Rise of the Supreme Necromancer-Chapter 86: Not Running

The inquisitors ran through the tall grass toward Aleric, while his Black Riders charged at them, lowering their spears for an attack. For a moment, there was an illusion that the Black Riders would crush the inquisitors under their sheer mass.

Ahead, the cleric finished reciting a spell.

"Begone, fiends! Take the chance to strike down their master, brothers!" she said, raising a palm toward the charging riders.

"Dodge!" Aleric shouted.

The riders tried, and the hooves of their horses threw aside clumps of soil as they tried to turn around. But they were too large and too heavy.

From the cleric’s hand, flew a bolt of pure Light, striking the front horse of the Black Rider and exploding with white fire! The explosion caught the horse’s rider and another horse nearby, setting their dead flesh on fire and almost destroying their binding spells.

Both Black Riders fell to the ground, still moving, but barely. The horses that followed behind were forced to jump over their comrades; another horse stumbled and fell with a crunch of bones. Its rider rolled out of the saddle, but immediately rose to his feet.

Ahead, two more inquisitors were charging with blessed weapons. The clash was imminent.

In a split second, Aleric realized one thing.

In a match-up of four Black Riders in scale armor and ring mail against two inquisitors in plate and one in partial plate...

The Black Riders were going to lose, and it wasn’t even a question!

Aleric would be lucky if they took out even one inquisitor before being destroyed. If they were just ordinary people with ordinary weapons, the story would’ve been different.

And he already knew what his own chances were in a direct fight. He didn’t even have the Spine Staff!

The defeat and death were imminent... A deep sense of panic came over Aleric. His instincts screamed at him to run and hide.

Like a mouse from the hawk.

Like a rabbit from the wolf.

Like an animal and prey.

"NO!" Aleric shouted, pulling a dagger from the sheath on his belt. "Die, curs!"

He slashed his left palm. The powerful blood of a death-touched poured out and was immediately set alight by Dark energy Aleric was gathering.

"Tutkeeri heikiva upsottti hilpetu hirvko kirollinen helvei vih!"

This spell was one of the two second-rank curses taught to Aleric by Krenn—the Shared Curse of Weakness. Blood of the necromancer wasn’t necessary for it, but it made the spell stronger.

Now it flew toward the three inquisitors ahead with three thick tendrils of Dark magic, clutched their innards, and made them stumble in their steps. The inquisitors felt their limbs growing heavy as if they had run ten miles in their armor.

Maria and Irkan immediately began gathering Light energy from their raw mana to counteract the curse, but the third inquisitor, Karill, wasn’t a mage.

He stopped in place and began raising his shield to meet a charge from a Black Rider. But the curse made him too slow. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The Black Rider’s spear was about to hit him, when—

Thunk!

—A blessed arrow hit him in the neck, piercing the mail coif and burning through the entire neck. The rider’s body fell, while the horse stumbled in its steps. Karill hit it with his blessed flail, but his hit was too weak for any real damage.

Aleric saw that the cleric had counteracted his curse already and was reading a new prayer-spell.

He also knew that there were many more arrows in that archer’s quiver.

With this thought, Aleric ordered his horse to turn around.

"Retreat!" he shouted, ducking low. "Retreat!"

An arrow flew an inch over Aleric’s head, and he ducked so low that he couldn’t see anything except his horse’s mane.

Behind him, Irkan tried to hit the nearest Black Rider with his sword, but the Curse of Weakness gave them just enough time to regroup and turn around to follow Aleric. The rider without a horse jumped into the saddle of the horse without a rider, and now there were four riders.

"Shoot them down! Get our horses and don’t let him escape! We won’t get another chance at this!" Irkan shouted.

’That’s right, you fucking won’t!’ Aleric thought venomously, raising his head and turning around to glance at them.

He could see where they were running right now.

Aleric put a bloody hand on the hilt of the Ghost Blade, pouring a bit of extra mana into the ghost and the sword. The apparition moved without its usual howls this time—Aleric made sure of it.

Following Aleric’s order, it flew through the ground, where it was protected even from Light magic, and toward the horses that the inquisitors left at a distance.

Each of the inquisitors had enough holy water on themselves to destroy the ghost ten times over, but their horses were entirely defenseless, and the ghost was fast.

In a dozen seconds, Aleric heard distant shouts of alarm. The ghost did its work, killing all four horses, and retreated to the sword.

Aleric smirked, imagining the faces of the inquisitors.

’This will win me time. I could even flee back to my army... But I won’t. Let them follow me. Let us fight... But in circumstances of MY choosing.’

The ancient graveyard was full of corpses, and the area had a lot of lingering Dark energy for Aleric to gather.

’And when I kill the inquisitors, I will ask them who has taken the Bone Crown and how they knew that I was going to take it now!’

Another arrow flew after him, but hit only the horse of a Black Rider, slowing it down. Seeing how wide off his arrow went, Farlan lowered his bow and ran toward his comrades.

Irkan was staring at the dead horses lying thirty feet away. The inquisitors didn’t even get close by the time the ghost killed them.

"We still must take chase. This is our chance to end this all!" Irkan said. "Maria... Can you?... Possibly?.."

"I will need your power and your faith, brother—all of them! There’s just enough time... The souls of these horses will be reborn in Light!"