"It's over." Dervalos the Blood Warlock said while looking at the bloody hands of the children the moment Vastor's body crashed against the ground.
They had held on to him with all of their strength but the violence of the impact had been too great and the friction with the metal of the Dominator armor had scraped their hands.
"Check that the fatass is dead while I take our quarry-" A wooden staff struck him in the middle of his eyes while a black-silvery dome formed around the children, sealing them from the rest of the world.
Yet it wasn't the hit that had cut Dervalos short so much as Gorlan the Nightwalker hitting him like a sack of bricks. The two undead tumbled onto the ground for one second before they managed to untangle their bodies and get back to their feet.
"I'm the one you want. Leave them alone." Zogar Vastor stood tall, his presence imposing despite his 1.55 meters (5'1") of height.
There was no trace of wounds on his body, only black streaks that slithered over is half-naked figure. His right eye burned with a bright violet light while his left blazed like a black torch fueled by Chaos.
His arm and legs were all muscles and even though he still had a pot belly, his skin as tight as a drum instead of flabby like the undead expected. They were still trying to understand what was happening when a golden wand appeared in Vastor's right hand.
It was one of the secret weapons of the Kingdom against the undead, crafted by the Royal Forgemasters with the help of the late Manohar. It was capable of converting any tier four and five spells into a ray of concentrated sunlight.
Each beam would last briefly, but long enough to kill an undead, if it struck at their weak spot.
'nulliThis doesn't make any sense.' Ylia the Vampire thought. nulli'Vastor has always been stuck at the bright blue and there's no point in bluffing with the wand. We know how it works and he had no time to -' A golden ray the size of a finger pierced through his brain and turned his body into ashes.
"The bastard is an Awakened and can body cast!" Dervalos shouted to warn his companions but not before a second ray of light turned a Korvak into a grey cloud.
Vastor ignored the advanced units and targeted those on the backline to get rid of the mages who were about to rain spells upon him from a distance.
The third beam missed its target since now the undead followed the wand's every movement and darted out of its trajectory with the inhuman speed of their bodies.
nulli'Without the element of surprise, distance gives them the time to dodge. I can't afford to waste any more spells.' Vastor thought, gritting his teeth to resist the pain.
Without Grimbark, his Yggdrasill staff, his Abomination side was going rampant again. The Master had to keep the Chaos from devouring his body, protect the children, cast spells with his mind and body, and also defend himself from the four assassins charging at him.
One of them turned out to be a Grendel, a type of undead with long claws, a massive body, and a natural resistance to magic. The second was a Vampire who shapeshifted into his Chiropteran form, further boosting his physical strength and gaining the ability to fly.
The third was the Blood Warlock, who spread red bolts of lightning to his allies.
The undead that had come to kill the Master and kidnap the children had reached the blood core equivalent of the bright violet for centuries and now that power was increased fivefold.
The fourth was a Wendigo, a cannibalistic undead who also possessed great physical strength and who was always surrounded by a frozen aura that carried the rigid temperatures of the harshest of winters.
The creature howled, activating one of his bloodline abilities, Chilling Wail. By focusing the frozen aura in the mouth, the Wendigo sucked the warmth from Vastor's surroundings, lowering the temperature by dozens of degrees in an instant.
The sudden drop in temperature condensed the humidity of the night air into snow and it also weakened a human's naked body. Breathing now stung Vastor's throat and lungs while his muscles stiffened and wasted precious energy by shivering.
nulli'Shit! Even though they didn't know that I'm an Awakened, they came prepared for it. I don't know whether to be honored or angry.' The choice was taken out of the Master's hands when he heard screaming from behind him.
The second line of undead was not only shooting spells at him non-stop, they were also in the process of cracking the Dominator armor open to get to the children. n))OIn
nulli'Angry it is, you cowardly bastards!' A snap of his fingers activated Grimbark's offensive routines and the staff unleashed one of the spells it stored.
Yggdrasill wood had the ability to hold and mix spells. Since Vastor was forced to always keep Grimbark by his side to contain his Abomination half, he also kept the staff filled with offensive spells.
He had already found himself in a similar situation and he knew that no matter how good his armor was, if the enemy was unimpeded, it wouldn't take them long to get past it.
The Yggdrasill staff solved the problem, attacking on its own and following a pre-recorded strategy.
The Final Sunset spell produced a dome of black flames that encased one of the undead before starting to shrink. The same space-compressing array that kept the Master from running away with the kids also sealed the undead's fate.
No matter how quickly and far he ran, the spell was faster and its destructive power strong enough to eliminate the target before she could escape its area of effect.
Vastor would have smiled if not for the fact that the staff was now one spell short whereas a new undead was emerging from the ground to take the place of his fallen comrade.
Even worse, the assault of the four assassins was so quick and well-coordinated that he managed to finish conjuring the tier four Mage Knight spell, Full Guard, just before the fastest of them towered over him.
A Grendel couldn't use magic in his combat form but all the power of his blood core was now converted into physical might and magic resistance. The undead kept his fingers splayed so that his 10 centimeters (4') long claws covered a wide area.
Phresia swept his arms at Vastor in an X shape, cutting from the sides to the center so that the fat man could only block or step back. The Master didn't need Full Guard to know that both choices were suicidal.
Even with his Awakened body, the Grendel had more than enough strength to tear him apart if he blocked while stepping back meant throwing himself into the claws of the Chiropteran.
The hit would severely wound him and throw him back into the Grendel's claws that would finish Vastor.
The Master did the only possible thing, creating a third option.
He stepped forward as fast as his shivering body allowed him to, jumping into the Phresia's embrace.