3.47. The Long Dark II (Patreon)

It was the second day, a little after three in the afternoon, and I hadn’t slept more than four hours in the past sixty. The rest snatched when and where I could, while the more experienced militia members had a knack for sleeping through the alarms affecting the other sections of the wall.

That wasn’t something I could do yet. Every time the alarm rang or every time the drums beat, I startled awake. My eyes were gummy, and my face felt plastic.

Previously, the longest I’d ever gone without sleep was four days, but that had been as a young man, crewing an adaptation of Don Quixote at the Farrow. The hotel had been in the middle of renovating at the time and had given us access for four days—just four for us to film everything. It’d been a caffeine and adrenaline-fueled blast.

I dragged my attention back to the present to stare out at the fields below. The village’s defenses were holding up, with only a section of the berms to the northwest disrupted. The ground was turned over and the stakes were splayed in all directions.

The truly frightening thing was that we didn’t even know what’d caused the damage. The creature had traveled under the earth, the ground rolling above it. The alarm had rung and the drums pounded to warn of the underground threat.

For a long heart-stopping moment, the creature paused within the village’s boundary as if considering us. Then it’d moved on, and the villagers eventually climbed down from the rooftops to go back to what they’d been doing.

My straying thoughts were interrupted by a ding came from the east, followed shortly by an alarm of the same level from the north. Then, both repeated and steadily kept repeating over the next couple of minutes, like a herd of animals were crossing the village boundary in both places, single file.

After a couple dozen dings in both spots, I anxiously awaited the call to reinforce the walls there, but the drums didn’t sound. Instead, a messenger came running over, and yelled up to us, “It’s elk, one to each side, bounding back and forth across the line.”

“How did they look?” Mumu yelled back.

“Bloodied.”

Mumu cursed under her breath.

“Are they testing the alarm?” I asked, incredulous.

“That’s probably true,” Mumu said, grim-faced. “It’s also likely the elk lost a fight badly enough that they were driven off their territory.”

“Meaning they’ll come here,” I said.

Mumu nodded. “If they’re seeking light to help with taking back their land, then yes.”

Time crawled past, and the alarm rang without stopping, a constant dinging that got on everyone’s nerves. The lack of sleep, the itchies, and now this? It was maddening, and I heard outbursts from the militia of people taking out their frustration on each other.

Honestly, if it weren’t for Koda, blood would’ve spilt. Voorhei was a good-sized village, but we weren’t so big that enemies wouldn’t sometimes be assigned to the same tasks. As far as I knew there weren’t any feuds like the one I’d witnessed in Albei, but if you put any group of people together for a long enough, someone would eventually find beef with someone else. The village head seemed to be everywhere at once to keep the peace, or at least the semblance of it.

We couldn’t even shut down the alarm. That’d been done before in the village’s history, and they’d paid for it when a skulk of foxes used the strategy to sneak in. All we could do was outlast the elk, so we waited them out with nerves on edge.

Two hours later, I gritted my teeth and promised that, once the Long Dark was past, those goddamn elk were going to pay, even if it killed me.

The sun set, a ball of hazy orange light dropping past the escarpment, and the twilit shadows beneath the trees rustled. I was so caught up in my grudge against the elk that I didn’t notice, but Haol called out, “Movement.”

Across the treeline, a dozen elk suddenly bounded forward in a confused charge. Several went straight into the stakes, and then kept going, unheeding of the damage and the poison. Others stumbled over the leg breakers, and they too continued, stumbling toward the walls. It was almost like they were being driven, and as they came closer, the wounds on them became clearer—exposed muscles and crushed ribs, gashes along their necks and bodies, and a skull broken open.

I checked my Status camera, and confirmed my suspicion:

Desti Elk (Undead)
Talents: Jumper, Biter, Rage

I was able to check one more—

Desti Elk (Undead)
Talents: Don’t Shove Me, Rain of the Steel Hooves, Rage

—when a second wave appeared, and another twenty undead emerged from the trees. The hairs at the back of my neck lifted, as I noted that they once again appeared in a line before charging forward. I’d only had a couple of encounters with the undead previously, but that was enough to know that they didn’t normally behave this way.

