The ruins spread out before us, large pieces of stone jutting up out of the forest that is desperately attempting to reclaim the remains of what was once a great settlement. Trees and shrubs find purchase in between broken walls and crumbling foundations. What used to be gardens—separated out by boulders—are filled with saplings. The ever-present lichen grows on their sides.

We stare down from the slight hill where I surveyed the area last night, staying as hidden as possible in the trees, watching as the undead wander around the area. A quiet groan drifts on the underside of the silence, exactly what Meg pointed out yesterday morning, and there’s the eerie clatter of bones grating against bones.

“There. That’s what I’ve been afraid of.” Jonas points off in the distance a little way. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to what I’m seeing, but when they do, a shiver rises up my spine. It’s the giant. It still has some dry, molting flesh on its bones making it look like some of those bog mummies that they pull up in England sometimes.

“To be fair, I did prepare you for that,” I mutter.

“It’s not the same as seeing it.”

Meg frowns. “There can’t be too many of those. She wouldn’t have enough Essence.”

“You can’t know that.” Jonas’s voice is hushed but shrill. “She could be a necrolord for all we know.”

“I’m sorry, necrolord? Like ‘call me John’?” They all look at me and I feel myself blush. “Sorry. Not the time for that. I’m nervous.”

“There aren’t many of them, they tend to hide and operate in the shadows, but you don’t want them coming out of those shadows, and you don’t want them going after you,” Jonas says.

“Which is why I don’t think she is one,” Meg replies. “If she were, I wouldn’t have been able to puncture her projection like that, and it wouldn’t have taken her long to drain Keira dry. We’d have a Keira puppet on our hands rather than someone who thinks she’s funny.”

“There’s a second one over here,” Flynt interrupts, pointing off to the other side. “I don’t see any others though. Just regular sized skeletons.”

“As long as we’re not fighting them all together, I think we can do it,” Tyrus says. “The question is, though, where is the entrance to this tomb? What are we trying to accomplish by taking them on?”

“The letter from my book mentions a passage behind a waterfall that leads to the catacombs where the giants buried their war dead. I don’t see any falls from this angle, though.” There is, however, a wide stream that trickles downhill. “I guess we can follow that up. If we can get there.”

“The ruins make for some good hiding spots, so that’s a positive,” Meg observes. “We keep to the shadows, focus on taking out one at a time. It’s a good chance to put those lure strategies we’ve been working on to the test.”

“That’s one way of looking at it,” Flynt says. “I’m just concerned what we’ll find on the other side of this supposed waterfall. What if we end up out of Essence and exhausted, but we walk into a catacomb filled with reanimated dead?”

She nods. “We have to assume there will be some, but she’s spent a lot of her own power out here, and elixirs can only take you so far.”

Essence elixirs can be lifesaving in certain situations, but from what I understand, there’s a threshold. Too many has the opposite effect, and if you go much beyond that, you’ll find yourself poisoned.

Flynt nods solemnly. “That’s a good point. And, if she is heading for these catacombs, that will probably put a timer on their viability. They can’t all have reanimation coins attached, there’s too many for such an expensive casting. So once she gets far enough underground, those that don’t have one will lose the connection and crumble. At least, that’s my understanding.”

He glances over to Jonas whose expression twists a little bit, but he ultimately seems to agree.

“Which is good news. Better news is that I think they’re minionized,” Jonas says. “Watching them a little closer, the way they’re moving, it’s very deliberate. They need the necromancer here to issue orders, otherwise they’re not going to have any thought or problem-solving process. Without her in line-of-sight, these guys are going around on a track.”

“So they’re just show?” Meg raises an eyebrow.

“They’ll have some responsiveness. They could potentially overwhelm us if we’re stupid about it. But unless I’m very wrong, then, yes. They’re a paper army. I wouldn’t expect them to hit very hard, not without her to feed from.”

