Night had almost fallen by the time they reached the village and it was a relief to dismount. The horses had done the work, but travel still took a lot out of the riders. Despite this, he stayed back to take care of his horse himself. The animal deserved a good brush down and some care after a long ride. Possibly some villagers would be out later to care for them, but Conrad was glad he did it, just in case. A villager even came out and offered to do the job for him, and then stayed by to make sure he knew where to go later. Very kind. He followed the woman back to the large home of the village elder gratefully. Another villager, male this time, invited him in with a smile. Conrad smiled and nodded, and moved past into the great hall. The woman who had accompanied him even brought back a plate of food and a small cup of... something. Likely whatever passed for alcohol in this small village. The thought made him feel shamed. The people here probably were getting paid for this, but at the same time, what they were giving to the Paladins was likely the best they had. The wine served here may be the only such in the village, and even with the money they may receive in recompense, if any, they probably wouldn’t spend it on such a luxury as pleasure foods.
Conrad shook his head with a smile and put down his pack next to a bench.
“I brought my own food, no need for you to strain yours resources so much.” He gestured, “Go ahead and take a seat, we are Paladins, but we won’t harm you.” She laughed as if he said something funny, but still forced the drink on him. Conrad took it gratefully, and unloaded some food. Being prepared was a simple thing, he had brought enough staples- raw potatoes and hard bread- to last a day or two without outside support. He would have expected the same of all Paladins- relying on those you are protecting for support is a bad policy. He was about to take a long gulp when Alicia’s blade appeared, floating for a moment- and then exploding. The smell of the liquid rolled over him at the same moment that the true image of the room did. The woman disappeared, replaced by a robed figure, and all around him men died with food still in their mouths, choking and coughing blood, some even forcing themselves to vomit before dying- there appeared little one could do to save themselves. Even the Inquisitor was heaving, despite being better off than the others. It appeared a substantial number hadn’t eaten the food quite yet, but only a few had escaped a horrible death in his vicinity. Across the room from him, Sylvestra had assumed command immediately, forming a shield wall on one side and sweeping back the mages to create a battle line, with wounded and dying (mostly dying) to their backs. Highwielder, quite a fighter himself, followed her orders meanwhile and crashed through the mages directly to his front to report. Meanwhile, Conrad sprung into action, standing and flipping the heavy table on its side, turning with it to his back and tackling the mage who had guided him here, who had just begun some sort of fire spell. Obviously she hadn’t begun casting fast enough, because her neck was broken before he even could feel the heat. It wasn’t enough though, he was surrounded by the ranged mages. It appeared almost all of the weapon wielders had congregated towards the shield wall and... And explosion lifted him off his feet and into a wall. Conrad was surrounded by slingers. There was little choice but to roll forward and shelter against the table, letting the heavy-but splintering wood take a barrage. Nearly across from him, Varkasan and just a few others were shredding mages left and right. The man’s sword seemed almost invisible to Conrad, despite the flashes of Light emitting from it and the shield. Aradus was further away from Varkasan and closer to Conrad, even so, it wasn’t close enough. The light arrows were all too familiar- they had saved him years ago. The table behind him suddenly slammed into his back and knocked him forward with a wave of heat, the table itself disintegrated under that last shockwave. Hiding was over. A brief lull in the shots allowed the fire to die down and reveal ten mages facing him from across the burning wreckage of the table. None of them seemed interested in a peace talk.
Three. Five mages released spells, each varying in style, but all intended to kill. Glowing spots of light appeared all over Conrad’s outstretched arms and chest.
Two. The other mages release spells as well, and the other spells are almost on him. The glow intensifies.
One. Death.
Blazing beams of pure light exploded out from every glowing spot on Conrad’s body, hitting spells and mages indiscriminately as the barrage completely swallowed the spells cast at him, and then struck the mages behind. The beams themselves did little physical damage to the mages, but all of them created extreme heat, burning straight through clothing and blackening skin where they struck- and the light magic burned straight into their bodies, igniting like a grease fire wherever the beams struck the mages. The air itself was traced with smoke and steam where the beams had passed, and the ten died rolling in agony, mana burning along with flesh. Around them, parts of the wall and floor were burning and charred in perfect circles where beams missed.
