Житие Мое / Life of Mine: Глава 5

Chapter 5
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Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:04

///Straight down the road, roaring furiously was an incredible beast - huge, black, and one-eyed. Blinded by the light of the evil pupil, the child froze and did not immediately recognize that a brave knight was sitting on the monster's back, holding it tightly by the horns. The beast reared up at the sight of the boy but, tamed by a firm hand, burst into a final roar and obediently stopped.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:07

"I am a black mage. Who called for me?" There was a resounding voice.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:07

"There... dead..."

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:07

"Lead on!" the fearless sorcerer sternly ordered, grabbing his trusty staff with one hand and his magic bag with the other.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:08

The boy even thought the mage was muttering something like, "And every time it's like this," but of course, it was an audible hallucination.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:08

I couldn't read any further. Miss Fiberty was sobbing with laughter.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:05

"To write such... such..." I had many epithets for the content of the article in the Western Herald, but they were all completely obscene.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:25

"What did you want, Thomas? It's not every day a black mage stops a ghostly army!"

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:26

"What staff?! I had a cane, a cane!!! And I thought I was going to have to hit dogs with it."

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:27

"A cane and a staff are quite similar objects. They are oblong..."

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:28

"And the bag? Where did the bag come from?!"

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:28

"Magical" Miss Fiberty chuckled again.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:29

"But it will be read by mages! Black ones! And I was made to look like a complete idiot!!!"

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:30

"Don't worry. Your name isn't there. And think what they'll say about the cleaning agents afterward!"

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:31

I imagined the stern battle mages in the cleaning service leadership reading this nonsense... I laughed like a horse for ten minutes, unable to stop myself.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:32

Last week, though, the situation did not look so laughable.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:32

It started stupidly. The route shown on the map did not correspond to what was on the ground. One of the chosen roads did not exist, the other was a ruined bridge, there were no wayfarers, and in short, all the hallmarks of a bad place. Mindful of the way too brave travelers end their lives, I did not try to cross the rotten forested valley in a straight line but took a huge detour and approached my destination from the diametrically opposite direction. Thanks to the powerful engine and new tires, I was there long before dark, and you already know why my bike's headlight is always on.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:35

So, as I was driving towards evening (but it was still light enough) along a broken country lane, I saw the house described in the application and was glad that I would not have to spend the night in the field. Suddenly some kid jumps out onto the road. A motorbike is not a limousine, you can pass a pedestrian on a very narrow road, but the pleasure of it is below average. I stop and count to ten. What if he'd been hit by shields?! The slats protrude half a meter beyond the profile and they are not much softer than the hull. Thinking about it, I decide, that the guy was sent to meet me, so I ask:

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:37

"Did you call a black mage?"

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:38

Then I looked closely, and the boy was all white, shaking. His shirt and trousers were in shreds, with blood stains on the front and back. It looked like his clothes had been torn with the teeth. He looks at me and babbles:

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:40

"Dead, they all dead!"

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:38

Well, I think there's a problem here - a curse has hit someone. It's not the first time I've had one. I've seen dead bodies, it's a shame, but there's nothing I can do about it. I grab my valise and cane just in case - there are always dogs on the big estates. I pulled the tie that turned the jacket into a cloak, a purely military gimmick.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:43

"Well, show me," I tell the kid quite calmly.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:44

I remember even having time to apply a cleansing spell to myself: the owner of the manor is a man of the capital with ambition. You can't go to him in dirty rags.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:46

Why would I be nervous? I didn't know that dead guys had been slaughtering the estate for three generations and that a cleaner had been here the day before, waking up all the undead! I was walking towards the house when three of the ghouls came out to meet me. They're normal, fully-grown monsters, oozing green sap, a head taller than any human, with claws and fangs as large as any living thing in the world. And they move very, very fast, despite the time of day, and I have neither a pentagram drawn nor a flamethrower at my fingertips.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:47

Operational curses are only taught to students in the fifth year, at the very end of their studies. In the fourth year, we only practiced summoning and holding the base sign, but the death threat is fantastically accelerated learning. What a combat curse must look like, from an outsider's point of view, I knew from an incident in Prison Cove. Shaking with horror, I squeezed out some trembling form, crumpled it into the likeness of a Shadow Sickle, and with a shriek: "Hishu haru!" - I hurled it at the ghouls.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:49

Naturally, my spell didn't incinerate the undead, but it delayed them. Where the wisps had touched the monsters, their bodies had been torn into long, moving, tentacle-like shreds. Not that it harmed the goons, but rather it puzzled them. While they were trying to decide whether to reassemble themself or leave it as it was, I grabbed the boy under my arm (he'd been hiding behind me the whole time) and ran off.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:52

Good physical training is given to mages at the University of Redstone!

