The tall gaunt frame of the undead bespoke of a once lively warrior, however now what little of his skin showed from under his armor was sunken and pale with a black tinge that made it appear grey. The Raider's armor was different than that of the other Draugur I had met, whereas the ones I had come across had weapons and armor that looked like that of a Mediterranean copper to bronze age civilization.
The raider though looked like a typical accurate description of a Norse raider. A rounded helm of hammered bronze with a nose guard junting out, and his armor consisted of a leather with a single piece of bronze chainmail. Dam, my perception was great! However in my nerd empowered zeal of analysis I had forgot momentarily that the Undead warrior was currently tearing through Anastasia's hard work.
'Alright Anastasia Have your puppets pull back and deal with and other Draugur that might've come with the Raider' moving towards my target I saw the puppets pull back. They were a poor matchup for the Raider as his dark flame that absorbed light rather then dispersing it burned through them easily. I also had a small feeling that I did not want to play around with this guy's fire.
As soon as I came within a certain distance of the creature its head snapped towards me.
"FERSKOT KJ?TER HAéR, OGPAD ERJ MANNLEGT!" It yelled in a deep ragged voice as it began to run towards me. It gait was off and unnatural like it had an unnerving look in its eye.
Standing stalwart I lowered my blade into a Fool's stance. Then reaching out with [Geomancy] I sent a wave of earth to rise up and swallow the undead warrior. My hope being that the fire required oxygen, though it was moreso a shot in the dark.
The ground which contained the raider began to melt away as a dark flame arose atop a twisted torch. My magic was unable to the stop the process as the magical flame some how turned the ground and rocks into liquid before launching full speed towards me hefting his bronze axe.
Maneuvering from the fools stance I side stepped the overhead attack. Following up with a sword strike that caught on the bronze chainmail. The armour did it's job as it deflected my attack. Backing up as the Draugur recovered, deciding to trade out the claymore for something a bit more blunt I pulled out my club and it met the head of my enemies axe. The unnaturally strong and empowered wood met and beat the bronze axe forcing it's wielder to move back.
With a slight hunch in its back the Undead seemed to be leveraging it remaining brain cells to evaluate me. Doing the same its fighting style appeared to be like a wild animal pushed to a corner, vicious and unrefined. Now don't get it twisted I wasn't exactly at the level to be making fun of someone's fighting style. My most powerful playset was being a caveman with magical bullshit powers, but this guy was somehow worse.
Letting my body get nice ready I moved forward blizting forward. Using two narrow pillars of earth I forced the Raiders left arm away as I brought my club downwards. The helmet of the Draugur bent and delt some damage to the undead warrior but he managed to raise his axe enough to transfer some of the momentum away from his skull.
'Kien more are coming your away, they tore through the other flank of my puppets and I'm barely holding on to this one, I don't know if you noticed these new guys are better armored!' Anastasia stated telepathically as I weaved around the retaliatory attacks. Processing the information my ears picked up the uneven footfalls of the horde approaching.
The Raiders face twitched into a smile revealing black and cracked teeth that were gross. However the dumb fucker didn't know all my abilities. Wearing a shit eating grin as I activated [Floramancy] and dumped majority of my remaining mana into the forest around me and it came alive. I could've used [Geomancy] but [Floramancy] had the nice effect that it could leverage the unawakened minds of the plants so it requires less input.
The Approaching Zombies were simultaneously absorbed by the forest as trees, shrubs, and other plants strangled and crushed the Zombies.
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'why the hell did you not do that in the first place?' Anastasia replied as tree chucked a Draugur in the air.
'Its quite Mana intensive' I replied before I returned to my fight with Draugur with only a small amount of mana left but with the help of my levied forest.
"Skgóar?ting jar? Afverju vireist púvera mannêskja?" The Creature stated stumbling over his words as he tried to piece together his sentence. Ignoring the creature I slammed into the creature, it was sent into a nearby tree whose roots and branches grasped and restrained the Draugur. Dripping down from its mouth was thick coagulated blood, then a spark of fire took on the tree, dark as midnight it ate ravenously at the tree. However instead of burning the tree it withered it away until its life fled its body and the Draugur Broke free.
