WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Wizard's Memoir ◈
Chapter 20: Undead
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The word “undead” was terribly contradictory.
Taken literally, it meant someone who was “not dead,” but someone who really wasn’t dead and was still alive was not undead.
“Doesn’t it mean they’re already dead, so they can’t die twice?”
Some people argued that, but it still made no sense. As long as something was a monster, it could be defeated, whether it had a physical body or not.
“Hiyah!”
Olivia drove forward with their shield, then stepped back and finished the job with their mace. A skeleton was smashed to pieces, quite literally, with no crude figure of speech intended.
The undead, revived after several decades, died a second time, making a mockery of its name. The human warrior struck their shield with a Bang! and shouted boldly.
“They’re only skeletons!”
Objectively speaking, skeletons weren’t threatening monsters. Even if magic moved them, they were nothing but bones, so they weighed little and their joints weren’t very strong. Against a muscular warrior covered in steel, they were no better than straw dolls.
“But... but there are too many!”
Dahlia wore the cooking pot over their head and waved their dagger, Swish, swish. It was a warning to stay away, but there was no chance it would work. In every way, these were poor opponents for a seeker who relied on surprise attacks against vital points. In the end, Dahlia fled behind the nearby crossbow wielder.
“Hmm...!”
Rolf calmly loaded a quarrel and shot the front of a skull, right in the frontal bone. To everyone’s surprise, its neck snapped, sending the entire skull flying. A living target would have been dead on impact, so a pile of dead bones stood no chance.
“Lux sagitta!”
They also had their artillery, which made up in numbers for what each shot lacked in power.
Etran spread out magic circles and finished casting. The storm of light was a blazing sight, no matter how often anyone saw it. Ten skeletons were swept away at once and fell in a heap. Clatter-clatter-clatter! At the sight, Dahlia broke into a lively dance.
“Well done! Well done! That’s our Mage!”
As mentioned before, there were too many of them. Once the large bones were dealt with, smaller bones appeared behind them. The party flinched, thinking they might be children, but fortunately(?), they weren’t. Grom wailed.
“Oh, no! Oh, no! Our ancestors!”
The bones were far too thick for their length. Put skin over them, and their identity would have been obvious at once. These were the dwarven corpses that had disappeared from the ancestral cemetery. There were a good forty or fifty of them.
“Do something!”
Etran formed more magic circles.
With Olivia blocking the approach from the front and Rolf covering any gaps, there was plenty of time to cast. This time, Etran increased the number a little, spreading fifty-five magic circles through the air.
The sky above the camp was covered in drawings of light. It was a grand sight that made everyone turn for a look, even in the middle of the crisis. It was also a feat only Etran could perform.
“Lux sagitta!”
Etran clenched a fist, and 550 arrows streamed out like threads unwinding from a ball. The answer to overwhelming numbers was more overwhelming numbers. The dwarven skeletons were caught in the storm and snapped like reeds.
“Well... goodness...”
Was this the calm after a storm? Even Grom, who prided themself on having seen plenty in life, was lost for words.
Not all of the undead had lost their “un,” so Olivia and Rolf walked among the bones and finished them off. The remains had to be returned to the ancestral cemetery, so they couldn’t smash them beyond repair, but they made sure to separate the heads.
“I’m so glad our mage is on our side.”
“Hmm...”
Even if these were frail monsters without armor or shields, disabling dozens in one attack was an impressive display of power. All the more so because this was magic that struck directly, not fire or lightning that could spread the damage further. But their impressive mage kept the Light Tracery glowing on their fingers instead of dismissing it.
“The Sorcerer is nearby.”
“What? Really?”
The corpses that had vanished from the ancestral cemetery couldn’t have appeared beside the road on their own. Besides, the timing had been perfect.
Etran made three more Light Orbs and sent them out in every direction. The sounds of birds, insects, and flowing water only made the silence feel deeper.
Olivia made the last undead a contradiction in terms and called the party together. They naturally formed a battle formation to support their tanker.
“Can you see anything?”
“...No.”
Etran spread the light farther and made a magic disc. The Sorcerer was certainly nearby. They had dealt with the skeletons much faster than expected, so the culprit probably hadn’t managed to get away.
“How long do we have to stay like this?”
“Should we try moving slowly? Once it gets a little darker?”
Olivia and Dahlia had plenty of experience hunting monsters, but neither had fought a mage before. Just then, sharp-eyed Rolf moved.
“Forty yards southwest.”
Rolf acted as soon as they called out the location, firing the freshly loaded quarrel without hesitation. Thwang!
Etran gathered the Light Orbs and sent them after the quarrel. Information came quickly through the wildly dancing shadows. Rolf’s shot had been accurate. But it hadn’t hit.
“...Dodged it.”
“Are you sure you didn’t miss?” Olivia asked, but no answer was needed. The Sorcerer proved it in person, wearing a black hood and drawing a curved dagger like a villain from an old tale.
“Aaah!”
The Sorcerer closed the forty-yard gap in three steps. That wasn’t an exaggeration, just a plain description of what happened. Moving at a speed hard to believe possible for a human, the Sorcerer rushed in and raised the dagger. Etran shouted a warning.
“It’s Rapidus!”
It was a beginner adventurer’s mistake. The warrior and crossbow wielder didn’t know the ancient language. Realizing this, Etran hurried to explain.
“Acceleration magic! Be careful, they’re fast...!”
Before the explanation was finished, Olivia took a beating.
The full suit of armor kept the blade from piercing through, but it couldn’t stop the pain. Six or seven impacts struck in the time it took to hear a single Thud! Olivia lost their balance for a moment and staggered.
