Death, Loot & Vampires - Book 2: Chapter 35 Miscalculations.
Chapter 35
Miscalculations.
Vampires do not guess. They do not assume. They take everything they know and filter all their problems through that knowledge until they have a plan with the highest chance of success. Based on everything I knew, there was a 94% chance of a fight occurring before we escaped Necropolis’s dungeon. The dungeon was too big. Which meant it would take too long to travel through. In a race against time, everything was stacked against us. Escaping without having to fight for our lives was almost impossible.
Or so I thought.
Four hours after the survivors had reached the surface and had begun their escape, I looked around the entrance tunnel to the Abyss at the stressed defenders, weighing our options. Being attacked while moving would drastically reduce our chances of winning the fight, but staying and waiting for vampires to arrive was still a worse option.
The attack should have happened by now. They should have caught up to us. Either they had all gone after Luke and Kathrine, or I was missing something important—a detail that could be the difference between life and death.
Unsure about what I was missing, I ordered our retreat and began the slow, coordinated journey to the surface. With my aura unrestrained, nothing crossed our path.
However, halfway there, Commander Erin, the fastest deathlord to leave with the survivors, blurred down the tunnel toward us. She passed through our ranks, ignoring those out front, before stopping her momentum in just three steps. She then pivoted and chased after Gregory, who hadn’t slowed.
“Commander Erin reporting in,” she said too quickly for anyone who hadn’t heavily invested in agility to follow. “We reached the edge of Necropolis’s dungeon industrial complex on time without casualties. Once there, we encountered a barrier equal to the one protecting Darksmith that prevented us from continuing. Additional barriers are believed to be blocking every tunnel into the complex. A student named Baris pointed out that the guards on the other side of the barrier were not his family’s defence force but members of the Grave Diggers Society. When I left to deliver this report, the guards were unwilling to lower the barrier without approval from the high council. Further reports will soon follow.”
“Return to your post,” Gregory instructed.
Commander Erin quickly disappeared down the tunnel in a blur. Most of us could have easily kept up with her, but we were moving in formation, which caused our slowest members to slow us down. Mother and Father and most of the exorcists couldn’t fly and hadn’t invested heavily in their physical attributes. Leaving them behind wasn’t an option. Carrying them would hamstring our strongest fighters, which left us retreating slower than any of us would like.
Gregory glanced over his shoulder.
I nodded that I’d heard her report but didn’t offer any change to our plans. I needed more information.
Over the next three hours, messengers arrived with extra details. Cultists and vampires had attacked Necropolis when Darksmith was attacked. The cultists arrived during the day and let the vampires through the city’s defences at night. The Grave Diggers Society and Inquisitors had held off the cultists long enough to evacuate their people to the dungeon, seizing control of the industrial complex from Baris’s family before falling back and leaving the city to its fate.
Now, they were trapped, caught between vampires and the Abyss, destined to survive only as long as their barriers held. They were afraid. That fear left them unwilling to help us or take any risks. They wouldn’t let us in.
Their situation explained why we weren’t being chased and didn’t have to fight. We were running towards danger, not away from it, and the vampires that attacked Darksmith knew it, which meant they knew the layout of the Abyss to the same degree as Gorgath’s people.
We’d been herded like sheep.
By the time I arrived at the dungeon industrial complex barrier, I knew what was going on, the reception I should expect, and how I planned to deal with the situation.
The glowing blue barrier that even master-tier spells wouldn’t break sat across the eighty-foot tunnel entrance. The parents of the Undead Enhancement Club stood on the other side of the barrier, inside a square kill box, surrounded by a wall that housed Grave Digger’s Society’s guards. The kill box allowed the guards to safely hunt dungeon monsters when the barrier wasn’t in place, but it was more like a deer blind than a meat grinder.
I spotted parents writing messages of hope to their children despite looking defeated. They wanted to let their children in, but the high council of the Grave Diggers Society wouldn’t let them. They feared they were vampires, which wasn’t unreasonable considering their situation.
Negotiations had failed, and the council’s position wouldn’t change now that I was here. That left me with one option. Violence.
I blurred to the side of the barrier, weaving my way through upset students, and slammed Slaughter through the barrier into the main mana line it was shielding. Raw mana surged up Slaughter and into my core before I redirected the mana into my peoples’ cores with my sorcerer sovereign skill.
