was little enough that she could take it out in one critical hit.

[Chamber One: EMBALMER]

This time, the image Serac used as inspiration was that of a skeleton soldier rising from the dead. Along with a flat hit of self-damage ([100!]), REVOLVER spat out an onyx-colored pellet, which then exploded into bone dust upon impact.

[326!]

The bone dust rapidly coated the Ulvknall's body in pale-gray—muscles, fur, jaws and all. The phenomenon was all too familiar for a Wayfarer who'd had her fill of the Bone Lord and his dead-raising magic. Except now, she was in the driver's seat, and that fact alone delighted her to no end.

The freshly dead Ulvknall rose again as an [Enlisted Husk], and the first thing it did was… throw more pocket sand! It did so in the direction of its packmates—a clear indication that REVOLVER's magic had worked as intended. The 2v3 had (at least for the next 12 seconds or so) flipped around in the Wayfarers' favor.

"Go, Temporary Wolf Pal, I choose you!"

The [Enlisted] Ulvknall also chose—an opponent, that is. It dove head-first for the closest packmate, which, ironically enough, had been the one to come to its rescue only moments ago. Two wolf monsters clashed amidst the settling sand, claws against claws and jaws snapping at each other's throats.

Serac and Zacko reacted quickly, again bypassing verbal cues. As far as they were concerned, the [Enlisted] Ulvknall was simply a new addition to their team, which meant their 'strategy' remained the same. Hunt as a pack. Whittle down the mob, one individual at a time.

Zacko jumped into the fray with a [Lance] gap-closer before pinning the living Ulvknall into the ground with a downward [Cestus]. To this, Serac piled on with an unimbued triple burst, shaving the enemy's Health down to its last sliver. Finally, Temporary Wolf Pal stole both Wayfarers' thunder by dealing the smiting blow—a vicious swipe to tear out its packmate's innards, along with the last of its HP.

[840 क]

One 'autonomous' Ulvknall still remained. It sought to avenge its mates (and punish the traitor in their midst) by first dipping into ol' reliable—pocket sand to mask its approach. Serac snapped her eyes shut and countered with a couple of blind shots. Firstly to make the enemy think twice about coming in too close, and secondly to cycle out her cylinder.

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Speedload. Back to Chamber One. By the time Serac could see again, the Ulvknall was locked in a fierce tussle with the 'Huskbound' traitor, making it impossible to aim for one of them with any degree of accuracy. She hesitated, but only for a Ksana, before steeling her softie heart and committing to her best course of action.

[Chamber One: CATHARSIS]

She couldn't reliably hit one of the wolves, but she could certainly set both of them on fire. Serac dipped into an ol' reliable of her own, trading 20% of her Max Health ([235!]) for what was still the highest-DPS spell in her growing arsenal.

[136!], [206!], [412!] -> [754!]

The black flames of Penitence were too hot for an [Enlisted Husk] to handle, as Temporary Wolf Pal melted into Souldust (it was nice knowing you!). Its flesh-bound counterpart was no better off, as it dropped to the ground, Poise-broken. All a perfect set-up for Serac's other teammate—he of the more permanent variety—to deal the smiting blow: a gleeful [Blade] into the wolf monster's neck.

[840 क]

[560 क]

Even after the fight had ended, there was more for Serac to learn about her own spells. [840 क] twice, and [560 क] for that last one. That means I receive the bonus if it's my [Enlisted Husk] that finishes off the Aberrant. And when the [Husk] itself dies, that also counts as my smiting blow.

And even though the immediate threat had been dealt with, Serac refused to let down her guard. There was no telling what manner of ill-intentioned creatures still hid in the thickets, and she still didn't know enough about Pretjord to be complacent. Not unless—

"That. Was. INCREDIBLE!"

Not unless the local guide himself gave the cue to relax. Petter Svensen hopped higher and skipped faster than ever as he rejoined the Wayfarers, beaming from earhole to earhole.

