Chapter 227 – Is this something that should be there?

On the hillside of the clearing, the bonfire was on the verge of igniting, the flames pulsing more and more feebly as they lost their Shadow or Evil energy.

The night was cold as hell in the Elwyn Forest, and Jace leaned back against the fallen log and waited, not the least bit sleepy or hungry, just attentive to the movement behind him for an hour or two without letting up.

He knew Grid was the same way, the guy had been thinking of getting it back ever since he’d been ravaged by Hogg on that food wagon ride, and Hogg was as much on his death list as the orc shaman, so he’d been happily asleep but always staring, peering over the side through the cracks in the wood.

Just as he was considering for the third time whether or not Hogg would not come, Grid turned his head to look at him, and Jace knew what was happening by the look in his eyes.

A familiar purring wheeze grew clear from the distance, masking all the white noise in the forest background.

Jace remembers the movement to this day, the tall monster he met that day in the pouring rain, the power and oppression that overwhelmed him then.

After that, he never wanted to think about the old story of Hogg the Rookie Slayer, a monster who had already brought too much havoc to the Elwyn Forest.

The soldiers who squatted in the Western Springs fortress, the inhabitants, the tragically dead and wounded brigands, the merchants, the wounded that he saw that day in the town of Shining Gold …… and especially the one with the blood coming out of his helmet, the Stormwind guard who endured everything for him and Grid, Jace still remembers it to this day.

How is he now? Is he dead? Or paralyzed, or still clinging to the forefront of the defense of Stormwind.

For some reason, Jace especially wanted to meet that person at this point.

Without him holding his shield up against Hogg for as long as he did, both of their journeys might have ended in the middle of that road.

With that thought, he gripped the long staff in his hand.

It’s coming to an end today.

“Damn it, look at that.” Grider squelched his voice.

Jace found a crack to look through, and the first thing he saw was none other than the gargoyle that was too tall to be a jackal.

Hogg …… is right there.

He was propped up like an unsteady crippled giant in the middle of a group of diminutive jackal guards, and Jace so roughly estimated that he was probably quite a bit taller than an orc.

And he was surrounded by guards, some with long swords, some with spears, some carrying small axes, all sorts of things, the one that caught Jace’s attention the most was a small jackalope holding a long curved stick and wearing a long ragged coat, could it be a spell caster?

But all this, what was there to surprise Grider?

It was only at this thought that Jace noticed that the jackals were all looking in the same direction, that of the camp on the slope.

In front of the campfire that was about to be extinguished, a short jackal was keeping his head down and didn’t know what he was doing, and two jackals were piling up all the bodies from the camp and placing them in front of the short jackal.

Is this some kind of ritual?

Nope.

Jace felt an uncomfortable taste in the air, not something he could smell with his nose, but something that told him with his keen sense of energy as a spell caster.

There was only one time …… that he could associate this feeling with him and that was that night, that night in Dalaran.

The streets were filled with the breath of the dead, and the shadows seemed to be filled with the living dead everywhere!

That night’s aura was stronger, more direct, tonight’s aura, though much more euphemistic and confusing, was much more alarming to Jace …… because it was in the Elwyn Forest, not in the great graveyard of the Twilight Forest, or some other place that was already cursed.

That jackal was actually performing a necromantic ritual?

Does he want to resurrect those bodies?

“On or off?” Grid asked softly.

Jess said, “Hold on a second.”

He took a breath and calmly recited the spell for mage armor, and after it was smooth and steady, a stream of colored arcane light surrounded him ……

After the spell was done, he poked his head out once more and glanced that way, making sure that the jackals were all watching the necromancer and hadn’t picked up on the magical light from his side of the room.

“You secretly practiced on your own? Surprisingly, there’s not as much mess blowing up ……” exclaimed Grider.

“Sure, it was a bit of a waste of mana before.” Jace poured a mana potion and finished his own bottle of Shadow Protection and said, “Remember to drink your potions, Grid, go ahead and kill the necromancer, I’ll help you hold off Hogg and his guards!”

“Got it.”

The Dwarf pulls out his last potion of Shadow Protection and drinks it in one gulp.

“Sarno.” Jace said, “Cover me and Grid, like you did that day on the stone fortress!”

The little ghost peeked out from behind Jace, and Jace could feel it gripping the edge of the warlock’s bag, hating it as if it was about to rip it apart.

The night wind rose and fell as if it sensed something, and whistled with movement through the trees. Grid climbed onto the stake and jumped straight out, running wildly through the grass at a speed that was extremely frightening for a dwarf.