“How does someone from a farm outside Mornrise know so much about necromancy?” Flynt’s voice is soft.

“Probably a conversation for later,” Meg says as Jonas visibly blanches. “Are you sure about this, Jonas?”

“As long as she doesn’t have line-of-sight, it should be pretty easy to anticipate their movements. It’ll be a little tense, but if we can keep from grabbing the attention of too many at a time, there should be a rhythm to it all.”

“Even the giant?” Flynt asks.

Jonas sighs. He looks a little nauseated as he says this, but his shoulders actually loosen a little bit. “I expect it probably does have a reanimation coin attached, given the energy that would be necessary to raise it in the first place. But it should still be manageable, if we come at it the right way and can keep away from the skeletons. A reanimation coin doesn’t make these things intelligent. You saw with the ogre, it will operate on instinct and the simplest of instruction.”

“What if she does have line-of-sight?” Tyrus glances between all of us. “What if she’s not in the catacombs?”

“We’d pretty much be idiots to go out there.”

“Excellent.” Our rogue nervously flips his daggers. “So piece of cake or a death sentence.”

Jonas cringes again. “Essentially.”

I frown, peering back out at the ruins. “So what is our plan, then?”

Tyrus flips his daggers again, this time a little more thoughtfully. “I say we observe a little longer, get a better sense of this circuit that Jo says they’re on, and stealth through one section at a time. Don’t fight any that we don’t have to but try to thin them out enough that if things do go sideways, then we’re still not in too much pain.”

“Meg isn’t exactly the quietest person on the field, though,” I point out.

She scowls at me. “I can move quietly. Certainly no louder than these clattering skeletons. I’ve already snuck up on the necromancer once.”

“There was a little bit of a distraction at the time, though, and your chain moves with you. I think you just don’t hear it anymore.”

“Maybe.” She sighs and brushes her hand back through some bangs that have fallen out of her tight braid. “No way that I’m going down there without it though.”

“I wouldn’t suggest that.” I wish I had more magic, that my class was more like what it is in ttrpgs. A little move quietly spell would be nice right about now. “We’ll just have to risk it. If they’re as stupid as Jonas says, maybe it won’t be an issue.”

“Trust me. Skeletons operating on their own without a director have poor perception. They’re going to respond more to movement and vibrations than they’re going to actual sound. It’s not like they have ears, anyway.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

I frown. “Sure, but it’s not like they have eyes, either.”

“That’s a good point.” Jonas shrugs. “Magic is strange.”

“I really hate that excuse, you know that?”

“I can’t help the truth.”

“I do think we should set up some lures if we reach points where the ground allows it,” Flynt says. “If we can get some of them into a kind of choke point, where we only have to deal with a few of them at a time, it could be good experience—and help us clear the way for when we inevitably have to come back.”

“That’s a good point,” Meg agrees. “I don’t want to plan on the idea of her going so deep that her army here turns into a boneyard. If it does happen, great, but we should have a contingency.”

“Okay then.” Tyrus limbers himself up like a runner preparing for a race and then nods, as if assuring himself. “Let’s get a little closer. We’ll move in a staggered order. Stay within sight of each other, but we want to get a clear lay of the land and track their movements. There’s definitely a pattern to it. We’re smart. We’ve been training together. This is just an obstacle course. We can exploit this.”

We all exchange looks but then solemnly nod to one another. My heartbeat pounds in my ears as we slowly edge down the hill and quietly into the ruins.

There are chunks of stone everywhere, and while the remains of the buildings are not quite as large as I’d expected, they are huge—one stone is at least as tall as I am, and several of the building walls are at least five stones tall. The stonework, the way that the ruins have crumbled and fallen in, and the impact that age and weather have had on them, it reminds me a little bit of walking through Machu Pichu, just on a significantly larger scale.