"Miss Serac! Mr Zacarias!" The mackerel man proceeded to jump around the whole clearing, looking for all the world like he possessed infinite Stamina. "You don't understand what this means to me! All my life… all I ever wanted… and to think I got to witness Wayfaring magic inches from my scales! I can die happy now, knowing nothing else could match the—the—magnificence of what I experienced today… in this life or the next…"

"I'm, uh, happy for you?" Serac said uncertainly, more than a little taken aback by Petter's zeal. "But maybe just tone it down some? How do we know there aren't more of them wolf things waiting around the corner?"

"On that count, you have nothing to worry about!" Petter stopped on a dime and puffed out his chest. "I haven't been idle while you two fought; there's nothing to trouble us for as far as I can read the ripples."

"You sure about that, Pete?" Zacko cut in then, finally sounding a little more like his usual self. "Not that I don't believe you, but I'm not one to trust so easily in things I can't see. Still, I take it our 'mission' is complete, as far as the townspeople are concerned. And all thanks to your handy little spell, Princess. Never thought I'd see the day where I'd be working with a bona fide necromancer. Or should I say… Bone-a fide?"

Serac snorted, then regretted it immediately. Her reaction had given Zacko's awful 'joke' far more credit than it'd deserved, but she supposed she could forgive herself her moment of weakness. After all, [Hunger] could make anyone a little loopy. Speaking of which…

"So, what should I do with this?"

Serac referred, of course, to her [Harvest] from the first smite of the fight. The Ulvknall liver continued to hover in the air, remarkably untouched by the battle that had raged all around it. It looked as repulsive as ever, and Serac hesitated to even touch it.

"Oh, that's easy, miss!" Petter piped up, eager to be of use. "You ought to take it back to the market and trade it. It'll net you boatloads of lesser ingredients, I'm sure. More than enough to keep you and Mr Zacarias well-fed for days if not weeks."

"Or"—Zacko again—"we could just eat it ourselves. Right here, right now."

Petter sputtered, round-eyed and speechless. Serac, oddly enough, met the Manusya's even gaze with a nod of approval.

It turned out she'd just been thinking the same thing. Yes, the liver looked disgusting as it was, but if someone else were willing to handle it, she'd gladly try its culinarily elevated version. Maybe it was just the [Hunger] making her loopy, but right now, a hot meal sounded orders of magnitude more enticing than a profitable trade. And besides—

"Oh, don't look so shocked on our behalf, Pete," Zacko continued. "You just saw us 'cook', so you know we're capable of rustling up more Ulvknall livers anytime we want. And besides, don't you wanna try it?"

If Petter had been shocked by Zacko's earlier remark, he clearly found its sequel downright scandalous.

"M—m—me, mister? Try the Ulvknall liver? B—b—but I didn't do anything to deserve it!"

"I think you did plenty, Petey!" Serac chimed in, giving her Manusya partner a thumb-up as she did. "You were the perfect guide, and an even better cheerleader! We'd love for you to share a meal with us."

The mackerel man still looked far from convinced. He took a hesitant step back, as if terrified by the very idea that a pair of Wayfarers wanted to include him in their victory.

"Enough with this pauper act," Zacko insisted, now with a note of impatience. "I'm sure you have your reasons for being so overly humble, and I won't pry as to what they might be. But sometimes, you just gotta say 'no' to that part of your brain that keeps telling you 'no', and instead say 'fuck yes' to what life offers up on a silver platter. Or, I guess in this case a floating invisible platter, but that only proves my point. It's up to you, Pete. Do you wanna make this magnificent day of yours even more unforgettable, or what?"

Serac first did a double take, giving Zacko a look as if to say: where did that come from? She then turned back to Petter with what she hoped to be an encouraging smile.

It took the timid Yaksha several more moments to argue with the part of his brain that kept telling him 'no'. In the end, however, his mackerel mouth with its surprisingly sharp teeth split into a wide, assertive grin as he announced:

"In that case, Wayfarers, I'll take you up on your generous offer. You've already shown me how you cook, so now, it's my turn to return the favor."

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