I'm back y'all. Expect a new chapter of the Night is Long Rewrite soon, not so sure about when the next Necromancer's Tale is coming, but possibly soon depending on feedback.
Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.
Climbing the rocky and craggy ridge Harry James Potter was very careful to move slowly and covertly. Stealth was key for this mission, and Harry understood that. It was highly unlikely that he could be seen or detected, he had a whole slew of concealment devices and precautions with him. Plus the acrid smoke hanging and lazily drifting through the air would also hide him from any prying eyes.
This was a simple reconnaissance mission, the same sort that he had performed dozens of in the past.
Reaching a smaller ledge that was still a good bit short of the ridge top Harry paused a moment.
Slinging his standard issue combat rifle off of his back and onto a rock Harry removed his also standard issue canteen and took a sip of water while he reflected on his life. He was quite far from home, and that suited him just fine. He was currently somewhere in the hills and mountains of Afghanistan, deployed and acting as a scout for the International Magical Task Force which had been formed shortly after his defeat of Voldemort.
The I.M.T.F. was a group of the most powerful and resourceful wizards and magical creatures gathered from all around the world, and its purpose was to maintain peace and security on a global level, at least when concerned with out of control or renegade wizards.
And that was exactly what Harry was currently scouting out, the supposed home base of a renegade wizard. Setting down his canteen and pulling out a piece of parchment Harry glanced around. It would not do to be caught unawares during such a simple mission.
The piece of parchment was vaguely similar to the Marauders Map from Harry's past, but it only showed Harry himself, and any members of his team, if he had had any teammates for that mission. It was specially enchanted and very carefully created, it had general information about the area he was going to be going into, and also had his mission parameters.
After making sure he was on course Harry put away the parchment, it was time to start climbing again. Patting his rifle as he slung it up to his back once more Harry appreciated it. It was a standard issue combat rifle for the American Army. It had been magically enhanced in various ways, and Harry preferred to use the rifle when it was possible, in order to save his magical energy for more important threats or targets.
Harry slowly and carefully beginning to ascend the craggy rocks once more Harry had a bad feeling about this mission. The acrid smoke that still hung around had a slight hint of festering odor to it, which was sometimes associated with Necromantic magic.
Steadily and also stealthily making his way to the very top of the ridge Harry peeked over, and with just a moment's observation had his fears confirmed.
The small village that he was overlooking was aflame, with the same black smoke that was hanging around the ridge churning out of the smoldering ruins that was once the village.
Bringing the rifle up to his shoulder and looking down the basic scope that was mounted on top of it Harry scanned the area below him.
He could pretty much only see the thick clouds of black smoke roiling and coiling out of the buildings, but every so often Harry caught a glimpse of shambling figures wandering throughout the remains of the village.
After a few minutes of careful observation through the scope Harry could comfortably say that the village was completely destroyed, with no living survivors at all. The figures that Harry could see wandering and shuffling around were without a doubt Inferi of some sort. The heavy scent of festering flesh was thick in the air on top of the ridge, reeking of Necromantic magic.
The renegade wizard must have done this, and judging by the thick scent of rot, and the still smoldering remains of the village it had not been terribly long ago. The wizard was probably still in the area. Harry needed to call this in to the I.M.T.F. and fast.
Scanning the area below once more and the area around him on the ridge top Harry reached to a small pouch attached to his belt and retrieved the small communication crystal inside.
Running his thumb over the surface of the crystal while sending a small pulse of magic the crystal hummed to life.
"Lonewolf, Lonewolf this is Home Base. Come in Lonewolf." The crystal had activated and patched him through to one of the call dispatchers at Home Base. A warning would have immediately went up at base when he activated his crystal, and this was the response.
"Home Base this is Lonewolf. I'm at Checkpoint Bravo. Primary Target was in the area, and recently. Village has been burned, villagers have been turned to Inferi. I'm awaiting additional orders or commands."