Something is controlling them, Yuki said.

That really was what I looked like, so I scanned the trees but couldn’t see past their disturbed spirits. Still, it was a near certainty. “We’re dealing with a necromancer!”

Haol had already drawn his bow. “Confirmed! They’re undead and organized.”

As his arrow flew, Mumu ran to peer down into the kill box between the outer and inner gates. The dog riders and their supports were down there, waiting since the elk first started messing with the alarm system. “Sally! Keep them away while we hunt for the necromancer.”

Our village walls were only twenty-feet tall, and desti elk were notorious for being able to leap great distances. They could conceivably make it to the top of the wall if we allowed them to get closer. Alive, fire might’ve kept them away, but it’d do nothing against the undead.

Mumu rushed to my side. “Anything?”

I shook my head. “The trees are blocking my spirit eyes. I’ll need to get closer.”

“Then we sally too.”

With a gesture, she gathered the rest of the team, and we ran down to the gate. Outside, we heard the dogs bay. In moments, the land soldiers would be fighting, and we gave them the time to fully engage the invaders.

I tightened the straps on my gear and checked to make sure everything was in place. Mumu looked me and the others over, giving each of us a nod.

“Be swift,” she said. “Keep moving and let the dog riders handle the herd. Our priority is the necromancer. Any other strays are secondary unless they’re an immediate threat to the team. Understood?” Seeing us respond in the affirmative, she followed with: “Dog’s Agility.”

Then, the gates rose a second time, and we launched from them like greyhounds, our strides long, eating the ground as we sprinted downhill. The spell’s drive to run-do-act pushed me past my exhaustion into delirious movement.

Our legs and arms pumping, the world zipped past as we ran along the safe paths to avoid the leg breakers. The air smelled of pitch, oil, and the stink of rotting meat. In my peripheral vision, the giant dogs tore into the undead.

I looked aside to catch a glimpse of Jesei, his jaws around an elk’s throat, worrying it back and forth. This was the village dog who often wore a flower crown on his head—who let the children dance around him and carried them proudly on his back like a pony.

Here, he was an engine of destruction, while Musa hung on, leaning from his saddle to lay into the elk, using the long sharp spike of his war hammer to pierce their cores.

I felt a thrill of glee to see the elk suffer and anticipation for when we reached the source of our troubles. We’d pierce the necromancer with our spears and arrows, gobbling his light to grow even stronger.

Which... which... was not the frame of mind you should take into a hunt, but we were moving fast-fast-fast, and my attention was needed on the path ahead or else I’d trip and break bones in the tumble. The glance toward the giant dogs had been just that—a snapshot. The feelings in response would have to be dealt with later.

Still, my team was glorious as we ran toward the setting sun and the darkening woods below it. I directed us to where the spirits were most disturbed. Faintly at first but growing louder with every step, we heard a thumping beat from up ahead, as if the elk had their own drums in opposition to ours. Then, we plunged into the woods; Tegen pre-emptively casting his protective spells.

There, among the distressed trees, were a gang of five elk—live ones—thumping the trunk of a large oak with their hooves. A sixth elk stood to the side, watching. He still had his antlers, even though it was winter, and a sickly greenish light emanated from each of the points. They pulsed in time with the thumping hooves. There were maybe about another dozen elk past him, but it didn’t take genius to tell which was the necromancer.

My team acted as one—Mumu and I dove at the elk with the antlers, Haol casting a Spiral Pierce arrow at the same time. Meanwhile, Tegen used his Hunter’s Call to disturb the drummers, and focus them on him.

I snapped a quick look at the necromancer’s Status to make sure there wouldn’t be any surprises.

Desti Elk Alpha (Animal, Dusk)
Talents: Born Loser, Turnabout Turncoat, Life Follows Death, Rage Against the Heavens

The confusing collection of talents caused a stutter in my steps—a recognition that obscure names implied complicated effects or mechanics—but there was no time to decode their meanings.

Haol’s arrow took the necromancer in the eye. A beat later, Mumu thrust her spear, and her Spiral Pierce blasted through the elk. His ribcage splintered, the meat rippling as the spear shot all the way through his torso.

