by A F Kay
They all nodded, and Ruwen continued. “Let’s sprint toward the temple. If trouble shows up before halfway, we retreat to where we left Shelly and regroup. Past halfway, we fight our way to the temple. Once inside, we’ll find a defendable location. Sift and Lylan will hold there while Hamma and I bring the temple online. Questions?”
Sift shook his head. “What happened to the kid covered in Bendie poop?”
Ruwen smiled under his scarf. “They were Rod Spiders, and when Rami wasn’t breaking my bones or dislocating my joints for four and a half years, she force-fed me strategy.”
You’re welcome, Rami said.
Ruwen reached up and gently rubbed his right ear.
“Well, we can’t always be running around doing your stuff,” Sift said. “This was supposed to be my vacation, and I still haven’t touched any snow, or swam in the real ocean, or seen a Step tournament, or–”
“Fine,” Ruwen said. “We’ll do some of your stuff next. It’s not like I–”
“Can you two focus, please?” Lylan asked.
“Right,” Ruwen said. “Ready?”
Everyone nodded, so Ruwen turned toward the city and ran.
Ruwen slowed as he neared the broken wall and checked the city side for an ambush. The only thing against the battlements were more stones and bones. Satisfied, Ruwen sprinted toward the temple, monitoring their left side. When they passed halfway, Ruwen let the uncertainty of his plan go. They were committed now.
Three hundred feet from the temple, the surrounding bones all shook at the same time. Ruwen slowed and then stopped as the bones around the temple flew through the air. They gathered in front of the temple opening, and it took Ruwen a moment to realize what they were forming.
Bars. Bars made of bones now blocked the entire entrance.
“Our exit is blocked,” Sift said.
Ruwen glanced behind him and saw the same bone structure blocking the lower fifty feet of the wall opening. All around them, skeletons formed and pushed themselves up. He confirmed Whiskers still had the Bone Sculptor in sight. What was happening? Were their two Mages here?
As Ruwen watched through Whiskers, the cloaked figure, along with all the skeletons, strode back toward the city. The quick movements caused the cloak to billow, and he glimpsed the Mage’s feet: white bone feet.
Ruwen ran for the nearest pile of rubble, using it to protect their backs.
“I thought the Mage wasn’t here,” Sift said.
“He tricked me,” Ruwen said. “It was a skeleton wearing his robe. Lylan, see if you can find him. He must be near.”
The skeletons had gained their feet and stood staring at them. Ruwen remembered the bone spear that had killed the Naktos Scout in front of this city’s gates. Ruwen dropped to his knees, placed his hands on the ground, and channeled one hundred Energy to Harden.
Ruwen’s Energy bar dropped to eight hundred seventy-six. With all the Energy consuming items in his Void Band, his net Energy Regeneration had dropped to twenty-one per second, which meant his Energy would be full again in just five seconds.
The ground fifteen feet around them turned into a diamond sheet, not the beautiful gem-quality type, but a rough massively occluded one. Even ugly, it remained incredibly hard, and Ruwen doubted the bone spears would penetrate.
Ruwen stood. “He can shoot bones out of the ground. We need to be careful.”
The skeletons he’d seen with the Naktos Scouts didn’t have weapons. But the ones surrounding them now all carried femur bones. Like before, most of them were around level eight.
“Hamma, keep your Badge of Authority handy, it should be effective against this group,” Ruwen said.
Over a hundred skeletons moved as one toward them.
Ruwen looked at the pile of forearm-sized bricks and smiled. He kneeled and motioned Hamma to join him. “Sift, protect our flanks, but don’t cross in front of me.” Ruwen locked eyes with Hamma. “We’re going to use that Strength of yours. I want you to throw these bricks into the back of my Void Band as fast as you can.”
Hamma nodded, but instead of kneeling she turned to the pile of rocks, raised her arms, and chanted. From the words, it sounded like some sort of blessing. He picked up the closest brick to gauge its weight and decided they were about fifty pounds each. The bricks were equivalent to the head-sized pieces of granite he’d used against the Mist Wraith that Sift had called Talker.