"Inferi? You are sure?" Came the crackling response, the distance made the basic communication crystals slightly staticky sometimes. It sounded similar to a muggle radio with slight interference.
"Affirmative, sir. No doubt about it." Harry was sure that the figures were Inferi, he would recognize them anywhere, he had become quite used to them during his three years with the I.M.T.F.
"Stay at your current position, Lonewolf. Squad #3 is being deployed as we speak, new orders are as follows: Secure and contain the village, and destroy any Inferi found. That is all."
"Secure and Contain, copy that, Home Base."
Staying at his ridge top vantage point as he had been ordered Harry kept a close watch through his scope. He would wait until Squad #3 arrived and then they would clear out the village.
Harry had never really been assigned a squad to work with, as per his request. He had only really ever worked as a team with Ron and Hermione, both of them had been on the I.M.T.F. with Harry. And they had been the perfect team, always working together perfectly like a well oiled machine. That was they had worked perfectly up until a year ago, the mission in the Amazon rainforest.
He had lost his two closest and oldest friends during that mission, and the culprit had gone uncaught as well. Shaking his head clear of those thoughts Harry sighed. Now was not the time for those thoughts, he could not afford to be distracted during this new mission, no matter how simple it seemed.
Ever since that mission Harry had worked mostly solo, and had thus earned the nickname Lonewolf. He was silent and deadly as a wolf stalking its prey, and he had no squad or teammates with him. It was how Harry preferred to operate.
Despite his preference of being alone now, Harry was not adverse to working in junction with a squad or team, especially when it would make success easier or less costly.
Looking towards the horizon Harry, with his magically enhanced goggles that were issued for all desert missions, could see the magical tags that marked the nine approaching shimmers as Squad #3 of the I.M.T.F.
As the squad neared the ridge top they deactivated their cloaking spells attached to the brooms, and touched down gently.
"Greetings, Sergeant Willis." Harry greeted the commanding officer of the squad.
"Nice to see you again, Sergeant Potter." Harry had received the promotion to Sergeant a few months earlier, and while the position usually came with a squad to lead Harry did not have a squad, as per his request.
Sergeant Willis and Harry had worked together a few months earlier, on a very delicate mission in London, where Harry had been attached to the squad temporarily in order to be the local expert and guide.
"Did H.B. brief you on the mission?"
"Sure did. Secure and Contain. Simple enough for me and my boys."
Harry nodded, and responded, "Let's get to work then, huh?"
Sergeant Willis nodded and began to bark out orders, "Ozzy! Rex! You two stay up here, cover the exit road. We don't need any of these Inferi escaping. Michael, Puck! You two do your joint spell routine to clear the air of that awful smoke, also put out any of the larger fires we come across."
The soldiers of Squad #3 broke into the groups that they were assigned, as their Sergeant continued to bark out the last of his orders.
"The rest of you will come with Sergeant Potter and I, we will be clearing the village in a sweep from East to West. Ozzy and Rex you two better cover that road. Rifles and wands at the ready, everybody. This might get bloody."
Scrambling to follow orders and do their last minute preparations or personal rituals the soldiers were soon ready.
With the two soldiers staying up on the ridge with their rifles at the ready the rest of the group carefully but quickly traversed the ridge that led down to the village. It was much easier going down than coming up, and the group made short work of it.
The thick smoke was choking, and by the time the group was at the bottom they barely even catch a glimpse of the two soldiers on top of the ridge. Almost as soon as they reached the bottom the two soldiers, Michael and Puck, were waving their wands in symmetrical gestures, and the smoke was beginning to clear, first from the area around them, and soon from the rest of the village.
With the smoke gone the group fanned out into a spear point formation and began to search through the village. They faced little resistance and the mission seemed like it would be rather easy to complete. All of the Inferi that the group came across were dispatched of, either with spell or shell.
Half of the village had been cleared when things started to seem a bit awry to Harry. The vague inkling that the mission would turn sour had not left Harry, and had only gotten stronger as they progressed without incident or injury.