We run up against our first skeletal patrol almost immediately: there’s five of them moving in a circuit between a cluster of ruins leading to the shore of the stream. After a hushed debate, we decide that we’re close enough to the tree line that, if things go poorly, we can retreat. That ends up not being necessary, though. I use my [Fog Cloud Arrow], which everyone initially had doubts about, to confuse and herd the skeletons into a dead end. Flynt then applies a concentrated version of one of his force spells, which casts about twelve points of damage on each, and drops them.

“Paper army indeed,” Meg mutters, venturing in to kick at a skull and examine the weaponry that the skeletons are carrying. “I didn’t even get a hit in.”

“You’re about to get your chance,” Tyrus hisses from somewhere we can’t see. “I think the force spell drew some attention. The next patrol over is leaving their circuit and coming this way.”

Flynt sighs and pulls his shortsword. “Well, good to have tested it now, I suppose. Wish I had a hammer or something.”

“These weapons are useless. But maybe we’ll find one with a mace for you.”

Flynt makes a face at her. “Right. An ork should have a mace.”

“You’d prefer I suggest a club?” She rolls her eyes. “Let’s get back into position.”

Using melee attacks on the second group means they’re not dispatched quite as quickly as the first, but I wouldn’t describe it as challenging by any stretch. It even feels a little silly. I can’t help but think about the plastic skeletons from the old black and white horror movies, the ones where you could see the strings puppeting them along.

We make our way deeper into the ruined settlement, following the stream. It turns out that Meg can move quietly—at least, for the purposes of fighting the undead, who, just as Jonas promised, are not the most observant and aware sorts of monsters. We time our movements to run parallel with their circuits, and when we feel like we’re moving into more concentrated areas, we mix up the strategies between using my [Fog Cloud Arrow], which works quite well, and sending Meg out to be louder and more visible bait that pulls groups back to pinch points.

I discover that the [Fog Cloud Arrow] doesn’t use a whole lot of [Essence], and it actually recharges fairly fast. I can’t cast too many in a row, so I have to make sure that I hit the correct points to herd the groups where we want them to go, but the rhythm we set gives me enough time that I’m never at risk of going empty.

We’re also making some good progress on other fronts. First, since we’re not getting blindsided by the nasties, we’re able to actually practice strategy and implement ideas we’ve only really been able to talk through. We refine and develop the strategies as we go, and it feels good to get that chance. It’s helpful, and it makes all of this feel worthwhile: we’re going to come out of this a stronger team with a better sense of what we can do together.

We’re also going to actually come out of this stronger. At least, I am. The skeletons aren’t worth a lot of [XP], but they are worth something, and there’s a lot of them. The counter steadily fills with every group we grind down.

The groups are also getting a little more powerful the farther upstream we go, adding some fleshy zombies to the skeletal mix, and even the skeletons themselves seem able to be a little beefier and a little more agile. Jonas says this likely means we’re getting closer to the necromancer herself, though he doesn’t see any signs that she’s actively directing any of the creatures.

It does slow us down some, especially since we are a little hampered by our tools given that many of Flynt's more powerful spells come with similarly more powerful sound, and while the undead are less observant, they unfortunately aren’t totally unaware. We begin to factor that in, though, using the sound strategically when we want to attract more our way or disrupt a more complicated circuit in front of us.

All in all, we spend about a bell and a half picking our way through the ruins before we follow a bend in the stream and actually see the waterfall. It’s not especially big or impressive, falling off a cliff probably about fifty feet high into a small pool that feeds the stream. There are wide trails cut into the cliff face on either side of the waterfall, with large archways at the mouth of these trails. In front of the pool is a paved, circular plaza with pillars—some still standing—arranged around it. It looks like it might be a shrine or memorial. Sitting in the middle of it is one of our undead giant friends.

It’s more disturbing up close, which I guess would probably be expected, though it’s not as disgusting as the ogre was. It’s not skeletal, there’s definitely something like flesh and sinew still on its form, but it’s not covered in flies and it doesn’t carry the heavy smell of rotting death, just a sort of earthiness. The other one we left on the other side of the stream, closer to where we entered the ruins: well out of view, now, beyond the bend.