Ruwen opened his Void Band three feet, which he knew from his first day with Bliz, consumed twelve Energy per second. That left him nine Energy to fire the two-foot-long bricks without having to dip into his Energy pool. Hamma kneeled and began throwing bricks into his Void Band.
“Aim for the skulls,” Hamma said. “Dark magic concentrates there in summoned creatures.”
The skeletons' pace was jerky and slow, but some had made it to within thirty feet. Ruwen found the ammunition in his Inventory: Blessed Bricks (+3 damage to Dark and Chaos). Against the Mist Wraith he’d used fifty Energy, and the rock had flown straight for over a hundred feet.
Ruwen hoped his Observer ability Rapid Fire would trigger, and every brick he launched would turn into two. He aimed at the nearest skeleton, added forty Energy to a Blessed Brick, and pushed it from his Void Band. But only one brick launched outward, and Ruwen guessed the ability must only work with handheld weapons. In a blink, the brick struck a skeleton in the chest.
The skeleton’s right ribcage exploded, and its spine shattered. The brick continued for another fifty feet, striking two more skeletons on the way. The fallen skeletons shook on the ground but didn’t have the power to keep moving toward them.
Ruwen turned to the next closest skeleton and repeated the process. This time he struck the skull, which exploded, and the skeleton lay still after it hit the ground. He fired a brick a second, each one costing him thirty-one Energy from his pool. At this rate, he could fire another twenty-eight before getting critically low on Energy. Then he’d have to wait four seconds between shots. While effective, this wouldn’t be a long-term solution.
Casting Campfire would increase his Regen by five percent, but it took five seconds to cast, and he didn’t want to take the time right now. Plus, they wouldn’t be here long. Eventually, they needed to either head for the temple or the wall.
Twenty seconds later, Ruwen had destroyed all the Skeletons within fifty feet. The skeletons weren’t able to climb the thirty-foot rubble pile behind them, and as they shambled around the edges from behind, Sift destroyed them with his hands and feet. The diamond pad shook as bone spears struck it from underground, but the platform didn’t even crack.
At least another hundred Skeletons stared at them, but they’d all stopped moving. The light faded like a cloud had covered the sun. Two debuffs appeared a few seconds apart, both with a diagonal red line through them, which Ruwen had never seen before.
Lethargy: Energy Regeneration decreased by 25% (Resisted)
Full Eclipse: Fear (Resisted)
Sift screamed and ran toward the skeletons. Ruwen cast Retrieve on Sift’s ankle, and Ruwen’s Mana dropped by fifty. The spell wasn’t strong enough to stop Sift, but it tripped him. Sift fell, and instead of somersaulting gracefully forward, the fear tensed his muscles, and he slammed into the platform.
Ruwen leaped forward and grabbed Sift’s feet, pulling him away from the diamond platform’s edge. A bone spear erupted from the dirt just outside their circle of safety. Sift fought for another few seconds and then relaxed.
The icon for the resisted fear debuff disappeared, and Ruwen let go of Sift’s feet.
“Thanks,” Sift said.
Ruwen nodded at Sift and then raised his voice since he didn’t know where their Shade had gone. “Lylan, any luck?”
Three seconds later, Lylan appeared beside them. She turned her back to the skeletons, who remained still, and whispered. “He gave himself away with that bone spear aimed at Sift. There are three buildings still standing between us and the temple. He’s on top of the middle
one. The skeletons are even denser that way, and the entrance has the same bone bars.”
“Can you climb the wall?” Sift asked.
Lylan shrugged. “If I could make it to the building unseen, maybe. Those walls look really smooth. It’s not ideal.”
The light returned, and the skeletons started their slow march toward them again.
“Could we fight our way to the entrance of his building?” Ruwen asked.
“I don’t think so,” Lylan said. “You’d have to harden over a hundred feet of ground while fighting off a mass of skeletons, as well as whatever else he throws at us. It would just take too long.”
“What about my golem?” Hamma asked.
Ruwen shot three Blessed Bricks, taking out the closest skeletons. “You’re the only one safe from him. We can’t risk he’d attack us.”
“As long as he’s up there, we can’t injure him,” Sift said. “It’s just a matter of time before he kills us.” Sift jumped to the edge of the diamond platform and smashed two skeletons that had circled their pile.
