Necromancer and undead (Part 1)

“How is it possible this sword can fly?” shouted Leonard.

He had to yell, otherwise, the sorceress wouldn’t be able to hear him. The wind was just too strong here, up high in the air.

He and the sorceress were both standing with two feet on the flat side of the sword's blade, trying not to lose the balance. The weapon was flying through the clouds, straight as an arrow, carrying their weight. He still couldn’t believe his own eyes.

“Once I saw Sanguis flying to you, I knew he would be able to carry us.”

Right now, she was standing right behind him on his blade, holding his shoulder with one hand to steady herself. The wind was whipping her cheeks, her long, dirty hair flying like a kite above them. The lost strands were sometimes lashing his face, but he did not dare to move one bit to move them out of the way. He was too scared to lose balance and fall down.

“Is every sword able to do that?” he asked.

“Not every weapon is capable enough,” she shouted back. “It needs to be either a spiritual weapon or a cursed blade. If Sanguis were a narrow sword, it would be hard for us to stand on it. There is always a big question about whether a sword is strong enough to carry a heavy weight. You can break the blade if you use too much force.”

“So Sanguis then can fly.”

“It is convenient,” she agreed with him. “If it were a forged spiritual blade, you would have to use your inner power to move it.”

“What is the cursed blade using as a source of its energy?” he asked.

He read a few fantasy stories in his original world, so he could guess the correct answer. The cursed items were always heavier in price. And Sanguis forged a bloody pact with him.

“Depends on its own power,” replied the sorceress. “Some weapons have their own spiritual power, others need to feed. If it starts to wobble, just let me know, and we will have to think about how to solve its hunger.”

“Where are we trying to go? The sun is already setting.”

“As far as possible,” she said simply. “But if you are tired, we can take a break. We need to find a place to sleep over.”

“Do you want to find some village where they would let us in?”

“No, we will have to camp outside for tonight,” she said. “We are looking too suspicious now.”

Leonard sighed. He did not like sleeping outside. The inns in this world were not as comfortable as hotels in his original world, but it was still better than sleeping under the sky. If you sleep outside, not only is it too cold, but you will wake up sore and tired.

“Look, Leo! A lake!” the sourceress shouted.

He turned his head and saw woods. Next to it, hidden between a sparse family of trees, he saw a big lake glistening under the sunset.

“Perfect. We need water,” the sorceress said. “Tell Sanguis to descend. Slowly.”

Leonard did not have to tell Sanguis that. Since giving him his name, he realized, he could sometimes communicate with the sword through his thoughts only.

They started moving closer to the ground, their speed of flight decreasing. Once they were right about the grass, they both jumped down. The sword slowly fell into Leonard's hand.

“Go get some wood. We will make a fire. If you will be able to hunt something, that would be excellent. If not, I will check if there are any fish in the lake.”

Leonard did not comment on that but instead turned his back to her and went to the woods. He started looking for dry, broken twigs and bigger branches to cut. He hated doing this. In the army, usually the lowest-ranked soldier had to do this. This was no activity for the hero summoned into this country to lead the war and make Silgorod victorious.

As he was bending down to take some of the fallen pieces of the ground, memories of his summoning flooded his mind…