Chapter 59 Skeleton!
Lenna scowled at Isaac as Esk made his complaints known. “Splitting the party is the number one thing not to do.” He told Isaac. “That is literally the first thing the older adventurers beat into us.”
Isaac raised his hands placatingly. “We won’t be far. A few hundred feet at the maximum. Shy with the Invisibility spell is almost as stealthy as me. We’ll be able to just appear right behind the mushroomancer and take care of it. It would be best if Shy could also fly as I can tell from here that their cavern is packed to the brim.” Isaac explained. “The rest of you couldn’t sneak your way into a whorehouse let alone a room packed with enemies.”
Lenna cleared her throat. “And what do you know about that?” She questioned.
“It was an expression.” Isaac replied so quickly it sounded like one word instead of four. “But my point still stands.” He added.
“Why don’t you just take me with you?” Lenna questioned.
“It’ll be hard enough for me to shoulder through and teleport across the cavern as it is.” Isaac argued. “Trying to maintain physical contact the entire time would be impossible. A few Ori-Masa getting shoved around might not make too much of a fuss but if we are both doing it in the same place they are bound to realize something is up.”
“What does it matter if they know?” Esk questioned. “Can’t you just punch your way through?”
“Weren’t you the one who said we shouldn’t split the party?” Isaac shot back. “What am I supposed to do when he makes a break for it? If you guys are keeping his army busy and holding his attention then I can sneak up behind him and turn him into fish paste.”
“Then why do you need Shy?” Fina questioned, even she was protective of their rogue.
“Because it would be nice to not go alone.” Isaac replied.
“Do you really think the mushroomancer’s death will stop the horde?” Fable asked.
Isaac shrugged. “I’ve never fought one before.” He replied honestly. “For all we know it could cause them all to go berserk.”
“Another reason to not send Shy with you.” Fina added. “She needs cover and teamwork to really shine, not to be stuck out in the open with a partner she has never worked with and can’t see.”
“I can make it so that she can see me.” Isaac explained. “I won’t be able to see her though which could cause some problems I guess.”
“If I cast flight magic on you and Lenna can’t you two just do it?” Fina questioned.
“I’ve never flown before. What’s it like?” Isaac wondered.
“Oh.” Fina looked crestfallen. “It takes a bit to get used to. We could start now if you want?”
“You want me to learn how to fly, right outside of the enemy camp, right before the mission.” Isaac stated. “I’ll pass.” He wasn’t a fan of relying on another mage like that. One lapse in concentration and he would be sent plummeting. The fall wouldn’t kill him. It probably wouldn’t hurt him either as he could just teleport to the ground. It would however keep him from properly focusing on the job at hand and that wasn’t even taking into account Isaac’s general distrust of spells being cast on him. He didn’t know enough about them to be completely sure that the spell only did what it said on the tin.
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“Do you think they even have ranged attacks?” Esk asked. “Couldn’t we all just fly in there and slam into the leader?” He punctuated his question by punching his hand.
“That is a great plan.” Isaac replied. “The entire way up until my theory about the mushroom-fish-sort-of-undead guys going out like a candle with the wick cut is proven wrong. Then we would all be stuck in the middle of a rampaging army that would be trying to assimilate us. The exits would all still be packed with Ori-Masa and we would have nowhere to go.”
“Don’t you have a pet skeleton or something?” Mark interjected for the first time. “Just make it do it.”
Isaac stopped. “Mark, that is actually the first good alternate plan yet.” Isaac congratulated him. “I should be able to keep Kahtesh invisible for most if not all of his trip to the mage. The best part is that he isn’t fleshy so we won’t run the risk of the away team getting turned into mushroom food.”
Lenna let out a sigh of relief as did Fina and Esk. Mark just shrugged. “Our lineup should be like this to maximize survivability…” Fable began. Less than half an hour later the team was charging into one of the tunnels that lead to the cavern. The cavern that would be one of the longest battles Isaac had been in in a while.