A shudder ran through the elk’s body, and he toppled over, except when we looked closer, we saw his rack was missing. The coloring was different too, as was his size. A quick look revealed the necromancer was now standing at the periphery, along with the other elk. He bugled at us—a screeching wail—and the rest of the gang turned as one to face us.

We had a breath to realize the danger, before they leapt. And I was wrong—so very wrong about the number—as approximately two dozen elk launched themselves at us. Only to meet a flight of Thousand Arrows from Haol. Each arrow carried a fragment of Spiral Pierce, punching through the frontrunners.

“Area attack,” Mumu yelled, and her spear multiplied into a deadly thicket upon which the elk threw themselves.

Haol had jumped aside to get clear, but I’d been sticking close to Mumu and had to duck in behind her to make sure I wasn’t also caught in her Thousand Spear spell.

The phantom weapons lasted only a moment, the length of time of a spear thrust, and when they disappeared, the elk caught up on them fell to the ground in a confused-wounded-dying mass. Their wailing bugles scratched at my ears, and I caught a random kick from one of the injured, hitting me in the upper back. The sharp pain sent me forward into Mumu, but she braced me, earning me a glance, but I signed, “Okay,” and her spear struck once more, moving from elk to elk, throat to throat.

Then, a greenish-black haze arose from the bodies, causing the dead elk to get up again. Mumu switched to heart shots to disrupt their cores, and she sent me a significant look.

I interposed the rising undead between me and the necromancer, and cast Camouflage once I was out of view. Yuki continued to feed my Dog’s Agility, letting me weave through the undead attempting to overwhelm my teammates. The shimmer of Tegen’s Unbroken Shield let me know that he’d joined the larger melee.

I spotted the alpha backing away from the fight, his eyes bulging and his nose flaring. The wind... the wind was coming from the northeast, so I’d have to swing around to get downwind. Time pressed and forced me to consider casting Scentless Hunter, but Mumu and the others had already spent nearly half their mana fighting the desti elk. It’d be better to conserve mine as much as possible. At the same time, if they were wounded because I was too slow, then we’d lose the mana anyway to Healing Water.

These thoughts sped through my mind, rushed by the adrenaline and the magic flowing through me. Hardly a second went by, as I chose to cast Scentless Hunter, and Yuki prepared the Blink emulator in case the alpha had more surprises in him.

Forcing myself to breathe steadily, I crept closer to the necromancer, cast Anesthetic on a poisoned stiletto, and carefully-cautiously-slowly stabbed from underneath, in the belly. Once, twice, thrice, and then the scent of his own blood must’ve disturbed him, because he pranced away, then turned to look behind him.

I held still, letting the land cover me. The necromancer spun around, alarmed, and then he stumbled as the chishiaxpe venom took effect. The sickly green cast of his antlers intensified, and suddenly the gang of undead elk rushed to surround him.

The damage had already been done, though. Backing away, finding a nearby oak tree, I climbed up to a low branch and watched as the alpha fell to his knees. I unslung my bow and nocked an arrow, but the elk surrounding him blocked my shot.

The alpha shook his head to clear it, and the light among his antlers flickered. Immediately, the edges of the gang around him frayed as a handful of the undead got free of his control. They took a couple of halting steps away, then madly dashed toward the oak I was perched in. They couldn’t see or smell me, but they sensed I was the person with the most light nearby.

That got the alpha’s attention, and he sent all his minions at the tree, jumping up at its limbs, slamming the trunk with their hooves—it was all I could do to hang on to the branch and avoid the crazy undead elk literally flying past me.

Haol shot the alpha in the head, but one of the injured elk replaced him. Mumu ran for his new location, but instead of a killing blow, she attacked his flank with a long cutting motion. That hit him, and then we knew—his displacement power only took effect if a strike inflicted a mortal wound.

Which was incredible, because it implied a divination component—the ability had a way to register future effects on present circumstances. But only for a short time in the future, or else the alpha wouldn’t have taken the stab wounds I’d inflicted or Mumu’s cut.