Yeah did not want it touch the fire, summoning my dagger I readied for another round of combat.
I was winning currently however that was a temporary position at the moment. The Raider pushed for the attack, like a wolf starved it weaved its attacks into a flurry breaking away from its crude form into a practiced attack. Using its torch as a secondary weapon. Swiping at air it but at my heels so to speak as only my control of the forest around me prevented me from being overrun.
Taking the gamble I left my side open hoping that my armor was able to withstand an attack as I prepared to counterattack with my curse dagger by driving into the eye holes of the Helmet.
Quick tidbit I didn't know about, apparently the fire did not in fact care if I was wearing armor. I learned as I felt a strange burning along my side withholding panic I slammed my dagger down into the eye of Draugur. It shrieked in pain as it backed away, looking at my side is saw the black fire begin to grow and I felt the pain increase.
Using my remaining mana I cast [Cosmic Ice] which thankfully stopped the black fire. A system notification popped up.
...
[Aliment Contracted]
You have gained the Aliment [Necrotic Burn], this is a semi permeant aliment that will last for the duration that the burns from the [Necrotic Fire] are present on your body.*
-[Necrotic Burn]
Your body has a small amount of Necrotic Energy has been attached to an injury weakening your Durability and Regeneration while making more susceptible to Necrotic magics. -2 Durability & Regeneration and +25% damage taken form Necrotic Origin attacks
*Your Burn may only heal if you are away from concentrations of Necrotic Energy.
...
Cursing under my breath as I felt my body weaken as if I had a strong cold or fever. I watched my opponent and saw he wasn't doing much better either his blood coates his left side of his face. I could feel the curse energy rooting deep into its body. Despite my now very painful and annoying injury weakening me I figured I had already won this battle. Now I had to do was back off long enough for the cursed energy to take care of him....
"Hilmar, this is your Jarl, you are allowed to use your Berserkr ability" A crackling imperious voice spoke from a necklace that came loose from the Raiders armor. This time when the Raider laugh and spoke In a language that system allowed me to understand.
"My Jarl has Granted me my Sanity for a time, enough to say this before I go a berserkern', your soul shall feed the worms and your corpse shall feed my clan, ALL HAIL THE JARL OF THE BLOOD LAUREL!" The Raider spoke in concise statements and clear words. Sensing a second stage I rushed forward just to watch with enhanced perception as the veins of the Draugur swelled and the leather armor and bronze chainmail swelled as the Draugur gained muscle in such a way would cause a doctor and a scientist rip out their hair. For me though it meant I got hit with axe, luckily my helmet protected me enough to not get instantly killed. Recovering quickly I tackled the leg of the undead berserker and unbalanced him as his fist battered into my back plate. Once again it appeared he returned to a lower level of intelligence as the brute didn't use his flame end of the torch.
Letting go of his leg as he fell on his back behind me I fell back on him using my and my armors weight to crush the Undead Creature. Pushing me off I turned back to face him in the scuffle we both had ended up unarmed. Or at least he was, but not me...
Thanks to the wonderful forced generosity of the Ophiocord Mushroom I had some extra armaments always on hand. Summoning my Claymore more I brought my sword and the dumb Draugur shifted so my sword but deep into his over muscled shoulder. It became stuck as the Berserker tackled me forcing the sword out of my hands.
Elbowing the undead creature over and over again it grunted but was unaffected as he tried to crush me. He was slowly crushing the sides of my Armor. Desperately I summoned one of the copper swords and desperately drove it deep in the the back of the Undead. Yet it was unaffected or at least it didn't respond. Bringing my sword up I slammed the short sword repeatedly into its back. I tried to stab into the back of the Berserker however the spine merely redirected my sword. Eventually the creature let go as I retreated It pulled the sword out from it shoulder and threw it away.
It wasn't done yet and neither was I.