Lylan clenched her fist. “If I could just get near him, I could blast him off that roof with a Force Bead.”
A terrible idea formed in Ruwen’s head, and he swallowed twice before he could speak. He looked at Lylan. “How safe are you from falls?”
She held up her hand and pointed to a ring. “Anything under a hundred feet won’t injure me.”
Ruwen fired another five bricks, destroying the skeletons near them, but they didn’t have much time left. Sift was right, they needed to get that Mage on the ground, or they’d never leave here alive.
“I have an awful idea,” Ruwen said.
“Is it worse than this?” Hamma said, waving her arm at all the skeletons.
Ruwen closed his eyes for a moment and then answered truthfully. “Maybe.”
“If even you think it’s a bad idea, it has to be horrible,” Sift said.
“Let’s hear it Starfield, we don’t have time for this,” Lylan said.
Ruwen locked eyes with Lylan. “I could use my Void Band to shoot you over the building.”
Chapter 56
“Absolutely not!” Sift yelled.
Lylan put a hand on Sift’s shoulder. “It’s not your decision, love.”
“I thought anything more than plants died when you put it in there,” Hamma said.
“They do–” Ruwen started.
“You want to kill Lylan!” Sift yelled.
Lylan stepped between Ruwen and Sift. “Maybe you should give us the details.”
“I think there’s a loophole,” Ruwen said. “I have ten seconds to decide what to do with something living. So, Lylan jumps in, and I immediately shoot her out.”
“Have you ever tried that? Or heard of it being done?” Lylan asked.
“No,” Ruwen said. “Plus, I’m not sure if the Energy propelling you is dangerous.”
“This is a bad idea,” Hamma said.
“I know,” Ruwen said.
“Try it on me first,” Sift said.
“And give our plan away?” Ruwen asked. “Not only that, if you die, you don’t come back.”
Sift growled and leaped away to fight three skeletons that had appeared on their left flank. Ruwen shot two more Blessed Bricks and then kneeled to load more. Hamma helped as Lylan rubbed her forehead.
Ruwen looked up at Lylan. “How much do you weigh?”
Lylan narrowed her eyes at Ruwen but answered. “One hundred twenty-five pounds. One hundred forty with my gear and Dimensional Bag.”
It was easy to forget that others’ storage weighed them down. Lylan must have made an effort to minimize her extra weight to only have fifteen pounds.
Ruwen placed three of the bricks together, and while Hamma continued to drop Blessed Bricks into his Void Band, he used the spell Mend Tool to bind the bricks together. The spell had opened up for him when he’d worn the Worker amulet. It cost twenty-five Mana and allowed him to glue things together every three seconds. These bound bricks roughly weighed what Lylan did, and he could practice.
Hamma helped Ruwen drop the three-brick stack into his Void Band, and he immediately shot it at the closest skeleton, propelling it with sixty Energy. The fake Lylan passed through the skeletons like a battering ram, before striking the ground just over a hundred feet away.
Ruwen did some quick math in his head. The building sat a hundred feet away and stretched seventy feet into the air. That meant the distance to the rooftop was almost precisely one hundred twenty-two feet.
Hamma had already stacked another three bricks together, and Ruwen used Mend Tool again. They loaded the fake Lylan into his Void Band, and this time he used sixty-five Energy, remembering how quickly the Energy scaled as he increased the amount.
This time the bound bricks destroyed four skeletons and hit the ground one hundred forty feet away. Which seemed like a winner since he wanted to make sure Lylan made it over the rooftop.
The skeletons all stopped, and Ruwen wondered what that meant.
Hamma kept loading single Blessed Bricks into Ruwen’s Void Band as he looked up at Lylan. “What do you think?”
“There has to be another way,” Sift said as he rejoined them.
Lylan looked at Sift. “Maybe, but I don’t see us thinking of it before we’re dead. And that is permanent for you, Dumb Dumb. I can’t let that happen.”
“Please, Lylan, don’t. I can’t lose you again,” Sift said.
