Revenge of the Sorcerer King 2-1

Morning everyone!

Chapter 1

Oberon

Normally, I would be standing on the hill watching as the city rejoiced surviving whatever impending doom had threatened it. Those memories were strong in my mind, having experienced that scene many times. This was the first time, however, that I stood on the hill watching as the city burned and people screamed for a savior.

I found that I quite enjoyed the scene. Of course, this is the just reward for a city that would allow one of my family to be turned into a door prize for some noble. This would serve as the first reminder that the most powerful sorcerer known to the races has returned. Not today of course. Some time from now, when I knew I was ready to fight the forces of the light. Then they’ll know the true mastermind.

~~~

“We would be making great time if not for all the extra baggage,” I said pointing behind me at the half a dozen wagons following us. I looked over to Alessa, my very distant relation of a few centuries. When I was a king, I’d had a rather large harem. She was related to my human wife of the time. She had recently become a vampire. Still her beauty would soon be enough to cause a large number of problems if she didn’t learn self-control.

“I couldn’t just leave them there to die. Plus, they swore to follow us,” Alessa said crossing her arms over her chest.

“If everyone was true to their word, there wouldn’t be any wars,” I retorted with a chuckle.

“Leave the girl alone. We managed to leave the city without issue. And from the grin I see one your face everyone now and then, you’re still getting EXP from the undead infesting that place now,” Helena, my other companion said with a small fan in front of her. A girl that looked like she was barely ten years old sat on the other side of the wagon. I wouldn’t be fooled by her appearance. She was over five hundred years old. Siateth, the god of death, had sent her here to teach Alessa about being a vampire.

“Yeah. Yeah.” I said waving her off. I peeked outside and saw another caravan in the distance. It appeared many people were fleeing towards the coast in fear of being on the front lines of a war that might break out.

If the flames of war weren’t already present, then our trick in the city won’t cause too many waves. However, if there is someone just searching for an excuse then we’ll experience quite a bit of tubulation soon. One thing I remember from my previous life. There were always people looking to start a war.

We grew closer to the other caravan then moved to the side to pass them. I looked over the ragged wagons that were looking rather roughed up and decided they must have been hit by bandits or something. Turns out my thought was closer to the mark than I expected. Before I had a chance to say anything, an arrow whizzed through a rip in the fabric covering one of the wagons and nailed me right through the eye vizor.

That was the signal for at least forty bandits to jump from the wagons on to ours which contained mostly women that had barely fought a day in their life. With a lot of hooting and hollering the caravan ground to a halt. A man that looked like he’d not seen a bath in years landed on our wagon, only to be kicked full in the chest by Alessa. He went flying, his body exploding to pieces when it struck a second tree.

I stood up and looked at the bandits as they stared at the place that now dripped blood from branches and limbs. “That wasn’t every welcoming,” I said then pulled the arrow from the socket in the helmet.

“What the fuck!?” one of the men shouted.

“Why does the filth always bother us? It has to be something about you,” Helena said from next to me.

“I think the number of flowers is the cause this time,” I retort while glancing at the women and the few men of the Gallery where Alessa’s mother had been kept. They were of enviable levels of beauty and likely to attract anything with libido in the area.

“Fair enough. What do you want to do?” Helena asked.

“I’m a bit hungry,” Alessa said licking her lips.

“Alessa. You don’t know where they’ve been,” Helena said with a smack to Alessa’s hand that was reaching.

The men were starting to get over their shock from the way their comrade died and bared their weapons at us. I just grinned then channeled a spell into my gauntlet that caused their low-quality metal items to come flying towards it. Thrusting my hand to the side, all the weapons were flung in that direction after I cut off the spell. A few other items followed along, but we could recover those once we were done.

“Now. What to do with these gentlemen,” I said tapping my chin. “Ah! I know.”

I waved my hand and the usual blade storm formed around me. Only, instead of launching them at the bandits they flew into the hands of the women. A few freaked out and dropped them but they didn’t fall far before they floated back to their hands. A few of the bandits tried to make a run for it.

