Bab 6: Blood and Bones

The ground started trembling under Xander's feet as the circle turned blood red. Bony gray arms burst through the topsoil and clawed their way to the surface, dragging with them deformed skeletons wearing tattered brown rags.

Within seconds, the whole clearing was flooded with re-animated skeletons armed with rusted iron daggers and crooked axes. Every sound was drowned by the chattering of teeth as the undead minions raised their weapons and rushed at the Dreamwalker from all sides.

Xander fired a few shots in the air to try and scare off the skeletons, but they kept stumbling forward like mindless puppets.

"Seriously, what kind of damn nightmare is this? A Black Knight first, and now a horde of undead?"

As the skeletons crowded Xander from all sides, he holstered his gun and fished out the second clay tablet from his pocket. It crumbled inside his palm, releasing a burst of purple light that blinded all the undead around him.

Xander stretched out his right hand, and immediately his second weapon materialized before him. It was an enormous black scythe with a long wooden handle and a curved steel blade with a spiked edge.

"I guess it's harvest season already," Xander quipped, swinging the scythe with both hands.

The blade cut through the skeletons like grass. With every sweep, hundreds of bones were hacked to pieces. The stumbling minions groaned and clicked their jaws, piling on top of each other in a mad rush to get close to the Dreamwalker, but his weapon's long reach helped him maintain distance.

Xander's wild swings sliced through their ribs, shattering their spines and cutting them in half. Though the horde seemed endless, the Dreamwalker kept plowing through the sea of bones without stopping.

For every fallen skeleton, another clawed its way to the surface and joined the horde. Xander soon found himself fighting a losing battle. No matter how many he killed, it never seemed to make any difference. Neither their numbers went down, nor their morale.

Sweat streamed down Xander's smooth forehead as he pushed his body to its limit in a desperate bid to cull their numbers. But the skeletons kept stumbling forward, climbing over the piles of bones scattered all around.

"This is starting to feel a bit repetitive now," Xander said as he dispatched another group of skeletons with a wide slash. His scythe started glowing a dull violet as its magical energy reached its threshold.

The Dream Cleaver was one of the rarest weapons in the nightmare realm. Each enemy felled by its blade increased its magical potential. In its empowered state, it became enchanted with chaos magic, allowing the wielder to harness its true, untapped potential.

As the skeletons closed in on him with their weapon ready to hack into his flesh, Xander raised his scythe and swung it like a baseball bat. A wave of energy rushed forward and decimated the approaching minions in a blinding flash of violet.

Having wiped out half the horde, Xander turned around and performed two consecutive slashes. Blades of violet light flew out of his scythe instantly obliterating what remained of the stumbling multitude.

The bone piles soon turned into dust, leaving behind clusters of uncut purple shards scattered across the field.

[Undead Warriors defeated!]

[Objective completed: Overcome the undead horde!]

[1000 exp gained.]

[Accumulated exp: 1500/3000.]

[300 Nightmare Shards obtained!]

[15 Nightmare Coins obtained!]

Looking at the wispy white letters floating in front of him, Xander breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, I guess that wasn't too tough after all."

The words were barely out of his mouth when the sky suddenly darkened and the Necromantic Circle around him started expanding.

[100 Undead Warriors sacrificed.]

[Ritual of Bones completed!]

[Dread Lord awakened!]

[New objective: Outrun death!]

"What the hell is this now?" Xander gasped in shock. He thought defeating the skeletons would be the end of this, but his problems had just begun.

The whole clearing was suddenly engulfed in blinding darkness as an unnatural fog smothered the field. Xander could feel someone watching him from the shadows, and it sent shivers down his spine.

Sharp, high-pitched neighs shattered the oppressive silence and the fog swirled behind the Dreamwalker to take on a most terrifying form. What emerged out of the smoky blackness was an Ethereal whose tales had only been described in ancient texts.

Six spectral horses neighed in unison, their ghastly green manes engulfed in pale blue flames and their skeletal frames enveloped in an unnatural aura. Holding their silver-white reins in a deathly grasp was a mysterious figure robed in black.

Seated on a chariot of human bones with a chain whip in hand, was the ruler of the undead.

For most Dreamwalkers, Dread Lords were the stuff of legend, meant to scare off the uninitiated. No one believed that they actually existed. But Xander couldn't deny what he saw right before his eyes.

[Legendary Ethereal encountered!]

[Ethereal: Dread Lord.]

[Type: Greater Undead.]

"What kind of God damn nightmare is this?" Xander gasped, putting his scythe away. His heart started thumping louder than battle drums as he stared at the terrifying charioteer behind him.

The Dread Lord cracked the reins like whips, urging the spectral horses into motion. The six flaming stallions groaned in pain and broke off into a gallop, dragging the chariot behind them at breakneck speed.

As the terrifying chariot came hurtling down the field, mowing the tall grasses under its heavy wheels, Xander felt his heart skip a beat. He quickly snapped his fingers and pulled out the last card in his inventory.

It was a frosty white card with bleeding blue edges and the jaw of a canine drawn on it.

"Play card: Beast Companion!"