After that, all my team needed was time. The alpha was already poisoned and bleeding from the belly and the sides. While I led the undead gang on a merry chase through the trees, Mumu, Haol, and Tegen stabbed him until he bled out.

At the very end, the alpha changed positions with three other elk, one after the other, but there was no escaping death. And my team was there to pull his core immediately afterward to make sure he didn’t turn undead himself.

After that, the few elk still living and unwounded ran for it. The undead continued to chase after me, but I trailed them like a kite, and let my team pick them off. We were eventually joined by the land soldiers. Then the militia arrived to help to deal with the bodies.

I made my way over to the alpha’s corpse to check his antlers, but I didn’t sense anything other than long channels leading deeper into the body. They were, in effect, antenna for a spell deeper in his body, and it’d take more than a cursory examination to find it.

###

Teila and the first aid crew met us as we limped through the gate. She took charge of me and made me lift my armor to expose the purpling skin on my back, the massive bruise from being kicked. My ribs should’ve snapped like twigs from the hit, but nothing was broken according to Yuki.

Teila still forced me to sit aside for a treatment of Nature’s Spring. Thanks to her Wood-Wise talent, she wouldn’t have to worry about running out of qi. In the meantime, I checked on my dantians, but no matter how much I pushed, my qi recovered slowly and my mana not at all. The energy I’d spent on Scentless Hunter and Anesthetic wouldn’t be coming back until after the Long Dark.

The rest of the team plopped down beside me. Runners brought rags soaked in hot water for us to clean up the blood and viscera covering us. Moments later, Musa and the other dog riders arrived. Then Sheedi, and minutes later the rest of the village’s leadership team.

Teila leaned me forward so that she could work on my back, but I kept my ears open during the debrief/strategy session.

Desti elk were not known to stray into necromancy. We’d just gotten unlucky in that regard. Fortunately, the gang had been a small one, with only about forty to fifty elk in it. The situation could’ve been much worse, since during the winter, elk gangs tended to merge. It wasn’t unusual for groupings of four to five hundred elk to form.

Which, honestly, was probably closer to this gang’s original size. Many of the elk, both the living and the dead, had arrived at our borders already wounded, which likely meant they were the remnants of a larger group that’d lost a fight.

Our best guess was that it’d been either another gang of elk or one of the musk oxen herds, both of whom were still out there. Wounded? Triumphant? Gorged on the light of their fallen enemies? I wondered.

In the past, the King of the Forest had forced the elk and the musk oxen to keep their heads down, but all bets were off now that he was dead.

“We should prepare as if they are coming,” Mumu said to nods all around.

My fingers trembled from the adrenaline dropping from my system, as well as... a blush of excitement too. I felt my face heat and my heart race. The feeling of rushing to meet the desti elk alpha with our spears, it’d been intoxicating. Like the first drop of a roller coaster, except more. Like falling in love, but more. Like being hungry, and more.

This isn’t me, is it?

The Long Dark, Yuki said.

And everyone feels like this? The whole five days?

Worse, because there’s also the itchies, the fear, and everything else.

But I don’t sense any of that from you?

It’s very strange; we don’t understand it either. This has been the mildest Long Dark ever, and we can only attribute it to our relationship with you.

Well, I don’t like it.

We’re sorry nothing we’ve tried has helped. What’s happening is at the light level, out of reach.

No, no. It’s not your fault; I’m not blaming you.

We know, but we’re still sorry.

Yuki sent a wave of comfort, and I mirrored it back. If the people could bear the discomfort associated with the Long Dark, I could learn to too. Maybe if I managed to get some sleep after the meeting? Resolution in mind, I tuned back into the talks around me, but they were cut short.

Someone had just stabbed Dwilla’s father, a prominent farmer and herder, causing she and Koda to hurry off. Then, a giant two-tailed badger was spotted to the north, which drew away the dog riders and their supports.

“No rest during the Long Dark,” Musa said as he remounted.

But my team did their best to make him a liar. We sat with eyes closed—sometimes meditating, sometimes napping—for a whole forty minutes, before an alarm sounded from the west. Aching, worn, hungry, we picked ourselves up again.