The Exemplar

[Shang Tsung]

One moment, Shang found himself swinging almost mindlessly at a horde of skeletons intent to take his position and rip him to pieces.

The next moment, something akin to a shockwave tore through the collection of undead warriors, and the wave crumpled on the hill in front of the sweating sorcerer. Across the field, Shang watched as a mountain of swirling bones lifted up off the ground and formed itself into a towering behemoth. The skeleton golem flexed its joints before swinging one of its giant fists down at the Spartan, who looked like a child compared to the giant, unholy abomination.

Shang looked down and saw that the other secondary was dead. When had the man given up the ghost? The sorcerer almost felt bad that he hadn’t been paying attention to the last moments of the would-be warrior’s little life. Instead of remorse, he crept down next to the corpse, rolled the man so he could watch the fight, and proceeded to extract the soul of the freshly dead soldier. By the time the deed was finished, Atelos and the golem were gone, having taken their fight further into the forest. When Shang rose, he brushed the dirt from his clothes and picked up his sword.

With that, the sorcerer started toward the broken tree line that marked the start of the scuffle between Spartan and monstrosity. By the time he reached the trees, he could hear the sound of bone smashing against bronze. Instead of rush to his associate’s aid, Shang paused and glanced to his right. He had spotted them earlier, but now he had a clear line of sight on the trio of skeletal necromancers. With their attention focused on their creature, they paid no heed to the sword-wielding Chinaman strolling their way.

When he was within ten yards, the first necromancer turned and let his jaw fall away as an animal shriek ripped up from its nonexistent lungs. Before it had a chance to follow through with anything, Shang hurled a fireball at its chest, and the skeleton’s entire rib cage exploded outward. The fires that burned inside the creature’s eye sockets snuffed out in a blink, and its derelict form crumpled down into a heap like a folded accordion. The two other necromancers immediately shifted their focus to their attacker, who responded in kind by plunging his sword through the lower spine of another skeleton.

With two of his foes removed from the equation, Shang turned and looked at the remaining necromancer. Given its lack of a face, the creature betrayed no emotion other than burning rage as it hoisted its staff, causing the air around it sizzle and hum as arcane magics began to swirl around its weapon’s gemstone. Rather than wait and see what happened neck, Shang decapitated the necromancer and watched with a degree of amusement as the head smacked the ground and rolled a few feet before settling to a stop.