“Ollie!”
The Sorcerer ignored the falling warrior and kept coming. The greatest threat in this party was the Mage. There was no point wasting the short duration of acceleration magic on taking down a warrior. The blade flew toward Etran’s face.
In the blink of an eye, Etran remembered the market in North-Landing.
‘So that’s why they told me to wear a helmet?’
It was a rather dull thing to see as their life flashed before their eyes. Perhaps that meant it wasn’t time to die yet.
“That’s my friend!”
Etran’s view filled with burnt food scraps. Dahlia had blocked the blade with the cooking pot. Clang! The ringing in Etran’s ears proved they were still alive.
Rolf drew a short sword and swung it in a reverse grip. It was a quick draw, just as Rolf had once advised. But it couldn’t keep up with magic.
When the surprise attack failed, the Sorcerer quickly retreated. Even among enhancement spells, Rapidus was famous for its short duration. It lasted perhaps seven seconds at most. The Sorcerer needed time to cast it again.
“What do you think you’re doing? We could’ve died!”
Dahlia shouted angrily. It was an empty complaint, since that had clearly been the point. Olivia barely managed to recover and raise their shield.
“You’ve got quite a sting. Are you the grave robber?”
The Sorcerer didn’t cast. Olivia’s party didn’t load the crossbow or form magic circles either. Both sides instinctively understood that the moment either began preparing, the fighting would start again. Before that happened, Olivia tried talking.
“Give back what you stole. The bones and the treasure. Then we won’t bother chasing you.”
“Says who? We should catch a wretch like that and hack their limbs off!”
Grom fiercely objected. Dahlia kicked the dwarf in the backside to make them be quiet, only to bounce back instead.
“...I’ll return the bones.”
The Sorcerer spoke quietly. The voice was higher than expected. With a build similar to Rolf’s, everyone had assumed the Sorcerer was a man, but she was a young woman.
“What about the treasure? That’s important to us too.”
“......”
The Sorcerer slowly raised a hand. Olivia flinched and prepared to charge. But it wasn’t a challenge to fight. The Sorcerer slowly pulled off her hood, revealing an unfamiliar face beneath the Light Orbs.
Her bloodless, bluish face and pitch-black lips looked strange. With a flat nose and square jaw, she wasn’t beautiful by human standards. In the first place, the horns sticking up on either side of her head meant she could hardly be called human.
“...A demon?”
Because demons didn’t belong to the Alliance, the allied races, everyone had briefly forgotten. There was one other race besides humans that could use sorcery.
Olivia lowered their guard in surprise, and the Sorcerer seized the opening to begin casting.
“Oh, damn it!”
It was acceleration magic. Once it activated, catching her would be difficult.
Dahlia threw a dagger, but the Sorcerer easily dodged it with a backward step. Her fierce attack earlier hadn’t been entirely thanks to magic. Her race had remarkable physical abilities to begin with. But someone there had the edge when it came to magical skill.
“Rapidus!”
“Lux sagitta!”
Etran matched her casting speed and completed the spell at almost the same moment. The corners of the Sorcerer’s mouth rose. Impressive mana or not, this one was still a novice.
Homing Arrow was a one-shot projectile spell. It couldn’t beat acceleration magic, which remained active over time. In other words, it was a bad matchup. Etran would have been better off strengthening their defense with a Floating Disc. Not that it mattered, since she intended to escape anyway.
“I won’t kill you!”
Etran fired the shining arrows. With time accelerated for her, the Sorcerer calmly moved to dodge. She avoided one cluster, then another, then another. But something was odd.
Three times, four times, five times... She kept dodging, but the shining arrows never stopped. It had been easy at first, but it was growing harder. Only three or four seconds had passed in real time, yet in her accelerated time, she realized the reason far too late.
“Wow...”
The party watching at normal speed could see exactly what Etran’s magic was doing.
This Homing Arrow was quite different from any Etran had shown before. The magic circles floating in the air were firing arrows one at a time, in a continuous stream.
“I thought of it after seeing the spriggan shrink to dodge.”
Instead of pouring out a barrage all at once, the circles fired without pause. There were still more than thirty magic circles, so the attack covered a wide area. In other words, it was a continuous attack like a stream of water rather than a water bomb.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Even if acceleration improved her ability to dodge, it couldn’t do anything about the time she spent in the air with her feet off the ground. The eighth attack finally struck her all over.
There was no point protesting, ‘I could’ve dodged that too!’ Etran had intended to keep the attacks coming for the full seven seconds that her acceleration lasted.
“Got her!”
“That’s our mage!”
Etran let out a small sigh of relief and arranged the remaining magic circles around the Sorcerer. It would be trouble if she knew spells other than acceleration and necromancy, so Etran would finish her off at the first sign of anything suspicious. Though, having never killed a humanlike being before, Etran wasn’t sure they could do it.
“Don’t try anything.”
Even if Etran couldn’t, there were plenty of others who could do it instead. Olivia drew their estoc and pointed it at her throat, while Rolf raised the crossbow and aimed at her chest. At the slightest attempt to cast, they would stab, shoot, and twist the blade.
The Sorcerer strained her neck to look up at the terrifying humans, then let herself go limp. A little too limp. Her mind slipped away, and she fainted.
“Huh? Hey! You have to tell us where the treasure is! My treasure! Give me my treasure!”
“...Since when is it yours?”
Etran looked at the party, then at the Sorcerer, then at the stars appearing one by one overhead. They had achieved something, at least. It had been a rewarding day.
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