No Really, I'm Not A Necromancer,Chapter 39: Dropping Like Its Hot,write ronline books

  Mind blanking in utter shock for a moment, Xander had no desire to turn around and face whatever this new threat was. Come to think of it, movement might be considered a threat, so it was probably better to just wait and see what happened. he chided himself, he commanded, waving away the System disks that had cropped up.

  The bush complied without hesitation, and Xander’s shoulders slumped unhappily as he beheld the last person that he wanted to see right now. he complained to the universe in general.



  Before Xander could get distracted by the bush any further, Ella’s voice rang through the quiet night. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t just put you down…” she demanded, voice full of cold steel and one hand raised with magical energy still glowing around it.

  He searched frantically for any sort of answer that would seem reasonable, but he already knew how the scene looked. In a cruel twist of irony, he had specifically cranked up the necromancer look and aura of intimidation, though the latter didn’t seem to be having much of an effect on the shop owner. That decision had definitely bought him some time against the gnolls, but was now biting him in the ass.

  Thankfully, he still had his back turned, so maybe Ella wouldn’t know it was him since she couldn’t see his face. To be fair though, the clothes and armor he wore were the same so that was a slim possibility at best. He doubted that he could convince her of his innocence at this point considering the gore splashed bridge and his skeleton clad minions, but he also didn’t want to hurt her.

  So really there was only one thing he could do right now. he thought, and dove straight forward into the bush. A hum of magic came from behind, and he yelped as searingly cold agony ripped through his backside.

   he cursed in his head, not wanting to let her recognize his voice. Still in survival mode, he used his arms to pull himself through the wild foliage that had erupted from using Reclamation while trying to push some mana into healing his scorched butt enough to get his legs working properly. The magic had burned like fire, but was somehow also as cold as ice.

  Still, it could have been worse. Without the extra speed and reflexes from the potion, that blast would have hit him more directly and could have even killed him outright. He wasn’t sure how much mana it cost or how many the enchantress could send his way, but she was a former adventurer, so probably more than enough. Poor George was all but gone, along with a decent amount of the rest of the new growth. A three foot diameter hole had been incinerated, though curiously nothing was burning in the aftermath.

  Frantically, he got himself to his feet and started to bolt towards the hole scorched through one of the giant mushrooms that had penned in the gnolls. His abused rear end complained loudly with every step, but he just whimpered and pressed on. After only a few seconds, he noticed through his peripheral vision that the glow was getting brighter again and instinctively juked to the right with as much agility as he could manage. Again the increased agility from the potion prevented him from dying instantly, but the expertly aimed spell still carved through him. His left arm had been thrown wide to counterbalance his hop, and was annihilated by the beam right at the elbow along with a good bit of his cloak.

  Gritting his teeth, Xander pushed onwards and dove through the frost-rimmed hole in the mushroom without any hesitation, tucking into a roll on the other side and popping back up to his feet. His ear ached, his ass burned, his arm was mostly missing, his nearly empty mana core was ice cold, and he had a myriad of other minor injuries, but he was alive! Not waiting around to see how many more beams the enchantress could throw at him, he ran down the path out of the village and into the woods.

  —----------------------

  Sighing tiredly, Ella bent over slightly and tried not to throw up. Mana depletion hit different people in different ways, and for her it had always been nausea. It was a very unfortunate reaction that had always caused her trouble since mana recovery options were generally eaten. She had used Frostfire Lance because it was her most powerful spell, but it drank mana like a barbarian at a tavern.

  That wouldn’t have mattered if she had succeeded since it should have been enough to kill any low level caster, but she had been surprised at the speed and agility of the necromancer. Their reflexes had allowed them to avoid dying immediately, which rankled her professional pride. Ella wasn’t an adventurer anymore, but there was no way she should have missed twice when the target was caught flat-footed and not even facing her.

  She watched for a moment as the necromancer ran off down the path, smirking a bit at the sight of a bare green butt showing through the tattered remains of clothing and armor. She hoped the necromancer wasn’t who she thought it was, but there was little chance that a second dryad had just showed up randomly the same day as the first. Even if the necromancer wasn’t Autumn, both of them being here meant they were working together at the very least.

  Straightening up, Ella grimly started marching forward while popping a mana taffy into her mouth and beginning to chew slowly. No matter if the fleeing figure was Autumn or not, she couldn’t just let them go. Nipping this problem in the bud before it had a chance to grow and fester was the only way to keep the village safe. Trying not to gag on the taffy, she resumed the chase in earnest.

  —----------------------

  Running through the woods while fearing for his life was something that happened way too often to him for Xander’s tastes. He was also acutely aware that he was heading in the wrong direction and on the opposite side of the river. Not only that, but he was beyond exhausted from fighting, and chilled to the core from abusing mana. And of course, just to keep things even spicier, he had covered himself to try to hide his identity and the sun wasn’t out yet either. This of course meant that instead of recovering his energy, he’d continue to get even more exhausted.

  Pausing and leaning against a tree to catch his breath, he connected to the surrounding forest and looked to see where his pursuer might be. It took a trickle of his limited mana to actively look through the senses of the trees at the edge of his range, but he was relieved when he didn’t sense Ella within several hundred feet. he thought.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Exhaustion was his biggest problem of course, and if it got much worse he was just going to collapse again, probably never to wake. His knowledge of plants and discussion with his oak gave him a dubious solution, though it was one which he absolutely hated. On Earth, the moon didn’t reflect enough light to trigger the necessary chlorophyll excitation, just trace activity. But on Gaellus… the moon was larger and more reflective. It didn’t exactly chase the darkness of night away, but there was certainly more of a chance it would help.