Just like at Darksmith, the barrier vanished.
Gregory and his weakest deathlords blurred forward. The fastest were past the parents and halfway up the wall towards the small gaps before the guards realised the barrier was down. The high-level parents inside the kill box reacted with the guards drawing on mana to defend themselves, forcing Gregory’s people to incapacitate them. With Davina present, incapacitation meant decapitation.
The students stood there stunned.
“Don’t just stand there,” I shouted. “Get through the barrier.”
Like the breaking of a damn, first one and then one hundred charged through the breach. They moved like a black tide, grabbing their parents and throwing them over their shoulders as they raced for the thirty-foot-wide open gate tunnel at the back of the kill box. Those whose parents had been decapitated grabbed heads and bodies, dragging them to the end edge of the kill box to create a field hospital.
As the students rushed through the barrier, I stepped inside. “Barrier closing in three, two, one!”
I withdrew Slaughter from the main mana line as the front line halted. The barrier popped back into place. Everyone was so used to following orders to survive the Abyss that they did exactly what they were told.
“Empty your cores,” Gregory shouted from the wall. “Those with the smallest cores push forward and establish a perimeter. We need to get everyone inside before we take control of the complex. Students who have entered and parents who haven’t been decapitated, please vacate the area so we can continue the evacuation. If you don’t do so willingly, you will be forced.”
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Baris ran over while Gregory continued to shout orders. “Did you kill the vampires following us?”
Baris’s family owned this complex, so I needed him to work with me. Ignoring him now would be a mistake.
So, I answered his question while I emptied my core. “The vampires never showed. I’m working under the assumption that they know the layout of the Abyss, like Gorgath’s people. If it’s true, they recognised the direction we were travelling and knew we would run into their people no matter which dungeon we reached. The dungeons we could reach are all in North Murdell, near the border, and if your city is a common example of what is happening here, it means they’re trying to control the southern border. However, I could be wrong, and they’re just slower than I think. It’s why I need to get everyone inside and why the vanguard is still guarding the tunnel.”
Baris glanced at the barrier before turning back. “The Grave Diggers Society has taken my family prisoner. Are you going to kill them?”
“No, but I will free your family while I take control of your family’s industrial complex. I need to understand what’s happening so I can plan our next step.”
“I don’t think your people got the no-killing message.”
I chuckled. “If you look over there, you’ll see Davina is already resurrecting the people that have been decapitated. When she’s around, we don’t consider decapitation killing. It’s more like an extra strong knockout.”
Baris turned to where I was pointing and relaxed. “What can I do to help?”
“Get anyone connected to my sorcerer sovereign skill to empty their cores so I can hold the barrier open longer. This one is a lot bigger than the one at Darksmith.”
Baris turned and raced for the gate, yelling instructions to the Undead Enhancement Club to empty their cores. On the other side of the barrier, Davina’s people ushered everyone forward to replace those who had gotten inside. Flying carpet rose into the air, carrying anyone still unconscious from mana exhaustion.
The courtyard began to clear as the last parents and children raced through the open gate into the industrial complex beyond the kill box. Those who had lost parents stood to the sides in numb stupors, conflicted over how they should feel after seeing Davina in action. After all, decapitation was a papercut to her.
When everyone had emptied their cores, I drew Slaughter and stabbed the main mana line, placing the blade into the previous cut. The barrier vanished, and survivors surged inside before I closed it again.
Most dungeons only had two of three central chambers where monsters bred, which meant the most you could build without affecting the ecosystem was a fortress across the entrance tunnel to the surface. This dungeon had nine, which was why Baris’s ancestors had turned the entire first chamber into an industrial complex.
They had built this complex to process the industrial quantities of dungeon materials the dungeon produced, bringing in an outside workforce when they figured out they needed more people. One of those people had been an alchemist necromancer. Alchemist necromancers had more control over preserving and manipulating the dead than regular sorcerers, so they produced far better materials when processing dungeon monsters.
That difference in quality had seen Baris’s ancestors slowly invite more and more necromancers until they were the majority of the population. Necropolis wasn’t just a place where necromancers lived but one where their talents let them thrive.
