Summoned Again?

“Great work, everyone!” Lady Matricia said. “Have a seat and do what I taught you.”

All twelve clerics sat as one and started meditating. I didn't bother asking what they were doing, because I received the popup for completing the encounter. The other three heroes sat down and started meditating as well. I took out a chair and sat to wait. With the new and quite low level clerics, I figured about an hour and a half before they allocate their stat and skill points without getting power sickness.

Half an hour later, the twelve clerics glowed for several seconds. “Thank you, god.” They said as one and the glow faded. They opened their eyes and stood up, then they started chatting and discussing what just happened.

I was a bit stunned that none of them were adversely affected by allocating their points so quickly.

Lady Matricia saw my face and came over to me. “We asked god for help, of course.”

“Ah, I see.” I said. “That explains things.”

The three heroes ended their meditation and thanked god, then stood up.

“That really was a lot easier. Thank you, Lady Matricia.” Farrah said and gave her a little bow.

“It's thanks to Damon's explanations and his knowledge that I came up with the idea.” Lady Matricia said and smiled at me. “We're ready to head to the next encounter.”

I took out the cart and they climbed aboard, then I flew them several hundred miles to the next spot marked on the map.

“You don't need to thin them out this time.” Lady Matricia said with a happy smile as I helped her down from the cart.

“I'll be ready to back you up if needed.” I said and she nodded. We took up nearly the same positions as last time, then let the horde approach. It was all open field this time, so they could be clearly seen as they approached.

“Ready spells!” Lady Matricia said from beside me and the eleven clerics and the three heroes started chanting. “Range properly and adjust aim!”

I saw the clerics move their hands slightly and then they all nodded.

“Remember to stagger your spells! We want as many taken out as possible without wasting mana!” Lady Matricia said. “Wait for them... just another few feet... FIRE!”

It was neat seeing them spray the horde with their initial spells, then like a gun line, fired off every second cleric to let one recharge, then the others fired off their spells. It kept the enemy completely covered in Holy Cleansing Fire and didn't exhaust everyone of their mana at the same time.

The undead horde was quickly wiped out and the clerics cleaned up the area by cleansing it. They sat and meditated again, only twenty minutes this time, and then they were ready to go again.

“Now I'm starting to feel unnecessary.” I joked and Lady Matricia took my hand and waved her other hand to cover us in a magic barrier that obscured us from sight. I didn't get a new spell from it, so it must only be two spells I knew already and she had cast them nearly simultaneously. Either that, or it was a god-given spell and I couldn't learn them, because they were invoked and weren't cast.

“Damon, none of this could have been possible without you.” Lady Matricia said and gave me a soft and tender kiss. “I'm so charged up that I want to tear that armor off of you and have you make love to me again.”

“I'd like that as well, except we're getting close to the rumored lair of the bad guy.” I said. “One of them, anyway.”

“I know, and we handled this last horde without you.” Lady Matricia said. “It's still going to be very dangerous, especially if what we both suspect about the main horde is true.”

I took a deep breath and let it out. “I'll try to keep the main force occupied while you and the others peel away the undead from around them.” I said and reached up to run my hand through her hair. “Those staggered shots was a brilliant move. I never thought of that.”

Lady Matricia smiled and she ran her hands through my short hair. “I've seen you flick your head as if you had long hair a couple of times now.”

I chuckled. “It was a habit I gained after having long hair for over ten years.”

“You just had it cut?” She asked and I nodded. “I think I would have liked to see it.”

“Of course.” I said and took out a photograph that was taken at the cancer treatment center.

Lady Matricia gasped as she stared at the picture. Her fingers touched the surface and she traced my very long black hair. “It's longer than my mother's hair.”

“I'm sorry that I won't get the chance to meet her.” I said and stored the photo. “Despite how abrupt and confrontational I've been, I would have liked to stay for a while.”

Lady Matricia laughed softly. “I can only imagine how she would react to you, a Divine Chosen...”

“...that slept with her daughter.” I added and she laughed a little more. “We should go. I bet the others are wondering what we are doing in here.”

Lady Matricia smiled demurely and waved her hand to dismiss the obscured magical barrier. “Let them wonder. We're both still dressed, aren't we?”

I smiled back and took out the cart. They all piled in as Lady Matricia warned them that we were getting close to the rumored area that the undead leader could be found. No one reacted negatively, so I took off flying again. I checked the map and apparently we had missed the next horde, so I landed and we discussed if we should backtrack or keep going.

“Keep going.” One of the clerics said. “If we don't remove the source, we'll just keep using up our time on the hordes and not solving the problem.”

“I agree.” Someone else said. “Go on.”

The others readily agreed, even the three heroes, and I took off again. We flew over a lot of devastated areas that other hordes had passed through or grown from... if the towns, villages and cities left destroyed on the way were any indication.

As we approached the area where the main bad guy was supposed to be, I saw a wave of something red coming towards us. I quickly flew down to the ground and landed, then erected a magical barrier.

“Damon, what...” Lady Matricia started to ask, then the red wave hit my shield.