—
Mark slammed his shield into three Ori-Masa, tossing them back into the rest of the horde, and stabbed through another with his spear. To his right Lenna cut through two more with one flaming swing, leaving their sizzling corpses to start forming the wall in front of them. To her right Isaac was easily dicing fish brains and spinal cords. Two more dropped at his feet. To Mark’s left Esk was quickly cutting down Ori-Masa of his own, though with less power than Lenna and less grace than Isaac. The one matching both Lenna’s power and Isaac’s grace yet eclipsing them both in speed was Fable who had taken up the left flank. Everyone was using as little power as they could because they all knew that this would be an endurance run and not a race. Fina was waiting in the back for Isaac’s signal and Shy was standing beside her. In the event that something came around from behind them it was Shy who would have to fight it. Shy also had the job of taking care of any Ori-Masa who somehow slipped through the frontline.
“Ready?” Isaac questioned while adding another corpse to the pile.
“Whenever.” Fina replied and raised her hand. The ruby in her palm blazed with power as she readied herself to cast her spells.
“Kahtesh, it’s time for work.” Isaac told the little dragon as a void opened up behind him and the bone dragon pulled itself out. The little dragon looked around and then stretched before waiting patiently for further orders. “Fire!” Isaac called out and Fina began her chant.
“Come forth, Ember of a dying star!” Fina ordered magic itself once, twice, thrice, and then finally a fourth time. She cast her spells back far enough that the frontline had barely felt a wave of hot air. The explosions had done their job however as Kahtesh was already gone. The invisible dragon had begun his hunt.
Kahtesh jumped forwards and clamped his feet onto Lenna’s pauldrons causing her to stagger forwards from the sudden weight and impact. Immediately afterwards he used her as a launching point as he flung himself forwards with wings open wide. Lenna staggered backwards from his launch and scowled at Isaac as she regained her footing and pushed back the mob that tried to overtake her position. “I swear I didn’t tell him to do that.” Isaac defended himself. He had barely managed to make the dragon invisible before he finished launching off of Lenna’s shoulders. ‘Maybe I’m imagining it but he seemed excited.’ Isaac thought to himself.
“I know.” Lenna replied. “But he’s your dragon and you trained him.”
“That’s fair.” Isaac agreed. “But look at him go.” Isaac was watching Kahtesh soar across the cavern into the open area Fina’s final Fireball had created.
“I can’t.” Lenna reminded him.
“Oh yeah.” Isaac commented. “I forgot.” Lenna just shook her head at him without slowing her relentless counter assault in the slightest. “Now, we wait and hope he can take care of it himself.”
“I am beginning to doubt this plan with how little faith you seem to have in your skeleton!” Esk called out from the other side of Mark.
“It’ll be fine!” Isaac called back. “Probably.” He added. Esk might not have heard him but Lenna, Fina, Shy, and Mark most definitely did. Thankfully none of them voiced that fact and just silently prayed for the little dragon’s success.
—
Kahtesh was happy. He hadn’t had a job in a while but now he was free to spread his wings and he was even wrapped in his master’s power. Even if Kahtesh could speak he wouldn’t know what to call the man who made and owned him. Was the dark mage his creator, his reviver, his owner, his master? Kahtesh seemed to think that in some weird way he was all of the above and he wished that there was one word that meant what Isaac was to him. . Kahtesh launched off the ground again as he flew towards the back of the cavern. He did have to wonder though, how long had he been able to think? He also wondered what the black place that he slept in was. He had never heard of a nest made of shadows. He liked it but he also didn’t. It was comfortable but he always felt like he was missing a lot of important things while he was forced to rest in the blackness. Well, none of that mattered now because Kahtesh had found one very special looking ugly guy with a big stick in his hands. Kahtesh was sure that the ugly guy with the stick was the one his master wanted him to fry. It was time to remind the world what Kahtesh was; A lightning dragon.