Over time, Baris’s family had grown their facilities into a place that could ignore dungeon surges and be a safe haven during wars. However, they hadn’t built it as a military base, so I could hear my people overrunning their defences as they expanded the perimeter.
I needed control of this place to know what we were working with so that I could plan the next step. Too much had changed. And I needed to adapt.
Five minutes later, Gorgath and a vanguard of our strongest fighters passed through the barrier without a scratch on them. They were tired and stressed. I couldn’t offer them anything more than a short nap. If we were going to get out of here alive, I would need them.
Guarded by Angelica, Mother and Father followed the vanguard walking backwards with glowing eyes, watching the tunnel through multiple dimensions for any sign of pursuit. As they stepped through the entrance, I withdrew Slaughter from the main mana line for the last time, allowing the barrier to reassert itself.
Mother and Father dismissed their spells and gave weary sighs before running to the wall to help Davina resurrect the defenders. She had finished with the parents and moved on to the guards. Each time a necromancer breathed a new breath, they were taken into custody by Gregory’s deathlord, who took them to join the other prisoners in a nearby warehouse.
With the vanguard finally inside, I could finish taking control of the complex.
By the time I’d sheathed Slaughter, most of the vanguard had already abandoned the kill box. Gorgath waited for traffic to pass through the gate tunnel before he leaned over and looked inside. He could fit, but it was going to be tight.
I walked over and looked up. “It’s big enough to squeeze through.”
The kid looked at me sceptically.
“You don’t have your spikes anymore,” I pointed out.
Gorgath smacked the wall with the back of his fist, creating several cracks and a loud meaty thump. “This is not dungeon stone. Gorgath can break through.”
“You can’t break someone else’s property just because you’re afraid of small spaces.”
The kid scowled. “It’s dangerous.”
Considering the threats that hid in tight spaces in the Abyss, claustrophobia made sense.
“No, it’s not,” I said more gently. “It just feels that way. You can do it.”
Gorgath sighed as he lay down and began to shimmy forward unhappily. I walked behind the kid, shouting encouragement and smelling his fear. It took him almost a minute and a small panic attack, but he reached the other side.
We stepped out of the tunnel into an underground town.
Warehouses, workshops, and storefronts lined wide streets lit with glowing crystals. On the sidewalk, a handful of deathlords oversaw the recently resurrected necromancers waiting to move them to a nearby warehouse. Worried civilians looked out of the surrounding windows, unsure what to do.
Gorgath stood up and scowled at the tunnel before turning to take in the town. A handful of death bolts flew his way from the surrounding buildings. I cast a few deathlock barriers to block them as I clambered up his body to his shoulder to take in the complex.
What I saw matched Baris’s map.
The chamber was filled with wide streets, warehouses surrounded by dozens of processing and crafting workshops, and apartments. The local academy took up half the chamber, preferring to sprawl instead of building higher. On the chamber’s ceiling were massive, crystalised mana farms that gave the town a bright orange glow.
I blocked more incoming death bolts. “Gorgath, you’re scaring people. Lie down and meditate until we have control of this complex.”
“Let them through. Gorgath has the magic resistance skill now.”
“That skill doesn’t resist magical damage. It resists magical effects. It won’t protect you if someone throws a necrotic attack your way.”
“It won’t?”
“I don’t have time to explain, but it doesn’t work like the death and necrotic resistance or any elemental resistances.”
“Oh.”
As he lowered himself, I jumped off his shoulder toward Angelica. She was leaning against a building, trying not to look as sick as she smelled.
I could hear people planning a counterattack in a building down the street and other locations across the complex. I needed to deal with the resistance, but first, I had to take care of my familiar.
I landed on the sidewalk next to her. “Go take a nap, Angelica.”
Angelica gave a weary grin and immediately started walking in a random direction. “Where?”
“Helen is setting up a safe house in a warehouse two streets that way. Go there.”
Happy to comply with my order, Angelica blurred away before I could give her something else to do. That wasn’t going to happen. Her mana sickness was worse than everyone else’s. If her attributes weren’t so insanely high, she’d be dead.
Her condition should have stopped worsening once we reached the dungeon, but it hadn’t. She would be in trouble if I didn’t get her out of here in the next few hours.
With that problem taken care of, I blurred towards the nearest group of resistance fighters, wondering what I would have to do to free my people from this doomed nation’s destiny.