I couldn’t have that. I tapped my foot sending a wave of mana into the ground that formed into stone chains that wrapped around the fleeing bandits. There wasn’t anyone too high level. I almost started to pity their fates.

“Ladies. I would like you all to proceed to stab the nearest bandit to you,” I called out so everyone could hear me. A few screaks later, they finally calmed down. “This is for your own good. As you can see, I’m not a nice person. If you want to continue surviving, you will have to carry your weight. You don’t want me to carry it for you.”

With a gesture, one of the men captured by my stone binding spell had his neck broken. His body went limp, but the chains held him up and in place. With a word, necromantic energy left my hand and sank into the body. I went with the zombie, as one body exploding gore was enough for now.

His eyes filled with a green-blackish light before he began to try and get at a nearby bandit.

“Toda! What have you done, monster!?” One of the bandits yelled after witnessing the event.

“Why, I started carrying his weight,” I commented, and the women jerked, their grips tightening around the ethereal blades in their hands. “Ladies. You know what to do by this point.”

Tension filled the air as no one moved. I think I counted ten seconds before the first woman, a lady that had been on the top floor with Alessa’s mother, lurched forward driving the blade through the chest of the bandit near her. That caused a chain reaction where all the women that wanted to live reacted driving their weapons into the bandits. Screams of pain from the bandits that didn’t receive a fatal wound filled the air.

“At least some of you will be usable,” Helena commented from next to me. I nodded at her statement. Of the forty-six people, only fifteen struck out. The rest quivered in fear or hesitation for some other reason.

Alessa held her hand out and pink mana swirled around it. I still had no idea why the hell her mana turned pink, and at this point, I just didn’t care. The rest of living bandits started to scream at a whole new level as the blood in their veins was pulled from every pore. A crimson ball formed over her shoulder, then another one. Once all the blood from the bandits, living or dead was pulled she had four of the balls, roughly one ball per ten people.

“I see the water magic is coming along. Never thought I’d see it used in such a way,” I said shaking my head while looking over her spell work. With this magic, you needed at least a decent amount of mana to be able to defend against it.

The balls appeared to harden but it was only the outer layer. With this Alessa would have a decent supply of blood which she can use to rapidly heal wounds or restore some mana. They landed in her hand which she attached to a chain around her waist. There were already a few there from the few monsters that risked attacking us in the middle of the night.

“At least I won’t get hungry like on the trip here. I do wish there was a way to make it taste fresh,” Alessa said tossing and catching one of the balls.

“Ted! Practice time!” I shouted into the wagon. There was a bang then a man with the looks that would be easily forgettable if you saw him in a crowd stuck his head out from inside wagon. He was rubbing his forehead.

“What?” he asked with a yawn.

“We have some bodies out here that need to get up,” I said patting his shoulder.

“Got it,” Ted said with another yawn.

I watched him walk over to a corpse and start drawing runes on it. He’d come a long way since we found him in a cave a few weeks ago. After only a few seconds went by before the corpse slowly rose to its feet then walked into the forest. It shambled for a moment but soon gained speed as it limbered up, though it was more of a husk.

“Amiere. How are you doing?” I asked moving over to the woman. She stared off into the woods as if in deep in thought.

“Oberon. Its been seven years since I was a free woman. I… I feel lost,” she said glancing over to her daughter then back to the forest.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Now that you’re free you have plenty of time to figure out what you want to do,” I said patting her head like I would a child. I chuckled when she gave me a narrowed eye glare. “You can complain when you’ve got a hundred years under your belt. You’re what? Twenty-nine? I can treat you like a daughter if I want.”

She kept the glare up for a few seconds longer then sighed with a nod.

“Mother! Did you see that?” Alessa came up to Amiere with a smile and a skip in her step.

“Amazing,” Amiere answered though I noticed she had a tight smile. I rubbed my chin but decided not to say anything. If she has a problem with the path her daughter is heading down then she needs to say something. I didn’t know the kind of person Amiere was. If she was too morally set in her way, then I could see problems in the future.