Conrad was kneeling, screaming at the ceiling as his own flames burned at his flesh. White fire seemed to envelope his entire body, focusing on his arms and chest where the beams had begun. It licked his skin, not physically burning him, but burning all the same. Mages that had ducked the blast initially had already began a rush at him while Conrad was still leaning on the wall, standing with gritted teeth. Flames still danced across his body. The first to approach had a short sword, which smoked some sort of black aura- the air itself seemed to dim a bit where it swished past. Conrad stumbled back from the first swipes, and then the mage charged, pushing his advantage. Unfortunately, Conrad charged as well, roaring as if to frighten a bear. A big one.
He swung up an arm guard, snarling at the man, who desperately parried Conrad’s arm- the sight would have been laughable if it wasn’t life or death. The blade spell numbed Conrad’s arm to almost uselessness upon impact with the blade, even through the thick metal armguards. But Conrad’s was already on top of him, and his good hand pressed against his opponents forehead long enough to send a blast of light magic straight into his skull. The resulting blast sent another scream rolling out of Conrad’s lips, but he didn’t give in to the pain, it was just one burn. Instead, he grabbed his numbed arm with the burning hand and gritted his teeth, hissing as the fire banished the magic plaguing him and then lit a small fire on arm. He stood slowly, facing the remaining mages just feet away. They all had began casting, and he knew there was no chance of blocking these spells. And then there was Alicia.
She came seemingly out of nowhere and simply shredded them all, not even pausing in movement, cutting through spell and mage alike as if they were nothing. One of her blades passed just an inch in front of his face before gutting a mage within arms reach with perfect control, and then she was gone again. Though he wanted to drop to his knees, Conrad stood, the burning in his hand had abated very slightly, and he was used to it at this point anyway. The initial burn always was overwelming- but just the initial. The following sting, flesh melting sensation was nothing much in comparison. He moved carefully across the room, to Sylvestra’s shield wall, and even paused to help up an injured-but-alive Paladin who had been struck in the leg, letting the other man lean on him until they got behind the wall of men. In truth though, they were using eachother. So many beams at once had been excruciating, like having a bucket of coals from a smiths forge poured over his body. Sylvestra was already taking a casualty count, and Aradus had survived, thank the light, uniting Varkasan and another Paladin. He let the Paladin down in the safety of Tarfield’s men, and moved closer so he could hear her further orders. She was a ranking officer from the Vanguard, after all. There was another flash of light from across the room, and Conrad missed what was said, nor could he see what happened. What he could see though, were all the dead and dying the shield wall had protected on this small area of the room. They were moving. All the dead rose slowly, lines fainter than the traces his own magic left behind seemed to connect them upward, dragging corpses to their feet, mage and Paladin alike. They arose seemingly everywhere- people had died everywhere. Bones shifted with disturbing sounds as armor seemed to grow out of the undead, leaving revolting abominations in the places of honorable and treacherous men alike.
With this, everyone was immediately rushing to action. Sylvestra sent men to cover the Inquisitor, forming almost an arrow head- with the monster of a man at the forefront. Last Conrad had seen, he had been struggling, but now the man was shredding the undead, his support was doing little more than guarding his sides and back. But even as that group moved easily through the room as a killing machine, it left plenty behind, and the Paladins were instantly beset upon again. Conrad retreated into a corner of the room, dragging the injured man with him. A few of the dead charged, their distorted forms moving oddly with displaced movements. As the first mage corpse reached him, Conrad lashed out with a strong kick, knocking it back- spewing a roaring blast of Light from his foot to swallow not only the dead, but the other corpses behind it as far back as eleven feet, creating a burning wall of fire pushed out in front of him. Conrad himself dropped to the ground with another gasp, more white flames burning all the way up his leg. Conrad's entire body glowed slightly, burning like a horrible sunburn. He trembled, but still stood and managed to take a firm stance. Conrad would defend this wounded man to the death.
The afterlife would have no hold on him. Conrad grinned savagely, taking up a blade discarded on the ground. How could death be frightening? He would face hell fire every time he had to kill one of these things.