  A light breeze ruffled his torn up clothing as if to mock him, and Xander groaned. His face was already unmasked, and his abused rear end was already uncovered… so if there was any chance to bolster his natural energy, he had to take it. “Someone somewhere either hates me or finds this all too amusing…” he grumbled softly to himself as he began shedding what little remained of his dignity.

  It turned out that armor and clothing were significantly easier to get out of than they were to get into, even missing an arm, and in less than a minute he stood clad in only what he had been reborn with. The night breeze was cool, but it felt surprisingly good, as did the soil under his bare feet. He hadn’t really wanted to ditch the belt with the coin pouch tied to it, but the coins weren’t really helpful right now and there was no way he had the time to fiddle with getting the belt back on one-handed. Besides, with as little help as he was likely to get from the moon, he needed every square inch of skin free.

  The only thing he held onto was the skill disk for Parkour, but he still didn’t know how to use it since it didn’t look or feel edible. Spending another sliver of mana, he controlled a tiny bit of vine to wrap through the spindle hole of the disk and then around his long hair as a sort of makeshift hair clip. It would keep his hair out of his face and let him hold onto the item for later.

  Movement at the edge of his extended senses drew his attention, and he reflexively tried to hide his privates in embarrassment, only to realize that it was both futile while missing an arm and stupid a few seconds later. Especially since the movement was in the wrong direction. Stalking quietly through the forest near a rundown shack came the muscled form of yet another gnoll. It didn’t look any different from the others he had seen; tribal clothing, a spear in hand, and a shortsword on its belt. The hyena-like features were still disturbing, as was the predatory way it stalked through the trees.

  The gnoll was moving more or less directly towards him, which did not bode well for an unarmed and naked caster. Xander wasn’t about to give up though, and did what many people would do when facing a dangerous animal in the woods. He began to climb the tree he had paused under. Doing so while missing a hand would have been difficult even with his added agility, but he had more tricks up his missing sleeves. Core still moving sluggishly with cold, he spent all but the dregs of his dwindling mana to control the branches of the tree to help pull him upwards over thirty feet.

  One minute passed, then two as Xander watched and waited. He even stopped himself from breathing to make sure he was as quiet as possible, and closed his eyes tiredly. Instead, he watched through the eyes of the forest as his foe prowled closer. A few howls in the distance caused the gnoll’s ears to perk up briefly, but it never lost focus, sniffing for any sign of its prey.

  He didn’t really know, and it didn’t matter anymore. The scout perked up and started moving more quickly, right towards the pile of discarded rags beneath the tree he was hiding in. Xander opened his eyes and moved as slowly and carefully as possible into a crouch, getting ready to execute the dumbest idea he had come up with to date. he told himself.

  The gnoll scout moved cautiously, looking about for him, though not up yet, thankfully. After a few seconds, it began to paw through the discarded clothes, making a soft cackle of delight when the coin pouch clinked. Xander clenched his jaw and rallied his will as his foe leaned down to retrieve its prize. A primal part of him insisted he should shout a war cry as a part of this move, but he knew that would have ruined the surprise attack. Silently, he told the branches to drop him.

   they cackled maniacally a split second before obeying. Even knowing it was coming, being dropped from over three stories up was terrifying, and it took a significant effort not to scream. The fall seemed to both take ages and no time at all, possibly the longest second and a half of his life, before he came crashing down on the unsuspecting gnoll feet first. The sound of the impact was nearly as bad as the pain, a meaty thunk punctuated by cracking bones and snapping limbs.

  Multiple system disks popped up, but Xander fought the pain shooting through his entire body and dismissed them, focusing on completing the rest of his plan. The gnoll was stunned for now, but it would soon recover. He had hit off-centered on its back and broken his own legs in the process, but also caused significant internal trauma before being deflected off to one side. Dragging himself up onto his knees, he reached over and yanked the short sword off the gnoll’s belt. With a grunt, he swung the weapon down on the back of its neck.

  Unlike the movies, the blow didn’t kill the creature immediately, but he had been prepared for that. Crying out with pain and frustration, Xander lifted the sword as his enemy attempted to rise, and began to chop again and again, hot blood spraying over him with each strike until finally the blade struck the ground below. “FUUUCCCKKKK” he screamed, the message of his kill popping up to inform him that he had taken yet another life tonight.



  You have killed a Gnoll Scout (Level 10). Your experience modifier has been reduced for defeating an enemy below your level.

  Xander’s knees slipped in the pooling blood, and he pitched over onto the corpse, one of the spikes adorning the gnoll’s armor punching into a breast in a final act of vengeance. He just whimpered and lay there for a moment, feeling darkness closing in on his vision as the sticky sap of his blood oozed from his wounds to join with that of his slain enemy.



  Warning: You have fallen below 1% HP due to blood loss. Death is imminent.

   he thought muzzily, but the last part of the message irritated him and brought his failing mind a step back from the brink. Who was the System to tell him to face the consequences of his own actions? He wasn’t dead yet, and he wouldn’t give in. “Gaellus…” he croaked, “Let’s do this dance…”

  He didn’t need to point since he was already in direct contact with the corpse, so his words triggered the all-too-familiar process of Reclamation. A blizzard’s worth of chill slammed into him, and it was all he could do to channel some of it towards healing his broken body. It had been a few minutes since the last time he used this ability, whereas the first three uses occurred within seconds of each other, but it was still the worst one yet.

  Pain wracked his body and he arched up and off the dead gnoll, insensate to everything but the agony of broken flesh and freezing mana. Another scream tore from his throat as his shattered legs writhed around beneath him, forcing themselves back into the right orientation, while the fibrous matter of his arm regrew slowly.

  Several hundred feet away, another one armed figure froze as a chill of her own crept down her spine.

Chapter 39: Dropping Like Its Hot

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