“Do you think we could use my fog to sneak past?” I whisper.

“Maybe?” Meg frowns. “It’s a pretty open field up to the gates, though. We could probably hide ourselves along the ridge, there’s a bit of mist up there from the waterfall anyway. But it’ll be tough to traverse that open ground without attracting attention.”

“I can’t believe I’m suggesting this,” Jonas mutters, “but what if we lured it back here? The immediate patrols are mostly taken care of in this area, the ruins will give us places to hide, and it should restrict its movements, right?”

“Potentially. It also gives it a lot of fallen ammunition, all the better to squish us with,” Meg says.

“I don’t think it’ll be that strong. It’s not a living giant.”

“Are you sure?”

“No. I can’t be sure. I’ve never done this before.” Jonas frowns. “I don’t like the idea of fighting it in the open though.”

“I don’t like the idea of fighting it,” Flynt replies.

Meg nods. “Agreed. But I like the idea of leaving it at our backs even less. Jonas is right, at least we have some fall back points here, and we have to worry less about what’s on the far side of the ruins. We attack it there, who knows what will stream out of the rest of the ruins toward us.”

“The flesh should also give it a little more in the way of weaknesses, right?” I ask. “At the least, it’s something that can catch fire. I feel like I’m back to almost full Essence, and I do have an elixir in the bag. I can cast a couple fire arrows, take the elixir, and have enough for fog cover on our way up.”

“That’ll take a lot out of you. We don’t know what’s going to be on the other side of the falls,” Flynt says.

“Sure, but would we really want to use either of my special arrows in a confined space like that? I’ll still be able to shoot mundane.”

Meg nods. “That’s fair.” She looks around, brow furrowed, and then nods. “I think that throughway over there would be a good set-up point. It’ll give the giant a clear way to go, but there’s plenty of space for us to weave in and out with our attacks. Keira, you get its attention with a fire arrow and make sure it sees you, then duck into that stone yard there. It’ll make a difficult obstacle for something that size, but it looks like there should be plenty of room to still shoot up at it. The moment it’s in position, Flynt, you hit it with a blast, while Tyrus and I will come up from behind and attack its heels. We want to get it on the ground so our magical cuts can do more damage in sensitive places.”

“I’ll stay back and keep watch for reinforcements,” Jonas murmurs. “I really need to learn some more spells.”

“Something that hurts undead would be preferable,” Meg agrees.

“I’ll put it on the list.”

“That sound good?” She looks around at us. “Does anyone have a better plan?”

“One small edit. I’m almost out, but I think I’ll use an explosive arrow, to be honest,” I say, pulling one of the remaining two out of my quiver. “I can get max damage and I won’t be risking catching any of you in the blast. Better to do it in the first salvo than wish we had the clearance latter.”

Nods all around, then Tyrus offers a thin smile. “Let’s get it done. Elf Girl, you’re up.”

I nod and we break, each going our separate directions. The throughway was probably a market street or something like that, leading from the settlement center to this plaza. It’s a perfect runway, giving me a direct shot to the giant in question. To my right I note the large stone garden that will hopefully save me from being squished: the space between the stones is ample enough to give me a way to rush through, but no way a creature that size will be able to follow me.

Taking a deep breath, I step a few paces down the way, tap the arrow twice against my bow before I nock it and draw it back. I sight the base of its neck as best I can, then, like in the woods, I compensate for the extra weight in my aim. I release with a light wiff of my bow, and the arrow flies exactly how I intended toward its massive target.

It hits the creature in the neck, and the explosion shatters through the all but quiet ruins. The damage counter was obscured by the explosion, but visually, it’s obvious it did a fair amount of work, taking out a chunk of the creature’s neck and jaw. Dried, paper-like remnants of flesh smolder as it bellows, turns toward me, and charges.