Chronicles of Valor

The Mine

The air outside the mine reaked of rotten flesh. The group could smell it before they even got near the clearing that served as the mines entrance. In the clearing, more than 20 zombies in various stages of decomposition were moving around in a loose patrol while some carried rocks from one area to another. Several of them were dragging their intestines along the ground not noticing or caring as they fulfilled whatever duty they were assigned.

"Oh god's that stinks." Suzuran said covering her nose and mouth with a rag.

"You can tell that they haven't been preserved well." said Flamma scanning the area for any sign of the necromancer. "As I thought he must have taken up residence inside the mine."

"He had no intention of keeping his word so he must have another reason for digging deeper, and sending ore down to the village was just a way to keep them quiet about his operation." William said sitting on a low hanging tree branch.

"Do you see any traps." Flamma asked.

"No, I don't see anything except the zombies." William said hopping down from the tree.

"How will we deal with this many zombies." Tsubaki asked.

"Normally it's better to pick them off one at a time without being seen." said Flamma. "However it seems the necromancer has thought of that and kept the patrol fairly tight, so in this case it's better to kill them all at the same time."

"That's where the runestone that Tsubaki carved comes in." William said tossing the runestone into the air and catching it causing Tsubaki to flinch as it took her two hours to carve the intricate symbol's.

"When William activates the rune I'll create a fire bomb and hit them when they gather around the illusion." Flamma said.

"What do we do?" Suzuran asked

"Your jobs will come after the small fry are taken care of." William said.

William jumped off of the tree branch as if he was weightless and then gliding into the center of the clearing and placed the rune onto the ground. With a wave of his hand He activated the runes and generated to his own surprise an image of Tsubaki. William changed into mist and proceeded to retreat into the bushes with the rest of them.

It didn't take more than a second for one to notice her and then as it made a shriek shrill enough to chill the biggest man to the bone. All of them dropped the rocks they were carrying and lumbered towards the image of tsubaki. They grabbed at her clothes and arms and everyone was a little shocked to see that the illusion actually fell to the ground as they piled on top of her. After all of them had clumped together Flamma created a fireball in each hand and let them grow to the size of a cannonball and just as round before throwing them at the same time towards the group of zombies.

As the fireballs collided together at the center of the zombies they exploded with more force than a powder keg catching a spark. Even more than the force of the blast was a wave of fire that spread out as it consumed more oxygen expanding well over 10 ft in diameter which was more than enough to engulf the entire pile of zombies. After the flames died down leaving nothing but smoldering Ash and chard Earth the group turned to tsubaki.

"what?!" tsubaki asked.

"That illusion was solid wasn't it?" asked William. "I heard that even skilled illusionists have a hard time with physical illusions."

"Illusion is one of the few things that magic runes do better than spirit magic and elementalism." Tsubaki said. "The biggest drawback is that you have to prepare everything ahead of time and you can't easily alter the rune after it's been made."

"Let's save the discussion for later." Flamma said pointing to the entrance of the mine.

The necromancer obviously heard the explosion because out of the mine came seven large and imposing zombies. these ones were clearly different from the rotting corpses doing the manual labor. These zombies were not only armed with weapons and leather armor, but were well preserved and still had sufficient muscle mass to pose a threat.

"These creatures are going to either be lumbering brutes who swing their weapons haphazardly or warriors who still know how to fight and have the advantages of being undead." William said.

"How are we going to know which ones they are?" Suzuran asked with her hand on her sword. "Is it as simple as fighting one and finding out?"

"Unfortunately." Flamma said looking over at her and William. "You and William will stay out here and distract them while we go inside to deal with the necromancer."

"Wouldn't it be better if my sister or William goes in with you." tsubaki asked with her bow already in hand. "I don't know how effective my bow is going to be in the mine."

"True, but depending on how narrow the tunnels are your sister's sword could be a huge vulnerability." He said putting his hand on her shoulder. "More importantly, your rune magic makes you adaptable to any situation."

Tsubaki couldn't help but blush a little at the praise but nodded her head. Flamma handed William a bottle of vodka with a damp rag sticking out of the top that reeked of the same liquid in the bottle. flamma lit the rag on fire and William ran with Suzuran to the far end of the clearing and Flamma and Tsubaki went near the mine entrance.

William threw the Molotov at the nearest undead soldier and needless to say it went up quickly being covered in vibrant orange and blue flames. This caught the attention of the other undead soldiers who quickly began walking with weapons drawn and ready to their burning comrade as William and Suzuran exited the forest. The undead soldier that was on fire ran at the two of them and swung his sword at Suzuran who dodged to the side and let the burning soldier full face first into the ground. The undead soldier tried to get up but the fire had clearly damaged his muscles and he rolled around on the ground before he finally stopped moving.

Near the mine entrance while most of the undead soldiers were walking towards William and Suzuran One had stayed to guard the entrance. This undead soldier was wearing heavy plate mail and with a chainmail undershirt and leggings meaning he was likely the strongest out of the group.

"Tsubaki, I need you to take this guy out quickly and quietly if you can." Flamma said. "We can't let him call out or the distraction would be ruined."

Tsubaki nodded her head and took an arrow out of her quiver before tapping it against one of the stones along her skirt. She took aim and fired the arrow that went into the undead warrior's head. Before the creature could make a sound its head popped like a balloon as if exploding from the inside.

The two of them quickly ran into the mine. Inside it was a long narrow tunnel that was well made with even support frames on both sides of the tunnel. It was only about 30 ft inside the tunnel that they found crudely made supports and mostly stone walls. Obviously that's where the villagers got to before the necromancer showed up.

What caught flamma off guard is that there were no defenses inside the mineshaft. A normal necromancer would have at least a few lesser zombies guarding the interior of his workshop, and most wizards in general had standard or even magical booby traps. Having no defenses was extremely odd, But the two quickly moved into the innermost part of the mine shaft only about 50 ft inside.

In the large chamber at the end of the tunnel they found the necromancer standing over an altar with a particularly large corpse on it.