Doomed to Die in 3 Minutes

Match Ups and Memory

Terrifying. That was all Corai could think when he entered the observatory. There were full coloured portraits of countless people showing them from head to toe with immaculate detail. If that wasn’t enough there were small sculptures next to each painting of the person to give an idea of their build. There were paper notes written on the back of each painting detailing height, weight, bodily conditions, age, family, likes, dislikes, major moments of their life, and… cause of death.

Beheaded in the town square, they used a rusty axe and it took several swings. Hung, drawn and quartered. Thrown into a pit filled with starving wolves. Skewered by thin but long needles until death by blood loss. Hammer to feet, hands and then ribcage, choked on own blood. Burnt alive. Repeated stabs and cuts that were healed by magic and repeated until their mind was broken, finally dispatched by a swift cut across the jugular. Drowned in the river. Head dunked into molten metal. Frozen and then shattered into many pieces while still conscious. Boiled. Strangled. 

Countless gruesome descriptions of cruel demises. Every single one of these people died directly or indirectly at the hands of the lord of the city. Corai had no idea how much time it took for Vis to collect this information and then not only record it but create these pictures. Ghosts. He wanted realistic and vengeful ghosts that would not miss a single detail. As realistic as when they lived and died. 

Every victim revived with their scars intact. The better to haunt the living with. Corai scoffed and laughed. He was impressed and it spoke a lot to him about how Vis really did go all out with his plans. This wasn’t just dedication. This was madness. He’d go this far to even save the cruellest of the cruel? Remember every single thing about the dead. Carry that burden with him. 

He was not joking. This would be a lot to memorise in a couple of hours. 

Their appearances and causes of death were likely the most important traits he had to commit to his heart. Otherwise, these ghosts would have no fear factor. Grisly apparitions that would remind everyone of what they suffered. To place the idea that even death would not stop those who were unjustly slain and rally the living to join their crusade against the perpetrator. 

Corai forged the ghosts one by one. Headless phantoms, crawling body parts, floating and wailing spectres. It was much like setting up Halloween decorations or the decorations of a haunted house, except of course knowing that these were not temporary made up figure made to prey on the minds tendency to create giant leaps and bounds of logic and imagination from tiny hints of stimuli. These people had once been alive.

Corai tried his best. Dedicate them all to your heart. If Vis can do it, so could he. This was going to be his parade of the dead he’d use to save the city from evil. Sure, they couldn’t deal any damage like a real ghost but he could cover for that, and perhaps if Olivia was willing there were certainly ways the talents of elves could assist in helping him sell the idea.

Elves also carried wooden arrows in addition to metal tipped ones. He’d seen them in action before. They could explode into splinters upon contact and disappear in the blink of an eye. Perfect for say, making a false spirit look like it was destroying objects.

He could do the same with some mystic shots and magical arrows but only for very mundane items. He would need Olivia to ramp up the destruction. Proper escalation of force is the best way to capture the attention of an awestruck audience.

Still, despite all this, if this wasn’t going to work he’d need to fight his way out. 

A berserker. If that was who he had to face… it’d be the worst. The wild animalistic instincts of berserkers usually allowed them to not fall for illusions, you’d think they’d just wildly attack anything they see while in a blood rage but the truth was it was more like they shut off unnecessary things and are able to sniff out their targets and then hunt them down with relentless tenacity until their target was ripped to shreds. 

The sniper was probably far easier to fool. While such people were trained to be perceptive, he had found it easy in the past to ruin their natural sense of concentration and the ways they determine distance and location. His paradoxical effects of the weather, as well as light and shadow, tended to trip them up.  From there he would just need to escape or get a surprise attack in. Worse come to worse, he’d just Doom him, he’d prefer Vis’ permission to do so but he wasn’t going to let himself die for no reason.

The dragon bodyguard was also problematic in many ways but at the same time not. Dragonic types usually resisted magic anyway, and he could catch them off guard with a supreme spell that did nothing and then book it or if he was lucky maybe try to knock him out using a drug or powder. If he could keep him guessing, Corai figured he could escape eventually.

While the berserker would be his worst match up traditionally speaking, the one he wanted to avoid the most would be facing the lord himself.

A battle between himself and another caster type never ended well for either combatant.

Magic would just become twisted, wild, and untamed when he clashed with them. 

The rules are broken and thrown aside. He’d have very little idea of what would end up happening. This was absolutely the one scenario he didn’t want to be forced to face.