Jace saw to it that the tallest Hogg ran out as well, his speed certainly couldn’t keep up with the Dwarf’s sprinting speed, his cloak and robes filling the wind, his body covered in streams of light that were quite blinding in the night, and holding his staff up he instantly attracted the attention of all the Jackals ……

“Hogg …… Hogg! Stop! Stop!”

Hogg yelled in his raspy voice, and the jackals looked Jace’s way at the same time.

He thought to himself come on, let’s see me end the match with a fear spell.

Seeing that Grid was already close to rushing to where the Necromancer was standing ……

Wait, Hogg wasn’t staring at himself at all!

This gargoyle dragged a long wolfsbane and ran across two exaggeratedly large strides in Grid’s direction, as if to block him from attacking the necromancer!

Just as the warhammer in Grid’s hand was about to burst with electricity, the giant club in Hogg’s hand had already swung in front of Grid!

Grid raised his shield and barely blocked the blow, only to hear a loud “anvil” sound, Grid was hit by the backward super two steps to fall down in the grass, but Jace already do not care about him ……

Jace had wanted to slow Hogg down with a Weakness Curse, but just as he picked up his staff, his view was already blocked by several Jackals, the fastest one approaching with a strange cry, the sharp tip of his spear already in front of Jace’s face!

Jace simply used the Curse of Weakness directly on the face of this madman who was rushing the fastest, and surprisingly, the other man just stumbled on his feet for a couple of steps before lunging again, but still, Jace knocked the spear out of his hand with his left-handed mace, and stabbed his right-handed sword into his mouth.

It was a pretty sharp stab that brought the jackal to the ground shivering on the spot, but the guy bit down hard on the sword and Jace didn’t quite pull it out with a hard pull.

A jackalope behind him followed with a howl, spear raised and already probing in his hand!

Jace had to let go of the jab, and the off-balance jackal suddenly burst into flames, and was about to turn back to jab again when he panicked and yelled, and Jace stabbed him with his long stick in one swift motion, sending him tumbling to the ground and rolling around.

In this opening, he brainstormed the other side.

Hogg was slamming his long stick wolfsbane with both hands back and forth against the ground over and over again, the tall grass swabbing the view, but since his opponent was still slamming around, it meant that Grid was at least resisting.

“Sëanor, go help the dwarves! Quickly! I don’t need help!”

The Kid shouted and scurried over.

The plan had gone completely haywire, Hogg had been led over there, the necromancer had continued its rituals unmolested, and Jace had been surrounded by several jackal guards.

Must be soon ……

He pointed his staff out to the other side of the two jackals who were about to approach took a few steps back and pulled away a bit, intending to quickly use a fear spell to control the scene here, when he suddenly heard a whistling wind behind him ……

A sudden burning sensation was felt in his ear, and Jace subconsciously tilted his head as a ball of fire blasted him directly behind his shoulder!

Jace felt like he was blindsided with a straight punch staggered two steps and nearly fell over, the arcane streams of light rolling back and forth in agitation all over his body, and with the protection of his cloak and mage armor, he didn’t even feel much pain!

Damn …… forgot about that short mage.

Seeing that Jace was blown off balance by the fireball spell, one of the jackals reacted extremely quickly and took the opportunity to chase after him and swing his axe to chop, but he was killed instantly by a blow to the face from Jace’s back staff.

Jace heard a chant not far away, so let’s see who’s faster, he shouted fear spell magic, and as the Shadow Gem at the head of his staff released a bright light, the other jackal that had been hit by the fear spell wasn’t stunned or fled, but instead wailed and scrabbled and swung his spear in his hand and continued to lunge in front of him.

Jace let him take one swing and closed over to smack its short legs with his staff, then came down hard on its head with both hands, hearing a crunching sound of yow as the jackal slumped to the ground while vomiting yellow water.

The other jackal guards had either fallen or fled somewhere, and it was then that he noticed the mage clutching a small short staff in his hand, sitting on the ground and wailing helplessly, Jace picked up a spear and rushed over to it and stabbed it through the chest with an assisted run. Having solved the immediate trouble, Jace pulled out the sword he had just bitten with all his might and ran towards the necromancer on the hill.

Seeing those piled up corpses already one stood up and ran in the direction of Grid and Hogg’s deadly fight, followed by a second …… If they didn’t stop them they would have to deal with half a dozen more undead jackals!

He was a dozen meters away when he unleashed a single fear spell to try to interrupt the ritual, yet the necromancer didn’t budge at all! What was going on? Not enough distance? Impossible……

At that moment, the Necromancer turned back, his eyes glowing with a dark yellow necromantic light.

It’s an undead!