“You won’t,” Lylan said. “Worst case, I die. And after I revive, I’ll run back here to find you, and stab Ruwen.”
Ruwen winced. “That doesn’t sound nice.”
“Then don’t kill me,” Lylan said.
Ruwen dropped six Minor Vial of Health potions out the bottom of his Void Band. He’d gotten them after defeating the gem cat Sparkle in Blapy.
“Take these vials. They’re good for sixty health each. Just in case,” Ruwen said.
Lylan scooped them up and dropped them in her Dimensional Bag. “Thanks.”
Hamma stopped placing Blessed Bricks in Ruwen’s Void Band, stood, and hugged Lylan. “You’re so brave.”
Ruwen glanced around the corner of their pile to get a good look at the middle building. All the skeletons that way had also stopped, and Ruwen got a bad feeling. What was the Mage doing that he didn’t have the concentration to control his skeletons?
Sift and Lylan hugged, and then Lylan stepped back and put a Force Bead in each hand. Ruwen noticed Hamma had loaded eighteen Blessed Bricks into his Inventory, which they’d likely still need. He opened his Void Band to four feet and lowered it to the ground.
“Step in whenever you’re ready,” Ruwen said, a ball of fear turning in his stomach. What if he killed Lylan doing this? Sift would never forgive Ruwen, and without Lylan, it would be even harder to survive this.
A loud grinding sound echoed off the buildings. Something was happening.
“You better hurry,” Hamma said.
Lylan took a deep breath, let it out, and then disappeared. Ruwen’s mouth dropped open in shock that her abilities could hide her even when standing next to them. A moment later, a notification appeared, and he immediately opened it.
Notice: A living entity has entered your Void Band. Estimated Energy consumption to sustain life: 19,974 Energy per second. You have ten seconds to make one of the following choices:
Choice 1: Remove the entity.
Choice 2: Select Yes, incur the Energy cost, and sustain the entity’s life.
Choice 3: Select No and the entity will perish.
Nine seconds remained.
In one motion, Ruwen stood, angled his Void Band to the proper angle, and stepped out from behind the pile of rubble as he wrapped Lylan in sixty-five Energy.
Eight seconds until Lylan automatically died in his Void Band.
The grinding noise had gotten louder, and Ruwen could now see its source. A skeleton, thrown from a twenty-foot rolling ball made of skeletons, struck him in the chest an
d knocked him backward. Another followed the first skeleton and then another, each crashing into Ruwen, their combined force pushing him backward.
Six seconds remained until he killed Lylan.
The moment he stepped off the diamond platform, a spear shot upward, through his leg and smashed into his arm. The spear shattered against his Gold Fortified arm, but the force of the blow numbed it. Worse, he remained impaled through the leg.
The rare skill Last Breath triggered, and the pain faded as his thoughts sped up, slowing the world around him.
Five seconds.
The skeleton ball picked up the skeletons it rolled over and hurled them when they reached the top. Ruwen saw three more skeletons headed toward him, and if he fired Lylan from here, she would likely strike one of them.
Four seconds.
Ruwen could feel the vibration of another bone spear rising through the ground. If it struck him, it might be enough to seal Lylan’s doom. He contemplated trying to remove the Energy he’d already placed around her and shooting her back onto the pad, but he didn’t know if that worked. What if he shot her into the rock pile with sixty-five Energy? He’d kill her.
Three seconds.
Ruwen only stood a foot from the diamond pad. The rising bone spear and flying skeletons were all aimed at his current location, but his impaled leg kept him pinned. He wouldn’t be able to move on his own.
Two seconds remained.
Not knowing if it would rip his leg off, Ruwen cast Blink, the level five Observer spell. His Mana dropped by seventy-five, and he moved two feet to the side, and back onto the safety of his diamond platform.
One second.
Ruwen fired Lylan out of his Void Band as skeletons crashed into the ground beside him. Frantically he looked in his Inventory to make sure he’d launched her.
Thankfully, she wasn’t there.
Praying she was still alive when she left, he toggled on Magnify and studied the second building.
A moment later, the Mage flew off the top of the building, his arms flailing as if he meant to catch his balance. Ruwen laughed in relief and toggled off Magnify.