“ARRRHHH!” I yelled and poured more mana into the shield. The others screamed as well, since it wasn't just a physical attack. Whatever it was, it had a mental attack component, because my shield wasn't working for that part of it. The red wave passed and the clerics fell to their knees and held their heads.

I had a headache myself and cast Major Healing on myself. I felt relieved, so I tried casting Minor Healing on one of the clerics that was closest. It seemed to work as she let out a relieved sigh, so I cast it on the whole group.

“What the hell was that?” Anthony asked. “My armor was glowing!”

“I think it was an anti-magic spell.” Lady Matricia said and quickly recovered. “I've never seen one released as a wave before. The mana needed for that...”

“No, I think it's worse than that.” I said and everyone looked at me. “I think it's an anti-cleric spell.”

They all just stared at me and looked like they didn't know what to say.

“More specifically, an anti-holy spell. Anyone that has spells with blessings can be hurt with it.” I said. “I think that's why my barrier was only effective for the physical part.”

“What do we do?” One of the clerics asked. “If they have magic specifically to fight against us...”

“So do we.” Lady Matricia said and they looked surprised. “I think that's the point. We both have spells that can specifically hurt the other.”

“I... I don't think...” The woman I had slept with touched her belly. “I can't risk my baby. I'm sorry.”

“No, that's understandable. None of us blame you.” Lady Matricia said and looked at the other ten clerics. “This was dangerous to undertake before you all powered up. Now that we know they have magic that can counter us as much as we can counter them, we need to send someone back to warn the others.”

“I'll take her.” The cleric that could fly said. “We can't have the Divine Chosen fly her all the way back and leave us here unprotected.”

“Are you sure?” Lady Matricia asked.

“I can carry her safely.” The man said, confidently. “She can share her mana with me as well if she doesn't want to stop and rest.”

The woman nodded and climbed onto his back. “I'm really sorry about leaving like this.”

“It's all right.” Lady Matricia said. “I might do the same if I was with child.”

“Stay low until you're at least ten miles away, in case the spell is triggered visually.” I said.

The man nodded and took off through the trees.

“Now what?” Anthony asked. “How do we fight something that can hurt us like that?”

“Smartly.” I said and waved for everyone to get closer. “This is what I want to do...”

*

At the edge of the main horde, that was significantly larger than Damon had warned that it could be, the heroes and clerics saw that it was over 50 million strong. The undead milled around, unerringly staying within a perfect ten mile circle. It was a good thing that the undead were pretty much mindless automatons, because they didn't realize what had hit them.

Fifteen large metal containers that were the size of railway cars, popped into existence like bear traps from the ground below the undead, and captured several hundred of them in each of them. They snapped closed and then compressed, squishing the insides, then opened again as they grew back to normal size and did it again after a few seconds as the undead filled their 'grabbing' area.

After ten minutes, nearly a hundred thousand of them had been squished into pulp and not one of the unaffected undead reacted. That would have been just a distraction, if it had worked like it was supposed to. With the undead not reacting, the large metal containers shrank and then disappeared.

Suddenly, a few hundred of the undead were pushed over by some unseen force and then they were somehow stuck together on the ground. Heads, arms, legs, and torsos had been merged together into a large undead mass. This was repeated a dozen times and another two thousand undead had been restrained.

Still, the undead didn't react.

Ten minutes later, thirteen very large gouts of white flames slammed into the horde, all in a row. They were paced exactly at the perfect distance apart to have maximum coverage. Almost a hundred thousand undead perished in the single attack, and the undead didn't react.

“It's not working.” A voice from an invisible source said. “Now what?”

“We go with Plan D.” A man's voice responded.

“D? This is plan A! What happened to B and C?”

“We don't need them. We go with D. Destroy them all.”

“You can't be serious.” A woman's voice said. “There's no way...”

“Plan D. Double up and take turns. Let's get the small fries out of the way.” The man's voice said. “I'll go first.”

A minute later, a hundred thousand glowing white swords appeared in the air above the main mass of the undead horde. They all suddenly stopped walking and looked up.

“Oooooh, shit.” The invisible man said and released the spell as the large glowing red wave formed below him. It was a bit too late, however. He had inadvertently found the source of the magic wave that could hurt the Holy Clerics.

Undead Clerics. Hundreds of them.

Their antithesis magic was a directly proportionate counter to a live cleric's holy spells. With so many of them gathered together and sharing their mana, their spells were a hundred times more powerful than the spells a dozen clerics could produce.

The red wave knocked away the glowing white knives as if they didn't matter and the wave slammed full force into the invisible man. He was knocked unconscious before he could get away and a now quite visible suit of armor plummeted a hundred feet to the ground. On the plus side, he crushed six of the undead as he slammed into the ground and wounded a dozen others.

“DAMON!” A woman's voice yelled and then a gigantic blast of Holy Cleansing Fire washed over the undead. The minor ones were cleansed and disposed of immediately... and the Undead Clerics were completely unaffected. A few of them were knocked away and pushed into each other a moment later, then the armored form seemed to float up and away from the middle of the undead clerics.

It was time for the heroes to get up close and personal with the undead.

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