As they progressed somewhat slowly, but steadily, through the small village Harry had been on his guard. As he used his rifle to gun down Inferi as they came across them every so often he would think he saw a shadow moving impossibly fast, out of the corner of his eye.
This set Harry on high alert, the shadow was black as night and should not have been there under the bright sun. It was also moving incredibly fast. It set Harry on edge slightly, after all only very few creatures or powerful wizards had control over shadows to such an extent, and often times these creatures or wizards were very unsavory types.
Taking a quick respite from clearing the village of Inferi and pulling Sergeant Willis aside Harry voiced his fears.
"I've been seeing a shadow, impossibly fast, unnaturally dark. Always out of the corner of my eye, and never for longer than a split second."
"I've seen it too, Potter. Sets me on edge a bit. Plan of action?" This was, after all, originally Harry's mission, and it seemed that Sergeant Willis would defer to Harry for judgement calls, at least for now.
"Caution. We must take extreme caution, but I do not want to slow down. Warn the men to be on high alert, and get in contact with Home Base. Give them an update and our status, tell them something odd might be happening, but that we do not need reinforcements as of yet."
Sergeant Willis nodded, and once more began to bark out to his men, "High alert, troops! Watch out for something in the shadows, we might be in more danger than we realize, but keep steady pace with the original mission. We're almost done."
Relaying the new information to the two troops on top of the ridge and speaking with Home Base both Sergeant Willis and Harry thought that they were taking an appropriate course of action.
Still, neither liked the situation they were in all that much. The Necromantic magic and possible shadow manipulation were not traits or abilities that were known to be possessed by the renegade wizard they were originally tracking. The renegade wizard that Harry's original mission was to scout out had simply been a wizard who had been giving the local law enforcement problems, and was certainly not a powerful Necromancer.
Necromancy and Shadow manipulation were, however, closely associated with certain species of magical creatures, such as vampires. That would not be good for the squad to deal with, but would not be impossible to deal with should a vampire show up.
The group of soldiers moved steadily forward, their sensors not picking anything up except for the Inferi and the two soldiers on the ridge top. Ozzy and Rex had kept providing cover fire from above, picking off any Inferi that looked like they were wandering away from the village. They had kept in contact, with the communication crystals, and had been giving updates to their sergeant periodically.
The group was on the last row of huts and houses in the village when everything went spectacularly wrong. The very last Inferi had been gunned down by the group, and that was when the real chaos started.
With 8 soldiers on the ground counting both Sergeant Willis and Potter and two above on the ridge top they were a rather formidable fighting force.
Squad #3 had just come to the last row of houses when they took their first casualty. One of the two soldiers who had been tasked with keeping the air clear of smoke was the first to go down.
They had been moving in a spear point formation with the two clearing the air on the inside of the point, protected by all sides.
The shadow that Potter and Willis had seen and warned the men of had appeared a few more times during their mission. It was this shadow that caused all of the pandemonium to begin.
Harry had just turned around to check on the two clearing the air, and to also see if any Inferi or anything had managed to get behind the group. Sergeant Willis and the rest of the men were still facing the other direction when Harry saw it happen.
The shadow leapt from the ground, near a pile of rubble, and took a vaguely humanlike corporeal form. Still moving impossibly fast the now corporeal shadow form shot across the open street, unseen by all except Harry.
"Get down!" Harry shouted to the two soldiers who seemed to be right in the line of travel for the shadow, but his warning came too late.
The shadow had already reached one of the two men, Puck, if Harry remembered correctly.
As the shadow sped past Puck at first it appeared as if nothing had happened. That was until Puck fell to his knees and a crescent shaped red line appeared around his neck and began to ooze blood at an alarming rate.
Puck fell dead mere moments afterward, there was nothing anyone could do for him. As his body fell forwards the rest of the group had already turned, alerted by Harry's warning shout. They turned just in time to see the shadow speed off into an alley of rubble between two crumbled buildings.