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:52

I ran behind some barn and remembered that ghouls only pursue a visible objects, as they are incapable of retaining an image in memory. I stopped to catch my breath and realized that I hadn't thought of everything: there were not three but four of them, and the fourth was a risen corpse of a dog.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:54

Pretty fresh. Standing and watching.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 14:55

When he was alive, he was a big, sharp-eared dog, the sort the farmers of the valley liked to keep. The invasion of the undead had already changed him: his bones and muscles stretched, his skin stretched and cracked in places, and his teeth protruded. Naturally, the otherworldly thing that brought the dog back to life had no intention of disfiguring him; it simply did not, could not know what a truly living creature must be like. But little time had passed since his death, and the abnormalities were not yet so severe. At the whim of otherworldly forces, a wave of pseudo-life touched not only the body but also the brain of the animal (and this does not always happen) - the creature retained the movements and habits of a dog, even wagging its tail slightly. This dog must not have hurt a kitten when he was alive. Now he was beginning to get hungry, to tear and devour live flesh, but he was used to taking food from people's hands and wasn't mad enough to hunt them down yet.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 15:14

He was expecting me to feed him.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 15:15

I had two options. I could smash his head in with my cane and move on, remembering forever the look of the deceived dog who, even dead, remained loyal to humans. Or I could complete the process, and correct the mistakes made by the otherworldly forces, turning him into a true zombie who would not need blood or flesh, only the regular renewal of reanimation spells. If anyone catches me doing something like that, I'll be burned. And well, if they hang me first.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 15:16

It's bad to be a black mage who grew up among white ones.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 20:48

I called to the dog with a low whistle, let him sniff my palm, and put my hand on his back. It was surprisingly easy to finish the transformation: the life meridians were still in his body, and I just had to cast a spell over them. He wagged his tail and tried to lick my face.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 20:53

So there were still three ghouls on the table, but such a trick wouldn't work on them - they'd been transformed long ago and permanently. I turned to the boy, who was watching my actions with intense interest. He was so exhausted by fear that he couldn't run away from me, either.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 20:55

"Pull yourself together, kid! I need to know what happened, or we're going to get eaten here."

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 20:55

My experience with my stepfather and my white brother helped me figure things out without descending to beating up the poor child. It was worse than that: his parents had bought the estate six months earlier, after something bad had happened to the previous owners, and had applied to the local cleaning service almost immediately, but the bastard cleaners had put them in the queue without even bothering to find out what the cause of the complaint was. A fortnight ago, a representative of Totars Energy was due to visit them to discuss the possibility of bringing electricity to the estate but never turned up, and the company reported him missing. The police did not show much enthusiasm in their search, and the new owners of the manor learned from them that people have been disappearing in this area regularly for a hundred years. The father's patience ran out, and he called me.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 20:57

We agreed to meet today, and yesterday the long-awaited cleaner and his team of assistants and policemen showed up at the estate. I don't know what this travesty of a black trooper was after. Perhaps they decided that the poor traveling salesman had been killed by either an insider or a vagrant or farmer. Not bothering to evacuate the family who lived on the estate, these loonies went in droves into those woods, which I drove in a great circle. All but two of the patrolmen flatly refused to take part in the suicide mission. It was only thanks to the pair of them that there was anyone left alive on the estate at all: when the dead men, old and new, came pouring out of the woods, the brave country lads met them with a barrage of fire.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 21:03

But three hundred-year-old monsters could not be stopped by bullets of any kind. Only black magic works against such creatures, and the senior cleaner had not returned from the forest. The boy should have been thrown on his motorbike and driven away, but according to the child, his family was still hiding in the house, along with those desperate policemen and the assistant cleaner who hadn't gone into the woods. When the sun goes down over the horizon, the dead men will be stronger and more determined. They are not so foolish, just a mind marked by the seal of the otherworldly manifests itself whimsically and unpredictably. People's lives depended on me being able to resolve the situation before darkness fell.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 21:06

The zombie dog whimpered and rubbed against my knee.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 21:06

"Now, kid, I need your help. Do you know the area well?"

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 21:07

He is noded.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 21:07

"Is there a flat spot nearby, roughly like a croquet ground?"

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 21:07

The boy thought a moment and shook his head in the negative.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 21:08

Well, at least something flat? I need to draw a pentagram.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 21:08

The boy nodded and led me around the house. The zombie dog disappeared into the bushes, but I wasn't worried about him. The flat spot was the weedy cattle yard. I could only use a three-by-three-meter patch without elaborate preparations; I could forget about sealing all three ghouls at once.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 16:59

"Tell me, is there spirit in here?"

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 16:11

Fuel oil was not good for cremation, but spirit was. The boy pointed towards the house.

Camrad_RIP 21.04.23 в 16:09