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the card vaporized from his hand and a snow-white dire wolf with coral-red eyes appeared before him.

Xander grabbed the beast's thick fur and climbed onto its back. "We gotta go, boy! Get moving!"

The ferocious canine let out a fearsome growl and shot across the field like an arrow. With long, galloping strides, the dire wolf rode the whistling wind, pursued at full tilt by the Dread Lord's chariot.

Xander leaned forward, holding on to the dire wolf with his left hand as sweat dripped from his furrowed forehead. The night air reeked of death and he could hear a mournful melody in the distance. This nightmare was turning out to be a lot more terrifying than he'd anticipated.

An incomprehensible grumbling escaped from the Dread Lord's bony lips as he commanded the dead to rise from their graves. Skeleton burst through the ground and ghoulish corpses sprang back to life, re-animated by the Undying Spell.

There was death as far as the eye could see. Shambling corpses were walking around aimlessly, and dusty skeletons throwing themselves mindlessly in Xander's path. But the direwolf was unstoppable. It kept speeding down the meadow even as axes and daggers slashed its hide relentlessly.

Bleeding and exhausted, the beast galloped as hard as its stiffening limbs would permit. Xander held on to its fur tighter than ever, steering it around the gathering mobs of undead.

With a dull metallic rattle, the Dread Lord's chain whip lashed out at the Dreamwalker. Its pointy tip whooshed past his head, missing his right ear by inches.

The Dread Lord's chariot had started gaining on them, and Xander could hear the horses breathing down his neck.

Once again, the whip cracked from behind, targeting the Dreamwalker. Xander barely managed to duck under it as it whizzed over his head. He flicked around and fired at the spectral horses to slow the chariot, but his bullets went straight through them without causing any harm.

"What the hell are you?" A panicked whisper escaped from Xander's lips. He had never encountered any Ethereal like this before. There was no way he could defeat it, especially now that he had used up all his cards.

The Dread Lord raised his chain whip over his head and spun it thrice before lashing out at Xander again. Out of nowhere, a barricade of pointy, fang-like bones sprang up in his path.

The bleeding dire wolf was about to ram right into the spiked wall when Xander slapped it on its side. "Jump over it!" he yelled.

Using the last ounce of strength left in its failing limbs, the dire wolf launched its body into the air and leaped over the barrier.

Xander breathed a sigh of relief as it created some much-needed space between the undead charioteer and him, but his respite was short-lived.

The Dread Lord's chariot rammed right through the bones, smashing the barricade to pieces. Once more, it was back on the Dreamwalker's trail.

It seemed impossible to get the Dread Lord off his back. He could neither harm the spectral horses nor outrun the speeding chariot. His dire wolf had already started slowing down and didn't have the stamina to keep going for much longer.

When all doors seemed to close in his face, Xander's eyes made out a faint golden light in the distance. Narrowing his gaze, he leaned forward to get a better look. It was a small shrine overlooking a sparkling brook.

"We need to reach that shrine. Just keep going!" Xander urged his dire wolf.

A hoarse guttural scream sent shivers down the Dreamwalker's spine. He was now within arm's reach of the spectral horses, and the bone chariot was bearing down at full speed, ready to run him over.

Suddenly, the chain whip pierced the dire wolf's hide, making it whimper in pain. Xander was flung off its back as the beast tumbled forward and crashed into the ground.

Flying across the air like a tattered rag doll, the Dreamwalker hit a dewy patch of grass and went rolling downhill. The Dread Lord's horses trampled the bleeding dire wolf and came hurtling toward Xander.

In a last-ditch effort to save himself, Xander staggered back on his feet and sprinted downhill as fast as his legs could carry. The chain whip cracked again and latched on to Xander's left foot. As the Dread Lord was about to pull him toward his chariot, he dived forward and touched the granite steps leading to the shrine.

[Shrine of Kiya discovered.]

[Blessing Granted: Sacred Protection.]

A burst of holy light blinded the Dread Lord, repelling his spectral horses. His chain whip turned red hot and melted down the middle, releasing Xander from its grip. A dome of light shielded the shrine, forcing the Dread Lord to bring his chariot to a grinding halt.

Neighing and groaning, the spectral horses stopped inches away from the golden dome of light. Xander turned around and watched the Dread Lord mutter something incomprehensible and groan in anger.

Despite being a powerful Legendary Ethereal, the Dread Lord was still an undead, which meant that just like the skeletons and ghouls, he too, was vulnerable to holy magic. There was no way it could go anywhere near a sacred shrine.

[Dread Lord evaded!]

[Objective completed: Outrun death!]

[1500 exp gained.]

[Accumulated exp: 3000/3000.]

[Level Up!]

[New Level: 6.]

[One new Skill Point available.]

[30 Nightmare Coins obtained!]

Seeing the floating white words, Xander breathed a sigh of relief. Still lying on the steps of the shrine, he rolled over and looked up at the sky. "I need to start...charging extra," he breathed, in between gasps.

Just then, his Chronica started chiming inside his jacket. He realized his journey was almost at an end. The Last Memory was close.