A Guide to Kingdom Building

Her wounds slowly closed and the borrowed power began to surge within her. She felt lighter and stronger than ever before. With the use of her new-found powers, she went on to disperse a wide part of the fog by a stomp of her feet. Pulses of light emitted from her and it pushed the darkness away from her radius, giving her a better sense of vision of the place.

The elf checked on her unconscious comrades first. She wanted to make sure that they won't suffer the same fate as what the turned did. She quickly checked them for any wounds or bite marks caused by the filthy Obscuros that entered the barrier when it broke.

She also renewed the protective runes she had written on their chests, fortifying the defense. She emitted another pulse of light and cleared another huge area of the seal. There she saw Lord Prestonheim being overwhelmed by three Obscuros feeding at him, trying to tear him apart.

She used the pulsing light once again to kill the monsters from the dark. She turned around and looked for the dwarf. But there was no sign of him. She pulsated some light again, widening her vision, and there in the distance she saw the dwarf kneeling while a hulking Obscuros slowly wrapped its filthy tentacles around him.

Confident with her powers, the elf strode towards them but suddenly, she felt something bumped into her. She was thrown far from the dwarf's silhouette without knowing who did it to her.

She stood up and dusted herself. She looked around and even released a few more pulses of light to see if something was near her—there was none. She rushed back to help her friend but this time she was flung outside the barrier.

She was greeted with hordes of undead knights standing right in front of her, growling and thirsty for blood. She pulsated a huge wave of light towards the undead knights, but it did not hurt them. The baffled elf tried once more and to her surprise, the knights simply shrugged it off and gave her a sardonic smile.

The elf suddenly felt dread in her situation. Her mind ran with questions on how and why these things aren't affected with her advance magic. She looked at the dead knights closely. Their eyes were dull and lackluster. Their faces were pale, but it was a different pallid compared to that of the Obscuros.

It didn't glow or stand out in the dark. Their faces did not show any signs of the large gaping maw the monsters had. There were no tentacles showing up as they opened their mouth. They were a completely different kind.

Their movements albeit staggering, had the same movement of a living person. They could move as if they were alive, their bodies weren't stiff, a sign that they were freshly killed and now newly risen. She realized that these knights were like the stories of old.

The stories of the dead rising from their graves to haunt and kill the living. The monsters that couldn't die with flame or light magic and the only way of stopping them is through decapitation. These were the so-called revenants.

Without any weapons, she knew that it would be difficult for her to go against a horde of undead warriors. She ran back towards the barrier but was stopped by a tentacle out from nowhere and was thrown further away from the barrier.

The elf was now surrounded and with nowhere to go, she was forced to fight. The hordes of undead knights raised their swords and swung towards her. With the runic enhancement she had, the elf was able to dodge with the strikes with ease.

To her the slashes slowed down as it came closer to her, giving her enough time to evade the blades at a fraction of time. She was able to dodge ten attacks all at once. Like in a trance she managed to evade the slashes and stabs in all directions, contorting her body in weird angles while simultaneously hitting her attackers with heavy kicks and punches.

Finally, she was able to create enough space for her to do wider movements, but the relentless undead came on swinging again. She caught one of the reanimated knights by the hand and disarmed his sword before cutting him into two.

With a sword on hand, the elf was now able to fend off the rushing dead in all sides, but for how long? She needed to find a good opening to get away from the trap she was placed on. After parrying a few attacks coming from the back, she managed to decapitate a few more of the undead.

The elf managed to create a wider gap enough for her to run around and jump. Unfortunately for her, the moment she tried to jump, a tentacle from the fog suddenly wrapped around her foot and dragged her back to the ground.

She laid on the ground with the sight of the undead knights surrounding her, ready to strike her down for good. As they raised their arms to stab her, the elf was quick enough to write a rune in the ground just in time for the swords to descend upon her. A small light barrier immediately activated cutting the tentacle that held her foot and pushing away the undead knights.

She heard a shriek of pain from beyond the horde's lines. It was that point she realized that there was a puppet master controlling the undead warriors. The undead knights were just a tool for the Obscuros to attack them without the consequence of suffering from light-based attacks. The cunning monsters used the other victims as both their shield and sword against them, causing more despair. Which in turn would make their blood more palatable to the monsters.

Just the thought of it sent a cold shiver down her spine. Her shield was sturdy and with her enhancement spell, it was able to last longer than it usually should. She used a fraction of her time to think of a new strategy. She still needed to save the dwarf after all, and hoping she won't be too late.

She tried getting up but began to feel faint and started to cough violently. She spat blood on the ground as she managed to control the coughing. At that point she knew, it was only a matter of time before she reached her limit.

Her body trembled as she forced herself to stand. She refused to succumb to this kind of fate. The elf used her powers to expand the shield a little further, giving her an ample space to pick up some weapons.

With two swords on hand, she finally releases the seal and incorporated her exousia to the swords. The blades emitted a shining bright light and she used it to cut the undead who stood in her way.

She used some of the remainder of her power boost to her senses, giving her the uncanny ability to detect everything moving within her surroundings. The elf was now on a hunt. As she plowed her way further down the line, she noticed the shadow shifting its position away from her.

It knew she's seeking it out. The undead hordes came rushing to her once more but this time she's being outmatched. Even with her senses greatly improved, her body could no longer stand the strain of the power boost. She quickly realized that as the blades were now starting to graze her.

Her body was quickly failing her. Her body began to hurt, and she could feel her legs cramped in defiance of every single dodge and strike that she did. But the brave elf continued her own attacks until she was able to position herself adjacent to where she felt the dwarf was.

Using one of the blades, she quickly drew a line between her and the undead warriors. She finally outsmarted the Obscuros that was stalling her. As soon as she finished with the line, she immediately activated it creating a blinding barrier of light in front of the undead.

As the puppet master screeched in pain, the elf took this opportunity to run towards his comrade inside the broken barrier. With her last amount of strength, she jumped and attacked the hulking Obscuros that slowly fed on his friend.

Her glowing blades struck the unsuspecting Obscuros through its back. It shrieked in pain and slowly dissipated into dark smoke as it let go of the dwarf. She was about to catch the dwarf from falling on the ground, but her body finally said enough.

As the dwarf fell to the ground, she went along with him. Her consciousness nearly close to a fade, but she wanted to be awake, even in her final moments. She did not want that dream anymore. The ground began more apparent to her as she slowly collapsed.

She wasn't afraid anymore. It was past that point already. All she could do was hope that this moonless night would end.